This volume assembles a wide range of scholars and critical methodologies to suggest multiple interpretations of the vital connection linking literary imagination and the human experience of reality. In varying ways and with varying intent, it speaks to the essential experience of participating in imaginative worlds, offering different accounts of how language signifies in real and imaginary contexts, and why people read and write rival realities. Taking as point of departure Aristotle's definition of poesis, it questions how literature stands in both mimetic and transformative relation to the givens of history, reworking them within the order of imagination and desire. Through historical, linguistic, and literary analysis of texts spanning nine centuries, it demonstrates how though it is irreducible to reality, literary imagination conveys something very real about the human response to the world, including the knowledge and power proper to such experience; neither history nor lie, it discloses a reality purged of extraneous detail, making what is essential to human experience more concentrated and dramatic. Thus made apparent is that literature and history do not exclude each other, but inform, correct, and supplement each other, underscoring the complexities of thought and imagination.

Now a New York Times bestseller! There is a reason we look at others as rivals and limit ourselves to comparison and competition. We have an enemy assaulting our mind, will, and emotions in the hope that we'll turn on ourselves and each other. It's a cycle that isolates us from intimate connections, creates confusion about our identity, and limits our purpose. In Without Rival, bestselling author Lisa Bevere shares how a revelation of God's love breaks these limits. You'll learn how to stop seeing others as rivals and make the deep connections with your Creator you long for--connections that hold the promise of true identity and intimacy. With biblically sound teaching filled with prophetic insight for our day, Lisa uses humor and passion to challenge you to · Flip rivalry so it brings out the best in you · Stop hiding from conversations you need to be a part of · Answer the argument that says women are unfit, easily deceived, and gullible · Dismantle gender rivalry and work with the men in your life It's time to step forward to live a life without rival.

Discover how to expand your ministry by teaming up with so-called rival organizations rather than vying for donations. With a countercultural message, a Christlike model, and real-world examples, Greer and Horst reveal the key to revitalizing your ministry, sharing how you can multiply its impact by collaborating rather than competing with others.

How does the United States compare when objectively measured shoulder-to-shoulder against the world’s two most influential autocracies? This full-color book provides a solid foundation to enable the reader to create informed opinions about China, Russia, and the United States through comparative examination of their global status and the quality of their peoples’ lives. Data resources—created by many respected organizations including the World Bank, the United Nations, the Center for Disease Control (CDC), and Freedom House, to name a few—have been mined to provide direct comparisons between many key characteristics including health, wealth, poverty, education, employment, crime, imprisonments, freedoms, happiness, natural resources, infrastructure, debt, taxes, trade, military assets, and nuclear warheads. It is the author’s mission to present meaningful data—all with attributed sources—in an inviting, graphic format to convey much more information than would be possible in tabular form. By directly displaying data the usual biases and filters are bypassed enhancing your ability to draw your own conclusions. This visual approach very effectively reveals trends and makes differences between nations and their people self-evident. In the United States (2016): 64,100 people died of drug overdose and 2.2 million people were in prisons The top twenty percent of households received 51.5 percent of all income 1.2 trillion dollars were added to debt and 241 billion was paid in interest Foreigners held one-third of federal debt including 1.1 trillion by China In comparison with the United States Russia had: 12.5 years lower life expectancy for males born in 2016 (only 65.0 years) Double the homicide rate and 40 percent higher suicide rate 60 percent higher alcohol consumption per capita An economy one-fifth as large, measured by GDP in international dollars Equivalent number of nuclear warheads (approximately 7,000) Double the crude oil reserves and five times the natural gas reserves Repressive government—rated within the worst 10 percent by Freedom House 14 times as many residents (67,000) seeking asylum In comparison with the United States China had: An economy 15 percent larger, measured by GDP in international dollars Three times as many patent applications filed by residents One-fifth the homicide rate and one-half the poverty rate 58 percent more outbound international tourists 61 points higher scores in mathematics literacy for students aged 15 years Double the total carbon dioxide emissions Repressive government—rated within the worst 10 percent by Freedom House 44 times as many residents (212,000) seeking asylum

Charles Maier offers a new narrative of the long twentieth century, focused on institutions that shaped politics and societies: project-states, driven by democratic or authoritarian ideologies; capital; and advocates of apolitical values, such as health, human rights, and international law. In this we discern the unfolding of our own troubled time.

In God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World, New York Times bestselling author of Religious Literacy and religion scholar Stephen Prothero argues that persistent attempts to portray all religions as different paths to the same God overlook the distinct problem that each tradition seeks to solve. Delving into the different problems and solutions that Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Confucianism, Yoruba Religion, Daoism and Atheism strive to combat, God is Not One is an indispensable guide to the questions human beings have asked for millennia—and to the disparate paths we are taking to answer them today. Readers of Huston Smith and Karen Armstrong will find much to ponder in God is Not One.

This book introduces a dynamic, new framework for using law, litigation, regulation and lobbying as part of competitive business strategy. Every business strategist, entrepreneur, and corporate lawyer needs to understand a basic truth of the modern market -- you must make the legal rules that govern your products and services or one of your competitors will. And it is much easier to stay in business if you are the one writing the rules. Written in a lively style with a host of stories and examples drawn from business history as well as contemporary events, professor G. Richard Shell of the world-famous Wharton School of Business shows how business leaders from Henry Ford and Bill Gates and corporate rivals from Coke to Pepsi have fought and won the battle for legal supremacy.