Taking its bearing from the mission statement in prophet Jeremiah’s vocation narrative (Jer 1:10), the book examines YHWH’s events of deconstruction and reconstruction in Israel of the Old Testament. Through the analysis of the six verbs—namely, “pluck up,” “pull down,” “demolish,” “destroy,” “build,” and “plant,” the book gives a different dimension to the common impression that Jeremiah is a prophet of woes and laments; thereby limiting his prophecies to only oracles of destruction, hence total annihilation. Rather, it investigates Jeremiah’s prophecies as flying with two wings: oracles of judgement and oracles of salvation. In other words, the oracles are not only against the nations but also for the nations. With the exile of the Israelites and their restoration to the land in view, according to the book of Jeremiah, YHWH continues His creative and restorative acts and depicts the divine full involvement and control of Israel’s history. In like manner, the book portrays the abiding divine presence in the history of humankind in general. Therefore, Israel is only used to form a bridge of YHWH’s concern for the nations; hence the entire humanity. As YHWH sets the history of Israel in motion, so He performs for the rest of humanity. The goal of which has always been for the good and salvation of humankind of which the culmination is in the person and advent of Jesus Christ.

Winner of the International Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction Animal tracks, word magic, the speech of stones, the power of letters, and the taste of the wind all figure prominently in this intellectual tour de force that returns us to our senses and to the sensuous terrain that sustains us. This major work of ecological philosophy startles the senses out of habitual ways of perception. For a thousand generations, human beings viewed themselves as part of the wider community of nature, and they carried on active relationships not only with other people with other animals, plants, and natural objects (including mountains, rivers, winds, and weather patters) that we have only lately come to think of as "inanimate." How, then, did humans come to sever their ancient reciprocity with the natural world? What will it take for us to recover a sustaining relation with the breathing earth? In The Spell of the Sensuous David Abram draws on sources as diverse as the philosophy of Merleau-Ponty, Balinese shamanism, Apache storytelling, and his own experience as an accomplished sleight-of-hand of magician to reveal the subtle dependence of human cognition on the natural environment. He explores the character of perception and excavates the sensual foundations of language, which--even at its most abstract--echoes the calls and cries of the earth. On every page of this lyrical work, Abram weaves his arguments with a passion, a precision, and an intellectual daring that recall such writers as Loren Eisleley, Annie Dillard, and Barry Lopez.

The prophet Haggai advocated for the rebuilding of the temple, destroyed by Babylon, in the tumultuous period of reconstruction under Persian dominion; so much is evident from a surface reading of the book . John Robert Barker goes further, using rhetorical criticism of the prophet's arguments to tease out the probable attitudes and anxieties among the Yehudite community that saw rebuilding as both undesirable and unfeasible. While some in the community accepted the prophet's claim that YHWH wanted the temple built, others feared that adverse agricultural and economic conditions, as well as the lack of a royal builder, were clear signs that YHWH did not approve or authorize the effort. Haggai's counterarguments-that YHWH would provide for the temple's adornment, would bring prosperity to Yehud once the temple was built, and had designated the Davidide Zerubbabel as the chosen royal builder-are combined with his vilification of opponents as unclean and non-Israelite. Barker's study thus allows Haggai to shed further light on the socioeconomic conditions of early Persian-period Yehud.

This book examines the moral foundations of liberal societies through the role of Christian belief in public policy.

This book assess the relationship of literature to various other cultural forms in the Middle Ages. Jesse M. Gellrich uses the insights of such thinkers as Levi-Strauss, Foucault, Barthes, and Derrida to explore the continuity of medieval ideas about speaking, writing, and texts.