Concise and comprehensive introduction to the Daoist religion, thematically divided into four parts: Ancient Thought, Religious Communities, Spiritual... Practices, Modernity. The book offers an integrated vision of the tradition in its historical and cultural context, also placing it into a larger framework of comparative religion. Contains many original sources and useful references for further reading. Great for students, practitioners, and general audiences.

In this volume an interdisciplinary group of scholars explores the social history and anthropology of Daoism from the late nineteenth century to the... present, focusing on the evolution of traditional forms of practice and community, as well as modern reforms and reinventions both within China and on the global stage. Essays investigate ritual specialists, body cultivation and meditation traditions, monasticism, new religious movements, state-sponsored institutionalization, and transnational networks.

Longus's romance tells the story of two teenagers, Daphnis and Chloe, who love each other but do not know how to make love. Around their predicament... Longus weaves a fantasy which entertains and instructs, but never errs in taste. The hard toil and precariousness of peasant life are here, but so are its compensations--revelry, music, dance, and storytelling. Above the action brood divinities--Eros, Dionysus, Pan, the Nymphs--who collaborate to guide the adolescents into the mystery of Love, at once a sensual and a religious initiation. Daphnis and Chloe is the best known, and the best, of the early Greek romances, precursors to the modern novel. Admired by Goethe, it has been reinterpreted in music and art by Ravel and Chagall. This new translation is immensely readable, and does full justice to the humor and humanity of the story.About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

A tender novel describing eager and inept young love, Daphnis and Chloe tells the story of a baby boy and girl who are discovered separately, two years... apart, alone and exposed on a Greek mountainside. Taken in by a goatherd and a shepherd respectively, and raised near the town of Mytilene, they grow to maturity unaware of one another's existence until the mischievous god of love, Eros, creates in them a sudden overpowering desire for one another. A masterpiece among early Greek romances, attracting both high praise and moral disapproval, this work has proved an enduringly fertile source of inspiration for musicians, writers and artists from Henry Fielding to Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot and Maurice Ravel. Longus transforms familiar themes from the romance genre including pirates, dreams, and the supernatural into a virtuoso love story that is rich in insight, humorous and ironical in its treatment of human sexual experience.

Evolution is the single most important idea in modern biology, shedding light on virtually every biological question, from the shape of orchid blossoms... to the distribution of species across the planet. Until recently, however, the theory has had little impact on medical research or practice. Evolutionary Medicine shows how this is beginning to change. Collecting work from leaders in the field, this volume describes an array of new and innovative approaches to human health that are based on an appreciation of our long evolutionary history. For example, it shows how evolution helps to explain the complex relationship between our immune systems and the virulence and transmission of human viruses. It also shows how comparisons between how we live today and how our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived thousands of years ago illuminate a variety of contemporary ills, including obesity, lower-back pain, and insomnia. Evolutionary Medicine covers issues at every stage of life, from infancy (colic, jaundice, SIDS, parent-infant sleep struggles, ear infections, breast-feeding, asthma) to adulthood (sexually transmitted diseases, depression, overeating, addictions, child abuse, cardiovascular disease, breast and ovarian cancer) to old age (osteoporosis, geriatric sleep problems). Written for a wide range of students and researchers in medicine, anthropology, and psychology, it is an invaluable guide to this rapidly developing field.

Daredevil Research: Re-creating Analytic Practice gathers together ten research projects that seek to transform thinking about analytic practice and the... construction of research knowledge. By experimenting with alternative models of representation unconstrained by the weight of traditional research protocols, the authors create multiple spaces for imagining how to differently identify issues for inquiry, select modes of analysis, and inscribe « data into transmittable form. At once a production of research knowledge and a conceptual field for meaning-making, Daredevil Research suggests the possibilities of analytic practice in imaginative, independent space.

George S. Counts was a major figure in American education for almost fifty years. Republication of this early (1932) work draws special attention to... Counts’s role as a social and political activist. Three particular themes make the book noteworthy because of their importance in Counts’s plan for change as well as for their continuing contem­porary importance: (1) Counts’s crit­icism of child-centered progressives; (2)     the role Counts assigns to teachers in achieving educational and social re­form; and (3) Counts’s idea for the re­form of the American economy.

Jesus told His followers, "Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven"(Mathew 5:16). Just as a... match struck in a dark place is readily seen and quickly draws the attention of all around, even faith the size of a mustard seed, when shared, can make an eternal difference in the lives of the lost and those who love them. As God's Spirit equips us to shine brightly for Him who died for us and rose again, God's Word reminds us that no Christian witnesses alone. Through the same Spirit, God motivates and empowers us just as He provides us with opportunities to bring the Good News of Jesus to others. Dare to Be Different offers encouragement and practical suggestions for those who desire to be more faithful in their life of witness.

Over the course of a forty-year career in the worlds of law, sports, business, and politics, Ron Shapiro has worked with and advised an incredible... variety of people. What he’s found is that the secret ingredient for getting into the winner’s circle is simply the discipline of methodical preparation: that old-school, step-by-step way of having all your ducks in a row, whether you are an executive getting ready to do a deal or make a speech; a pitcher studying the traits of opposing hitters and keeping a meticulous notebook of their strengths and weaknesses; an international trade negotiator who knows all about the issues and the people on the other side before sitting down at the table; or a surgeon who rehearses like a classical musician. Deep down, you know you should do it. But how often do you wing it and fly by the seat of your pants because “Gosh, I don’t have time . . . I’ve done this before . . . I know what I’m doing”? It is obvious that you have to get ready for whatever game you’re playing, but all too frequently methodical preparation is the missing ingredient in today’s world of instant analysis, easy access to information, and glibness that sounds good at first but is unconnected with the reality at hand. In Dare to Prepare, successful people such as wine guru Robert Parker, investment legend Bill Miller, pianist Leon Fleisher, Goldman Sachs partner Lisa Fontenelli, broadcaster Bob Costas, firefighter Ann Marie Tierney, New York Mets manager Willie Randolph, and many others share the way they apply discipline in preparing for career-changing games, deals, meetings, and interviews. Cal Ripken Jr. played thousands of games in the major leagues but prepared for each like it was his first. NPR host Liane Hansen has interviewed countless people but approaches each interview with the same meticulous research time and time again.Make sure there are no slips “twixt cup and lip” as you get ready for your next personal or professional challenge by daring to prepare.From the Hardcover edition.

The Church's teaching on Hell has been generally neglected by theologians, with the notable exception of Fr. von Balthasar. However, what he has said... has stirred controversy both in Europe and in the United States. Here he responds in a clear and concise way, grounding his reflections clearly in Scripture. Revelation gives us neither the assurance that all will be saved, nor the certitude that any are condemned. What it does require of us is the "hope that all men be saved" rooted in a love of Christ that reaches even into the depths of Hell.

Praise for the 2005 Edition: "A passionate and highly readable account of the current tragedy that combines intimate knowledge of the region's history,... politics, and sociology with a telling cynicism about the polite but ineffectual diplomatic efforts to end it. It is the best account available of the Darfur crisis."-Foreign Affairs "Does the conflict in Darfur, however bloody, qualify as genocide? Or does the application of the word 'genocide' to Darfur make it harder to understand this conflict in its awful peculiarity? Is it possible that applying a generic label to Darfurian violence makes the task of stopping it harder? Or is questioning the label simply insensitive, implying that whatever has happened in Darfur isn't horrible enough to justify a claim on the world's conscience, and thus invite inaction or even the dismissal of Darfur altogether? These questions lie at the heart of a much-needed new book by Gerard Prunier. In this book, Prunier casts aside labels and lays bare the anatomy of the Darfur crisis, drawing on a mixture of history and journalism to produce the most important book of the year on any African subject."-Salon.com "The emergency in Darfur in western Sudan is far from over, as Gérard Prunier points out in this comprehensive and authoritative book. . . . He concisely covers the history, the conflicts, and the players. . . . This book is essential for anyone wanting to learn about this complex conflict."-Library Journal "If Darfuris are Muslim, what is their quarrel with the Islamic government in Khartoum? If they and the janjaweed-'evil horsemen'-driving them from their homes are both black, how can it be Arab versus African? If the Sudanese government is making peace with the south, why would it be risking that by waging war in the west? Above all, is it genocide? Gérard Prunier has the answers. An ethnographer and renowned Africa analyst, he turns on the evasions of Khartoum the uncompromising eye that dissected Hutu power excuses for the Rwanda genocide a decade ago."-The Guardian Darfur: A 21st Century Genocide explains what lies behind the conflict in Western Sudan, how it came about, why it is should not be oversimplified, and why it is so relevant to the future of Africa. As the world watches, governments decide if, when, and how to intervene, and international organizations struggle to distribute aid, Gérard Prunier's book provide crucial assistance. The third edition features a new chapter covering events through mid-2008.

In 2004, the State Department gathered more than a thousand interviews from refugees in Chad that verified Colin Powell's U.N. and congressional... testimonies about the Darfur genocide. The survey cost nearly a million dollars to conduct and yet it languished in the archives as the killing continued, claiming hundreds of thousands of murder and rape victims and restricting several million survivors to camps. This book for the first time fully examines that survey and its heartbreaking accounts. It documents the Sudanese government's enlistment of Arab Janjaweed militias in destroying black African communities. The central questions are: Why is the United States so ambivalent to genocide? Why do so many scholars deemphasize racial aspects of genocide? How can the science of criminology advance understanding and protection against genocide? This book gives a vivid firsthand account and voice to the survivors of genocide in Darfur.

The Darfur conflict has presented the international community with a number of challenges. How can the fighting be stopped in Darfur? What can be done... to save lives and help the two million people displaced by the conflict? And how to help bring about peace, while ensuring that the peace agreement for the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983 - 2005) is implemented? Drawing on original research, and tracing the history of international responses to the conflicts in Sudan, Richard Barltrop investigates what has determined the outcomes of international mediation and relief in Sudan. In the process, he shows that Darfur must be seen within the wider context of conflict in Sudan, and that lessons should be drawn both for Sudan and for the effective practice of conflict resolution.