LITMIR.BIZ

Using a readable question-and-answer format, Jews in America: The First 500 Years presents the activities of Jews in America since the beginnings of European settlement. It tells something of the story of how Jews came to the «golden land» and what they have done here–men and women, scientists and athletes, soldiers and merchants, settlers and scholars. It is indeed a remarkable story.

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This is the story of a young frontiersman and Lakota maiden who marry and establish a trading post in the northwest region of the Louisiana Territory during the mid-1800s. It's about dealing with their very real feelings of love and hate, strength and fear, joy and sadness as they face numerous challenges in bridging the gap between two seemingly incompatible cultures. It's a story about fulfilling a dream and the perseverance it takes to accomplish it. Additionally, Wilderness Nation describes the expansive beauty and wonders of nature and the undeniable unity that exists among all creatures of life, all people, and God. The book further offers a unique and profound philosophy of life that's championed by an enlightened group of Native Americans confined to a single village of a few hundred people. The Lakota philosophy takes a very realistic approach to the world. It accepts all its good aspects, including the joys of life, sound health and happiness, and justice when served. But it also understands the world with its numerous bad features of floods and bitter cold weather, the dangers of illness, and the violence and death that results from hostile enemies. In living a good life, each Lakota villager will eventually be united with the Great Spirit of Life.

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As one of Victorian Britain's pre-eminent social reformers, Lord Shaftesbury (1801-85) exerted a lasting impact surpassing all of his parliamentary contemporaries. Despite being born into one of England's aristocratic families, a combination of early childhood deprivation, an earnest Evangelical faith, and an abiding sense of noblesse oblige made him a champion of the poor. His seminal contribution to the Victorian factory reform movement represented just one of his manifold legacies. This contextual study of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury probes the mind behind the man to evaluate the religious and philosophical ideas, and their leading figures, that ignited his lifelong activism in the public sphere. This book reveals that far from representing a relic of the Victorian age, the Earl of Shaftesbury, whilst a conservative by predilection, was essentially a forward-looking and farsighted reformer. The principles that Shaftesbury espoused of industrial justice, class harmony, subsidiarity, volunteerism, selfless individualism, religious observance, strong families and private enterprise tempered by moderate state intervention are essentially those prized by liberal democracies today as the foundation for social cohesion, prosperity, and human flourishing.

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Jacob Klund, curious about what's in his deceased grandma's attic, snoops around. He finds a trunk full of old papers. Jacob's father, a history teacher, identifies this as a great treasure because of the dates on the papers, diaries, letters, and documents. The family decides to read through them at «sharing times,» after dinner. The trunk cache reveals detailed family history dating back to 1738. While immersed in the trunk's contents, the Klund family restores grandma's house and cheers for Liz, Jacob's sister, at regional and state spelling bees. They watch the civil rights movement on television and worry about the nuclear threat from the Soviets. As the 1960s begin, Allen Klund, Jacob's dad, perceives subtle changes in America's worldview and follows closely historic Supreme Court decisions that could affect his future in public education. He shares his concerns with his wife, Harriet, but he continues to teach in the system. Jacob, the novel's narrator, graduates from law school and joins a firm that handles freedom-of-religion cases. It is a step that his father hesitated to take, and he is proud of his son. Reflecting on the potential effects of Darwinism and Marxism, Jacob concludes the novel with a scathing parable called «The Project.»

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"The first Easter, eh? That would have been something for a sharp-eyed Roman investigator." He barked a short laugh: «One executed prisoner, mission accomplished and . . . boom–all of a sudden they stand there with an empty tomb! Well, isn't that something . . .» The conversation came to an end. The only thing that broke the silence was the sound of the ripping of envelopes and flicking through of papers. Had John H. Watson lifted his eyes, he would have seen that something had changed in the other man's appearance. The listless expression on his face had disappeared, and was now replaced by intense concentration. Sherlock sprang up from his chair, his eyes crystal clear, in that unmistakable way that bore witness that something had awoken inside his brain. He turned to John and emphatically declared: «I'll take the case!»
How would the world's greatest investigator handle the strangest disappearance in history? From Ash Wednesday to Easter Morning, Sherlock Holmes and John Watson travel through present-day England to establish what actually happened to the executed prisoner Jesus of Nazareth. Can Sherlock solve all problems which may arise along the way? And what is the solution to The Case of the Empty Tomb?

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Not Peace But a Sword provides a case study in religious radicalism, as exemplified by the Puritanism of the English Revolution. Based on sermons preached to the Long Parliament and other political bodies, Stephen Baskerville demonstrates how Puritan religious and political ideas transformed the English Civil War into the world's first great modern revolution. To understand why, Baskerville analyzes the underlying social changes that gave rise to Puritan radicalism. The Puritan intellectuals developed the sermon into a medium that conveyed not only popular political understanding but also a sophisticated political sociology that articulated a new social and political consciousness. In the process, they challenged the traditional political order and created a new order by appealing to the needs and concerns of a people caught up in the problems of rapid social and economic change. The book explores the social psychology behind the rise of Puritanism, as the Puritan ministers themselves presented it, through textual criticism of their own words, placing them in the mental context of their time, and offers a new understanding of the link between religious ideas and revolutionary politics.

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This book examines part of the development of the Bruderhof community, which emerged in Germany in 1920. Community members sought to model their life on the New Testament. This included sharing goods. The community became part of the Hutterite movement, with its origins in sixteenth-century Anabaptism. After the rise to power of the Nazi regime, the Bruderhof became a target and the community was forcibly dissolved. Members who escaped from Germany and travelled to England were welcomed as refugees from persecution and a community was established in the Cotswolds. In the period 1933 to 1942, when the Bruderhof's witness was advancing in Britain, its members were in touch with many individuals and movements. This book covers the Bruderhof's connections with (among others) the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Peace Pledge Union, the social work of Muriel and Doris Lester in East London, Jewish refugee groups, and artistic pioneers like Eric Gill. As significant numbers of British people joined the Bruderhof, its farming, publishing and arts and crafts activities extended considerably. But with the outbreak of the Second World War, German members came to be regarded with suspicion and British members became unpopular locally because they were pacifists. Although the Bruderhof was defended in Parliament, notably by Lady Astor, it seemed that German members would be interned as enemy aliens. The consequence was that by 1942 over 300 community members had left England. With Mennonite assistance, they began to forge a new life in South America. This book traces a remarkable Christian peace experiment being undertaken in a time of great political upheaval.

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A study tour to Leipzig in the former East Germany (GDR) raised new questions for Roger Newell about the long struggle of the Protestant church with the German state in the twentieth century. How was it possible that a church, unable to stop the Nazis, helped bring a totalitarian government to its knees fifty years later? How did an institution marginalized in every way possible by the state education system, stripped of its traditional privileges, ridiculed by the government and the media as a dinosaur, become the catalyst for a transformation that enabled a great but troubled nation to be peacefully reunited–something unprecedented in German history? What were the connecting relationships and theological struggles that joined the church's failed resistance to Hitler with the peaceful revolution of 1989?
The chapters that follow tell the backstory of the theological debates and personal acts of faith and courage leading to the moment when the church became the cradle for Germany's only nonviolent revolution. The themes that emerge remain relevant for our own era of seemingly endless conflict.

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At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were a number of smaller religious bodies that sought to develop religious and national identity on the margins–something especially difficult when the nation was at war in South Africa. This book examines rich and varied extant sources that provide helpful windows into the wartime experience of Canada's religious minorities. Those groups on the margins experienced internal struggles and external pressures related to issues of loyalty and identity. How each faith tradition addressed those challenges was shaped by their own dominant personalities, ethnic identity, history, tradition, and theological convictions. Responses were fluid, divided, and rarely unanimous. Those seeking to address such issues not only had to deal with internal expectations and tensions, but also construct a public response that would satisfy often hostile and vocal external critics. Some positions evolved over time, leading to new identities, loyalties, and trajectories. In all cases, being on the margins meant dealing with two dominant national and imperial narratives–English or French–both bolstered respectively by powerful Anglo-Saxon Protestantism or French Quebec Catholicism. The chapters in this book examine how those on the margins sought to do just that.

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In times of stress and conflict the celebration of patriotic holidays can bring us together. These ten chapters examine the traditional national holidays of the United States of America–plus Flag Day and Constitution Day–by presenting the persons and events they commemorate, which have shaped American history and identity. In addition, Lincoln's birthday–never proclaimed a national holiday–is considered in an appendix.
This book restores the original meaning of these celebrations and looks closely at their development in American history, seeking to inspire renewed ways of celebration, commemoration, and observance. It is an aid for recalling our history, reclaiming our values and traditions, and restoring a sense of community.
Each chapter looks at the many books and research written about the events commemorated by these holidays, showing their relevance for today, and their spiritual or religious dimensions. Although the United States of America was not founded as a «Christian nation» on biblical principles, people throughout American history have perceived divine guidance–or what George Washington called «Providential interposition.»
This book is for the general public, members of patriotic organizations and associations, and as a resource book for schools and religious institutions.

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