Grandma's on the Camino : Reflections on a 48-Day Walking Pilgrimage to Santiago


Mary O'Hara Wyman - 2012
    Herjourney takes her from St. Jean Pied de Port in France, across thePyrenees to Spain, then westward to the ancient spiritual destinationof Santiago de Compostela.Through back-home reflections based on journal entries and postcards sentto her grand daughter, Mary describes engaging encounters with pilgrimsof all ages and motivations, close-range observations of numerous animalson the trails, and the daily tasks of finding food and a bed each evening.Readers will gain keen insight into the physical day to day rigors facing awalking pilgrim, as Mary endured several falls on the trails, a serious footinjury, copious rain, mud and unseasonal cold and hot weather.Grandma’s On the Camino will inspire pilgrims and armchair readersof any age with Mary’s adventures and coping mechanisms, calmnessunder pressure, humorous outlook on life and truly spiritual approachto walking the Camino Frances to Santiago de Compostela. You willwalk as a pilgrim with Mary through every word in the book.

Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England


Keith Thomas - 1971
    Helplessness in the face of disease and human disaster helped to perpetuate this belief in magic and the supernatural. As Keith Thomas shows, England during these years resembled in many ways today's underdeveloped areas. The English population was exceedingly liable to pain, sickness, and premature death; many were illiterate; epidemics such as the bubonic plague plowed through English towns, at times cutting the number of London's inhabitants by a sixth; fire was a constant threat; the food supply was precarious; and for most diseases there was no effective medical remedy. In this fascinating and detailed book, Keith Thomas shows how magic, like the medieval Church, offered an explanation for misfortune and a means of redress in times of adversity. The supernatural thus had its own practical utility in daily life. Some forms of magic were challenged by the Protestant Reformation, but only with the increased search for scientific explanation of the universe did the English people begin to abandon their recourse to the supernatural. Science and technology have made us less vulnerable to some of the hazards which confronted the people of the past. Yet Religion and the Decline of Magic concludes that if magic is defined as the employment of ineffective techniques to allay anxiety when effective ones are not available, then we must recognize that no society will ever be free from it.

The Kingdom of the Cults


Walter Ralston Martin - 1967
    Working closely together, Ravi Zacharias and Managing Editors Jill and Kevin Rische (daughter of Dr. Martin) have updated and augmented the work with new material. This book will continue as a crucial tool in countercult ministry and in evangelism for years to come. Among cults and religions included are: Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism, New Age Cults, the Unification Church, Baha'i Faith, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and more.

The Vampire Encyclopedia


Matthew Bunson - 1993
    It has been the subject of myth, legend, and folklore; the villain, and occassional hero, of films and novels. Today, the vampire is alive and flourishing in hit television shows, special night clubs, and even comic books.With more than 2,000 entries in A - Z format, The Vampire Encyclopedia offers information on a variety of subjects: the history of the vampire legend methods of finding and destroying vampires how to become a vampire the role of the vampire bat all about female vampires and much more! There are listings of films, appendices that list short stories and novels that feature vampires, even a listing of vampire societies and organizations. Whether traditional vampires or psychic vampires; historical vampires or vampires in poetry and art, they are all included in this comprehensive, single-volume reference guide to the undead.

Saving the Appearances: A Study in Idolatry


Owen Barfield - 1957
    The best known of numerous books by the British sage whom C.S. Lewis called the "wisest and best of my unofficial teachers," it draws on sources from mythology, philosophy, history, literature, theology, and science to chronicle the evolution of human thought from Moses and Aristotle to Galileo and Keats. Barfield urges his readers to do away with the assumption that the relationship between people and their environment is static. He dares us to end our exploitation of the natural world and to acknowledge, even revel in, our participation in the diurnal creative process.

On the Road with Joseph Smith: An Author's Diary


Richard L. Bushman - 2007
    After delivering the final proofs of his landmark study, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling to Knopf in July 2005, Bushman crisscrossed the country from coast to coast, delivering numerous addresses on Joseph Smith at scholarly conferences, academic symposia, and firesides. This startlingly candid memoir concludes eleven months later with an article written for Common-Place in August 2006. Bushman confesses to hope and humility, an unexpected numbness when he expected moments of triumph, and genuine apprehension as he awaits reviews. He frets at the polarization that dismissed the book as either too hard on Joseph Smith or too easy. He yields to a very human compulsion to check sales figures on amazon.com, but partway through the process stepped back with the recognition, "The book seems to be cutting its own path now, just as [I] hoped." For readers coming to grips with the ongoing puzzle of the Prophet and the troublesome dimensions of their own faith, Richard Bushman, a temple sealer and stake patriarch but also a prize-winning scholar, openly but not insistently presents himself as a believer. "I believe enough to take Joseph Smith seriously," he says. He draws comfort both from what he calls his "mantra" ("Today I will be a follower of Jesus Christ") and also from ongoing engagement with the intellectual challenges of explaining Joseph Smith.

Shockwave-An Australian Combat Helicopter Crew In Vietnam


Peter Haran - 2004
    This book is told in the words of three Australian Helicopter airmen who supported the ground troops in the vicious war fought in jungles and mountains against an almost invisible enemy.

The DiMaggios: Three Brothers, Their Passion for Baseball, Their Pursuit of the American Dream


Tom Clavin - 2013
    In The DiMaggios, acclaimed sportswriter Tom Clavin reveals the untold Great American Story of three brothers, Joltin’ Joe, Dom, and Vince DiMaggio, and the Great American Game—baseball—that would consume their lives.A vivid portrait of a family and the ways in which their shifting fortunes and status shaped their relationships, The DiMaggios is a exploration of an era and a culture.This comprehensive biography that recalls the work of Jane Leavy offers a trove of insight into one of the game’s greatest players and his family, sure to be treasured by Yankees fans, Red Sox Fans, and baseball aficionados around the world.

Follow the Music: The Life and High Times of Elektra Records in the Great Years of American Pop Culture


Jac Holzman - 1998
    It follows Holzman on his journey from overseein

Pieces of Eight: Chaos Magic Essays and Enchantments


Gordon White - 2016
     Learn about: The grimoire tradition and its relationship to Chaos Magic. The latest consciousness science and the return of Animism. The role of the Devil and the Saints in European magic and witchcraft. Begin practising: A Chaos Magic form of Remote Viewing. An Ancient Roman system of hexing. A method of summoning Dragon Spirits. A Sumerian method of banishing Ghosts. A complete system of spirit evocation. From the author of the acclaimed Star.Ships: A Prehistory of the Spirits and The Chaos Protocols: Magical Techniques for Navigating the New Economic Reality comes a definitive and much-needed exploration of the core principles of Chaos Magic. "Whoever said books on magick can't be fabulously entertaining as well as eminently practical has obviously not read up on their Gordon White. Remedy that situation." -Christopher Knowles. The Secret Sun.

The Cost of My Faith: How a Decision in My Cake Shop Took Me to the Supreme Court


Jack Phillips - 2021
    In a brief exchange, Jack politely declined the request, explaining that he could not design cakes for same-sex weddings but offered to design cakes for other occasions and to sell them anything else in his shop.  Little did Jack know that his quiet stand for his Christian convictions about marriage would become a battle for the right of all Americans to live out their faith. Now, Jack Phillips shares his harrowing experience for the first time in this powerful new memoir. The Cost of My Faith is Jack’s firsthand account from the frontlines of the battle with a culture that is making every effort to remove God from the public square and a government denying Bible-believing Christians the right to freely exercise their religious beliefs. Despite a Supreme Court victory in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the fight to protect the right of Americans to freely exercise their beliefs is more critical than ever. The Cost of My Faith provides new insight into the case that shook the country and offers readers courage and inspiration to stand and live out their faith when facing their own battles.

Simply Jesus: Why he was, what he did, why it matters


Tom Wright - 2011
    Modern critical biblical scholarship often points out how the church's teachings about Jesus have become encrusted with tradition so that it is hard to see what the core documents--the New Testament--really say about him. Now, with the insight of 200 years of modern critical scholarship and assuming an audience that includes both the well-churched and the non-churched, how should the church present the story and identity of the central personality of their faith, Jesus of Nazareth? Many people will be surprised at the story they hear.

Satan: A Biography


Henry Ansgar Kelly - 2006
    But, as Kelly shows, this portrayal is not biblical but a scenario invented by the early Fathers of the Church which became the 'New Biography of Satan'. The 'Original Biography' must be reconstructed from the New Testament where Satan is the same sort of celestial functionary we see in the Book of Job - appointed to govern the world, specifically to monitor and test human beings. But he is brutal and deceitful in his methods, and Jesus predicts that his rule will soon come to an end. Kelly traces the further developments of the 'New Biography': humankind's inherited guilt, captivity by Satan, and punishment in Hell at his hands. This profile of Satan remains dominant, but Kelly urges a return to the 'Original Biography of Satan'.

The Forest in Folklore and Mythology


Alexander Porteous - 2001
    Included are descriptions of old forests; forest customs, temples and sacred groves; mythical forest creatures such as witches, fairies, demons, wood spirits, the "wild huntsman," and wood nymphs.The author also recounts facts and fables about individual trees, including famous trees throughout the world, unusual trees, tree worship, people's transformation into trees, and disposal of the dead in trees — as well as folklore about fossil trees, tree bark, leaves, thorns, diving rods, and Yule logs.This long-unavailable treasury of legend and lore will be welcomed by naturalists, anthropologists, students of folklore, and general readers alike. "A work which the curious will love to consult … a book which should be in every upper school library, and at the hand of every one to whom reference to such things is important." — Saturday Review.

Ink-Stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors: Superwomen in Modern Mythology


Jennifer K. Stuller - 2010
    She shows how the female hero in modern mythology has broken through the traditional boy's club barrier to reveal the pivotal role of high-heeled crimefighters in popular culture. Chapter topics include love and compassion, spies and sexuality, daddy’s girls, and the complicated roles of superwomen who are also mothers. The book also includes a glossary of modern mythic women, as well as a foreword by acclaimed cultural commentator Roz Kaveney, author of Superheroes! Capes and Crusaders in Comics and Films.http://www.ink-stainedamazon.com/