The Palgrave Handbook of Mimetic Theory and Religion draws on the expertise of leading scholars and thinkers to explore the violent origins of culture, the meaning of ritual, and the conjunction of theology and anthropology, as well as secularization, science, and terrorism. Authors assess the contributions of Rene Girard's mimetic theory to our understanding of sacrifice, ancient tragedy, and post-modernity, and apply its insights to religious cinema and the global economy. This handbook serves as introduction and guide to a theory of religion and human behavior that has established itself as fertile terrain for scholarly research and intellectual reflection.

Treasure Islands is an invaluable guide for parents, teachers, students, librarians, publishers, booksellers and all who wish young people to enjoy Scottish stories of quality. Compiled by teachers, Treasure Islands is the first critical examination of Scottish children's fiction. As well as handy reviews of 160 books, it contains suggested age and reading levels and the most up-to-date bibliographic information. In this comprehensive survey the emphasis falls naturally on recent work but older fiction is also included; titles range from 1824 to 2003, from Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson to Debi Gliori and J. K. Rowling. Looking for stories set in Edinburgh? How about Diana Hendry's You Can't Kiss It Better? Or Mollie Hunter's The Spanish Letters? A novel to accompany a project on Vikings? Try Marion Campbell's The Wide Blue Road or Naomi Mitchison's The Land the Ravens Found. Facing problems at home or in school? Read about Solomon in Theresa Breslin's Whispers in the Graveyard or Molly MacPherson in Jackie Kay's Strawgirl. Treasure Islands is a must if you want to explore the best in children's fiction.

This classic book asks what it is to know Jesus. It will enable thinking Christians to ask new questions about their faith, their reading of the New Testament, and the theology of redemption.

What do Rowan Williams, Stanley Hauerwas, Rene Girard, Richard Rohr, Timothy Radcliffe, Monica Furlong, Richard Rohr, Andrew Sullivan, and Mark Jordan have in common beside their Christian faith? Answer: the fact that they have all heaped praise on one or another of James Alison's books. "Intellectual dynamite and spiritual joy" (Rohr); "wit, clarity, depth and surprises" (Williams); "deeply moving and liberating" (Radcliffe). Perhaps James Keenan has put it most memorably: "Not since C.S. Lewis has an English Christian summoned his readers into such holy conversations." And Andrew Sullivan has spoken for the community most touched by Allison's work: "a rich resource for gay Catholics trying to reconcile their own deep and profound faith with the hostility of the hierarchy." About half of his new book deals with lesbian and gay issues, particularly in light of the the latest Vatican ukase banning gays from seminaries, and the rest with a variety of tropes central to Christian faith and life: reconciliation, the Eucharist, psychology and evil, worship in a violent world. But whatever the topic Alison turns to he writes with the edgy brilliance of a "break-in" artist who is always full of surprises.

On Being Liked is the transforming and joyful sequel to Faith Beyond Resentment, which established James Alison as one of the most striking, original, and intellectually irresistible voices in the church. In this book he invites us to let go of a commomnly-held account of salvation and takes us step-by-step through a bold adventure of re-imagining the central axis of the Christian story, not as 'How does God deal with sin?' but as 'How do we take up God's invitation to sharein the act of creation?'.