Heaven And Hell To Play With

This text analyzes the cultural work of spectacular suffering in contemporary discourse and late-medieval France, reading recent dramatizations of torture and performances of self-mutilating conceptual art against late-medieval saint plays.

This is a story of a woman who is bilingual and bicultural. After college she literally bulldozed her way to higher rungs on the corporate hierarchy in a male dominated business environment of advertising in Japan. She has her stories of how she got there, giving tips on how women trying to rise higher on the corporate ladder where not just "glass" ceilings exist, but "concrete" ceilings. She also describes her observations on the cultural, political and economic differences and upheavals of the recent times as well as developments between the US and Japan, and her observations of other countries in Europe, South America, Australia, New Zealand and the Asian countries as far as India, countries where she traveled on business and her vacations with her husband. And how she is today, when she decided to become a writer after she turned sixty-five. She has shown that there is life after retirement, that there are other ways to pursue development of a "second" career. Though pessimistic at times, she always relied on her optimism to achieve fulfillment. The book is full of hope, both yet unachieved and those achieved.

The performing arts are uniquely capable of translating a vision of an ideal or sacred reality into lived practice, allowing an audience to confront deeply held values and beliefs as they observe a performance. However, there is often a reluctance to approach distinctly religious topics from a performance studies perspective. This book addresses this issue by exploring how religious values are acted out and reflected on in classic Western theatre, with a particular emphasis on the plays put on during the Globe Theatre‘s yearlong season of 'Shakespeare and the Bible'. Looking at plays such as Much Ado About Nothing, Dr. Faustus and Macbeth, each chapter includes ethnographic overviews of the performance of these plays as well as historical and theological perspectives on the issues they address. The author also utilizes scholarship from other academics, such as Paul Tillich and Martin Buber, in examining the relationship between art and culture. This helps readers of this book to look at religion in culture, and raise questions and explore ideas about how people appraise their religious values through an encounter with a performance. The Performance of Religion: Seeing the sacred in the theatre treads new ground in bringing performance and religious studies scholarship into direct conversation with one another. As such, it is essential reading for any academic with an interest in theology, religion and ethics and their expression in culture through the performing arts.

A World Without Lucifer is a fictional story of Lucifer, reacting to calls by humans for his banishment from the Earth, withdrew his kingdom. The calls followed the disappearance of a popular UN Secretary General during a flight over the Bermuda Triangle after he successfully implemented a total ban on weapons of mass destruction. Three hundred years down the road the same humans embarked on agitations for Lucifer’s return. The story starts with Lucifer summoning his Lords who constituted the governing Council of his Kingdom. At the last Conclave he announced to them of the directives from the Solar Logos asking his Kingdom to relocate to another planet. The Council is briefed of the circumstances leading to the directives of the Solar Logos. Most of the story is told as part of the briefing of Council by the Curator. The story ends after three hundred years of an eventless and colorless world of no sorrow, no suffering, no hardship, no sickness, no death; but the greatest boredom humanity had ever experienced who then agitated for the return of Lucifer.

This volume, which includes accessibly written chapters by skeptics and believers, asks deep questions about the nature, possibility, and desirability of heaven that will be of interest to anyone who has pondered life beyond the grave.

The Revenger's Tragedy (1606), now widely attributed to Thomas Middleton, is a play that provides a dark, satirical response to other revenge tragedies such as Hamlet. With its over-the-top and highly theatrical approach to revenge, The Revenger's Tragedy has emerged as one of the most compelling examples of a drama by one of Shakespeare's contemporaries. This collection of ten newly-commissioned essays situates the play with respect to other Middleton and Shakespeare works as well as repertory, showcasing recent research about the play's engagement with issues such as religion, genre, race, language and performance.

Originally published 1959. Ibn ‘Arabi is one of the most significant thinkers of Islam. Yet he is far less widely known in the Western world than Ibn Sina, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Rushd or even Al Farabi. This volume provides original interpretations and illustrations to some of Ibn ‘Arabi’s ideas, as well as including a number of his texts in English.

Love makes life beautiful. At 30, Priya was perhaps into the twilight of her womanhood. A lovable husband in Sanjay, an equally adorable child in Karthick, she couldn’t have asked for a better gift from God. Life was very kind to her. Love indeed made her life beautiful. But, like a bolt from above, all this came crashing down. In walked Darshan. ¬ The avoidable disastrous type your parents always warn you against. Eventually surprises catch up with Priya, spinning her out of a silent life. Priya realizes she needs more than will power, Sanjay and love to get through this traumatic time in her life. Can Priya reclaim her heaven from the fury of hell? Find out as Arthy takes you on a journey through an innocent dreamy love story intertwined with a lover’s wrath and agony