David Mamet's interest in anti-Semitism is not limited to themodern face of an ancient hatred but encompasses as well the waysin which many Jews have internalized that hatred. Using themetaphor of the Wicked Son at the Passover seder (the child whoasks, "What does this story mean to you?") Mamet confronts what hesees as an insidious predilection among some Jews to excludethemselves from the equation and to seek truth and meaninganywhere--in other religions, political movements, mindlessentertainment--but in Judaism itself. He also explores the ways inwhich the Jewish tradition has long been and still remains theWicked Son in the eyes of the world. Written with the searinghonesty and verbal brilliance that is the hallmark of Mamet's work,The Wicked Son is a powerfully thought-provoking look at one of themost destructive and tenacious forces in contemporary life.
Scientology, created in 1954 by a prolific sci-fi writer namedL. Ron Hubbard, claims to be the world's fastest growing religion,with millions of members around the world and huge financialholdings. Its celebrity believers keep its profile high, and itsteams of "volunteer ministers" offer aid at disaster sites such asHaiti and the World Trade Center. But Scientology is also a notablyclosed faith, harassing journalists and others through litigationand intimidation, even infiltrating the highest levels of thegovernment to further its goals. Its attacks on psychiatry and itsrequirement that believers pay into the tens and even hundreds ofthousands of dollars for salvation have drawn scrutiny andskepticism. And ex-members use the Internet to share stories ofharassment and abuse. Now Janet Reitman offers the first fulljournalistic history of the Church of Scientology, in an evenhandedaccount that at last establishes the astonishing truth about thecontroversial religion. She traces Scientology's development fro
In the grand tradition of the scholar-adventurer, acclaimedauthor Richard Cohen takes us around the world to illuminate ourrelationship with the star that gives us life. Whether floating ina skiff on the Ganges as the Sun descends behind the funeral pyresof Varanasi, interviewing psychologists in the Norwegian Arcticabout the effects of darkness, or watching tomato seedlings insouthern Spain being hair-brushed (the better to catch the Sun’srays), Cohen tirelessly pursues his quarry. Drawing on more than seven years of research, he reports fromlocations in eighteen different countries, including theNovolazarevskaya science station in Antarctica (the coldest placeon Earth); the Arizona desert (the sunniest); the Pope’sobservatory-cum-fortress outside Rome (possible the leastaccessible); and the crest of Mount Fuji, where—entirely alone—hewelcomes the sunrise on the longest day of the year. As he soon discovers, the Sun is present everywhere—in mythology,language, religion, sciences, art, literature
The story of novelist and poet Deborah Larsen's youngwomanhood, The Tulip and the Pope is both an exquisitelycrafted spiritual memoir and a beautifully nuanced view of life inthe convent.In midsummer of 1960, nineteen-year-old Deborah sharesa cab to a convent. She and the teenage girls with her, passionateto become nuns, heedless of all they are leaving behind, smoketheir last cigarettes before entering their new lives. In the sameartful prose that distinguished her novel The White ,Larsen's memoir lets us into the hushed life of the convent. Shecaptures the exquisite peace she found there, as well as theextreme constriction of the rules and her gradual awareness of allthat she is missing. Eventually the physical world—the lush tulipshe remembers seeing as a girl, the snow she tunneled in, and eventhe mystery of sex—begins to seem to her an alternative theater fora deep understanding and love of God.
本书是从战国时期起就风靡流传的军事著作,古今中外的军事家们都使用其中论述的军事理论来指导战争,而且,其中论述的基本理论和思想还被运用到了现代经营决策和社会管理方面。然而,这部著作者是谁呢?学术界议论纷纷,一种认为是春秋时期齐国的孙武所著,一种认为是孙膑整理而成,一种认为是战国初年某位山林处士编写,还有的说是三国时代曹操编撰的。直到1972年4月间,在山东临沂银雀山发掘的两座汉代墓葬中同时发现了用竹简写成的《孙子兵法》和《孙膑兵法》,这样,数百年的争论方告结束,《孙子兵法》的作者被确认为春秋时期吴国的将军孙武。
This intimate, affectionate portrait of Pope John Paul II byhis longtime secretary and confidant reveals fascinating newdetails about the opinions, hopes, fears, and dramatic life of thispublic man. “I had accompanied him for almost forty years: twelve in Krakówand then twenty-seven in Rome. I was always with him, always at hisside. Now, in the moment of death, he’d gone on alone. . . .Andnow? Who is accompanying him on the other side?” —From A Life with Karol Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz worked side by side with Pope JohnPaul II for almost forty years, enjoying unique access to both thepublic and private man. In A life with Karol, he provides aclose-up glimpse into the Pope’s life and the critical events ofhis papacy. Dziwisz was sitting next to the Pope during the assassinationattempt in 1981. He recounts the Pope's reaction to 9/11,describing his thoughts and feelings on that day. And theCardinal’s moving de*ion of the Pope’s haunting memories ofWorld War II unco
In a mixture of travel, adventure, and scholarship, historianTudor Parfitt sets out in search of answers to a fascinatingethnological puzzle: is the Lemba tribe of Southern Africa reallyone of the lost tribes of Israel, descended from King Solomon andthe Queen of Sheba? Beginning in the Lemba villages in South Africa, where hewitnesses customs such as food taboos and circumcision rites thatseem part of Jewish tradition, Parfitt retraces the supposed pathof the Lembas' through Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Tanzania, taking insights like Zanzibar and the remains of the stone city GreatZimbabwe. The story of his eccentric travels, a blend of theancient allure of King Solomon's mines and Prester John withcontemporary Africa in all its beauty and brutality, makes for anirresistible glimpse at a various and rapidly changingcontinent. And in a new epilogue, Parfitt discusses recent DNA evidencethat, amazingly, lends credence to the Lemba's tribal myth.
A modern-day Confessions of Saint Augustine, The Seven StoreyMountain is one of the most influential religious works of thetwentieth century. This edition contains an introduction byMerton's editor, Robert Giroux, and a note to the reader bybiographer William H. Shannon. It tells of the growing restlessnessof a brilliant and passionate young man whose search for peace andfaith leads him, at the age of twenty-six, to take vows in one ofthe most demanding Catholic orders--the Trappist monks. At theAbbey of Gethsemani, "the four walls of my new freedom," ThomasMerton struggles to withdraw from the world, but only after he hasfully immersed himself in it. The Seven Storey Mountain has been afavorite of readers ranging from Graham Greene to Claire BoothLuce, Eldridge Cleaver, and Frank McCourt. And, in the half-centurysince its original publication, this timeless spiritual tome hasbeen published in over twenty languages and has touched millions oflives.
Here, Roshi Kapleau addresses how Westerners can adapt andpractice Zen.
No religion in the modern world is as feared and misunderstoodas Islam. It haunts the popular imagination as an extreme faiththat promotes terrorism, authoritarian government, femaleoppression, and civil war. In a vital revision of this narrow viewof Islam and a distillation of years of thinking and writing aboutthe subject, Karen Armstrong’s short history demonstrates that theworld’s fastest-growing faith is a much more complex phenomenonthan its modern fundamentalist strain might suggest.