What’s your story? Where did you land within the ongoing story of the Universe? This next question is a big one. Have you been a part of this universal story ever before? Look around you, examine your days; review your past, and delve a step deeper into the concept of ‘story’ as it pertains to how we experience life as humans. Within the story is your story. Your unique narrative is the road by which your lessons are delivered. It’s your pathway, so to speak. It is the backdrop to your collection of experiences this lifetime. Without a narrative, your Soul would have no identities to attach to. You wouldn’t know what character to be in the play of life. You wouldn’t be familiar with any of the stage notes of the play, per se. Why does ‘story’ have so much impact or value? This philosophical question has a mathematical answer. The answer is this: your unique life story is set in the same format as every other story ever told. Your life’s narrative has a plot, the parameters by which your story takes place. Your story has high points, low points, and the ebbs and tides of everything in-between. This structure is called a Bell Curve. The bell curve is the mathematical representation of how cycles transpire. Due to the energetic structure of a bell curve, we can accurately map data trends about various happenings within the life story. The story you were born into was chosen well before you arrived. You have a story chosen by you that is arranged specifically for you. All your experiences, good, bad, and in-between, are designed to further you on this spiral of ascension. On this journey of self-revelation, the goal is to arrive at a space of clarity, of understanding about who you are, who you want to become, and how you will service the One who sent you. We are all in this together, delicately intertwined, seeking the same clarity of self. If ever you wonder why you are here, know baseline that you are here to clear yourself of all things that block your ability to contribute to Universal balance. Self Proclamation offers to share with the Seeker a coming-of-age story of a particular Soul that is on the same enlightenment journey as the rest of the Universe. Through this story, the Universe will display concepts of wisdom and knowledge that will assist the Seeker in examining their own story. The goal of this work is to share with the Seeker a narrative, the subsequent training phase to cope with the realities of the narrative, and the unfolding process of practicing and attaining Self-awareness to reach Self-realization. You will be guided to learn principles and examine how they have impacted your personal narrative throughout life. You will become kindred to these principles and build a relationship with them to solve your own issues and vices and even reexamine your life practices. Important message for the Seeker: Many works of wisdom and knowledge invite readers to partake in the wisdom but do not explain the consequences of receiving these lessons. Spirit rule #528: You are responsible to do once you know. That’s just how it goes. It is an honor to be a part of your story. It is an honor to be a part of your freedom. Let’s begin, shall we?

Self-Declaration in the Legal Recognition of Gender examines the impact of legislation premised upon the principle of ‘self-declaration’ of legal gender status. Existing doctrinal and comparative analyses have tended to come out strongly in favour of, or against, self-declaration. This book offers a socio-legal alternative which focuses on how self-declaration is experienced, on an embodied level, by trans and gender diverse people. It presents research conducted in Denmark, which became the first European state to adopt self-declaration in June 2014. By analysing Danish law through a Foucauldian framework which brings together socio-, feminist, and trans legal scholarship on embodiment and jurisdiction, the book offers the first empirically based and theoretically informed analysis of self-declaration. It draws upon legal consciousness, affect theory, vulnerability, and governmentality literatures to argue that the jurisdictional boundaries which existed between law and medicine were maintained throughout the reform process. This limited the impact of the legislation, enabling access to health care to be restricted in the same year in which amending legal gender status was liberalised. As the list of states that have adopted self-declaration increases, this intervention offers activists and policymakers insights which might shape how they respond to similar reform proposals in the future. A timely and important assessment, this book will appeal to researchers and practitioners working in trans, gender, feminist legal, and socio-legal studies.

This 2006 study examines how the ancient Greeks decided questions of justice as a key to understanding the intersection of our moral and political lives. Combining contemporary political philosophy with historical, literary and philosophical texts, it examines a series of remarkable individuals who performed 'scripts' of justice in early Iron Age, archaic and classical Greece. From the earlier periods, these include Homer's Achilles and Odysseus as heroic individuals who are also prototypical citizens, and Solon the lawgiver, writing the scripts of statute law and the jury trial. In democratic Athens, the focus turns to dialogues between a citizen's moral autonomy and political obligation in Aeschyleon tragedy, Pericles' citizenship paradigm, Antiphon's sophistic thought and forensic oratory, the political leadership of Alcibiades and Socrates' moral individualism.

The most important theological work of the 20th century in a new edition - now available in individual volumes.

Contours of Christology in the New Testament features first-class biblical scholars who steep readers in the biblical texts about Jesus. These essays focus on the New Testament writers' various understandings of Jesus, their differing emphases seen as contours in the common landscape of New Testament christology. Sweeping in scope, the volume begins with a look at early christology and covers the whole of the New Testament from the Gospels to Revelation.

Gregg Lambert examines two facets of the return to religion in the 21st century: the resurgence of overtly religious themes in contemporary philosophy and the global 'post-secular' turn that has been taking place since 9/11. He asks how these two 'returns to religion' can be taking place simultaneously, and explores the relationship between them. Lambert reflects on statements of these returns from contemporary philosophers including Alain Badiou, John D. Caputo, Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy. He discovers a unique - and forboding - sense of the term 'religion' that belongs exclusively to our contemporary perspective.

Unique in any Western language, this is an invaluable resource for the study of one of the world's great theatrical forms. It includes essays by established experts on Kabuki as well as younger scholars now entering the field, and provides a comprehensive survey of the history of Kabuki; how it is written, produced, staged, and performed; and its place in world theater. Compiled by the editor of the influential Asian Theater Journal, the book covers four essential areas - history, performance, theaters, and plays - and includes a translation of one Kabuki play as an illustration of Kabuki techniques.

The human fascination with images, and the idolatry or idolization of images as the source of desire, passion and terror, is treated in this book. The first part enters more deeply into religious idolatry, past and present. It treats the biblical, the early-Jewish as well as the Christian views on monotheism and the prohibition against images, as source of authentic humanism or as source of intolerance and violence. In the second part, the focus shifts onto a number of contemporary, profane idols and gods: the nationalist fascination for one's own land and people, and the fear or hate towards foreigners; the rampant preoccupation with (genetic) health, in a context of body culture and aestheticization, of which the postmodern sport idols have become the great 'icons'; the current image- and screen-culture and all forms of audiovisual exorcisms; and last but not least the ongoing process of economization and globalization, with an expanding culture of 'branding' logos.

When the Supreme Court struck down Colorado's Amendment 2—which would have nullified all state and local laws protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination—it was widely regarded as a victory for gay rights. Yet many gays and lesbians still risk losing their jobs, custody of their children, and even their liberty under the law. Using the Colorado initiative as his focus, Gerstmann untangles the complex standards and subtle rhetoric the Supreme Court uses to apply the equal protection clause. The Court divides people into legal classes that receive varying levels of protection; gays and lesbians and other groups, such as the elderly and the poor, receive the least. Gerstmann reveals how these standards are used to favor certain groups over others, and also how Amendment 2 advocates used the Court's doctrine to convince voters that gays and lesbians were seeking "special rights" in Colorado. Concluding with a call for wholesale reform of equal-protection jurisprudence, this book is essential reading for anyone interested in fair, coherent, and truly equal protection under the law.