The history of Western Christianity, written predominantly from a male perspective, has often ignored women's stories and their unique contributions to both Church and society. Unlike the virgins and martyrs who are named in the official list of the Church's saints, the beguines, Anabaptists, so-called witches, and nuns of Port-Royal have gone largely unrecognized. Their stories, as presented in this one volume, explore the underside of history and challenge support of a strictly hierarchical Church. These four groups of women represent disparate approaches to a Christian commitment, but they share an intense devotion to their understanding of the gospel message. Their willingness to adhere to their beliefs brought them into conflict with ecclesiastical and civil authority. Often, these women sacrificed their lives; all of them refuted the stereotype of a passive female Church member. These women's stories unfold within the complex picture of medieval Europe, but their beliefs and struggles offer models of Christian living relevant to today.

This work will appeal to scholars of gender and women's studies, theology, and European history. The research and documentation provides information about these women previously available only in scattered and often obscure sources. Although these women represent a unique ecumenical mix of backgrounds, they share a common strength, commitment, and feminine approach to religion.

The theory of Kac lagebras and their duality, elaborated independently in the seventies by Kac and Vainermann and by the authors of this book, has nowreached a state of maturity which justifies the publication of a comprehensive and authoritative account in bookform. Further, the topic of "quantum groups" has recently become very fashionable and attracted the attention of more and more mathematicians and theoretical physicists. However a good characterization of quantum groups among Hopf algebras in analogy to the characterization of Lie groups among locally compact groups is still missing. It is thus very valuable to develop the generaltheory as does this book, with emphasis on the analytical aspects of the subject instead of the purely algebraic ones. While in the Pontrjagin duality theory of locally compact abelian groups a perfect symmetry exists between a group and its dual, this is no longer true in the various duality theorems of Tannaka, Krein, Stinespring and others dealing with non-abelian locally compact groups. Kac (1961) and Takesaki (1972) formulated the objective of finding a good category of Hopf algebras, containing the category of locally compact groups and fulfilling a perfect duality. The category of Kac algebras developed in this book fully answers the original duality problem, while not yet sufficiently non-unimodular to include quantum groups. This self-contained account of thetheory will be of interest to all researchers working in quantum groups, particularly those interested in the approach by Lie groups and Lie algebras or by non-commutative geometry, and more generally also to those working in C* algebras or theoretical physics.

The idea for this collection of essays emerged from conversations about how the art of civil discourse has become increasingly less visible in American society today, particularly in political activities. At the same time, it is frustrating to realize that more Americans vote for contestants on shows like American Idol than usually vote in the November elections. The themes throughout New York Abstains "Courteously" touch on the very heart of what it means to be a responsible citizen, both in our own country and in the global community. While so many individuals speak about values today, it ultimately seems that the true values undergirding the United States are being overshadowed by partisan politics and private ideologies. The book's contributors take a wide variety of approaches to civil discourse and civic responsibility. Each essay in this collection stands on its own and grows out of the author's unique discipline and experience. The essays, however, are the fruit of ongoing collaboration and intersect with each other in many intriguing ways.

Imaging the Other: Essays on Diversity emerged from Nancy Porter's essay in Conn and McGuire's second collection of essays, Not Etched in Stone: Essays on Ritual Memory, Soul, and Society. Porter explored the creation of the "other" as the basis for conflict among humans. In the present collection, each author considered the general theme in the context of her or his own background, interests, and research. At a time when much of the world is in turmoil, these essays speak of the "other," how we create categories, the consequences of such categories, and ways of re-imaging those who, for whatever reason, are different from us. Each essay in this collection stands on its own and grows out of the author's unique discipline and experience; however, these essays intersect with each other in many intriguing ways.

The essays presented by Professors Marie A. Conn and Therese McGuire examine stone and water as vehicles of ritual memory through the lenses of various disciplines. In seven concise yet revealing chapters, the authors examine instances throughout history and unbound by geography of stone and water as real or abstract objects that shape our lives, possibly without our notice. Chapters topics include: * Water as a vehicle for ritual memory from the earliest days of human history to the present-day. * An investigation of the aesthetic principles of the Middle Ages up to the Gothic styles of cathedrals in North America. * Julian of Norwich, the famous cloistress, walled in by stone in comparison to Etty Hillesum, a WWII-era mystic, whose small desk used to write her revealing diaries became her stone cloister cell. * The Irish, water, and stone in Finnegan's Wake. * Warming the "stone heart" of a child pummeled by the foster care system. * The lack of clean water that contributes to wide-spread disease. * Group behavior and the eventualities of war through stone-like, (uncooperative and hardened) psychological states.

This book deals with the theory of Kac algebras and their dual ity, elaborated independently by M. Enock and J . -M. Schwartz, and by G. !. Kac and L. !. Vajnermann in the seventies. The sub ject has now reached a state of maturity which fully justifies the publication of this book. Also, in recent times, the topic of "quantum groups" has become very fashionable and attracted the attention of more and more mathematicians and theoret ical physicists. One is still missing a good characterization of quantum groups among Hopf algebras, similar to the character ization of Lie groups among locally compact groups. It is thus extremely valuable to develop the general theory, as this book does, with emphasis on the analytical aspects of the subject instead of the purely algebraic ones. The original motivation of M. Enock and J. -M. Schwartz can be formulated as follows: while in the Pontrjagin duality theory of locally compact abelian groups a perfect symmetry exists between a group and its dual, this is no longer true in the various duality theorems of T. Tannaka, M. G. Krein, W. F. Stinespring . . . dealing with non abelian locally compact groups. The aim is then, in the line proposed by G. !. Kac in 1961 and M. Takesaki in 1972, to find a good category of Hopf algebras, containing the category of locally compact groups and fulfilling a perfect duality.

The Symposium on the Current State and Prospects of Mathematics was held in Barcelona from June 13 to June 18, 1991. Seven invited Fields medalists gavetalks on the development of their respective research fields. The contents of all lectures were collected in the volume, together witha transcription of a round table discussion held during the Symposium. All papers are expository. Some parts include precise technical statements of recent results, but the greater part consists of narrative text addressed to a very broad mathematical public. CONTENTS: R. Thom: Leaving Mathematics for Philosophy.- S. Novikov: Role of Integrable Models in the Development of Mathematics.- S.-T. Yau: The Current State and Prospects of Geometry and Nonlinear Differential Equations.- A. Connes: Noncommutative Geometry.- S. Smale: Theory of Computation.- V. Jones: Knots in Mathematics and Physics.- G. Faltings: Recent Progress in Diophantine Geometry.

Sisterly Love: Women of Note in Pennsylvania History is a collection of biographical sketches of women who have made or are making significant contributions to Pennsylvania history. The authors of each chapter span across several disciplines and colleges in the Philadelphia area through SEPCHE, the Southeast Pennsylvania Consortium of Higher Education. In these essays you will meet artists, political leaders, entrepreneurs, teachers, computer experts, environmentalists, abolitionists, and more. Some of these women are well-known; many are not. Yet each has helped to shape the state of Pennsylvania in compelling and meaningful ways.