Publisher's description: Beyond Vengeance and Protest takes a fresh look at the Book of Revelation from the point of view of blessing. If John wrote Revelation to tell the Christian communities that he had seen the Lord and to encourage them to persevere, the macarisms underscore his conviction of God's vindication of the righteous who suffer now. With the sevenfold macarisms expressing hope in God's grace, John lays grounds for action by positing the good for which the contrary must be rejected.
The symbolism of Revelation has puzzled readers for centuries. Every generation falls prey to extreme views of interpretation. Even worse, they minimize the importance of John’s Apocalypse by not teaching or preaching from it. Yet Revelation is a profound work of New Testament theology and warrants a close study. John expects and prepares believers to follow the Lamb through suffering and possible martyrdom. The problem is centered on what the symbols mean. Are they literal? Are they symbolic? Do the images refer to events and people in the first century, or to the last days of planet earth? Moreover, how is the book structured? Is it one vision, four visions, or more? Are the visions linear or recapped? Lions, Locusts, and the Lamb: Interpreting Key Images in the Book of Revelation demonstrates a way to unlock John’s structure and unravel his symbols. The key is to follow a logical step-by-step interpretive approach that accents the historical, cultural, intertextual, extratextual, and particularly intratextual allusions and connections. The result is a book that delivers the basic meaning of three hundred images and categorizes them into an accessible guide for teachers, preachers, and readers of Revelation.
We are in trouble. Our social, financial, and religious institutions are crumbling. Our criminal justice system is a prime example of society’s dysfunction.More than 1 in 100 Americans are now in jail.Taxes now finance the incarceration of 1 in 53 of adults in their 20s.There are now 2.3 million people locked up in the U.S. (the same number of prisoners in Russia and China combined).The U.S. accounts for 5 percent of the world’s population--and 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. What courtroom veteran and law professor Sylvia Clute saw on a daily basis was all too often the miscarriage of justice. Because of her legal background, Clute focuses on legal horror stories to demonstrate her underlying thesis: The crisis in our legal system is merely symptomatic of a rot found in each of our institutions. It is rooted in a philosophy of dualism that pits us against one another. It is rooted in a philosophy that fails to recognize the oneness or unity of all life. Clute unfolds her argument for applying the philosophy of non-duality to not only our criminal justice system, but to all social relationships. She explores the roots of dualist thinking in the religious traditions of the world and offers the hope that if individuals--and societies--can move beyond dualistic thinking, we will create a society that is truly just and authentically caring. Part social policy, part metaphysics, this is a book for all who are looking for a new model for individual and societal relationships.
Praise for Frederick A. Moore and his personal testimony, BEYOND VENGEANCE TO FORGIVENESS: A Memoir of Christ’s Transforming Power: ‘5-stars – Recommended!’ “. . . I thoroughly enjoyed reading your—sometimes harrowing—testimony. . . You excel in descriptive vocabulary, a conversational style . . . (and) with Jesus as your Companion, (His) Transformative Power helps bring Light to this dark world in a way that is refreshing and relatable. I look forward to reading more of your works. 5-stars – Recommended." Eliza Earsman, Christian author, United Kingdom DAYS OF ELIJAH: A TRUE STORY—BY THE GRACE OF GOD. ‘This story will change the way you look at life, as it has for me.’ “. . . Moore’s journey is real, not only for him but for so many of us in (this) world . . . there are messages about pain, hard-heartedness, forgiveness and redemption in this timely, heart-wrenching, beautiful true story. ‘From Vengeance to Forgiveness’ is a special read from a sensitive, tough and lovely man who lived it first-hand. This story will change the way you look at life, as it has for me. As a first-person account of real life, this book is truly a Blessing.” Pete Wilkinson, Founder and CEO, Wilkinson Sports and Life Performance Academy, Texas, USA, “Leadership, Life Skills and Performance Through Sports” Author of LIVING AT THE TOP OF MY GAME, a textbook for THE WILKINSON WAY
Is the establishment of the millennium binding of Satan cohesively linked with Jesus’s victorious battle in the Book of Revelation? This study is the first to answer this frequently debated question from a linguistic perspective.
To serve God and Christ faithfully in the midst of a pagan society that exalts power, wealth, and pleasure is the tenor of the prophetic summons to the church in the book of Revelation. Unfortunately, this simple message, as potent today as it was at the end of the first century, is often obscured by misguided, if sincere, interpreters. The present book explores the background issues and lays out the principles that inform a sound approach to this enigmatic writing: its historical and cultural setting, its literary structure, its symbolic code, its core theological concepts, its scheme of last things, and its preachable and teachable points. In dialogue with dispensationalism on the one hand and with the skeptical criticism of it on the other, The Pith of the Apocalypse derives clues for cracking the Apocalypse from the book itself, viewed against the sweep of the biblical prophetic tradition that flowed into it, through the lens of methods widely accepted in mainstream New Testament scholarship. Readers will return to the book of Revelation itself with enhanced confidence, penetration, and understanding.
WINNER OF THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD • A profound novel about art, terror, masses, and the individual, from the National Book Award–winning author of White Noise, “one of the most ironic, intelligent, grimly funny voices to comment on life in present-day America” (The New York Times) “This novel’s a beauty. A vision as bold and a voice as eloquent and morally focused as any in American writing.”—Thomas Pynchon Bill Gray, a famous, reclusive novelist, emerges from his isolation when he becomes the key figure in an event staged to force the release of a poet hostage in Beirut. As Bill enters the world of political violence, a nightscape of Semtex explosives and hostages locked in basement rooms, his dangerous passage leaves two people stranded: his brilliant, fixated assistant, Scott, and the strange young woman who is Scott’s lover—and Bill’s. An extraordinary novel about words and images, novelists and terrorists, the mass mind and the arch-individualist, Mao II is the work of an ingenious writer at the height of his powers.
In the tapestry of human existence, the threads of life and death are often intertwined, creating intricate patterns of pain, loss, and the enduring echo of unresolved trauma. This tale delves into the chilling depths of a vengeful spirit, a tormented soul whose suffering transcends the boundaries of mortality. It probes the complexities of mental health, the fragility of family bonds, and the profound impact of denying the darkness that lurks beneath the surface. Prepare to journey into the heart of darkness, where the line between reality and the supernatural blurs, and where the consequences of our actions, both in life and death, cast long shadows over our souls.
Some friendships can be murder... Arianna Jackson—AJ to her friends—has experienced enough drama in the past six months to last her a lifetime. Finding out she’s adopted and a twin to the girl she found brutally murdered and dumped in her alley being among the headliners. And, of course, there’s her sister’s killer, still pursuing her and the secret she holds, despite assurances he’s currently locked away in a secure government facility. Unfortunately, even the best of intentions prevent her from living a drama-free existence when Charlie Wilson, a frequent client of her Mischievous Malamute photography business and an old high school friend, asks her for help after being arrested for a heinous crime he insists he didn’t commit. Sure, Charlie may be arrogant and self-centered, but in AJ’s book, being a jerk doesn’t necessarily mean he’s guilty—not of this crime, anyway. AJ quickly realizes her old pal may not be as innocent as she’d originally been led to believe when he produces a sketchy alibi and is less than forthcoming about a series of missing hours the day of the crime. Still, with or without Charlie’s assistance, she’s determined to find the truth, wherever it leads. Armed with her Alaskan Malamute, Nicoh, and best friend, Leah Campbell, AJ searches for shreds of evidence to prove Charlie’s innocence. But the harder they look, the greater the roadblocks they encounter as it becomes apparent Charlie isn’t the only one with secrets to hide and demons to bury. In fact, much more may be at stake, including the bonds of friendship. In a world that walks the tightrope of good versus evil while nudging the boundaries of black versus white, there are always shades of grey—where the truth you seek isn’t always the one you find. Sometimes the demons that haunt us are resurrected for something greater than revealing the truth. Sometimes the reasons go beyond vengeance...beyond retribution...beyond revenge.
This interdisciplinary collection focuses on recent adaptations, both experimental and popular, that put hybridity, transtextuality, and transmediality at play. It reframes adaptation in terms of the transmedia concept of "world-building," which accurately captures the complexity and multidirectionality of contemporary scattered and ubiquitous practices of adaptation. The Editors argue that the process of moving stories or their elements across different media platforms and repurposing them for new uses results in the production of hybrid transtextualities. The book demonstrate how hybrid textualities augment narrative and literary forms as goals of their world-building, finding unexpected sites of cross-pollination, expansion, and appropriation in spoken-word and dance performance, (auto)biographical comics, advertising, Chinese Kun opera, and popular song lyrics. This yoking of hybridity and transmediality yields not only diversified and often commercialized aesthetic forms but also enables the emergence a unique cultural space in-between, a mezzaterra capable of addressing current political issues and mobilizing broader audiences
