Short Studies

From the author of the phenomenally successful, New York Times best-selling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency mystery series, comes this spellbinding collection of African folktales from Zimbabwe and Botswana.

In Mules and Men, some of the rich cultural heritage of black America is revealed and preserved. In the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston returned to her home town of Eatonville, Florida, to collect and record the oral histories, songs, and sermons, many dating back to slavery times, that she remembered hearing as a child. These highly metaphorical folktales, "big old lies", and powerful songs helped her to recover her history, and preserve an important part of American culture.

We all know that the mind is an incredible place. Despite this, the mind itself is not programmed to maximize our happiness. It is a repetition-loving mechanism and will often keep us stuck in old outdated patterns that may not serve us. These patterns often pass on from generation to generation. In the Code of the Extraordinary Mind, Vishen Lakhiani teaches us how to break through this outdated and generationally acquired programming to achieve the life we have always wanted. We will review and analyze Lakhiani's book.

Hinduism is practiced by nearly 80 percent of India's population, and by some 70 million people outside India. In this Very Short Introduction, Kim Knott offers a succinct and authoritative overview of this major religion, and analyzes the challenges facing it in the 21st century. She discusses key preoccupations of Hinduism such as the centrality of the Veda as religious texts, the role of Brahmins, gurus, and storytellers in the transmission of divine truths, and the cultural and moral importance of epics such as the Ramayana.

This imaginative and stimulating Very Short Introduction audiobook goes beyond a simple retelling of the stories to explore the rich history and diverse interpretations of classical mythology. It is a wide-ranging account, examining how classical myths are used and understood in both high art and popular culture, taking the listener from the temples of Crete to skyscrapers in New York, and finding classical myths in a variety of unexpected places: from Arabic poetry and Hollywood films, to psychoanalysis, the Bible, and New Age spiritualism.

Based upon a 10,000 year old oral tradition, these stories reflect three essential elements of the cumulative wisdom of Paula Underwood's Native American ancestors. "Who Speaks for Wolf" deals with the human impact on the Earth, "Winter White and Summer Gold" deals with planning for the future, "Many Circles, Many Paths" deals with living together in peace.

Celebrated Irish author Padraic Colum dazzled audiences with his retellings of old Gaelic myths. In The King of Ireland's Son, he imbues seven favorite tales from the Emerald Isle with sly humor, whimsy, and imagination.

As a 41-year-old man confronts his own mortality in this collection's title story, he recalls his Spokane Indian father's chilling death from alcoholism and diabetes. Another tale features an eccentric salesman pursuing a married woman from airport to airport. And then there's the film editor who sees nothing wrong with altering footage to fit preconceived views - until he becomes the target of media distortion.

From 20-year veteran storyteller Pleasant DeSpain, known for reducing folktales to their essence, 20 "retellable" folktales from around the world. Folktales captivate generation after generation because they remind us that our forebears overcame seemingly insurmountable odds and we can, too! Folktale characters show us the best in ourselves; our sense of humor, our perseverance, our resilience that overcomes giant hurdles, and our innate sense of fair play.

Exploring the cultural and institutional dimensions of Christianity and tracing its course over two millennia, Linda Woodhead provides a fresh, lively, and candid portrait of Christianity's past and present. Addressing topics including the competition for power between different forms of Christianity, the churches' use of power, and its struggles with modernity, this new edition includes up-to-date information on the growth and geographical spread of Eastern Christianity, reflecting the global nature of Christianity in our ever-shifting contemporary culture.

The phrase "the meaning of life" for many seems a quaint notion fit for satirical mauling by Monty Python or Douglas Adams. But in this spirited Very Short Introduction, famed critic Terry Eagleton takes a serious if often amusing look at the question and offers his own surprising answer.

With faith, hope, and compassion, acclaimed religion scholar Timothy Beal shows us how to navigate the inevitabilities of the climate crisis and the very real—and very near—possibility of human extinction.

A paradigm-shifting manifesto for transforming our thinking from reactionary short-termism to the long-term, widening our scope beyond today, tomorrow, and to even five hundred years from now to reclaim meaning in our lives.

Tracing the theme of serpents and dragons through both Testaments, trusted scholar Andrew David Naselli demonstrates that these stories reflect our desire to know the ultimate story―the struggle between God’s offspring and the offspring of the serpent. As we come to experience this captivating, unifying narrative, we will rejoice in the ultimate victory of Jesus―the serpent slayer―over the devouring dragon in Revelation.

The theme of divine sonship stretches across the pages of the Bible: from Adam in the garden of Eden, through the nation of Israel and King David, and ultimately to Jesus Christ in the New Jerusalem―the Son of God par excellence. In this volume, renowned biblical scholar Graeme Goldsworthy shows what Christ's fulfillment of the divine sonship motif means for all who are sons and daughters of God.

Though he is right at the heart of everything in theology and faith, the Holy Spirit can be hard to focus on. In this addition to the Short Studies in Systematic Theology series, Fred Sanders teaches his listeners how to hold a proper biblical understanding of both the person and power of the Holy Spirit. New believers and seasoned saints alike will learn about the Holy Spirit’s work in the cosmos, salvation history, and God’s plans for the future. To accomplish this, Sanders explains the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in relation to the Trinity, the Old Testament, and the New Testament.

Reframing your perspective can transform your life. We often face circumstances that we cannot change - a job we are forced to keep, a relationship that did not work out, a decision we cannot take back. The stress of life can overwhelm us, and we may not see past the obstacles in our path. In the face of unwanted challenges, we may despair over our lack of control and long for an easier way out. Laurie Short offers a simple but revolutionary idea: Change nothing that is around you yet still change everything about your life.

What does it mean to be an American? The story of the African American past demonstrates the difficulty of answering this seemingly simple question. This book illuminates the US's core paradoxes, inviting profound questions about what it means to be an American, a citizen, and a human being. This book considers how, for centuries, African Americans have fought for what the black feminist intellectual Anna Julia Cooper called "the cause of freedom." It begins in Jamestown in 1619, when the first shipment of enslaved Africans arrived in that settlement.

When Europeans first arrived in North America, between five and eight million Indigenous people were already living there. But how did they come to be here? What were their agricultural, spiritual, and hunting practices? How did their societies evolve, and what challenges do they face today? Eminent historians Theda Perdue and Michael Green begin by describing how nomadic bands of hunter-gatherers followed the bison and woolly mammoth over the Bering land mass between Asia and what is now Alaska between 25,000 and 15,000 years ago, settling throughout North America.

Since dyslexia was first described in the British Medical Journal in 1896, there has been debate about the definitions and diagnostic procedures used, with some casting doubt on its very existence. However, there is now a considerable body of research regarding the nature and characteristics of this relatively common learning disorder. The contemporary view of dyslexia has emerged from a century of research in medicine, psychology, and more recently, neuroscience, and we now understand enough about this learning disorder to guide policy and practice.