Christianity presents a glorious vision of culture, a vision overflowing with truth, beauty, and goodness. It's a vision that stands in stark conflict with the anemic modern (and postmodern) perspectives that dominate contemporary life. Medieval Christianity began telling a beautiful story about the good life, but it was silenced in mid-sentence. The Reformation rescued truth, but its modern grandchildren have often ignored the importance of a medieval grasp of the good life. This book sketches a vision of "medieval Protestantism," a personal and cultural vision that embraces the fullness of Christian truth, beauty, and goodness. "This volume is a breath of fresh air in our polluted religious environment. Hopefully many readers will breathe deeply of its contents and be energized." -The Presbyterian Witness "[A] delightful apologetic for a Protestant cultural vision. . . . before you write off these two as mere obscurantist Reformed types, take care. I found that some of my objections were, on the surface, more modern than biblical." -Gregory Alan Thornbury, Carl F. Henry Center for Christian Leadership "[T]his book cries out against the bland, purely spiritualized Christianity to which so many of us have become accustomed. . . . I highly recommend it." -David Kind, Pilgrimage, Concordia Theological Seminary

An intimate photographic journey into 115 years of history inside a nineteenth-century asylum.

Is love enough to heal their family? Emelie and Liam have a happy life with their five-year-old adopted son, Ben. Emelie, an artist, adores mothering Ben, but as he grows into childhood, she longs for a baby. An accident brings this desire to the forefront. Spending her studio time drawing and painting an imaginary baby, Emelie slips into believing that the baby is real and in need. She tries to hide her struggle from her beloved husband Liam and Ben, but soon it overtakes her. Liam delights in being a dad and loves his orderly life with Emelie and Ben. No matter what, Liam can't give up his hard-won stability. When Emelie slides out of touch and family life no longer feels predictable and safe, his fears push him to rigid control. Ultimately, Liam sweeps Ben out of Emelie’s orbit, even as she is recovering her health and equanimity. Pushed into opposition by unconscious forces, Emelie and Liam struggle to grasp how their loving family unit became so unrecognizable. Emelie, finally well, is determined to get her family back, but the road toward reconciliation is full of obstacles. Out of sync, each must grapple with the meaning of family and their deepest desires. Can Emelie and Liam find their way back together? This story of a contemporary family from the Canadian Maritimes touches on issues of parental devotion, the trauma of infertility, and the effort to hold a family together when unanticipated changes threaten to tear them apart.

To be inspired is, literally, to be imbued with spirit. For as long as human beings have made art, we have also wondered where the creative impulse comes from. The experience of art is transcendent. It takes us beyond mundane existence to a place of spirit and connection. To experience a true work of art may be, truly, to experience the divine. This book of photography and quotes looks to the beauty surrounding us - looks up to the angels in the architecture - and invites others to do the same.

Angels are sculpted everywhere in Paris, not just on churches but in unexpected places: holding a lightning rod atop the Théâtre du Châtelet’s roof, adorning a seventeenth-century gilded sundial inside a courtyard at the Sorbonne, hovering above a railroad headquarters where a beautiful stone frieze features young angels flying in to work on the tracks. Subtly, subliminally, the angels are a part of the fanciful and romantic spirit of Paris. Angels of Paris is the first book to explore this intriguing and extraordinary subject. Angels of Paris features beautiful photographs taken from dawn to dusk, in all seasons, accompanied by text explaining the story behind the creation of each angel and of the location in which it is found. Organized chronologically, the book delves into the artistic trends and historic movements the angels reflect and the stories of the artists who created them and of those who commissioned them. Readers will learn about Paris’s history, buildings, and monuments through the abundant, beautiful, and surprising depictions of angels from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. Rosemary Flannery has found angels in friezes, plaques, and free-standing sculpture; on fountains and façades, clocks and sundials, monuments and mansions, rooftops and window frames. Angels of Paris is a unique way for lovers of Paris to learn more about the city in a new and unusual way.

A collection of photos made by Lindbloom in Florence between 1979 and 1987, using a Diana camera--virtually a child's toy with a plastic lens (the story of which is explained in an afterword). The photos have an intriguing strangeness and intimacy. 10x9.25" Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.The Florence revealed in Eric Lindbloom's Angels at the Arno is almost startling in its intimacy and quiet solitude. Lindbloom's view of the city - rendered exclusively through the plastic lens of a Diana camera, virtually a child's toy - brings this venerable city to new life and light. With unabashed subjectivity and an offbeat, oneiric sensibility, Lindbloom conveys his sense of an unveiled Florence, filled with views striking for the beauty they contain rather than for the history they suggest.

Introduction : angelic greetings or Shalom Aleichem -- At home with the angels : Babylonian ritual sources -- Out and about with the angels : Palestinian ritual sources -- No angels? early rabbinic sources -- In the image of God, not angels : rabbinic sources -- In the image of the angels : liturgical sources -- Israel among the angels : Late rabbinic sources -- Jewish mystics and the angelic realms : early mystical sources -- Conclusion : angels in Judaism and the religions of late antiquity -- Appendix A : table -- Appendix B : description of table.