Our Better Nature

Our Better Nature
Author: Philip J. Dreyfus
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Total Pages: 382
Release: 2012-04-03
Genre: History
ISBN: 0806184779

Few cities are so dramatically identified with their environment as San Francisco—the landscape of hills, the expansive bay, the engulfing fog, and even the deadly fault line shifting below. Yet most residents think of the city itself as separate from the natural environment on which it depends. In Our Better Nature, Philip J. Dreyfus recounts the history of San Francisco from Indian village to world-class metropolis, focusing on the interactions between the city and the land and on the generations of people who have transformed them both. Dreyfus examines the ways that San Franciscans remade the landscape to fit their needs, and how their actions reflected and affected their ideas about nature, from the destruction of wetlands and forests to the creation of Golden Gate and Yosemite parks, the Sierra Club, and later, the birth of the modern environmental movement. Today, many San Franciscans seek to strengthen the ties between cities and nature by pursuing more sustainable and ecologically responsible ways of life. Consistent with that urge, Our Better Nature not only explores San Francisco’s past but also poses critical questions about its future. Dreyfus asks us to reassess our connection to the environment and to find ways to redefine ourselves and our cities within nature. Only with such an attitude will San Francisco retain the magic that has always charmed residents and visitors alike.

The Character of Theology

The Character of Theology
Author: John R. Franke
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2005-07-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1441206531

Theology done in today's context is strikingly different from past evangelical approaches. In this new project John Franke, writing with our postmodern world in mind, reflects these directions. He offers an introduction to theology that covers the usual territory, but does so attuned to today's ecclesial and cultural context. In contradistinction to more traditional works, Franke: - critiques traditional evangelical theological conceptions - emphasizes the "local" nature of theology - engages the postmodern context - contrasts conservative and postconservative approaches - interacts with the broader faith community Sure to provoke intense discussion, The Character of Theology will help Christians to be faithful in a world in which the spiritual and intellectual landscape is ever changing.

The Forbidden Gift

The Forbidden Gift
Author: Anttarr
Publisher: iUniverse
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2004-09
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 0595328202

"The Forbidden Gift is defining that intangible knowing, that unmistakable feeling that tells you there is more, more than you have previously ever had the chance to fully conceptually digest and savor defining that feeling behind whose many masks lie layer upon layer of uncomfortable sensations that, as you progressed through life, you merely adapted to and incorporated into the you that you are today." "Who are you? Each chapter of this book is a walk through your life and the life of humankind in general. 'Who am I?' is naturally followed by 'What is my purpose for living, for being? Who is responsible for all this? What is the reason?' To answer these questions we must look into the heart, the source of your reality, and venture beyond the known into the unknown." "That is what this book is all about-liberation from the unconscious forces that cause you to behave, think, feel and live in fashions that are not productive, but counterproductive to realizing the whole essence of your highest potential. If you open your heart and mind to what is said, you will experience personal insights and a loosening of the very dense jungle of chronic, deeply rooted scripting that controls your entire orientation and self-creation in the life process." "The strength to make impact, the strength and methodology to pull your own strings, and the ability to sense your own power and apply it intelligently and with sensitivity-even passion-is my theme." -ANTTARR

Hearings

Hearings
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Rivers and Harbors
Publisher:
Total Pages: 902
Release: 1937
Genre:
ISBN:

The Medicine of Memory

The Medicine of Memory
Author: Alejandro Murguía
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2010-01-01
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0292778708

An American Book Award winner’s creative memoir “traces his own family's history, as well as the long story of Hispanics in America . . . Spirited writing” (Library Journal). People who live in California deny the past, asserts Alejandro Murguía. In a state where what matters is keeping up with the current trends, fads, or latest computer gizmo, no one has the time, energy, or desire to reflect on what happened last week, much less what happened ten years ago, or a hundred. From this oblivion of memory, he continues, comes a false sense of history, a deluded belief that the way things are now is the way they have always been. In this work of creative nonfiction, Murguía draws on memories—his own and his family’s reaching back to the eighteenth century—to (re)construct the forgotten Chicano-indigenous history of California. He tells the story through significant moments in California history, including the birth of the mestizo in Mexico, destruction of Indian lifeways under the mission system, violence toward Mexicanos during the Gold Rush, Chicano farm life in the early twentieth century, the Chicano Movement of the 1960s, Chicano-Latino activism in San Francisco in the 1970s, and the current rebirth of Chicano-Indio culture. Rejecting the notion that history is always written by the victors, and refusing to be one of the vanquished, he records, and draws us into, his own California history.