Through The Eyes Of The Ancients

"A comprehensive study on the books of Moses in the Bible"--

“Plenty of adventure and magic . . . continues Robert Newcomb’s tradition of mixing adventure with an interesting and well-realized magical world.”—SF Site Prince Tristan and his twin sister, Shailiha, are the Chosen Ones, prophesied to unite the opposing magics of the dark Vagaries and the benevolent Vigors. But before they can fulfill their destiny, they must search out the mysterious Scrolls of the Ancients which hold the key to unlocking great mystical secrets. They are not the only ones on a dire quest. Krassus, a devoted servant of the Vagaries, has located one of the Scrolls and through it has attained great and ominous powers. Now he needs but one thing: a man who unknowingly possesses magic in his blood almost as potent as that of the Chosen Ones. Tristan and Shailiha must find that man before Krassus’s dark enchantments turn him into the most dangerous weapon of evil the world has ever known—if it’s not already too late. . . .

In the heart of Indian Country in the American west, clandestine criminals have profited greatly from the sale of sacred Native American artifacts stolen from tribal lands. These artifacts were so ancient they had been used since the migration of the first Americans into North America some 15,000 years ago. In 1998 the illegal trafficking of these artifacts peaked in Santa Fe, New Mexico. At the same time, the tribes and pueblos in New Mexico and Arizona fell into crisis because many of their sacred ceremonies couldn’t be conducted. Without their ceremonial objects, sickness and deep depression became prevalent and the spiritual leaders became desperate to get their divine artifacts back to restore the health, happiness and balance of their people. Plunder of the Ancients is a rare look inside an undercover investigation in which special agent Lucinda Schroeder reveals the details of her case in which she was assigned to expose Indian Art thieves and dealers in Santa Fe, New Mexico, who out of unmitigated greed, were exploiting sacred artifacts for huge sums of money. Her final task was to bring the criminals to justice; recover the sacred artifacts and return them to their rightful people. But all did not go well for Schroeder. While her cover was airtight, she faced betrayal from people she regarded beyond reproach. Her additional challenge then became to find out who was so determined to undermine and even destroy her mission of restoring the spiritual lives of Native Americans who were suffering. Plunder of the Ancients takes readers along on a dangerous and unprecedented assignment as Schroeder battles betrayal, evil spirits, and shape shifters for a cause she strongly believes in. Learn more at www.lucindaschroeder.com

Old ideas. New insights. Timeless relevance for the church. Studying the views and lifestyles of your forerunners in the faith can provide incredible guidance for how you live out your spiritual convictions today. In Wisdom from the Ancients, author and scholar Bryan Litfin paints a vivid portrait of the first five centuries of the Christian church, packed with fascinating history and applicable insights for modern believers. As you encounter the wisdom of early Christians, you’ll be challenged to revisit the building blocks of your faith in light of ancient beliefs and spiritual practices. This book will help you reframe common evangelical ideas, including questions Christians face today, such as when it makes sense to read the Bible literally and when God’s truth shines through symbolism how the beliefs and practices of early believers should inform your worship whether the church should cooperate with political power or resist it Wisdom from the Ancients reveals life-changing lessons from the early church that you can take to heart today. When you set aside your modern perspectives and approach ancient truths with an open mind, the beliefs of the early Christians will illuminate your faith in a brand-new way.

THE PERFECT READ FOR TROUBLED TIMES From the bestselling author of The Story of the British Isles in 100 Places comes this inspiring and beautifully written meditation on the wisdom inherited from our ancestors. For all we have gained in the modern world, simple peace of mind is hard to find. In a time that is increasingly fraught with complexity and conflict, we are told that our wellbeing relies on remaining as present as possible. But what if the key to being present lies in the past? In Wisdom of the Ancients, Neil Oliver takes us back in time, to grab hold of the ideas buried in forgotten cultures and early civilizations. From Laetoli footprints in Tanzania to Keralan rituals, stone circles and cave paintings, Oliver takes us on a global journey through antiquity. A master storyteller, drawing on immense knowledge of our ancient past, he distils this wisdom into twelve messages that have endured the test of time, and invites us to consider how these might apply to our lives today. The result is powerful and inspirational, moving and profound.

This is an essay by Benjamin Constant. In this essay, Constant contrasted two views on freedom: one held by "the Ancients," particularly those in Classical Greece, and the other by members of modern societies. He investigates the dangers of attempting to impose ancient liberty in a modern context, as well as the risks associated with each type of liberty. The danger of ancient liberty was that men, preoccupied with securing their share of social power, might place too little value on individual rights and pleasures. The danger of modern liberty is that we will give up our right to participate in political power too easily, absorbed in the enjoyment of our independence and the pursuit of our particular interests." Constant believes that the two types of liberty must eventually be combined.

A sweeping intellectual history of the role of wealth in the church in the last days of the Roman Empire Jesus taught his followers that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Yet by the fall of Rome, the church was becoming rich beyond measure. Through the Eye of a Needle is a sweeping intellectual and social history of the vexing problem of wealth in Christianity in the waning days of the Roman Empire, written by the world's foremost scholar of late antiquity. Peter Brown examines the rise of the church through the lens of money and the challenges it posed to an institution that espoused the virtue of poverty and called avarice the root of all evil. Drawing on the writings of major Christian thinkers such as Augustine, Ambrose, and Jerome, Brown examines the controversies and changing attitudes toward money caused by the influx of new wealth into church coffers, and describes the spectacular acts of divestment by rich donors and their growing influence in an empire beset with crisis. He shows how the use of wealth for the care of the poor competed with older forms of philanthropy deeply rooted in the Roman world, and sheds light on the ordinary people who gave away their money in hopes of treasure in heaven. Through the Eye of a Needle challenges the widely held notion that Christianity's growing wealth sapped Rome of its ability to resist the barbarian invasions, and offers a fresh perspective on the social history of the church in late antiquity.

The History of Glaucoma, the latest in the Hirschberg series of the history of ophthalmology, covers the twists, turns, and paradigm-shifts in the glaucoma concept over the past two millennia. Previously, scholars were not able to agree on how the term glaucoma, which related in antiquity to the color of a diseased eye, ended up describing an excavated optic neuropathy which has nothing to do with color. The volume begins in the ancient world, and proceeds all the way to the modern era of optical coherence tomography, minimally invasive surgery, and anti-VEGF agents. Ophthalmic historians and glaucoma specialists from the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America have contributed their scholarship and recollections to this volume, which includes photographs from private collections, information from unpublished documents, and new translations from Latin, Arabic, French, German, and Spanish. The work of masters such as Julius Hirschberg and Max Meyerhof is supplemented by the latest scholarship, which has benefited from the explosion in digitally-accessible historical documents. This new scholarship has upended many deeply rooted beliefs about ophthalmology history. Most important, the volume relates the personal stories of eye surgeons and patients, to bring the past to life. The History of Glaucoma is a must-have for anyone interested in medical history.