Author: Daniel J Crowther File Type: pdf In the current political and social climate, there is increasing demand for a deeper understanding of Muslims, the Quran and Islam, as well as a keen demand among Muslim scholars to explore ways of engaging with Christians theologically, culturally, and socially. This book explores the ways in which an awareness of Islam and the Quran can change the way in which the Bible is read. The contributors come from both Muslim and Christian backgrounds, bring various levels of commitment to the Quran and the Bible as Scripture, and often have significantly different perspectives. The first section of the book contains chapters that compare the report of an event in the Bible with a report of the same event in the Quran. The second section addresses Muslim readings of the Bible and biblical tradition and looks at how Muslims might regard the Bible - Can they recognise it as Scripture? If so, what does that mean, and how does it relate to the Quran as Scripture? Similarly, how might Christian readers regard the Quran? The final section explores different analogies for understanding the Bible in relation to the Quran. The book concludes with a reflection upon the particular challenges that await Muslim scholars who seek to respond to Jewish and Christian understandings of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. A pioneering venture into intertextual reading, this book has important implications for relationships between Christians and Muslims. It will be of significant value to scholars of both Biblical and Quranic Studies, as well as any Muslim seeking to deepen their understanding of the Bible, and any Christian looking to transform the way in which they read the Bible. **About the Author Danny Crowther is a postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies, and an Associate Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religions at the University of Oxford, UK. Shirin Shafaie is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies, Oxford and teaches Middle East Politics at SOAS, University of London. She is also the founder and director of Visual Academics LTD. hr Ida Glaser is director of The Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies and a lecturer at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, UK. hr Shabbir Akhtar is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Muslim-Christian Studies and a Member of the Faculty of Theology and Religions at the University of Oxford, UK.

Author: Donald Maass File Type: pdf Discover the Difference Between a So-So Manuscript and a Novel Readers Cant Forget Weve all read them novels by our favorite authors that disappoint. Uninspired and lifeless, we wonder what happened. Was the author in a hurry? Did she have a bad year? Has he lost interest altogether? Something similar is true of a great many unpublished manuscripts. They are okay stories that never take flight. They dont grip the imagination, let alone the heart. They merit only a shrug and a polite dismissal by agents and editors. It doesnt have to be that way. In The Fire in Fiction, successful literary agent and author Donald Maass shows you not only how to infuse your story with deep conviction and fiery passion, but how to do it over and over again. The book features ul lTechniques for capturing a special time and place, creating characters whose lives matter, nailing multiple-impact plot turns, making the supernatural real, infusing issues into fiction, and more.l lStory-enriching exercises at the end of every chapter to show you how to apply the practical tools just covered to your own work.l lRich examples drawn from contemporary novels as diverse as The Lake House, Water for Elephants, and Jennifer Government to illustrate how various techniques work in actual stories.l ul Plus, Maass introduces an original technique that any novelist can use any time, in any scene, in any novel, even on the most uninspired day...to take the most powerful experiences from your personal life and turn those experiences directly into powerful fiction. Tap into The Fire in Fiction, and supercharge your story with originality and spark! **About the Author Donald Maass is president of the Donald Maass Literary Agency in New York, which he founded in 1980. He represents more than 100 fiction writers and sells more than 100 novels per year to top publishers in America and overseas. He is himself the author of fourteen pseudonymous novels and of the books The Career Novelist (Heineman, 1996), Writing the Breakout Novel (Writers Digest Books, 2001) and Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook (Writers Digest Books, 2004). He is a past president of the Association of Authors Representatives, Inc. (AAR). Don tours the country giving one-day workshops based on his popular book, Writing the Breakout Novel. www.maassagency.com

Author: Daniel R. Denicola File Type: pdf Ignorance is trending. Politicians boast, Im not a scientist. Angry citizens object to a proposed state motto because it is in Latin, and This is America, not Mexico or Latin America. Lack of experience, not expertise, becomes a credential. Fake news and repeated falsehoods are accepted and shape firm belief. Ignorance about American government and history is so alarming that the ideal of an informed citizenry now seems quaint. Conspiracy theories and false knowledge thrive. This may be the Information Age, but we do not seem to be well informed. In this book, philosopher Daniel DeNicola explores ignorance -- its abundance, its endurance, and its consequences. DeNicola aims to understand ignorance, which seems at first paradoxical. How can the unknown become known -- and still be unknown? But he argues that ignorance is more than a lack or a void, and that it has dynamic and complex interactions with knowledge. Taking a broadly philosophical approach, DeNicola examines many forms of ignorance, using the metaphors of ignorance as place, boundary, limit, and horizon. He treats willful ignorance and describes the culture in which ignorance becomes an ideological stance. He discusses the ethics of ignorance, including the right not to know, considers the supposed virtues of ignorance, and concludes that there are situations in which ignorance is morally good. Ignorance is neither pure nor simple. It is both an accusation and a defense (You are ignorant! Yes, but I didnt know!). Its practical effects range from the inconsequential to the momentous. It is a scourge, but, DeNicola argues daringly, it may also be a refuge, a value, even an accompaniment to virtue. **

Author: Brian Sutton-Smith File Type: pdf Every child knows what it means to play, but the rest of us can merely speculate. Is it a kind of adaptation, teaching us skills, inducting us into certain communities? Is it power, pursued in games of prowess? Fate, deployed in games of chance? Daydreaming, enacted in art? Or is it just frivolity? Brian Sutton-Smith, a leading proponent of play theory, considers each possibility as it has been proposed, elaborated, and debated in disciplines from biology, psychology, and education to metaphysics, mathematics, and sociology. Sutton-Smith focuses on play theories rooted in seven distinct rhetoricsthe ancient discourses of Fate, Power, Communal Identity, and Frivolity and the modern discourses of Progress, the Imaginary, and the Self. In a sweeping analysis that moves from the question of play in child development to the implications of play for the Western work ethic, he explores the values, historical sources, and interests that have dictated the terms and forms of play put forth in each discourses objective theory. This work reveals more distinctions and disjunctions than affinities, with one striking exception however different their descriptions and interpretations of play, each rhetoric reveals a quirkiness, redundancy, and flexibility. In light of this, Sutton-Smith suggests that play might provide a model of the variability that allows for natural selection. As a form of mental feedback, play might nullify the rigidity that sets in after successful adaption, thus reinforcing animal and human variability. Further, he shows how these discourses, despite their differences, might offer the components for a new social science of play. **Review Brian Sutton-Smith presents a lively, contemplative and challenging theoretical discussion of the category of diverse learningsthat make up play Sutton-Smith presents a variety of play dimensions that cause disturbance of theoretical certainty and bring together hitherto unconnected ideas on play in the tradition of creativity. The book explores its chosen rhetorics in a scholarly and yet undeniably accessible way. The material included is multi-faceted and multi-layered, drawing on theories across the centuries and presenting a case for a new look at play. Play is taken beyond the rhetoric of progress, leaving the reader alive and alert to the possibilities of play that transcend generations and cultures. (Jill Williams British Journal of Educational Studies) This book provides a comprehensive analysis of extant theory and research on the subject of play in children and adults in a variety of cultural contexts with relevant comparisons to play in nonhuman species. The work is thorough and well referenced and provides new insights on a classic topic in childrens social development. The primary issue addressed is the ambiguous nature of play. Although we have a sense of what constitutes play, when asked to define it, explain its function, or even identify players, its paradoxical nature becomes apparentit is and is not what it appears to be. Does and does not have a function, is and is not the purview of children. (Child Development Abstracts & Bibliography) A wonderful and important book. Its strength is its depth and its breadth. Play is discussed in incredibly close detail, and from diverse perspectives from anthropology to zoology, to literary criticism and biology. This work represents the one most thorough discussion of play that we have. (Anthony Pellegrini, University of Georgia) A stunning book and a superbly scholarly undertaking which will make it impossible to discuss play in the simplistic terms we are accustomed to. (Greta Fein, University of Maryland at College Park) The Ambiguity of Play is an extremely important contribution to theoretical discussions about play not only in the United States but around the world. The book provides a platform for further theoretical reflection, interdisciplinary dialogue, and for critical examination of long-held beliefs about child development and education. Sutton-Smith succeeds at maintaining a playful tone throughout, and lives up in his own rhetoric to the topic at hand. (Petra Hesse, Wheelock College) Review A wonderful and important book. Its strength is its depth and its breadth. Play is discussed in incredibly close detail, and from diverse perspectives from anthropology to zoology, to literary criticism and biology. This work represents the one most thorough discussion of play that we have. (Anthony Pellegrini, University of Georgia)