In Wisdom's Apprentice, twelve distinguished scholars pay grateful homage to their friend and mentor in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the study of the philosophia perennis

Wisdom: Apprenticing to the Unknown and Befriending Fate is a lucid account of such an apprenticeship. The work’s major theme is: You can’t get life right; and if you allow, life may get you right. Efforts to get life right—including the Spiritual Bypass, the Intellectual Bypass, the Psychological Processing Bypass, and the Trivia Bypass—are debunked as alleged detours around life’s mystery, unpredictability, and insecurity. The work offers a unique developmental model describing how wisdom evolves as we allow defeat to interrupt the ego’s claim to sovereignty, preparing us to reconcile life’s inevitable dominance. We can then begin to live the question: What is life asking of us? Further maturation of the apprenticeship happens as we live the question: How do we confirm what truly matters? The target audience is composed of those who refuse to believe that aging means accumulating years while slipping into mediocrity, massaged by cocktails and playing golf. My work continues to reveal a population approaching middle age who are disillusioned with dominant cultural understandings of aging. They want to believe that aging is not simply about escaping an unfulfilling career and experiencing mental and physical decline. This group will greatly benefit from the work’s lucid account of how to construct a personal epistemology, or what it means “to learn about how to know.” The text introduces the notion of good knowing, which avoids branding a fact with certainty. The reader is encouraged to commit to knowing the knower, in regard to biases and psychological defenses, welcoming ambiguity and ignorance. The target audience further encompasses those reaching retirement age who want to believe that their life experience is not limited to a series of personal and professional victories and defeats. Rather, they wish to leave behind a legacy as a final offering, embracing a life well-lived while feeling prepared to leave this earthly plane. The aging apprentice is inspired to acquire an artifact symbolic of some early driving force that rendered power in the name of adventure and ambition. Seven stages of development are examined, leading from the driving force of ambition to the driving force of discriminating wisdom. With less to prove, grace comes to the aging apprentice, interrupting a sense of urgency. Gratitude reconciles us with grace, morphing into the eyes of mercy, as the aging apprentice now knows the true name of home.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An unexpected offer threatens the bond between Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi as the two Jedi navigate a dangerous new planet and an uncertain future in the first canon Star Wars novel to take place before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. A Jedi must be a fearless warrior, a guardian of justice, and a scholar in the ways of the Force. But perhaps a Jedi’s most essential duty is to pass on what they have learned. Master Yoda trained Dooku; Dooku trained Qui-Gon Jinn; and now Qui-Gon has a Padawan of his own. But while Qui-Gon has faced all manner of threats and danger as a Jedi, nothing has ever scared him like the thought of failing his apprentice. Obi-Wan Kenobi has deep respect for his Master, but struggles to understand him. Why must Qui-Gon so often disregard the laws that bind the Jedi? Why is Qui-Gon drawn to ancient Jedi prophecies instead of more practical concerns? And why wasn’t Obi-Wan told that Qui-Gon is considering an invitation to join the Jedi Council—knowing it would mean the end of their partnership? The simple answer scares him: Obi-Wan has failed his Master. When Jedi Rael Averross, another former student of Dooku, requests their assistance with a political dispute, Jinn and Kenobi travel to the royal court of Pijal for what may be their final mission together. What should be a simple assignment quickly becomes clouded by deceit, and by visions of violent disaster that take hold in Qui-Gon’s mind. As Qui-Gon’s faith in prophecy grows, Obi-Wan’s faith in him is tested—just as a threat surfaces that will demand that Master and apprentice come together as never before, or be divided forever.

The beginning of the internationally-bestselling epic fantasy phenomenon The Wheel of Time®, now in a special pocket-sized hardcover gift edition. Since its debut in 1990, The Wheel of Time® by Robert Jordan has captivated millions of readers around the globe with its scope, originality, and compelling characters. From the Two Rivers is a special edition that contains Part 1 of The Eye of the World, Jordan's internationally bestselling epic fantasy saga, and is a perfect gift for old fans and new. For Rand al?Thor, life in Emond?s Field has been pretty dull. Until the appearance of Moiraine, an Aes Sedai?a magician who can wield the One Power. Soon after, the village is attacked by Trollocs?and according to Moiraine, Rand was the target. He and his friends are forced to flee. But his escape will bring him face to face with the Dark One...the most powerful force of evil in the universe. Rand and his friends are forced to flee. But his escape will bring him face to face with the Dark One...the most powerful force of evil in the universe.

This volume brings together twenty-four articles of Prof. Calduch-Benages' work on the book of Ben Sira over the last two decades. Some were written originally in English and others have been translated from Spanish and Italian originals. They are divided in three groups: introductory, thematic, and exegetical essays. The exegetical articles offer a detail study of several passages of the book, some of them pivotal in the structure of the book (Sir 2,1; 4,11-19; 6,22; 22,27–23,6; 23,27; 24,22; 27,30–28,7; 34,1-8; 34,9-12; 42,15–43,33; 43,27-33). The thematic essays deal with important theological issues such as canon and inspiration, wisdom, fear of the lord, trial, cult, prayer, forgiveness, and creation. Other no less important issues such as power and authority, dreams, travels, perfumes, animals and garments are discussed as well. Special attention is given to topics related with women, for instance, Ben Sira’s classification of wives, divorce, polygamy, and the absence of named women in the Praise of the Ancestors (Sir 44–50).

The Philosophy of Religion is one result of the Early Modern Reformation movements, as competing theologies purported truth claims which were equal in strength and different in contents. Renaissance thought, from Humanism through philosophy of nature, contributed to the origin of the modern concepts of God. This book explores the continuity of philosophy of religion from late medieval thinkers through humanists to late Renaissance philosophers, explaining the growth of the tensions between the philosophical and theological views. Covering the work of Renaissance authors, including Lull, Salutati, Raimundus Sabundus, Plethon, Cusanus, Valla, Ficino, Pico, Bruno, Suárez, and Campanella, this book offers an important understanding of the current philosophy/religion and faith/reason debates and fills the gap between medieval and early modern philosophy and theology.

Medieval Skepticism, and the Claim to Metaphysical Knowledge presents three sets of essays. The first is an exchange between Antoine Côté and Charles Bolyard over Siger of Brabant’s strategy to silence the skeptic by discriminating between nobler and lesser senses and grounding certitude in sense perceptions. Second is another scholarly exchange, between Rondo Keele and Jack Zupko, over what Keele describes as Walter Chatton’s attempt to discredit Ockhamist nominalism by means of both an ‘anti-razor’, employed by Chatton to prescribe ontological commitment, and an argument strategy based on iteration and infinite regress. The last group of essays explores issues that develop out of the metaphysics of Thomas Aquinas. Joshua Hochschild defends several key positions of Thomistic metaphysics against Anthony Kenny’s criticism that Aquinas’s treatment of being is inadequate, incoherent or even sophistic. Similarly, David Twetten, after laying out Aquinas’s nine versions of the proof for the Real Distinction between essence and esse, suggests one way in which Aquinas could meet the Aristotelian’s formidable ‘Question-Begging Objection’. Lastly, Scott M. Williams contends that to preserve God’s perfect knowledge of individual material creatures, Aquinas must alter his account of the unintelligibility of prime matter in the individuation of material creatures.