With the sensitivity born of time and experience, Charles Hoffacker presents an unusually warm and caring approach to preaching at a pivotal transition in human life, one which goes to the very heart of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Hoffacker teaches the reader, whether a seasoned preacher or a novice homilist, to find the key to unlocking the mystery of Jesus' promise of eternal life in a mortal life now ended.

Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl said, "Man's search for meaning is the primary motivation in his life." Yet some contemporary voices claim that increased knowledge of the material world must diminish our sense of meaning. Physicist Steven Weinberg said, "The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless." Many people hold the material and meaningful perspectives separate in their minds, in a state of uneasy truce. The Heart of the Matter: A Case for Meaning in a Material World tells us that this split vision is not necessary, and shows us how the two views can be harmonized to give depth to our picture of the world. It looks at current scientific observations from astronomy, biology and physics, as well as insights from mathematics, philosophy, psychology and religion. We are left with a sense of wonder at both the mechanics and the values of the world, the "how" and the "why" of events. This book will appeal to everyone fascinated by how our world works, and especially to those who wonder how such marvelous mechanisms can leave room for the values and purpose that give meaning to our lives, and to our world.

The Heart of the Matter explores the legacies of Ilyenkov and Vygotsky, two Russian thinkers who marshalled their passion for truth, enlightenment and independent thought to understand the human mind, not for the sake of knowledge alone, but to help create the conditions in which human flourishing can become a reality for all. The book renders their theories intelligible against the dramatic social and historical background in which they lived and worked, bringing their ideas into dialogue with themes and thinkers in Western philosophy to reveal how they illuminate philosophical issues of enduring significance.

This is a unique story. It is the story of a doctor and the many patients she sees every day. A tale of the diversity of life, the uniqueness of individuals and the impact of deprivation on the health of society. It is a book about being human, the challenge of being on the front line, trying to heal with kindness while fighting an inexorably rising tide of need. The crisis in general practice is in its ascendancy. Overworked GPs are burning out and leaving in droves. At the heart of the NHS, GPs are the entry point for healthcare in the UK, the champions of patients and guardians of the gates to specialists. A role that is essential, but not always understood or appreciated. We will all meet disease and death in our journey through life. We will all meet a GP, need a GP. The Heart of the Matter is the story of a single day in the life of a general practitioner working in the UK today.

Ellen Webster, professor of history, can't help but fantasize about her next-door neighbor Kate FosterÑafter all, she sees her on the evening news every night. Sexy and smart, Kate is Ellen's dream girl, but the dynamic TV newscaster doesn't know Ellen exists. Struggling with self-doubt and low self-esteem, Ellen can only watch the parade of beautiful women Kate brings home. But a rainy night and near tragedy change everything when Kate is involved in an automobile accident and turns to Ellen for help. Withdrawing from the world, Kate comes to depend upon Ellen for far more than she realizesÑuntil the day Ellen tells her that she is leaving on sabbatical. Ellen and Kate's journey leads them beyond the transitory nature of superficial beauty to the true splendor of the love they hold in their hearts.

Writing in the wake of a near-fatal stroke, eminent theologian Anthony C. Thiselton addresses a universally significant topic: death and what comes next. This distinctive study of "the last things" comprehensively explores questions about individual death, the intermediate state, the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, hell, the final state of the redeemed, and more. At once scholarly and pastoral, Thiselton's Life after Death offers biblically astute, historically informed, and intellectually sound answers -- making this book an invaluable resource for thinking Christians.

Conflicting Models for the Origin of Life Conflicting Models for the Origin of Life provides a forum to compare and contrast the many hypotheses that have been put forward to explain the origin of life. There is a revolution brewing in the field of Origin of Life: in the process of trying to figure out how Life started, many researchers believe there is an impending second creation of life, not necessarily biological. Up-to-date understanding is needed to prepare us for the technological, and societal changes it would bring. Schrodinger’s 1944 “What is life?” included the insight of an information carrier, which inspired the discovery of the structure of DNA. In “Conflicting Models of the Origin of Life” a selection of the world’s experts are brought together to cover different aspects of the research: from progress towards synthetic life – artificial cells and sub-cellular components, to new definitions of life and the unexpected places life could (have) emerge(d). Chapters also cover fundamental questions of how memory could emerge from memoryless processes, and how we can tell if a molecule may have emerged from life. Similarly, cutting-edge research discusses plausible reactions for the emergence of life both on Earth and on exoplanets. Additional perspectives from geologists, philosophers and even roboticists thinking about the origin of life round out this volume. The text is a state-of-the-art snapshot of the latest developments on the emergence of life, to be used both in graduate classes and by citizen scientists. Audience Researchers in any area of astrobiology, as well as others interested in the origins of life, will find a modern and current review of the field and the current debates and obstacles. This book will clearly illustrate the current state-of-the-art and engage the imagination and creativity of experts across many disciplines.