Make Believing The World S

A vigorous defence of a radical ontological pluralism that requires theism and is consistent with traditional Christianity.

Media and the Make-Believe Worlds of Children offers new insights into children's descriptions of their invented or "make-believe" worlds, and the role that the children's experience with media plays in creating these worlds. Based on the results of a cross-cultural study conducted in the United States, Germany, Israel, and South Korea, it offers an innovative look at media's role on children's creative lives. This distinctive volume: *outlines the central debates and research findings in the area of children, fantasy worlds, and the media; *provides a descriptive account of children's make-believe worlds and their wishes for actions they would like to take in these worlds; *highlights the centrality of media in children's make believe worlds; *emphasizes the multiple creative ways in which children use media as resources in their environment to express their own inner worlds; and *suggests the various ways in which the tension between traditional gender portrayals that continue to dominate media texts and children's wishes to act are presented in their fantasies. The work also demonstrates the value of research in unveiling the complicated ways in which media are woven into the fabric of children's everyday lives, examining the creative and sophisticated uses they make of their contents, and highlighting the responsibility that producers of media texts for children have in offering young viewers a wide array of role models and narratives to use in their fantasies. The downloadable resources provide full-color images of the artwork produced during the study. This book will appeal to scholars and graduate students in children and media, early childhood education, and developmental psychology. It can be used in graduate level courses in these areas.

In The Case for Make Believe, Harvard child psychologist Susan Linn tells the alarming story of childhood under siege in a commercialized and technology-saturated world. Although play is essential to human development and children are born with an innate capacity for make believe, Linn argues that, in modern-day America, nurturing creative play is not only countercultural—it threatens corporate profits. A book with immediate relevance for parents and educators alike, The Case for Make Believe helps readers understand how crucial child’s play is—and what parents and educators can do to protect it. At the heart of the book are stories of children at home, in school, and at a therapist’s office playing about real-life issues from entering kindergarten to a sibling’s death, expressing feelings they can’t express directly, and making meaning of an often confusing world. In an era when toys come from television and media companies sell videos as brain-builders for babies, Linn lays out the inextricable links between play, creativity, and health, showing us how and why to preserve the space for make believe that children need to lead fulfilling and meaningful lives.

It has been some time since Catholic and liberal Protestant theologians stopped writing seriously on bibliology. Meanwhile, conservative evangelical theologians guard against the introduction of new ideas. In an effort to make headway through this gridlock, Carlos Bovell has commissioned a roundtable discussion on the prospect of whether the inspiration of Scripture might extend beyond authors and texts, and if so, what this might entail for the authority of Scripture. Taken together, the essays in this volume make an invaluable contribution to contemporary literature on the inspiration and authority of the Bible.

I am the way, the truth, and the life, says Jesus. Yet the kingdom of heaven consists of all tribes, races, and peoples. How do people of tribes who've never heard the word of Christ enter the kingdom of God? A strictly exclusivist account of the gospel seems to keep many people out of the kingdom of heaven. An inclusivist approach is more consonant with Scripture and the love of God. Yet standard models of inclusivism are problematic. In this book McLeod-Harrison--a Christian philosopher--considers what's wrong with both narrow exclusivist and narrow inclusivist accounts of the gospel and proposes a broad inclusivism called "expansivism." An expansive account of the gospel helps us understand the uniqueness and the openness of the gospel together. Narrow exclusivism can lead to existential crises. Narrow inclusivism appears to make not preaching the gospel better for those who've never heard it. Expansivism makes human access to the gospel unique to the individual person and enables Christian theologians to provide lots of different, potentially conflicting and yet true accounts of the theological underpinnings of the salvation provided by Christ.

"Daisy Dreamer's totally true imaginary friend, Posey, invites her to explore his amazing world of make believe"--

Marcus offers this animated history of the visionaries--editors, illustrators, and others--whose books have transformed American childhood and American culture.

Covering the major issues of the field succinctly and lucidly, this text takes an analytically rigorous approach and makes it accessible in presentation. Pojman writes from an impartial perspective, presenting various options and points of view while guiding students in their own search for truth within these often emotion-laden, crucial issues. The text includes original discussions of religious experience, the possibility that hope is an adequate substitute for belief, and the relationship between ethics and religion.