A Broken Hallelujah

A look not only at the inner man but also at the environments that shaped Leonard Cohen, from the rock scene of New York in the 1960s to the remote Zen monastery where Cohen spent years later in life.

Acclaimed music journalist Alan Light follows the improbable journey of Cohen's "Hallelujah" straight to the heart of popular culture and gives insight into how great songs come to be, how they come to be listened to, and how they can be forever reinterpreted.

Marking the fiftieth anniversary of Kazantzakis's death, author Darren J. N. Middleton looks back on Kazantzakis's life and literary art to suggest that, contrary to popular belief, Kazantzakis and his views actually comport with the ideals of Christianity.

What happens when an evangelical hardliner falls in love with an intriguing woman from halfway around the world who challenges everything he believes? An American drug dealer radically turns to Jesus and joins a fundamentalist movement in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. A Swiss teacher is searching for meaning after a tragic loss and sets out on an adventure. When Justin and Sophie meet, the sparks fly-and their views about God clash. Justin's faith leaves no room for doubt, and Sophie's faith cannot tolerate absolutes. The two embark on an epic search for what it really means to follow Jesus. Their budding love is challenged by both their different views and by Justin's missionary zeal. He moves to the mission field in India only to find disillusion and betrayal where he least expected it. In the meantime, Sophie joins a contemplative community in the Swiss mountains to find peace and a faith that carries her. But they cannot forget the week that changed their lives. A Broken Hallelujah takes the reader on an adventurous spiritual journey across America, Europe, and Asia in search for life's deepest questions about faith, compassion, and the unifying love of God. This contemporary Christian novel with an international setting is both spiritual journey and an adventurous romance story. But beyond that it is a challenge to discover a faith that can withstand disillusionment, deconstruction and spiritual abuse. It is an invitation to follow Jesus with authenticity and humility and in doing so, discover the love of God that transcends any doctrine.

On a sweltering September night, Long Beach Homicide Detective Danny Beckett is called to a grisly crime scene at the mouth of the Los Angeles River. A defenseless homeless man has been burned to death by three teenagers with gang ties. The suspects are already in custody, and the evidence is overwhelming--but when one suspect's brother is targeted for murder, Danny starts to think there may be more to this seemingly clear-cut case. Obsessed with discovering the true identity of the victim, a gentle vagrant who may have been hiding a tortured past, Danny and his team start to uncover a high-reaching conspiracy that puts them all at risk--and threatens to open new wounds that could cut even deeper than Danny's old ones.

This book studies the working efficacy of Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah in the context of today's network culture. Especially as recorded on YouTube, k.d. lang's interpretation(s) of Cohen's Hallelujah, embody acoustically and visually/viscerally, what Nietzsche named the 'spirit of music'. Today, the working of music is magnified and transformed by recording dynamics and mediated via Facebook exchanges, blog postings and video sites. Given the sexual/religious core of Cohen's Hallelujah, this study poses a phenomenological reading of the objectification of both men and women, raising the question of desire, including gender issues and both homosexual and heterosexual desire. A review of critical thinking about musical performance as 'currency' and consumed commodity takes up Adorno's reading of Benjamin's analysis of the work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction as applied to music/radio/sound and the persistent role of 'recording consciousness'. Ultimately, the question of what Nietzsche called the becoming-human-of-dissonance is explored in terms of both ancient tragedy and Beethoven's striking deployment of dissonance as Nietzsche analyses both as playing with suffering, discontent, and pain itself, a playing for the sake not of language or sense but musically, as joy.

A Broken Hallelujah traces a young man's path through the Christian Brothers' regime from Juniorate through the Leaving Certificate year to Teacher Training, and from there to work 'on the mission'. The author describes in intimate detail the experiences and challenges he faces on the way, culminating in the final and most difficult decision of all, whether or not to remain in the fold of the Brothers' Congregation. This unique story recalls a type of education which has long since passed out of use, and has become, for many, a piece of history in itself. In detailing his experiences, the author describes the dilemmas faced by a great number of people, dilemmas which reflect many of the choices and difficulties that have shaped the Ireland of today.

On December 25th, a plane roared in from Mexican airspace determined to land at the San Antonio International Airport. The plane was listed as a terrorist threat by the Homeland Security Administration. The pilot of that plane, retired Major Jim Tanner, was wanted for multiple murders in the U.S. and Mexico. His cargo was of the most precious. When Major Tanner, a decorated war veteran and former prisoner of war, returned home, little did he know what he was walking into. His actions would change the lives of his loved ones and the country, forever.