Continental philosophy has entered a new period of ferment. The long deconstructionist era was followed with a period dominated by Deleuze, which has in turn evolved into a new situation still difficult to define. However, one common thread running through the new brand of continental positions is a renewed attention to materialist and realist options in philosophy. Among the current giants of this generation, this new focus takes numerous different and opposed forms. It might be hard to find many shared positions in the writings of Badiou, DeLanda, Laruelle, Latour, Stengers, and Zizek, but what is missing from their positions is an obsession with the critique of written texts. All of them elaborate a positive ontology, despite the incompatibility of their results. Meanwhile, the new generation of continental thinkers is pushing these trends still further, as seen in currents ranging from transcendental materialism to the London-based speculative realism movement to new revivals of Derrida. As indicated by the title The Speculative Turn, the new currents of continental philosophy depart from the text-centered hermeneutic models of the past and engage in daring speculations about the nature of reality itself. This anthology assembles authors, of several generations and numerous nationalities, who will be at the center of debate in continental philosophy for decades to come.

After you have read The Spirits’ Book, you will no longer have any reason to fear death. The Spirits’ Book will provide you with the answers to nearly all the questions you may have with regards to the origin, nature and destiny of each and every soul on earth – and those of other worlds as well. It also addresses the issues of God, creation, moral laws and the nature of spirits and their relationships with humans. The book contains answers that were dictated to mediums by highly evolved spirits who love God. The Spirits’ Book is the initial landmark publication of a Doctrine that has made a profound impact on the thought and view of life of a considerable portion of humankind since the first French edition was published in 1857.

In The Revival of the Anu Cult and the Nocturnal Fire Ceremony at Late Babylonian Uruk, Julia Krul offers a comprehensive study of the rise of the sky god Anu as patron deity of Uruk in the Late Babylonian period (ca. 480-100 B.C.). She reconstructs the historical development of the Anu cult, its underlying theology, and its daily rites of worship, with a particular focus on the yearly nocturnal fire ceremony at the Anu temple, the Bīt Rēš. Providing the first in-depth analysis of the ceremony, Julia Krul convincingly identifies it as a seasonal renewal festival with an important exorcistic component, but also as a reinforcement of local hierarchical relationships and the elite status of the Anu priesthood. "With this study, Krul adds significantly to the research on Babylonian temple rituals in general, providing a useful methodology and survey of secondary sources....This book offers an excellent in-depth analysis of the nocturnal fire ceremony as it could have been celebrated at Hellenistic Uruk. It forms a good starting-point for comparison with and further study of other Late Babylonian rituals from both Uruk and Babylon." - Céline Debourse, Vienna, in: Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 109 (2019) "The book is essentially a commentary on a late cuneiform text from 3rd-century BCE Uruk describing a nocturnal sacrificial ritual held annually on the winter solstice (16 Tevet). The text itself is well known, having first been published by F. Thureau-Dangin in his classic work Rituels accadiens (1921), but this book is the most comprehensive far-reaching commentary on this important text, with valuable extraneous information [...]. There is much valuable data in this book regarding late Babylonian ritual practice, couched in an informative narrative." -Markham J. Geller, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 43.5 (2019)

Originally published in 1913, this book contains the Latin text of the 27th book of the monumental history of Rome by Titus Livius, which deals with Roman advances against Punic forces in Italy and Spain. The history is prefaced with an introduction to Livy's sources and a guide to his dense style.