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      • Trusted Partner
        June 2021

        Lianshui Ballad

        by Liu Kebang

        A collection of personal essays by the writer Liu Kebang. It is divided into six series: fleeting years, beautiful landscape, spiritual light, fresh memory, taste of life, and a sense of reading. A total of 40 articles, about 200,000 words. Each article can be touched with affection, and sincerity, integrity and kindness are revealed between the lines. The author has served in public office for many years. He has been working hard on history, reading people, and walking through the mountains and rivers. As he said in the acceptance speech of the 6th Bingxin Prose Award: "Everyone's life is a heavy and solid collection of essays. "; Just as Wang Yuewen's preface said in the manuscript of this book: "Akacheng is a native of Chicheng, and Pu Houqiwen". Purifying the soul, cultivating temperament, and conveying truth, goodness and beauty in prose. The manuscript of this book has a certain literary value.

      • April 2024

        Paradise in Purgatory

        The Eschatological Healing of Victims in the Catholic Tradition

        by Nathan W. O'Halloran, Cyril O'Regan

        The claim of this book is that it is a precondition for Heaven that victims experience an eschatological healing of their other-inflicted wounds. Nathan O’Halloran, SJ, argues that the best theological space in which to locate this eschatological healing is in what he terms Paradise-in-Purgatory. The doctrine of Purgatory developed as a postmortem theological category for addressing sins committed after baptism and for which adequate penance has not been completed before death. In its full doctrinal articulations at Lyons II, Florence, and Trent, Purgatory is a doctrine concerned with personal, self-inflicted sin. Victims, on the other hand, require healing from other-inflicted sin rather than self-inflicted sin. For this reason, a certain expansion of this Catholic doctrine is required to make theological space for victims. O’Halloran argues that he has found that theological space within the Church’s ample tradition. The wellspring from which the doctrine of Purgatory emerged contains a richer content than has been represented thus far by conciliar definitions. Paradise in Purgatory maintains that the soteriological logic out of which Purgatory developed can be extended also to the postmortem healing of victims, and the soteriological logic of the New Testament supports this conclusion. Using as fundamental touchstones the wiping away of victims’ tears in the Book of Revelation, and the healing of Dinocrates through the prayers of his sister Perpetua in the Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, O’Halloran argues that victims must have an opportunity to experience full postmortem salvation from other-inflicted sin. The volume concludes that Purgatory can be theologically expanded to include a Paradise-in-Purgatory, i.e., a process that heals the other-inflicted wounds of sin which victims carry with them through death. The wounds of victims cannot be eschatologically discarded but must be subjected to the healing salvation which Christ came to offer.

      • Pharmacology
        May 2015

        The Use and Effectiveness of Powered Air Purifying Respirators in Health Care

        Workshop Summary

        by Catharyn T. Liverman, Sarah B. Domnitz, and Margaret A. McCoy, Rapporteurs; Board on Health Sciences Policy; Institute of Medicine

        Protecting 18 million United States health care workers from infectious agents - known and unknown - involves a range of occupational safety and health measures that include identifying and using appropriate protective equipment. The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic and the 2014 Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa have called raised questions about how best to ensure appropriate and effective use of different kinds of personal protective equipment such as respirators, not only to promote occupational safety but also to reduce disease transmission. The Use and Effectiveness of Powered Air Purifying Respirators in Health Care is the summary of a workshop convened by the Institute of Medicine Standing Committee on Personal Protective Equipment for Workplace Safety and Health to explore the current state of practices and research related to powered air purifying respirator (PAPRs) and potential updates to performance requirements. Presentations and discussions highlighted current health care practices using PAPRs and outlined the research to date on the use and effectiveness of PAPRs in health care settings with a focus on the performance requirements. The Use and Effectiveness of Powered Air Purifying Respirators in Health Care focuses on efficacy, current training, maintenance, supplies, and possible enhancements and barriers to use in inpatient, clinic, nursing home, and community (home) settings. This report also explores the strengths and weaknesses of using various approaches to health care PAPR standards.

      • Misery and Glory: The Long March and Its Antecedents

        by Jin Yinan

        In 20th-century East Asia, nothing was more exciting and astounding than the historic fall and rise of the Chinese nation on its two-century trek from “the sick man of Asia” to national rejuvenation. Various political forces collided and fought with each other along the way. Never before had China seen such intense clashes between internal and external forces; never had the game been more complicated; never had strategic transformation been more volatile. It fell to lead the Red Army through the Long March, a purgatory and a test of fire for the Chinese Communists.

      • January 2019

        Letters, 1-30

        by Peter Damian

        Peter Damian (1007-1072), an eleventh-century monk and man of letters, left a large and significant body of correspondence. Over one hundred and eighty letters have been preserved, principally from Damian's own monastery of Fonte Avellana. Ranging in length from short memoranda to longer monographs, the letters provide a contemporary account of many of the controversies of the eleventh century: purgatory, the Eucharist, clerical marriage and celibacy, immorality, and others. Peter Damian, or "Peter the Sinner" as he often referred to himself, was one of the most learned men of his day, and his letters are filled with both erudition and zeal for reform.

      • January 2019

        Letters, 31-60

        by Peter Damian

        Peter Damian (1007-1072), an eleventh-century monk and man of letters, left a large and significant body of correspondence. Over one hundred and eighty letters have been preserved, principally from Damian's own monastery of Fonte Avellana. Ranging in length from short memoranda to longer monographs, the letters provide a contemporary account of many of the controversies of the eleventh century: purgatory, the Eucharist, clerical marriage and celibacy, immorality, and others. Peter Damian, or "Peter the Sinner" as he often referred to himself, was one of the most learned men of his day, and his letters are filled with both erudition and zeal for reform.

      • January 2019

        Letters, 61-90

        by Peter Damian

        Peter Damian (1007-1072), an eleventh-century monk and man of letters, left a large and significant body of correspondence. Over one hundred and eighty letters have been preserved, principally from Damian's own monastery of Fonte Avellana. Ranging in length from short memoranda to longer monographs, the letters provide a contemporary account of many of the controversies of the eleventh century: purgatory, the Eucharist, clerical marriage and celibacy, immorality, and others. Peter Damian, or "Peter the Sinner" as he often referred to himself, was one of the most learned men of his day, and his letters are filled with both erudition and zeal for reform.

      • June 2020

        Eschatology

        Death and the Eternal Life (Second Edition)

        by Joseph Ratzinger, Benedict XVI

        Originally published in English in 1988, Joseph Ratzinger's Eschatology remains internationally recognized as a leading text on the "last things"—heaven and hell, purgatory and judgment, death and the immortality of the soul. This highly anticipated second edition includes a new preface by Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI and a supplement to the bibliography by theologian Peter A. Casarella. Eschatology presents a balanced perspective of the doctrine at the center of Christian belief—the Church's faith in eternal life. Recognizing the task of contemporary eschatology as "to marry perspectives, so that person and community, present and future, are seen in their unity," Joseph Ratzinger brings together recent emphasis on the theology of hope for the future with the more traditional elements of the doctrine. His book has proven to be as timeless as it is timely.

      • November 2018

        The Book of Divine Works

        by St. Hildegard of Bingen, Nathaniel M. Campbell

        Completed in 1173, The Book of Divine Works (Liber Divinorum Operum) is the culmination of the Visionary’s Doctor’s theological project, offered here for the first time in a complete and scholarly English translation. The first part explores the intricate physical and spiritual relationships between the cosmos and the human person, with the famous image of the universal Man standing astride the cosmic spheres. The second part examines the rewards for virtue and the punishments for vice, mapped onto a geography of purgatory, hellmouth, and the road to the heavenly city. At the end of each Hildegard writes extensive commentaries on the Prologue to John’s Gospel (Part 1) and the first chapter of Genesis (Part 2)—the only premodern woman to have done so. Finally, the third part tells the history of salvation, imagined as the City of God standing next to the mountain of God’s foreknowledge, with Divine Love reigning over all.

      • Fiction
        October 2018

        The Pale Ones

        by Bartholomew Bennett

        Pulped fiction just got a whole lot scarier… Few books are treasured.  Most linger in the dusty purgatory of the bookshelf, the attic, the charity shop, their sallow pages filled with superfluous knowledge. And with stories. Darker than ink, paler than paper, something is rustling through their pages. Harris loves to collect the unloved. And in helping people. Or so he says. He wonders if you have anything to donate. To his ‘children’. Used books are his game. Neat is sweet; battered is better. Tears, stains, broken spines – ugly doesn’t matter. Not a jot. And if you’ve left a little of yourself between the pages – a receipt or ticket, a mislaid letter, a scrawled note or number – that’s just perfect. He might call back. Hangover Square meets Naked Lunch through the lens of a classic M. R. James ghost story. To hell and back again (and again) via Whitby, Scarborough and the Yorkshire Moors. Enjoy your Mobius-trip.

      • Masoumeh

        by Saeed Nikorazm

        Masoumeh is about "waiting" and more about people who understand the existence and meaning of their lives while waiting. Yusuf, who went missing in the war after 7 years, still has no trace of him. Masoumeh Yusef's monument is in the purgatory of staying and leaving, and people who see Masoumeh as a form of Yusuf's memory mean their life in staying or leaving Masoumeh. We do not see Masoumeh, but obviously everything revolves around her, and Masoumeh, who is a manifestation of beauty and ideal perfection, gradually finds an allegorical appearance and becomes an innocence in the body of the people in the play. The lost innocence manifests itself only in the absence. Hence, the play becomes a critical work. Criticism of people who give up on the word waiting and do nothing.Waiting for Yusuf to come is a shop, for some and for others it means a life of emptiness. In the meantime, waiting becomes counter-expectation. The benefit now is that Yusuf does not come, but the wait remains. In other words, Yusuf himself does not want it. Yusuf's absence is demanded, and everyone knows that the basis for waiting is not to come: Yusuf must always be behind the door, but never enter!

      • June 2020

        Pilgrims

        by Matthew Kneale

        1289. A rich farmer fears he'll go to hell for cheating his neighbours. His wife wants pilgrim badges to sew into her hat and show off at church. A poor, ragged villager is convinced his beloved cat is suffering in the fires of purgatory and must be rescued. A mother believes her son's dangerous illness is punishment for her own adultery and seeks forgiveness so he may be cured. A landlord is in trouble with the church after he punched an abbot on the nose. A sexually driven noblewoman seeks a divorce so she can marry her new young beau.These are among a ragtag band of pilgrims that sets off on the tough and dangerous journey from England to Rome, where they hope all their troubles and their prayers will be answered. Some in the group, however, have their own secret reasons for going. Others, while they might aspire to piety, succumb all too often to the sins of the flesh. A riveting, sweeping novel of medieval society and historic Englishness, Pilgrims illuminates the fallibility of humans, the absurdities and consolations of belief, and the very real violence at the heart of religious fervour.

      • September 2020

        On Resurrection

        by St. Albert the Great, Irven M. Resnick, Franklin T. Harkins

        According to 1 Cor 15.44 and 1 Cor 15.52, the human body “is sown an animal body, [but] it will rise a spiritual body” and “the dead will rise again incorruptible, and we will be changed.” These passages prompted many questions: What is a spiritual body? How can a body become incorruptible? Where will the resurrected body be located? And, what will be the nature of its experience? Medieval theologians sought to answer such questions but encountered troubling paradoxes stemming from the conviction that the resurrected body will be an “impassible body” or constituted from “incorruptible matter.” By the thirteenth century the resurrection demanded increased attention from Church authorities, not only in response to certain popular heresies but also to calm heated debates at the University of Paris. William of Auvergne, Bishop of Paris, officially condemned ten errors in 1241 and in 1244, including the proposition that the blessed in the resurrected body will not see the divine essence. In 1270 Parisian Bishop Étienne Tempier condemned the view that God cannot grant incorruption to a corruptible body, and in 1277 he rejected propositions that a resurrected body does not return as numerically one and the same, and that God cannot grant perpetual existence to a mutable, corruptible body. The Dominican scholar Albert the Great was drawn into the university debates in Paris in the 1240s and responded in the text translated here for the first time. In it, Albert considers the properties of resurrected bodies in relation to Aristotelian physics, treats the condition of souls and bodies in heaven, discusses the location and punishments of hell, purgatory, and limbo, and proposes a “limbo of infants” for unbaptized children. Albert’s On Resurrection not only shaped the understanding of Thomas Aquinas but also that of many other major thinkers.

      • July 2016

        Martin Luther

        Heldenmut im Mönchsgewand

        by Nadine Strauß/Paletti-Grafik

        If you think of medieval heroes, you usually imagine brave knights with shining armour and swords. Martin Luther wore only a simple monk's robe, but he too showed heroism when he stood up to the Pope and the Emperor, the most powerful men of the time.Martin is 21 when he becomes a monk to lead a life according to the rules of God. He hopes that this will free him from sin and spare him from purgatory - because that is what Martin, like all people of the Middle Ages, is very afraid of. He diligently goes to confession and even buys a letter of indulgence promising him the Pope's blessing and remission of all his sins. But one day Martin finds out that there is nothing in the Bible about confession and penitential exercises, as the church demanded, or about letters of indulgence - and that the Pope is cheating some poor believers out of their last money. He makes his discovery public and thus puts himself in great danger ... Nadine Strauß does not only want to inspire her readers for the occupation with a historical person, but also to entertain them in a varied way. If you pay close attention while reading, you can easily solve the crossword puzzle at the end of the book. The illustrations, in which there is a small search object to be discovered in each case, provide for suspense in between. Imagination is required when designing a coat of arms and making simple printing plates. Amusement is provided by amusing shadow plays, and dialectal games are used to search for terms in dialect. For young and old readers from 6 years of age.

      • Mind, Body, Spirit

        Purifying Crystals

        How to Clear, Charge and Purify Your Healing Crystals

        by Michael Gienger

      • Fiction

        The Merchant of Bullshit

        by J.D.B.

        A rotting gene has infiltrated mankind’s cognitive process at an advanced level and turned it into gibberish.  Moreover, the Dronzyme, an integral part of the Detox Unorthodox advocated by major forces in the Consultancy Sector, actively stimulates the production of this gene via a benign mucous in the larynx. Soon, under the auspices of the Catallus Group, a new language and functionality possesses the mindset, and no one is considered immune. The Capital itself becomes a repository for degenerate ideas and concepts, whose terror becomes flesh with the birth of a quasi-physical oaf. Herein is the awful truth of the Schnimp, and the Corporate Giants now forced to obey its commands... in a unprecedented wave of NONSENSE. The explanation: The Merchant of Bullshit is a satire on the City of London, and its all-pervading, meaningless jargon, part of the global war against intelligence, as documented by someone who worked nights for over 15 years immersed in it. The author: (location unknown) lives in a shed in Myrddin’s Precinct where he communes with drunken spirits and entities, and launches vitriolic assaults against the Satanic Inertias of the Capital, soon to be revisited in The Gnat.  A series of endless night-shifts in the Ancient City of London drives him to the terrifying conclusion that its entire existence is a Hoax – a bankrupt Government, media and economy imprisoned in a Tower of Babble.  But can a man certified as insane – twice – complete his mission to rescue the intellectual heritage of his Nation?  Who knows.  For now, he sleeps amid the empty quarts and flasks, waiting to spring forth from his chrysalis...

      • Humanities & Social Sciences
        November 2017

        Integration of FDA and NIOSH Processes Used to Evaluate Respiratory Protective Devices for Health Care Workers

        Proceedings of a Workshop

        by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Health and Medicine Division, Board on Health Sciences Policy, Joe Alper, Catharyn T. Liverman

        Both the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have responsibilities for evaluating and regulating respiratory protective devices (“respiratorsâ€) for health care workers. Respirators protect the user from respiratory hazards by either removing contaminants from the air (air-purifying respirators) or by supplying clean air from another source (air-supplying respirators). Respirators that are used in workplaces in the United States must be approved by NIOSH and meet standards and test results specified by regulation. Respirators used by health care workers are air-purifying respirators that generally fall into three types: (1) disposable particulate filtering facepiece respirators (also termed N95s); (2) elastomeric respirators, also known as reusable respirators because they use a replaceable filter; or (3) powered air-purifying air respirators. To provide input to NIOSH and FDA and to discuss potential next steps to integrate the two agencies’ processes to certify and approve N95 respirators for use in health care settings, a workshop was held by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in August 2016. The workshop was focused on exploring the strengths and limitations of several current test methods for N95 respirators as well as identifying ongoing research and research needs. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

      • On Consolation

        Finding Solace in Hard Times

        by Michael Ignatieff

        To console someone to be a source of meaning and understanding amidst the pain and loss of life is one of the hardest things a person can do. More and more it's being sought after, not in religious institutions, but through individuals and personal networks. Less and less it's being associated with political traditions, particularly those on the left that tell us to fight, to resist the status quo rather than to accept.   Michael Ignatieff explores how those of us who live in a secular world, without the comforting thought of an afterlife free from suffering, have found a modern form of consolation through the religious structures of the past. Using the history of the psalms from the Jewish and Christian traditions, Ignatieff revives these masterpieces to understand the power of their words, and their limits.   On Consolation is tragically relevant to our current age, but that is what makes it all the more necessary. Through this book, we learn what it means to find consolation to balance struggle with submission, acceptance of defeat with the lasting light of hope.

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