First Published in 1978. The authors’ aim has been to write about the so-called ‘major’ mental illnesses, the conditions we know as ‘the psychoses’. Now, all psychiatric disorders are potentially serious, although in fact the great majority never reach a profound degree of pathology. The psychotic illnesses, by definition, are those which present with many of the most dramatic symptoms seen in psychiatry. Included in their manifestations may be seriously disturbed behaviour, loss of contac...

The term Ubuntu articulates an African understanding of our need to connect to one another in order to be complete. Likewise, A Common Mission offers a description of churches that connect with one another through the growing phenomenon of mission partnerships. The word "common" indicates something shared among equals. The word "common" also suggests something present in all parts of an organism, production, or narrative, such as a common thread. These two aspects of commonality provide an...

Every year, an estimated 1.6 million Americans participate in short-term mission trips, spending over one billion dollars—figures that have increased exponentially in the last two decades. About one third of U.S. congregations sponsor such trips each year. While they are referred to as “mission” trips, many trips focus not on conversion or evangelism, but on service projects—building a playground, providing medical care, or serving free meals to the poor. Short-term mission participants ha...

In recent years Christian scholars have become increasingly aware of their responsibility to recognize and respond to the challenges posed by ethnic and racial diversity. Similarly, historically white Christian colleges, universities, seminaries and congregations are struggling to transform themselves into communities that are welcoming to minorities and sensitive to their needs. This collection of all-new essays is meant to enable those who are engaged in these initiatives to understand t...

In recent years Christian scholars have become increasingly aware of their responsibility to recognize and respond to the challenges posed by ethnic and racial diversity. Similarly, historically white Christian colleges, universities, seminaries and congregations are struggling to transform themselves into communities that are welcoming to minorities and sensitive to their needs. This collection of all-new essays is meant to enable those who are engaged in these initiatives to understand t...

The Anthropology of Religious Conversion paints a picture of conversion far more complex than its customary image in anthropology and religious studies. Conversion is very seldom simply a sudden moment of insight or inspiration; it is a change both of individual consciousness and of social belonging, of mental attitude and of physical experience, whose unfolding depends both on its cultural setting and on the distinct individuals who undergo it. The book explores religious conversion in a ...

Reverse engineering the word, meme splicing, morpheme replacement therapy, phonetic modifications: these are some of the techniques in play throughout Reading the Bible Backwards , the lyrical thought experiments that make up this eagerly anticipated new collection of poems by Robert Priest. By throwing the Bible and other cultural narratives on the turntable and spinning them backwards, Priest unleashes surprisingly new but strangely familiar music and meaning. Whether the movements are s...

Bizarre sexual parables, hilarious science fiction, fables, text-tangles, dirty stories, lush love letters, re-visionary fairy tales, predictions,strange new games, dream transcripts, and a complete handbook of absurdist instructions, including one on the dangerous arts of pig-swallowing. With all the lyricism and wit which have made his columns in NOW magazine and his Dr. Poetry segments on CBC's Wordbeat so entertaining and provocative, this collection gathers for the first time the very...

Picking up and pulling at the vibrant threads of Robert Priest's last book of poems, Reading the Bible Backward, this collection explores new themes while spanning multiple strands of thought. One strand leads, with unabashed candor and elegance, through the author's love life; another, through fields of praise; a third experiments with automated metaphors and delivers a challenging new selection of mash-ups that Priest calls meme splices. A fourth thread rekindles the author's lo...

In this virtuoso display of sonnets, free verse, prose poems, villanelles, ghazals, and aphorisms, People’s Poet Robert Priest makes it clear why the Pacific Rim Review has called him “surely the most imaginatively inventive poet in the country.” A profound meditation on love, death, sex, and sickness, If I Didn’t Love the River speaks directly to the polarizations of our time. Priest’s mastery of dark satire, lyric ebullience, erotic verse, and the pithy maxim is as grat...

Two young friends are separated by a tragic crossed spell, and with war looming, will they be able to find each other again?The rebels have amassed in the ancient Phaer city of Ulde. Amongst the throngs of seasoned warriors and new recruits, young Xemion is at a crossroads. He believes in the cause of his people, and his dream of being a swordfighter is now within reach, but without his warrior beloved, Saheli, by his side, he’s incomplete.The two young fri...

Reverse engineering the word, meme splicing, morpheme replacement therapy, phonetic modifications: these are some of the techniques in play throughout Reading the Bible Backwards, the lyrical thought experiments that make up this eagerly anticipated new collection of poems by Robert Priest. By throwing the Bible and other cultural narratives on the turntable and spinning them backwards, Priest unleashes surprisingly new but strangely familiar music and meaning. Whether the movemen...