Library: Best sellers

James Hogg, a Scottish writer, was the founder of the psychological novel. He perfectly understood the notions of dream and reality, the danger of the voyage in “Nancy Chilshom”, the world of the illusions, the lure, madness and strangeness towards the reality of the tragedy, the kingdom of the fairies, death, the finality of art, the supernatural, the Devil and sorcery in Scotland, the Scotland-England couple : the female nation and the male devastator, the carnival of the masks and the reality of his Masonic initiation at the end of his life.

The idea that the solitary thinker, using pure reason, can unlock the deepest mysteries of reality is certainly an exciting one. The rationalist dream began with Parmenides of Elea and became the epistemological foundation for the greatest metaphysical systems ever constructed. This thesis traces the complete historical development of this neglected epistemology and inaugurates a radical new appraisal of its method. The new clarity provides fresh insights into traditional puzzles like the Cartesian Circle and whether Plato had a secret esoteric doctrine. A new positive re-evaluation of a doctr...

Language choice has become a common phenomenon in interracial encounters in which speakers are always faced with the challenge of choosing an appropriate language in various domains of communication. In multilingual and multiracial societies, language choice can sometimes be crucial because of its social, political, and economic impact on the speakers. Even in the smallest unit of a society which is the family, language choice plays an important role particularly in interactions between husbands and wives who come from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. It is therefore the objectiv...

Many company slogans and mantras profess that passion is part of the way they work and that it is important to them. Passion over the centuries has been defined as something that makes humans slaves to their emotions and exerts an almost overwhelming compulsion to participate in an activity or relationship. In a profession such as consultant civil engineering that is so strongly anchored in the objective and scientific, what place has a motivator such as passion? This research takes a sample of consultant civil engineers and assesses two types of passion, harmonious passion and obsessive pa...

One of the pastoral problems of religiosity in Slovakia today is that contemporary Christianity is pervaded by nihil-inclinations. Such inclinations manifest themselves in the loss of orientation and meaning, and a disinterest in Christianity, which has by and large remained on a doctrinal, moralistic, and ritual level without offering a constructive faith response to the 'signs of the times'. This dissertation argues that nihilism is not an entirely negative or morose concept that leaves behind a void or abyss without values, rendering this world meaningless. Nihilism as such is not an absolu...

This thesis introduces Tadao Ando, a well-known Japanese architect, who is currently working on an emerging concept in the discourse of architecture, and is opening an approach of high sensibility (sensual, reflective, flexible, and complex, sensitively matching with every moment of life) and conceptualism (rational, logically approaching truth) that is widely considered one of the most important ways of thinking and designing architecture.In the introduction chapter, Tadao Ando's is introduced as a master of architecture and as a critic. Secondly, his goals, objectives, concepts and strategie...

Robert Siodmak, who is considered the master of film noir thrillers and crime melodramas, has long been seen as a mere "assignment director," never an artist in complete control of his work. J. Greco's study of Siodmak's Hollywood career dispels this view and presents a unique perspective on the studio system and the director who used cunning to get his own way within it. He incorporates both archival evidence and stylistic analysis to show a distinct correlation between the production histories of Siodmak's studio films and the director's central artistic purpose. Shedding new light on t...

The revision of Origen's philosophical theology by St. Maximus the Confessor resulted in an eschatology involving the replacement of the human ego by the divine presence. In this study, I will examine the theological developments that led to this loss of a sense of human freedom and creativity in the face of the divine, tracing the influence of Origen's eschatology through the Cappadocian Fathers, Evagrius Ponticus and others, up to Maximus. This will allow me to show the manner in which Origen's humanistic theology was misunderstood and misinterpreted throughout the Patristic era, culminati...

This dissertation argues that business people, clergy, lay persons, and many chaplains do not understand the leadership and management dynamics of chaplaincy, and this lack of knowledge has a direct impact on how chaplaincy is done and not done in certain areas. In chaplaincy and many churches, leadership, management, and ministry have a synergistic effect when they come together in response to a problem or crisis. An understanding of chaplaincy dynamics, scope, methods, possibilities, and issues in relation to this effect is vital to this growing field in four areas: Helps prepare people for...

This research explored how identity transitions are accomplished when individuals experience distress in relationship to the social systems in which they are embedded. Study participants grew up in cultic groups, where they were parented by committed members. Twenty-two people who chose to leave or were ejected from 12 cultic groups provided low point, high point, and turning point stories for an exploratory narrative analysis. Life story narratives revealed a jarring disconnect between what participants were expected to believe and become and how they experienced themselves. The research i...