The awareness of the potential for abuse of religion has risen dramatically in the West since 9/11. We all seem to agree that the abuse of religion should be averted, and condemnation of the abuse of religion is almost universal. Bram van de Beek, systematic theologian at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, has radicalised this discourse by claiming that religion should not be allied to any cause, not even to a good cause. He illustrates this by the way theology has been instrumentalized within the Reformed tradition in e.g. apologetic theology, liberation theology, theocraty, and pietism. His thesis provokes fervent discussions. Twelve prominent theologians react on issues such as public theology, evangelical activism, Christian life, the relevance of reasons for faith, the unity of the church, and contextualization of religion in various parts of the world. At stake is the assertion that precisely religion without ulterior motive is the best guarantee for relevant religion.

A secret war for world domination of computer software leads to the assassination of the billionaire owner of Megasoft, a Seattle company. Employee Jonathan Goodman turns sleuth, only to find himself framed for murder.

Can economics be passionate? Can it center on people and what really matters to them day-in and day-out. And help us understand their hidden motives for why they do what they do in everyday life? Uri Gneezy and John List are revolutionaries. Their ideas and methods for revealing what really works in addressing big social, business, and economic problems gives us new understanding of the motives underlying human behavior. We can then structure incentives that can get people to move mountains, change their behavior -- or at least get a better deal. But finding the right incentive can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Gneezy and List's pioneering approach is to embed themselves in the factories, schools, communities, and offices where people work, live, and play. Then, through large-scale field experiments conducted "in the wild," Gneezy and List observe people in their natural environments without them being aware that they are observed. Their randomized experiments have revealed ways to close the gap between rich and poor students; to stop the violence plaguing inner-city schools; to decipher whether women are really less competitive than men; to correctly price products and services; and to discover the real reasons why people discriminate. To get the answers, Gneezy and List boarded planes, helicopters, trains, and automobiles to embark on journeys from the foothills of Kilimanjaro to California wineries; from sultry northern India to the chilly streets of Chicago; from the playgrounds of schools in Israel to the boardrooms of some of the world's largest corporations. In The Why Axis, they take us along for the ride, and through engaging and colorful stories, present lessons with big payoffs. Their revelatory, startling, and urgent discoveries about how incentives really work are both revolutionary and immensely practical. This research will change both the way we think about and take action on big and little problems. Instead of relying on assumptions, we can find out, through evidence, what really works. Anyone working in business, politics, education, or philanthropy can use the approach Gneezy and List describe in The Why Axis to reach a deeper, nuanced understanding of human behavior, and a better understanding of what motivates people and why.

Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains, therefore, are designed not just to hunt and gather, but also to help us get ahead socially, often via deception and self-deception. But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better - and thus we don't like to talk or even think about the extent of our selfishness. This is "the elephant in the brain." Such an introspective taboo makes it hard for us to think clearly about our nature and the explanations for our behavior. The aim of this book, then, is to confront our hidden motives directly - to track down the darker, unexamined corners of our psyches and blast them with floodlights. Then, once everything is clearly visible, we can work to better understand ourselves: Why do we laugh? Why are artists sexy? Why do we brag about travel? Why do we prefer to speak rather than listen? Our unconscious motives drive more than just our private behavior; they also infect our venerated social institutions such as Art, School, Charity, Medicine, Politics, and Religion. In fact, these institutions are in many ways designed to accommodate our hidden motives, to serve covert agendas alongside their "official" ones. The existence of big hidden motives can upend the usual political debates, leading one to question the legitimacy of these social institutions, and of standard policies designed to favor or discourage them. You won't see yourself - or the world - the same after confronting the elephant in the brain.

The police think he killed someone. He swears he’s innocent. All she knows for certain is his crime against her. Louis Dubose, international art dealer, has been murdered. The police are certain they’ve got their man. Recently fired by Dubose, Ben Robinson has a motive backed by a convincing trail of evidence. Except that one person isn’t convinced—someone who knows Ben well. Knows that he’s quite capable of trashing human lives but not of taking them. Now that person is about to gamble her own well-being on his innocence . . . when her personal indictment against him may be almost as bitter as murder. The question is, does Sharon Robinson know Ben as well as she thinks she does? Two small kidnapping victims hold the answer—and time to save their lives is running out. Ulterior Motives is more than just a superbly crafted suspense novel. It’s a wrenching portrayal of the cost of forgiveness, of innocence and faith pitted against monstrous evil, and of skepticism’s journey to the cross of Christ. Ulterior Motives is book three in the Sun Coast Chronicles by award-winning author Terri Blackstock. From absorbing legal drama to lightning-paced action, the Sun Coast

From a Printz and Morris Award-winning author comes a quirky story of coming-of-age, coming out, friendship, love...and agoraphobia. Sixteen-year-old Solomon has agoraphobia. He hasn't left his house in 3 years. Ambitious Lisa is desperate to get into a top-tier psychology program. And so when Lisa learns about Solomon, she decides to befriend him, cure him, and then write about it for her college application. To earn Solomon's trust, she introduces him to her boyfriend Clark, and starts to reveal her own secrets. But what started as an experiment leads to a real friendship, with all three growing close. But when the truth comes out, what erupts could destroy them all. Funny and heartwarming, Highly Illogical Behavior is a fascinating exploration of what makes us tick, and how the connections between us may be the most important things of all. “At a time when young adult literature is actively picking away at the stigma of mental illness, Whaley carves off a healthy chunk with style, sensitivity and humor. . . . ELECTRIFYING.”—The New York Times Book Review “Tender and funny.”—People Magazine, Summer's Best Books of 2016

An award–winning writer delivers a major reckoning with religion, place, and sexuality in the aftermath of 9/11 Hailed in The Washington Post as “one of the most eloquent and probing public intellectuals in America,” Richard Rodriguez now considers religious violence worldwide, growing public atheism in the West, and his own mortality. Rodriguez’s stylish new memoir—the first book in a decade from the Pulitzer Prize finalist—moves from Jerusalem to Silicon Valley, from Moses to Liberace, from Lance Armstrong to Mother Teresa. Rodriguez is a homosexual who writes with love of the religions of the desert that exclude him. He is a passionate, unorthodox Christian who is always mindful of his relationship to Judaism and Islam because of a shared belief in the God who revealed himself within an ecology of emptiness. And at the center of this book is a consideration of women—their importance to Rodriguez’s spiritual formation and their centrality to the future of the desert religions. Only a mind as elastic and refined as Rodriguez’s could bind these threads together into this wonderfully complex tapestry.

This “fascinating, compulsively readable domestic suspense” set in London “will absolutely appeal to fans of Liane Moriarty and B.A. Paris” as it asks readers: How well do you know your friends? (Booklist) That picture you posted? I’ve seen it. That location you tagged? I’ve been there. I know everything about your life . . . And I’m going to destroy it. A recent transplant from sunny California, life in the London suburbs is not what Taylor Watson expected. Far from the West End shops and city lights she imagined, she finds herself pregnant and lonely, with a husband frequently away on business and only social media to keep her company. It’s only after Taylor joins a book club and a walking group, that she finally starts to make some real-life friends. Before long, Taylor’s hanging out with Anna, Sarah, Simon, and Caroline but, as her pregnancy progresses and her friendships blossom, a sense of unease develops. Nothing’s ever quite as it seems on the surface, and it soon becomes clear that Taylor’s new friends have secrets. One appears to be after Taylor’s husband, another’s always putting her down, and then there’s the question of Simon. Could he have feelings for Taylor? But far more worryingly, one of the group’s not being too careful what they post on social media—and another is watching all too closely. Who’s stalking who . . . and why?

This book is based on notes for a master’s course given at Queen Mary, University of London, in the 1998/9 session. Such courses in London are quite short, and the course consisted essentially of the material in the ?rst three chapters, together with a two-hour lecture on connections with group theory. Chapter 5 is a considerably expanded version of this. For the course, the main sources were the books by Hopcroft and Ullman ([20]), by Cohen ([4]), and by Epstein et al. ([7]). Some use was also made of a later book by Hopcroft and Ullman ([21]). The ulterior motive in the ?rst three chapters is to give a rigorous proof that various notions of recursively enumerable language are equivalent. Three such notions are considered. These are: generated by a type 0 grammar, recognised by a Turing machine (deterministic or not) and de?ned by means of a Godel ̈ numbering, having de?ned “recursively enumerable” for sets of natural numbers. It is hoped that this has been achieved without too many ar- ments using complicated notation. This is a problem with the entire subject, and it is important to understand the idea of the proof, which is often quite simple. Two particular places that are heavy going are the proof at the end of Chapter 1 that a language recognised by a Turing machine is type 0, and the proof in Chapter 2 that a Turing machine computable function is partial recursive.

Catherine Sanderson's Social Psychology will help open students minds to a world beyond their own experience so that they will better understand themselves and others. Sanderson's uniquely powerful program of learning resources was built to support you in moving students from passive observers to active course participants. Go further in applying social psychology to everyday life. Sanderson includes application boxes on law, media, environment, business, health and education in every chapter right as the relevant material is introduced, rather than at the end of the book. This allows students to make an immediate connection between the concept and the relevant application and provides a streamlined 15 chapter organization that helps you cover more of the material in a term.