This chapter examines the role of Greek philosophy in forming the worldview of the Byzantine Church. It begins with the fundamental identification of God as the Good (in the Platonic sense of the Form of the Good) found in the Cappadocian Fathers. This identification provides the basis for a number of characteristic themes in Byzantine theology, including the primacy of the experience of God over theoretical inquiry; the need for poetic imagery in describing God; the naturalness of virtue; and the active role of God within human choice. The chapter also examines a further important Platonic theme, the understanding of the Divine Liturgy as a form of participation in heavenly worship. It ends by noting a number of ways in which Greek philosophy factored into later developments, including the rise of ‘Byzantine scholasticism’ based on Aristotle and the Neoplatonism of Michael Psellos and his followers.

This chapter focuses on the development of Prince Aurangzeb’s princely harem and his evolving relationship, as emperor, with the imperial harem. In evaluating the former, attention is paid to his marriages, rivalries between his wives, and the ways his harem was buffeted by his shifting political fortunes. Post-accession, the focus shifts to Alamgir’s negotiations and relations with the imperial harem, his dependence on his sisters, the harem’s role in safeguarding the continuity of the dynasty and in healing old political wounds, the rise of dissent within the harem in the late 1670s and early 1680s, and the remarkable career of ‘Alamgir’s daughter Zinat al-Nisa. The final section looks at an extraordinary brief period in Mughal history when the imperial harem, for the only time in its history, was split, with one section in the Deccan with ‘Alamgir and the other in Shahjahanabad/Delhi, where it anchored imperial authority in the city, contributed to a lively cultural scene, and acted as a beacon for a possible return of the imperial court to northern India once ‘Alamgir had passed away.

Starting from Dennis T. Olson’s suggestion of the theme of the change of generations as the key to a theological interpretation, this chapter deepens the analysis of this theme and considers how Numbers addresses questions of sin, God’s “visiting the iniquity” on the third to fourth generation, and the possibility of forgiveness of sin.

Chapter 20 focuses on Lima Barreto’s 1915 masterpiece, Triste fim de Policarpo Quaresma. The novel pits the ethical ideal of Policarpo Quaresma against the widespread corruption of Brazilian society under the First Republic. It suggests that individuals tend to act with more integrity when alone than when part of a group. The story reaches a dead end when Quaresma, with his naive idealism, tries to apply his values within society. His “sad end” raises key questions about the tension between personal ethics and collective action – questions that reveal Lima Barreto’s conservative perspectives, as the chapter demonstrates. This chapter deepens the conversation on ethics and praxis by interpreting the novel through the lens of ancient Stoicism contrasted with modern Marxism. The result is an ironic effect: Lima Barreto hopes to inspire social change through literature, yet his literary hero fails to bring that change to life.

This chapter will trace the importance of charity and almsgiving as an inherited component of Christianity in general, as a particular duty of care in Byzantine society, and as an expression and physical manifestation of the theology of Byzantine Christianity. After a brief introduction to the cultural origins and scriptural roots of charity and almsgiving, this chapter will explore the theological rationale of charity and almsgiving specific to expressions of Byzantine Christianity and will identify select charitable institutions and significant almsgivers.

This chapter analyzes the classification of “Gulf literature,” arguing that this geographical categorization inaccurately limits the diverse cultural and global contexts found in novels by authors from the Gulf countries. It posits that such a demarcation fragments Arabic literature and often perpetuates Orientalist clichés. Using Mohammed Hasan Alwan’s Ibn Arabi‟s Small Death as a case study, the chapter points to the ways in which the novel transcends regional boundaries through its engagement with Sufism and universal philosophical questions, displacing a narrow Saudi Arabian identity. It challenges the tendency to reduce Gulf literature to sociocultural or nationalist critiques, advocating for a comparative reading approach that recognizes its sophisticated artistic and intellectual contributions and its ability to destabilize conventional literary classifications.

This epilogue discusses the significance of the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr on July 11, 1804; the reconciliation of John Adams and Charles Holt; and consideration of the book themes in the context of today.

This chapter looks at a wide range of New York printers in a metropolis that had transformed itself from a one newspaper town into a veritable “City of Print” by the 1790s. By this time, numerous publishing concerns produced works across many fields of knowledge representing a wide range of positions, leading to one of the most cultivated and literate urban centers in the colonies. It was an age of clubs and associations, such as the Friendly Club, the Manumission Society, the Mechanics Society, and the New York Typographical Society, which also produced their own publications. In 1787 appeared an oration by Jupiter Hammon entitled “An Address to the Negroes in the State of New-York” that expounded on the means to achieve racial equality. In the midst of so many prints and papers doused in revolutionary ink also came a reaction to free and open discussion. With the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, New York papers became embroiled in a dispute now directed not against the British but against their political opponents. The chapter concludes with a discussion of Alexander Hamilton's defense of Harry Croswell in 1804, which led to the codification of state and federal law, permitting the criticism of public figures by media outlets.

Chapter 21 focuses on Mário de Andrade’s 1928 Macunaíma and explores the connection between the author and the Amazon. It does so by examining the novel alongside Andrade’s travel diary, which records his 1927 expedition to the Amazon from May to August. This diary was published posthumously in 1976 as O turista aprendiz. While earlier studies have primarily relied on ethnographic sources – especially Koch-Grünberg, but also João Barbosa Rodrigues, Capistrano de Abreu, and Couto de Magalhães – as the main influences on Andrade’s Macunaíma, this chapter adds a new dimension by bringing in Andrade’s own travel diary. It also places Andrade’s work in a broader context by referencing other Brazilian and foreign travelers to the Amazon, showing how he blended their accounts with his own experiences. In this way, O turista aprendiz acts as a kind of “anteroom” to Macunaíma, both complementing the novel and offering a key to understanding it.

Chapter 5 focuses on racial disparities in the social security disability programs, commencing with examination of a much-discussed, extensive 1992 US General Accounting Office study of the topic documenting unexplained racial disparities in Social Security Act disability approval decisions, followed by other General Accounting Office reports and other studies revealing additional racial disparities in aspects of Social Security Act disability adjudication. The chapter then contextualizes the disability standards and their statutory elements and processes and explores the social construction of disability thereunder. It also examines the socially constructed, nonbiological concept of race, as differentiated from class, and also the intersectionality of race and disability, to provide a theoretical and substantive framework for examination of bias in pain and symptomology assessments. It includes studies of misevaluation, mistreatment, and undertreatment of Black patients’ pain and subjective symptomology, including psychiatric conditions, by doctors, therapists, and other treatment professionals, along with subsequent Social Security Act Administrative Law Judge bias in decision-making. It also examines the racial impact of misevaluation of claimants with Sickle Cell Disease – a pain-producing condition disproportionately afflicting African Americans. The chapter concludes with a series of remedial recommendations for monitoring and ameliorating racial bias and racially disparate decision-making in Social Security Act disability adjudications.

Minerva Historicals told something like a sequential counter-history of England from the earliest attacks of the Vikings to the Monmouth Rebellion against Charles II in the late seventeenth century. Focusing on moments of crisis, conflict and war, they debated pressing contemporary issues of monarchical succession, political legitimacy, power, violence, loyalty, treason, ambition, war and civil war in disguised censor-evading ways. Centering their fiction on family relationships within and between noble or royal houses gave these histories a domestic cast, but this accurately reflected the historical reality of monarchical and baronial government before Parliament gained ascendancy over the royal household during the nineteenth century, and wrote women at all ranks back into history. The last section shows Anna Maria Mackenzie, Agnes Musgrave and anonymous others answering criticism of the genre by arguing the superior truth of historical fiction to supposedly “true” conjectural histories and teaching readers how to evaluate an historical narrative’s relation to fact.

In this chapter, we will briefly look at some topics germane to earlier chapters that did not otherwise fit. These topics would require full chapters, if not books, to cover in appropriate detail. Rather than provide full coverage, we will provide the reader a brief overview of the topics. We will begin with alternative proof systems for relevant logics (Section 13.2).

Euclides da Cunha’s Os sertões is a detailed account of the Canudos War (1896–97). It’s not fiction, but many writers have used it as a source for their stories. The most famous international example is Mario Vargas Llosa’s La guerra del fin del mundo, published in 1981. Chapter 7 also points out three other foreign novels and eleven Brazilian books that rely heavily on da Cunha’s work. Focusing mainly on text analysis, the chapter reviews the eleven Brazilian novels, from Afonso Arinos de Melo Franco’s Os jagunços (1898) to José Huguenin’s O vaqueiro e o jornalista (2018). Os sertões also influenced major classic works, including Graciliano Ramos’ Vidas secas (1938) and Guimarães Rosa’s Grande sertão: veredas, both shaped by da Cunha’s important essay.