Two thousand five hundred years ago, a teenager wrote down in graphic detail the most concise summary of world history ever recorded, before or since. He predicted the rise and fall of empires, Alexander the Great, the fall of Rome and the dividing of the world into East and West.His last prediction was more foreboding... He saw one more empire yet to come... The New World Order!The Prophecy, known as the Babylonian Chronicle, was thought lost to the ages until it was redisc...

A Journey Through Marital Tales: 52 Storybooks surveys marriage as contract, comedy, ordeal, aspiration, and social institution across an unusually broad transnational archive. Its stories and dramatic selections move from satirical intrigue and drawing-room wit to domestic realism, psychological conflict, sentimental romance, and pointed social critique. Comic reversals, contested inheritances, illicit desires, estranged spouses, and the pressures of respectability recur throughout, while...

The Pleasures of a Single Life, Or, The Miseries of Matrimony offers readers a vibrant exploration of the contrasting joys and tribulations surrounding the institution of marriage, and the alternatives that lay beyond its confines. Ranging from satirical poems to reflective essays, the collection weaves a tapestry of literary styles that probe the societal expectations and individual yearnings of the eighteenth century. This anthology deftly navigates themes of personal freedom, societal c...

By mid-5th century BC, Athens was governed by democratic rule and power turned upon the ability of the citizen to command the attention of the people, and to sway the crowds of the assembly. It was the Sophists who understood the art of rhetoric and the importance of transforming effective reasoning into persuasive public speaking. Their enquiries - into the status of women, slavery, the distinction between Greeks and barbarians, the existence of the gods, the origins of religion, and whet...

As the dawn began to break, James tried to imagine how the next few scenes would play out. The Iraqi Military, armed and dangerous, were honing in on their position and would be there within the hour. David offered protection in a bid to save the artifacts, though he was still half a world away. Tom would meet with David three days hence in Greece and arrange safe passage for the artifacts, provided they could get themselves and the artifacts to Greece. Those monitoring David and Tom's rec...

A leading Catholic historian tells the fascinating story of how the Jesuits shaped the modern worldSince its founding by Ignatius of Loyola in 1540, the Society of Jesus—commonly known as the Jesuits—has played a critical role in the events of modern history.In A Concise History of the Jesuits, Markus Friedrich, a leading historian of the Jesuits in academia, tells the story of the Society of Jesus from its founding to the papacy of Francis, the fi...

All creation sings God's praises. The beauty and wonder of the mountains, alpine lakes, waterfalls, ocean coastline, and desert scenery point to an amazing Creator. Landscape Reflections combines photography from locations throughout the United States with God's Word to encourage readers in their walk with Jesus Christ. Intended as a collection of meditations, it encourages us to worship the Lord in the beauty of his created world. Draw closer to him by dwelling in Scripture and his love f...

This book offers a philosophical approach to tourism as a permanent factor in the lifestyle, economy, and culture of the contemporary global community. Travel to well-known destinations and pursuit of an ever-increasing range of leisure activities are an aspiration of most humans today. Those not themselves engaged in tourist activities are quite often involved in providing the goods and services which make tourism possible. Yet the ill effects of mass tourism and overtourism on sensitive ...

Platonic love is a concept that has profoundly shaped Western literature, philosophy and intellectual history for centuries. First developed in the Symposium and the Phaedrus, it was taken up by subsequent thinkers in antiquity, entered the theological debates of the Middle Ages, and played a key role in the reception of Neoplatonism and the etiquette of romantic relationships during the Italian Renaissance. In this wide-ranging reference work, a leading team of international specialists e...

Regarded as the founder of Neo-Platonism, Plotinus (AD 204-70) was the last great philosopher of antiquity, producing 0works that proved in many ways a precursor to Renaissance thought. Plotinus was convinced of the existence of a state of supreme perfection and argued powerfully that it was necessary to guide the human soul towards this state. Here he outlines his compelling belief in three increasingly perfect levels of existence - the Soul, the Intellect, and the One - and explains his ...

On the General Science of Mathematics is the third of four surviving works out of ten by Iamblichus (c. 245 CE–early 320s) on the Pythagoreans. He thought the Pythagoreans had treated mathematics as essential for drawing the human soul upwards to higher realms described by Plato, and downwards to understand the physical cosmos, the products of arts and crafts and the order required for an ethical life.His Pythagorean treatises use edited quotation to re-tell the h...

The Birth of the Archive traces the history of archives from their emergence in the Late Middle Ages through the Early Modern Period, and vividly shows how archives permeated and fundamentally changed European culture. Archives were compiled and maintained by peasants and kings, merchants and churchmen, and conceptions of archives were as diverse as those who used them. The complex, demanding job of the archivist was just as variable: archivists might serve as custodians, record-k...