Radical Conversion


Book Description

Radical Conversion utilizes both analytic and normative philosophic/theoretical frameworks to study the relationship between Christian-Catholic conceptualizations of politics, citizenship, faith, and religion as viewed through a quasi-theological lens. The work is situated in the context of the American liberal tradition and in conversation and debate with the public philosophy that attempts to sustain it and provide a rationale for its perpetuation. In a single sentence, the book’s thesis is that for America to fully realize its authentic and unique moral and political mission and secure it into the future, it will need to become both more Catholic and more catholic. Concordantly, that mission, properly understood, is nothing less than the recognition and protection of the idea of the sacredness of every individual human person and their right to flourish and realize the fullness of their particular vocation as a child of God.




Take This Bread


Book Description

The story of an unexpected and terribly inconvenient Christian conversion, told by a very unlikely convert, Take This Bread is not only a spiritual memoir but a call to action. Raised as an atheist, Sara Miles lived an enthusiastically secular life as a restaurant cook and writer. Then one morning, for no earthly reason, she wandered into a church. She ate a piece of bread, took a sip of wine, and found herself radically transformed, embracing a faith she’d scorned and which would lead to feeding others in a way that she’d never imagined. Sara started a food pantry giving away literally tons of food from around the same altar where she’d first received the body of Christ, and providing hundreds of hungry families with free groceries each week. Take This Bread is rich with real-life Dickensian characters–church ladies, millionaires, schizophrenics, bishops, and gangsters – all blown into Miles’ life by the relentless force of her new-found calling. Here, in this beautiful, passionate book, is Christ’s living communion.







The Existentialists


Book Description

This volume brings together for the first time some of the most helpful and insightful essays on the four most influential and discussed philosophers in the history of existentialism: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, and Sartre. The contributors write on such topics as Kierkegaard's knight of faith and his diagnosis of the 'present age;' Nietzsche's view of morality and self-creation; Heidegger's accounts of worldhood and authenticity; and Sartre's ontology, ethics, and conception of the cogito. The essays have been selected for their higher level of scholarship and for their ability to illuminate various aspects of their subject's work. The volume is enhanced by the editor's introduction and extensive bibliography to aid further study.




Conversion in the Age of Pluralism


Book Description

The theme of conversion constitutes a privileged point to study the framework linking an individual to the sociocultural contexts in which he or she is included. Changes in personal biographies and sociocultural change are interwoven when we speak of conversion: values, speech, norms, behaviors, beliefs, lifestyles, interests--everything is open to potential debate when an individual "converts." Conversion is especially developed here through a connection with the dynamics of pluralism, which appears to be the most peculiar cultural characteristic of our era: what does it mean to speak of "conversion" in a time in which it seems that the presumption of only one "true" truth no longer exists, while instead many different truths live together, each with its own judgment criteria.




Ion-Radical Organic Chemistry


Book Description

Consolidating knowledge from a number of disciplines, Ion-Radical Organic Chemistry: Principles and Applications, Second Edition presents the recent changes that have occurred in the field since the publication of the first edition in 2003. This volume examines the formation, transformation, and application of ion-radicals in typical conditions of organic synthesis. Avoiding complex mathematics, the author explains the principles of ion-radical organic chemistry and presents an overview of organic ion-radical reactions. He reviews methods of determining ion-radical mechanisms and controlling ion-radical reactions. Wherever applicable, the text addresses issues relating to ecology and biomedical concerns as well as inorganic participants of the ion-radical organic reactions. After reviewing the nature of organic ion-radicals and their ground-state electronic structure, the book discusses their formation, the relationship between electronic structure and reactivity, mechanism and regulation of reactions, stereochemical aspects, synthetic opportunities, and practical applications. Additional topics include electronic and opto-electronic devices, organic magnets and conductors, lubricants, other materials, and reactions of industrial or biomedical importance. The book concludes by providing an outlook on possible future development in this field. Researchers and practitioners engaged in active work on synthetic or mechanistic organic chemistry and its practical applications will find this text to be invaluable in both its scope and its depth.




Out of Chaos


Book Description

Stresses the fact that refounding persons are essential for the revitalization of religious life.




Sartre's Two Ethics


Book Description

Sartre's moral thinking progressed from an abstract, idealistic ethics of authenticity to a more concrete, realistic, and materialistic morality. Much of Sartre's important unpublished work on ethics - relevant to both his 'first' and his 'second' ethics - has become available to scholars only in the years since his death. Only now has it become possible to give a complete presentation of both the first and the second ethics and to accurately identify their relationship. Sartre's Two Ethics also presents Professor Anderson's original criticisms of Sartre's two ethics, and concludes that the second is a significant advance over the first.




The Existentialist's Guide to Death, the Universe and Nothingness


Book Description

The Existentialist's Guide to Death, the Universe and Nothingness is an entertaining philosophical guide to life, love, hate, freedom, sex, anxiety, God and death; a guide to everything and nothing. Gary Cox, bestselling author of How to Be an Existentialist and How to Be a Philosopher, takes us on an exciting journey through the central themes of existentialism, a philosophy of the human condition. The Existentialist's Guide fascinates, informs, provokes and inspires as it explores existentialism's uncompromising view of human reality. It leaves the reader with no illusions about how hard it is to live honestly and achieve authenticity. It has, however, a redeeming humour that sets the wisdom of the great existentialist philosophers alongside the wit of great musicians and comedians. A realistic self-help book for anyone interested in personal empowerment, The Existentialist's Guide offers a wealth of profound philosophical insight into life, the universe and everything.




Freedom As a Value


Book Description

This dramatic re-evaluation of Sartre’s ethical theory establishes its author as a leading American exponent of phenomenology and wins many new followers for Sartre in the English-speaking world.