From distant stars to a Cocoa Beach Hooters, Derwin Mak's short fiction takes readers through tales of mystery, wonder, and horror. Ethnic traditions meld with fantastic visions in these twelve stories about memory fabric, eldritch gods during the Salem witch trials, and of course, Mecha-Jesus, Japan's very own android kami.
"A harrowing, humane, and very beautiful book.” —Garth Greenwell, author of What Belongs to You A searing dystopian vision of a young boy's flight through an unnamed, savaged country, searching for sanctuary and redemption—a debut novel from one of Europe's bestselling literary stars. A young boy has fled his home. He’s pursued by dangerous forces. What lies before him is an infinite, arid plain, one he must cross in order to escape those from whom he’s fleeing. One night on the road, he meets an old goatherd, a man who lives simply but righteously, and from that moment on, their paths intertwine. Out in the Open tells the story of this journey through a drought-stricken country ruled by violence. A world where names and dates don’t matter, where morals have drained away with the water. In this landscape the boy—not yet a lost cause—has the chance to choose hope and bravery, or to live forever mired in the cycle of violence in which he was raised. Carrasco has masterfully created a high stakes world, a dystopian tale of life and death, right and wrong, terror and salvation.
Teach to Learn You teach to make a difference. Now, revitalize your classroom by learning and mastering these seven time-tested principles being taught around the world! Written for teachers, including Sunday school teachers, parents, and professionals, this book outlines scriptural principles and techniques that will revolutionize your ability to teach to change lives. From the “law of the learner” to the “law of equipping,” each chapter presents hands-on, practical tools for you to employ in your own classroom. Make a Difference Students learn best when teachers teach best! So how can you do your part? Employ the seven laws of the learner and unleash your students’ capabilities. You’ll discover how to: Help students reach their full potential Effect lasting life change Rekindle your flame for teaching Create an excitement for learning Transform apathetic students Whether you’re a professional teacher, a parent, or teach in any setting, these principles and techniques will empower you to make a lasting impact in people’s lives. Thousands of teachers have already used these principles to spur their students to new horizons of success. “For some time I have said to myself, ‘Much of what I am doing in the classroom is a waste of time. I can’t continue this career unless I can make a more significant contribution in the lives of my students.’ The Seven Laws of the Learner was the answer to my need.” Seminary professor Portland , Oregon “For years I filled my students with content. But since learning the seven laws, my life and teaching have not been the same. Now teaching for life change and revival are becoming second nature.” Businessman, adult Sunday school teacher Orange , California Story Behind the Book Bruce Wilkinson had received thousands of requests for a book about how people learn. Having taught teachers all over the world, he developed the Seven Laws as the basis of his teaching workshops. In 1991 he sat down to put this content into book form. Published originally as a partnership between Multnomah Publishers and Walk Thru the Bible Ministries, this book is a companion to the workbook titled Almost Every Answer for Practically Every Teacher.
This book explores the role of conversion to Islam in the emergence of the Ottoman Empire, its imperial ideology and Sunni identity, and its relationship with its Muslim and non-Muslim subjects, in the context of the early modern Mediterranean.
Far from spinning a fantasy of what will never be, the book of Revelation depicts an alternate social world in order to shape the community and individual identity of an audience living under imperial rule. To highlight the Apocalypse’s meaning for its original audience, this volume focuses on two interrelated themes pulsing throughout Revelation: rhetoric and politics. It considers rhetorical strategies and tactics in Revelation and demonstrates how its rhetoric fits the situation in Roman Asia Minor and the struggle within the Apocalypse community. It also examines community and cultural conflicts, showing how myth, symbol, and liturgy function as means of resistance in an imperial setting. By offering a fresh window on the lively interplay between imagination and history, between words and worlds, this volume will be indispensable for anyone seeking to understand current scholarly analysis of the book of Revelation.
A mechanical Jesus for your shrine, the myths of cuttlefish, a vampire in residential schools, a Muslim woman who wants to get closer, surgically, to her god, the demons of outer space, the downside of Nirvana. The 24 science fiction and fantasy stories and poems included in Wrestling with Gods (Tesseracts Eighteen) take their faith and religion into the future, into the weird and comic and thought-provoking spaces where science fiction and fantasy has really always gone, struggling with higher powers, gods, the limits of technology, the limits of spiritual experience. At times profound, these speculative offerings give readers a chance to see faith from the believer and the skeptic in worlds where what you believe is a matter of life, death, and afterlife. Featuring works by: Derwin Mak, Robert J. Sawyer, Tony Pi, S. L. Nickerson, Janet K. Nicolson, John Park, Mary-Jean Harris, David Clink, Mary Pletsch, Jennifer Rahn, Alyxandra Harvey, Halli Lilburn, John Bell, David Jón Fuller, Carla Richards, Matthew Hughes, J. M. Frey, Steve Stanton, Erling Friis-Baastad, James Bambury, Savithri Machiraju, Jen Laface and Andrew Czarnietzki, David Fraser, Suzanne M. McNabb, and Megan Fennell.
Colonel Katterfelto has lately returned to London. He departed America under something of a cloud ... of smoke, issuing from his Spiritual Laboratory, which the townsfolk of Wormcast, Arizona, marched upon with their flaming torches. This catastrophic conflagration caused considerable concern to the pious colonel, who had been engaged in the creation of 'Heaven's last and best gift to Mankind', The Mechanical Messiah. And he was, after all, being guided in this Great Work by holy angels, communicating to him through his monkey butler, Darwin. It is 1897, twelve years since The War of the Worlds and two since Worlds War Two*. The British Empire encompasses Mars, and an uneasy peace exists between the peoples of Venus, Jupiter and Earth. In London there are many marvels of the modern age to be experienced. Amongst these is The Electric Alhambra Music Hall, where crowds thrill to The Earl Grey Whistle Test, a musical extravaganza featuring such top turns as Hayward's Acrobatic Kiwis, The Travelling Formbys and the newly-arrived Colonel Katterfelto's Clockwork Minstrels. But all is far from well in old Whitechapel, where a monster is once more abroad in the night-time streets, committing hideous acts of murder. Can this be the return of Jack the Ripper, or has something altogether unearthly materialised to spread fear, panic and mayhem? Something Hellishly evil? Famed consulting detective Cameron Bell is already on the case, but it may take nothing less than the New Messiah Himself to save London, The Empire and all of the solar system from the impending apocalypse! 'Stark raving genius' Observer *See The Japanese Devil Fish Girl and other Unnatural Attractions.
Does the Messiah have to die to pay for his people's sins? Is the cross of Jesus an atoning sacrifice? In recent decades a burgeoning number of theologians have answered the aforementioned questions in the negative. In fact some, like Rene Girard, have gone so far as to assert that seeing the cross as an atoning sacrifice undermines the very essence of the New Testament Gospels. While Girard and others following in a similar vein have offered provocative alterations to soteriology that no longer need Jesus's death to acquire forgiveness from God, does a bloodless atonement have biblical support? Does a nonviolent understanding of the atonement harmonize with the Gospels? This particular volume answers these questions with a fresh look at the Synoptic portraits of the Last Supper accounts. In them Jesus expounds upon the significance of his death by using the Passover symbols of bread and wine. More importantly, in these passages in the Gospels we find the fullest articulation of how Jesus's death benefits his followers. Holding a wealth of dense theological riches, these passages provide theological parameters that can inform contemporary soteriological development, especially that which appeals to the New Testament for its basis. Conversant with both biblical studies and contemporary theology, the work seeks to bring the best of both fields into conversation in productive new ways.