A philosophical and historical analysis of the idea of world community from the late Middle Ages to the present.

This volume looks at 'visions of community' in a comparative perspective, from Late Antiquity to the dawning of the age of crusades. It addresses the question of why and how distinctive new political cultures developed after the disintegration of the Roman World, and to what degree their differences had already emerged in the first post-Roman centuries. The Latin West, Orthodox Byzantium and its Slavic periphery, and the Islamic world each retained different parts of the Graeco-Roman heritage, while introducing new elements. For instance, ethnicity became a legitimizing element of rulership in the West, remained a structural element of the imperial periphery in Byzantium, and contributed to the inner dynamic of Islamic states without becoming a resource of political integration. Similarly, the political role of religion also differed between the emerging post-Roman worlds. It is surprising that little systematic research has been done in these fields so far. The 32 contributions to the volume explore this new line of research and look at different aspects of the process, with leading western Medievalists, Byzantinists and Islamicists covering a wide range of pertinent topics. At a closer look, some of the apparent differences between the West and the Islamic world seem less distinctive, and the inner variety of all post-Roman societies becomes more marked. At the same time, new variations in the discourse of community and the practice of power emerge. Anybody interested in the development of the post-Roman Mediterranean, but also in the relationship between the Islamic World and the West, will gain new insights from these studies on the political role of ethnicity and religion in the post-Roman Mediterranean.

The Confucian doctrine of tianxia (all under heaven) outlines a unitary worldview that cherishes global justice and transcends social, geographic, and political divides. For contemporary scholars, it has held myriad meanings, from the articulation of a cultural imaginary and political strategy to a moralistic commitment and a cosmological vision. The contributors to Chinese Visions of World Order examine the evolution of tianxia's meaning and practice in the Han dynasty and its mutations in modern times. They attend to its varied interpretations, its relation to realpolitik, and its revival in twenty-first-century China. They also investigate tianxia's birth in antiquity and its role in empire building, invoke its cultural universalism as a new global imagination for the contemporary world, analyze its resonance and affinity with cosmopolitanism in East-West cultural relations, discover its persistence in China's socialist internationalism and third world agenda, and critique its deployment as an official state ideology. In so doing, they demonstrate how China draws on its past to further its own alternative vision of the current international system. Contributors. Daniel A. Bell, Chishen Chang, Kuan-Hsing Chen, Prasenjit Duara, Hsieh Mei-yu, Haiyan Lee, Mark Edward Lewis, Lin Chun, Viren Murthy, Lisa Rofel, Ban Wang, Wang Hui, Yiqun Zhou

First printed in 1921, Visions of a Compassionate World is a practical guide for spiritual development that addresses the whole person: mind, body, and soul. In an age of self-discovery and the search for self-awareness, this dynamic work brings clarity through meditation, guided imagery, psychology, and kabbalah. With its uplifting message of universal peace, this book reveals a spiritual path away from ego traps and self-centered consciousness and toward the pursuit of a more compassionate life.

Community Development in an Uncertain World is an essential resource for students and professionals in the human services.

Suburbia has twisted the American dream into a nightmare. The United States now has the most rapes, assaults, murders, and serial killings per capita, by a wide margin, than any other first-world nation. It’s a Sprawl World After All is the first book to link America’s increase in violence and the corresponding breakdown in society with the post-World War II development of suburban sprawl. Without small towns to bring people together, the unplanned growth of sprawl has left Americans isolated, alienated, and afraid of the strangers that surround them. Suburbia has substituted cars for conversation, malls for main streets, and the artificial community of television for authentic social interaction. This has resulted in dramatically negative impacts on US society, including: • The transformation of America’s community-oriented small-town sensibilities into an isolated society of strangers burdened by isolation, loneliness, and depression • The emergence of a culture of incivility characterized by extreme individualism and a callous disregard for others • Levels of violence so rampant as to be proclaimed “epidemic” by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advocating that urgent attention be paid to managing development by emulating the smart growth examples of European cities, the book’s final section offers readers tools to rebuild community in their lives as well as in society at large. It offers practical solutions that can improve everyone’s quality of life. Provocative and thoughtful, It’s a Sprawl World After All also includes a helpful resource listing of organizations committed to making communities more sustainable. Douglas E. Morris is a freelance writer whose 14 years of experience living outside the United States in a number of safe urban areas has given him unique insights into cross-cultural urban comparisons. He has published numerous articles on the topic in the last seven years.

Explores the range and depth of work currently being done in the humanities and social sciences on the conceptual, normative and empirical aspects of global community.