Jeff Morgan argues that both Immanuel Kant and Soren Kierkegaard think of conscience as an individual's moral self-awareness before God, specifically before the claim God makes on each person. This innovative reading corrects prevailing views that both figures, especially Kant, lay the groundwork for the autonomous individual of modern life - that is, the atomistic individual who is accountable chiefly to themselves as their own lawmaker. This book first challenges the dismissal of conscience in 20th-century Christian ethics, often in favour of an emphasis on corporate life and corporate self-understanding. Morgan shows that this dismissal is based on a misinterpretation of Immanuel Kant's practical philosophy and moral theology, and of Soren Kierkegaard's second authorship. He does this with refreshing discussions of Stanley Hauerwas, Oliver O'Donovan, and other major figures. Morgan instead situates Kant and Kierkegaard within a broad trajectory in Christian thought in which an individual's moral self-awareness before God, as distinct from moral self-awareness before a community, is an essential feature of the Christian moral life.

Kirk Langner, better known as Piece Maker on the Appalachian Trail, planned a nine-day hike on some of the most rugged parts of the trail in North Carolina and Tennessee, but he had not planned for what would eventually change his life forever. Kirk spends a lot of time walking the woods, much of this done alone, giving him the opportunity to ponder his ineffectual relationships with his wife and daughter and his increasing lack of faith in God. He eventually meets an assortment of personalities on the trail, resulting in sometimes humorous, sometimes tearful events, and he eventually begins to understand the reason for his seemingly lost relationships with the people he loves the most and why he has begun to lose faith in God. High in the North Carolina mountains, he befriends an old man who begins to share with him his wisdom about life, relationships, prayer, and faith, enlightening him like never before. The old man explains some of the most difficult concepts of life in some of the simplest ways, and "Piece Maker," who spiritually and emotionally had been lost, is found.

Comic poetry is serious stuff, combining incongruity, satire and psychological effects to provide us a brief victory over reason that could help us save ourselves, if not the world. Taking a theoretical perspective, this book champions the literary movement of American comic poetry, providing historical context and exploring the work of such writers as Denise Duhamel, Campbell McGrath, Billy Collins, Thomas Lux and Tony Hoagland. The techniques of these poets are examined to reveal how they make us laugh while addressing important social concerns.

This book explores the possibilities of intercultural training through literature, especially as related to collegiate study abroad programs. It presents a behavioral analysis of American literary characters through the lens of Milton Bennett's Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, which identifies sensitivity to cultural differences within a six-stage developmental continuum. The literary characters studied in this work all undergo an early separation which forces them to experience and relate to different worldviews. Moby Dick's Ishmael leaves land for an epic whaling adventure. Hester is forced to live on the outskirts of town in The Scarlet Letter. The nameless protagonist of The Country of the Pointed Firs leaves the city for the country. The title character of The American emigrates to Europe. Ellison's narrator in Invisible Man experiences a series of separations, starting at his college acceptance. For Whom the Bell Tolls' Robert Jordan leaves his Montana teaching job to fight in the Spanish Civil War. The book tracks each character's progress along Bennett's continuum, demonstrating how people--both real and fictional--can manifest intercultural sensitivity through exposure to different people, places, and experiences. The book concludes with a firsthand account of how the author's own students advanced along Bennett's continuum themselves following an intensive study of Ernest Hemingway's novels and a study abroad experience in Havana, Cuba.

Jeff Morgan argues that both Immanuel Kant and Soren Kierkegaard think of conscience as an individual's moral self-awareness before God, specifically before the claim God makes on each person. This innovative reading corrects prevailing views that both figures, especially Kant, lay the groundwork for the autonomous individual of modern life - that is, the atomistic individual who is accountable chiefly to themselves as their own lawmaker. This book first challenges the dismissal of conscience in 20th-century Christian ethics, often in favour of an emphasis on corporate life and corporate self-understanding. Morgan shows that this dismissal is based on a misinterpretation of Immanuel Kant's practical philosophy and moral theology, and of Soren Kierkegaard's second authorship. He does this with refreshing discussions of Stanley Hauerwas, Oliver O'Donovan, and other major figures. Morgan instead situates Kant and Kierkegaard within a broad trajectory in Christian thought in which an individual's moral self-awareness before God, as distinct from moral self-awareness before a community, is an essential feature of the Christian moral life.

Kirk Langner, better known as Piece Maker on the Appalachian Trail, planned a nine-day hike on some of the most rugged parts of the trail in North Carolina and Tennessee, but he had not planned for what would eventually change his life forever. Kirk spends a lot of time walking the woods, much of this done alone, giving him the opportunity to ponder his ineffectual relationships with his wife and daughter and his increasing lack of faith in God. He eventually meets an assortment of personalities on the trail, resulting in sometimes humorous, sometimes tearful events, and he eventually begins to understand the reason for his seemingly lost relationships with the people he loves the most and why he has begun to lose faith in God. High in the North Carolina mountains, he befriends an old man who begins to share with him his wisdom about life, relationships, prayer, and faith, enlightening him like never before. The old man explains some of the most difficult concepts of life in some of the simplest ways, and "Piece Maker," who spiritually and emotionally had been lost, is found.