Light From The Dreaming Spires

Just as "generals are always fighting the last war" my experience as a chaplain at Oxford University has taught me that the church often "speaks to the last generation." The statistics provided by the Pew Research Center say it all. The people of Generation Y are less likely to go to church, believe in God, or identify themselves as "religious" than any previous generation, yet they still have a deep and abiding interest in "spiritual" things. If the church is going to reach this group of "seekers" with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it will have to do it on their terms, speak their language, and understand their concerns. If we try to "fight the last war" with Generation Y, we will lose it. Instead, church leaders must seriously examine how we relate (or not) to Generation Y and change our tactics accordingly. This book is a reflection on my personal experience of ministry to Generation Y, combining pastoral care, mentoring, and "postmodern apologetics" in ways that are equally applicable to parochial, academic, and/or secular settings.

What do you do when the troll at the end of your garden tells you everything you ever believed in is a fantasy and your fantasies are reality? When Jake moves from California to his new school in Oxford, he knows he is going to a different country, but he doesn't realize he is entering a whole new world. His first clue is when Gorm, a nine-foot, three-thousand-year-old Irish gnome, appears at the foot of his garden and gives him three special powers—powers that are of absolutely no use to him—or so he thinks. But when things start getting really weird and Jake discovers that there's an ancient prince from T&ír na n&Óg who is out to get not only him and the girl he is in love with but the whole of mankind, too, he also discovers that the powers Gorm has given him are more useful than he could ever have dreamed possible.

This fascinating collection of articles examines the legacy of John Wilson, a scholar who has received international acclaim for his insightful work in philosophy and education. Each essay focuses on a particular topic that Wilson examined throughout his career. The subjects addressed include the problems and prospects of analytical philosophy, the basis of moral education, and educational research. In the final chapter, Wilson responds to the various contributors that he has inspired, noting points of agreement and disagreement with each. This unique collection will appeal to scholars focusing on educational theory and practice as well as those interested in the field of moral education.

Focusing on questions of space and locale in children’s literature, this collection explores how metaphorical and physical space can create landscapes of power, knowledge, and identity in texts from the early nineteenth century to the present. The collection is comprised of four sections that take up the space between children and adults, the representation of 'real world' places, fantasy travel and locales, and the physical space of the children’s book-as-object. In their essays, the contributors analyze works from a range of sources and traditions by authors such as Sylvia Plath, Maria Edgeworth, Gloria Anzaldúa, Jenny Robson, C.S. Lewis, Elizabeth Knox, and Claude Ponti. While maintaining a focus on how location and spatiality aid in defining the child’s relationship to the world, the essays also address themes of borders, displacement, diaspora, exile, fantasy, gender, history, home-leaving and homecoming, hybridity, mapping, and metatextuality. With an epilogue by Philip Pullman in which he discusses his own relationship to image and locale, this collection is also a valuable resource for understanding the work of this celebrated author of children’s literature.

Books about Oxford have generally focused on the University rather than the city. This original book on the local politics of Oxford City from 1830 to 1980 is based on a comprehensive analysis of primary sources and tells the story of the city’s progressive politics. The book traces this history from Chartism and electoral reform in the mid-nineteenth century, through the early years of socialism to the impact of communism in the interwar period, the struggle between nuclear disarmers and Gaitskellites in the 1960s and the impact of the new revolutionary left in the late 1970s. Throughout the narrative, the book contrasts the two approaches of those engaged in progressive politics, those who focused on the politics of reform and improved government and those who preferred the politics of revolt, protest and revolutionary rhetoric. The author argues that a central feature of this history has been the co-existence and interaction of working- and middle- class elements. It rediscovers a rich heritage, a fascinating story and offers a rare wide-ranging chronological narrative of local UK city politics. Through its extensive quotes from primary sources, the book presents a vivid picture of local politics over 150 years.

The 17th Triannual Congress of the International Association for Analytical Psychology took place in Cape Town, South Africa, in August 2007. The plenary presentations are printed in this volume. A CD with all the congress presentations and a selection of images is also included. Listed here are just a few of the many presentations: Journeys- Encounters Clinical, Communal, Cultural, by Joe Cambray; How Does One Speak of Social Psychology in a Nation in Transition?, by Mamphela Ramphele; Trauma, Forgiveness and the Witnessing Dance: Making Public Spaces Intimate, by Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela; Shifting Shadows: Shaping Dynamics in the Cultural Unconscious, by Catherine Kaplinsky; Journey to the Center: Images of Wilderness and the Origins of the Southern African Association of Jungian Analysts, by Graham S. Saayman; Panel: Prehistoric Rock Art: The Biped Surprised, by Christian Gaillard; and Harnessing the Brain: Vision and Shamanism in Upper Paleolithic Western Europe, by J.D. Lewis-Williams.

As "the English Athens," Oxford has long been seen as central to England's intellectual life. For over six centuries the city has been lauded, slighted, and cited in the pages of English literature. While it has been hailed as the embodiment of excellence, beauty, and truth on the one hand, it has also been attacked for its elitism, insularity, and traditionalism on the other. Oxford in English Literature provides for the first time an overview of these literary representations, ranging from Chaucer's account of medieval students to modern-day detective stories set in the city. The book begins with the early university, possibly founded by an eighth-century princess named Frideswide. The volume moves on through the Middle Ages with Chaucer's clerks and Foxe's martyrs. Oxford in English Literature touches on more recent centuries with Lewis Carroll and Alice in Wonderland, Matthew Arnold, Max Beerbohm and Evelyn Waugh, and the "Infamous St. Oscar." Following the rise of the colleges, the literature becomes characterized by a sense of insulation, for the closed collegiate structure led to elitism and eccentricity. The notion of the university as a paradise of youth, beauty, and intelligence led to the so-called Oxford myth and the backlash against it after World War II. The underlying argument of John Dougill's work is that the defining symbol of Oxford is not so much the dreaming spire as the college wall. In Oxford literature the college is depicted as a world of its own--secluded, conservative, and eccentric, driven by its own rituals. Idealized, it becomes a cloistered utopia, an Athenian city-state, a fantasy wonderland, or an Arcadian idyll. Exclusivity led to resentment from those on the outside, as is evident in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure. With the advent of democratic and egalitarian values in the twentieth century, the privilege and elitism of the university has come under increasing attack, as has the whole notion of the "English Athens." Oxford in English Literature is aimed at the general reader interested in the literature and history of a very unusual town. Its familiar subject and the inclusion of numerous rare and specially commissioned illustrations and photographs make this a compelling book. John Dougill is Associate Professor of English Literature, Ryukoku University, Kyoto, Japan. He is an Oxford graduate and author of The Writers of English Literature.