The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie in December 1988 was one of the most notorious acts of terrorism in recent history. Its political and foreign policy repercussions have been enormous, and twenty-five years after the atrocity in which 270 lost their lives, debate still rages over the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, as well as his controversial release on compassionate grounds by Scotland's SNP government in 2009. John Ashton argues that the guilty verdict, delivered by some of Scotland's most senior judges, was perverse and irrational, and details how prosecutors withheld numerous items of evidence that were favourable to Megrahi. It accuses successive Scottish governments of turning their back on the scandal and pretending that the country's treasured independent criminal justice system remains untainted. With numerous observers believing the Crown Office is out of control and the judiciary stuck in the last century, politicians must address these problems or their aspirations for Scotland to become a modern European social democracy are bound to fail.

In The Shame That Lingers: A Survivor-Centered Critique of Catholic Sin-Talk, A. Denise Starkey argues that the dominant legal model of sin in the Catholic Church is inadequate for hearing the experience of sin for survivors of childhood and domestic violence because it functions to shame rather than to heal. A universal understanding of the sinner, as found in mainstream Catholic sin-talk and confession, impedes human flourishing by silencing radical suffering in ways that make survivors complicit for the harm done to them. Starkey argues that a shame-free theology of sin is necessary if survivors are to encounter the profound love of God. Understanding sin from the perspective of the sinned-against makes possible a transformative solidarity with the other by reinvisioning the roles of speaker and listener.

If you cry and laugh within one of the essays in this collection, don’t be surprised. Real stories, observations, rants should evoke emotion. Ideally, they should also warrant deposit into the inner “Hmm . . . box” we all have inside our heads. The messages herein span everything from the author’s first encounter with God through a decision to bequeath his body to science after two unforgettable Irish wakes. In between are encounters with a pedophile priest, a remarkable homeless man who found a life of purpose in homelessness, and a man the author sent to prison. There is also an encounter with God on a golf course; time in a church cult; the inevitable mountaintops and painful tumbles from them with family; love lost and love found; death on the “installment plan” and much more. Forty Days is pointing us toward the light. The essays are points on the author’s life path, but yours as well. Discover, as you look into your own heart through the author’s, faith, faithlessness, hope, loss, restoration, blessing, you.

Selected works of William Shakespeare from the series "Best of the Best" is the book that everyone should read to understand themselves and each other. The authors and works for this book series were selected, as a result of numerous studies, analysis of the texts over the past 100 years and the demand for readers. It must be read in order to understand the world around us, its history, to recognize the heroes, to understand the winged expressions and jokes that come from these literary works. Reading these books will mean the discovery of a world of self-development and self-expression for each person. These books have been around for decades, and sometimes centuries, for the time they recreate, the values they teach, the point of view, or simply the beauty of words. This volume of the Best of the Best series includes famous works: THE SONNETS; ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL; THE TRAGEDY OF ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA; AS YOU LIKE IT; THE COMEDY OF ERRORS; THE TRAGEDY OF CORIOLANUS; CYMBELINE; THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET, PRINCE OF DENMARK; KING HENRY THE FOURTH. THE FIRST PART; KING HENRY THE FOURTH. THE SECOND PART; THE LIFE OF KING HENRY THE FIFTH; THE FIRST PART OF HENRY THE SIXTH; THE SECOND PART OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH; THE THIRD PART OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH; KING HENRY THE EIGHTH; THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING JOHN; THE TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CAESAR; THE TRAGEDY OF KING LEAR; LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST; THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH; MEASURE FOR MEASURE; THE MERCHANT OF VENICE; THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR; A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM; MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING; THE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO, MOOR OF VENICE; PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE; KING RICHARD THE SECOND; KING RICHARD THE THIRD; THE TRAGEDY OF ROMEO AND JULIET; THE TAMING OF THE SHREW; THE TEMPEST; THE LIFE OF TIMON OF ATHENS; THE TRAGEDY OF TITUS ANDRONICUS; THE HISTORY OF TROILUS AND CRESSIDA; TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL; THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA; THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN; THE WINTER’S TALE; A LOVER’S COMPLAINT; THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM; THE PHOENIX AND THE TURTLE; THE RAPE OF LUCRECE; VENUS AND ADONIS

Erna Brodber and Velma Pollard, two sister-writers born and raised in Jamaica, re-create imagined and lived homelands in their literature by commemorating the history, culture, and religion of the Caribbean. Velma Pollard was born in St. Catherine, Jamaica. By the time she was three, her parents had moved to Woodside, St. Mary, in northeast Jamaica, where her sister, Erna, was born. Even though they both travel widely and often, the sisters both still live in Jamaica. The sisters write about their homeland as a series of memories and stories in their many works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. They center on their home village of Woodside in St. Mary Parish, Jamaica, occasionally moving the settings of their fiction and poetry to other regions of Jamaica and various Caribbean islands, as well as other parts of the diaspora in the United States, Canada, and England. The role of women in the patriarchal society of Jamaica and much of the Caribbean is also a subject of the sisters’ writing. Growing up in what Brodber calls the kumbla, the protective but restrictive environment of many women in the Anglo-Caribbean, is an important theme in their fiction. In her fiction, Pollard discusses the gender gaps in employment and the demands of marriage and the special contributions of women to family and community. Many scholars have also explored the significance of spirit in Brodber’s work, including the topics of “spirit theft,” “spirit possession,” and spirits existing through time, from Africa to the present. Brodber’s narratives also show communication between the living and the dead, from Jane and Louisa (1980) to Nothing’s Mat (2014). Yet, few scholars have examined Brodber’s work on par with her sister’s writing. Drawing upon interviews with the authors, this is the first book to give Brodber and Pollard their due and study the sisters’ important contributions.

Do you long to pray powerful prayers that impact Heaven and shake earth? Do you want to partner with God to deliver victory in challenging circumstances? Do you want to see God move powerfully in the lives of your loved ones? For more than 40 years, Germaine Copeland, author of the Prayers That Avail Much Series®, has been helping...