In Search of the Healing Spirit


Book Description

The late Dr. Nass Cannon Jr. (MD) was a physician for the indigent poor for over forty years and an internationally renowned scholar of the theologian and monk, Thomas Merton. In Search of the Healing Spirit follows a narrative arc across several essays of Dr. Cannon's analysis and reflections on life and Thomas Merton's theological contributions. First articulated by Dr. Cannon at the outset of his journey to serve the poor, the guiding principle of the book is an exploration of what it means to be broken and called to heal each other, ourselves, and the world. As Dr. Cannon writes, "I am a physician who views his root identity as one called to heal. Yet, I experience myself as broken, as one admonished by the phrase, 'Physician, heal thyself.' Perhaps you, too . . . experience yourself as a broken healer. Let us together explore some notions regarding the healer as broken, examine the nature of healing, and consider the relationship of the healer to one healed." From this position as a broken healer, which implicitly embodies Merton's contemplative spirituality, Dr. Cannon's meditations over the course of his life of service increasingly weave in Merton's contributions in search of the true self on such pressing--and universal--topics as grief and loss, the eternal nature and healing power of love, and to do what we can for each other with the time we are given. Dr. Cannon's writings engage a twenty-first-century audience with insights--drawn from fifty years of study--that can aid lay persons, clergy, and academics to better understand what it means to be a broken person and through that brokenness to heal themselves and the world.




Down to Earth


Book Description

In the face of climate change and ecological diminishment, how can we hope that creation itself--good and beautiful, marked by tragedy and chaos--is taken up rather than left behind? Can a Christian vision, which has at times been drunk on eschatological dreams (or nightmares) that consign this world and most of its creatures to destruction, foster an earthly hope? Jurgen Moltmann and Sallie McFague offer two contemporary possibilities for an ecological eschatology. Floyd critiques both of these theological visions and traces an alternative that is both humble (grounded in the humus, the dirt) and hopeful (grounded in divine creativity), arguing that a "down-to-earth" hope is grounded finally in beauty: the beauty of the other that draws out the self, the beauty of the redeemed self coming out to meet the other, and the beauty of God that lures forth ever-new possibilities and gathers up all the beautiful and broken creatures into the deepest possible harmony.




Confessions of the Flesh


Book Description

The fourth and final volume in Michel Foucault’s acclaimed History of Sexuality, completed just before his death in 1984 and finally available to the public One of the most influential thinkers of the twentieth century, Michel Foucault made an indelible impact on Western thought. The first three volumes in his History of Sexuality—which trace cultural and intellectual notions of sexuality, arguing that it has been profoundly shaped by the power structures applied to it—constitute some of Foucault’s most important work. This fourth volume posits that the origins of totalitarian self-surveillance began with the Christian practice of confession. The manuscript had long been secreted away, in accordance with Foucault’s stated wish that there be no posthumous publication of his unpublished work. With the sale of the Foucault archives in 2013, Foucault’s nephew felt that the time had come to publish this final volume in Foucault’s seminal history. Philosophically, it is a chapter in his hermeneutics of the desiring subject. Historically, it focuses on the remodeling of subjectivity carried out by the early Christian Fathers, who set out to transform the classical Logos of truthful human discourse into a theologos—the divine Word of a pure sovereign. What did God will in the matter of righteous sexual practice? Foucault parses out the logic of the various responses proffered by theologians over the centuries, culminating with Saint Augustine’s fascinating discussion of the libido. Sweeping and deeply personal, Confessions of the Flesh is a tour de force from a philosophical master




Felones de Se


Book Description

With a sprinkling of dark humor and a full measure of compassion, "Felones de Se: Poems about Suicide" is surprising, quirky, and a riveting read. Inspired by actual suicides, one of them a blood relative, these poems are resonant, impossibly moving, bittersweet, and strange.




Fire in the Belly


Book Description

“Sam Keen is one of the most creative, profound thinkers of our time. I personally have learned and benefited immensely from his books. He brings to the men's movement a new kind of practical wisdom that should help both men and women.”—John Bradshaw, author of Homecoming How does one become a “real man”? By joining a fraternity? Getting a letter in football? Conquering a lot of women? Making a lot of money? With traditional notions of manhood under attack, today's men (and women) are looking for a new vision of masculinity. In this groundbreaking book, Sam Keen offers an inspiring guide for men seeking new personal ideals of strength, potency, and warrior-ship in their lives. What does it really mean to be a man? Fire in the Belly answers that question by daringly confronting outdated models that impoverish, injure, and alienate men. It shows instead how men can find their own path to understanding the unique mysteries of being male and in the process rediscover a new vitality and virility that will energize every aspect of their lives. Here is a look at men at work, at play, at war, and in love, moving from brokenness to wholeness and building nurturing, satisfying relationships with one another, their mates, and their families. At no time in history have there been so many men looking for new roles, new attitudes, and new ways of being. In this powerful and empowering book, author Sam Keen retells for modern times the ancient story of the search for what it means to be a man—a man with fire in his belly and passion in his heart. “This book taught me things i didn't know, thawed out some feelings that had been frozen, and made me remember things I thought I wanted to forget. The growing men's movement has added a voice and a book that captures the problems of being male and the promises of manhood achieved. I didn't want it to end.”—John Lee, author of The Flying Boy




The Vision of the Soul


Book Description

“For those for whom conservatism means something more than anti-liberalism . . . who wish to dive deep into the conservative tradition in search of pearls” (The American Conservative). Ours is an age full of desires but impoverished in its understanding of where those desires lead—an age that asserts mastery over the world but also claims to find the world as a whole absurd or unintelligible. In The Vision of the Soul, James Matthew Wilson seeks to conserve the great insights of the western tradition by giving us a new account of them responsive to modern discontents. The western- or Christian Platonist–tradition, he argues, tells us that man is an intellectual animal, born to pursue the good, to know the true, and to contemplate all things in beauty. By turns a study in fundamental ontology, aesthetics, and political philosophy, Wilson’s book invites its readers to a renewal of the West’s intellectual tradition. “Conservatism needs a new prophet. James Matthew Wilson is the man for the job, and The Vision of the Soul is his calling card . . . A new classic. For it we give thanks to God, and to Plato.” —Covenant “James Wilson’s important book returns to a conservatism in the tradition of Burke, Eliot, and Russell Kirk. . . . He wants us to focus on beauty and its place in Western culture. The book is a strong defense of that culture, but not an unthinking one.” —Crisis Magazine “A stirring and timely account and defense of the West’s traditional way of understanding the universe and our place in it.” —Matthew M. Robare, The Kirk Center




God--The World's Future


Book Description

God—The World’s Future has been a proven textbook in systematic theology for over twenty years. Thoroughly revised and expanded, this third edition is explicitly crafted to address our postmodern context and explains the whole body of Christian historical doctrine from within a “proleptic” framework. Peters skillfully deploys this concept not only to organize the various theological areas or loci but also to rethink doctrines in light of key postmodern challenges from ecumenism, critical historical thinking, contemporary science, and gender and sexuality issues.




The Sexual Politics of Meat


Book Description

Many cultures equate meat-eating with virility, and in some societies women offer men the "best" (i.e., bloodiest) food at the expense of their own nutritional needs. Building upon these observations, feminist activist Adams detects intimate links between the slaughter of animals and violence directed against women. She ties the prevalence of a carnivorous diet to patriarchal attitudes, such as the idea that the end justifies the means, and the objectification of others. In Frankenstein, Mary Shelley made her Creature a vegetarian, a point Adams relates to the Romantics' radical politics and to visionary novels by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Dorothy Bryant and others. Adams, who teaches at Perkins School of Theology, Dallas, sketches the alliance of vegetarianism and feminism in antivivisection activism, the suffrage movement and 20th-century pacifism. Her original, provocative book makes a major contribution to the debate on animal rights. Writer/activist/university lecturer Adams's important and provocative work compares myths about meat-eating with myths about manliness; and explores the literary, scientific, and social connections between meat-eating, male dominance, and war. Drawing on such diverse sources as butchering texts, cookbooks, Victorian "hygiene" manuals, and Alice Walker, the author provides a compelling case for inextricably linking feminist and vegetarian theory. This book is likely to both inspire and enrage readers across the political spectrum: we learn, for example, that veal was served at Gloria Steinem's 50th birthday, as well as of the atrocities of the slaughterhouse. One wishes Adams had been more careful about documenting some of her claims--her contention, for instance, that early humans were entirely vegetarian, requires scholarly support. Nevertheless this is recommended for both public and academic collections.




Sin


Book Description

Sin. Many Christians today have lost the ability to talk about it in personal terms. For the last quarter century the theological establishment, like society, has consigned the human predicament to structures of political and economic oppression or to systemic evil such as race and gender discrimination. In the process, people have lost interest in the internal workings of the human soul, attributing the evils of our world to social forces beyond the scope of personal responsibility.




The Sexual Politics of Meat - 35th Anniversary Edition


Book Description

First published in 1990, Carol J. Adams' revolutionary work has engaged, enraged, inspired and challenged readers with its exploration of the interplay between society's ingrained cultural misogyny and its obsession with eating animals and masculinity. This iconic book, referenced in rock songs, feminist artwork and even a Law and Order SVU episode, continues to change the lives of its readers today. Published to celebrate the book's 35th anniversary, this Bloomsbury Revelations edition includes a new introduction that reflects on how recent events continue to prove the relevance of this influential work.