From France's greatest winegrower-a chemical free, organic, wine-rich in the vital force of life. Nicholas Joly's Loire Valley vineyard produces what has been called France's-or even the world's-best white wine. He grows and produces these wines without using any pesticides, herbicides or synthetic fertilizers in growing the grapes or using chemical additives during the winemaking process. He creates his beautiful wine by understanding and working with the subtle forces of nature. This practice founded by visionary Rudolf Steiner is called biodynamics and Nicholas Joly is one of the world's most respected practitioners and teachers. Sophisticated wine lovers, winegrowers, and new age horticulturists will enjoy this beautiful, poetic book about the earth, our food, and our lives. The striking photos of Mr. Joly's vineyard, planted by the Cisterian monks in 1130 and continuously cultivated, will inspire all to learn more about the Loire Valley, Joly's methods, and wine in general."

"Wine is made in the vineyard" is the mantra of many a winemaker. But what does it mean, really? Esteemed winemaker and biodynamic pioneer Nicholas Joly believes a wine that is well-made in the vineyard must express its unique terroir—the character imbued by a vine's particular plot of well-tended earth. In Biodynamic Wine, Demystified, Joly shares the core philosophy behind biodynamic viticulture and why such practices result in wines of regional distinction. This process treats the vineyard as a self-perpetuating ecological whole influenced not only by terrestrial forces but those of the sun, moon and cosmos. He explains why the use of foreign substances such as pesticides and fertilizers in the vineyard, and aromatic yeasts and enzymes in the cellar, as well as mechanisms such as electric motors and pumps, disrupt this synergy and are ultimately counterproductive to a wine's best, consistent expression.

Heidegger’s later thought is a thinking of things, so argues Andrew J. Mitchell in The Fourfold. Heidegger understands these things in terms of what he names “the fourfold”—a convergence of relationships bringing together the earth, the sky, divinities, and mortals—and Mitchell’s book is the first detailed exegesis of this neglected aspect of Heidegger’s later thought. As such it provides entrée to the full landscape of Heidegger’s postwar thinking, offering striking new interpretations of the atomic bomb, technology, plants, animals, weather, time, language, the holy, mortality, dwelling, and more. What results is a conception of things as ecstatic, relational, singular, and, most provocatively, as intrinsically tied to their own technological commodification. A major new work that resonates beyond the confines of Heidegger scholarship, The Fourfold proposes nothing less than a new phenomenological thinking of relationality and mediation for understanding the things around us.

We think we know how to appreciate wine—trained connoisseurs take dainty sips in sterile rooms and provide ratings based on objective knowledge and technical expertise. In Epistenology, Nicola Perullo vigorously challenges this approach, arguing that it is the enjoyment of drinking wine as an active and participatory experience that matters. Perullo argues that wine comes to life not in the abstract space of the professional tasting but in the real world of shared experiences; wines can change in these encounters, and drinkers along with them. Just as a winemaker is not simply a producer but a nurturer, a wine is fully known only through an encounter among a group of drinkers in a specific place and time. Wine is not an object to analyze but an experience to make, creatively opening up new perceptual possibilities for settings, cuisines, and companions. The result of more than twenty years of research and practical engagement, Epistenology presents a new paradigm for the enjoyment of wine and through it a philosophy based on participatory and relational knowledge. This model suggests a profound shift—not knowledge about but with wine. Interweaving philosophical arguments with personal reflections and literary examples, this book is a journey with wine that shows how it makes life more creative and free.

This collection explores how the body became a touchstone for late antique religious practice and imagination. When we read the stories and testimonies of late ancient Christians, what different types of bodies stand before us? How do we understand the range of bodily experiences—solitary and social, private and public—that clothed ancient Christians? How can bodily experience help us explore matters of gender, religious identity, class, and ethnicity? The Garb of Being investigates these questions through stories from the Eastern Christian world of antiquity: monks and martyrs, families and congregations, and textual bodies. Contributors include S. Abrams Rebillard, T. Arentzen, S. P. Brock, R. S. Falcasantos , C. M. Furey, S. H. Griffith, R. Krawiec, B. McNary-Zak, J.-N. Mellon Saint-Laurent, C. T. Schroeder, A. P. Urbano, F. M. Young

The fine arts are traditionally seen to have intrinsic value: that is, they are valuable in themselves. But this poses a problem for architecture: its works are designed to serve our purposes, and therefore it is classed as functional. Carving out a new space, Edward Winters argues why architecture is a fine art and finds a place for the fine art of architecture in the cultural environment in which we structure our lives. Winters reconciles intrinsic value, as a fine art, with extrinsic value, as shelter, security and comfort, without collapsing into the modernist conception of Functionalism. He draws on the Apollonian and the Dionysian to resolve the apparent conflict between the two values: the former requiring contemplative, detached reflection, the latter an engaged, embodied entanglement with the festive mood inspired by the immediate situation. Architecture, Winters claims, is to be regarded as functional; but this functionality is subsumed under the intrinsic aesthetic value of living well. Introducing the main positions in the philosophy of architecture through the lens of the timeless argument about what constitutes art, Winters lays out a humanistic view of the medium and extends our understanding of aesthetics and the everyday.

Modern architecture has become extremely complex and its study has been made more difficult by changes in fashion and a proliferation of design modes. In this book, Geoffrey Baker develops a methodology for design analysis that reveals the underlying organisation of buildings. Part One explains the nature and role of architecture in a wide-ranging discussion extending from geometry to symbolism. Part Two demonstrates the analytical methodology by reference to cities and works by modern masters such as Aalto, Meier and Stirling. In this second revised edition, Dr Baker has added a chapter outlining the relationship between some current perceptions of science, art and philosophy, and how these impinge on architecture. The discussion compares Futurism, Constructivism, Suprematism, High Tech, Deconstruction and the attitude of the avant-garde, with the phenomenology of Bachelard and Heiddeger.