This up-to-date and forward-looking collection of essays on gender and religion fills a crucial gap. Interdisciplinary and multi-traditional, this volume highlights the contributions that different disciplinary approaches make to feminist/gender studies and religion. Designed for the classroom, the Reader simultaneously assesses the state of the field and raises questions for further inquiry and investigation.

Welcome to Twin Brothers Mountains, nestled in the highlands of the Isle. This is a saga of two families who arrive on the Isle and earn citizenship. They become landowners on the Twin Brothers Mountains. The story follows their adventures and misadventures in today's world. Tom Langley arrives on the Isle before his eighteenth birthday. Tom likes Mary. However, will the marriage board allow them to marry? Ian and Molly MacGregger with their young son arrive on the Isle right before a snowstorm. Will they survive winter? Kaylin wonders, What is killing the vegetation? Who is sabotaging the ranch? Who would file a marital complaint against her when she is not married?

Belief Beyond Boundaries explores 'religions' or forms of spirituality that tend to be marginal to the mainstream of British and North American religious expression. The book examines how alternative spiritualities traditionally classed as 'New Age' or new religious movements have grown exponentially in recent years. It progresses to detailed examination of Paganism, Celtic spirituality, Wicca, witchcraft, North American indigenous religion and New Age, considering the impact of the rise of science on religion and the emergence of new categories of spirituality. The authors explore why these forms of spirituality are so popular in the contemporary UK and USA, and how they impact on mainstream traditions. The five textbooks and Reader that make up the Religion Today Open University/Ashgate series are: o From Sacred Text to Internet o Religion and Social Transformations o Perspectives on Civil Religion o Global Religious Movements in Regional Context o Belief Beyond Boundaries o Religion Today: A Reader

A scholar explores the ideas within The Lord of the Rings and the world created by J. R. R. Tolkien: “A most valuable and timely book” (Ursula K. Le Guin, Los Angeles Times–bestselling author of Changing Planes). What are millions of readers all over the world getting out of reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy? Defending Middle-earth argues, in part, that the appeal for fans goes far deeper than just quests and magic rings and hobbits. In fact, through this epic, Tolkien found a way to provide something close to spirit in a secular age. This thoughtful book focuses on three main aspects of Tolkien’s fiction: the social and political structure of Middle-earth and how the varying cultures within it find common cause in the face of a shared threat; the nature and ecology of Middle-earth and how what we think of as the natural world joins the battle against mindless, mechanized destruction; and the spirituality and ethics of Middle-earth—for which the author provides a particularly insightful and resonant examination. Includes a new afterword

As the year 1890 wound to a close, a band of more than three hundred Lakota Sioux Indians led by Chief Big Foot made their way toward South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation to join other Lakotas seeking peace. Fearing that Big Foot’s band was headed instead to join “hostile” Lakotas, U.S. troops surrounded the group on Wounded Knee Creek. Tensions mounted, and on the morning of December 29, as the Lakotas prepared to give up their arms, disaster struck. Accounts vary on what triggered the violence as Indians and soldiers unleashed thunderous gunfire at each other, but the consequences were horrific: some 200 innocent Lakota men, women, and children were slaughtered. American Carnage—the first comprehensive account of Wounded Knee to appear in more than fifty years—explores the complex events preceding the tragedy, the killings, and their troubled legacy. In this gripping tale, Jerome A. Greene—renowned specialist on the Indian wars—explores why the bloody engagement happened and demonstrates how it became a brutal massacre. Drawing on a wealth of sources, including previously unknown testimonies, Greene examines the events from both Native and non-Native perspectives, explaining the significance of treaties, white settlement, political disputes, and the Ghost Dance as influential factors in what eventually took place. He addresses controversial questions: Was the action premeditated? Was the Seventh Cavalry motivated by revenge after its humiliating defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn? Should soldiers have received Medals of Honor? He also recounts the futile efforts of Lakota survivors and their descendants to gain recognition for their terrible losses. Epic in scope and poignant in its recounting of human suffering, American Carnage presents the reality—and denial—of our nation’s last frontier massacre. It will leave an indelible mark on our understanding of American history.

A couple of hundred years in the future, there is a struggling Chinese colony on the planet of a double star not too far from Earth. One of their suns is the blinding and carcinogenic Dragon's Eye, which requires them to cover up and wear hats when it is in the sky. The colony has a huge, burdensome debt to Earth, and there is a question of rebellion and rumor of a possible declaration of independence. So a courier is sent in, disguised as a native, to bring back a highly placed spy--or at least his brain, so information can be recovered and Earth's interests preserved. New China is where the book comes alive. We find ourselves in a world of sharply defined characters, distincly themselves, with lives outside the plot that nevertheless provides the constant movement of a first-class SF adventure. The Dragon's Eye is full of surprises and introduces a fine writer to the American audience. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.