In their eternal struggle against all of that which they perceive to be evil, the heavens, driven by their own ideals, bestowed upon the Sacred Nyrheimian Kingdom a supernatural power, known as "the Energy of the Gods." They ordered the people of the kingdom to use the power they were given to convert the rest of the world to their own religion, Jafnaorism, a religion centred around a set of ethical principles, according to which a person possesses human rights only insofar as that they are a fully morally good person. The Nyrheimians were given a time period of three years to master the Energy of the Gods, before they are to declare war against every country that would refuse to convert to Jafnaorism. While the Jafnaorists prepare for their upcoming crusade, two seemingly ordinary schoolgirls from a faraway country also experience their own personal battles against evil in their day-to-day lives. However, by some unknown process, they, too, develop the Energy of the Gods at the climax of their conflicts with their enemies. Guided by this power, as well as their own senses of justice, Shirosakura Hakutenshi and Arumariya Angeletta continue their fights against evil, which very quickly escalate to a scale far grander than the personal struggles they have encountered thus far.

In their eternal struggle against all that they perceive to be evil, the heavens bestow a supernatural power known as “the Energy of the Gods” upon the Sacred Nyrheimian Kingdom. The people of the Sacred Nyrheimian Kingdom are ordered to use the Energy of the Gods to convert the rest of the world to their own religion, Jafnaorism—a religion that is centred around a set of ethical principles according to which a person possesses human rights only insofar as that he or she is a fully morally good person. The Nyrheimians are given a time period of three years to master the Energy of the Gods, and after that, they are to declare war on every country that refuses to convert to Jafnaorism. While the Nyrheimians prepare for their upcoming crusade, two seemingly ordinary schoolgirls from a faraway country also experience their own personal battles against evil in their day-to-day lives. However, by some unknown process, they, too, develop the Energy of the Gods at the height of their conflicts with their enemies. Guided by this mysterious power as well as their own sense of justice, Shirosakura Hakutenshi and Arumariya Angeletta continue their fights against evil, which very quickly escalate far beyond the scale of the personal struggles they have encountered thus far.

For thirty years Randy Alcorn has been encouraging people-young and old-to pursue the rewards of sexual purity. Too often we settle for a compromised Christianity that's just a baptized version of the world's sad existence, rather than the abundant life to which God calls us. This book deals with - raising children to embrace sexual purity - providing an example of purity in the home - protecting purity in dating (at any age) - and maintaining purity in marriage. Biblical, practical, and concise, The Purity Principle is a one-stop handbook for individuals, families and churches. Some people have given up on purity. Some have never tried. Bestselling author Randy Alcorn shows us why, in this culture of impurity, the stakes are so high—and what we can do to experience the freedom of purity. Impurity will always destroy us; purity always leads to higher pleasures! Choose wisely. Let the insights of this amazing book—written for old and young, married and single—help you gain your footing on the path to truly lasting joy.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW Notable Book “So funny, so sage and above all so incandescently intelligent” (The Chicago Tribune), the New York Times bestseller Purity is a grand story of youthful idealism, extreme fidelity, and murder, a daring and penetrating book from “the most intelligent novelist of [his] generation” (The New Republic), Jonathan Franzen Young Pip Tyler doesn't know who she is. She knows that her real name is Purity, that she's saddled with $130,000 in student debt, that she's squatting with anarchists in Oakland, and that her relationship with her mother--her only family--is hazardous. But she doesn't have a clue who her father is, why her mother chose to live as a recluse with an invented name, or how she'll ever have a normal life. Enter the Germans. A glancing encounter with a German peace activist leads Pip to an internship in South America with The Sunlight Project, an organization that traffics in all the secrets of the world--including, Pip hopes, the secret of her origins. TSP is the brainchild of Andreas Wolf, a charismatic provocateur who rose to fame in the chaos following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now on the lam in Bolivia, Andreas is drawn to Pip for reasons she doesn't understand, and the intensity of her response to him upends her conventional ideas of right and wrong. Purity is a grand story of youthful idealism, extreme fidelity, and murder. The author of The Corrections and Freedom has imagined a world of vividly original characters--Californians and East Germans, good parents and bad parents, journalists and leakers--and he follows their intertwining paths through landscapes as contemporary as the omnipresent Internet and as ancient as the war between the sexes. Purity is the most daring and penetrating book yet by one of the major writers of our time.

Purity and Danger is acknowledged as a modern masterpiece of anthropology. It is widely cited in non-anthropological works and gave rise to a body of application, rebuttal and development within anthropology. In 1995 the book was included among the Times Literary Supplement's hundred most influential non-fiction works since WWII. Incorporating the philosophy of religion and science and a generally holistic approach to classification, Douglas demonstrates the relevance of anthropological enquiries to an audience outside her immediate academic circle. She offers an approach to understanding rules of purity by examining what is considered unclean in various cultures. She sheds light on the symbolism of what is considered clean and dirty in relation to order in secular and religious, modern and primitive life.

A novel about love, loss, and sex -- but not necessarily in that order. Before her mother died, Shelby promised three things: to listen to her father, to love as much as possible, and to live without restraint. Those Promises become harder to keep when Shelby's father joins the planning committee for the Princess Ball, an annual dance that ends with a ceremonial vow to live pure lives -- in other words, no "bad behavior," no breaking the rules, and definitely no sex. Torn between Promises One and Three, Shelby makes a decision -- to exploit a loophole and lose her virginity before taking the vow. But somewhere between failed hookup attempts and helping her dad plan the ball, Shelby starts to understand what her mother really meant, what her father really needs, and who really has the right to her purity.

Gear up for swashbuckling adventure in the second “riveting”* historical thriller in the internationally acclaimed Captain Alatriste series. The fearless Alatriste is hired to infiltrate a convent and rescue a young girl forced to serve as a powerful priest’s concubine. The girl’s father is barred from legal recourse as the priest threatens to reveal that the man’s family is “not of pure blood” and is, in fact, of Jewish descent—which will all but destroy the family name. As Alatriste struggles to save the young hostage from being burned at the stake, he soon finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into a conspiracy that leads all the way to the heart of the Spanish Inquisition.