According to the Bible, the God of Christianity has a reputation for answering prayer. However, many Christians have been sometimes severely tempted to think they have been sold short as they have found themselves in some crisis and have cried out to God in all sincerity, and found that he has been "out." From years of pastoral experience in addressing crises, and after having to face crises in his own experience, Roger Abbott attempts to help Christians who are struggling with what seem t...

In the Greco-Roman world, gods were known to tame soundscapes, or acoustic landscapes. Zeus, Apollo, Orpheus, and other Classical deities demonstrated their power by bringing order to chaotic sound worlds, replacing cacophony with harmony. In late antiquity, Christians took up this archetype and applied it to Jesus. For many early Christians, the advent of Christ resembled the modern phenomenon of a musical key change, but on a grand scale: Jesus initiated a recalibration of the cosmic sou...

This book presents an in-depth ethnographic case study carried out in the years following the 2010 Haiti earthquake to present the role of faith beliefs in disaster response. The earthquake is one of the most destructive on record, and the aftermath, including a cholera epidemic and ongoing humanitarian aid, has continued for years following the catastrophe.Based on dozens of interviews, this book gives primacy to survivors’ narratives. It begins by laying out the Haitian context, ...

According to Niccolo Machiavelli, leaders must always be prepared for unexpected change, sometimes rapidly and in violent and dramatic forms, in order to retain control of their fate. Philip Abbott applies this insight to U. S. presidents. He identifies six major periods of change in the political economic and international sphere and examines how presidents from Washington to Obama responded to new challenges. How presidents are elected, how they are expected to govern, how the economy fu...

The original version of LATW’s groundbreaking docudrama about the Pentagon Papers, the infamous classified documents about US involvement in the Vietnam War, and how The Washington Post fought the government to publish them.Includes a 1991 panel discussion with journalists Ben Bradlee, Peter Braestrup, Robert Maynard, Carla Robbins, Robert Scheer, and George WilsonRecorded before a live audience at the Guest Quarters Suite Hotel, Santa Monica in March, 1991.Directed...