Author: Derrick Jensen File Type: epub The long-awaited companion piece to Derrick Jensens immensely popular and highly acclaimed works A Language Older Than Words and The Culture of Make Believe. Accepting the increasingly widespread belief that industrialized culture inevitably erodes the natural world, Endgame sets out to explore how this relationship impels us towards a revolutionary and as-yet undiscovered shift in strategy. Building on a series of simple but increasingly provocative premises, Jensen leaves us hoping for what may be inevitable a return to agrarian communal life via the disintegration of civilization itself.**From Publishers WeeklyThe author, who in earlier books like The Culture of Make Believe discussed his experience of violence and abuse as a child, calls now for determined and even violent resistance to environmental degradation. Jensen comes across in volume I as a provocative but personable philosopher-activist who in lyrical and witty writing bemoans species extinction, sullied air quality, shrinking icecaps, expanding deserts and vanishing forests wrought by humans. But Jensen believes this culture will not undergo any sort of voluntary transformation to a sane and sustainable way of living. Civilization, he says in volume II, is killing the planet, so [c]ivilization needs to be brought down now. Jensen dwells through several chapters on the need to destroy tens of thousands of river dams, whether with pickax-wielding citizen armies or through the use of well-placed explosive charges other chapters consider how simple it would be to paralyze the American capitalist system if small activist cells were to disrupt railway, highway, pipeline and other elements of commercial infrastructure. Jensen clearly feels a close connection to nature, writes movingly about the hoped-for return of the salmon, the trees, the grizzly bears. But he has become so disgusted with what he calls civiluzation that he has more compassion for the salmon than for his fellow humans. (June) Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. From Booklist Jensen, author of A Language Older than Words (2000) and The Culture of Make Believe (2002), has a deserved reputation as a writer of consequence and conscience who has pursued an environmentalist message with great fervor. In his latest work, however, a two-volume manifesto, he argues for the necessary destruction of civilization to save the world. Jensen posits his case against industrial development through discussion of everything from dams to the use of torture by the U.S. military. Endgame touches on numerous valid and necessary subjects, but Jensens strident tone and heavy reliance on sources that fully support his message weaken his presentation. And when he offers solutions for the problems we face, he preaches violence. Clearly he is passionate, but apparently the success of his earlier books has led to his writing only for those who already agree with him, rather than crafting a balanced discussion that allows readers to come to their own conclusions. Jensen has become an extremist, and he may have done his cause the worst possible service by alienating the readers he most needs to inspire. Colleen Mondor American Library Association. lt

Author: Norman Bryson File Type: pdf

Author: Alexander N. Kirk File Type: pdf What was Pauls attitude toward his own death? How did he act and what did he say and write in view of it? What hopes did he hold for himself beyond death? These questions are explored by Alexander N. Kirk through a close reading of four Pauline letters that look forward to Pauls death and other relevant texts in the first two generations after Pauls death (AD 70-160). Thus, this book is a study of Pauls death in prospect and retrospect. Starting with the latter, Alexander N. Kirk examines portraits of the departed Paul in Acts, 1 Clement, the letters of Ignatius, Polycarps letter To the Philippians, and the Martyrdom of Paul. Viewed as a part of Pauls early effective history, these early portraits of Paul offer substantial resources for the interpretation of his letters. The second half of the thesis examines portraits of the departing Paul in 1 and 2 Corinthians, Philippians, and 2 Timothy, arguing that Pauls death did not primarily present an existential challenge, but apastoral one. Although touching upon several areas of recent scholarly interest, Alexander N. Kirk sets forth a new research question and fresh interpretations of early Christian and Pauline texts.

Author: Ross King File Type: epub In 1508, despite strong advice to the contrary, the powerful Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo Buonarroti to paint the ceiling of the newly restored Sistine Chapel in Rome. Despite having completed his masterful statue David four years earlier, he had little experience as a painter, even less working in the delicate medium of fresco, and none with challenging curved surfaces such as the Sistine ceilings vaults. The temperamental Michelangelo was himself reluctant He stormed away from Rome, incurring Juliuss wrath, before he was eventually persuaded to begin. Michelangelo and the Popes Ceiling recounts the fascinating story of the four extraordinary years he spent laboring over the twelve thousand square feet of the vast ceiling, while war and the power politics and personal rivalries that abounded in Rome swirled around him. A panorama of illustrious figures intersected during this time-the brilliant young painter Raphael, with whom Michelangelo formed a rivalry the fiery preacher Girolamo Savonarola and the great Dutch scholar Desiderius Erasmus a youthful Martin Luther, who made his only trip to Rome at this time and was disgusted by the corruption all around him. Ross King blends these figures into a magnificent tapestry of day-to-day life on the ingenious Sistine scaffolding and outside in the upheaval of early-sixteenth-century Italy, while also offering uncommon insight into the connection between art and history.**Amazon.com ReviewAlmost 500 years after Michelangelo Buonarroti frescoed the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, the site still attracts throngs of visitors and is considered one of the artistic masterpieces of the world. Michelangelo and the Popes Ceiling unveils the story behind the arts making, a story rife with all the drama of a modern-day soap opera.The temperament of the day was dictated by the politics of the papal court, a corrupt and powerful office steeped in controversy Pope Julius II even had a nickname, Il Papa Terrible, to prove it. Along with his violent outbursts and warmongering, Pope Julius II took upon himself to restore the Sistine Chapel and pretty much intimidated Michelangelo into painting the ceiling even though the artist considered himself primarily a sculptor and was particularly unfamiliar with the temperamental art of fresco. Along with technical difficulties, personality conflicts, and money troubles, Michelangelo was plagued by health problems and competition in the form of the dashing and talented young painter Raphael.Author Ross King offers an in-depth analysis of the complex historical background that led to the magnificence that is the Sistine Chapel ceiling along with detailed discussion of some of the ceilings panels. King provides fabulous tidbits of information and weaves together a fascinating historical tale. --J.P. CohenFrom Publishers Weekly When Pope Julius II saw Michelangelos Pieta, he determined to have his grand tomb made by the artist. Summoned from Florence to Rome in 1508, Michelangelo found himself on the losing side of a competition between architects and the victim of a plot to force a hopeless task upon him-frescoing the vault of the Sistine Chapel. How the sculptor met this painterly challenge is the matter of this popular account, which demythologizes and dramatizes without hectoring or debasing. Forget cinematic images of Charlton Heston flat on his back-Michelangelos head tipped back, his body bent like a bow, his beard and paintbrush pointing to heaven, and his face spattered with paint is excruciating enough to sustain the legend. King (Brunelleschis Dome) re-creates Michelangelos day-to-day world the assistants who worked directly on the Sistine Chapel, the continuing rivalry with Raphael and the figures who had much to do with his world if not his art (da Vinci, Savonarola, Ariosto, Machiavelli, Martin Luther, Erasmus), including the steely Julius II. King makes the familiar fresh, reminding the reader of the novelty of Michelangelos image of God and how completely unheard of in previous depictions of the ancestors of Christ was his use of women. Technical matters (making pigments, foreshortening) are lucidly handled. The 16 color and 30 b&w illustrations were not seen by PW, but should add further specifics to a nicely grounded piece of historical dramatization. 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.