"Long before the European Renaissance, while the western world was languishing in what was once called the 'Dark Ages', the Arab world was ablaze with the creativity of its Golden Age. This is the story of how Islamic science, which began in eighth-century Baghdad, enhanced the knowledge acquired from Greece, Mesopotamia, India and China. Through the astrologers, physicians, philosophers, mathematicians and alchemists of the Muslim world, this knowledge influenced western thinkers from Thomas Aquinas and Copernicus and helped inspire the Renaissance and give birth to modern science."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

This is a collection of writings about the spiritual meeting of East and West in the modern world including articles by the Dalai Lama, Huston Smith, Frithjof Schuon, Thomas Merton, Titus Burckhardt, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Diana Eck, Gary Snyder and Aldous Huxley. Highlighting aspects of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism that have proved most attractive to Western seekers, it explores the similarities and differences between Eastern and Western traditions while emphasizing respect amongst the adherents of different faiths.

This book is an analytical of study of Taiwan interspersed with personal elements from the author's life there in the last 20 years. Taiwan's unique confluence of colonial histories, Chinese nationalism and democratization offers a tangible alternative to the status quo in mainland China, albeit one that is becoming more marginal with time. With this in mind, the author offers a concise introduction to the politics and culture of contemporary Taiwan, investigating the Taiwanese identity, aesthetic and its future. A guide to navigating the coming years for Taiwan and greater China, this book will be of interest to scholars, political scientists and historians.

Drawing on a millennia of calligraphy theory and history, Brushed in Light examines how the brushed word appears in films and in film cultures of Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and PRC cinemas. This includes silent era intertitles, subtitles, title frames, letters, graffiti, end titles, and props. Markus Nornes also looks at the role of calligraphy in film culture at large, from gifts to correspondence to advertising. The book begins with a historical dimension, tracking how calligraphy is initially used in early cinema and how it is continually rearticulated by transforming conventions and the integration of new technologies. These chapters ask how calligraphy creates new meaning in cinema and demonstrate how calligraphy, cinematography, and acting work together in a single film. The last part of the book moves to other regions of theory. Nornes explores the cinematization of the handwritten word and explores how calligraphers understand their own work.

James R. Payton, Jr. introduces us to Eastern Orthodox history, theology and practice. For all readers interested in ancient ecumenical Christian theology and spirituality, this book is especially open and sympathetic to what evangelicals can learn from orthodoxy.

Imam W. Deen Mohammed inherited an organization that was nearly consumed by the cancerous growth of racial hatred and material greed. For nearly five years he has worked and raised his community out the darkness of petty racism and unchecked materialism. He unlocked the mysteries of the allegorical and symbolic teachings of the mystic, Dr. Fard and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad.Just as the mythical phoenix bird emerged from its ashes to soar gloriously the heavens, Imam Mohammed transformed the Nation of Islam into the World Community of Al-Islam in the West. A community honored with International respect, admiration and encouragement.

Brother Andrew's ministry began with smuggling Bibles behind the Iron Curtain. His phenomenally successful book God's Smuggler was born from that mission. But as communism in Eastern Europe declined, Brother Andrew shifted his focus to strengthening the Christian church within the Islamic world. In a time when a mass exodus of Christians has drained the Middle East of God's light, Brother Andrew headed into this war-torn land to bring hope and encouragement to those who remained. Light Force recounts the continuing saga of Brother Andrew's most recent mission. Through dramatic true stories, readers get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at real people affected by the centuries-old conflicts in this volatile part of the world. Now readers can join Brother Andrew and fellow Open Doors missionary Al Janssen in their quest to strengthen God's light in the Middle East. These gripping accounts of Christians caught in the crossfire will captivate readers everywhere.

Light from the Middle East explores the various ways that contemporary Middle Eastern artists deploy the language and techniques of photography. Whether embracing the capacity of photography to record or bear witness, or subverting that process in order to highlight its susceptibility to manipulation and recontextualization, they use the medium to tell stories, to question, and to challenge. This book accompanies an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum (13 November 2012-7 April 2013), the first major museum exhibition of contemporary Middle Eastern photography. It presents over 25 artists from across the greater Middle East (including North Africa and Central Asia), whose multiple viewpoints are appropriate to a region where collisions between personal, social, religious and political life can be emotive and complex. It includes a wide array of work made by artists living in the region and in diaspora, ranging from photojournalism to staged and digitally manipulated photographs.