Faithless clergyman Simeon Cole is spirited into the psyche of a comatose, dying criminal. His task is to awaken the criminal and combat the legions of demonic forces holding sway in the Inner World. Simeon must pass through many challenges and tribulations with all the Powers of the Inner World bent on his destruction. Accompanied by several companions -- fragments of the criminal’s own mind, Simeon journeys through the bizarre science-fiction and fantasy world made and controlled by the demonic Powers. If he succeeds, he can escape the Inner World; failure means his own life. But success also means losing the only real and meaningful friendships he has ever known. It is a fearsome task for a clergyman with no faith and no stomach for adventures. In any case, Simeon must conquer his own flaws and come to terms with his God to emerge as something more.

John de Gruchy is one of the greatest and most respected South African theologians of the past five decades. His work has left an indelible mark on both the South African and international theological landscapes. In this book he describes his theological journey, revisiting core themes, periods and sources. This is an enriching read, as De Gruchy engages with some of the greatest theologians in the history of the church ? notably John Calvin, Karl Barth, Karl Rahner, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Reinhold Niebuhr ? as well as with a wide selection of his fellow South African theologians.ÿ?ÿCas Wepener

On the publication of Orthodoxy in 1908, Wilfrid Ward hailed G. K. Chesterton as a prophetic figure whose thought was to be classed with that Burke, Butler, Coleridge, and John Henry Newman. When Chesterton died in 1936, T. S. Eliot pronounced that 'Chesterton's social and economic ideas were the ideas for his time that were fundamentally Christian and Catholic'. But how did he come by these ideas? Eliot noted that he attached 'significance also to his development, to his beginnings as well as to his ends, and to the movement from one to the other'. It is on that development that this book is focused. Chesterton and the Romance of Orthodoxy is an exploration of G.K. Chesterton's imaginative and spiritual development, from his early childhood in the 1870s to his intellectual maturity in the first decade of the twentieth century. William Oddie draws extensively on Chesterton's unpublished letters and notebooks, his journalism, and his early classic writings, to reveal the writer in his own words. In the first major study of Chesterton to draw on this source material, Oddie charts the progression of Chesterton's ideas from his first story (composed at the age of three and dictated to his aunt Rose) to his apologetic masterpiece Orthodoxy, in which he openly established the intellectual foundations on which the prolific writing of his last three decades would build. Part One explores the years of Chesterton's obscurity; his childhood, his adolescence, his years as a student and a young adult. Part Two examines Chesterton's emergence on to the public stage, his success as one of the leading journalists of his day, and his growing renown as a man of letters. Written to engage all with an interest in Chesterton's life and times, Oddie's accessible style ably conveys the warmth and subtlety of thought that delighted the first readership of the enigmatic GKC.

The Book of Andrew takes a young boy named Andrew Engleman from the summer of 1938 through World War Two and the Cold War, including the hot intervals in Korea and Vietnam and the swift expansion of terrorist activity on a global scale that led to punitive incursions into the hotbeds of the Middle East by coalitions of Western powers under the leadership of the United States. It also provides the reader with a glimpse of what the world may be like a few decades hence. The author hopes to promote greater understanding of the historical significance of the Korean War, which has been labeled "The Forgotten War". It was an undeclared war for which none of the belligerent parties, excepting North Korea, was fully prepared at the start. Close to 4.5 million human beings, less than half of whom were in military service, were killed, injured or reported missing during the 37 months and two days of its duration. North Korea, South Korea and China suffered the greatest number of casualties, both military and civilian. The total for the United States alone was 136,826 combatants. The Korean War brought us perilously close to a third world war that almost certainly would have been nuclear. It was the first war in which American infantry units were fully integrated, blacks and whites serving harmoniously together. And it was the only real war to have been fought under the aegis and flag of the United Nations. It stands out as a chapter in the annals of warfare that contains many important lessons for us all. And in this book it is the constant backdrop against which the protagonist's experiences and thought processes are highlighted as they unfold before our eyes.

Xiaolian Liu presents the first and only major study on the achievement of the novel in the context of both Western and Chinese allegorical traditions. This groundbreaking book provides a comparative study of the nature and various aspects of allegory as illustrated through the analysis of The Later Journey to the West, a seventeenth-century Chinese allegorical novel. The author also examines the theme, structure and characterization of the novel and their allegorical meanings. Contents: Introduction: A Chinese Allegorical Novel; The Hero's Quest: The Basic Allegory; The Pilgrims' Progress: Meaning of the Allegorical Journey; Symbolic Images and Actions: Representations of Allegorical Characters; Hou Xiyou ji in the Context of Western and Chinese Allegorical Traditions; Appendix I; A Synopsis of Hou Xiyou ji; Appendix II: The Problem of Authorship of Hou Xiyou ji; Selected Bibliography; Index.

The congregation is a distinctly American religious structure, and is often overlooked in traditional studies of religion. But one cannot understand American religion without understanding the congregation. Volume 1: Portraits of Twelve Religious Communities chronicles the founding, growth, and development of congregations that represent the diverse and complex reality of American local religious cultures. The contributors explore multiple issues, from the fate of American Protestantism to the rise of charismatic revivalism. Volume 2: New Perspectives in the Study of Congregations builds upon those historical studies, and addresses three crucial questions: Where is the congregation located on the broader map of American cultural and religious life? What are congregations' distinctive qualities, tasks, and roles in American culture? And, what patterns of leadership characterize congregations in America?