My Beliefs In Defense Of The Hungarian People

The origins of Christian nationalism, 1890-1914 -- A war of belief, 1918-1919 -- The redemption of Christian Hungary, 1919-1921 -- The political culture of Christian Hungary -- The Christian churches and the fascist challenge -- Race, religion, and the secular state : the Third Jewish Law, 1941 -- Genocide and religion : the Christian churches and the Holocaust in Hungary -- Christian Hungary as history.

Taking as its starting point the long-standing characterization of Milton as a "Hebraic" writer, Milton and the Rabbis probes the limits of the relationship between the seventeenth-century English poet and polemicist and his Jewish antecedents. Shoulson's analysis moves back and forth between Milton's writings and Jewish writings of the first five centuries of the Common Era, collectively known as midrash. In exploring the historical and literary implications of these connections, Shoulson shows how Milton's text can inform a more nuanced reading of midrash just as midrash can offer new insights into Paradise Lost. Shoulson is unconvinced of a direct link between a specific collection of rabbinic writings and Milton's works. He argues that many of Milton's poetic ideas that parallel midrash are likely to have entered Christian discourse not only through early modern Christian Hebraicists but also through Protestant writers and preachers without special knowledge of Hebrew. At the heart of Shoulson's inquiry lies a fundamental question: When is an idea, a theme, or an emphasis distinctively Judaic or Hebraic and when is it Christian? The difficulty in answering such questions reveals and highlights the fluid interaction between ostensibly Jewish, Hellenistic, and Christian modes of thought not only during the early modern period but also early in time when rabbinic Judaism and Christianity began.

George Soros is one of the world's leading philanthropists. Over the past 30 years, he has provided more than 7 billion to his network of foundations, known collectively as the Open Society Institute, for projects around the world and in the United States. In this e-book, Soros writes in detail for the first time about his vision for philanthropy. "I have always been leery of philanthropy," he writes, "Philanthropy is supposed to be devoted to the benefit of others, but many philanthropists are primarily concerned with their own benefit." Soros engages in philanthropy not out of a desire for praise or to impose his vision upon the world but out of a strong sense of moral duty: "My success in the financial markets has given me a greater degree of independence than most other people enjoy. This allows me to take a stand on controversial issues. In fact, my exceptional position obliges me to do so." Soros is celebrated for his brilliant financial and economic insights and his investment strategies. But his contribution to philanthropy and the impact of his generosity is equally impressive. This text reveals the thinking and practice that drives a lesser known aspect of this remarkable man's life, his goals for society and his philosophy.

Vera and the Ambassador is a book to be savored and enjoyed on many levels. Both a behind-the-scenes peek at the operations of a U.S. embassy in a post–Cold War former Soviet satellite and a personal story of a refugee's escape and triumphant return, Vera and Donald Blinken's dual memoir openly details their challenges, setbacks, and victories as they worked in tandem to advance America's interests in Eastern Europe and to restore a former Soviet satellite state to a pre-communist level of prosperity. Hungary in all its cultural glory and historical anguish lies at the heart of this dramatic and deeply personal story. Born in Budapest just prior to World War II, Vera was only five years old when the Germans invaded in 1944. In a harrowing account, she describes how she and her mother managed to survive the atrocities of the war and, in 1950, narrowly escape Soviet-occupied Hungary for the freedom and opportunity of America. Making their way to New York, Vera settled into her adopted country with an indomitable spirit, a vow to become the best American she could be, and a hope of finding some way to give back as a show of gratitude for her good fortune in surviving the destruction of the war. That opportunity came in 1994 when her husband was appointed ambassador to Hungary by President Clinton, just five years into the country's tentative transformation from a command economy and totalitarian government into a market economy and fledgling republic based upon democratic ideals. A former investment banker, Donald might have lacked foreign service experience, but his skills as an administrator and his willingness to try innovative ideas, combined with Vera's knowledge of Hungarian language and culture and her outreach to the Hungarian community, helped them deal head-on with a variety of challenges, including a collapsing economy and the threat of a slide back toward the old ways of communism, and a brutal civil war that raged across the country's southern border in the former Yugoslavia. Replete with colorful characters from the streets of Budapest, humorous scenes at the ambassadorial residence, and accounts of tense high-level diplomatic negotiations in the run-up to Hungary's vote to join NATO, Vera and the Ambassador shows how the Blinkens helped chart a new course for American diplomacy in the mid-1990s. Ultimately, it is also the story of how Hungarians came to see them personally, and memorably, as their Vera and their ambassador.

Beyond Belief collects fifteen celebrated, broadly ranging essays in which Robert Bellah interprets the interplay of religion and society in concrete contexts from Japan to the Middle East to the United States. First published in 1970, Beyond Belief is a classic in the field of sociology of religion.

Philosophy: A Path with Heart is an autobiographically structured story of the authors deeply personal, emotional, and engaging encounter with philosophy, psychology, and spiritual concerns of the mind and heart from the age of thirteen. Significantly more attention is paid to philosophy than biography. The reader is asked to consider the philosophical, moral, political, environmental, and spiritual issues on which the author has reflected, and with which he continues to dance. He cites in some detail the writings of Barry, Halifax, Harner, Illich, Jung, Kluckhohn, Marx, Parsons, Safina, Swimme, Shills, Tillich, and Wilber. The book attempts to inspire an appreciation of philosophy as an ongoing dialogue with ones self and others. This dialogue is how his or her world is created, and directly responsible for forming the physical, social, and personal space in which they live. Philosophy is asking more of oneself than facile play with a Smartphone. Philosophy is creating a home for the soul as a house is constructed as a home for the body. What are you building for yourself and those around you?