Jonathan Cole

Brian Brock

Susan F. Parsons

A Critical Engagement with Oliver o'Donovan's Theology of Political Authority

Reign of God

Perfect answers the question: "What would it be like to die and then come back to life?"Justin Chronos wakes up to a strange face staring over him. He learns that this mysterious and beautiful stranger is Dr. Cristina Divian, a cryogenics doctor who has "revived" him from his dormant state. Dr. Divian explains that she has received orders "from high up", making her personally responsible for Justin while he acclimates to his new life. Since he is a stranger in this future time, her family acts as his host family. Justin befriends Dr. Divian's son and daughter (a slightly dysfunctional set of offspring), who introduce him to a world that is a drastic contrast to the place he left behind. There is new technology, a vastly different social structure, a generation of people who have absolutely no imperfections, and active use of drugs; all of which Justin is reluctant to adapt to.As he adjusts to his new life, Justin discovers the existence of a secret organization known as The Founders, responsible for designing this seemingly ideal world. He soon meets Queen Hera, a sensuous and powerful woman who is the leader over this future nation. She enlightens Justin by informing him of his family's involvement in creating The Movement: an initiative started by The Founders that fundamentally revolutionized society. Even more startling, Justin learns that it is his fate to lead humankind, following the Queen's death. He does not understand why, nor does he wish for such a position. Before he can accept the arrangement, he is convinced that he must answer the haunting questions that torment his mind. When he begins to delve more into the tainted history of The Movement, everything unravels.

Perfect

Chekhov often said that 'I am a doctor by trade and sometimes I do literary work in my free time', a surprising claim, given his status as a giant of 20th century drama. This literary-biographical study uncovers new sides to him, as both a medical professional and humanitarian, and tells the story of Chekhov's trip to Sakhalin Island in the harsh wastes of Siberia. Anton Chekhov practiced medicine for most of his life and engaged in humanitarian work which took him away from writing for months. He placed one such trip though, across the unforgiving terrain of Siberia to write about the penal island of Sakhalin, above all others. Chekhov's Sakhalin Journey, written by a neuroscientist and practicing clinician, uses this trip and Chekhov's own account of it to shed light on hitherto overlooked aspects of his life. In doing so, it shows that to understand the man we need his medicine as well as his literature, and we need to assess his life from his perspective as well as ours.

Doctor, Humanitarian, Writer

Chekhov's Sakhalin Journey

Chekhov’s Sakhalin Journey

What is like to live without touch or movement/position sense (proprioception)? The only way to understand the importance of these senses, so familiar we cannot imagine their absence, is to ask someone in that position. Ian Waterman lost them below the neck over forty years ago, though pain and temperature perception and his peripheral movement nerves were unaffected. Without proprioceptive feedback and touch the movement brain was disabled. Completely unable to move, he felt disembodied and frightened. Then, slowly, he taught himself to dress, eat and walk by thinking about each movement and with visual supervision. In Losing Touch, the narrative moves between biography and scientific research, theatre, documentary and zero gravity. He has been married three times, and built up successful careers in disability access audit, using his impairment to his advantage, and in rare turkey breeding and journalism. The neuroscience has led to data on movement without feedback, the pleasantness of touch, gesture, pain and body orientation in space. The account shows how the science was actually done but also reveals Ian's journey from passive subject to informed critic of science and scientists and that the science has given him both more understanding but also greater confidence personally. His unique response to such a rare condition has also led to a BBC documentary, theatrical portrayals and a weightless flight with NASA. As a young man he sought triumph over his impairment; now, nearly 65, he has more mature reflections on living with such an extraordinary loss, the limits it has imposed and the opportunities it has enabled. He gives his views on scientists and on others he has met including Oliver Sacks and Peter Brook. In an Afterword those from science, the arts and philosophy give an appreciation of his contribution. The book is the result of nearly 30 years close collaboration between author and subject.

A man without his body

Losing Touch

Peter Walker

"In this book, theologians and scholars of religion grapple with the political, philosophical, and ethical implications of a climate crisis provoked by one species, our own, serving its needs at the increasingly intolerable cost of all life on the planet"--

Seeking Hope in the Anthropocene

Theology on a Defiant Earth

The Land Beyond the Rainbow is a short story to help children to understand the relation of light and color.

The Land Beyond the Rainbow

Stuart Findlay

Gary Lovett

Arising from the third Cary Conference held in 1989, Comparative Analyses of Ecosystems investigates the utility and limitations of cross-system comparisons in ecology. The contributors, all well-known in their field, support their conclusions on the use and meaning of such comparisons by presenting novel analyses of data utilizing a variety of cross-system approaches in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial systems.

Patterns, Mechanisms, and Theories

Comparative Analyses of Ecosystems

A Man Without His Body

Dorian Dracula, Agent auf Probe, soll Dr. Frankenstein ausfindig machen, der ein Mittel gegen Lichtfraß entwickelt hat – eine Krankheit, die für Vampire tödlich enden kann. Zusammen mit seiner Mitschülerin Lilith, einer Halbvampirin, geht Dorian allen Hinweisen nach und begibt sich in brenzlige Situationen. Doch die Konkurrenz schläft nicht: Costin ist jedes Mittel recht, um den Wettkampf zu gewinnen. Denn nur der Sieger erhält den begehrten Profi-Agentenstatus! Dorian gibt alles und kommt Frankensteins Geheimnis näher. Dabei erhärtet sich sein Verdacht, dass Costin mit den Vampirjägern gemeinsame Sache macht. Schließlich gerät Lilith in höchste Gefahr ... Dracula junior - der neue Held mit Kultpotenzial! Jede Menge Action mit Humor und Grusel mit vielen witzigen Illustrationen von Zapf.

Agent mit Biss

Dracula junior

At a moment in which interest in political theology is rising, acceptance of a public role for religion is declining, and cynicism regarding both political and religious institutions is overflowing, this book investigates the possibilities and constraints of a Christian political theology that can meaningfully mediate Scripture, doctrine, and political reality. In critical dialogue with political theologians and political philosophers past and present, we explore the origins, meaning, and purpose of Christian political theology in an age of growing discontent with the once-impregnable liberal democratic order of yesteryear. Approaching politics as both art and science, this book lays a challenge at the feet of political theologians to offer a theological account of politics that is genuinely illuminating of political reality and efficacious for the faithful who seek to operate within it.

Mediating Scripture, Doctrine, and Political Reality

Christian Political Theology in an Age of Discontent

Henrietta Spalding

"The book is unique in giving those with Mobius a voice, allowing children and adults with the condition to explain what it is like. These fascinating biographies reveal much about the relations between face and facial expression, and emotional expression and emotional experience which we normally take for granted. The narratives also show the creative ways in which those with Mobius construct their lives and how they come to terms with and express their identities with, and yet, beyond their faces. Some with Mobius have been thought to have learning difficulties and autism, since an impassive immobile face has been assumed to reflect inner cognitive problems. This book criticises such work and asks people to look not only at the face but beyond it to see the person.".

Living Without Facial Expression

The Invisible Smile

An examination, through personal narratives and reflective commentary, of life without sensation or movement in the body. In writing Still Lives, Jonathan Cole wanted to find out about living in a wheelchair, without having what he calls "the doctor/patient thing" intervene. He has done this by asking people with spinal cord injuries the simple question of what it is like to live without sensation and movement in the body. If the body has absented itself, where does the person reside? He describes his method in the first chapter: "I have gone to people, not with a white coat or a stethoscope...[but] to listen to their lives as they express them," and it is the candid and powerful narratives of twelve people with spinal cord injuries that form the heart of the book.Asking his simple question, Cole discovers that there is no single or simple answer. The twelve people with tetraplegia (known as quadriplegia in the US) or paraplegia whose stories he tells testify to similar impairments but widely differing experiences. Cole employs their individual responses to shape the book into six main sections: "Enduring," "Exploring," "Experimenting," "Observing," "Empowering," and, finally, "Continuing." Each concludes with a commentary on the broader issues raised. Still Lives moves from a view of impairment as tragedy to reveal the possibilities and richness of experience available to those living with spinal injuries. More universally, it offers new perspectives on our relation to our bodies. In exploring the creative and imaginative adjustments required to construct a "still life," it makes a plea for the able-bodied to adjust their view of this most profound of impairments.

Narratives of Spinal Cord Injury

Still Lives

Jonathan O. Cole

Describes Ian Waterman's rare neurological disorder.

Pride and a Daily Marathon

Honorable Mention in the category of Psychology in the Professional/Scholarly Publishing Annual Awards Competition presented by the Association of American Publishers, Inc. What is special about the face, and what happens when neurological conditions make expression or comprehension of the face unavailable? Through a mix of science, autobiography, case studies, and speculation, Jonathan Cole shows the importance not only of facial expressions for communication among individuals but also of facial embodiment for our sense of self. He presents, in his words, "a natural history of the face and an unnatural history of those who live without it." The heart of the book lies in the experiences of people with facial losses of various kinds. The case studies are of blind, autistic, and neurologically impaired persons; the most extreme case involves Mobius syndrome, in which individuals are born with a total inability to move their facial muscles and hence to make facial expressions. Cole suggests that it is only by studying such personal narratives of loss that we can understand facial function and something of what all our faces reflect.

Jonathan Cole

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