In the aftermath of an interstellar war an enigmatic star is discovered, travelling towards the Solar System from the galactic core. Its appearance adds a new and dangerous factor in the turbulent politics of the inhabited worlds as the rival factions - the power-holders of the ReUnited Nations, the rebels who secretly oppose their power, and the Religious Witnesses - all see advantages to be gained. But what awesome technology started the star on its journey half a million years ago - and why?

890 AD France. The last imperial heir of Charlemagne is dead, and every duke is proclaiming himself king. Egilolf, a former soldier, could care less. He needs to steal bones. A saint's bones. With the prospect of a large payout, he recruits the scribe Aristeus, a refugee fleeing Viking invasions. Perhaps he should have told his new companion the true reason he's pilfering saints. Together the thief and scribe must dodge bandits, Vikings, and warring lords-not to mention their own lies-only to find unearthing bones the easiest step. Yet Egilolf's fiercest battle is the one within. How can defending the weak be just, when God abandons him when he has to kill? And when Vikings become more than a faceless enemy to Aristeus, will he, like the ancient martyrs he's always extolling, risk death to convert them?

For more than twenty years, Lawrence Stoller has been creating art that is, quite literally, like nothing else on earth. Working in the medium of rock crystals and gemstones - from those that fit in the palm of one's hand to massive installations weighing a ton or more - he is at the forefront of pioneering an astonishing new medium. This book collects a stunning spectrum of Stoller's work, as well as fascinating stories about the pieces' origins, including history and science of mineralogy, and mind-bending musings on the metaphysical and healing properties of these mystical stones.FEATURES:Nearly 200 images of Stoller's incredible works, in high quality four-color reproductionProse, poetry, and behind-the-scenes stories of how these works were created, making this more than just a glorious art book

In this moving and provocative anthology, the bestselling author of The Book of Qualities presents poems, myths, and prayers celebrating the fundamental cycle of life--night into day, sun and moon, and dark into light. Embellished with Gendler's own evocative and brilliantly vivid art.

Winner of the 2009 National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish Studies Recipient of the 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship in Humanities-Intellectual & Cultural History It has become an accepted truth: after World War II, American Jews chose to be silent about the mass murder of millions of their European brothers and sisters at the hands of the Nazis. In this compelling work, Hasia R. Diner shows the assumption of silence to be categorically false. Uncovering a rich and incredibly varied trove of remembrances—in song, literature, liturgy, public display, political activism, and hundreds of other forms—We Remember with Reverence and Love shows that publicly memorializing those who died in the Holocaust arose from a deep and powerful element of Jewish life in postwar America. Not only does she marshal enough evidence to dismantle the idea of American Jewish “forgetfulness,” she brings to life the moving and manifold ways that this widely diverse group paid tribute to the tragedy. Diner also offers a compelling new perspective on the 1960s and its potent legacy, by revealing how our typical understanding of the postwar years emerged from the cauldron of cultural divisions and campus battles a generation later. The student activists and “new Jews” of the 1960s who, in rebelling against the American Jewish world they had grown up in “a world of remarkable affluence and broadening cultural possibilities” created a flawed portrait of what their parents had, or rather, had not, done in the postwar years. This distorted legacy has been transformed by two generations of scholars, writers, rabbis, and Jewish community leaders into a taken-for-granted truth.

The Symbolism of Light plays an important role in Masoniccustoms. Where does this Vocation and the Search for Lightcome from? So what is contained in this Symbol? The latestscientific findings clarify the Question of what Light is andMasons can find out, where their Seasrch for Light leads.

A pioneering examination of the impact of new communications technologies and media practices on the religious life of American Jewry Engaging media has been an ongoing issue for American Jews, as it has been for other religious communities in the United States, for several generations. Shandler’s examples range from early recordings of cantorial music to Hasidic outreach on the Internet. In between he explores mid-twentieth-century ecumenical radio and television broadcasting, video documentation of life cycle rituals, museum displays and tourist practices as means for engaging the Holocaust as a moral touchstone, and the role of mass-produced material culture in Jews’ responses to the American celebration of Christmas. Shandler argues that the impact of these and other media on American Judaism is varied and extensive: they have challenged the role of clergy and transformed the nature of ritual; facilitated innovations in religious practice and scholarship, as well as efforts to maintain traditional observance and teachings; created venues for outreach, both to enhance relationships with non-Jewish neighbors and to promote greater religiosity among Jews; even redefined the notion of what might constitute a Jewish religious community or spiritual experience. As Jews, God, and Videotape demonstrates, American Jews’ experiences are emblematic of how religious communities’ engagements with new media have become central to defining religiosity in the modern age.