Considering integral transformations of Volterra type, F. Riesz and B. Sz.-Nagy no ticed in 1952 that [49]: "The existence of such a variety of linear transformations, having the same spectrum concentrated at a single point, brings out the difficulties of characterization of linear transformations of general type by means of their spectra." Subsequently, spectral analysis has been developed for different classes of non selfadjoint operators [6,7,14,20,21,36,44,46,54]. It was then realized that this analysis forms a natural basis for the theory of systems interacting with the environment. The success of this theory in the single operator case inspired attempts to create a general theory in the much more complicated case of several commuting operators with finite-dimensional imaginary parts. During the past 10-15 years such a theory has been developed, yielding fruitful connections with algebraic geometry and sys tem theory. Our purpose in this book is to formulate the basic problems appearing in this theory and to present its main results. It is worth noting that, in addition to the joint spectrum, the corresponding algebraic variety and its global topological characteristics play an important role in the classification of commuting operators. For the case of a pair of operators these are: 1. The corresponding algebraic curve, and especially its genus. 2. Certain classes of divisors - or certain line bundles - on this curve.

Using language - speaking and understanding it - is a defining ability of human beings, woven into all human activity. It is therefore inevitable that it should be deeply implicated in the design, production and use of buildings. Building legislation, design guides, competition and other briefs, architectural criticism, teaching and scholarly material, and the media all produce their characteristic texts.
The authors use texts about such projects as Berlin's new Reichstag, Scotland's new Parliament, and the Auschwitz concentration camp museum to clarify the interaction between texts, design, critical debate and response.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203360362

"Buildings and Power" shifts the focus of architectural debate from the dominant themes of art and technology to an analysis of meaning in terms of social relations. Buildings are primarily social objects - their forms provide answers to questions we ask about ourselves, questions of power, order, classification and function. Everything about a building has social meaning - its form, function and spatial structure are each capable of analysis. "Buildings and Power" focuses on the emergence of new building types during the critical period between the Enlightenment and the French and Industrial Revolutions. The range is divided between those which control relations between people directly - schools, institutions of various kinds, buildings for cleaning and hygiene, clubs, assembly rooms and hotels; those which reproduce knowledge - museums, galleries, institutes; and those used for production and exchange - mills, production utopias, markets, shops and exchanges.

The history of Christianity has been marked by tension between ideas of sacred and secular, their shifting balance, and their conflict. In Christianity and the Secular, Robert A. Markus examines the place of the secular in Christianity, locating the origins of the concept in the New Testament and early Christianity and describing its emergence as a problem for Christianity following the recognition of Christianity as an established religion, then the officially enforced religion, of the Roman Empire. Markus focuses especially on the new conditions engendered by the Christianization of the Roman Empire. In the period between the apostolic age and Constantine, the problem of the relation between Christianity and secular society and culture was suppressed for the faithful; Christians saw themselves as sharply distinct in, if not separate from, the society of their non-Christian fellows. Markus argues that when the autonomy of the secular realm came under threat in the Christianised Roman Empire after Constantine, Christians were forced to confront the problem of adjusting themselves to the culture and society of the new regime. Markus identifies Augustine of Hippo as the outstanding critic of the ideology of a Christian empire that had developed by the end of the fourth century and in the time of the Theodosian emperors, and as the principal defender of a place for the secular within a Christian interpretation of the world and of history. Markus traces the eclipse of this idea at the end of antiquity and during the Christian Middle Ages, concluding with its rehabilitation by Pope John XXIII and the second Vatican Council. Of interest to scholars of religion, theology, and patristics, Markus's genealogy of an authentic Christian concept of the secular is sure to generate widespread discussion.

Using language - speaking and understanding it - is a defining ability of human beings, woven into all human activity. It is therefore inevitable that it should be deeply implicated in the design, production and use of buildings. Building legislation, design guides, competition and other briefs, architectural criticism, teaching and scholarly material, and the media all produce their characteristic texts.
The authors use texts about such projects as Berlin's new Reichstag, Scotland's new Parliament, and the Auschwitz concentration camp museum to clarify the interaction between texts, design, critical debate and response.

The material and cultural world in which we now live perhaps represents the end of a process created out of the Enlightenment and the Industial Revolution. The battles fought over class, ideology and language are represented most clearly in the explosion of new building types during the Century of Revolutions.
Lavishly illustrated with photographs, drawings, maps and plans, Buildings and Power analyses architectural form, function and space to explore the reproduction and the subversion of power in the modern city.

This collection brings together a set of studies on the notions of the sacred and the secular held by early Christian writers, especially Augustine and Gregory the Great, and on their relationships in actual practice in Late Antiquity. Problems of heresy and orthodoxy in Latin Christianity, especially in the context of the Pelagian controversy, are discussed in this intellectual context and impact of his thought are also included.

Considering integral transformations of Volterra type, F. Riesz and B. Sz.-Nagy no ticed in 1952 that [49]: "The existence of such a variety of linear transformations, having the same spectrum concentrated at a single point, brings out the difficulties of characterization of linear transformations of general type by means of their spectra." Subsequently, spectral analysis has been developed for different classes of non selfadjoint operators [6,7,14,20,21,36,44,46,54]. It was then realized that this analysis forms a natural basis for the theory of systems interacting with the environment. The success of this theory in the single operator case inspired attempts to create a general theory in the much more complicated case of several commuting operators with finite-dimensional imaginary parts. During the past 10-15 years such a theory has been developed, yielding fruitful connections with algebraic geometry and sys tem theory. Our purpose in this book is to formulate the basic problems appearing in this theory and to present its main results. It is worth noting that, in addition to the joint spectrum, the corresponding algebraic variety and its global topological characteristics play an important role in the classification of commuting operators. For the case of a pair of operators these are: 1. The corresponding algebraic curve, and especially its genus. 2. Certain classes of divisors - or certain line bundles - on this curve.

The book is about the mysterious Saint Germain who has enthralled millions of people worldwide since the 1700's. Several books have been written about him and the role he played on the European stage. He was known by all royal families throughout Europe. Many loved him, but some considered him a charlatan, imposter, mythomaniac. There have been speculations about who he really was, but so far no one has known his true identity. He has been hiding behind different masks in different incarnations and has suddenly appeared in the history out of the blue. Saint Germain is more relevant today than he was during the 1700's. In this book he reveals for the first time who he really is. The entire earthly civilization is at a crossroads where we must choose path. Either we continue as thus far leading to a dead end, to stagnation, to the destruction of our civilization or we choose the new path that leads us to a higher dimension, elevated consciousness and the emancipation from the lower confinement of the mind power. The mind power has so far kept us bound in ignorance, dungeon of unconsciousness, which has created for us sufferings of various nature. Saint Germain was already in the 1800's identified by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Founder of Theosophy) as the coming World Teacher, who shall appear in the Nordic countries in the late 1900's. Saint Germain is among us as alive today as in the 1700's. He can never die because he remembers his past lives. He has declared that he will reincarnate (be reborn) on Earth every century until he has completed his mission. He is the Unifier - Spiritual Master Teacher of the New Age who shall appear in the Nordic Countries, that Seers have since long talked about. The story takes place at a secret location in the Swiss Alps. The location is chosen by fate, as well as the twelve who are to attend the meeting. The fate of the participants has a historical background that extends several thousand years back in time. Common to them all are the roles that each has portrayed throughout history. They come from different parts of the world, different races and beliefs, but still they have something in common, not only as soul mates, but by the power that has decided their common destiny and that drives them to gather in the same place, at the very same time. To the meeting joins a stranger, a secret guest who nobody knows anything about. The Secret Brotherhood (Illuminati) who has invited the stranger to this historic meeting does not know much about him. The only thing they know is that he is a natural talent like only few on earth. He is equipped with a superior cosmic knowledge; a higher spiritual consciousness related to the "Science of the Soul" that extends beyond the 5th dimension, beyond the manipulative, restructurable matrix, hologram that Dr. Jung called "the collective unconscious."

The history of Christianity has been marked by tension between ideas of sacred and secular, their shifting balance, and their conflict. In Christianity and the Secular, Robert A. Markus examines the place of the secular in Christianity, locating the origins of the concept in the New Testament and early Christianity and describing its emergence as a problem for Christianity following the recognition of Christianity as an established religion, then the officially enforced religion, of the Roman Empire. Markus focuses especially on the new conditions engendered by the Christianization of the Roman Empire. In the period between the apostolic age and Constantine, the problem of the relation between Christianity and secular society and culture was suppressed for the faithful; Christians saw themselves as sharply distinct in, if not separate from, the society of their non-Christian fellows. Markus argues that when the autonomy of the secular realm came under threat in the Christianised Roman Empire after Constantine, Christians were forced to confront the problem of adjusting themselves to the culture and society of the new regime. Markus identifies Augustine of Hippo as the outstanding critic of the ideology of a Christian empire that had developed by the end of the fourth century and in the time of the Theodosian emperors, and as the principal defender of a place for the secular within a Christian interpretation of the world and of history. Markus traces the eclipse of this idea at the end of antiquity and during the Christian Middle Ages, concluding with its rehabilitation by Pope John XXIII and the second Vatican Council. Of interest to scholars of religion, theology, and patristics, Markus's genealogy of an authentic Christian concept of the secular is sure to generate widespread discussion.