This book examines how the spiritual longings of ordinary people have shaped the most progressive political and cultural movements of the twentieth century and given birth to a new postmodern perspective on existence that recoups the traditional religious verities on the far side of both literary modernism and neo-Marxism. Inchausti focuses on figures who have been instrumental in defending the sacred traditions of indigenous cultures and oppressed minorities. He demonstrates that Mahatma Gandhi, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Elie Wiesel, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, and Lech Walesa share an ethic that is, at once, plebeian in origin and yet sublime in aspiration.

This book examines how the spiritual longings of ordinary people have shaped the most progressive political and cultural movements of the twentieth century and given birth to a new postmodern perspective on existence that recoups the traditional religious verities on the far side of both literary modernism and neo-Marxism. Inchausti focuses on figures who have been instrumental in defending the sacred traditions of indigenous cultures and oppressed minorities. He demonstrates that Mahatma Gandhi, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Elie Wiesel, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, and Lech Walesa share an ethic that is, at once, plebeian in origin and yet sublime in aspiration.

Marva Collins embodies all that is meant by that hallowed word. . .teacher. She gives of herself tirelessly so that those whose minds are supple may grasp knowledge and power through her love. Indeed love, like that of a mother for her children, is the essence of the Marva Collins Way. . .love of learning, love of teaching, and love of sharing. It charges her mission with an incredible power to heal broken spirits. Discover the power to truly teach, whether it be one child or many. Children don't have to be geniuses to be successful. By the power of the extraordinary teacher, each and everyone can achieve extraordinary success. You can be that teacher or parent. In this book, Marva Collins reveals the secret of her success and the principles which will aid you to duplicate her achievements - first within yourself, then within your classroom or in your own home. Here is an opportunity to expand your teaching ability with the aid of one who has stretched the boundary through her own bold experiments. It works. Go for it. Renew your spirit. The Extraordinary teacher is you.

This textbook is a systematic guide to the extensive field of spirituality. Kees Waaijman charts the multiform phenomenon of spirituality: the spirituality of ordinary people, the great spiritual traditions and the force of counter-movements. From the foundation of this survey he answers questions like: What exactly is spirituality? What forms can a scholarly approach take? Finally, the book provides methodic access to the study of spirituality, focusing on the following questions: Which are the different forms of spirituality and how can we describe them? How can spiritual texts be given a reliable reading? Which themes can be distinguished in the field of spirituality and what would be a meaningful way to address them? What do we mean by spiritual guidance and what can we learn from it? This textbook has no equal. It is indispensable to scholars wishing to study the subject, but also to others who want to learn about spirituality.

Drawing from insights both inside and outside of academia, this book seeks to reincorporate transcendent concepts into the study of the family as a unit of society. The authors argue for a more collaborative, family-centered family science and offer recommendations for how family researchers might work to change the scientific monologue about families to a systemic dialogue with families.

“Order, by itself, normally wants to eliminate any disorder and diversity creating a narrow and cognitive rigidity in both people and systems. Disorder, by itself, closes us off from any primal union, meaning, and eventually even sanity in people and systems. Reorder, or transformation of people and systems, happens when both are seen to work together” – from the preface. Through time, a universal pattern can be found in all societies, spiritualities, and philosophies. We see it in the changing seasons, the stories of Scripture in the Bible, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the rise and fall of civilizations, and even personally in our lives. In this updated version of one of his earliest books, Father Richard Rohr clearly illuminates how understanding and embracing this pattern can give us hope in difficult times and the courage to push through disorganization and even great chaos to find a new way of being in the world. “We are indeed 'saved' by knowing and surrendering to this universal pattern of reality. Knowing the full pattern allows us to let go of our first order, trust the disorder, and, sometimes even hardest of all—to trust the new reorder. Three big leaps of faith for all of us, and each of a different character.” —from the introduction.

This work goes beyond the basics of classroom management to consider the path of both teacher and student toward authentic intellectual maturity and spiritual growth. It provides a framework for stripping away the external and personal pressures that bleed intellectual content out of classroom teaching so that teachers may, in fact, experience their vocation as sublime. Written in the novelistic first-person narrative, it is a seasoned teacher's story of his initiation from graduate student at the University of Chicago to ninth-grade teacher in a Catholic high school where he manned the battle lines in provincial, petty, sometime even violent world of American secondary school. It is also the story of how a certain Brother Blake, a 67-year-old practitioner of the pedagogy of the sublime, passed on his vision of classroom teaching as a sublime vocation. A major contribution to the field by the acclaimed author of The Ignorant Perfection of Ordinary People.

As experiences of suffering continue to influence the responses of identity groups in the midst of violent conflict, a way to harness their narratives, stories, memories, and myths in transformative and non-violent ways is needed. From Suffering to Solidarity explores the historical seeds of Mennonite peacebuilding approaches and their application in violent conflicts around the world. The authors in this book first draw out the experiences of Anabaptists and Mennonites from the sixteenth-century originsthrough to the present that have shaped their approaches to conflict transformation and inspired new generations of Mennonites to engage in relief, development, and peacebuilding to alleviate the suffering of others whose experiences today reflect those of their ancestors. Authors then explore the various peacebuilding approaches, methods, and initiatives that have emerged from this Mennonite narrative and its preservation and dissemination in subsequent generations. Finally, the book examines how this combined historical sensitivity and resulting peacebuilding theory and practice have been applied in violent conflicts around the world, noting both successes and challenges. Ultimately, From Suffering to Solidarity attempts to answer a question: How can arobust historical infrastructure be used to inspire empathetic solidarity with the Other and shape nonviolent ways of transforming conflict to thrust a stick in the spokes of the cycle of violence?

Why is so much of our existence so ordinary? Why this immense tract of stuff in our lives that seems to have no lofty purpose? In ninety short devotional chapters, Mike Mason meditates on this question, concluding that in fact everydayness, to the extent we embrace it, is a source of deep consolation. Far from being meaningless, the humdrum and the commonplace may actually hold the secret of life. Same Old, Same New—beautifully and provocatively written and full of arresting insights—will take your old tired world, stand it on end, and spin it like a top. “Mike Mason straddles two worlds, the quotidian and the eternal. Of course those two worlds aren’t separate worlds at all—and the reality of that intermingling, that co-existence of the mundane and the mystical, is perhaps the recurrent theme of Mason’s writing.” ~Ron Reed, Founding Artistic Director of Pacific Theatre

A translation of women's testimonies about their experiences in the prisons of Spain following the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939 collected by Tomasa Cuevas, herself a surviving victim of the Francoist prison system.