Two things are quintessential to the book of Revelation. The heart of Jesus and the heart of unconverted natural man. These are contrary to each other, yet need not be difficult to understand or identify. Jesus referred to himself as both the Son of God and the Son of Man because he had come in flesh to redeem us from the curse. Later, John stated that every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ is come in flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, of which ye have heard that it should come, and that now it is already in the world (1 John 4:3). In Revelation, Jesus, through John, takes this into much greater detail so that we can grasp the principle of what antichrist means, and how it could already be in the world in John’s day. Of course, any discussion of the antichrist also necessitates discussion of the beast and the mark of the beast. This is because the antichrist and the beast are inseparable. In God’s eyes, unconverted natural man is a beast, and the mark of the beast is the nature of the beast, which is also the nature of antichrist. If we can understand this fundamental precept, our ability to understand the Book of Revelation becomes greatly expanded. The only other requirement is that we have a clean heart before God. Sadly, many commentaries on Revelation ignore the need to have a clean heart in order to survive what’s coming. In Quintessential Revelation: Understanding the Heart of Jesus in the Imminent Day of the Lord, author Russell M. Stendal shows us how the unconverted natural man, a.k.a., the flesh, that man of sin, the beast, or antichrist, as well as the devil, all share the same essence and fate. On the other hand, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, along with those who are written into the Book of Life, also share in eternal essence and an eternal fate. Digging deep into the signs, the wonders, and the prophets, the author helps us discover the genuine Christian’s role in the soon-to-be-fulfilled book of Revelation.

The United States Constitution is a quintessentially political document. Yet, until now, no one has seriously considered the formative influence of this document on American cultural life. In this ambitious book, Mitchell Meltzer demonstrates the extent to which the Constitution is both source and inspiration for America's greatest literary masterworks.

"The enigmatic link between the natural and artistic beauty that is to be contemplated but not eaten, on the one hand, and the eucharistic beauty that is both seen (with the eyes of faith) and eaten, on the other, intrigues me and inspires this book. One cannot ask theo-aesthetic questions about the Eucharist without engaging fundamental questions about the relationship between beauty, art (broadly defined), and eating."—from Eating Beauty In a remarkable book that is at once learned, startlingly original, and highly personal, Ann W. Astell explores the ambiguity of the phrase "eating beauty." The phrase evokes the destruction of beauty, the devouring mouth of the grave, the mouth of hell. To eat beauty is to destroy it. Yet in the case of the Eucharist the person of faith who eats the Host is transformed into beauty itself, literally incorporated into Christ. In this sense, Astell explains, the Eucharist was "productive of an entire 'way' of life, a virtuous life-form, an artwork, with Christ himself as the principal artist." The Eucharist established for the people of the Middle Ages distinctive schools of sanctity—Cistercian, Franciscan, Dominican, and Ignatian—whose members were united by the eucharistic sacrament that they received. Reading the lives of the saints not primarily as historical documents but as iconic expressions of original artworks fashioned by the eucharistic Christ, Astell puts the "faceless" Host in a dynamic relationship with these icons. With the advent of each new spirituality, the Christian idea of beauty expanded to include, first, the marred beauty of the saint and, finally, that of the church torn by division—an anti-aesthetic beauty embracing process, suffering, deformity, and disappearance, as well as the radiant lightness of the resurrected body. This astonishing work of intellectual and religious history is illustrated with telling artistic examples ranging from medieval manuscript illuminations to sculptures by Michelangelo and paintings by Salvador Dalí. Astell puts the lives of medieval saints in conversation with modern philosophers as disparate as Simone Weil and G. W. F. Hegel.