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The Town Below
by Michael Gnarowski Roger LemelinThe Town Below changed the face of Québécois literature. The Town Below takes place in St. Joseph Parish of Quebec City’s Saint-Sauveur suburb. Saint-Sauveur is a parochial and provincial place where narrow piety and corruption can be found in every corner, and Denis and Lise, two adolescents in love, scandalize the town with their affair. Scheming politicians and clergymen and grasping social climbers mix with salt-of-the-earth citizens in a rough-and-tumble satiric assault on pre-Quiet Revolution Quebec mores and attitudes.The Town Below won the Prix David and the Prix de la langue française. Lemelin was also awarded Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships. A bestseller in Quebec when it originally appeared, The Town Below has been called the "pioneer novel of working-class Quebec" and exploded, with great controversy, the smothering social and religious strictures prevalent among postwar Québécois. The novel was first published in English by Reynal & Hitchcock in 1948.
The Trace of God: Derrida and Religion (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy)
by Peter E. Gordon Edward BaringDerrida’s writings on the question of religion have played a crucial role in the transformation of scholarly debate across the globe. The Trace of God provides a compact introduction to this debate. It considers Derrida’s fraught relationship to Judaism and his Jewish identity, broaches the question of Derrida's relation to the Western Christian tradition, and examines both the points of contact and the silences in Derrida's treatment of Islam.
The Tradition of Everlasting Bön: Five Key Texts on Scripture, Tantra, and the Great Perfection
by J. F. Marc des JardinsAn annotated translation of five key texts of the Everlasting (Yungdrung) Bön school selected by the late H. H. Menri Trizin Rinpoché that includes scriptural teachings, a root tantra based on revealed teachings of the unconditioned absolute, a canonical commentary on the root tantra, an exposition of the Yungdrung tantric system, and the oral instructions on Bön meditation practices associated with experiencing the nature of the mind, the Great Perfection systems.This authoritative annotated translation of five key texts of Everlasting (Yungdrung) Bön by Marc des Jardins opens up a relatively unknown tradition that, since the arrival of Buddhism in Tibet, has undergone great transformations in its philosophy, doctrinal teachings, and meditative practices. Each text represents an important aspect of the tradition. The first text, by Drogön Azha Lodrö Gyaltsen (1198–1263), presents the grounds and paths of the Greater Vehicle of the Bön tradition and represents the philosophical ideology of its teachings based on the scriptures contained in the Bön canon. The second text is a short root tantra attributed to revealed teachings from Kuntu Zangpo, the personification of the unconditioned absolute. The third text is a commentary on this root tantra attributed to Drenpa Namkha (fl. eighth century), a Bönpo sage contemporary with Padmasambhava. The fourth text, by Nyamé Sherap Gyaltsen (1356–1415), presents a general exposition of the tantric system according to Yungdrung Bön. The final text, by Drutön Gyalwa Yungdrung (1242–90), pertains to the oral instructions on the meditation practices of Bön, especially on the cycle of practices associated with experiencing the nature of the mind, the Great Perfection systems. All five texts have been selected by the late H. H. Menri Trizin Rinpoché, Lungtok Tenpai Nyima (1927–2017), the thirty-third abbot of Menri Monastery, the central institution of the Yungdrung Bön school.
The Tradition of Household Spirits: Ancestral Lore and Practices
by Claude LecouteuxExamines how the ancient customs of constructing and keeping a house formed a sacred bond between homes and their inhabitants • Shares many tales of house spirits, from cajoling the local land spirit into becoming one’s house spirit to the good and bad luck bestowed by mischievous house elves • Explains the meaning behind door and window placement, house orientation, horsehead gables, the fireplace or hearth, and the threshold • Reveals the charms, chants, prayers, and building practices used by our ancestors to bestow happiness and prosperity upon their homes and their occupants Why do we hang horseshoes for good luck or place wreaths on our doors? Why does the groom carry his new bride over the threshold? These customs represent the last vestiges from a long, rich history of honoring the spirits of our homes. They show that a house is more than a building: it is a living being with a body and soul. Examining the extensive traditions surrounding houses from medieval times to the present, Claude Lecouteux reveals that, before we entered the current era of frequent moves and modular housing, moving largely from the countryside into cities, humanity had an extremely sacred relationship with their homes and all the spirits who lived there alongside them--from the spirit of the house itself to the mischievous elves, fairies, and imps who visited, invited or not. He shows how every aspect of constructing and keeping a house involved rites, ceremony, customs, and taboos to appease the spirits, including the choice of a building lot and the very materials with which it was built. Uncovering the lost meaning behind door and window placement, the hearth, and the threshold, Lecouteux shares many tales of house spirits, from the offerings used to cajole the local land spirit into becoming the domestic house spirit to the good and bad luck bestowed upon those who seek the help of the “Little Money Man.” He draws on studies and classic literature from old Europe--from Celtic lands and Scandinavia to France and Germany to the far eastern borders of Europe and into Russia--to explain the pagan roots behind many of these traditions. Revealing our ancestors’ charms, prayers, and practices to bestow happiness and prosperity upon their homes, Lecouteux shows that we can invite the spirits back into our houses, old or new, and restore the sacred bond between home and inhabitant.
The Tradition of Natural Law: A Philosopher's Reflections
by Yves R. Simon Vukan KuicAvailable in a new digital edition with reflowable text suitable for e-readersThe tradition of natural law is one of the foundations of Western civilization. At its heart is the conviction that there is an objective and universal justice which transcends humanity’s particular expressions of justice. It asserts that there are certain ways of behaving which are appropriate to humanity simply by virtue of the fact that we are all human beings. Recent political debates indicate that it is not a tradition that has gone unchallenged: in fact, the opposition is as old as the tradition itself. By distinguishing between philosophy and ideology, by recalling the historical adventures of natural law, and by reviewing the theoretical problems involved in the doctrine, Simon clarifies much of the confusion surrounding this perennial debate. He tackles the questions raised by the application of natural law with skill and honesty as he faces the difficulties of the subject. Simon warns against undue optimism in a revival of interest in natural law and insists that the study of natural law beings with the analysis of “the law of the land.” He writes not as a polemicist but as a philosopher, and he writes of natural law with the same force, conciseness, lucidity and simplicity which have distinguished all his other works.
The Tragedy of Optimism: Writings on Hermann Cohen (SUNY series in Contemporary Jewish Thought)
by Steven S. SchwarzschildSteven S. Schwarzschild (1924–1989) was arguably the leading expositor of German-Jewish philosopher Hermann Cohen (1842–1918), undertaking a lifelong effort to reintroduce Cohen's thought into contemporary philosophical discourse. In The Tragedy of Optimism, George Y. Kohler brings together all of Schwarzschild's work on Cohen for the first time. Schwarzschild's readings of Cohen are unique and profound; he was conversant with both worlds that shaped Cohen's thought, neo-Kantian German idealism and Jewish theology. The collection covers a wide range of subjects, from ethics, socialism, the concept of human selfhood, and the mathematics of the infinite to more explicitly Jewish themes. This volume includes two of Schwarzschild's previously unpublished manuscripts and a scholarly introduction by Kohler. Schwarzschild shows that despite its seeming defeat by events of the twentieth century, Cohen's optimism about human progress is a rational, indeed necessary, path to peace.
The Tragedy of a Generation
by Joshua M. KarlipThe Tragedy of a Generation is the story of the rise and fall of an ideal: an autonomous Jewish nation in Europe. It traces the origins of two influential but overlooked strains of Jewish thought-Yiddishism and Diaspora Nationalism-and documents the waning hopes and painful reassessments of their leading representatives against the rising tide of Nazism and, later, the Holocaust. Joshua M. Karlip presents three figures-Elias Tcherikower, Yisroel Efroikin, and Zelig Kalmanovitch-seen through the lens of Imperial Russia on the brink of revolution. Leaders in the struggle for recognition of the Jewish people as a national entity, these men would prove instrumental in formulating the politics of Diaspora Nationalism, a middle path that rejected both the Zionist emphasis on Palestine and the Marxist faith in class struggle. Closely allied with this ideology was Yiddishism, a movement whose adherents envisioned the Yiddish language and culture, not religious tradition, as the unifying force of Jewish identity. We follow Tcherikower, Efroikin, and Kalmanovitch as they navigate the tumultuous early decades of the twentieth century in pursuit of a Jewish national renaissance in Eastern Europe. Correcting the misconception of Yiddishism as a radically secular movement, Karlip uncovers surprising confluences between Judaism and the avowedly nonreligious forms of Jewish nationalism. An essential contribution to Jewish historiography, The Tragedy of a Generation is a probing and poignant chronicle of lives shaped by ideological conviction and tested to the limits by historical crisis.
The Tragic Sense of Life: Ernst Haeckel and the Struggle over Evolutionary Thought
by Robert J. RichardsPrior to the First World War, more people learned of evolutionary theory from the voluminous writings of Charles Darwin’s foremost champion in Germany, Ernst Haeckel (1834–1919), than from any other source, including the writings of Darwin himself. But, with detractors ranging from paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould to modern-day creationists and advocates of intelligent design, Haeckel is better known as a divisive figure than as a pioneering biologist. Robert J. Richards’s intellectual biography rehabilitates Haeckel, providing the most accurate measure of his science and art yet written, as well as a moving account of Haeckel’s eventful life.
The Tragic Tale of Claire Ferchaud and the Great War
by Raymond Anthony JonasThis is the moving and improbable story of Claire Ferchaud, a young French shepherdess who had visions of Jesus and gained national fame as a modern-day Joan of Arc at the height of World War I. Claire experienced her first vision after a childhood trauma in which her mother locked her in a closet to break her stubborn willfulness. She developed her visionary gifts with the aid of spiritual directors and, by the age of twenty, she had come to believe that Jesus wanted France consecrated to the Sacred Heart. Claire believed that if France undertook this devotion, symbolized by adding the image of the Sacred Heart to the French flag, it would enjoy rapid victory in the war. From her modest origins to her spectacular ascent, Claire's life and times are deftly related with literary verve and insight in a book that gives a rare view of the French countryside during the Great War.
The Train Before Dawn
by Janice HuszarNo one seemed to notice. Or if they did, it was the cuteness: bangs and big brown eyes speckled with gold when the sun hit. Johnny wasn&’t very tall at age 5 when his life on the streets began, so crowds, sometimes reckless, passed without even seeing the child. They couldn&’t know he was an orphan, hungry, living alone, frightened, feeling physical pain from his loss and abandonment; that he slept on a cot in a fetal position covered only by sheets. They were his shield against evil, and he managed heroically to endure daily misery with its terrifying bedtime.The last time he saw his mother she was sleeping in a box by the window in the parlor with tape across her mouth. When Johnny understood it was forever, he relied on happy memories to help his sadness; an outdoor birthday party, mama swirling around with flowers in her hair like a princess in a book, dancing, playing with the little children, pouring lemonade. Oh, how he adored his sweet mother. He loved his backyard too; the grapevines so good for hide and seek, the honeysuckle, the apple tree, even though mama said it was sick and don&’t eat any. Then papa, whom he also revered, stole him away from his bed just before dawn so his aunts wouldn&’t see, and hurried along the river toward the train, mostly with Johnny in his arms. Where better to hide his child than behind the fun and fantasy of Coney Island? It promised a new life of joy and healing of sorrow. But Johnny longed for the familial embrace.&“Try a little mustard on it,&” says Abe, the gray-bearded hot dog vendor, to the boy he had seen walking wearily the streets and midways of the famous amusement park. Mr. Abe becomes Johnny&’s best friend on the street, sage with a soft heart. Truant but innocent, the child is eager for knowledge: first learning to read from discarded newspapers and comic books. Eating from generosity and sleeping in fear, Johnny exists with unusual dignity. His friends, carnival workers and a neighbor family, and of course, Abe, are reticent to report the extended absences of the father, afraid Johnny will be taken into custody.Suffering is a way of life for Johnny, even when living in the thought-to-be safety of the boys&’ orphanage in upstate New York. He would spend years from age 8 to high school graduation but not without harm. Yet John forgave the headmaster and his wife as he&’d been taught by his true Master. As God watched over John, seeing him become a righteous young man, surely, he remembered crafting Eve for lonely Adam. Might it now be time for a comforting romantic intervention?
The Train to Warsaw: A Novel
by Gwen EdelmanTwo Holocaust survivors, now married, return to the site of the Warsaw Ghetto they fled forty years ago in this &“riveting, dream-like&” novel (The New York Times Book Review). In 1942, Jascha and Lilka separately fled from the Warsaw Ghetto. Reunited years later, they now live in London where Jascha has become a celebrated writer, feted for his dark tales about his wartime adventures. Forty years after the war, Jascha receives a letter inviting him to give a reading in Warsaw. He tells Lilka that nothing remains of the city they knew and that wild horses couldn&’t drag him back. Lilka, however, is nostalgic for the city of her childhood and manages to change Jascha&’s mind. Together, traveling by train through a frozen December landscape, they return to the city of their youth. When they unwittingly find themselves back in what was once the ghetto, they will discover that they still have secrets between them as well as an inescapable past. &“With quiet but devastating force, Edelman plays the experience of being closed in—to trauma, to the past, to a ghetto—against the experience of being forever cast out.&” —The New York Times Book Review &“A compelling tale told by two lovers, whose stunning, sometimes shocking dialogue ultimately becomes an exploration of the enduring wounds of the Holocaust, the mystery of memory, and the irresolvable traumas of lived experience.&” —Haaretz (Israel) &“A powerful and moving novel that is both disturbing and exhilarating.&” —Washington Independent Review of Books &“A well-crafted study of exile and return.&” —Publishers Weekly
The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk
by Daisetz Teitaro SuzukiDaisetz Teitaro Suzuki's The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk invites you to step inside the mysterious world of the Zendo, where monks live their lives in simplicity. Suzuki, best known as the man who brought Zen classics to the West, sheds light on all phases of a monk's experience, from being refused admittance at the door to finally understanding the meaning of one's "koan". Suzuki explains the initiation ceremony, the act of begging, and the life of prayers, meditation, and service.
The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk
by Daisetz Teitaro SuzukiDaisetz Teitaro Suzuki's The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk invites you to step inside the mysterious world of the Zendo, where monks live their lives in simplicity. Suzuki, best known as the man who brought Zen classics to the West, sheds light on all phases of a monk's experience, from being refused admittance at the door to finally understanding the meaning of one's "koan". Suzuki explains the initiation ceremony, the act of begging, and the life of prayers, meditation, and service.
The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk
by Daisetz Teitaro SuzukiDaisetz Teitaro Suzuki's The Training of the Zen Buddhist Monk invites you to step inside the mysterious world of the Zendo, where monks live their lives in simplicity.This is perhaps the best introduction to Zen and the life of the Zen monk. By means of a direct and succinct description of the training that a Zen Buddhist monk undergoes, Dr. Suzuki has given us the most precise picture possible of Zen in life.The forty-three illustrations give a unique value to the book. The artist, Zenchu Sato has depicted here the record of his own experiences in going through all the disciplinary measures pertaining to the life of Zen.As author, Dr. Suzuki said, "Zen ought to be studied not only in its theoretical aspects, as a unique product of the Oriental mind, but in its practical aspect as it is to be seen in the Zendo life. This is the chief motive for my writing this book."
The Traitor's Wife: A Novel
by Allison PatakiA riveting historical novel about Peggy Shippen Arnold, the cunning wife of Benedict Arnold and mastermind behind America&’s most infamous act of treason...Everyone knows Benedict Arnold—the Revolutionary War general who betrayed America and fled to the British—as history&’s most notorious turncoat. Many know Arnold&’s co-conspirator, Major John André, who was apprehended with Arnold&’s documents in his boots and hanged at the orders of General George Washington. But few know of the integral third character in the plot: a charming young woman who not only contributed to the betrayal but orchestrated it. Socialite Peggy Shippen is half Benedict Arnold&’s age when she seduces the war hero during his stint as military commander of Philadelphia. Blinded by his young bride&’s beauty and wit, Arnold does not realize that she harbors a secret: loyalty to the British. Nor does he know that she hides a past romance with the handsome British spy John André. Peggy watches as her husband, crippled from battle wounds and in debt from years of service to the colonies, grows ever more disillusioned with his hero, Washington, and the American cause. Together with her former love and her disaffected husband, Peggy hatches the plot to deliver West Point to the British and, in exchange, win fame and fortune for herself and Arnold. Told from the perspective of Peggy&’s maid, whose faith in the new nation inspires her to intervene in her mistress&’s affairs even when it could cost her everything, The Traitor&’s Wife brings these infamous figures to life, illuminating the sordid details and the love triangle that nearly destroyed the American fight for freedom.
The Traitor: A Heart-Wrenching Saga of WWII Nazi-Resistance
by V.S. AlexanderFans of Reese Witherspoon&’s Book Club picks eager for their next moving historical novel—look no further! Readers of The Alice Project and The Lost Girls of Paris will be enthralled by V.S. Alexander&’s The Traitor. Drawing on the true story of the White Rose—the resistance movement of young Germans against the Nazi regime—The Traitor tells of one woman who offers her life in the ultimate battle against tyranny during one of history&’s darkest hours. In the summer of 1942, as war rages across Europe, a series of anonymous leaflets appears around the University of Munich, speaking out against escalating Nazi atrocities. The leaflets are hidden in public places, or mailed to addresses selected at random from the phone book. Natalya Petrovich, a student, knows who is behind the leaflets—a secret group called the White Rose, led by siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friends. As a volunteer nurse on the Russian front, Natalya witnessed the horrors of war first-hand. She willingly enters the White Rose&’s circle, where every hushed conversation, every small act of dissent could mean imprisonment or death at the hands of an infuriated Gestapo. Natalya risks everything alongside her friends, hoping the power of words will encourage others to resist. But even among those she trusts most, there is no guarantee of safety—and when danger strikes, she must take an extraordinary gamble in her own personal struggle to survive. Praise for V.S. Alexander&’s The Irishman&’s Daughter &“Accompanied by an expertly rendered plot, bold and empathetic characters, and prose that jumps off the page, this tale will particularly satisfy fans of historicals and those looking for stories about the redeeming grace of faith and hard work.&”—Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW
The Transcendence of Desire: A Theology of Political Agency (New Approaches to Religion and Power)
by Tom James David TrueThe “secular age” is not a smooth, untroubled process of accumulation and advance but an uneven and unpredictable series of clashes of interest. Charles Taylor’s “immanent frame” cannot be construed merely as a phenomenon within religion and culture but urgently needs to be understood in political and economic terms–i.e., as a class project. The failure of the secular, vividly displayed in the crumbling legitimacy of global institutions and in the spectacle of police violence, both calls for and makes possible a renewal of political agency. Tom James and David True argue that a theology of the cross has a distinctive potential today: it can pierce the sacred aura of normalcy around the consensual anti-politics of the neoliberal order so that a vision of a world beyond today’s racialized capitalism can emerge. But they contend that we don’t need to forsake the emancipatory aims of modernity nor retreat to local communities. As an alternative to these weak strategies, they offer a constructive and cruciform account of political agency that includes both prophetic resistance and practical wisdom, each embedded in contemporary struggles for freedom that, they argue, embody divine desire for a common world.
The Transcendent Brain: Spirituality in the Age of Science
by Alan LightmanFrom the acclaimed author of Einstein&’s Dreams comes a rich, fascinating answer to the question, Can the scientifically inclined still hold space for spirituality? &“Lightman…belongs to a noble tradition of science writers, including Oliver Sacks and Lewis Thomas, who can poke endlessly into a subject and…stir up fresh embers of wonder.&” —The Wall Street JournalGazing at the stars, falling in love, or listening to music, we sometimes feel a transcendent connection with a cosmic unity and things larger than ourselves. But these experiences are not easily understood by science, which holds that all things can be explained in terms of atoms and molecules. Is there space in our scientific worldview for these spiritual experiences? According to acclaimed physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, there may be. Drawing on intellectual history and conversations with contemporary scientists, philosophers, and psychologists, Lightman asks a series of thought-provoking questions that illuminate our strange place between the world of particles and forces and the world of complex human experience. Can strict materialism explain our appreciation of beauty? Or our feelings of connection to nature and to other people? Is there a physical basis for consciousness, the most slippery of all scientific problems? Lightman weaves these investigations together to propose what he calls &“spiritual materialism&”— the belief that we can embrace spiritual experiences without letting go of our scientific worldview. In his view, the breadth of the human condition is not only rooted in material atoms and molecules but can also be explained in terms of Darwinian evolution. What is revealed in this lyrical, enlightening book is that spirituality may not only be compatible with science, it also ought to remain at the core of what it means to be human.
The Transcendent Character of the Good: Philosophical and Theological Perspectives (Routledge Studies in Ethics and Moral Theory)
by Petruschka SchaafsmaThis volume addresses issues of moral pluralism and polarization by drawing attention to the transcendent character of the good. It probes the history of Christian theology and moral philosophy to investigate the value of this idea and then relates it to contemporary moral issues. The good is transcendent in that it goes beyond concrete goods, things, acts, or individual preferences. It functions as the pole of a compass that helps orient our moral life. This volume explores the critical tension between the transcendent good and its concrete embodiments in the world through concepts like conscience, natural and divine law, virtue, and grace. The chapters are divided into three parts. Part I discusses metaphysical issues like the realist nature and the unity of the good in relation to philosophical, naturalist, and theological approaches from Augustine to Iris Murdoch. The chapters in Part II explore issues about knowing the transcendent good and doing good, exemplified in the delicate balance between divine command and human virtuousness. Early Protestant theological views prove to be excellent interlocutors for this reflection. Finally, Part III focuses on how transcendence is at stake in two heavily debated moral issues of today: euthanasia and the family. The Transcendent Character of the Good will be of interest to scholars and advanced students working in theological ethics, moral philosophy, and the history of ethics. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
The Transcendent Holmes
by John Warwick MontgomeryIn a series of sparkling and intelligently presented essays, Dr. Montgomery takes a fresh look at the world "where it is always eighteen ninety-five" -- the world of Baker Street and Sherlock Holmes. Besides examining long debated problems, such as the true location of 221B, which was Holmes's University, how many times Watson was married, and where Watson was wounded, Dr. Montgomery also considers Holmes's activities in Tibet, his writings, his brother Mycroft, and his liking for fine wines. In a stunning climax to the volume, the reader is presented with a discussion between Holmes and Watson which will almost certainly cause him/her to pause, think, and deeply consider the depth of the message conveyed. Dr. Montgomery is a Sherlockian of long-standing. These essays prove that his time devoted to his subject has been very well spent indeed.
The Transcendental Meditation Movement (Elements in New Religious Movements)
by Dana Sawyer Cynthia HumesThis Element provides a comprehensive overview of the Transcendental Meditation (TM) Movement and its offshoots. Several early assessments of the as a cult and/or new religious movement are helpful, but are brief and somewhat dated. This Element examines the TM movement's history, beginning in India in 1955, and ends with an analysis of the splinter groups that have come along in the past twenty-five years. Close consideration is given to the movement's appeal for the youth culture of the 1960s, which accounted for its initial success. The Element also looks at the marketing of the meditation technique as a scientifically endorsed practice in the 1970s, and the movement's dramatic turn inward during the 1980s. It concludes by discussing the waning of its popular appeal in the new millennium. This Element describes the social and cultural forces that helped shape the TM movement's trajectory over the decades leading to the present and shows how the most popular meditation movement in America distilled into an obscure form of Neo-Hinduism.
The Transcendental Temptation
by Paul KurtzA landmark work. Mandatory reading for anyone who wants to learn to be a good skeptic.In this widely acclaimed and highly controversial book, Paul Kurtz examines the reasons why people accept supernatural and paranormal belief systems in spite of substantial evidence to the contrary. According to the author, it is because there is within the human species a deeply rooted tendency toward magical thinking - the "transcendental temptation" - which undermines critical judgment and paves the way for willful beliefs. He explores in detail the three major monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - finding striking psychological and sociological parallels between these religions, the spiritualism of the 19th century, and the paranormal belief systems of today. There are sections on mysticism, belief in the afterlife, the existence of God, reincarnation, astrology, and ufology. Kurtz also explains the nature of skepticism as an antidote to belief in the transcendental.From the Trade Paperback edition..
The Transfer of Undertakings in the Public Sector (Routledge Revivals Ser.)
by Colin BournThis title was first published in 2000: This volume discusses the impact of the transfer of undertakings regime upon the public sector, particularly focusing on the interaction between the protection of employee rights and the restructuring and modernization of public services. The crux of the book is the interaction of market-led policies in the public sector, such as compulsory competitive tendering, best value and the PFI, with the protection of employee rights on the transfer of imployment. It considers the evolving law on the scope of a relevant transfer under the European Acquired Rights Directive and the TUPE regulations, before reviewing the present stte of the law on dismissals, variation of terms, pensions and employee consultation in transfer-related situations. The book incorporates consideration of the text of the 1998 revision of the Acquired Rights Directive.
The Transfigured Kingdom: Sacred Parody and Charismatic Authority at the Court of Peter the Great (Studies of the Harriman Institute)
by Ernest A. ZitserIn this richly comparative analysis of late Muscovite and early Imperial court culture, Ernest A. Zitser provides a corrective to the secular bias of the scholarly literature about the reforms of Peter the Great. Zitser demonstrates that the tsar's supposedly "secularizing" reforms rested on a fundamentally religious conception of his personal political mission. In particular, Zitser shows that the carnivalesque (and often obscene) activities of the so-called Most Comical All-Drunken Council served as a type of Baroque political sacrament—a monarchical rite of power that elevated the tsar's person above normal men, guaranteed his prerogative over church affairs, and bound the participants into a community of believers in his God-given authority ("charisma"). The author suggests that by implicating Peter's "royal priesthood" in taboo-breaking, libertine ceremonies, the organizers of such "sacred parodies" inducted select members of the Russian political elite into a new system of distinctions between nobility and baseness, sacrality and profanity, tradition and modernity.Tracing the ways in which the tsar and his courtiers appropriated aspects of Muscovite and European traditions to suit their needs and aspirations, The Transfigured Kingdom offers one of the first discussions of the gendered nature of political power at the court of Russia's self-proclaimed "Father of the Fatherland" and reveals the role of symbolism, myth, and ritual in shaping political order in early modern Europe.
The Transformation
by Terri KrausCan a good, hard-working Christian man disregard his cultural and religious admonitions--as well as his mother's plans for his life--for the love of a woman and an historic church building?Oliver Barnett is a good contractor, a good Christian, and an obedient son, never in trouble, never one to rock the boat ... until real estate developer Samantha Cohen enters his life. Samantha, full of life, vitality, and wit, is unlike any woman he has ever known--in more ways than one. Not only is she planning to transform an historic church near downtown Pittsburgh into a restaurant/nightclub, but she is Jewish and has a less-than-innocent past. Oliver finds himself in a most unsettling dilemma. Does he do what's right by the nice girl his mother has chosen for him, or does he do what his heart is telling him to do?