Focusing on the period between the Wycliffite critique of images and Reformation iconoclasm, Shannon Gayk investigates the sometimes complementary and sometimes fraught relationship between vernacular devotional writing and the religious image. She examines how a set of fifteenth-century writers, including Lollard authors, John Lydgate, Thomas Hoccleve, John Capgrave, and Reginald Pecock, translated complex clerical debates about the pedagogical and spiritual efficacy of images and texts into vernacular settings and literary forms. These authors found vernacular discourse to be a powerful medium for explaining and reforming contemporary understandings of visual experience. In its survey of the function of literary images and imagination, the epistemology of vision, the semiotics of idols, and the authority of written texts, this study reveals a fifteenth century that was as much an age of religious and literary exploration, experimentation, and reform as it was an age of regulation.

"It's likely that a book like this is the only way you might see many of these creatures for yourself." - Amateur Photographer This book of photographs puts the spotlight on a group of animals that is little-noticed, and undeservedly so: endemic species that exist only on their respective islands. Isolated from continents by the ocean, certain species have been able to evolve further and differently than their counterparts on the mainland, where they are subjected to far more threats such as predators and diseases. Over time, giants like the Indonesian Komodo dragon have evolved, which grows up to three metres long and weighs 70 kilos. The comet moth lives on Madagascar, and the odd King of Saxony bird-of-paradise flies around on New Guinea. The flightless cormorant on Galapagos, on the other hand, retracted its flight instruments over time because it had no need for them. Readers can expect a variety of animal beauty and extravagance. The following locations are included in the book: Island of Sainte Marie (Madagascar) Madagascar Philippines Lesser Sunda Islands (Indonesia) Aru Islands Regency (Indonesia) New Guinea Australia Tasmania (Australia) New Zealand Santa Catalina Island, Channel Islands (California, US) Cozumel (Mexico) Cuba Isla Escudo de Veraguas (Panama) Galapagos Islands (Ecuador) Falkland Islands Svalbard Archipelago Text in English and German.

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

- Hebrews 11:1 (NKJV)

Faith is the opposite of fear. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Faith in Christ secures freedom from condemnation; it is the necessary component of saving grace. Faith is fellowship with Jesus Christ. Faith trusts in the Word of God. Faith is a conviction that Jesus Christ is Messiah. Faith is experiencing life with Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ provides confidence. Faith in Jesus Christ is power to act. Grace and faith are the first principles of the Gospel. Faith in Jesus Christ believes in his attributes of character and perfection. True faith, by Jesus Christ's definition, always involves surrender to the will of God.

Be sure and secure in faith