"Carrying ahead the project of cultural criminology, Phillips and Strobl dare to take seriously that which amuses and entertains us--and to find in it the most significant of themes. Audiences, images, ideologies of justice and injustice--all populate the pages of Comic Book Crime. The result is an analysis as colorful as a good comic, and as sharp as the point on a superhero's sword."--Jeff Ferrell, author of Empire of Scrounge Superman, Batman, Daredevil, and Wonder Woman are iconic cultural figures that embody values of order, fairness, justice, and retribution. Comic Book Crime digs deep into these and other celebrated characters, providing a comprehensive understanding of crime and justice in contemporary American comic books. This is a world where justice is delivered, where heroes save ordinary citizens from certain doom, where evil is easily identified and thwarted by powers far greater than mere mortals could possess. Nickie Phillips and Staci Strobl explore these representations and show that comic books, as a historically important American cultural medium, participate in both reflecting and shaping an American ideological identity that is often focused on ideas of the apocalypse, utopia, retribution, and nationalism. Through an analysis of approximately 200 comic books sold from 2002 to 2010, as well as several years of immersion in comic book fan culture, Phillips and Strobl reveal the kinds of themes and plots popular comics feature in a post-9/11 context. They discuss heroes' calculations of "deathworthiness," or who should be killed in meting out justice, and how these judgments have as much to do with the hero's character as they do with the actions of the villains. This fascinating volume also analyzes how class, race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation are used to construct difference for both the heroes and the villains in ways that are both conservative and progressive. Engaging, sharp, and insightful, Comic Book Crime is a fresh take on the very meaning of truth, justice, and the American way.Nickie D. Phillipsis Associate Professor in the Sociology and Criminal Justice Department at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, NY.Staci Stroblis Associate Professor in the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.In theAlternative Criminologyseries

A collection of essays which explores the significance of Wittgenstein for the Philosophy of Religion. Explorations of central notions in Wittgenstein's later philosophy are brought to bear on the clash between belief and atheism; understanding religious experience; language and ritual; evil and theodicies; miracles; and the possibility of a Christian philosophy.

Terrorism, natural disasters, or hazardous materials threaten the viability for all types of businesses. With an eye toward business scale, scope, and diversity, Business Continuity Planning: Increasing Workplace Resilience to Disasters, addresses a range of potential businesses from home-based to large corporations in the face of these threats, including the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Information on business continuity planning is easy to find but can be difficult to work through. Terminology, required content, and planning barriers often prevent progress. This volume solves such problems by guiding readers, step-by-step, through such actions as identifying hazards and assessing risks, writing critical functions, forming teams, and encouraging stakeholder participation. In essence, this volume serves as a business continuity planning coach for people new to the process or seeking to strengthen and deepen their ongoing efforts. By engaging stakeholders in a business continuity planning process, businesses can protect employees, customers, and their financial stability. Coupled with examples from recent disasters, planners will be able to inspire and involve stakeholders in creating a more resilient workplace. Designed for both educators and practitioners, Business Continuity Planning: Increasing Workplace Resilience to Disasters walks users through how to understand and execute the essential steps of business continuity planning.

Whether one agrees with him or not, there is no avoiding the challenge of Hume for contemporary philosophy of religion. The symposia in this stimulating collection reveal why, whether the discussions concern Hume on metaphysics and religion, 'true religion', religion and ethics, religion and superstition, or miracles. For some, Hume's criticisms of religion are so devastating that religion cannot withstand them. Others disagree, and claim that Hume can be answered on his own terms. For others, while Hume shows us paths we should not take, these open up the way for a consideration of religious possibilities he never considered. These are not peripheral matters. The responses to them determine the style and spirit in which one pursues philosophy of religion today.

Rush Rhees questions the viability of moral theories and the general claims they make in ethics. He shows how one can both be concerned with knowing what one ought to do while recognising that one's answer is a personal one. These insights, arrived at in a distinctive style, characteristic of Rhees, are then applied to issues of life and death, human sexuality and our relations to animals. To recognise why philosophy cannot answer such questions for us is an affirmation, not a denial, of their importance.

This book offers the rare opportunity to assess, within a single volume, the leading schools of thought in the contemporary philosophy of religion. With contributions by well-known exponents of each school, the book is an ideal text for assessing the deep proximities and divisions which characterize contemporary philosophy of religion. The schools of thought represented include philosophical theism, Reformed epistemology, Wittgensteinianism, Postmodernism, Critical Theory, and Process Thought.

Many contemporary philosophers assume that, before one can discuss prayer, the question of whether there is a God or not must be settled. In this title, first published in 1965, D. Z. Phillips argues that to understand prayer is to understand what is meant by the reality of God. Beginning by placing the problem of prayer within a philosophical context, Phillips goes on to discuss such topics as prayer and the concept of talking, prayer and dependence, superstition and the concept of community. This is a fascinating reissue that will be of particular value to students with an interest in the philosophy of religion, prayer and religious studies more generally.

Reflection on religion inevitably involves consideration of its relation to morality. When great evil is done to human beings, we may feel that something absolute has been violated. Can that sense, which is related to gratitude for existence, be expressed without religious concepts? Can we express central religious concerns, such as losing the self, while abandoning any religious metaphysic? Is moral obligation itself dependent on divine commands if it is to be objective, or is morality not only independent of religion, but its accuser if God is said to allow horrendous evils? In any case, what happens to the absolute claims of religion in what is, undeniably, a morally pluralistic world? These are the central questions discussed by philosophers of religion and moral philosophers in this collection. They do so in ways which bring new aspects to bear on these traditional issues.

As the century draws to its close, how should we think of religion? Some see it as the survival in our midst of an outmoded, primitive way of thinking, while others accuse the critics of simply being blind to the meaning of religious belief. From a different perspective, the clash between belief and unbelief is not seen as a matter of identifying incoherent systems of thought, but as a clash between different demands made on us by divergent ways of looking at the world. Criticisms will flow between these perspectives. There is, however, another kind of interest in this situation: an interest in giving just characterizations of these different voices, so that the nature of allegiances and oppositions to religion may be better understood.

Rush Rhees questions the viability of moral theories and the general claims they make in ethics. He shows how one can both be concerned with knowing what one ought to do while recognizing that one's answer is a personal one. These insights, arrived at in a distinctive style, characteristic of Rhees, are then applied to issues of life and death, human sexuality, and our relations to animals. To recognize why philosophy cannot answer such questions for us is an affirmation, not a denial, of their importance.

Accounts of moral reasoning have tended either to ignore the differences in what men count as good reasons for their moral judgments, or, in emphasizing these differences, to imply that anything whatsoever can count as a moral reason. This book shows that both of these positions rest on a mistaken assumption, and by rejecting this assumption brings out important features of moral discourse. Although moral disagreement is seen to be far more radical than empirical disagreement, a framework of agreement is shown to be a precondition of moral discourse, and even of the possibility of individual moral decision.

"Moral Practices "puts forward arguments against two prominent views in contemporary ethics. Firstly, it shows that moral practices cannot be explained in terms of individual decision. Secondly, it demonstrates that although moral conclusions follow from certain facts within a moral practice, the same facts need not lead to these conclusions when viewed from within different moral practices. The book explores the implications of recognizing the multiplicity of moral practices for such issues as ethical relativity, moral dilemmas and moral disagreement.

This book helps general practitioners, health visitors and other professionals working in primary care to assess, manage and refer children and adolescents with mental health problems. School medical officers, social workers and educational psychologists, many of whom are in the front line of mental health provision for children and young people, will also find it particularly useful. Each problem is covered in a uniform way, with definitions, assessment outlines, detailed management options and indications for referral. Numerous case examples further illuminate aspects of many conditions. The book supports service provision in the new primary care environment, and forms a comprehensive practical guide to the full range of difficulties and disabilities affecting the mental health of children and young people.

Recent years have seen an explosion in the volume of work carried out using supersonic jets of molecules following the discovery that the technique could provide information on structure and dynamics of a very high quality otherwise impossible to obtain. Written and edited by a first class team of authors, acknowledged world leaders in their subjects, this book describes applications in detail along with analysis of data recorded and background theory. Physical chemists and chemical physicists will find this unique book an essential concentrated source of information and reference.

A collection of essays which explores the significance of Wittgenstein for the Philosophy of Religion. Explorations of central notions in Wittgenstein's later philosophy are brought to bear on the clash between belief and atheism; understanding religious experience; language and ritual; evil and theodicies; miracles; and the possibility of a Christian philosophy.

Whether one agrees with him or not, there is no avoiding the challenge of Hume for contemporary philosophy of religion. The symposia in this stimulating collection reveal why, whether the discussions concern Hume on metaphysics and religion, 'true religion', religion and ethics, religion and superstition, or miracles. For some, Hume's criticisms of religion are so devastating that religion cannot withstand them. Others disagree, and claim that Hume can be answered on his own terms. For others, while Hume shows us paths we should not take, these open up the way for a consideration of religious possibilities he never considered. These are not peripheral matters. The responses to them determine the style and spirit in which one pursues philosophy of religion today.

God is said to be Spirit, but the language of spirit is ignored in contemporary philosophy of religion. As well as exploring the notion of spirit in Hegel, Romanticism and Kierkegaard, participants explore the view that God is a spirit without a body, and the relations between "spirit" and "truth."

In this collection, distinguished theologians and philosophers of religion explore the relation of key Biblical concepts to our world. They examine a range of concepts, including authority, faith and history, the historical Jesus, the resurrection and miracles. SARAH COAKLEY is Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity at Harvard University, USA INGOLF DALFERTH is Professor of Systematic Theology, Symbolics and the Philosophy of Religion, and Director of the Institute of Hermeneutics and Philosophy of Religion, University of Zurich, Switzerland STEPHEN T. DAVIS is Professor of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Claremont Mckenna College, USA WALFORD GEALY is Emeritus Senior Lecturer in Adult and Continuing Education, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK ALASTAIR HANNAY is Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at the University of Oslo, Norway SIMO KNUUTILA is Academy Professor in the Academy of Finland and Professor of Theological Ethics and the Philosophy of Religion at the University of Helsinki, Finland GARETH MOORE teaches Philosophy at Blackfriars, Oxford, UK D.Z.PHILLIPS is Danforth Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Claremont Graduate University and Rush Rhees Research Professor at

Landscape Evolution: Landforms, Ecosystems and Soils asks us to think holistically, to look for the interactions between the Earth's component surface systems, to consider how universal laws and historical and geographical contingency work together, and to ponder the implications of nonlinear dynamics in landscapes, ecosystems, and soils. Development, evolution, landforms, topography, soils, ecosystems, and hydrological systems are inextricably intertwined. While empirical studies increasingly incorporate these interactions, theories and conceptual frameworks addressing landforms, soils, and ecosystems are pursued largely independently. This is partly due to different academic disciplines, traditions, and lexicons involved, and partly due to the disparate time scales sometimes encountered. Landscape Evolution explicitly synthesizes and integrates these theories and threads of inquiry, arguing that all are guided by a general principle of efficiency selection. A key theme is that evolutionary trends are probabilistic, emergent outcomes of efficiency selection rather than purported goal functions. This interdisciplinary reference will be useful for academic and research scientists across the Earth sciences.

Shakespeare and Emotional Expression offers an exciting new way of considering emotional transactions in Shakespearean drama. The book is significant in its scope and originality as it uses the innovative medium of colour terms and references to interrogate the early modern emotional register. By examining contextual and cultural influences, this work explores the impact these influences have on the relationship between colour and emotion and argues for the importance of considering chromatic references as a means to uncover emotional significances. Using a broad range of documents, it offers a wider understanding of affective expression in the early modern period through a detailed examination of several dramatic works. Although colour meanings fluctuate, by paying particular attention to contextual clues and the historically specific cultural situations of Shakespeare’s plays, this book uncovers emotional significances that are not always apparent to modern audiences and readers. Through its examination of the nexus between the history of emotions and the social and cultural uses of colour in early modern drama, Shakespeare and Emotional Expression adds to our understanding of the expressive and affective possibilities in Shakespearean drama.