Reveals the discovery of an artifact that many experts believe may be the Holy Grail • Traces the journey of the Grail from the Holy Land to Rome and eventually to a ruined chapel in Shropshire, England • Uncovers new evidence identifying the historical King Arthur and his connection to the Holy Grail The popular Arthurian stories of the Middle Ages depict the Holy Grail as Christ’s cup from the Last Supper, which was believed to have been endowed with miraculous healing powers and the ability to give eternal life to whoever drank from it. A much earlier tradition, however, claimed the Grail was the vessel used by Mary Magdalene to collect Christ’s blood when he appeared to her after rising from the tomb. While many vessels were claimed to have been the true Grail, there was only one thought to have been the chalice used by Mary. From Jesus’ empty tomb, where it remained for almost 400 years, this holy relic known as the Marian Chalice was taken to Rome by the mother of the first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great. It was then smuggled from Rome in 410 A.D., according to the fifth-century historian Olympiodorus, to save it from the barbarians who sacked the city. Well into the Middle Ages legend persisted that it had been taken to safety in Britain, the last outpost of Roman civilization in Western Europe. This journey to England, and what happened to the Chalice there, is the focus of this book. Graham Phillips’s research uncovers the secret legacy of an ancient noble family over generations and a trail of clues hidden in the English countryside that lead to a mysterious grotto, a forgotten attic, and the lost chalice. In tracing the relic, Phillips offers the inside story behind an astonishing adventure that results in the identification of the historical King Arthur and the location of one of the most powerful symbols in Western tradition.

This Thing of Darkness, Joan Neuberger's engrossing production history of Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible, is a major contribution to the study of Eisenstein and thus informs the history and theory of cinema and the study of Soviet culture and politics. Neuberger's ability to mine, interpret, and connect Eisenstein's voluminous, intriguingly digressive writings makes this book exceptional.— Karla Oeler, Stanford University Sergei Eisenstein's unfinished masterpiece, Ivan the Terrible, was no ordinary movie. Commissioned by Joseph Stalin in 1941 to justify state terror in the sixteenth century and in the twentieth, the film's politics, style, and epic scope aroused controversy even before it was released. In This Thing of Darkness, Joan Neuberger offers a sweeping account of the conception, making, and reception of Ivan the Terrible that weaves together Eisenstein's expansive thinking and experimental practice with a groundbreaking new view of artistic production under Stalin. Drawing on Eisenstein's unpublished production notebooks, diaries, and manuscripts, Neuberger's riveting narrative chronicles Eisenstein's personal, creative, and political challenges and reveals the ways cinematic invention, artistic theory, political critique, and historical and psychological analysis went hand in hand in this famously complex film. Neuberger's bold arguments and daring insights into every aspect of Eisenstein's work during this period, together with her ability to lucidly connect his wide-ranging late theory with his work on Ivan, show the director exploiting the institutions of Soviet artistic production not only to expose the cruelties of Stalin and his circle but to challenge the fundamental principles of Soviet ideology itself. Ivan the Terrible, she argues, shows us one of the world's greatest filmmakers and one of the 20th century's greatest artists observing the world around him and experimenting with every element of film art to explore the psychology of political ambition, uncover the history of recurring cycles of violence and lay bare the tragedy of absolute power.

Its September 29, 2033, and the Earth and humanity have entered a cathedral of Light 1,000 light-years tall and wide. One Saturday morning in June 2040 Boston editor Edward Burbage is visited by an enigmatic traveller calling himself Blaise. Hes been off the planet for 20 years, helping to orchestrate a unique event called the Theosophon. Now hes here to tell his story and what happened in 2033 when Earth reality changed. This Blaisehes clearly a human, age about 90, yet hes not in a human body anymore, at least not a physical one. He claims to have spent much of the last 20 years commuting from his home planet in the Celaeno system in the Pleiades to Earth. Why the Pleiades? Because thats where the prime designers of the Earth reside, and the Theosophon, a kind of galactic musical event, a song-fest of the gods, is the next step in the perfection of this design for consciousness. The only reason Burbage believes him is that he has had a bit of a wild adventure himself. Copies of his newly published book describing this sit on his coffee table. Hes seen this intriguing Blaise a few times in the past, and, in fact, hes edited two of his posthumous books. Burbage notes, It wasnt that Blaise had a mystery to reveal to me; he was the mystery. Everything about him. As the narration ripens over the next three years, Burbage is astonished to learn he was a key participant in the event even though up until this moment he had no memory of it. Blaise changes all that. The Theosophon, he says, was like a subtle, slow-motion psychic earthquake rumbling just beyond the border of normal perception, like a band of angels were shaking the Earth. It lasted a day, in terms of peak intensity, but it is still happening years later.

This classic work, previously edited by Ronald Jasper and Geoffrey Cuming, has been a staple source in teaching liturgy to generations of students in colleges, seminaries, and universities. It has now been comprehensively revised for future generations of liturgical scholars. Updates include: New introductions that take into account the substantial changes in recent scholarship New groupings of the various prayers into liturgical “families” in order to make their relationships clearer Plus, new bibliographies

Addresses literary theory and criticism, comparative studies in terms of theme, genre movement and influence, and interdisciplinary perspectives.

Dr. Walter Prine, a collector of unique artifacts, is summoned by a desperate grandmother, to use his artifact hunting skills to find the woman's missing grandchild. The clues are slim. She suspects the world's greatest faith healing Minister, but offers little proof. In exchange for his assistance, the woman offers to give Dr. Prine an artifact like none other the key to why he has not aged in nearly a hundred years. As Dr. Prine begins his search a string of events revolving around the Minister, his faithful following, a serial killer, and an innocent jogger begins to unfold exposing the dark and chilling side of faith and the supernatural. But nothing compares to the dark history Dr. Prine discovers within himself. . Enter the intriguing world of the Fallen Angels. The Blind and the Caged is the first book of the Eximus / Prine series.