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This is a new translation of the ancient Chinese Taoist classic, the Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu. It aims at clarity and simplicity. Its underlying philosophy is explored in the Introduction, and key terms are explained in the Glossary. The Index will show whereabouts in the Tao Te Ching key concepts and ideas are mentioned, making it a handy tool for exploring the text and for locating favourite passages. The book is illustrated with pen and ink drawings.
This little book is a playful and whimsical pastiche of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - inviting readers to savour the inspiration and instruction of Lao Tzu's classic of philosophical Taoism, the Tao Te Ching. By exploring the mysterious Tao and meditating on Lao Tzu's message, the Taoist Sage avoids excess, extremes, and extravagance, embracing the oneness of the Tao, becoming like an uncarved block, and returning to simplicity. The book is illustrated with pen and ink drawings.
Imagine the forest. As darkness falls, the somber beeches disappear in misty twilight and shadows seem to gather under their branches. Far away, the blackbird's call tells of the coming of the night. The birds cease their singing, silence descends, soon the beasts of the night will make their appearance. Between tangled roots, hidden by nettles and brambles, the earth seems to ripple. A few humps of earth seem to emerge from the ground. They are the last traces of burial mounds, of mounds, which were tall and high 2500 years ago. Many of them have disappeared, hidden by tangled roots of beech and oak, ploughed flat by careless farmers, others again show caved-in tops where grave robbers have...
This student guidebook offers a clear introduction to an often complex and unwieldy area of literary studies. Tracing epic from its ancient and classical roots through postmodern and contemporary examples this volume discusses: a wide range of writers including Homer, Vergil, Ovid, Dante, Chaucer, Milton, Cervantes, Keats, Byron, Eliot, Walcott and Tolkien texts from poems, novels, children’s literature, tv, theatre and film themes and motifs such as romance, tragedy, religion, journeys and the supernatural. Offering new directions for the future and addressing the place of epic in both English-language texts and World Literature, this handy book takes you on a fascinating guided tour through the epic.
The Legend of St Brendan is a study of two accounts of a voyage undertaken by Brendan, a sixth-century Irish saint. The immense popularity of the Latin version encouraged many vernacular translations, including a twelfth-century Anglo-Norman reworking of the narrative which excises much of the devotional material seen in the ninth-century Navigatio Sancti Brendani abbatis and changes the emphasis, leaving a recognisably secular narrative. The vernacular version focuses on marvellous imagery and the trials and tribulations of a long sea-voyage. Together the two versions demonstrate a movement away from hagiography towards adventure. Studies of the two versions rarely discuss the elements of the fantastic. Following a summary of authorship, audiences and sources, this comparative study adopts a structural approach to the two versions of the Brendan narrative. It considers what the fantastic imagery achieves and addresses issues raised with respect to theological parallels.
Bard Song is a collection of poetry, mostly in medieval Welsh and Irish metres, and reflections on the nature of the Bard in early Celtic society and the role of poetry within modern Druidry and polytheism generally. ,
A comprehensive compendium on the theory and practice of herbal medicine from expert herbalists Christopher Hedley and Non Shaw. This fundamental textbook draws on the wisdom of Christopher Hedley and Non Shaw, incorporating their belief in the importance of understanding herbal medicine in the context of living plants, and providing lived examples of how this can be used in the everyday practice of herbal medicine. Through these teachings, the book also acquaints readers with the rich legacy of Christopher and Non in Western herbal medicine. Drawing on Christopher's own approach to teaching herbalism, which was abundant with the importance of storytelling in learning, Plant Medicine is as f...
Celtic Christianity–the form of Christian faith that flourished among the people of Ireland during the Middle Ages– has gained a great deal of attention lately. George G. Hunter III points out that while the attention paid to the Celtic Christians is well deserved, much of it fails to recognize the true genius of this ancient form of Christianity. What many contemporary Christians do not realize is that Celtic Christianity was one of the most successfully evangelistic branches of the church in history. The Celtic church converted Ireland from paganism to Christianity in a remarkably short period, and then proceeded to send missionaries throughout Europe. North America is today in the sam...
Seventh-century Gaelic law-tracts delineate professional poets (filid) who earned high social status through formal training. These poets cooperated with the Church to create an innovative bilingual intellectual culture in Old Gaelic and Latin. Bede described Anglo-Saxon students who availed themselves of free education in Ireland at this culturally dynamic time. Gaelic scholars called sapientes (“wise ones”) produced texts in Old Gaelic and Latin that demonstrate how Anglo-Saxon students were influenced by contact with Gaelic ecclesiastical and secular scholarship. Seventh-century Northumbria was ruled for over 50 years by Gaelic-speaking kings who could access Gaelic traditions. Gaelic literary traditions provide the closest analogues for Bede’s description of Cædmon’s production of Old English poetry. This ground-breaking study displays the transformations created by the growth of vernacular literatures and bilingual intellectual cultures. Gaelic missionaries and educational opportunities helped shape the Northumbrian “Golden Age”, its manuscripts, hagiography, and writings of Aldhelm and Bede.
Explores how a Christian notion of freedom incurring responsibility was a component of identity, examining secular writings, liturgy, canon and civil law, chronicle, dialogue, and hagiography to analyze the practice of obedience in the monastic context.