Gadamer's aesthetics demonstrates that the experience of art is grounded in the objectivities of language, history and tradition. By treating words and images as transmittable placeholders for meanings and concepts, hermeneutics gives a persuasive account of how artworks communicate. Davey demonstrates how hermeneutics transforms aesthetic reflection into a poignant attentive practice that is open to the unexpected. This new "poetics" is relevant not only to the understanding of art but also to showing, explaining and defending the cognitive content of the humanities. Hermeneutic aesthetics provides a sound basis for re-thinking humanities disciplines as critical-creative practices able to re-envision the future.
A Washington Post Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of the Year Selection One of Electric Literature’s Best Short Story Collections of the Year A highly anticipated collection of wildly imaginative short stories from “one of contemporary fiction’s true mad scientists” (Necessary Fiction). In the weird and wonderful tradition of Kelly Link and Karen Russell, Amber Sparks’s dazzling new collection bursts forth with stories that render the apocalyptic and otherworldly hauntingly familiar. In “The Cemetery for Lost Faces,” two orphans translate their grief into taxidermy, artfully arresting the passage of time. The anchoring novella, “The Unfinished World,” unfurls a surprising love story between a free and adventurous young woman and a dashing filmmaker burdened by a mysterious family. Sparks’s stories—populated with sculptors, librarians, astronauts, and warriors—form a veritable cabinet of curiosities. Mythical, bizarre, and deeply moving, The Unfinished World and Other Stories heralds the arrival of a major writer and illuminates the search for a brief encounter with the extraordinary.
This book is a short introduction to one of the most remarkable transformations in the modern world that many people still do not know about. In 1900 more than 80 percent of the world's Christians lived in Europe and North America and nearly all of the world's missionaries were sent out "from the West to the rest." In a dramatic turn of events Christianity experienced a decidedly "Southern shift" during the twentieth century. Today nearly 70 percent of the world's 2.5 billion Christians live in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, while nearly half of all missionaries are being sent out into all the world from places like Brazil, Ethiopia, and South Korea. This book is intended to change the way readers think about the church and challenge the way the Western Christians engage in contemporary missions.
Believing Is Only the Beginning Do you long for a deeper sense of meaning and purpose in your life? Do you believe all the right things, go to church, and faithfully read your Bible, still feeling that something is missing? You may be right. Two thousand years ago Jesus gave an urgent assignment to his followers right before he left. At its essence it was not just an invitation to believe; it was a bold call to action. It was a challenge to go into the world to reclaim, reform, and restore it for Christ. Simply stated, the message of this book is that God has invited you to join him in this world-changing mission. And if you are not personally participating in God’s great endeavor, you could be missing the very thing he created you to do. Best-selling author Rich Stearns invites you not just to stand on the sidelines but to get into the game. That is when the adventure begins. “Unfinished, just might challenge everything you thought you understood about your Christian faith. Unfinished is a call to finish the job Christ gave his church to do. If every Christian read this book and took it seriously, the world would never be the same again.”—Bill Hybels, senior pastor, Willow Creek Community Church; and chairman, Willow Creek Association “Just when I’ve gotten comfortable with my faith, here comes Rich Stearns, reminding me what matters and who God loves and why. Just when my world is the way I want it, Rich reminds me the world is not the way God wants it. Hungry families. Malnourished kids. Just when I dare think my work is done, Rich reminds me that we are just getting started. First in The Hole in Our Gospel, now in Unfinished, Rich gives me a kind, gracious kick. Thanks, Rich. (I think.)”—Max Lucado, pastor and best-selling author “Okay, admit it: sometimes you wonder . . . don’t you? Is this it? The life you’re living. Is there more? From his journey in corporate and nonprofit leadership—in very good causes—Rich Stearns concludes there is, indeed, more. More purpose. More meaning. More life. In Unfinished you will discover how your life can be about more.”—Elisa Morgan, author; speaker; publisher, FullFill; and president emerita, MOPS International “Rich Stearns has done it again! In this winsome, engaging, and challenging book, he calls us back to some of the key issues of what it means to be followers of Christ in a world full of distractions and false gods. This is a book for everyone, about finding the place of our calling in God’s global mission. It is a book about fulfillment, adventure, and a lifetime of transformation. It made me hungry for more of the life God has in store for us.”—Dr. Stephen Hayner, president, Columbia Theological Seminary “Your story can be a part of the Great Story. Rich Stearns knows the story and lives the story. Unfinished may call you to the greatest chapter of your life.”—John Ortberg, senior pastor, Menlo Park Presbyterian Church; and author, Who Is This Man? “The kingdom is both already and not yet, the work of Christ both finished and to be completed. Stearns reminds readers of every Christian’s responsibility to live on mission, in light of Jesus’ example and call. Richard shows us by his life, the ministry he leads, and the passion of this book that there is much to be done and we are to be a part of God’s grand plan.”—Ed Stetzer, president, LifeWay Research; and author, Subversive Kingdom “Every generation of Christians needs a wake-up call to remind us of how serious and strenuous are the demands of discipleship. May Rich Stearns’s Unfinished be that alarm for our time.”—David Neff, editorial vice president, Christianity Today
"This is a clear, incisively written narrative history of American anxiety about British domination---political, military, economic, cultural---from the War of 1812 to the mid-nineteenth century. Unfinished Revolution's predominant thoughtfulness and readable verve across a very extensive canvass should commend it to a wide range of readers as a valuable reconnaissance of what was arguably the most consequential national anxiety faced by the `young republic' during its middle period."---Lawrence Buell, Harvard University --
A New York Times bestseller for twenty-one weeks upon publication, J.R.R. Tolkien's Unfinished Tales is a collection of short stories ranging in time from the Elder Days of Middle-earth to the end of the War of the Ring, and further relates events as told in The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. The book concentrates on the lands of Middle-earth and comprises Gandalf's lively account of how he came to send the Dwarves to the celebrated party at Bag-End, the story of the emergence of the sea-god Ulmo before the eyes of Tuor on the coast of Beleriand, and an exact description of the military organization of the Riders of Rohan and the journey of the Black Riders during the hunt for the Ring. Unfinished Tales also contains the only surviving story about the long ages of Númenor before its downfall, and all that is known about the Five Wizards sent to Middle-earth as emissaries of the Valar, about the Seeing Stones known as the Palantiri, and about the legend of Amroth.
A daring new vision of the quantum universe, and the scandals controversies, and questions that may illuminate our future--from Canada's leading mind on contemporary physics. Quantum physics is the golden child of modern science. It is the basis of our understanding of atoms, radiation, and so much else, from elementary particles and basic forces to the behaviour of materials. But for a century it has also been the problem child of science, plagued by intense disagreements between its intellectual giants, from Albert Einstein to Stephen Hawking, over the strange paradoxes and implications that seem like the stuff of fantasy. Whether it's Schrödinger's cat--a creature that is simultaneously dead and alive--or a belief that the world does not exist independently of our observations of it, quantum theory is what challenges our fundamental assumptions about our reality. In Einstein's Unfinished Revolution, globally renowned theoretical physicist Lee Smolin provocatively argues that the problems which have bedeviled quantum physics since its inception are unsolved for the simple reason that the theory is incomplete. There is more, waiting to be discovered. Our task--if we are to have simple answers to our simple questions about the universe we live in--must be to go beyond it to a description of the world on an atomic scale that makes sense. In this vibrant and accessible book, Smolin takes us on a journey through the basics of quantum physics, introducing the stories of the experiments and figures that have transformed the field, before wrestling with the puzzles and conundrums that they present. Along the way, he illuminates the existing theories about the quantum world that might solve these problems, guiding us toward his own vision that embraces common sense realism. If we are to have any hope of completing the revolution that Einstein began nearly a century ago, we must go beyond quantum mechanics as we know it to find a theory that will give us a complete description of nature. In Einstein's Unfinished Revolution, Lee Smolin brings us a step closer to resolving one of the greatest scientific controversies of our age.
Throughout American history, cities have been a powerful source of inspiration and energy, nourishing the spirit of invention and the world of intellect, and fueling movements for innovation and reform. In The Unfinished City, nationally renowned urban scholar Thomas Bender examines the source of Manhattan’s influence over American life. The Unfinished City traces the history of New York from its humble regional beginnings to its present global eminence. Bender contends that the city took shape not only according to the grand designs of urban planners and business tycoons, but also in response to a welter of artistic visions, intellectual projects, and everyday demands of the millions of people who made the city home. Bender’s story of urban development ranges from the streets of Times Square to the workshops of Thomas Edison, from the paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe to the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge. In a tour that spans neighborhoods and centuries, The Unfinished City makes a powerful case for the enduring importance of cities in American life. For anyone who loves New York or values the limitless possibilities intrinsic in all cities, this book is an unparalleled guide to Manhattan’s past and present.
Told in alternating timelines, THE THINGS WE LEAVE UNFINISHED examines the risks we take for love, the scars too deep to heal, and the endings we can’t bring ourselves to see coming. Twenty-eight-year-old Georgia Stanton has to start over after she gave up almost everything in a brutal divorce—the New York house, the friends, and her pride. Now back home at her late great-grandmother’s estate in Colorado, she finds herself face-to-face with Noah Harrison, the bestselling author of a million books where the cover is always people nearly kissing. He’s just as arrogant in person as in interviews, and she’ll be damned if the good-looking writer of love stories thinks he’s the one to finish her grandmother’s final novel...even if the publisher swears he’s the perfect fit. Noah is at the pinnacle of his career. With book and movie deals galore, there isn’t much the “golden boy” of modern fiction hasn’t accomplished. But he can’t walk away from what might be the best book of the century—the one his idol, Scarlett Stanton, left unfinished. Coming up with a fitting ending for the legendary author is one thing, but dealing with her beautiful, stubborn, cynical great-granddaughter, Georgia, is quite another. But as they read Scarlett’s words in both the manuscript and her box of letters, they start to realize why Scarlett never finished the book—it’s based on her real-life romance with a World War II pilot, and the ending isn’t a happy one. Georgia knows all too well that love never works out, and while the chemistry and connection between her and Noah is undeniable, she’s as determined as ever to learn from her great-grandmother’s mistakes—even if it means destroying Noah’s career.
