Carnival Kingdom

The first Christians lived out a new social order and envisaged the world anew. Divisions, inequalities and injustices would be overturned as the world would reflect a new kind of reign. In the Kingdom of God, the powerful are brought low, while the oppressed are raised up; the hungry are filled with good things, while the rich are sent empty away; the wolf lives with the lamb, and the leopard lies down with the goat; the slave becomes the son, the master is the servant of all and the meek will inherit the earth. This same upside-down Kingdom is echoed in the Carnival festivals of the Medieval era, which both parodied the oppressive structures of their day and dramatically portrayed an alternative reality. In this book, twelve scholars, theologians, and social activists from around the world take up the Carnival's call for justice and a renewed society, and portray in their own contexts the Kingdom of God coming in justice and fullness of life - the coming of the Carnival Kingdom."

This book examines slavery and gender through a feminist reading of narratives including female slaves in the Gospel of Luke, the Acts of the Apostles, and early Christian texts. Through the literary theory of Mikhail Bakhtin, the voices of three enslaved female characters—the female slave who questions Peter in Luke 22, Rhoda in Acts 12, and the prophesying slave of Acts 16—are placed into dialogue with female slaves found in the Apocryphal Acts, ancient novels, classical texts, and images of enslaved women on funerary monuments. Although ancients typically distrusted the words of slaves, Christy Cobb argues that female slaves in Luke-Acts speak truth to power, even though their gender and status suggest that they cannot. In this Bakhtinian reading, female slaves become truth-tellers and their words confirm aspects of Lukan theology. This exegetical, theoretical, and interdisciplinary book is a substantial contribution to conversations about women and slaves in Luke-Acts and early Christian literature.

This controversial book explores the presence of the fantastic in Biblical and related texts, and the influence of Biblical traditions on contemporary fantasy writing, cinema, music and art. The contributors apply a variety of critical concepts and methods from the field of fantasy studies, including the theories of Tolkien, Todorov, Rosemary Jackson and Jack Zipes, to Biblical texts and challenge theological suppositions regarding the texts which take refuge in science or historiography. Violence, Utopia and the Kingdom of God presents a provocative and arresting new analysis of Biblical texts which draws on the most recent critical approaches to provide a unique study of the Biblical narrative.

A clear, comprehensive survey of British history from 1900 to the present, integrating political, economic, social and cultural history.

This study takes the singular approach of reading two sides of a parable. The close reading will locate the message of the text within the world of both Jesus and Matthew. The homiletic suggestions and reflection questions use the ancient text to address some of the issues of the modern faith community.

For six days in 1990, Trinidad and Tobago, a former British colony that had achieved its independence in 1962, was virtually held for ransom by a fundamentalist Muslim group known as the Jamaat al Muslimeen. The terroorists launched an armed invasion of the sitting Parliament and the country's lone television station. Days of Wrath recounts the days of terror wrought by a handful of Muslim terrorists. Told by seasoned journalist Raoul Pantin who was one of the hostages in the Trinidad and Tobago Television station building, this sensational account describes in vivid detail the scene that had the citizens of the nation wondering if they would now have to submit to another form of colonization.

The author looks at the United Kingdom and its constituent parts - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - to present a comprehensive picture of this island nation. Subjects covered include history, geography, the nation's economy, culture and its ethnic and racial composition which has become more diversified through the years especially since the sixties. There are also regional contrasts in terms of culture and lifestyle, language and other areas of life even within the countries which collectively constitute the UK; for example, regional differences within England or Scotland, a subject that has also been addressed in the book. The author also looks at the changing face of the nation as a result of immigration. The UK is home to many people from different parts of the world who have given the country a new identity in terms of demographic composition and even culture. It has been a gradual transformation through the decades, a period which has witnessed large numbers of immigrants entering the United Kingdom mainly from countries outside Europe. The work is a general introduction to life in the United Kingdom and an interesting portrait of the nation's cultural landscape. People going to the United Kingdom will be able to learn some of the important cultural aspects of life in the country - what they are expected to do and what not to do in their interactions with Britons - in order to get a better understanding of life in this island nation which has remained essentially the same in terms of culture in spite of the large numbers of immigrants who have settled in the country mostly from the former British colonies in Asia, Africa and the West Indies. The book is intended for members of the general public. Tourists will find this work to be useful. It will also help some students, especially those going to the UK, learn some important aspects of life in this island nation. It's also helpful to immigrants and others who want to live in the UK.

Why is folly essential to the functioning of a healthy society? Why is theatre a natural home for madness? The answers take the reader on a journey embracing Shakespeare and Jonson, Brecht and Beckett, Büchner and Boal. From Falstaff to Fo via Figaro, this study examines the art of telling truth to power and surviving long enough to have a laugh.