Awarded the 2007 National Research Prize SAES/AEFA. This study is a reappraisal of John Bunyan in the light of the dissenting religious culture of the late-seventeenth century. Charges of schism and fanaticism were repeatedly levelled against Bunyan, both from within the dissenting community and without, but far from being chastened by these accusations, Bunyan responded with a religious discourse marked by a rhetoric of excess. The focus of this book is therefore upon Bunyan's overwhelming spiritual experiences, especially the representation of torment, in his literary and polemical works. The believers' suffering was an obsessive concern of dissenting ministers, even to the point where their writings are often remembered today for little else. Hitherto, most scholars have termed all the mental states that they invoke 'despair', but this simplifies the experiences at issue. A wealth of contemporary material helps to restore the nuances of seventeenth-century physical and spiritual conditions, from enthusiasm to melancholy and madness; from fear to desertion and sloth. These chapters explore fresh ways in which this subtle typology of torment and its extreme manifestations form the core of the literary expression of Restoration dissent, challenging Bunyan to represent spiritual equilibrium as the ultimate quest of the earthly pilgrimage.

Detectives Lucas Baldwin and Mark Rawlings are surprised to find themselves on their way to the Grande National Hotel, the site of the annual Modern Language Association Conferenceto an academic conference, of all places!where the book-and-urine enshrouded body of Blake scholar D. Q. Manchester has been discovered and from which guest speaker H. M. Grace has vanished. As they investigate the suspicious death of one and the disappearance of another of the group of six faculty members who had come to consider themselves an island in a sea of educational malfeasance, their respect for these dedicated professors and scholarsand for education itself grows. They also come to realize that the supposedly hallowed halls of academia may be even more frightening than the decidedly mean streets of the city.

Join Sheila Walsh on her journey from despair to joy Beautiful and talented, Sheila Walsh was at the pinnacle of her career, appearing daily on television as cohost of The 700 Club. One day she found herself walking away from it all and checking in to a psychiatric hospital, where she stayed for a month. From the outside everything seemed fine, but on the inside Sheila was in trouble. In her journal she wrote, “Lord, please hold me. I’m falling into a dark well. I feel as if I am disappearing a little more every day. I am so angry inside that I am afraid of myself. I feel so alone.” How did this happen? What brought her to her knees? Loved Back to Life takes readers on Sheila’s journey of the soul from hopelessness to joy as she finds that although the road was scary, at every turn God beckoned her to follow and trust Him. And He did not let her down.

Presents Adyashanti's response to anyone looking for a way out of suffering and into the freedom of spiritual awakening. With his first introductory book, he offers what he considers the fundamental teachings on "seeing life with clear eyes" to transcend the illusions that lead to unhappiness.

Let Boundaries for Your Soul show you how to turn your shame to joy, your anger to advocacy, and your inner critic into your biggest champion. Do your emotions control you or do you control your emotions? Boundaries for Your Soul, written by bestselling authors and licensed counselors Alison Cook and Kimberly Miller, shows you how to calm the chaos within. This groundbreaking approach will give you the tools you need to: Know what to do when you feel overwhelmed Understand your guilt, anxiety, sadness, and fear Move from doubt and conflict to confidence and peace Find balance and emotional stability Gathering the wisdom from the authors' twenty-five years of combined advanced education, biblical studies, and clinical practice, this book will set you on a journey to become the loving, authentic, joyful person you were created to be. Praise for Boundaries for Your Soul: "Personal growth requires that we create healthy boundaries for our internal world, just as we are to do in our interpersonal relationships. When the various parts of our soul are connected and integrated, the result is that we heal, relate, and function at the highest levels. Alison Cook and Kimberly Miller have written a very helpful, engaging, and practical book on how to accomplish this process." --Dr. John Townsend, New York Times bestselling author of Boundaries and founder of the Townsend Institute "Boundaries for Your Soul spoke to me in echoes of already-known, yet-not-fully-applied truths, as well as with sweet new understandings. For both those familiar with Jesus' inner healing and those new to the process, there is real help here." --Elisa Morgan, author of The Beauty of Broken and The Prayer Coin, cohost of Discover the Word, and president emerita of MOPS International

Do you have the courage to test your faith? Are you looking for a comprehensive dissection of scripture? Are you concerned with the innumerable contradictions that exist within the Bible? Have you felt shunned, attacked, or discredited because of this questioning? You are not alone. You are not a heretic, being used by Satan, or in need of being saved. In Crucifying the Bible, you will find the support and answers you have been searching for. After more than three decades of unquestioning belief and deep involvement in the church, Deborah Grace began studying scripture to better understand her faith, leading to a shocking revelation: The Bible is not true. She meticulously compares the foundational basis of the Old Testament with the writings of the New Testament and then challenges the Old Testament against itself. With the core of her life-long identity shattered, Grace walked away from the church and pushed forward, piecing together new beliefs built on knowledge and true understanding. She shares many of her discoveries on these pages: God never says we have to believe in a messiah to be saved The crucifixion violates Old Testament sin sacrifice laws Jesus does not fulfill the requirements for the prophesied messiah God lied to mankind from the very beginning and criminalizes independent thinking The Bible sanctions selective supremacy, slavery, and misogyny. Christianity adopted the idea of an evil antagonist Whether you are new to examining your faith or discarded it long ago, if you crave a more sophisticated, in-depth comprehension of the scriptures, this book is for you.

There are many challenges we face in life that have simple solutions. Others might take a greater effort, but eventually, we are successful. However, sometimes we experience difficulties that seem beyond our own abilities to overcome. After perhaps years of trying to improve without making any permanent progress, it is easy to feel discouraged and overwhelmed. It is perplexing to us when we observe that in other areas of our lives we are living victoriously. We might be doing very well in business and relationships and appear to everyone that we "have it all together." Yet, in other facets of our lives, we are still experiencing frustration and defeat. As the title of the book implies, in order to overcome the overwhelming, we must have faith in God, but how do we find new faith-a faith that will finally help us move "this" mountain? Jesus said that knowing the truth will set us free. So, first of all, we need to discover what the truth is, especially as it pertains to our overwhelming circumstance. Next, we need to face head-on any thought that is negating the truth or causing us to doubt God's goodness and His loving grace toward us. Then, we simply allow ourselves to believe that God is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do, not allowing anything to prevent us from receiving what He has provided. Set before you in this book is a 40-Day feast of truth that is shared with the objective of setting you free to believe fully in God's kind intentions toward us and receive the victory Jesus won for us. I hope you will be inspired to take this journey toward rediscovering faith in God so that you will finally overcome the overwhelming. Sincerely in Christ, C. D. Hildebrand"

This updated and expanded anthology offers an engaging overview of one of the oldest and most ubiquitous forms of television programming: the sitcom. Through an analysis of formulaic conventions, the contributors address critical identities such as race, gender, and sexuality, and overarching structures such as class and family. Organized by decade, chapters explore postwar domestic ideology and working-class masculinity in the 1950s, the competing messages of power and subordination in 1960s magicoms, liberated women and gender in 1970s workplace comedies and 1980s domestic comedies, liberal feminism in the 1990s, heteronormative narrative strategies in the 2000s, and unmasking myths of gender in the 2010s. From I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners to Roseanne, Cybill, and Will & Grace to Transparent and many others in between, The Sitcom Reader provides a comprehensive examination of this popular genre that will help readers think about the shows and themselves in new contexts. For access to an online resource created by Mary Dalton, which includes interviews with contributors and course lectures, visit: The Sitcom Reader: A Companion Website @ https://build.zsr.wfu.edu/sitcomreader