What is mental health? While it is an increasingly important and oft-discussed topic, the nature of mental health remains unclear. In The Minds We Want, John T. Maier argues that mental health is best defined as psychological well-being, and that the standards for psychological well-being are subjective. Since people have vastly different wants and values, mental health differs greatly from person to person---a monk and a parent of young children have radically different inner liv...

This book defends a comprehensive new vision of what addiction is and how people with addictions should be treated. The author argues that, in addition to physical and intellectual disabilities, there are volitional disabilities – disabilities of the will – and that addiction is best understood as a species of volitional disability.This theory serves to illuminate long-standing philosophical and psychological perplexities about addiction and addictive motivation. It articulates a n...

This book develops an original theory of agentive modality: the kind of modality that is distinctive to agents. The central thesis is that the idea of an option should be taken as primitive, and that other agentive notions – such as ability, skill, and free will – should be understood in terms of options.The main contributions of this book are twofold. First, it resolves many of the outstanding questions in the metaphysics and semantics of agentive modality. In doing so, it develop...

From presidential to congressional, state, and local tickets, this book explains the 2024 elections through more than 125 full-color maps that unleash the illustrative power of cartography. A mix of geographers, political scientists, and historians provide a comprehensive examination of the elections from the primary campaigns to the final results.This 2024 entry in a long-running franchise covers the 2024 presidential primary and general elections, significant ele...

The story of Gilgamesh, an ancient epic poem written on clay tablets in a cuneiform alphabet, is as fascinating and moving as it is crucial to our ability to fathom the time and the place in which it was written. Gardner's version restores the poetry of the text and the lyricism that is lost in the earlier, almost scientific renderings. The principal theme of the poem is a familiar one: man's persistent and hopeless quest for immortality. It tells of the heroic exploits of an ancient ruler...

Living in 2300 BCE, Sumerian high priestess Enheduanna became the first author of historical record by signing her name to a collection of hymns written for forty-two temples throughout the southern half of ancient Mesopotamia, the civilization now known as Sumer. Each of her hymns confirmed to the worshipers in each city the patron deity’s unique character and significance. The collected hymns became part of the literary canon of the remarkable Sumerian culture and were copied by scribes ...

Often called the “Father of Church History,” Eusebius was the first to trace the rise of Christianity during its crucial first three centuries from Christ to Constantine. Our principal resource for earliest Chrisitianity, The Church History presents a panorama of apostles, church fathers, emperors, bishops, heroes, heretics, confessors, and martyrs.This audiobook edition includes Paul L. Maier’s clear and precise translation, historical commentary on each book in The C...

If you were to account for your life at this moment—are you living up to your own potential? Does your present state of affairs give you reason to be disappointed or discouraged? Is your job unsatisfying…your relationships far from what they could be…your spiritual life a mere shadow of what it once was? If you answered "yes" to one or more of these questions, then there is a very good chance you--like scores of other Americans--have been lulled into accepting a life that is simply "good e...

Having imagined a machine-like world, scientists now haunt this machine uneasily. Their plight is paradoxical: they have realized their world only through intense mental effort, yet this effort finds no legitimate place in the world it so painstakingly comprehends. It seems "objectivity" only comes at a cost. Why, for example, is science unable to describe a smile? Why is the moral life of a physicist regarded as his or her own private affair?This exclusion of human qualities from ...

Focusing on particular cases of Anglo-German exchange in the period known as the Sattelzeit (1750-1850), this volume of essays explores how drama and poetry played a central role in the development of British and German literary cultures. With increased numbers of people studying foreign languages, engaging in translation work, and traveling between Britain and Germany, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries gave rise to unprecedented opportunities for intercultural encounters and transna...

Before Theological Study will orient students to the aptitudes, knowledge, spirituality, imagination, and dispositions that are appropriate to thoughtful, engaged, and generous theological study. The book has the character of a modern theological enchiridion (handbook) for engagement with the disciplines that are a part of preparation for ministry. It is characterized by the vision of the Vancouver School of Theology to prepare students for thoughtful, engaged, and generous Christian minis...

This guide outlines concepts and principles of philosophy in an easy to understand format. Topics covered in this guide include: metaphysics, mind body problems, language games and much more.