Outside The House Of Baal

The book of 2 Kings is the last of the four books originally known as The Books of Kings. These books cover the decline of Jewish society from the times of the judges, through the times of the kings of Israel and Judah, to the captivities of all the children of Israel in Babylonia and Assyria. This history of Israel mirrors the history of modern society. At one point in Jewish history, worship of the Lord God was dominant. But as time passed, worship of the Lord God was gradually replaced by idolatry and worship of heathen gods and idols. Just as the Lord waited for the people of Israel to call upon Him for rescue and salvation from their captors, the Lord today is waiting for mankind to tire of their captivity to sin and to call upon Him for rescue and salvation! . . . and when they do, He will respond and save them!

JEHOVAH RAPHA: THE LORD IS OUR PHYSICIAN, THE LORD IS OUR HEALER. In part I of The Perfect Redemption Plan, we have seen God’s dream of having a family and communing with them. Satan, who was envious of the relationship God had with mankind, and because they were in the image and likeness of God, came to crash the party. He deceived mankind, and we fell and were kicked out of God’s presence. With the fall of mankind came death, sicknesses, diseases, torments, etc. Satan is not satisfied to carry people with him into hell but also wants to make their life miserable and painful on earth. He wants to shorten their days on earth so that they won’t have time to give their life to Christ, and be delivered from the power of darkness.

This Companion offers a compelling engagement with British fiction from the end of the Second World War to the present day. Since 1945, British literature has served to mirror profound social, geopolitical and environmental change. Written by a host of leading scholars, this volume explores the myriad cultural movements and literary genres that have affected the development of postwar British fiction, showing how writers have given voice to matters of racial, regional and sexual identity. Covering subjects from immigration and ecology to science and globalism, this Companion draws on the latest critical innovations to provide insights into the traditions shaping the literary landscape of modern Britain, thus making it an essential resource for students and specialists alike.

For over half a century, Emyr Humphreys's work as a novelist, short story writer, poet, dramatist and television producer has been extraordinarily impressive. This pioneering and stimulating book considers Humphreys's fiction from a range of contemporary critical perspectives and stresses its relevance to the 21st century. Drawing on the work of leading modern cultural and literary theorists such as Jacques Derrida and Homi Bhabha, psychoanalytic critics such as Melanie Klein and Jacqueline Rose, and gender theorists such as Judith Butler, Linden Peach brings fresh perspectives to the content, structure and developing nature of Humphreys's work, employing, for example, historicist, post-historicist, new geography, psychoanalytic and feminist and postfeminist frameworks. Through detailed readings which highlight subjects such as gender identity, contested masculinities, war, pacifism, strangeness and 'otherness', problematic father and daughter relationships, and cultural discourse in complex linguistic environments, Peach suggests that Humphreys's work is best understood as 'dramatic', 'dissident' and/or 'dilemma' fiction rather than by the term 'Protestant novelist' which Humphreys used to describe himself at the outset of his career. Stressing how Humphreys came to see himself as more of a 'protesting' novelist, Peach examines how the dilemmas around which his fiction is based, originally linked to Humphreys's definition of himself as a 'protestant' writer, increasingly become sites in which controversial, and often dark themes, are explored. This approach to Humphreys's work is pursued through exciting readings of some of Humphreys best and lesser known works including A Man's Estate, A Toy Epic, Outside the House of Baal, the Best of Friends, salt of the Earth, Unconditional Surrender, The Gift of a Daughter, Natives, Ghosts and Strangers, Old people are a Problem, The shop and The Woman at the Window.

This book explores in detail the novels written by Emyr Humphreys during a timespan of over fifty years, from his first, A Little Kingdom, published in 1946, to The Gift of a Daughter, published in 1998. An early chapter comprises a literary biography with the following chapters devoted to: the early novels including A Toy Epic; a separate examination of Outside the House of Baal, considered by many to be his finest achievement; his use of Celtic myth as a patterning device; similarly his use of Welsh history is covered in 2 chapters; and finally his use of various postcolonial strategies. It also contains an extensive bibliography of work by and about Emyr Humphreys.