A fledgling seer. A cataclysmic vision. Can he convince the fated warrior to stand between their people and impending doom? Meran Durante is on a knife’s edge. Tormented by the visions of Locurnia burning, and the horrific fate of Patrice, his beloved sister, Meran confronts the one man destined to stop the slaughter. Yet facing the fascinating, but ruthless, Leon Ricci, a perilous attraction sparking between them morphs to dangerous contention, bringing all Meran’s plans crashing down. Fear laces Lord Marshal Leon Ricci’s rage. His rising interest for the handsome Durante withers at the youth’s blatant attempt to suborn him with knowledge no man should possess. Secrets that would leave his clan, and all he cares for, in jeopardy. With time running short before Lord Ricci returns to his stronghold, Meran fears he’ll be unable to alter the magnetic man’s misconceptions before the future’s deadly events overwhelm them all. Can Meran bring the implacable Ricci to heel or will his mistake force Leon to reject taking that first step on the quest destined to save their world? Seer Quest: Covenant is the action-packed third book in the LGBTQ Legend of the Ancients, Books of Locurnia Fantasy series. If you like epic quests, fantasy laced with high heat romance, and clashing protagonists then you’ll love Deonne Dane’s magic-filled adventure.

A reluctant heir. An insidious power. What is privilege when his own magic threatens to take him under? Meran Durante is distraught. An unwilling heir to a bitter and critical father, the young Durante now fears he is also the beneficiary of the oft anticipated, seldom true, seer-sight that has flickered through his mother’s family for centuries. Nightly, a single tragic spectre fills his dreams, driving him to the edge of sanity, until one fateful night his plight is discovered. Acceding to his friend’s unconventional distraction from his woes, Meran finds fleeting relief sheltered within the unique magic forged from the unexpected liaison. But realising his own agency is in peril, he searches out an alternative solution to fend off the dreamland’s insidious call before his mind is shattered forever. When his friend goes missing, can Meran wrest control of his magic before it is too late to save either of them? Meran’s Reproach is the tempestuous second book in the Legend of the Ancients – Books of Locurnia Fantasy series. If you like emotionally charged fantasy, tortured heroes and magical awakenings mixed with high heat, then you’ll love Deonne Dane’s tale of one young man coming into his legacy.

Nigosian explores the diverse literary antecedents of the Old Testament as well as the Apocrypha -- books excluded from the canonical Hebrew text but included in the Septuagint.

Without turning naively to the past, scholars and preachers of the Old Testament are once again making use of figuration--something the church had always done until the modern period. This enlargement of method comes about partly out of disappointment with the exclusive use of historical methods, for to read the Bible theologically for the guidance of its present readers requires more than historical description. The 2006 Tyndale Conference on Biblical Interpretation, held at Tyndale University College in Toronto, Canada, focused on "figuration in biblical interpretation." The authors are the conference keynote speakers, Christopher Seitz and Ephraim Radner, as well as Tyndale faculty members in philosophy, history, Bible, and theology. There are also a few additional invited papers illustrating figural interpretation. This volume is a window onto the current hermeneutic ferment within biblical studies, and its title is an invitation to sample and share the excitement!

Throughout history, from the time of Socrates to our own modern age, the human race has sought the answers to fundamental questions of life: Who are we? Why are we here? In his previous national bestsellers, The Discoverers and The Creators , Daniel J. Boorstin first told brilliantly how e discovered the reality of our world, and then he celebrated man's achievements in the arts. He now turns to the great figures in history who sought meaning and purpose in our existence. Boorstin says our Western culture has seen three grand epics of Seeking. First there was the heroic way of prophets and philosophers--men like Moses or Job or Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, as well as those in the communities of the early church universities and the Protestant Reformation--seeking salvation or truth from the god above or the reason within each of us. Then came an age of communal seeking, with people like Thucydides and Thomas More and Machiavelli and Voltaire pursuing civilization and the liberal spirit. Finally, there was an age of the social sciences, when man seemed ruled by the forces of history. Here are the absorbing stories of exceptional men such as Marx, Spengler, and Toynbee, Carlyle and Emerson, and Malraux, Bergson, and Einstein. These great thinkers still have the power to speak to us, not always so much for their answers as for their way of asking the questions that never cease either to intrigue or to obsess us. In this impressive climax to a monumental trilogy, Daniel J. Boorstin once again shows that his ability to present challenging ideas, coupled with sharp portraits of great writers and thinkers, remains unparalleled.

The Prophet Moses, whose life is depicted in a variety of paintings, icons, movies, and other forms of art, is one of the most famous biblical figures. However, these types of portrayals tend to draw exclusively on biblical narratives. This book attempts to create a three-dimensional structure of the biblical narrative in order to uncover the global and historical significance of this remarkable human being, as well as the blessed fruits of his labor and wisdom, which were passed down not only to the Israeli people, but to all of humankind. We shall embark upon a journey to ancient times in order to feel the zeitgeist of Moses’ day, learn about God and the fellowship of His chosen people, and come to know the miracles and wonderful gifts that He has bestowed upon us.

Gad is a prophet most associated with King David in the Holy Bible. This book is the outcome of a prolonged study of a manuscript that was found serendipitously 34 years ago. Actually, this was a re-discovery of a text that for some reason had escaped the eyes of many. It is a story of the survival of Jews remote in place and time, and of their books, visions, angels and divine voices, combined with their belief in God and his covenant with King David and Israel. There is no other book that resembles this one. A book by the name Words of Gad the Seer is mentioned at the end of I Chronicles, presumably one of the sources of the history of King David. Ever since the book was considered lost and it is mentioned nowhere. In the 18th century Jews from Cochin said that their ancestors have had several apocryphal books, including Words of Gad the Seer, and this statement was published first by Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (1789) and translated by Naphtali H. Wesseley who publicized these fantastic claims (1790). Since none saw the book, it was probably considered to be an oriental legend. So when Solomon Schechter, in 1894 (just before he became occupied with the Genizah), checked manuscripts at the Cambridge library, bought at Cochin around 1806, not only he described the specific manuscript improperly but he also failed to make the right connection to earlier knowledge of that book and thus he under evaluated the text. In 1927 Israel Abrahams published a paper on this manuscript, but his analysis, once again, had several improper descriptions, and hence the text of Words of Gad the Seer went into oblivion. This book presents the text of Words of Gad the Seer for the first time. First comes an introduction where the history of the manuscript is discussed. Later the characters of the text described and analyzed one feature after the other. The text is found to be having many similarities with the Book of Revelation and several pseudo-apocryphal and apocalyptic books such as 2 Baruch, 4 Ezra and others. Then comes a diplomatic edition of the manuscript where each and every letter (by special fonts) is presented similarly to the manuscript. Later the book is divided to 14 chapters, each is a literary unit by itself, and each has its own introduction and a commentary. Each and every verse is explained in a "multi-focal" commentary in a manner similar to publishing a Biblical book: literary criticism, lexicography, philology and alike. A special treatment is given to the scribal practices that are reflected in the text: the only non-canonical book with a Massorah, Qeri and Ketib, total number of verses and more. The book is 5227 words in length written in a pseudo-Biblical Hebrew intended to be a book written by the Seer of King David in the 10th century B.C.E. The text is an anthology and varies in style and character: 3 chapters are apocalyptic in nature, 2 chapters are a "mere" copy of Ps 145 and 144 (with different superscriptions and all sorts of different readings, some of them highly important); one chapter is a harmonization of 1 Sam 24 with 1 Chr 21 (that resembles ancient harmonizations of texts as found in the Samaritan Pentateuch and Qumran alike). One chapter is a kind of addendum to 2 Sam 13 (a "feminine story"), one chapter is a sermon, one chapter is a folk story, and there are more blessings, liturgies and other issues. Literary genre, scribalism and scribes' technique are described and analyzed. The book comes with an index and a vast bibliography. The appearance of the text will add a great deal to our understanding of Jewish History and religion. Date: The text assumed to be written either in the Land of Israel at the end of the first century or in the Middle Ages Europe.

Friedrich Kittler’s lecture series provides a concise history of optical media from Renaissance linear perspective to late twentieth-century computer graphics. He begins by looking at European painting since the Renaissance in order to discern the principles according to which modern optical perception was organised. Kittler also discusses the development of various mechanical devices, like the camera obscura and the laterna magica, which were closely connected to the printing press and which played a pivotal role in the media war between the Reformation and the Counterreformation. After examining this history, Kittler then addresses the ways in which images were first stored and made to move through the development of photography and film. Kittler discusses the competitive relationship between photography and painting as well as between film and theater, as innovations like the Baroque proscenium or “picture-frame” stage evolved from elements that would later constitute cinema. The central question, however, is the impact of film on the ancient monopoly of writing, as it not only provoked new forms of competition for novelists but also fundamentally altered the status of books. In the final section, Kittler examines the development of electrical telecommunications and electronic image processing from television to computer simulations. In short, these lectures provide a comprehensive introduction to the history of image production, which is indispensable for anyone wishing to understand the prevailing audiovisual conditions of contemporary culture.

“Covenant is [Stephen R.] Donaldson's genius!”—The Village Voice He called himself Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, because he dared not believe in this strange alternate world on which he suddenly found himself. Yet the Land tempted him. He had been sick; now he seemed better than ever before. Through no fault of his own, he had been outcast, unclean, a pariah. Now he was regarded as a reincarnation of the Land's greatest hero—Berek Halfhand—armed with the mystic power of White Gold. That power alone could protect the Lords of the Land from the ancient evil of the Despiser, Lord Foul. Except that Covenant had no idea how to use that power. . . .

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