This book was born out of a long-standing frustration, due to the observation that a societal silence prevails on existential questions, which we dare not talk about even in our highly interconnected world. As if an embarrassment has seized our interlocutors, struck by a certain metaphysical prudishness as soon as conversation turned to talking about life and death, the meaning of our existence, or fundamental values and their divine or human origin. “Is there life after death?” and “Is there life before death?" are questions that I have never heard raised at the Parliament bar or in a waiting room of the university faculties. This book is the result of a reaction to the deficit of essential questioning at a time when digital and other forms of media inundate society. This writing is not a philosophical essay, nor is it a theological treatise, a sociological manual, a novel, a collection of poems. The truth is that it is all of these at the same time. Hence, the reader must browse the pages of this book with caution and prepare to encounter divergent intellectual landscapes planted with many question marks. Furthermore, since I will thoroughly discuss transcendence and what is hidden behind the visible and in the heart of the homo sapiens, I had to appeal to allegories, metaphors, images, and poetry. Three allegories emerge most forcefully: that of the homo interrogans, the blind monk and that of the palimpsest, three symbolic stories that try to unravel some signals of the mystery of being. The first concerns the discovery made by an expedition of paleontologists in Africa of an anthropoid skeleton that, thanks to the arrangement of the bones, was buried in prehistoric times in the shape of a large question mark. The second allegory is about a blind monk, who knows the contents of all the books in the library and is apparently a visionary. The third one is the story of the discovery of an old parchment in Jerusalem, an enigmatic palimpsest the decoding of which could upset the understanding of our human condition. Moreover, a certain professor J.C Mortal appears who can be considered as the spiritual twin of the author. "Life is a mystery to be lived and not a problem to be solved," the sage Mahatma Gandhi taught us. Yet in order to grasp the mystery, it is necessary to ask the right questions.

2021 Hugo Award Winner for Best Graphic Story or Comic The follow-up to #1 New York Times Bestseller Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, comes Octavia E. Butler’s groundbreaking dystopian novel In this graphic novel adaptation of Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower by Damian Duffy and John Jennings, the award-winning team behind Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation, the author portrays a searing vision of America’s future. In the year 2024, the country is marred by unattended environmental and economic crises that lead to social chaos. Lauren Olamina, a preacher’s daughter living in Los Angeles, is protected from danger by the walls of her gated community. However, in a night of fire and death, what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: a startling vision of human destiny . . . and the birth of a new faith.

Jesus said to them, "Come after me." Mark 1: 17 The Gospel of Mark may be the briefest of the four Gospels, but it is the richest in detail, giving us descriptions of miracles and events in the life of Jesus found nowhere else in the Bible. In common sense language and easy-to-understand concepts, gifted Catholic writer George Martin brings Mark's words to life, focusing on its meaning in the time of its writing, as well as how this Gospel is meaningful for our lives today. Whether you practice prayerful reading (lectio divina), prepare homilies, lead or participate in Bible study groups, are a Scripture teacher or seminarian, you will find George Martin to be an enlightening and accessible guide to Mark's Gospel. "George Martin's expositions of the Gospels are written with admirable clarity. They interpret each Gospel in its first-century context, convey the best insights of modern scholars, and challenge readers to apply the text to their own lives." -- Daniel Harrington, S.J., Boston College School of Theology and Ministry

Early Christian Ethics in Interaction with Jewish and Greco-Roman Contexts focuses upon the nexus of early Christian Ethics and its contexts as a dynamic process. The ongoing interaction with Jewish, Greco-Roman or early Christian traditions as well as with the social-historical context at large continuously transformed early Christian ethics. The volume proposes a dynamic model for studying culture and its various expressions in a society composed of several ethnic and religious groups. The contributions focus on specific transformations of ethics in key documents of early Christianity, or take a more comparative perspective pointing to similar developments and overlaps as well as particularities within early Christian writings, Hellenistic-Jewish writings, Dead Sea Scrolls and Jewish inscriptions.

The essays in this volume present a state-of-the-discipline snapshot of current and recent research into the Gospels of Matthew and Mark. The contributions showcase wide range of methods and perspectives on Gospels study. The Gospels are viewed from a traditio-historical perspective, and with an eye on history of interpretation. Literary and social-scientific analysis of the Gospels, as well as theological and spiritual readings are also presented. The collection presents chapters by experts in the field of Matthean, Markan, and Jesus studies that freshly examine the core texts. The list of highly distinguished contributors includes: James D.G. Dunn, Francis Watson and Donald Hagner.

Now fully revised to match the changes to AQA specification A, option 1c - The Christian Life and St Mark's Gospel.