This book offers the first comprehensive study of drawing lots as a central, ubiquitous institution of ancient Greek society. Led by an egalitarian mindset, Greeks drew lots as a matter of course to distribute inheritance, booty, sacrificial meat, and lands, to mix groups, select individuals, and set turns. Lot-oracles were used for divination; otherwise, the gods guarded the justice of the procedure but rarely determined the outcome. When drawing lots was gradually applied to polis governance, classical Athens made sortition the basis of the first democracy in human history. A Greek innovation, drawing lots for governance inspires new democratic politics today.

This publication is a detailed study of magical and divinatory practices in the Ancient Near East, particularly in Palestine and Syria. It combines the insights of the Old Testament with the data available from Phoenician and the older Ugaritic texts. It traces the links both historically and archaeologically.

Cannibalism and the Common Law is an enthralling classic of legal history. It tells the tragic story of the yacht Mignonette, which foundered on its way from England to Australia in 1884. The killing and eating of one of the crew, Richard Parker, led to the leading case in the defence of necessity, R. v. Dudley and Stephens. It resulted in their being convicted and sentenced to death, a sentence subsequently commuted. In this tour de force Brian Simpson sets the legal proceedings in their broadest historical context, providing a detailed account of the events and characters involved and of life at sea in the time of sail. Cannibalism and the Common Law is a demonstration that legal history can be written in human terms and can be compulsive reading. This brilliant and fascinating book, a marvelous example of eareful historical detection, and first-class legal history, written by a master.

Apart from a few famous stories, like Peter walking on water, most readers of the Bible have only a vague notion of who Jesus’ apostles were and what exactly they did. Yet, without knowing their adventurous lives, the full story of the Apostolic Age fades into a Sunday school cliché. Even the most popular books on the subject fail to fit all the puzzle pieces together. This book, gleaned from over a decade of teaching and study, takes you alongside the apostles, reveals the world through their eyes, and accurately retraces every known step of their lives. Imprisoned in Nero’s Rome, Paul wrote, “I am an ambassador in chains.” “Apostle” means ambassador, and these long-suffering ambassadors of Christ bore the gospel over tens of thousands of miles from Jerusalem to Africa, Europe, and Asia. They planted churches, had heavenly encounters, worked miracles, wrote all-time best-sellers, were shipwrecked, flogged, imprisoned, and martyred, and yet they turned empires and kingdoms upside down. Open this book and begin a journey of discovery, back to the first century, experiencing how, against all odds, these embattled and triumphant ambassadors in chains so perfectly fulfilled Jesus’ Great Commission.

By examining social transformation and political participation theories, this book focuses on the core concept of non-institutional political participation, which is classified into two types: induced participation and imposed participation. This classification has changed the tradition of dichotomizing political participation as either legal or illegal and enriched the conceptualization of political participation. Based on an investigation of the characteristics of Chinese peasants and the relations between interests, authority and political participation, the book examines the changes in interest structures and modes of control in rural China during the transformation period, and proposes a political participation model built upon mutual benefits.​

Budgets of governments and private insurances are limited. Not all drugs and services that appear beneficial to patients or physicians can be covered. Is there a core set of benefits that everyone should be entitled to? If so, how should this set be determined? Are fair decisions just impossible, if we know from the outset than not all needs can be met? While early work in bioethics has focused on clinical issues and a narrow set of principles, in recent years there has been a marked shift towards addressing broader population-level issues, requiring consideration of more demanding theories in philosophy, political science, and economics. At the heart of bioethics' new orientation is the goal of clarity on a complex set of questions in rationing and resource allocation. Rationing and Resource Allocation in Healthcare: Essential Readings provides key excerpts from seminal and pertinent texts and case studies about these topics, contextualized by original introductions. The volume is divided into three broad sections: Conceptual Distinctions and Ethical Theory; Rationing; and Resource Allocation. Containing the most important and classic articles surrounding the theoretical and practical issues related to rationing and how to allocate scare medical resources, this collection aims to assist and inform those who wish to be a part of bioethics' 21st century shift including practitioners and policy-makers, and students and scholars in the health sciences, philosophy, law, and medical ethics.