My intentions of this novel is to break into the unconsciousness and take those contextual thoughts and turn them inside out into alternate dimensional universes that will lead the spirit of the mind into quantum experiences never seen or felt before by the third eye. In short, it's a metaphysical trip designed to blow the mind.

I consider my writing spiritual but psychological. Spiritual in the way that you can sense a bizarre void through out The Ritual, it's in the characters' inability to explain what has happened to them. Psychological because every character presents, like puppets, their own painfully perfect mental struggle which brings about an detrimental awareness to the fact that there is no way out! It should leave the reader questioning what is real and what is not. Who is who and who is not. The title of this novel is, The Ritual of the Gathering Dust. This is a tale of a cynically paranoid eighteen year old trying to learn the secret code of cool as he becomes the apprehensive subject to the social groups he encounters. Elsewhere, a depressed, cultist couple, recovering from loud, traumatic pasts, sit with an incurable boredom at a quiet, kitchen table. And while a mysterious hearse drives around without a clear destination through the murky streets of 'Broken Tongues Village' a determined marathon runner will attempt to go against a dead locked society. I introduce you to a world that craves fun, gets it, and scraps the bottom of the barrel for the last of it.

By blending multiple strands of thought into one ideology, Chinese Syncretists of the pre-imperial period created an essential guide to contemporary ideas about self, society, and government. Merging traditions such as Ruism, Mohism, Daoism, Legalism, and Yin-Yang naturalism into their work, Syncretists created an integrated intellectual approach that contrasts with other, more specific philosophies. Presenting the first full English translation of the earliest example of a Syncretist text, this volume introduces Western scholars to both the brilliance of the syncretic method and a critical work of Chinese leadership. Written by Shi Jiao, China's first syncretic thinker, during the Warring States Period of 481 to 221 BCE, Shizi is similar to Machiavelli's The Prince in that it dispenses wisdom to would-be rulers. It stresses the need for leaders to be detached and objective. It further encourages self-cultivation and effective government, recommending that rulers maintain self-discipline, hire reliable people, delegate power transparently, and promote others in an orderly fashion. The people, it is argued, will emulate their leader's wisdom and virtue, and a just and peaceful state will result. Paul Fischer provides an extensive introduction and a chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis of the text--outlining the importance of syncretism in Chinese culture--and explores the text's particular features, authorship, transmission, loss, and reconstruction over time. The Shizi set the stage for a long history of syncretic endeavor in China, and its study provides insight into the vital traditions of early Chinese philosophy. It is also a template for interpreting other well-known works, such as the Confucian Analects, the Daoist Laozi, the Mohist Mozi, and the Legalist Shang jun shu.

Failed actress Brigit Love moved back to New Hampshire from Hollywood with one goal: to have a child. So far her only babies are furry and live at the animal shelter where she works. Brigit isn’t willing to marry to get what she wants, so doing things in “the correct order” may not be possible. Even her Wiccan spells don’t seem to be working. Until she comes up with an outrageous idea that just might do the trick. Handsome tugboat captain Ethan Cox loves his life as a happy bachelor and his only goal is to keep things exactly the way they are. No wonder his coven friend Brigit thinks he’d be the perfect guy to plant the seed and walk away whistling, especially with an iron clad contract protecting his interests. Ethan truly wants to help Brigit, but the contract she draws up stating he must give up all rights and responsibilities leaves him with a sinking feeling. Will he lose Brigit’s friendship and make coven rituals awkward if he refuses—or lose even more if he doesn’t?

Evolution, Cognition, and the History of Religion: A New Synthesis comprises 41 chapters that push for a new way of conducting the study of religion, thereby, transforming the discipline into a genuine science of religion. The recent resurgence of evolutionary approaches on culture and the increasing acknowledgement in the natural and social sciences of culture’s and religion’s evolutionary importance calls for a novel epistemological and theoretical framework for studying these two areas. The chapters explore how a new scholarly synthesis, founded on the triadic space constituted by evolution, cognition, cultural and ecological environment, may develop. Different perspectives and themes relating to this overarching topic are taken up with a main focus on either evolution, cognition, and/or the history of religion.

The Bibles of the Far Right is about a far-right worldview that has taken hold in contemporary Europe. It focuses on the role Bibles have come to play in this worldview. Starting with the case of far-right terrorism in Norway in 2011, the study argues that particular perceptions of "the Bible" and particular uses of biblical texts have been significant in calls to "protect" Europe against Islam. This study proposes new ways to understand political Bible-use today in order to respond to violence inspired by biblical texts.

Gordon W. Lathrop explores the place of the Bible as the subject of critical exegesis in contemporary liturgy. The text is grounded in the life of the assembly and the role of intertextuality in its creation. Lathrop finds patterns in biblical narratives that suggest revising our models of the "shape" of liturgy (Dix, Schmemann) and our understanding of baptism, preaching, Eucharist, and congregational prayer.Saving Images calls for a new, reconceived biblical-liturgical movement that takes seriously both biblical scholarship and the mystery at the heart of worship.