This book is a study of religious ecstasy, and the ways that it has been suppressed in both the academic study of religion, and in much of the modern practice of religion. It examines the meanings of the term, how ecstatic experience is understood in a range of religions, and why the importance of religious and mystical ecstasy has declined in the modern West. June McDaniel examines how the search for ecstatic experience has migrated into such areas as war, terrorism, transgression, sexuality, drug use, and anti-institutional forms of spirituality. She argues that the loss of religious and mystical ecstasy, as both a religious goal and as a topic of academic study, has had wide-ranging negative effects. She also proposes that the field of religious studies must go beyond criminalizing, trivializing and pathologizing ecstatic and mystical experiences. Both religious studies and theology need to take these states seriously as important aspects of lived human experience.

Sixty-six thousand words were omitted for reasons of propriety and publishing economics, as well as to remove material deemed expendable by Perkins. Published for the first time on October 3, 2000 - the centenary of Wolfe's birth - O Lost presents the complete text of the novel's manuscript.".

Kay Dowling was used to luxury, expensive pleasures, and the gentlemen who could afford them. But when she accompanied her wealthy family to her late grandfather's ranch, it was ordinary Tom McNair who caught her eye. Then Tom was arrested for a not-so-ordinary murder, and Kay's life was turned upside-down. But she was determined to help Tom prove his innocence, even if she had to put her own life in danger to do it.

The Lost Girls analyses a number of British writers between 1850 and 1930 for whom the myth of Demeter’s loss and eventual recovery of her cherished daughter Kore-Persephone, swept off in violent and catastrophic captivity by Dis, God of the Dead, had both huge personal and aesthetic significance. This book, in addition to scrutinising canonical and less well-known texts by male authors such as Thomas Hardy, E. M. Forster, and D. H. Lawrence, also focuses on unjustly neglected women writers – Mary Webb and Mary Butts – who utilised occult tropes to relocate themselves culturally, and especially in Butts’s case to recover and restore a forgotten legacy, the myth of matriarchal origins. These novelists are placed in relation not only to one another but also to Victorian archaeologists and especially to Jane Ellen Harrison (1850-1928), one of the first women to distinguish herself in the history of British Classical scholarship and whose anthropological approach to the study of early Greek art and religion both influenced – and became transformed by – the literature. Rather than offering a teleological argument that moves lock-step through the decades, The Lost Girls proposes chapters that detail specific engagements with Demeter-Persephone through which to register distinct literary-cultural shifts in uses of the myth and new insights into the work of particular writers.

The Lost Memories is a collection of romantic poetry written by the Supreme Master Ching Hai during the 1970s while She was living in Europe. This time for Her was one of love and loss, ecstasy and heartbreak, longing and satiation, searching and discovering. The journey within this volume travels the road of Love, encompassing its spectrum – from effervescent passion to contemplative reflection. Each poem is filled with rich imagery and melody, resonating with the many thoughts, emotions and experiences common to us all. The longing for a loved one, sweet memories rekindled with each falling leaf, a lost bird finding its way home, the sound of raindrops – all are conveyed with utmost simplicity and tenderness. Woven into the wide range of emotions is a consistent theme, one that forms a gentle backdrop for each poem: the silhouette of Divine Love, which has been the source of inspiration throughout Master Ching Hai’s lifelong journey. This journey to embrace True Love not only invites a passionate delving into the depths of our life experience, it also provides the potent reminder that in our own Lost Memories lies the key to selfdiscovery and, ultimately, our self-realization. We are deeply grateful to Supreme Master Ching Hai for allowing us to compile this collection from Her early years. While the obvious beauty of this poetry springs forth from the innocent heart of youth, its inner beauty takes equal form by sparking the spiritual yearning deep within all of us. We hope that The Lost Memories helps you find peace and love on your journey.

A study of Rinehart's various mystery novels, from "The Circular Staircase" to "The Swimming Pool."

The history of the Order of Friars Minor during the first one and a half centuries of its existence is maybe the most studied period of the 800 years of Franciscan presence in the Church. The publication of the Sources for the lives of Saint Francis and Saint Clare of Assisi in all the main European languages has been of considerable help to spread the historical knowledge regarding Francis of Assisi and his movement and make it available to the average reader. Among these Sources, the Chronica XXIV Ministrorum Generalium Ordinis fratrum Minorum by Arnald of Sarrant merits particular attention. It tells the story of the Franciscan Order from the time of Saint Francis till the beginning of the Western Schism in 1378, and therefore contains valuable information regarding the initial period of Franciscan history. Unfortunately it is not easily available in translation because of its voluminous nature. In fact, it covers a total of 712 pages of the third volume of Analecta Franciscana, published by the Franciscan editors of Quaracchi in 1897. Our aim has been that of embarking on the arduous task of translating this voluminous work of history into English from the original Latin. This translation is the fruit of three years of work, and we are now happy to present it to the general public. Because of its voluminous nature we intend to divide it into 5 sections, four of which cover the 575 pages of text and one the appendixes. The whole 575 page Chronicle is here available in 4 sections covering respectively the following historical periods: (1) Saint Francis and the early Franciscan fraternity; (2) The Generals from brother Elias as vicar (1227) to Saint Bonaventure (1274); (3) The Generals from Jerome of Ascoli (1274) to Michael of Cesena (1328); (4) The Generals from Gerard Eudes (1329) to Leonard of Giffoni (1378). A last section will be the translation of the appendixes. The translation is enriched by footnotes and explanations on the various historical events narrated and on the personages of the Chronicle. Our aim has been simply that of providing a readable translation, without pretending to be scholars of mediaeval Latin. We hope that the service we are offering at such an enormous cost of time and personal effort will be of benefit both to students of Franciscan history as well as to those who are qualified to correct its inaccuracies, and who we gratefully thank for their eventual advice and corrections