This book explores the idea that while we see the vampire as a hero of romance, or as a member of an oppressed minority struggling to fit in and acquire legal recognition, the vampire has in many ways changed beyond recognition over recent decades due to radically shifting formations of the sacred in contemporary culture. The figure of the vampire has captured the popular imagination to an unprecedented extent since the turn of the millennium. The philosopher René Girard associates the sac...

A unique interreligious dialogue provides needed context for deeper understanding of interfaith relations, from ancient to modern timesFreedom is far from straightforward as a topic of comparative theology. While it is often identified with modernity and even postmodernity, freedom has long been an important topic for reflection by both Christians and Muslims, discussed in both the Bible and the Quran. Each faith has a different way of engaging with the idea of fre...

The Politics of Sanitation in India examines how the environmental problems confronting Indian cities have arisen and subsequently forced millions of people to live in illegal settlements that lack adequate sanitation, and other basic urban services. This has occurred because of two factors. The first is the legacy of the colonial city characterised by inequitable access to sanitation services, a failure to manage urban growth and the proliferation of slums, and the inadequate funding of u...

The book of Leviticus provides two different theologies related to God’s presence within ancient Israel. Leviticus 1–16 was written by an elite caste of priests (P), and Leviticus 17–26 (H) was added to the book to “democratize” access to God. While the Priestly work has hardly inspired lay readers, the Holiness Writings provide some of the most inspiring and well-known verses from the Bible.This volume shows how gender dynamics shift between the static worldview of P and the dynam...

In Harry Potter and Philosophy, seventeen philosophical experts unlock some of Hogwarts' secret panels, and uncover surprising insights that are enlightening both for wizards and the most discerning muggles.

Twenty-three essays by young professional philosophers examine crucial ethical and metaphysical aspects of the Buffyverse (the world of Buffy). Though the show already attracted much scholarly attention, this is the first book to fully disinter the intellectual issues. Designed by Whedon as a multilevel story with most of its meanings deeply buried in heaps of heavy irony, Buffy the Vampire Slayer has replaced The X-Files as the show that explains to Americans the nature of the powerful fo...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An immensely persuasive work of literary criticism that opens a new chapter in the American dialogue on race—and promises to change the way we read American literature—from the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner"[Morrison] boldly...reimagines and remaps the possibility of America."—Chicago TribuneMorrison shows how much the themes of freedom and individualism, manhood and innocence, depended on the existence of a bl...

We have all wondered about the meaning of life. But is there an answer? And do we even really know what we're asking? Terry Eagleton takes a stimulating and quirky look at this most compelling of questions: at the answers explored in philosophy and literature; at the crisis of meaning in modern times; and suggests his own solution to how we might rediscover meaning in our lives.

From the vogue for nubile models to the explosion in the juvenile crime rate, this modern classic of social history and media traces the precipitous decline of childhood in America today−and the corresponding threat to the notion of adulthood.Deftly marshaling a vast array of historical and demographic research, Neil Postman, author of Technopoly, suggests that childhood is a relatively recent invention, which came into being as the new medium of print imposed divisions be...

Hidden behind the much-touted success story of India’s emergence as an economic superpower is another, far more complex narrative of the nation’s recent history, one in which economic development is frequently countered by profoundly unsettling, and often violent, political movements. In Democracy against Development, Jeffrey Witsoe investigates this counter-narrative, uncovering an antagonistic relationship between recent democratic mobilization and development-oriented governanc...

'Boserup's contribution to our thinking on women?s role in development cannot be underestimated. Her keen observations, her use of empirical data and her commitment to greater gender equality are still an inspiration to students, researchers and activists who are interested in a better and more equal world.' From the new Introduction by Nazneen Kanji, Su Fei Tan and Camilla Toulmin 'Women?s Role in Economic Development has become a key reference book for anyone - student, scholar, or pract...

Learn to search for the truth that's out there in essays about what "may be the most philosophically challenging series in the history of television" (Paul A. Cantor, author of Gilligan Unbound: Pop Culture in the Age of Globalization).In The Philosophy of The X-Files, Dean A. Kowalski has gathered a remarkable cast of contributors to shed light on the philosophical mysteries of the television show The X-Files. With sections devoted to th...