The Church at Worship is a new series of documentary case studies of specific worshiping communities from around the world and throughout Christian history. In this second volume, Tasting Heaven on Earth, Walter Ray provides vivid descriptions of Constantinople, its history, its people, and its worship practices, which set the stage for a rich selection of primary documents that present readers with a vibrant snapshot of Byzantine Christianity in the sixth century. Some of the primary materials included here: Photos of mosaics, liturgical vessels, icons, and manuscripts Drawings, diagrams, descriptions, and photographs of Hagia Sophia Firsthand accounts of worship by Maximus the Confessor, Eutychius, and Procopius Liturgical prayers and a reconstruction of the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil

Preparing and consuming food is an integral part of identity formation, which in contemporary China embodies tension between fast-forward modernization and cultural nostalgia. Jin Feng’s wide-ranging exploration of cities in the Lower Yangzi Delta—or Jiangnan, a region known for its paradisiacal beauty and abundant resources—illustrates how people preserve culinary inheritance while also revamping it for the new millennium. Throughout Chinese history, food nostalgia has generated cultural currency for individuals. Feng examines literary treatments of Jiangnan foodways from late imperial and twentieth-century China, highlighting the role played by gender and tracing the contemporary metamorphosis of this cultural landscape, with its new platforms for food culture, such as television and the internet. As communities in Jiangnan refashion their regional heritage, culinary arts shine as markers of ethnic and social distinction.

This book explores the origins and significance of the French concept of terroir, demonstrating that the way the French eat their food and drink their wine today derives from a cultural mythology that developed between the Renaissance and the Revolution. Through close readings and an examination of little-known texts from diverse disciplines, Thomas Parker traces terroirÕs evolution, providing insight into how gastronomic mores were linked to aesthetics in language, horticulture, and painting and how the French used the power of place to define the natural world, explain comportment, and frame France as a nation.

Robert V. Camuto sets out across modern Southern Italy in search of the "South-ness" that defined his youthful experience and views the world through wine, food, and families.

The ultimate guide book to assist people in transforming their health through a natural lifestyle. Beauty queen Miss Earth Australia Liana Werner-Gray got a wake-up call at the age of 21, when she was diagnosed with a precancerous tumor in her throat. Realizing that health issues were holding her back, including in her entertainment career, she decided to change her lifestyle. Through juicing and using the whole-food recipes shared in this book, Liana healed herself in only three months. This success inspired Liana to create the Earth Diet and make information on the incredible power of plant-based and natural food available to others. She has since used her recipes to help thousands of people with cancer, diabetes, acne, addictions, obesity, and more. When you get the essential vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients your body needs, you can’t help but feel better. In this book, you’ll find more than 100 nutrient-dense, gluten-free recipes that provide proper nutrition, tips for shifting out of toxic habits, and lifestyle recipes for household and personal-care products to help you heal in all areas of your life. The Earth Diet is inclusive, with recipes for every person, ranging from raw vegans to meat eaters to those following a gluten-free diet. It also features specific guidelines for weight loss, boosting the immune system, increasing your energy, juice cleansing, and more. If you’re looking for great-tasting recipes to help you live your healthiest life ever, then this book is for you.

This is the story of a "no holds barred" pathway through life-from the author's eccentric childhood, through the tumult of the 1960's, to the ashram of Adi Da Samraj, the spiritual teacher she encountered in the 70's. With disarming and raw candor, Meg Fortune McDonnell recounts the ego-deaths and transformations she went through as she followed her unorthodox teacher around the globe-and to uncharted spiritual dimensions not located on the map. To connect her riveting confessions to current events, McDonnell draws on references from "Vanity Fair" to "The Buddhist Bible" and Alanis Morisette to Ramana Maharshi, deftly tracing the recent epoch of our collective spiritual quest along with her personal adventures. The three decades McDonnell spent under the tutelage of her enigmatic teacher were filled with sometimes hair-raising, sometimes hilarious, ultimately uplifting explorations of everything, including: what vampires tell us about the taboo against the spirit and what it really means to be "sexually liberated," healing debilitating Oedipal wounds and thawing the icy character that freezes out love, uncovering new gender roles and empowering female strengths, dancing as tribal prayer for world peace, recurring and mysterious synchronicities, what true beauty is-in art, friends, & avatars, and blessing meant for everyone. A fascinating life, masterfully told.