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The phenomenon of near-death experiences (NDEs) has fascinated humanity for centuries but remains famously difficult to define and study. This book presents a unique source, integrating historical, clinical, psychological, and neuroscientific approaches toward a modern scientific understanding of NDEs. Featuring exciting clinical and experimental details about processes in dying brains, it examines the physiological and psychological underpinnings of this extraordinary phenomenon. Chapters offer science-based accounts of NDEs as a natural part of the human condition informed by our biology and the remarkable capacities of the brain. By proposing that the origin of NDEs can be found in the physiology-dependent mental processes of the experiencer as expressed in altered states of consciousness, this book provides up-to-date insights for psychologists, psychiatrists, neuroscientists, and philosophers alike.
This commentary on the second epistle of Peter offers a fresh examination of a key New Testament text. Relying on newly available research, A. Chadwick Thornhill brings a multi-pronged approach to his study through his use of a range of methods including narrative theology, and historical, social, cultural, literary, rhetorical, discourse, and linguistic analysis. Thornhill challenges existing paradigms pertaining to the composition of 2 Peter, asks new questions regarding authorship and genre, and revisits the identification of the text as a pseudonymous testament, as it has most recently been understood. His study enables new insights into the letter's message as it would have been understood in its ancient context. Written in an accessible style, Thornhill's commentary concludes by offering reflections on 2 Peter's contributions to the theology of the New Testament and its relevance for the late modern world.
Crude Calculations charts a ground-breaking link between autocratic regime stability and economic liberalization amid the global transition to lower-carbon energy sources. It introduces the rent-conditional reform theory to explain how preserving regime stability constrains economic liberalization in resource-wealthy autocracies and hybrid-regimes. Using comparative case studies of Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, the book traces almost one hundred years of political and legal history to provide a framework for understanding the future of economic liberalization in fossil fuel-rich autocracies. Drawing from archival documents and contemporary interviews, this book explains how natural resource rents are needed to placate threats to regime stability and argues that, contrary to conventional literature, non-democratic, resource-wealthy regimes liberalize their economies during commodity booms and avoid liberalization during downturns. Amid the global energy transition, Crude Calculations details the future political challenges to economic liberalization in fossil fuel-rich autocracies—and why autocracies rich in battery minerals may pursue economic liberalization.
Weimar Germany is often remembered as the ultimate political disaster, a democracy whose catastrophic end directly led to Adolf Hitler's rise. Invisible Fatherland challenges this narrative by recovering the nuanced and sophisticated efforts of Weimar contemporaries to make democracy work in Germany-efforts often obscured by the Republic's eventual collapse. In doing so, Manuela Achilles reveals a unique form of constitutional patriotism that was rooted in openness, compromise, and the capacity to manage conflict. Authoritative yet accessible, Invisible Fatherland contrasts Weimar's pluralistic democratic practices with the rigid tendencies in contemporary thought, including Rudolf Smend's theory of symbolic integration and Karl Löwenstein's concept of militant democracy. Both theories, though influential, restrict the positive potential of open, conflict-driven democratic processes. This study challenges us to appreciate the fundamental fluidity and pluralism of liberal democracy and to reflect on its resilience in the face of illiberal and authoritarian threats-an urgent task in our time.
Antoine Arnauld (1612–1694) was a wide-ranging and influential thinker and one of the most important philosophical and theological figures of his time. He engaged in theological controversies, took part in philosophical correspondences, sparred with Popes and Kings, was expelled from the Sorbonne, and penned texts that would have great influence on subsequent generations of thinkers. In this book on Arnauld, the first book-length systematic study of his philosophical thought to appear in English, Eric Stencil draws on texts from throughout Arnauld's corpus to present an analysis of his philosophical thought, with chapters on method and epistemology, ontology, substance dualism, the mind-body union, ideas and perception, human freedom, modality, knowledge of God, God's nature, and the creation doctrine. His book illuminates the richness and originality of Arnauld's philosophical project and its key contributions to enlightenment-era thought.
In this innovative history, Liang Cai examines newly excavated manuscripts alongside traditional sources to explore convict politics in the early Chinese empires, proposing a new framework for understanding Confucian discussions of law and legal practice. While a substantial number of convict laborers helped operate the local bureaucratic apparatus in early China, the central court reemployed numerous previously convicted men as high officials. Convict politics emerged, she argues, because while the system often criminalized people including the innocent, it was juxtaposed with redemption policies and frequent amnesties in pursuit of a crime-free utopia. This dual system paralyzed the justice system, provoking intense Confucian criticism and resulting in a deep-seated skepticism towards law in the Chinese tradition with a long-lasting political legacy.
Other than Paul, no writer has had greater influence on the theology of justification than Augustine. This landmark study fills an astonishing lacuna in scholarship, offering the first comprehensive study of Augustine's theology of justification. Bringing an innovative approach to the topic, Christopher Mooney follows Augustine's own insistence that justification in Scripture is impossible to define apart from a precise understanding of faith. He argues that Augustine came to distinguish three distinct senses of faith, which are motivated by fear, hope, or love. These three types of faith result in very different accounts of justification. To demonstrate this insight, Mooney offers a developmental reading of Augustine, from his earliest to his latest writings, with special focus on the nature of justification, faith, hope, baptism, Augustine's reading of Paul, the Pelagian controversy, and Christology. Clear and engaging, Mooney's study of Augustine also illuminates numerous related issues, such as his theology of grace, the virtues, biblical exegesis, and the sacraments.
A comprehensive yet concise history of the English language, this accessible textbook helps those studying the subject to understand the formation of English. It tells the story of the language from its remote ancestry to the present day, especially the effects of globalisation and the spread of, and subsequent changes to, English. Now in its third edition, it has been substantially revised and updated in light of new research, with an extended chapter on World Englishes, and a completely updated final chapter, which concentrate on changes to English in the twenty-first century. It makes difficult concepts very easy to understand, and the chapters are set out to make the most of the wide range of topics covered, using dozens of familiar texts, including the English of King Alfred, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Addison. It is accompanied by a website with exercises for each chapter, and a range of extra resources.
The book offers a critical and comprehensive examination of the concept of NIAC, including its normative foundations, threshold of activation, and corresponding personal, geographical, and temporal scope of applicability under International Humanitarian Law. It identifies and critically examines some of the most controversial aspects of modern NIACs, including notions of a 'global battlefield' and 'forever war' and provides practical guidance on identifying NIACs in real time. It is essential reading for international law academics, students and practitioners. This title is part of the Flip it Open Programme and may also be available open access. Check our website Cambridge Core for details.
Why have some churches in Africa engaged in advocacy for stronger liberal democratic institutions while others have not? Faith in Democracy explores this question, emphasizing the benefits of liberal democratic protections for some churches. The book explains how churches' historic investments create different autocratic risk exposure, as states can more easily regulate certain activities – including social service provision – than others. In situations where churches have invested in schools as part of their evangelization activities, which create high autocratic risk, churches have incentives to defend liberal democratic institutions to protect their control over them. This theory also explains how church fiscal dependence on the state interacts with education provision to change incentives for advocacy. Empirically, the book demonstrates when churches engage in democratic activism, drawing on church-level data from across the continent, and the effects of church activism, drawing on micro-level evidence from Zambia, Tanzania and Ghana.
In this volume, David Litwa offers a fresh introduction to the 'gnostic Bible,' arguably the most significant and widely read of all gnostic Christian texts ever written. Providing a fresh introduction to a particular version of the Secret Book of John, namely the shorter version that is found in Nag Hammadi Codex III, his study includes a new translation of this text and an extensive commentary in which he introduces the notable features of this codex and interrogates whether the Secret Book emerged from an actual gnostic community. Litwa also posits solutions to many questions related to this text, notably: its date and find spot, its relationship to the treatise known and summarized by Irenaeus in the late second century, its interpretation and re-creation of the book of Genesis for Christian readers, its novel interpretation of Greco-Roman philosophy, its foundations in apostolic authority, and the reception of the Secret Book of John in late antiquity, well into the fifth century CE.
David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion were published posthumously in 1779 and are considered one of the most important contributions to the philosophy of religion. Throughout Hume's philosophical career his views on religion were highly controversial and many of his own contemporaries regarded his philosophy as a defence of atheism and irreligion. The Dialogues is Hume's final and his most definitive statement of his views on this subject. In this Critical Guide, leading scholars engage with topics including the argument from intelligent design, the cosmological argument, the problem of evil, religion and morality, miracles, suicide and immortality, and the natural origins and roots of religious belief. The volume updates and expands our critical understanding of this major philosophical work, and will be of interest to a range of readers in philosophy, religion, and the history of ideas.
The Gospel of Truth is an early Christian homily in which an anonymous and independent-minded teacher communicates his understanding of the core Christian message to his own immediate circle and a wider audience elsewhere. For this author, the gospel is the good news that in the person of Jesus, the divine Father has made himself known to his elect, calling them out of a nightmare-like existence in ignorance and illusion into the knowledge of himself. In this volume, Francis Watson provides a new and accessible translation of this text, along with a thorough analysis of it, both in its own terms and in its reception by later readers. He argues that its closest affinities lie with New Testament texts such as the Gospel of John and the Pauline letters. Watson also demonstrates how The Gospel of Truth is a work of literary quality and theological originality and why it deserves the attention of all students and scholars of early Christianity.
Bring life to your curriculum with this comprehensive, yet versatile book that explores core disaster medicine principles through vivid emergency medicine cases. Each case has been crafted to suit a wide range of learners-from novice to practitioner. The ready-to-teach cases are scalable and customizable to any learning environment, from low-resource teaching settings to high-fidelity simulation labs. Covering the basics of simulation to advanced disaster response strategies, cases cover natural and human-made disasters, including pandemics, building collapses, mass gathering medicine and blast injuries, providing hands-on learning opportunities that can be used to enhance understanding and retention. Each case follows a standard structure including teaching objectives, discussion points, a timeline and critical actions. With a mix of scenarios and flexible application, this resource will ensure every learner is prepared with the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate complexities associated with real-world emergencies while learning core disaster medicine principles.
Arguments from failure – arguments that an institution must expand its powers because another institution is failing in some way 'to do its job' - are commonplace. From structural reform litigation where courts sometimes assume administrative or legislative functions, to the Uniting for Peace Resolution of the UN General Assembly, to the recent bill quashing British subpostmasters' convictions, such arguments are offered in justification for unorthodox exercises of public power. But in spite of their popularity, we lack a good understanding of these arguments in legal terms. This is partly because failure itself is a highly malleable concept and partly because arguments from failure blur into other more familiar legal doctrines about implied powers or emergencies. Michaela Hailbronner argues that we can do better: we should recognize arguments from failure as a distinct concept of public law and harness the tools of contemporary constitutional theory to evaluate such arguments in different settings.
A manual for those working with addicted populations (from lay counsellors to psychiatrists) for delivering the evidence-based Recovery Resilience Program (RRP). RRP is a person-centered, strength and resiliency-based relapse prevention and recovery-oriented intervention that works in synergy with other models, especially 12-Step programs. Presenting practices that enhance 'recovery resilience' – an individual's capacity to effectively apply coping and self-regulation skills in dealing with cravings, triggers, stress, and high-risk situations without reverting to substance use. The program helps individuals to enhance and use their recovery capital at any stage of recovery, and ultimately reach recovery and life goals. It effortlessly integrates with other evidence-based relapse programs, from the original cognitive-behavioral approaches to the newer mindfulness-based and metacognitive approaches. Written by clinicians who have worked with addicts and their families for many decades, the program is easy-to-implement and very little preparation is necessary with handouts and PowerPoints included in each session.
More than sixty years after Turkey's Democrat Party was removed from office by a military coup and three of its leaders hanged, it remains controversial. For some, it was the defender of a more democratic political order and founder of a dominant center-right political coalition; for others, it ushered in an era of corruption, religious reaction, and subordination to American influence. This study moves beyond such stark binaries. Reuben Silverman details the party's establishment, development, rule, and removal from power, showing how its leaders transformed themselves from champions of democracy and liberal economics to advocates of illiberal policies. To understand this change, Silverman draws on periodicals and archival documents to detail the Democrat Party's continuity with Turkey's late Ottoman and early republican past as well as the changing nature of the American-led Cold War order in which it actively participated.