Christianity presents a glorious vision of culture, a vision overflowing with truth, beauty, and goodness. It's a vision that stands in stark conflict with the anemic modern (and postmodern) perspectives that dominate contemporary life. Medieval Christianity began telling a beautiful story about the good life, but it was silenced in mid-sentence. The Reformation rescued truth, but its modern grandchildren have often ignored the importance of a medieval grasp of the good life. This book sketches a vision of "medieval Protestantism," a personal and cultural vision that embraces the fullness of Christian truth, beauty, and goodness. "This volume is a breath of fresh air in our polluted religious environment. Hopefully many readers will breathe deeply of its contents and be energized." -The Presbyterian Witness "[A] delightful apologetic for a Protestant cultural vision. . . . before you write off these two as mere obscurantist Reformed types, take care. I found that some of my objections were, on the surface, more modern than biblical." -Gregory Alan Thornbury, Carl F. Henry Center for Christian Leadership "[T]his book cries out against the bland, purely spiritualized Christianity to which so many of us have become accustomed. . . . I highly recommend it." -David Kind, Pilgrimage, Concordia Theological Seminary

An intimate photographic journey into 115 years of history inside a nineteenth-century asylum.

This is the 2nd edition of Sue Fitzmaurice's novel. Two autistic boys, each living in a different period of English history, connect with a reality unseen by those around them. All about them is chaos, as Christianity vies with Islam for control of Jerusalem in the late 12th century, and assassinations and mayhem unfold wildly through 1981. Lincoln Cathedral is the setting for a thrilling story, alongside an exploration of what is real, what can be known, what is Faith, and is there really a God? This fascinating journey weaves real historical figures and events with the ideas of possibility, of angels, and of saving the Western and Islamic worlds from their own violence and prejudice. "Fitzmaurice's writing is gutsy and authentic, and she weaves a complex and satisfying plot. Images and scenes have remained with me long after reading. Her intellect and delight in language are the guiding forces here." Mary McCallum, Radio New Zealand (Montana-winning author of The Blue) "a beautiful and incredible story" Sheila Burke, author of Zen-Sational Living, Booyah! Spirit, & Chorus of Souls "This is so much more than a novel. It is a journey. It is a mind opening experience." JV Manning, author of Random Thoughts n Lotsa Coffee

Angels are sculpted everywhere in Paris, not just on churches but in unexpected places: holding a lightning rod atop the Théâtre du Châtelet’s roof, adorning a seventeenth-century gilded sundial inside a courtyard at the Sorbonne, hovering above a railroad headquarters where a beautiful stone frieze features young angels flying in to work on the tracks. Subtly, subliminally, the angels are a part of the fanciful and romantic spirit of Paris. Angels of Paris is the first book to explore this intriguing and extraordinary subject. Angels of Paris features beautiful photographs taken from dawn to dusk, in all seasons, accompanied by text explaining the story behind the creation of each angel and of the location in which it is found. Organized chronologically, the book delves into the artistic trends and historic movements the angels reflect and the stories of the artists who created them and of those who commissioned them. Readers will learn about Paris’s history, buildings, and monuments through the abundant, beautiful, and surprising depictions of angels from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. Rosemary Flannery has found angels in friezes, plaques, and free-standing sculpture; on fountains and façades, clocks and sundials, monuments and mansions, rooftops and window frames. Angels of Paris is a unique way for lovers of Paris to learn more about the city in a new and unusual way.

Introduction : angelic greetings or Shalom Aleichem -- At home with the angels : Babylonian ritual sources -- Out and about with the angels : Palestinian ritual sources -- No angels? early rabbinic sources -- In the image of God, not angels : rabbinic sources -- In the image of the angels : liturgical sources -- Israel among the angels : Late rabbinic sources -- Jewish mystics and the angelic realms : early mystical sources -- Conclusion : angels in Judaism and the religions of late antiquity -- Appendix A : table -- Appendix B : description of table.

A collection of photos made by Lindbloom in Florence between 1979 and 1987, using a Diana camera--virtually a child's toy with a plastic lens (the story of which is explained in an afterword). The photos have an intriguing strangeness and intimacy. 10x9.25" Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.The Florence revealed in Eric Lindbloom's Angels at the Arno is almost startling in its intimacy and quiet solitude. Lindbloom's view of the city - rendered exclusively through the plastic lens of a Diana camera, virtually a child's toy - brings this venerable city to new life and light. With unabashed subjectivity and an offbeat, oneiric sensibility, Lindbloom conveys his sense of an unveiled Florence, filled with views striking for the beauty they contain rather than for the history they suggest.

Where is the space for dreaming in the twenty-first century? Lofty thoughts, like dreams, are born and live overhead, just as they have been represented in Renaissance paintings and modern cartoons. Ceilings are often repositories of stories, events and otherwise invisible oneiric narratives. Yet environments that inspire innovative thinking are dwindling as our world confronts enormous challenges, and almost all of our thinking, debating and decision-making takes place under endless ceiling grids. Quantitative research establishes that spaces with taller ceilings elicit broader, more creative thoughts. Today, ceilings are usually squat conduits of technology: they have become the blind spot of modern architecture. The twenty essays in this book look across cultures, places and ceilings over time to discover their potential to uplift the human spirit. Not just one building element among many, the ceiling is a key to unlock the architectural imagination. Ceilings and Dreams aims to correct this blind spot and encourages architects and designers, researchers and students, to look up through writings organized into three expansive categories: reveries, suspensions and inversions. The contributors contemplate the architecture of levity and the potential of the ceiling, once again, as a place for dreaming.