The author advances the theory that all creative activities have a basic pattern in common, which he attempts to define.

In Act of Creation , Stephen C. Schlesinger tells a pivotal and little-known story of how Secretary of State Edward Stettinius and the new American President, Harry Truman, picked up the pieces of the faltering campaign initiated by Franklin Roosevelt to create a "United Nations." Using secret agents, financial resources, and their unrivaled position of power, they overcame the intrigues of Stalin, the reservations of wartime allies like Winston Churchill, the discontent of smaller states, and a skeptical press corps to found the United Nations. The author reveals how the UN nearly collapsed several times during the conference over questions of which states should have power, who should be admitted, and how authority should be divided among its branches. By shedding new light on leading participants like John Foster Dulles, John F. Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson, Nelson Rockefeller, and E. B White, Act of Creation provides a fascinating tale of twentieth-century history not to be missed.

The acclaimed Italian philosopher interrogates the concept of creation in art, religion, and economics in this collection of five essays. Creation and the giving of orders are closely entwined in Western culture, where God commands the world into existence and later issues the injunctions known as the Ten Commandments. The arche, or origin, is always also a command, and a beginning is always the first principle that governs and decrees. This is as true for theology, where God not only creates the world but governs and continues to govern through continuous creation, as it is for the philosophical and political tradition according to which beginning and creation, command and will, together form a strategic apparatus without which our society would fall apart. The five essays collected here aim to deactivate this apparatus through a patient archaeological inquiry into the concepts of work, creation, and command. Giorgio Agamben explores every nuance of the arche in search of an an-archic exit strategy. By the book’s final chapter, anarchy appears as the secret center of power, brought to light so as to make possible a philosophical thought that might overthrow both the principle and its command.

Nature reveals majestic truths about God—truths that help us know him better. God's Mighty Acts in Creation helps children recognize those wonders, and what they tell us about their Creator. As Starr Meade, author of Mighty Acts of God, guides young readers through the six days of creation, she points to how creation displays the wisdom and power of God. She also helps readers explore and apply other references to nature in the Bible by answering questions such as: What did Jesus mean when he claimed to be the true vine? How is all flesh like grass, and how should that affect the way we live? What was God revealing about himself when he made the sun stand still for Joshua? Each reading includes a key verse, stimulating questions, and engaging activities, all geared toward elementary-aged children. Whether parents use this book for family devotions or children read it for themselves, all will learn how God's glory, wisdom, sovereignty, and power are revealed in all of creation. This is a companion volume to God's Mighty Acts in Salvation.

DIV“A fresh, revelatory, golden eagle’s eye-view of western literature.” —Financial Times/divDIV Early in Grammars of Creation, George Steiner references Plato’s maxim that in “all things natural and human, the origin is the most excellent.” Creation, he argues, is linguistically fundamental in theology, philosophy, art, music, literature—central, in fact, to our very humanity. Since the Holocaust, however, art has shown a tendency to linger on endings—on sundown instead of sunrise. Asserting that every use of the future tense of the verb “to be” is a negation of mortality, Steiner draws on everything from world wars and the Nazis to religion and the word of God to demonstrate how our grammar reveals our perceptions, reflections, and experiences. His study shows the twentieth century to be largely a failed one, but also offers a glimpse of hope for Western civilization, a new light peeking just over the horizon./div

Creation and the Sovereignty of God brings fresh insight to a defense of God. Traditional theistic belief declared a perfect being who creates and sustains everything and who exercises sovereignty over all. Lately, this idea has been contested, but Hugh J. McCann maintains that God creates the best possible universe and is completely free to do so; that God is responsible for human actions, yet humans also have free will; and ultimately, that divine command must be reconciled with natural law. With this distinctive approach to understanding God and the universe, McCann brings new perspective to the evidential argument from evil.

The 1935 Government of India Act was arguably the most significant turning point in the history of the British administration in India. The intent of the Act, a proposal for an Indian federation, was the continuation of British control of India, and the deflection of the challenge to the Raj posed by Gandhi, Nehru and the nationalist movement. This book seeks to understand why British administrators and politicians believed that such a strategy would work and what exactly underpinned their reasons. It is argued that British efforts to defuse and disrupt the activities of Indian nationalists in the interwar years were predicated on certain cultural beliefs about Indian political behaviour and capacity. However, this was not simply a case of 'Orientalist' policy-making. Faced with a complicated political situation, a staggering amount of information and a constant need to produce analysis, the officers of the Raj imposed their own cultural expectations upon events and evidence to render them comprehensible. Indians themselves played an often overlooked role in the formulation of this political intelligence, especially the relatively few Indians who maintained close ties to the colonial government such as T.B. Sapru and M.R. Jayakar. These men were not just mediators, as they have frequently been portrayed, but were in fact important tacticians whose activities further demonstrated the weaknesses of the colonial information economy. The author employs recently released archival material, including the Indian Political Intelligence records, to situate the 1935 Act in its multiple and overlapping contexts: internal British culture and politics; the imperial 'information order' in India; and the politics of Indian nationalism. This rich and nuanced study is essential reading for scholars working on British, Indian and imperial history.

Learn how to jump-start your imagination to conjure up innovative, worthwhile ideas with help from some of the greatest artists in the world. How do artists think? Where does their creativity originate? How can we, too, learn to be more creative? BBC Arts Editor Will Gompertz seeks answers to these questions in his exuberant, intelligent, witty, and thought-provoking style. Think Like an Artist identifies ten key lessons on creativity from artists that range from Caravaggio to Warhol, Da Vinci to Ai Weiwei, and profiles leading contemporary figures in the arts who are putting these skills to use today. After getting up close and personal with some of the world’s leading creative thinkers, Gompertz has discovered traits that are common to them all. He outlines basic practices and processes that allow your talents to flourish and enable you to embrace your inner Picasso—no matter what you do for a living. With wisdom, inspiration, and advice from an author named one of the fifty most original thinkers in the world by Creativity magazine, Think Like an Artist is an illuminating view into the habits that make people successful. It’s time to get inspired and think like an artist!

Life is an act. We act like humans, and therefore we experience like humans with a litany of limitations, shortcomings and drama that mask our underlying angelic consciousness. It’s an unnatural act that we have come to accept as reality. In Act of Consciousness, Ascended Master Adamus Saint‐Germain begins by explaining the metaphysics of energy. He defines the difference between consciousness and energy and makes the clear point that we are beings of consciousness – not energy – and that the passion of our pure consciousness attracts energy from the unified field to manifest our reality. Adamus defines the four primary levels of energy including Core (soul), Crystalline, Cosmic and Earth while educating the reader about how the various levels are used by our consciousness to manifest our stage-of-life. Adamus implores the reader to act like a Master rather than acting like a less-than‐perfect human. This act will literally change the type of energy being attracted into the reader’s life, and therefore change the reality theatre one exists within. Some readers will question this approach saying, “It’s not real because it’s just an act,” to which Adamus will reply, “But everything in your life is just an act, so why not act like a prosperous, healthy and wise Master? This will change the theatre of your life, but the real question is, ‘Are you really ready for a substantial change, or are you just trying to tidy up your current stage?’” It’s a remarkably simple and effective approach to an otherwise mental and laborious process of becoming your full potential. Act of Consciousness will make you laugh, make you angry and make you question your old beliefs about how reality is created and experienced. By the time you read Saint-Germain’s last words you will cry a few tears of joy and relief to know that life is as easy as an Act of Consciousness. Saint-Germain had many notable past lives, including that of William Shakespeare and Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens). These lifetimes gave him an appreciation for the theatre, acting and story-telling. Book length: Approximately 30,000 words