Wars, Women and Other Wonders
Wars, Women and Other Wonders

Author: Philip Rushlow

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2000-06-15

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 0595098460

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Here is a book written without the slightest nod to political correctness. It assumes that the reader and writer are equals in every way: intelligence, experience and the ability to exert common sense. The author is not trying to sell anything or prove anything; it is presented as friends in earnest discussion with a few comic breaks thrown in. It is a collection of thoughts from a man who has done everything from work in a labor gang to founding a non-profit organization devoted to philosophy. Who worked as a janitor to get through college and became the CEO of five corporations. Who抯 been rich and poor and believes that the sole primary purpose of human existence is learning. You won抰 have to guess about this writer抯 opinions, they will come to you in short, concise, clear bursts. You will love some, hate some others and, in the end, agree that you have been entertained in a stimulating fashion. Rushlow has been there, seen it, done it and now he tells it.

The Enthusiast
The Enthusiast

Author: William Cook Miller

Publisher: Cornell University Press

Published: 2023-07-15

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1501770829

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The Enthusiast tells the story of a character type that was developed in early modern Britain to discredit radical prophets during an era that witnessed the dismantling of the Church of England's traditional means for punishing heresy. As William Cook Miller shows, the caricature of fanaticism, here called the Enthusiast began as propaganda against religious dissenters, especially working-class upstarts, but was adopted by a range of writers as a literary vehicle for exploring profound problems of spirit, soul, and body and as a persona for the ironic expression of their own prophetic illuminations. Taking shape through the public and private writings of some of the most insightful authors of seventeenth-century Britain—Henry More, John Locke, the Third Earl of Shaftesbury, Mary Astell, and Jonathan Swift, among others—the Enthusiast appeared in various guises and literary modes. By attending to this literary being and its animators, The Enthusiast establishes the figure of the fanatic as a bridge between the Reformation and the Enlightenment, showing how an incipient secular modernity was informed by not the rejection of religion but the transformation of the prophet into something sparkling, witty, ironic, and new.

Miracle and Mission
Miracle and Mission

Author: James A. Kelhoffer

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 564

ISBN-13: 9783161472435

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The Longer Ending of the Gospel of Mark (Mark 16:9-20) was appended to the Gospel of Mark in the first half of the second century. James A. Kelhoffer explores this passage's distinct witness to the use of gospel traditions and the development of Christian thought. Concerning the origin of this passage, he argues that a single author made use of the New Testament Gospels in forging a more satisfactory ending to Mark. He studies the passage's sometimes innovative literary forms as well. Also of interest is the passage's claim that the ascended Lord will help those who believe to perform miraculous signs - casting out demons, speaking in new languages, picking up snakes, drinking poison with impunity and healing the sick - when they preach the gospel (verses 17-18, 20). This expectation is compared with portraits of miracles, especially in the context of mission, in the New Testament, various apocryphal acts and Christian apologists of the second and third centuries. In the two final chapters the author interprets the signs of picking up snakes (verse 18a) and drinking a deadly substance with impunity (verse 18b) in their history of religions contexts. An Epilogue summarizes the findings of this study and explores what can be ascertained about the otherwise unknown Christian author of Mark 16:9-20.