Throughout her life, Gabrielle Chanel was close to the greatest artists of her time, including poets Jean Cocteau and Pierre Reverdy, painters Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dalí, and composer Igor Stravinsky. The creative heritage of the House of CHANEL has continued throughout the decades, from Gabrielle Chanel to Karl Lagerfeld, in the form of a dialogue established between artists and authors. The impact of these individuals and others on Chanel’s designs is explored in detail throughout the book. Paintings, sketches, letters, documents, and rare archival photographs illustrate the influence of different eras and inspirations on the clothing, jewelry, and perfumes that have shaped fashion throughout the decades. Moving from the little black dress to the women’s suit to CHANEL No5, CULTURE CHANEL explores the bold path of a brand that has always known how to express the essence of its times, a fashion house that continues to be an enduring symbol of modernity.

Popular titles like Halo 3 and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess fly off shelves at a mind-blowing rate. John Stanifer, an avid gamer, shows readers specific parallels between Christian faith and the content of their favorite games. Written with wry humor (including a heckler who frequently pokes fun at the author) this book will appeal to gamers and non-gamers alike. Those unfamiliar with video games may be pleasantly surprised to find that many elements in those "virtual worlds" also qualify them as "virtuous worlds." --"Virtuous Worlds is just what anyone would need to bridge the gap between video games and Christianity. Even some one like me who isn't really a part of any religion can find this book uplifting and supportive." Michelle "Akuriko" Morse, award-winning cosplayer, featured in Nintendo Power --"While video games are often seen as immoral influences, Stanifer takes a more nuanced look. Analyzing a variety of games, he discusses how they support Christian be liefs. This will be a fun read for any Christian gamer and a reassuring one for many parents." Scott Jones, Ph.D., Associate Professor of New Media Communications, Indiana University Kokomo --"I was surprised and impressed at the number of spiritual lessons John drew from a variety of games. Members of any faith can find tremendous worth in reading this book. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who has the mis conception that video games are just for entertainment purposes." Laura "Flute Link" Intravia, vocalist and flutist for Video Games Live --"In Virtuous Worlds, Stanifer will teach you to play video games better by understanding the spiritual truths of this world. He will also do the reverse: he will teach you to play your life better by understanding the truths of the video gaming world." Caleb Grimes, author of Star Wars Jesus --"So often Christians are fighting against culture, but John has utilized one of those rarely used gifts: the ability to see God's Grace working in the world and through the lives of others even when they least expect it." Rev. Derek White, Christian Gamers Guild --

In 1462 Pope Pius II performed the only reverse canonization in history, publicly damning a living man. The target was Sigismondo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini and a patron of the arts with ties to the Florentine Renaissance. Condemned to an afterlife of torment, he was burned in effigy in several places in Rome. What had this cultivated nobleman done to merit such a fate? Pagan Virtue in a Christian World examines anew the contributions and contradictions of the Italian Renaissance, and in particular how the recovery of Greek and Roman literature and art led to a revival of pagan culture and morality in fifteenth-century Italy. The court of Sigismondo Malatesta (1417–1468), Anthony D’Elia shows, provides a case study in the Renaissance clash of pagan and Christian values, for Sigismondo was nothing if not flagrant in his embrace of the classical past. Poets likened him to Odysseus, hailed him as a new Jupiter, and proclaimed his immortal destiny. Sigismondo incorporated into a Christian church an unprecedented number of zodiac symbols and images of the Olympian gods and goddesses and had the body of the Greek pagan theologian Plethon buried there. In the literature and art that Sigismondo commissioned, pagan virtues conflicted directly with Christian doctrine. Ambition was celebrated over humility, sexual pleasure over chastity, muscular athleticism over saintly asceticism, and astrological fortune over providence. In the pagan themes so prominent in Sigismondo’s court, D’Elia reveals new fault lines in the domains of culture, life, and religion in Renaissance Italy.

This book focuses on a new and emerging, yet as old as recorded history, organizational concern: virtue. Virtue has recently become a topic of serious examination among organizational researchers and progressive companies who are exploring their role in creating new, more holistic, healthy, and humane work environments. With interdisciplinary insights by many of the world's leading management thinkers, the book includes conceptual treatments, empirical research, and actual cases concerning virtuous behavior and leadership under conditions of crises, and ordinary and exemplary times.Until recently, scholarly research paid scant attention to virtue, especially in organizations. The pursuit of virtue, as opposed to the bottom line, remained outside the acceptable domain of practising managers faced with economic pressures and stakeholder demands. Concepts such as efficiency, return on investment (ROI), and competitive advantage were emphasized over more virtuous concerns such as caring, compassion, integrity and wisdom. The Virtuous Organization fills this void by presenting paradigm-shifting insights of leading scholars that have the potential to change the face of management thinking and practice for both this and future generations.

Drawing on the lives of some of the greatest political, intellectual and religious leaders of modern times, and the author’s personal experience, Virtuous Leadership demonstrates that leadership and virtue are not only compatible, they are actually synonymous. Virtuous Leadership defines each of the classical human virtues most essential to leadership – magnanimity, humility, prudence, courage, self-control and justice. It demonstrates how these virtues promote personal transformation and the attainment of self-fulfillment. It also considers the Christian supernatural virtues of faith, hope and charity without which no study of leadership can be complete. The book’s final section, Towards Victory, offers a methodology for the achievement of interior growth tailored to the needs of busy, professional people intent on imbuing their lives with a transcendent purpose. Thus, the aim of Virtuous Leadership is ultimately practical. It is meant to be your guidebook in the quest for excellence.

Winner of the Zócalo Book Prize A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice “Combines powerful moral arguments with superb storytelling.” —New Statesman What moral values do we hold in common? As globalization draws us together economically, are the things we value converging or diverging? These twin questions led Michael Ignatieff to embark on a three-year, eight-nation journey in search of an answer. What we share, he found, are what he calls “ordinary virtues”: tolerance, forgiveness, trust, and resilience. When conflicts break out, these virtues are easily exploited by the politics of fear and exclusion, reserved for one’s own group but denied to others. Yet these ordinary virtues are the key to healing and reconciliation on both a local and global scale. “Makes for illuminating reading.” —Simon Winchester, New York Review of Books “Engaging, articulate and richly descriptive... Ignatieff’s deft histories, vivid sketches and fascinating interviews are the soul of this important book.” —Times Literary Supplement “Deserves praise for wrestling with the devolution of our moral worlds over recent decades.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

This collection is a major contribution to the understanding and evaluation of Ernest Sosa’s profound and wide-ranging philosophy, in epistemology and beyond. A balanced, fair and critical volume, it offers a sensitive appreciation of his wide philosophical purview, a nuanced assessment of the detail of his thought, and a spur to exploring the linkages between the varied topics explored by the subtle mind of this great American scholar. The papers explore a wealth of Sosa’s academic interests, including his work on philosophical method, the philosophy of mind and language, metaphysics, and value theory, in addition to his output on epistemology itself. It offers, for example, a rebuttal of the counterarguments to Sosa’s reliabilist theory of introspective justification, which itself concludes with some objections to Sosa’s stated views on the ‘speckled hen’ problem. Other authors track the connections of his virtue theory to his advocacy of bi-level epistemology, provide reflections on Sosa’s views on the epistemological tradition, and examine the nexus of his beliefs on intuition and philosophical methodology. This volume is an insightful reckoning of Sosa’s academic account.

There are four kinds of people Rong Yi hates most in his life: gay, children, trash and sissy. Now he meets all at once. Just because he saw a picture of a beautiful man, his soul travelled through time and space to a different world. And he found that the original owner of this body Rong Yi had married, had a husband, and was pregnant with a baby for four years. He asked to correct the small feet wrapped before, and asked to throw away all the makeups. People thought that he was stimulated by the marriage of the big brother, but they didn't know that Rong Yi had already changed. He met a gorgeous man at the shop counter and was surprised to find that he was the beautiful man in the mobile phone picture. He followed the man carefully, because he thought the man would be the clue for him to come back! But to his surprise, this man is his husband! ☆About the Author☆ Jin Yuan Bao, a well-known online novel writer, has a strong writing ability. He can control many themes such as ancient romance, urban romance and fantasy novels. Jin Yuan Bao's works are rich and his representative works are The First Corpse Wife and The Legendary Lady.

An engaging, down-to-earth manual that helps Christians figure out how to really live a good life. Organized around twenty-two virtuous character traits - including humility, discretion, diligence, generosity, creativity, wit, justice, patience, peace, gratitude, faith, and love - this book provides concrete examples of each virtue and offers practical suggestions for its development.