Month: February 2018 (Page 1 of 2)

Here is a sample of the nineteen items added to the collection in the past week. Click on a title for more information. TWU login may be required.

The Dead Sea scrolls: a very short introduction /Timothy H. Lim. Lim  presents the true facts and leading theories behind the cultural and historical background of the scrolls, and examines their significance for our understanding of the Old Testament and the origins of Christianity and Judaism. He also tells the fascinating story of the scrolls since their discovery, explains the science behind their deciphering and dating, and does not omit the cast ofcharacters, scandals, and controversies that have hastened the scrolls’ rise to the status of cultural icon.

Die wise: a manifesto for sanity and soul /Stephen Jenkinson. With lyrical prose, deep wisdom, and stories from his two decades of working with dying people and their families, Stephen Jenkinson places death at the center of the page and asks us to behold it in all its painful beauty.  Die Wise teaches the skills of dying, skills that have to be learned in the course of living deeply and well. Dying well, Jenkinson writes, is a right and responsibility of everyone. In the end, Jenkinson’s message is not one of despair–he believes learning to love death is in fact one of the most direct ways to love life.

An ethnohistorian in Rupert’s Land: unfinished conversations /Jennifer S.H. Brown. The eighteen essays gathered in this book explore Brown’s investigations into the surprising range of interactions among Indigenous people and newcomers as they met or observed one another from a distance, and as they competed, compromised, and rejected or adapted to change. While diverse in their subject matter, the essays have thematic unity in their focus on the old Hudson’s Bay Company territory and its peoples from the 1600s to the present. More than an anthology, the chapters of An Ethnohistorian in Rupert’s Land provide examples of Brown’s exceptional skill in the close study of texts, including oral documents, images, artifacts, and other cultural expressions. The volume as a whole represents the scholarly evolution of one of the leading ethnohistorians in Canada and the United States.

Mixed blessings: Indigenous encounters with Christianity in Canada /edited by Tolly Bradford and Chelsea Horton. Mixed Blessings transforms our understanding of the relationship between Indigenous people and Christianity in Canada from the early 1600s to the present day. While acknowledging the harm of colonialism, including the trauma inflicted by church-run residential schools, this interdisciplinary collection challenges the portrayal of Indigenous people as passive victims of malevolent missionaries who experienced a uniformly dark history. Instead, this book illuminates the diverse and multifaceted ways that Indigenous communities and individuals–including prominent leaders such as Louis Riel and Edward Ahenakew–have interacted, and continue to interact, meaningfully with Christianity.

Pacific Rim magazine [electronic resource] Pacific Rim Magazine connects readers to people across the Pacific Rim. Stories of community, travel, food, and technology honour our cultural diversity. We acknowledge our responsibility to future generation by focusing on social issues, environmental concerns, and today’s innovations.  Publishing students produce Pacific Rim Magazine, a full-colour print publication distributed with Canada’s largest-circulation national newspaper, The Globe and Mail.

The stranger at the feast: prohibition and mediation in an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian community /Tom Boylston. The Stranger at the Feast is the first full-length ethnographic study of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity. Based on two years of field study on the Zege peninsula on Lake Tana between 2008 and 2014, the book follows the material relationships by which Ethiopian Orthodox Christians relate to God, each other, and the material environment. It shows how religious life in Zege is based around a ritual ecology of prohibition and mediation in which fasting and avoidance practices are necessary in order to make the material world fit for religious life. The book traces how religious feeding and fasting practices have been the idiom through which Christians in Zege have understood the turbulent political changes of recent decades.

What did you expect?: redeeming the realities of marriage /Paul David Tripp. Internationally known speaker, pastor, counselor, and author calls engaged and married couples to a grace-based lifestyle of daily reconciliation, marked by six practical commitments.

Why aren’t you more like me? /Ken Keis ; with Everett T. Robinson. Discover the secrets to understanding yourself and others. In this  book, Keis introduces us to Personal Style, a unique assessment tool for understanding ourselves and those around us. Reading and applying the ideas presented will result in a significant improvement in ALL our relationships.

The wolves at my shadow: the story of Ingelore Rothschild /Ingelore Rothschild ; edited by Darilyn Stahl Listort and Dennis Listort. Ingelore Rothschild was twelve years old when she was whisked out of her home in 1936. It was her first step on a cross-continent journey to Japan, where she and her parents sought refuge from rising anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany. A decade later, as she sails away from what has become her home in Kobe, Japan, Ingelore records her memories of life in Berlin, the long train journey through Russia, and her time in Japan during World War II. Each leg of the journey presents its own nightmare. Ingelore’s bright, observant nature and remarkable capacity for befriending those along her way fills her narrative with unique details about the people she meets and the places she travels to. The story of Ingelore and her prominent German Jewish family’s escape is an invaluable account that contributes to Holocaust witness and memoir literature.