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Does beauty really exist? What is the nature and value of art? What makes someone an artist? What is the artists place in the church? Dennis Bray explores these questions and more in What Is Beauty?, an introductory textbook on art and aesthetics from a Christian perspective. This volume of the Questions in Christian Philosophy series provides one of the only inviting and accessible introductions to the basic questions surrounding aesthetics and philosophy of art without sacrificing academic rigor.What youll find in What Is Beauty?: an introductory-level textbook perfect for undergraduates or anyone new to aesthetics and Christian philosophy examination centered around three major questions: How is God beautiful? What is art? Who is the artist? additional resources for readers who want to go deeper into aesthetics and philosophy tools to evaluate and cultivate your aesthetic taste from a Christian perspective Written with clarity and accessibility, What Is Beauty? offers students and educators a thought-provoking exploration of key themes in the philosophy of art. Perfect for classrooms and Christian artists alike, this book invites readers to reflect deeply on the relationship between beauty, art, and faith.This book offers invaluable insights for undergraduate philosophy students, professors, and those exploring the intersection of faith and the arts. Readers will gain a deep understanding of how beauty reflects Gods character, why art holds significance, and how artists are called to serve both the church and the world.About the Series The Questions in Christian Philosophy series features introductory textbooks that offer students a Christian perspective on the various branches of philosophy, enabling them as they seek to understand all facets of life including existence, knowledge, ethics, art, and more.

A woman with a successful career in child protection is floored by her husbands sudden death; a retired civil servant smothers his wife, but cant go through with their pact; a teacher fleeing a disastrous school trip finds himself literally in a dark wood.Pascal famously said we shall die alone. But there are always others left behind to grieve, to cheer, to feel guilt, relief or laughter, because we are human, whether we like it or not. In these stories, a dozen characters find at least a dozen ways to live by facing death their own or that of those they love in familiar worlds shot through with a strange absurdity.A man with cancer is employed to smoke by a character from a novel who may never have existed; an historian finds a love he hopes will last beyond the grave, even if it isnt his; a former judge dispenses justice in a prison camp; a randomly-selected Prime Minister confronts the biggest life-or-death decision she or anyone will ever have to take.A Day Like Any Other explores death natural, assisted, promised and unexpected with compassion, wit, a steady gaze and a desire to confront the challenge we mostly prefer to avoid: why live at all? It is the perfect collection for anyone whos going to die one day.

A quarter of a century in power has allowed Vladimir Putin to enrich himself. He has done this by plundering Russias resources, confiscated private businesses and persecuted those who stood against him including Boris Berezovsky, Vladimir Gusinsky, Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Bill Browder. Putin put their assets under the control of his friends and cronies, who creamed off billions from nominally-state owned corporations.In 2022 Fortune Magazine estimated Putins personal fortune at $200 billion. The revenues he stole allowed Putin to build up an unparalleled war chest and this he used to pay for the invasion of Ukraine.The people Putin robbed he tortured and murdered. Some tried to fight back. Of these original oligarchs only Roman Abramovich survives.This is the fascinating story of what has happened to the men that Putin dispossessed and where their money went. But revenge is best served with cool heads and sharp minds. A small team of legal experts has spent the last twenty years pursuing Putin in the courts of the world. These legal experts are based in London and they are set on reclaiming this enormous wealth.The effect on the War in Ukraine will be just one result of their determined efforts.

When a priceless family heirloom goes missing during a small private dinner party, Mel must find the culprit, and the painting, before Lord Jonathan and Lady Laura return home.Despite their moment of passion, Mel and Derrin are now estranged because there is still too much anger. Still trying to find her place as a Greenway in the new world, Mel holds a small reunion soiree for her pre-war friends at Avonby while Lady Laura and Lord Jonathan are away in London for the season. Mel invites Derrin to try and patch up their relationship. But when a priceless Turner painting disappears from Jonathans study, Mel learns there is a thief at Avonby.With Derrins reluctant assistance, Mel locks in the guests and servants. No one is getting out until the painting is returned. But where has the culprit hidden it, and why? Locked in together the real motives, nature and resentment of her guests begin to emerge. Mel learns how little the Greenways are liked by the locals. She is forced to hide her increasingly debilitating illness from them, even as they surround her like a pack of feral wolves. A short flashback hints at the cause of Mels war induced trauma.As the truth comes to light, and a shock reveal brings Mel face to face with the culprit, she realises there are more enemies than friends in Avonbys close-knit community, and there are those willing to do anything to get revenge even commit murder.

Harlowe could use a break. With his academic future over, just like his relationship with Jackson, a suspiciously cheap summer rental on the Cape feels like just the escape he needs.But when he arrives at the picturesque seaside cottage, hes alarmed to find his discouraging old professor in the living room, his father making coffee in the kitchen, a mysterious young man fixing a hole in the wall, and worst of all, Jackson is in the bathroom. None of them will leave. No one else can see them. And they just wont leave him alone.But Harlowe soon realises he isnt the only one who can see the houses magic, and as the summer grows hot and thick with tourists, old wounds and fresh secrets both in and outside its walls begin to transform him. And that mysterious man seems almost to be everywhere he looks now... not that hed want it another way.

Once Ida nearly died at the hands of a killer. Now shes trying to live again, to forget the monsters in her head.But the nightmares are coming back, more terrible than ever.Because Ida, now working as a journalist, has uncovered evidence of a serial killer stalking Helsinkis streets. And no one - not Ida, not homicide officer Kerttu Leppanen, tortured by her own demons - can stop them.Sometimes the monsters are real. And hunting them can destroy you.

In this vivid blend of memoir, nature writing and environmental thinking, Rebecca Tamás seeks new answers in old folk ways. Suffering from burn-out and grief both environmental and personal, Tamás sets out on a journey across the UK guided by the Pagan wheel of the year, marking each solstice, equinox and the midpoints between them with a ritual drawn from ancient traditions. From a confrontation with the sharp pains of winter at Samhain in Edinburgh to a giddy experience of collective joy at Padstows May Day, she finds in these traditional practices electric potential for transforming our relationship to the natural world and the flow of time. Intellectually probing and richly lyrical, The Book of Mysteries follows the drumbeat of ancient ritual towards an immersion in the wild time of the seasons. Ecstatic and irreverent, it is a rallying cry to wrest time away from the structures of work and capital and encounter the life-giving mystery of the natural world.

Erin and Bee are the TWO LITTLE LIARS. Vilified. Despised. Never forgiven, forgotten, or meant to see each other again after the tragedy they caused.Until a fateful college trip brings them together, and Bee is murdered.Twenty years on, the case remains unsolved and a threat reunites the survivors of the trip.Someone knows who Erin is and what she did the night Bee died.Someone wholl kill again.

A novel of identity and resistance from one of Palestines most striking literary voiceswritten entirely from behind bars Nur, a Palestinian refugee from a camp near Ramallah, is often mistaken for an Ashkenazi Jew. Fluent in Hebrew and with a degree in archaeology, he dreams of freedom beyond the fence, and of writing a novel about Mary Magdalene based on the Gnostic Gospels. When he discovers an Israeli ID card in the pocket of a secondhand coat, he assumes a false identity and is hired for an archaeological dig near Megiddo. Passing as an Israeli, he moves through a world previously off-limits and gains insight into the lives of those hes been taught to perceive as enemies. As Nurs borrowed identity deepens, so does the rift within. Through an exploration of this internal conflict, Basim Khandaqjis Arabic Booker-winning novel offers a meditation on the personal toll of occupation and the elusive desire to belongfully, honestly, and without fear.

An alternate 1970s science fiction romance blending first contact and queer counterculture in the Los Angeles disco scene, perfect for readers of Vajra Chandraseker and Victor Manibo.In 1977a world where America launched its space program shortly after WWIIMitch Ward is a grunt in the US Spaceguard. Stationed in a backwater base on the Moon, his only friends are Gloria, who performs "Lady Stardust" for fellow soldiers, and Flynn.Following a visit from an unseen, terrifying but also maybe euphoric being,they find themselves quickly discharged from the army, and sent back to earth. Moving to Los Angeles tochase their dreams, Mitch and Gloria scrape by, finding their joy at the discos in the city.But when Flynn crashes back into their lives, claiming to be the host for a traveler and emissary of a utopian civilization, he comes with an offer for Mitch to join him, ad claim power so that he, and his friends across the queer community, never have to live in the shadows or face oppression again.As the forces of prejudice and oppression seek to push their community back into hiding, keeping them out of sight and oppressed, its down to this community of disco-loving outcasts to stand up for what is beautiful and right.

Award-winning stories from the world of All the Murmuring Bones and The Briar Book of the Dead, this is a compendium of fantastic tales from the dark gothic heart of the Sourdough universe. Witches, assassins and pirates are brought to life in immersive, sinister and magical prose.Comprised of three collections (Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings and The Tallow-Wife and Other Tales) these mosaic narratives form much of the foundational mythology for the novels All the Murmuring Bones, The Path of Thorns, The Briar Book of the Dead The Crimson Road and A Forest, Darkly.Within these pages, coffin-makers work hard to keep the dead buried and their own murderous urges in check; poison girls are schooled in the art of marital assassination; books carry forth stories and forbidden secrets; a young witch wreaks a terrible revenge on an old lover; the Little Sisters of St Florian devote their lives to knowledge good and bad; a dying forest god is reinvigorated; mermaids and seamstresses make dangerous bargains; changelings bring havoc. Saints slumber, hind-girls dance across the countryside, bears show their true colours, and the fate of the upper and lower worlds rests on the whim of a volatile plague maidenExquisite, compelling and rich with unforgettable characters, these stories layer and intertwine in the dexterous hands of a master storyteller. All three collections were shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award with The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings winning the award. This is beautiful fairy-tale gothic of the most haunting and dangerous kind.

Lessons from Midwives for Pastoral Leadership We find ourselves in a moment in which the church is in great pain. Congregations are dwindling, denominations are fracturing, and church scandals have become all too common. We need a new imagination to capture the hopefulness of God birthing something new in the midst of the pain of the old creation. In The Pastor as Midwife, Shawna Songer Gaines brings her pastoral experience alongside her research on the vocation and practices of midwifery to explore a vision of pastoral leadership that is shaped by the wisdom of those who walk alongside expectant mothers. Learning to pastor like a midwife helps us embrace what God is doing in our pain and see new life in unlikely places.This book gives pastors a ministry paradigm that embraces change and pain as part of Gods salvific work in the world. Gaines helps pastors embrace a new, life-giving posture for ministry marked by advocacy, listening, and letting go of control. Like the apostle Paul in Romans 8:22, pastors who long to witness the birth of Gods new creation are invited to imagine their work like a hopeful midwife.With The Pastor as Midwife, you will: learn how the practices and wisdom of midwives offer a new way of approaching pastoral leadership, a way that begins and ends with a hopeful view of Gods work in birthing new creation; engage with thought-provoking reflection questions to explore your own leadership patterns; and reenvision ministry to see change and pain as integral to Gods life-giving work in the world. Wherever you are in your journey as a pastor, The Pastor as Midwife offers a thoughtful and hopeful perspective on ministry in a changing and often challenging world. Learn to witness and partner with God in the birth of new creation with The Pastor as Midwife, trusting in the Spirit of God who brings new life to a fallen but beautiful world.

For anyone who has ever had a crush, welcome to your new personal obsession. Mika is about to turn twenty-five, and all she has to show for it is a soul-sucking office job and a terminal case of virginity. Between the pervy salarymen she works with and the pretty boys she pines after, Mika is ready to explode.But its summer in Tokyo, AKA peacock season. Time to strut her stuff. So when her certified Hot Girl bestie sends her the invite for an upcoming beach party, Mika clicks attending. Just when she thinks real life is never going to live up to the wild fantasies her imagination cooks up, someone new catches her eye. It could be limerence, or the beginning of something much less one-sided . . .

Madison is quiet, intelligent, and dependent on Oliver. He is narcissistic, selfish, and lives a dangerous life. Too dangerous for Madison. But when she is suddenly asked to pretend to be his girlfriend, she has no other choice... Bestselling author Ayla Dade writes a heartwarming friends-to-lovers romanceMadisons dream of studying law is coming true. But she has a problem: to keep up at NYU, she needs Ritalin. And the only one who can get it for her is Oliver. Afraid that this fact will become public and she could lose her place at university, she avoids him as much as possible.But Oliver has completely different problems. His mother is about to kick him out of the Plaza Hotel, which he needs for his business, because of his criminal secrets. So he blackmails Madison into playing his sensible fake girlfriend. What he didnt count on were his feelings...Shattered Trust is the third part of the East Side Elite trilogy by Ayla Dade. The volumes are loosely connected and can be read independently of each other.

Logan is Manhattans good guy. Everyone wants him. But he only wants Grace. Grace, who has hated him since childhood and would never let him get close to her. Or would she? A soulful enemies-to-lovers novel for all fans of the bestselling authorGrace Bishop is an Upper East Side girl and part of Manhattans elite. With her degree from New York University Business School in her pocket and the prospect of a secure future as a hotel heiress, her life seems perfect. But the reality is different. Grace has long since felt uncomfortable in a world where everything is predetermined. So she makes her own plans. Plans that her parents would never accept. But Logan, one of Manhattans richest sons who breaks every womans heart, gets in her way. Logan, whom she has despised since childhood...Forbidden Lies is the second book of the East Side Elite trilogy by Ayla Dade. The volumes are loosely connected and can be read independently of each other

Hes unpredictable, desirable, daring and mysterious. Shes shy, a perfectionist and wants him at any cost. Does their love stand a chance? A heartfelt romance from the bestselling author about a bad boy and a girl next door.A fresh start in her old life thats all Hazel Evans wants when she returns to New York from her semester abroad in Portugal. She is smart, decent, and studies at NYU. The only excitement in her life comes from the high-society events her best friend Grace regularly drags her to. Until she meets Caleb at one of these events and he turns her life completely upside down. Hazel doesnt recognize herself anymore, but one thing is clear: she wants Caleb. At any cost. Despite his dark secrets. Because Hazel has them too Hidden Scars is the first book of the East Side Elite trilogy by Ayla Dade.

This propulsive, gorgeously-written fantasy romance will pull you into a dazzling world of dancing and danger, fae and fairytales, and a love that endures against all odds.Musical and immersive, this stunning debut is perfect for fans of The Night Circus and The Moonlight Market. London, 1986. Trix, a young dancer in the British Classical Ballet Company, has been striving for years to make a name for herself in the competitive and unforgiving world of elite ballet. Aleksander Sander Sylvan is the companys mysterious, meteoric rising star, whose talents are like nothing anyone has seen before.An eleventh-hour illness among the cast of The Sleeping Beauty changes everything; Trix and Sander are thrown together in the lead roles, surprising everyone with their chemistry. Soon the pair become the companys star attraction, their sizzling on-stage partnership fuelling speculation about their private lives. Trix knows shes falling for Sander, but relationships have always been difficult for her, and as they grow closer, she cannot help but wonder about his past. Who is Sander really? Why wont he talk about his family, or where he comes from? On the opening night of Romeo & Juliet at the very height of their fame, Sander vanishes without trace. With only a cryptic note to go on, Trix begins to wonder if the magic of the ballets they danced together has invited something truly strange and wondrous into the mortal world.

A wildly inventive and unputdownable robbery-gone-wrong novel, soaked in Mississippi sweat and with a supernatural twist, from acclaimed author Neena Viel. Perfect for fans of My Sister, The Serial Killer and How to Kill Your Family1974. Lottie Turner is already infamous. Running a wheel of schemes and scams, shes willing to work for what she wants increative ways. But no business is more lucrative than desperate families looking to adopt a childand theres only one way to procure children quickly.And the only way to take whats owed you is to cross the line no one else is willing to cross.1994. Bless has finally found the family she deserved. After suffocating slowly with lackluster parents and a non-starter past, shes found the friends that means everything to her. That shed live and die for. As they make their way across the country, one smash and grab at a time, Bless is used to acting fast and thinking quickly.But someone is playing a long game. Someone has unfinished business. Soon Bless is forced to extricate the horrifying pain of her past and choose to find forgiveness in her heart, or get revenge.A suffocating and sharp narrative horror novel for fans of Victor LaValle and My Sister the Serial Killer, Ill Watch Your Baby is a riveting portrayal of one womans lifepursued, scrutinized and vilifiedand the impact her image has had over the course of generations.

Bringing Integrity to the Stories Numbers Tell When we tell stories with numbers, we depend on the field of statisticsbut how do we know that those stories are true? Almost everything in life is connected to data, and that data can help us make sense of truth in a world that feels increasingly challenging to navigate as Christians.But in a world where we are told to "do our own research," it can be nearly impossible to know whether were just gravitating toward stories that confirm our own untested biases, or whether were analyzing the data in a way that is illuminating truth.Exploring a range of contemporary topics, professor of statistics Jason Wilson shows both non-experts and experts alike that statistics has something to say when it relates to the polarizing issues that we face today. Exploring topics such as gambling, Covid, and media bias, Wilson shows that the ways we collect, organize, analyze, and interpret data have something to say in conversation with the Christian faith.In Statistics and Faith, youll find examinations of contemporary issues using statistical concepts, tools, and theories; case studies from history that show how statistics can be used in ways that are helpful or harmful; application chapters based on over fifteen years of research; and reflection questions to help you explore how to do statistics with integrity. This book is ideal for professors seeking to help students explore the history and application of statistics from a Christian worldview as well as for Christians who are curious about how we understand truth through numbers. It serves as an ideal supplementary text for statistics courses and other disciplines that incorporate statistical methods, and it offers an insightful perspective on how statistics in conversation with Christian faith can speak to todays polarizing issues, empowering readers to discern truth through data in a noisy world.

Gods Providential Work in Creation Before Life Began God has been present and active in creation from the moment he created it ex nihilo. Few Christians would question this claim, but its implications for ongoing theology and science dialogues have not been fully explored.In this pathbreaking and field-advancing work, Ross Hastings brings his expertise in both scientific and theological disciplines to bear on the topic of divine providence in chemical evolution. Based on the latest research in the developing field of chemical evolution and the work of theological giants such as Karl Barth, Hastings shows how God may have been providentially and non-competitively at work in the process by which simple prebiotic molecules gave rise to the complex molecules in the first living organisms.In God and Molecules, Hastings provides cutting-edge theological engagement with the developing scientific field of chemical evolution, advances the discussion in theology and science with this new integrative work, and offers a holistic alternative for thinking about chemical evolution that overcomes the binary of theology versus science. God and Molecules pushes toward new frontiers in theology and science and casts a compelling, integrative, and ultimately healing vision for how God has been lovingly involved in the developmental process of the earliest life on earth.