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Literature & Literary Studies2020The Apocrypha. Four Conversations About Lesya Ukrainka
by Oksana Zabuzhko, His Beatitude Sviatoslav Shevchuk
This book was published to commemorate 150 years from the birth of the classic Ukrainian author Lesya Ukrainka. It is based on transcripts of conversations between Oksana Zabuzhko and His Beatitude Svyatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The works of Lesya Ukrainka, included in the second part of the book, are the main topic of their conversation, namely how the stories from evangelical and early Christian history formed the basis of her later work. Ukrainka's work was praised by the Soviet authorities for its socalled atheism but was censored from being staged in the theatres. Ukrainka's spiritual journey during the last twelve years of her life, her interpretation of the images of Judas and Christ, the cult of martyrdom, and the female role in the Christian context are thoroughly analysed in Zabuzhko and Shevchuk's conversations. Zabuzhko built a dialogue between Christianity, and what Soviet and post-Soviet critics called atheism that was in reality a conflict with synodal Orthodoxy.
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Trusted Partner
July 2019The History of Scientific Atheism
A Comparative Study of Czechoslovakia and Soviet Union (1954–1991)
by Jan Tesař
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Trusted Partner
Dust
by Steedman
In this book, Carolyn Steedman has produced a sometimes irreverent investigation into how modern historiography has developed. Writing about the practice and writing of history, she considers the immutable, stubborn set of beliefs about the material world, past and present, inherited from the 19th century, with which modern history writing attempts to grapple. Drawing on over five years worth of her own published and unpublished writing, the author has produced a sustained argument about the way in which history writing belongs to the currents of thought shaping the modern world.
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Ethics & moral philosophyThe Case Against Miracles
by John W. Loftus
Renowned atheist edits anthology on miracles.
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Agnosticism & atheismDisproving Christianity
And Other Secular Writing
by David G. McAfee
The book that helped propel David McAfee from an unknown write, to 200,000 followrs on social media. An important atheist figure, growing in reputation around the world. From contradictions between lived and portrayed religions to factual errors within the texts themselves, no stone is left unturned in this fully updated and expanded refutation of Christianity.
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Agnosticism & atheismMom, Dad, I'm An Atheist
The Guide To Coming Out As A Non-Believer
by David G. McAfee
Just signed up for a huge book deal in the US, this is a seminal work on coming out as a non-believer at a time when countries around the world are beginning to see the initial start of this movement. An important atheist figure, growing in reputation around the world. This is his essential guide to coming-out as a non-believer. A survival guide for non-believers who wish to come out, providing advice and resources for those interested in publicly rejecting religious dogma as well as real stories from non-believers who have lived through it.
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Humanities & Social SciencesOctober 2020The Godless Gospel
Was Jesus a Great Moral Teacher?
by Julian Baggini
Even if we don’t believe that Jesus was the son of God, we tend to think he was a great moral teacher. But was he? And how closely do idealised values such as our love of the family, helping the needy, and the importance of kindness, match Jesus’s original tenets? Julian Baggini challenges our assumptions about Christian values – and about Jesus – by focusing on Jesus’s teachings in the Gospels, stripping away the religious elements such as the accounts of miracles or the resurrection of Christ. Reading closely this new ‘godless’ Gospel, included as an appendix, Baggini asks how we should understand Jesus’s attitude to the renunciation of the self, to politics, or to sexuality, as expressed in Jesus’s often elusive words. An atheist from a Catholic background, Baggini introduces us to a more radical Jesus than popular culture depicts. And as he journeys deeper into Jesus’s worldview, and grapples with Jesus’s sometimes contradictory messages, against his scepticism he finds that Jesus’s words amount to a purposeful and powerful philosophy, which has much to teach us today.
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Historical fictionAttrition
by Matthew O'Neil
A man with a talent for time travel mysteriously holds a woman captive. Deborah Ester wakes to a shrill cackle. Her last memory vague, she finds herself bound to a metal pole in a small prison cell. Her captor is a maniac. Though unpredictable, he exhibits an unusual talent. One that brings him, and Deborah, to pivotal and twisted moments in history. Among others, Deborah is brought to the Jurassic period, to London during the time of Jack the Ripper, and, more curiously, to the Crucifixion of Jesus, the offering of Isaac by Abraham, and the Massacre of the Innocent. Deborah learns the necessary role she plays in each of these events, and how her captor has influenced history himself. Deborah would never choose this of her own free will, but does she actually have free will if it means destroying the history that is responsible for her own existence? A sequel to Attrition is forthcoming.
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Humanities & Social SciencesApril 2015Wrestling With the Angel
A Convert's Tale
by Jon Elsby
Who am I? Am I an autonomous being, able to define myself by my own free choices, or a created being with a given human nature, living in a world which, in significant respects, does not depend on me? Are these two views necessarily opposed? Wrestling With the Angel is one man’s attempt to answer those questions. Raised as a Protestant, the author lost his faith in his teenage years, and then gradually regained it – but in an unexpected form. This is the story of a spiritual and intellectual journey from Protestantism to atheism, and beyond: a journey which finally, and much to the author’s surprise, reached its terminus in the Catholic Church. Available at Amazon and other online retailers.
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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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MusicJanuary 2013Getting a Handel on Messiah
Getting a Handel on Messiah
by David W. Barber
David. W. Barber has delighted readers all around the world with the quirky definitions of Accidentals on Purpose, the irreverent history of Bach, Beethoven and the Boys, a hilariously offbeat history of dance and ballet in Tutus, Tights and Tiptoes and a host of other internationally bestselling books of musical humor and literature. Chances are you’ve heard Handel's Messiah at least once, if not many times. Maybe you've even performed it, as have countless musicians around the world. After all, it's probably one of the best-loved, and certainly one of the best-known, works in the standard repertoire. But if you think you know all there is to know about the great composer’s famous oratorio, think again. For example, it may surprise you to learn that: – Handel’s first impulse to compose the work came not from religious or even musical inspiration. It had a whole lot more to do with money. – The very first performance of Messiah took place not in London, but in Dublin – and not with a huge choir and orchestra, but with only a relative handful of musicians. – Although church groups and clergy members now praise Messiah as an example of religious music at its best, Handel had to disguise his oratorio for its first performance in London, in order to sneak it past the prissy church authorities. – The Hallelujah chorus wasn’t originally called that at all, but had a different (and much longer!) name. – Although Handel was proud of Messiah, he didn’t think it was his best work. His favorite oratorio was one that hardly anyone has ever heard of, much less heard. All these and many more entertaining (and entirely true!) facts await your discovery as internationally bestselling author David W. Barber takes you on another delightful romp through the pages of music history – as it ought to be taught!
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Individual film directors, film-makersNovember 2017Pro Bernal Anti Bio
by Ishmael Bernal, Jorge Arago, Angela Stuart-Santiago
Four years before his death in 1996, National Artist for Film Ishmael Bernal started writing a journal for what he envisioned is a unique biography that would tell all. The goal was an anti-biography that refused to be hagiography or tribute, and instead would be Bernal unexpurgated and uncensored. His biographer was his closest friend and constant collaborator, Jorge Arago, who worked on Pro Bernal Anti Bio until his death in 2011. He then passed the task of completing the book to his friend, Angela Stuart-Santiago. Working towards the goal of a tell-all, and with new research and additional interviews, the final product is a memoir unlike any other in the Philippines. Pro Bernal Anti Bio brings in a cast of actors, scholars, colleagues, and peers who speak from the margins of the book, while Bernal and Arago tell this personal-political history in their own words, sometimes gay, often irreverent, but always revealing an intellect and spirit that was ahead of its time.
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June 2017
The Jesuits and Italian Universities, 1548-1773
by Paul F. Grendler
The Society of Jesus arrived in Italy in 1540 brimming with enthusiasm to found new universities. These would be better than Italian universities, which the Jesuits believed were full of professors teaching philosophical atheism to debauched students. The Jesuits also wanted to become professors in existing Italian universities. They would teach Christian philosophy, true theology, sound logic, eloquent humanities, and practical mathematics. They would exert a positive moral influence on students.The Jesuits were rejected. Italy already had fourteen universities famous for their research and teaching. They were ruled by princes and cities who refused to share their universities with a religious order led by Spaniards. Between 1548 and 1773 the Jesuits made sixteen attempts, from Turin in the north to Messina in Sicily, to found new universities or to become professors in existing universities. They had some successes, as they helped found four new universities and became professors of mathematics in three more universities. But they suffered nine total failures. The battles between universities, civil governments, and the Jesuits were memorable. Lay professors accused the Jesuits of teaching philosophy badly. The Jesuits charged that Italian professors delivered few lectures and skipped most of Aristotle. Behind the denunciations were profound differences about what universities should be.Italian universities were dominated by law and the Jesuits emphasized the humanities and theology. Nevertheless, the Society of Jesus had an impact. They added cases of conscience to the training of clergymen. They made four years of study the norm for a degree in theology. They offered a student-centered alternative to Italian universities that focused on research and ignored student misbehavior.Paul Grendler tells a new story based on years of research in a dozen archives. Anyone interested in the volatile mix of universities, religion, and politics will find this book fascinating and instructive, as will anyone who contemplates what it means to be a Catholic university.
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Family & healthJuly 2012My Boy - A memoir
by Anthony James
This little book tells of the sad but inspiring story and his addicted son coming together in the valley of the shadow of death. There is poignancy, sadness but also love and redemption. It is inspiring and will give hope and help to thousands who struggle with drug addiction in thier families.The book will give comfort to those who are experiencing loosing their loved ones. You are not alone, the wonderful Hospice movement and the palliative care forces are there to hold you up and give you hope.
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Science fictionApril 2008The Nightmares of God
The Story of the Death of the Universe and its Rebirth
by Michael Davies
A massive new spiritual force comes to Earth, far more powerful than anything seen before in an asttempt to save all of Creation. The entity that we have called "God" is awakening from millions of years of sleep and will combine with all of the intelligent species in the Universe. But Mankind is sick and must be healed before this can happen. The story goes through the modern age as the world is torn apart by these new forces, into the near future as Humanity is exposed to many alien species and finally into the far future as the Universe ends.
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September 2021The Changing Terrain of Religious Freedom
by Edited by Heather J. Sharkey and Jeffrey Edward Green
The Changing Terrain of Religious Freedom offers theoretical, historical, and legal perspectives on religious freedom, while examining its meaning as an experience, value, and right. The volume starts from the premise that the terrain of religious freedom has never been easy and smooth. Across societies and throughout history, defending or contesting principles of religious freedom has required compromise among multiple interests, balancing values, and wrangling with the law. Drawing on examples from the United States and around the world, and approaching the subject from the disciplines of history, law, sociology, philosophy, religious studies, and political science, the essays in this volume illustrate these challenges. They sketch the contours of contemporary debates while showing how the landscape of religious freedom has shifted over time. They consider various stakeholders that have asserted competing claims, among them individuals and groups; members of minority and majority communities; states and corporations (including both religious organizations and businesses); and believers and non-believers. Taken together, the studies in this volume suggest that understanding religious freedom means grappling with conflicting and perhaps irreconcilable claims about whose rights should prevail over others, what religion is or may be, and how religion should relate to other cultural values.
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Biography & True StoriesDecember 2015Extended Syllables
by Abdul Fattah Ismail
Extended Syllables is a collection of modern, contemporary poetry that speaks on the wonders and mystery of life through several themes with an urbane, irreverent, inquisitive tone.
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MusicNovember 2012Accidentals on Purpose
A Musician’s Dictionary
by David W. Barber
A hilarious collection of musical definitions by David W. Barber, the internationally bestselling author of Bach, Beethoven and the Boys, When the Fat Lady Sings and other internationally bestselling books of musical humor. An offbeat and irreverent compendium, from Aida to Zzzz. With a preface by Yehudi Menuhin and with illustrations by Dave Donald.
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Picture books, activity books & early learning material2019A Wave Is Coming…
by Lorenzo Clerici
A dad and his little son are spending the afternoon on the beach, but an irreverent wave scatters their things around, and that can be kind of a mess! Shells and seaweed take the place of their own shirts, shoes and sunglasses, and the two of them are changed into funny figures. But when it’s time to go home, will all things get back to where they belong?
