This text examines a series of pervasive themes of human existence and the challenges of being and relating. Areas investigated include: the nature and meaning of being different; possessiveness and being possessed; and dimensions of loneliness, mystery and self-disclosure.

At a time of increasing financial pressure on families - as well as the services that support them - children are doubly disadvantaged. The economical mass-provision of proven approaches appears to be an unquestionable strategy. In this frank and revealing book, written by an experienced child and adolescent psychiatrist of eclectic and questioning persuasion, the argument is made that we are travelling in the wrong direction. A blinkered pursuit of empirical evidence and uniform delivery is leading us away from any sensitive and reciprocal relationship between caring professionals and the young individuals whose interests they are there to serve. Drawing on attachment and psychodynamic approaches, as well as systemic, values-based and mindful practice, Being With and Saying Goodbye describes an attitude that should be the prerequisite and medium of all child and adolescent work that has therapeutic intention. Unacknowledged, even reviled, this ghost in the machine is threatened with extinction.

Brings together articles that influenced the scholarly work of Ralph McInerny.

The book seeks to answer the following main questions: What is meant by happiness? What are the sources of happiness? What is meant by the well-being of man? What is the end in human life? When can we say that a man is successful in life? How can he be happy and successful? It is argued that happiness is not pleasure; it does not come through high income and consumption; beyond certain levels income and consumption cause dissatisfaction, unhappiness and alienation. The book upholds the Aristotelian view that happiness means living well – living a life of excellence. It discusses how moral judgment and habituation help the development of good life. It analyses paths of spiritual liberation, the highest state of human happiness. It also argues for a liberal state where people enjoy different negative and positive freedoms making possible flourishing of human diversities

The confession the church makes to the world sits oddly in the contemporary cultural complex. Intellectual fashions in the marketplace of ideas have moved beyond an accommodation of biblical-theological categories. Philosophy is unsure of its status in an amorphous postmodernism, and theology threatens to degenerate into intellectual experimentation. They have become mutually suspicious and hesitant of conversation. But a heavy fault lies with the church's own confessional status. For what is it the church has to say to the world? Has it preserved confessional continuity with the Reformation theology that rediscovered its biblical foundations and liberated it from intellectual and confessional shackles? Has the church surrendered the possibility of relevance by having lost its own historic identity? And is it necessary to conclude, as a result, that contemporary culture is no longer penetrable by any word from the old wells of divine disclosure? In this brief but challenging book, Douglas Vickers brings the Christian confession to the forefront of consideration and reestablishes a theology grounded in historic verities sustained by the scriptural declarations. In straightforward and accessible terms, Being and Belief addresses the meaning of biblical truth for Christian understanding and Christian life.

This timely book addresses what it is to be a planner in a changing world: a world in need of transformation in the way planning is done in order to tackle social problems and ecological crises. Nicholas Low argues for the need to revalue public planning, sensitive to the social context in which it takes place.

Your own guide is waiting to meet you and steer you along the best path in life. He or she will make sure you're never alone again, andalways have a wise friend with you on your journey to serve mankind.By learning to listen to your own guide, intuition or inner voice, you'll unlock the secrets of the universe as they exist for you.With the help of this book, you'll be able to hear guidance whenever you want to. You need only ask and help will be there. You will indeed unlockthe meaning of life and the secrets of joy, happiness and contentment.

If the divine liturgy really is as beautiful as we claim, wouldn’t more people attend? Wouldn’t the church grow? Driven by our desire for growth, we count, we analyze, we make charts, and we strategize, but often with few discernible results. That is probably the result of focusing on secondary aspects of church life. As we know, the very existence of a church is a gift of God’s presence and not the result of any particular actions taken by human beings. For that reason, church is primarily about being something rather than doing or achieving something. So the growth of the church is not reflected in ever-increasing numbers, dollars, and activities, but rather in steadily growing conformity to the divine ideal. So in order to evaluate ecclesial growth, we will first have to ask what the church is supposed to be. One answer to that question is captured in the four marks of the church given in the creed: Oneness, Holiness, Catholicity, and Apostolicity. These four characteristics serve as a matrix or framework within which we can focus on the primary aspects of ecclesial being and help it grow and become what it was intended to be.