C. Fred Alford interviewed working people, prisoners, and college students in order to discover how people experience evil—in themselves, in others, and in the world. What people meant by evil, he found, was a profound, inchoate feeling of dread so overwhelming that they tried to inflict it on others to be rid of it themselves. A leather-jacketed emergency medical technician, for example, one of the many young people for whom vampires are oddly seductive icons of evil, said he would "give anything to be a vampire." Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, Alford argues that the primary experience of evil is not moral but existential. The problems of evil are complicated by the terror it evokes, a threat to the self so profound it tends to be isolated deep in the mind. Alford suggests an alternative to this bleak vision. The exercise of imagination—in particular, imagination that takes the form of a shared narrative—offers an active and practical alternative to the contemporary experience of evil. Our society suffers from a paucity of shared narratives and the creative imagination they inspire.

This handbook explores mindfulness philosophy and practice as it functions in today’s socioeconomic, cultural, and political landscape. Chapters discuss the many ways in which classic concepts and practices of mindfulness clash, converge, and influence modern theories and methods, and vice versa. Experts across many disciplines address the secularization and commercialization of Buddhist concepts, the medicalizing of mindfulness in therapies, and progressive uses of mindfulness in education. The book addresses the rise of the, “mindfulness movement”, and the core concerns behind the critiques of the growing popularity of mindfulness. It covers a range of dichotomies, such as traditional versus modern, religious versus secular, and commodification versus critical thought and probes beyond the East/West binary to larger questions of economics, philosophy, ethics, and, ultimately, meaning. Featured topics include: A compilation of Buddhist meditative practices. Selling mindfulness and the marketing of mindful products. A meta-critique of mindfulness critiques - from McMindfulness to critical mindfulness Mindfulness-based interventions in clinical psychology and neuroscience. Corporate mindfulness and usage in the workplace. Community-engaged mindfulness and its role in social justice. The Handbook of Mindfulness is a must-have resource for clinical psychologists, complementary and alternative medicine professionals/practitioners, neuroscientists, and educational and business/management leaders and policymakers as well as related mental health, medical, and educational professionals/practitioners.

This book takes the view that Christian truth is the basis for all answers to social issues and that there are not two opposing but equal answers within Christian truth that are equally valid and equally acceptable to God. Any so called truth or "right" that circumvents or undercuts the required sacrifices, disciplines and self denial demanded by God in any given social or moral issue ceases to be truth, ceases to be right the moment it becomes a force unto itself, outside of or independent of the Scripturally required obedience. Human history has shown over the millennia that when the letter and spirit of God's laws are not obeyed, the truth is abused, nations become confused and people are used. Many of our political and social issues are rooted in our misplaced belief that tolerance, inclusion, equal respect for unequal truth and live and let live is the way to greater peace and prosperity. They are all wrong. Each individual, government and nation is judged by their response to Christ. The Christian nation or one which ascribes to being one, is tasked to set the Christian standard as every nation's point of reference. It is the Christian's duty to show that the valid rule of God's law, the letter of God's law and the spirit of God's law are superior to any other alternative standard. The biggest obstacle to Christianity today is the undisciplined, misinformed and unfaithful lifestyles of professing Christians. The Church has become so indoctrinated in its aversion to any form of discrimination that it has placed a higher priority on keeping the peace by compromising than by keeping the truth by discriminating. By accepting a false peace and rejecting a hard truth that resists compromise, it begets neither peace nor truth.