Beyond Appearances

Fear, Challenges, Choices. The characters in Beyond Appearances describe our deep and hidden side, our attempts to be free, changing life. Beyond Appearances is a long journey, a way to show how it is possible to achieve our dreams, overcoming society's boundaries. Francesco Pistillo

Beyond Appearances: Reflections on Principles and Practice is a collection of 121 articles written between 2005 and 2008 for The Zimbabwean. As the title suggests, David Harold Barry, SJ invites us to rect upon our relationship with society. He asks repeatedly whether we should put ourselves or otherst, and what happens when we ignore the plight of those around us. We are also invited to rect on the nature of power, our interaction with it, and our attitude towards it: do we gullibly agree to do what we’re told without thinking, or do we rect on the consequences of apathy and inaction. This is a book to keep beside your bed, a book with which to begin the day as a citizen of the world and an individual for whom every action matters.

What appears to be a nightmare for Florence and Leona becomes an unexpected life-changing adventure. The fragile health of both elderly ladies require them to take up residence at a nursing home in Southern California with one consolation-at least they have each other. Florence and Leona are life-long friends, the kind who would do anything to help each other. The past catches up with Florence when she learns that her close friend, Bishop Gabriel, is being threatened by a scandal involving the two of them in 1941. Florence possesses the key to resolving the problem, but feels compelled to keep it to herself. Her friends, Father Carl and Leona, attempt to solve the dilemma, while trying to honor Florence's wishes to keep the facts confidential. Meanwhile, problems at the nursing home result in the plagues of a spiteful health inspector and abusive individuals. Just when they thought life in a nursing home was going to be dull, Florence and Leona find themselves on a mission to resolve the facilities problems. Will Father Carl and Leona find the information needed to stop a looming scandal-or will a number of lives be destroyed because Florence is forced to reveal her secret, but vital information?

About the Book Beyond All Appearances follows Josephine as she develops from adolescence into adulthood and her marriage to Major. Faced with the unexpected death of her young son, Samuel, Josephine's cloak of confidence begins to unravel. She remains close friends with her former mother-in-law, Naomi. The impending death of Naomi provides an opportunity for Josephine and Major to meet again as he fulfills Naomi's last wishes. Through a twist of fate, on the anniversary of Samuel's death, Josephine meets a young boy, Micah. Josephine and Major discover the common thread to help them redefine their relationship. Gradually, the three of them begin a new journey as a family as they find what they had been seeking to add meaning to their lives. Beyond All Appearances is a powerful story of devastating loss, release, restoration, hope, and authenticity. Woven with exciting twists and turns, this story reminds us that the journey of life can be truly fulfilling and authentic, but to move forward after a loss, you must acknowledge the loss, mourn appropriately, release the pain, and firmly grasp the vibrant future awaiting you. It quickly draws the reader in and keeps them interested until the end. About the Author Joan R. Griffith is a sister, mother, grandmother, and retired military officer and physician. Over the past five decades, she has held various positions with increasing responsibility. She is intimately familiar with the twists and turns of everyday life that lead to moments of joy and disappointment. Griffith has had to weave many cloaks of confidence as she faced repeated challenges and needed to move beyond all appearances of contradiction. She acknowledges that faith in God was a strong influence in her life. But she readily admits that one of her most life-altering disappointments weekended her faith as she coped with misleading fundamental attribution errors. It was an exhausting, years-long struggle to regain her faith and move forward. Today, Joan lives a quiet but active life in Central Kentucky. She looks forward to exploring the next phases of her life with the confidence that beyond all appearances everything will work out in its appointed time. She enjoys bike riding, reading, and watching old western movies, and she attends her local church regularly.

Originally published in 1988, this title explores and contrasts means and ends psychology with conventional psychology – that of stimuli and response. The author develops this comparison by exploring the general nature of psychological phenomena and clarifying many persistent doubts about psychology. She contrasts conventional psychology (stimuli and responses) involving reductionistic, organocentric, and mechanistic metatheory with alternative psychology (means and ends) that is autonomous, contextual, and evolutionary.

As fallen human beings we are quick to deviate from the true gospel, for, as Pastor Josh Moody writes, "we tend toward human gospels." Believers must constantly battle to maintain the purity and simplicity of the gospel. Paul was acutely aware of this as he wrote his letter to the Galatians. He was writing to an established church—experienced believers who had started to slip in their gospel witness. Moody finds in Galatians particular relevance and parallels to many churches today. Stemming from a series of sermons delivered to his church, he examines thirty-one reasons Paul gives for this gospel. Moody writes this book with a pastor's heart, addressing important topics such as "The Gospel Not Moralism" and "The Use of Gospel Freedom." Paul's message is foundational to the Christian faith, and thoughtful readers will benefit from Moody's exposition.

Beyond Sexuality points contemporary sexual politics in a radically new direction. Combining a psychoanalytic emphasis on the unconscious with a deep respect for the historical variability of sexual identities, this original work of queer theory makes the case for viewing erotic desire as fundamentally impersonal. Tim Dean develops a reading of Jacques Lacan that—rather than straightening out this notoriously difficult French psychoanalyst—brings out the queer tensions and productive incoherencies in his account of desire. Dean shows how the Lacanian unconscious "deheterosexualizes" desire, and along the way he reveals how psychoanalytic thinkers as well as queer theorists have failed to exploit the full potential of this conception of desire. The book elaborates this by investigating social fantasies about homosexuality and AIDS, including gay men's own fantasies about sex and promiscuity, in an attempt to illuminate the challenges facing safe-sex education. Taking on many shibboleths in contemporary psychoanalysis and queer theory—and taking no prisoners—Beyond Sexuality offers an antidote to hagiographical strains in recent work on psychoanalysis, Foucault, and sexuality.

This book argues that the understanding and explanation of religion is always historically contingent. Grounded in the work of Bakhtin and Ricoeur, Flood positions the academic study of religion within contemporary debates in the social sciences and humanities concerning modernity and postmodernity, particularly contested issues regarding truth and knowledge. It challenges the view that religions are privileged, epistemic objects, argues for the importance of metatheory, and presents an argument for the dialogical nature of inquiry. The study of religion should begin with language and culture, and this shift in emphasis to the philosophy of the sign in hermeneutics and away from the philosophy of consciousness in phenomenology has far-reaching implications. It means a new ethic of practice which is sensitive to the power relationship in any epistemology; it opens the door to feminist and postcolonial critique, and it provides a methodology which allows for the interface between religious studies, theology, and the social sciences.