Böcker utgivna av Lexington Books

Plato, in the Protagoras, suggests that the virtues are profoundly unified yet also distinct. In Plato on the Unity of the Virtues: A Dialectic Reading, Rod Jenks argues that the way in which virtues are both one and many is finally ineffable. He shows how Plato countenances ineffability throughout his corpus. Jenks's interpretation of Protagoras accounts for the otherwise-inexplicable inability of both Socrates and Protagoras to identify the bone of contention between them. Not only can the thesis not be argued for; it can't even be properly stated. In this book, Jenks shows how the long exegesis on the Simonides poem is philosophically relevant. Further, he shows that both the parts-of-the-face analogy and the gold analogy are inadequate, arguing that Plato intends them to be so. Jenks explains why the unity thesis is supported by what most scholars agree are terrible arguments: that the virtues are both one and many. He explains why, despite the unity claim being profoundly elusive, Plato believes it to be crucial that we come to appreciate how virtue, which really does have parts, can also be profoundly one.

Why do representatives of different religious traditions find the transhumanist vision of the future not only theologically compatible but even inspiring? Transhumanism is a global movement seeking radical human enhancement. The trans in transhumanism marks the transition from the present stage in human evolution into the future, namely, post-human existence. Containing chapters written by adherents to a variety of religious traditions, Religious Transhumanism and Its Critics provides first-hand testimony to the value of the transhumanist vision perceived by the religious mind. In addition, the contributors critique both secular and religious transhumanism in light of realistic science and commitment to social justice.

This study provides the first in-depth examination of the role and influence of American Christians in the advocacy efforts for Soviet Jewry during the 1970s and 1980s. It explores how American Catholics and Protestants engaged with American Jews to campaign for the emigration of Soviet Jews and to end the cultural and religious discrimination against them. The book presents a case study of the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry from its inception to its closure in order to better understand the complexities of the politics of interreligious affairs during this period. At the heart of the story is Sister Ann Gillen of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, who directed the Chicago-based task force under the auspices of the American Jewish Committee. The author provides a comprehensive look at task force activities, programs, and relationships, notes its ties to the civil rights movement, and offers in-depth analysis of its participation and role in the global arena. American political, religious, and ethnic leaders play prominent roles in this story, along with the national media, and countless religious and community groups across the United States. The relationship between American Jews and Israel is a factor of fundamental significance as well and plays a critical role in the development of the Task Force. This close-up analysis of the task force is based on extensive archival research and interviews with key players in its history.

Kurds and their Struggle for Autonomy: Enduring Identity and Clientelism is a comprehensive study of the roots of Kurdish identity, the processes of identity formation among the Kurds, and the Kurds' seemingly never-ending struggle for self-determination. By relying on a hybrid theoretical model of identity politics, this book offers a thorough treatment of the origins, characteristics, and evolution of Kurdish culture in general, and political culture in particular. It also examines the historical explanations and nuances of Kurdish struggles for some form of autonomy, assesses economic imperatives that shape the potentials and challenges of Kurdish social and political life, and offers a critical review of the contemporary Kurdish institutional and policy dynamics in Iraq and Syria.

How do military organizations learn? This book covers an important instance of military learning in which the United States military systematically examined the lessons of Israel's decisive victory in the 1973 Yom Kippur War and applied those lessons towards major doctrinal and equipment changes. The book relies heavily on Paul Senge's model of learning organizations outlined in his seminal work, The Fifth Dimension. Using Senge's model, the book examines the Departments of the Army, Air Force, and Navy's reactions to the Yom Kippur War and how they organizationally incorporated--or ignored--the lessons of the conflict within their force. Using source documents, including personal memoirs, doctrinal publications, and individual reflections, the book offers a vital examination of how militaries can use foreign conflicts to make substantive and necessary organizational changes. The Yom Kippur War, particularly the Israeli experience in that conflict, provided the American military a battle laboratory in which to develop new warfighting concepts and assess new weapons acquisitions. In its conclusion, the book offers a cautionary tale that suggests learning and change do not come automatically to military organizations. If they are to be successful in the future, military organizations must embrace learning structures.

Conflict at the Edge of the African State: The ADF Rebel Group in the Congo-Uganda Borderland studies one of the oldest and most secretive rebel groups in the eastern Congo warscape: the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). Operating in the Rwenzori borderland of western Uganda and eastern Congo for nearly three decades now, they have proven to be an extremely resilient rebel force, surviving longer than nearly any other violent actor in the area. The ADF have come under increased scrutiny from regional governments and global conflict management actors recently, due to their Islamic character and alleged connections to the Islamic State and other international terrorist actors. Yet, there is a lack of informed discussion on the rebellion and very little understanding of the structures and constitution of the group. In Conflict at the Edge of the African State, Lindsay Scorgie offers a nuanced and ultimately corrective framework for understanding the ADF. Conflict at the Edge of the African State moves away from traditional state-centric concepts of cross-border conflict and instead situates the rebels within a borderland context, examining how their deeply embedded position in local cross-border histories has fueled their resiliency.

Theology of the Soul examines the possibility of a concept of the soul in modern theology. This study contains clear and carefully detailed overviews of concepts of the soul in Theology, Philosophy, and Biblical Studies and offers a constructive systematic theological proposal to speak of the soul in today's theological and cultural contexts.

The U.S. Declaration of Independence of 1776 decreed that all men were created equal and were endowed by their Creator with "certain unalienable Rights." Yet, U.S.-born free and enslaved Black people were not recognized as citizens with "equal protections under the law" until the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment. Even then, White supremacists impeded the equal rights of Black people as citizens due to their beliefs in the inferiority of Black people and that America was a nation for White people. White supremacists turned to biblical passages to lend divine justification for their views. A Womanist Reading of Hebrew Bible Narratives as the Politics of Belonging from an Outsider Within analyzes select biblical narratives, including Noah's curse in Genesis 9; Sarah and Hagar in Genesis 16 and 21; Mother in Israel in Judges 5; and Jezebel, Phoenician Princess and Queen of Israel in 1 and 2 Kings. This analysis demonstrates how these narratives were first used by ancient biblical writers to include some and exclude others as members of the nation of Israel and then appropriated by White supremacists in the antebellum era and the early twentieth century to do the same in America. The book analyzes the simultaneously intersecting and interconnecting dynamics among race, gender, class, and sexuality and biblical narratives to construct boundaries between "us versus them," particularly the politicization of motherhood to deny certain groups' inclusion.

For Christians, memories of God given in the Christian Bible are juxtaposed, echoed, and expanded within and outside Christian communities of faith. In Saving Memory and the Body of Christ, Sedgwick argues, Christians are attuned to the polyphony that is the voice of God calling those who have ears to hear into the love and grace of God in life together.Sharing together in the Eucharist, he goes on to describe, Christians remember, celebrate, and are drawn into life in God as imaged in the Greek word 'kenosis,' meaning emptying oneself. Christian faith is accordingly what the Latin word 'credo' means: to give one's heart to God, hence, to give oneself in faith and fidelity to the memory of God.In the memory of God, Christian faith is a practical piety. In prayer and worship Christians remember and respond to the call of God to life lived in the grace and love of God, in the glory of creation, in birth and death, in sickness and health, in compassion and care for one another in creation. This is the birth of moral conscience, hearing in the voice of others what claims those who have faith and calls for response.

How do Israel's Scriptures inform the account of Jesus's cruciform death in the Gospel of John? What does it mean for John's portrayal of Jesus's death to be "according to the Scriptures"? The Use of the Jewish Scriptures in the Johannine Passion Narrative: That the Scripture May Be Perfected argues that they are the focal element of the Johannine portrayal, and without them, John's Passion Narrative simply makes no sense. Whether through the evangelist's appeal to the fulfilment of Scripture (with such fulfilment accompanying the very moment of Jesus's death) or whether through allusions to the narratives of Creation or Passover, Israel's Scriptures provide the Passion Narrative's veritable heartbeat. This book also considers the impact of John's scriptural usage on the very concept of Scripture itself, contending that Scripture is brought to perfection by Jesus's actions and to a new standing or status in this regard. David M. Allen examines how the use of Scripture in the Passion account impacts the Fourth Gospel's own self-understanding, arguing that its capacity to pronounce on Scripture's fulfilment attests to the Gospel's own self-avowed, scriptural credentials.

Martin Luther's Theology of Two Kingdoms in Buddhist and Christian Communities examines the principle of separation through Martin Luther's model of two distinct but interconnected systems between religion and politics in the context of religious communities to give constructive advice and criticism for the health of all human beings.

The Anglican Church in Singapore examines the church from multiple perspectives, expositing its unique place within world Christianity. This book documents the Church's two-hundred-year history, from the conflicts and contradictions of British colonialism to the crucial and controversial disputes that currently divide Anglican Christians worldwide.

In The Last of Us and Theology: Violence, Ethics, Redemption? global academics probe theological and moral themes in the acclaimed video game franchise and series. Follow the plight of Joel, Ellie, Tess, and other beloved (and hated) characters while reading chapters examining themes like forgiveness, violence, fatherhood, and God.

Immigrant Moroccan Women in Spain: Honor and Marriage provides an ethnographic study of Moroccan Muslim immigrant women in Spain, capturing the predicaments and strategies they use in their adaptation to Spanish society. Working as domestic workers and agricultural laborers in Spain, Moroccan immigrant women illuminate the problems associated with gender, labor, modernity, and globalization.

This book exists at the intersection of two complementary and conflicting perspectives, law and biology. From the vantage point of both disciplines, Juris Zoology provides a comprehensive and realistic framework to objectively assess the role and significance of animals in American civil and criminal law. Contrasting the views of animal rights activists, Duckler examines animals in terms of their prehistory, history, biology, social utility, economic effect, and aesthetic value. Focusing on animal captivity, control, use, and value, Duckler refutes the proposal of granting animals legal rights. The book offers a new and controversial voice to the national conversation on the propriety of animal rights, and would be of interest to lawyers, economists, sociologists, as well as scholars and professionals in animal-related fields.

In this book, Curt Hersey explores the history of U.S. media, demonstrating how news parody has entertained television audiences by satirizing political and social issues and offering a lighthearted take on broadcast news. Despite shifts away from broadcast and cable delivery, comedians like Samantha Bee, Michael Che, and John Oliver continue this tradition of delivering topical humor within a newscast format. In this history of the television news parody genre, Hersey critically engages with the norms and presentational styles of television journalism at the time of their production. News parody has increasingly become part of the larger journalistic field, with viewers often turning to this parodic programming as a supplement and corrective to mainstream news sources. Beginning in the 1960s with the NBC program That Was the Week That Was, the history of news parody is analyzed decade by decade by focusing on presidential and political coverage, as well as the genre's critiques of television network and cable journalism. Case studies include Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update;" HBO's Not Necessarily the News; Comedy Central's original Daily Show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and The Colbert Report; and HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Scholars of media history, political communication, and popular culture will find this book particularly useful.

This book traces the history of Galilee from its biblical roots to the eruption of the Arab-Jewish conflict in 1948, illustrating how modernization in the region was intertwined with mystical beliefs and practices and developed among Palestinians, Orthodox Jews, Christians, and Druze without being a byproduct of Western intervention.

This book integrates pragmatism and transcendental philosophy in examining the most serious problem defining the human condition, death and mortality. Its analysis of human limits and finitude is intended to be relevant to the concerns of philosophers specializing in, for example, transcendental philosophy, philosophical anthropology, pragmatism, Wittgenstein, and the philosophy of religion. Mortality is studied as providing a necessary framework within which questions concerning the meaningfulness or meaninglessness of human life become possible.

Robert A. Wortham shines a light on W. E. B. Du Bois¿s role in shaping the scientific scope of the sociological perspective through his pioneering contributions in the areas of demography, urban and rural sociology, Southern Black Belt studies, and religion and society.

This book examines how Chinua Achebe presented the Igbo-African world in his writing by analyzing his engagement with critical issues like historical representation, gender, and indigenous political institutions. Contributors study how his work draws from African historical reality and identity while challenging Western epistemological hegemony.

In Art in the Pre-Hispanic Southwest: An Archaeology of Native American Cultures, Radoslaw Palonka reconstructs the development of pre-Hispanic Native American cultures and tribes in the American Southwest and Mexican Northwest. Palonka also examines the wider context through the lenses of settlement studies and social transformation, while paying close attention to the material manifestations of pre-Hispanic beliefs, including intricately decorated ceramics and rock art iconography in paintings and petroglyphs.

Using a case study approach, Celebrities in American Elections contends that celebrities have the talent, fame, and resources to succeed in electoral politics. These factors account for the electoral victories of Ronald Reagan, Clint Eastwood, Fred Grandy, Sonny Bono, Jesse Ventura, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Franken, and Donald Trump. However, the author argues that these items are insufficient without a favorable political environment; as many celebrities have lost elections as have won them. They lose because their persona does not match the politics of their time, or they represent the minority party in a one party dominated district or state, or they advocate for unpopular policies. Among those that won, nearly half were elected by a plurality not a majority of voters. This does not suggest overwhelming public support for celebrity candidates despite their many advantages. With a few exceptions, celebrities that won tended to also win the fundraising battle, while celebrities that lost tended to raise less than their opponent the normal laws of politics still apply. The celebrity factor, while helpful, does not fully explain why celebrities win or lose elections.

The United States Supreme Court is commonly thought to be an institution far removed from American public opinion. Yet nearly two-thirds of modern Supreme Court decisions reflect popular attitudes. Comparing over 500 Supreme Court decisions with timely nationwide poll questions since the mid-1930s, Thomas R. Marshall shows that most Supreme Court decisions agree with poll majorities or pluralities across time and across issues and often represent Americans' views to the same degree as federal policymakers. This book looks beyond the litigants, economic interests, social movements, organized interest groups, or units of governments typically involved and instead examines how well the Court or the justices represent Americans' views. Using nationwide public opinion, broken down by key subgroups, race, gender, education, and party affiliation, better describes exactly whom Supreme Court decisions and the justices' individual votes best represent. His book will be of interest to scholars in political science, legal studies, history, and sociology.

Gregory M. Fulkerson offers a complete portrait of what communities are, how they work, and how they are embedded in urbanrural systems at regional, national, and global scales. After explaining the concept of urbanrural systems, Fulkerson walks through the central dynamics of environmental demography, political economy, culture, social interaction, the built environment, and community connections. His focus on urbanrural systems ensures that communities are understood as nodes within a network, overcoming the tendency to view them as self-contained. Each chapter in Community in UrbanRural Systems: Theory, Planning, and Development offers a blend of classical and contemporary theories and concludes with relevant planning considerations. An additional chapter on community development provides strategies for translating planning considerations into action. The conclusion offers insights into long-term principles of community sustainability and justice.

The publication of the Harry Potter series in the United States coincided with the coming-of-age of its main target audience, the millennial generation. Harry Potter and the Myth of Millennials: Identity, Reception, and Politics takes an interdisciplinary view of Harry Potter, as a series and a phenomenon, to uncover how the appeal of Harry became a lifestyle, a moral compass, and a guiding light in an era fraught with turbulence and disharmony. As a new phenomenon at the time, Harry Potter provided comfort through the heroism of the main characters, showing that perseverance and ';constant vigilance,' to quote one of the professors, could overcome the darkest of times. Hobbs argues that Harry Potter prepared an entire generation for the chaotic present marked by the 2016 Election and 2020 Pandemic by shaping the political attitudes of its readers, many of whom were developing their political identities alongside Harry. Her analysis focuses on both the novels themselves and the ways in which fans connected globally through the Internet to discuss the books, commiserate about the events swirling around them, and answer calls to action through Harry Potter-inspired activism. In short, Harry Potter and the Myth of Millennials examines how Harry Potter became a generations defining mythology of love, unity, and transformation.