The World Calling

Thomas Ogletree has devoted much of his career to exploring the significance of Ernst Troeltsch's seminal work, The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches. The articles in The World Calling use a Troeltschian lens to explore fundamental issues underlying any Christian social witness in the context of American democratic institutions.

This book explores the role of musicians in the call for peace in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. As Russia’s unprecedented invasion of Ukraine progresses, musicians there, and around the world, join talents in concerts to voice their protest and show solidarity against the universally condemned conflict. They play and sing for peace, calling for solidarity with the Ukrainian people. Performing artists have been at the forefront of a global response to express outrage against the Russian invasion. Benefit concerts seek to raise funds to be directed toward the humanitarian crisis that has affected the daily lives of innocent people, including hundreds of thousands of orphaned and wounded children. Artists-activists come together to praise Ukrainians’ struggle for self-determination, democracy, and freedom with music performances and engage in opportunities to use their platform to assist those affected by the conflict, calling for an immediate end to the war.

Bill Graham – Canada’s minister of foreign affairs and minister of defence during the tumultuous years following 9/11 – takes us on a personal journey from his Vancouver childhood to important behind-the-scenes moments in recent global history. With candour and wit, he recounts meetings with world leaders, contextualizes important geopolitical relationships, and offers acute observations on backstage politics. He explains Canada’s decision not to participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and makes a passionate case for why international law offers the best hope for a safer, more prosperous, and just world.

Bullshit isn’t what it used to be. Now, two science professors give us the tools to dismantle misinformation and think clearly in a world of fake news and bad data. “A modern classic . . . a straight-talking survival guide to the mean streets of a dying democracy and a global pandemic.”—Wired Misinformation, disinformation, and fake news abound and it’s increasingly difficult to know what’s true. Our media environment has become hyperpartisan. Science is conducted by press release. Startup culture elevates bullshit to high art. We are fairly well equipped to spot the sort of old-school bullshit that is based in fancy rhetoric and weasel words, but most of us don’t feel qualified to challenge the avalanche of new-school bullshit presented in the language of math, science, or statistics. In Calling Bullshit, Professors Carl Bergstrom and Jevin West give us a set of powerful tools to cut through the most intimidating data. You don’t need a lot of technical expertise to call out problems with data. Are the numbers or results too good or too dramatic to be true? Is the claim comparing like with like? Is it confirming your personal bias? Drawing on a deep well of expertise in statistics and computational biology, Bergstrom and West exuberantly unpack examples of selection bias and muddled data visualization, distinguish between correlation and causation, and examine the susceptibility of science to modern bullshit. We have always needed people who call bullshit when necessary, whether within a circle of friends, a community of scholars, or the citizenry of a nation. Now that bullshit has evolved, we need to relearn the art of skepticism.

Comparative religious insights into the meaning of vocation in today's world The concept of "vocation" or "calling" is a distinctively Christian concern, grounded in the long-held belief that we find our meaning, purpose, and fulfillment in God. But what about religions other than Christianity? What does it mean for someone from another faith tradition to understand calling or vocation? In this book contributors with expertise in Catholic and Protestant Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism, and secular humanism explore the idea of calling from these eight faith perspectives. The contributors search their respective traditions' sacred texts, key figures, practices, and concepts for wisdom on the meaning of vocation. Greater understanding of diverse faith traditions, say Kathleen Cahalan and Douglas Schuurman, will hopefully increase and improve efforts to build a better, more humane world. CONTRIBUTORS Mark Berkson (Confucianism and Daoism) Kathleen A. Cahalan (Catholicism) Amy Eilberg (Judaism) John Kelsay (Islam) Edward Langerak (Secularism) Anantanand Rambachan (Hinduism) Douglas J. Schuurman (Protestantism) Mark Unno (Buddhism)

Two years after earning a business degree with honors from the University of Colorado, Trent Newcomer decides to abandon his corporate job, sell his car, and travel around the globe with nothing more than what he can fit in a small backpack. His goal is simple: experience all that the world has to offer so he can then be satisfied with settling down to a normal life. Over the next year and a half, the adventures that find Newcomer and the people he encounters teach him more about the world and his own place in it than he could have ever imagined. From having a gun pulled on him in Vietnam and being jumped by a gang of men while trying to change money on Kenya's black market to experiencing more near-death bus rides than he can count, Newcomer soon discovers that the journey itself is much more meaningful than checking items off a to-do list. Part travelogue and part memoir, The Call of the World is a candid and insightful account of the challenges and joys of backpacking solo around the globe, as well as one young man's journey of personal discovery. The Call of the World has been recognized as a Medalist (Travel Essay) in the 2009 Independent Publisher Book Awards, as well as a Finalist (Travel/Travel Guide) in the 2009 Next Generation Indie Book Awards.

Our era is profoundly marked by the phenomenon of exile and it is has become increasingly urgent to rethink the concept of exile and our stance towards it. This renewed reflection on the problem of exile brings to the fore a number of questions regarding the traditionally negative connotation of exile. Is there not another way to understand the condition of exile? Permeated with references to the 'stranger', the 'other' and 'exteriority', the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas signifies a positive understanding of exile. This original and compelling book distills from Levinas's philosophy a wisdom of exile, for the first time shedding a positive light on the condition of exile itself. Abi Doukhan argues that Levinas's philosophy can be understood as a comprehensive philosophy of exile, from his ethics to his thoughts on society, love, knowledge, spirituality and art, thereby presenting a comprehensive view of the philosophy of Levinas himself as well as a renewed understanding of the wealth and contribution of exile to a given society.