A Glimpse Of The Holy Through Bloodshot Eyes

"I never thought about how I would face separation in the future. I never thought about how I would face death in the future. If I had to go through life and death and love and hate, I would rather stay with you until I die." Looking at Liu Yan in the crook of her arm, sleeping so soundly but sleeping so restlessly, Anhang lightly kissed her brow. The 37 ° touch melted the knot in her heart that had gathered on her brow."In the time it took for a spark to fly off a piece of flint, it was as if that sweet summer had returned ..."

Video game studies are a relative young but flourishing academic discipline. But within game studies, however, the perspective of religion and spirituality is rather neglected, both by game scholars and religion scholars. While religion can take different shapes in digital games, ranging from material and referential to reflexive and ritual, it is not necessarily true that game developers depict their in-game religions in a positive, confirming way, but ever so often games approach the topic critically and disavowingly. The religion criticisms found in video games can be categorized as follows: religion as (1) fraud, aimed to manipulate the uneducated, as (2) blind obedience towards an invisible but ultimately non-existing deity/ies, as (3) violence against those who do not share the same set of religious rules, as (4) madness, a deranged alternative for logical reasoning, and as (5) suppression in the hands of the powerful elite to dominate and subdue the masses into submission and obedience. The critical depictions of religion in video games by their developers is the focus of this special issue.

Most don’t make it to the deep waters of community. They settle for the shallow end of virtual-screen living. But what if there is a way forward, a way through to the deepest, most satisfying, missional community we have ever experienced? What if life together has less to do with scheduled potlucks and more do to with serendipitous moments with God’s people? In Coming Home, Jon Quitt offers a practical way forward for those who desire a gospel community, rich in love, woven together by pastoral theology that still works on Mondays.

Did you know that God sings? There are many things God does that you may not have thought about ever before—and the more we know, the better we can respond to Him. God sees. God winks. God hears. He cries, He waits and He runs. He is jealous and gets angry. He smiles, frowns and laughs! Reflecting on the attributes and activities of God is the best way to become like Him. In God Laughs, Elmer Towns and Charles Billingsley invite the reader to deeply consider God’s character and qualities. They contend that it’s only as we get to know Him that we can become more like Him, and it’s only when we glimpse God for who He is that we can worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Readers are challenged to dig deeply into Scripture, where God reveals that He has a heart . . . and a nose . . . and that He whistles!

"How could he, a prince, be reduced to such a state of joy for her? Where is his dignity?"He had to endure it! Xiao Bai looked harmless, but behind him, there were surging waves. A conspiracy was brewing.Her cold gaze met his — life was like a game of chess. No matter how 'handsome' you were, you could only find your way to Tian Pi. How could you turn over her palm?! "

The Romantic Foundations of the American Renaissance illuminates the process by which the cultural legacy of European Romanticism was assimilated by and transformed in the literature of mid-nineteenth-century America. Leon Chai traces the development various governing concepts or tendencies from their genesis in British, French, and German Romantic traditions through their subsequent appropriation by such American writers as Poe, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Melville. Among the topics he addresses are the shift from allegory to symbolism; selected trends in Romantic science; the secularization of religion; the emergence of a historical consciousness and a philosophy of history; pantheism; the relation of subjectivity to objectivity in Romantic philosophy; and Romantic poets.