Convinced that the crisis in contemporary Western philosophy rises from the sundering of moral or value considerations from notions of rationality and the nature of reality, Deutsch (philosophy, U. of Hawai'i) advocates a kind of pluralistic but not relativistic philosophical anthropology, ontology, ethics, and epistemology in a cross-cultural context. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
"This is the account of twenty-three years of wilderness wandering, sea voyages and overland treks to survey the earth, with no home or possessions other than what fit in my trusty backpack. There was no specific destination in mind except to visit countries, not the airports and luxury hotels but the country itself, to experience local culture and ways of life. This entailed sleeping in tribesmen's huts and cheap hostels and using local transportation whenever possible: traversing jungle roads packed eighteen souls to a single Peugeot station wagon in Guinea-Bissau, boating the length of the Amazon snacking on roasted piranha, and hitchhiking across Iraq during the war. I've floated on dilapidated ferries across surging estuaries, ridden horseback or in military trucks across deserts and plains, followed the course of rivers, crossed wastelands, bused and trekked through deep jungle, traversed mountain ranges and lounged on the remotest beaches. I adopted local customs and ate local food: roasted goat's eye as the guest of honour at a Mongolian tribal feast, alligator nuggets, mystery kabobs, ‘bush meat' ubiquitous to certain regions of Africa ... but drew the line at wheelbarrows brimming over with smoked monkey corpses. A man's got to know his limitations." --Mike Spencer Bown In 1990, Calgary-raised Mike Spencer Bown packed a backpack and began a journey that would eventually take him through each of the world's 195 countries and span more than two decades. From relaxing on the white sand beaches of Bali to waiting out blizzards in Tibetan caves, Bown trekked from country to country, driven by a desire to see the world in the most authentic way possible, not to just collect stamps on his passport. Eventually, he began to earn international recognition for some of his more unconventional destinations--such as a memorable trip to war-torn Mogadishu. The World's Most Travelled Man is an eye-opening account of the universal human experience as seen from each corner of the changing world. Blending a romantic connection to nature through solitude and the social examination of culture, Bown fully immerses himself in each experience, however diverse, dangerous or dirty, veering way, way off the backpacker circuit to see the world through an unparalleled perspective. The World's Most Travelled Man is a journey of global proportions shared with the humility of a man who simply wants to satisfy his own curiosity and live life to the fullest.
No Catholic library is complete without these five landmark works by Romano Guardini, one of the most important Catholic figures of the 20th century. This treasury brings back into print Regnery's classic translations by Stella Lange with a new introduction by Robert Royal: The World and the Person, The Church of the Lord: On the Nature and Mission of the Church, The Word of God: On Faith, Hope, and Charity, The Virtues: On Forms of Moral Life, and The Wisdom of the Psalms. From the Introduction by Robert Royal: The present collection is a highly valuable retrieval of texts that supplement Guardini's greatest and best-known books, such as The End of the Modern World, The Spirit of the Liturgy, and The Lord, which have remained in print and have influenced generations. He makes a point of calling the works in this collection "reflections," not systematic treatments. But in truth they "reflect" the author's deep and internally consistent theological, philosophical, and—unusual among religious writers—literary culture. His books on Dante and Rilke, along with his frequent references to Augustine, Pascal, Dostoyevsky, Heidegger, and even Nietzsche, present an eclectic but deep and coherent vision of the Church and the world. Varying approaches to fundamental questions, of course, have their advantages and disadvantages. But as these texts make abundantly clear, Guardini had the kind of mind—the living virtue, as he puts it in his book on the virtues, included here—that can move flexibly but faithfully through whatever questions it encounters. Which is why these books are less like academic treatises and more like living dialogues with a wise and experienced and learned friend.
Spring-fed creeks. Old stone houses. Cedar brakes and bleached limestone. The Hill Country holds powerful sway over the imagination of Texans. So many of us dream of having our own little place in the limestone hills. The Hill Country feels just like home, even if you've never lived there. This beautifully written book explores what the Hill Country has meant as a homeplace to the author, his family, and longtime residents of the area, as well as to newcomers. David Syring listens to the stories that his aunts, uncles, and cousins tell about life in the Hill Country and grapples with their meaning for his own search for a place to belong. He also collects short stories focused around Honey Creek Church to consider how places become containers for memory. And he draws upon several years of living in Fredericksburg to talk about the problems and opportunities created by heritage tourism and the development of the town as a "home" for German Americans. These interconnected stories illuminate what it means to belong to a place and why the Texas Hill Country has become the spiritual, if not actual, home of many people.
How were freed people represented in the Roman world? This volume presents new research about the integration of freed persons into Roman society. It addresses the challenge of studying Roman freed persons on the basis of highly fragmentary sources whose contents have been fundamentally shaped by the forces of domination. Even though freed persons were defined through a common legal status and shared the experience of enslavement and manumission, many different interactions could derive from these commonalities in different periods and localities across the empire. Drawing on literary, epigraphic, and archaeological evidence, this book provides cases studies that test the various ways in which juridical categories and normative discourses shaped the social and cultural landscape in which freed people lived. By approaching the literary and epigraphic representations of freed persons in new ways, it nuances the impact of power asymmetries and social strategies on the cultural practices and lived experiences of freed persons.
Are you tired of the unrelenting pressure to be the best at everything? Author and speaker Scarlet Hiltibidal was too. For Scarlet, attempting to be the best at pretty much everything—whether that be the best wife or the best sub-sandwich maker or the best Christian—was her life story. But in the midst of all her striving and reaching to hit the mark, she somehow still couldn’t grab hold of the joy and freedom and life-change that’s supposed to come with the gospel’s good news. That is, until she realized something revolutionary—instead of the best, she might actually be…the worst. The “chief of sinners.” Poor in spirit and gone astray. In her much-anticipated follow-up to Afraid of All the Things (and in her humorous and relatable style), Scarlet tells plenty of stories of her own “worstness” to help you see your own and rejoice in the reality that our goodness and badness aren’t what make God smile at us. Instead of hiding from our brokenness, this book will help us stare that broken reality straight in the face, along with a laugh or two, as we feel the weight of just how absurdly and glaringly off the mark we all are! What’s more—this book will also help us embrace our status as “sinners” and “sheep” and “worst people on earth” who have been mercifully rescued and impossibly loved by the best person who has ever lived: Jesus. And the unbelievable part? As we admit our worstness, stop trying to be perfect on our own, and simply walk with the One who really is perfect, we’ll find along the way that we are actually changing for the better! If you’re tired of hustling to be the best, take a load off with Scarlet and say the honest and laughable truth along with her: we’re the worst people in the world!
