This title helps you to quickly develop dynamic Flash applications with PHP. The demand for rich Internet applications (RIAs) such as complete storefronts and interactive surveys is skyrocketing, as is the pressure to create these dynamic apps overnight and at low cost. This in-depth Bible provides the step-by-step instructions you need to quickly create RIAs in Flash using cost-effective, open-source PHP programming tools. You'll learn how PHP works, when you should use it in Flash, and above all, vital security techniques for keeping your interactive sites secure. This title helps you: install, configure, and explore the basics of PHP; connect Flash to PHP and PHP to MySQL[registered]; create contact forms and search capabilities; clean, store, and check your interactive data; apply advanced security techniques; develop an RSS reader or banner tracking with PHP; extend Flash and PHP with third-party libraries; and, learn best practices for backing up and updating your server. It also includes a companion web site. On the book's web site you can see real-world examples of Flash applications and how they were developed. The Web site also includes all the source files associated with the examples.

"The Ram in a Thicket focuses on the interface between Christian Science and medicine, and the ethical issues therein. Other topics which have received less attention than needed in our church discussion include: the law and children, the role of free speech and secrecy (the "dumbing down" of teaching will be included in this chapter), the value of community, self-knowledge, religious self-regulation, listening to prophetic voices, reconciliation of differing points of view and dealing with controversy, Biblical literacy, perfectionism, and distinguishing between dogma and doctrine. Input for this book has come from church archives, various research and histories, numerous interviews, and the observations of many long-time Christian Scientists. The book is intended to provoke thought among church members and others with a connection to Christian Science. Its goal is not to establish any new set of doctrinal positions, but to encourage a continual revival of Spirit and a fresh look at our church practices"--

Religion in the contemporary west is undergoing rapid change. In Predicting Religion twenty experts in the study of religion present their predictions about the future of religion in the 21st century - predictions based on careful analysis of the contemporary religious scene from traditional forms of Christianity to new spiritualities. The range of predictions is broad. A number predict further secularization - with religion in the west seen as being in a state of terminal decline. Others question this approach and suggest that we are witnessing not decline but transformation understood in different ways: a shift from theism to pantheism, from outer to inner authority, from God to self-as-god, and above all from religion to spirituality. This accessible book on the contemporary religious scene offers students and scholars of the sociology of religion and theology, as well as interested general readers, fresh insights into the future of religion and spirituality in the west. Published in association with the British Sociological Association Study of Religion group, in the Ashgate Religion and Theology in Interdisciplinary Perspective series.

The Re-Enchantment of the West challenges those theories that predict widespread secularization beyond traditional institutional religiosity. Spiritualities are emerging that are not only quite different from the those forms of religion that are in decline, but are often defined over against them and articulated and passed on in ways quite different from those of traditional religion. In particular, it is argued that such contemporary Western spirituality is fed by a constantly replenished reservoir of ideas, practices, and methodologies, which is here termed 'occulture'. Moreover, such occultural ideas both feed into and are resourced by popular culture. Indeed, popular occulture is a key feature of the re-enchantment of the West. Demonstrating the significance and ubiquity of these ideas, this book examines, for example, healthcare and nursing, contemporary environmentalism, psychedelia and drug use, the Internet and cyberspirituality, belief in UFOs and extraterrestrial life, demonology and the contemporary fascination with the figure of Satan, the heavy metal subculture, popular apocalypticism, and millennial violence.

Just Lighten Up! is dedicated to everyone in the world who has ever had a bad day. On one such occasion I met Mobley, one of the "Lighten Up" Angels, who reminded me that life is an opportunity for us to experience joy, laughter, love, peace and harmony. Each little angel in this coloring book is demonstrating a tool we can all use to help us lighten up during the day. If we really want to be grumpy and unhappy, we can. But it is very difficult to stay that way when the Lighten Up Angels start revealing themselves in our lives. So call on these angels. Ask them to laugh and play with you, to help you see the humor in all experiences you create. Release negative thoughts, feelings and emotions as you color these lighthearted little angel pictures. Laughter is the best "medicine," and these little angels can brighten any day!

The first major study of the famous Reclaiming community of witches, founded in 1979 in San Francisco. Examines gendered and religious identites and the communal and ritual processes of Reclaiming.

A Community of Witches explores the beliefs and practices of Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft - generally known to scholars and practitioners as Wicca. While the words "magic," "witchcraft," and "paganism" evoke images of the distant past and remote cultures, this book shows that Wicca has emerged as part of a new religious movement that reflects the era in which it developed. Imported to the United States in the late 1960s from the United Kingdom, the religion absorbed into its basic fabric the social concerns of the time: feminism, environmentalism, self-development, alternative spirituality, and mistrust of authority.

Contributes to the growing literature on comparative religion and new religious movements. More specifically, it draws attention to a new religious movement. Using a multidisciplinary approcach, Hume describes the emergence of a controversial worldview which has roots in ancient ideas but whose ideology is rooted in the 20th century.

This book, first published in 1984, examines the whole range of new religious movements which appeared in the 1960s and 1970s in the West. It develops a wide-ranging theory of these new religions which explains many of their major characteristics. Some of the movements are well-known, such as Scientology, Krishna Consciousness, and the Unification Church. Others such as the Process, Meher Baba, and 3-HO are much less known. While some became international, others remained local; in other ways, too, such as style, belief, organisation, they exhibit enormous diversity. The movements studied here are classified under three ideal types, world-rejecting, world-affirming and world-accommodating, and from here the author develops a theory of the origins, recruitment base, characteristics, and development patterns which they display. The book offers a critical exploration of the theories of the new religions and analyses the highly contentious issue of whether they reflect the process of secularisation, or whether they are a countervailing trend marking the resurgence of religion in the West.

This book incorporates the author's personal experience and scholarly work concerning ritual, sacred space, self-identity, and narrative.