Consider Leviathan

"Brian R. Doak observes that the book of Job uses metaphors drawn from the natural world, especially of plants and animals, as raw material for thinking about human suffering. Doak argues that Job should be viewed as an anthropological "ground zero" for the traumatic definition of the post-exilic human self in ancient Israel. Consider Leviathan explores the test at the intersection of anthropology, theology, and ecology, opening up new possiblitiis for charting the view of nature in the Hebrew Bible." --From Publisher.

Theologians and philosophers are turning again to questions of the meaning, or non-meaning, of the natural world for human self-understanding. Brian R. Doak observes that the book of Job, more than any other book in the Bible, uses metaphors drawn from the natural world, especially of plants and animals, as raw material for thinking about human suffering. Doak argues that Job should be viewed as an anthropological “ground zero” for the traumatic definition of the post-exilic human self in ancient Israel. Furthermore, the battered shape of the Joban experience should provide a starting point for reconfiguring our thinking about “natural theology” as a category of intellectual history in the ancient world. Doak examines how the development of the human subject is portrayed in the biblical text in either radical continuity or discontinuity with plants and animals. Consider Leviathan explores the text at the intersection of anthropology, theology, and ecology, opening up new possibilities for charting the view of nature in the Hebrew Bible.

In Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes's landmark work on political philosophy, James Martel argues that although Hobbes pays lip service to the superior interpretive authority of the sovereign, he consistently subverts this authority throughout the book by returning it to the reader. Martel demonstrates that Hobbes's radical method of reading not only undermines his own authority in the text, but, by extension, the authority of the sovereign as well. To make his point, Martel looks closely at Hobbes's understanding of religious and rhetorical representation. In Leviathan, idolatry is not just a matter of worshipping images but also a consequence of bad reading. Hobbes speaks of the "error of separated essences," in which a sign takes precedence over the idea or object it represents, and warns that when the sign is given such agency, it becomes a disembodied fantasy leading to a "kingdom of darkness." To combat such idolatry, Hobbes offers a method of reading in which one resists the rhetorical manipulation of figures and tropes and recognizes the codes and structures of language for what they are-the only way to convey a fundamental inability to ever know "the thing itself." Making the leap to politics, Martel suggests that following Hobbes's argument, the sovereign can also be seen as idolatrous a separated essence a figure who supplants the people it purportedly represents, and that learning to be better readers enables us to challenge, if not defeat, the authority of the sovereign.

Written during a moment in English history when the political and social structures were in flux and open to interpretation, Leviathan played an essential role in the development of the modern world.

The goal of this book is to persuade the reader that there is something very wrong in the political world. The cause of the political malfunction is what we shall call Leviathan. Learn why so many societal problems are intractable. For example, how is it that Thomas Edisons great invention, the incandescent lightbulb, is outlawed in America? How is that veterans beloved of Americans are denied treatment by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) unto death? How is it that bad teachers are kept on indefinitely by a school system at full pay in isolated temporary reassignment centers (rubber rooms in New York City)? The heretofore undiscovered answer is: superorganisms having ultimate power over us. Superorganisms exist. They consist of individual human beings. Superorganisms have lives separate from the individual human beings of which they are composed. Superorganisms are epiphenomena of human social groups. Examples of superorganisms include government bureaucracies like the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, unions like the National Education Association, and corporations like General Electric. In this book, the name Leviathan is given to these superorganisms. Leviathan, as we will see, is a deadly enemy. We have a plan to defeat Leviathan, but because Leviathan is virtually immortal, in control of government education, itself a sociopath, and served, in part, by sociopaths, our road is long and difficult. We anticipate a one-hundred-years struggle. There is hope. Read this book to learn the plan. Join our fight. Help restore American freedom for our children and grandchildren.

The biggest science fiction series of the decade comes to an incredible conclusion in the ninth and final novel in James S.A. Corey’s Hugo-award winning space opera that inspired the Prime Original series. “An all-time genre classic.” –Publishers Weekly (starred review) Hugo Award Winner for Best Series The Laconian Empire has fallen, setting the thirteen hundred solar systems free from the rule of Winston Duarte. But the ancient enemy that killed the gate builders is awake, and the war against our universe has begun again. In the dead system of Adro, Elvi Okoye leads a desperate scientific mission to understand what the gate builders were and what destroyed them, even if it means compromising herself and the half-alien children who bear the weight of her investigation. Through the wide-flung systems of humanity, Colonel Aliana Tanaka hunts for Duarte’s missing daughter. . . and the shattered emperor himself. And on the Rocinante, James Holden and his crew struggle to build a future for humanity out of the shards and ruins of all that has come before. As nearly unimaginable forces prepare to annihilate all human life, Holden and a group of unlikely allies discover a last, desperate chance to unite all of humanity, with the promise of a vast galactic civilization free from wars, factions, lies, and secrets if they win. But the price of victory may be worse than the cost of defeat. "Interplanetary adventure the way it ought to be written." —George R. R. Martin The Expanse Leviathan Wakes Caliban's War Abaddon's Gate Cibola Burn Nemesis Games Babylon's Ashes Persepolis Rising Tiamat's Wrath ​Leviathan Falls Memory's Legion The Expanse Short Fiction Drive The Butcher of Anderson Station Gods of Risk The Churn The Vital Abyss Strange Dogs Auberon The Sins of Our Fathers

A “compelling” (Los Angeles Times) tale of friendship, betrayal, estrangement, and the unpredictable intrusions of violence in the everyday – from the author of the forthcoming 4 3 2 1: A Novel "Six days ago, a man blew himself up by the side of a road in northern Wisconsin. . . ." So begins the story by Peter Aaron about his best friend, Benjamin Sachs. Sachs had a marriage Aaron envied, an intelligence he admired, a world he shared. And then suddenly, after a near-fatal fall that might or might not have been intentional, Sachs disappeared. Now Aaron must piece together the life that led to Sach's death. His sole aim is to tell the truth and preserve it, before those who are investigating the case invent an account of their own.

As a species, we are storytellers. Our best stories, those that endure for generations, are stories of trials and suffering and of surmounting the challenges set before us. The biblical Job is such a story, one that has become encrusted with centuries of interpretations. Redefining Job and the Conundrum of Suffering sets out to retell the story, to make “once upon a time” have meaning for us today. The best way to break old patterns is to start from scratch. Redefining Job dissects the story, the history of interpretations, and the history of how humanity has dealt with suffering. As the story is rebuilt with different insights gained from research in biblical studies, humanities, and science, the message can be viewed in a fresh light. The author of Job lived at a time when knowledge was expanding and our perception of our place in the universe was changing. From this perspective, Job becomes a hero. No longer patiently waiting for some ambiguous answer, he is demanding something more of his Maker. “Before I heard, but now I see” becomes an affirmation that he grasped a new path to discovering why we suffer and how we should respond.