For most of its history, contemporary Paganism has been a religion of converts. Yet as it enters its fifth decade, it is incorporating growing numbers of second-generation Pagans for whom Paganism is a family tradition, not a religious worldview arrived at via a spiritual quest. In Pagan Family Values, S. Zohreh Kermani explores the ways in which North American Pagan families pass on their beliefs to their children, and how the effort to socialize children influences this new religious movement. The first ethnographic study of the everyday lives of contemporary Pagan families, this volume brings their experiences into conversation with contemporary issues in American religion. Through formal interviews with Pagan families, participant observation at various pagan events, and data collected via online surveys, Kermani traces the ways in which Pagan parents transmit their religious values to their children. Rather than seeking to pass along specific religious beliefs, Pagan parents tend to seek to instill values, such as religious tolerance and spiritual independence, that will remain with their children throughout their lives, regardless of these children's ultimate religious identifications. Pagan parents tend to construct an idealized, magical childhood for their children that mirrors their ideal childhoods. The socialization of children thus becomes a means by which adults construct and make meaningful their own identities as Pagans. Kermani's meticulous fieldwork and clear, engaging writing provide an illuminating look at parenting and religious expression in Pagan households and at how new religions pass on their beliefs to a new generation.

The melodious recitation of the Quran is a fundamental aesthetic experience for Muslims, and the start of a compelling journey of ideas. In this important new book, the prominent German writer and Islamic scholar Navid Kermani considers the manner in which the Quran has been perceived, apprehended and experienced by its recipients from the time of the Prophet to the present day. Drawing on a wide range of Muslim sources, from historians, theologians and philosophers to mystics and literary scholars, Kermani provides a close reading of the nature of this powerful text. He proceeds to analyze ancient and modern testimonies about the impact of Quranic language from a variety of angles. Although people have always reflected on the reception of texts, images and sounds that they find beautiful or moving, Kermani explains that Islam provides a particularly striking example of the close correlation, grounded in a common origin, between art and religion, revelation and poetry, and religious and aesthetic experience. This major new book will enhance the dialogue between Islam and the West and will appeal to students and scholars of Islam and comparative religion, as well as to a wider readership interested in Islam and the Quran.

Vast global resources are ploughed into the delivery of treatment interventions ranging from diet and lifestyle advice to complex surgery. In all cases, whatever the intervention, unless the recipient is engaged with the process and understands why the intervention has been offered and the part they play in its success, compliance is an issue. Even where the individual does engage and understand, he or she may choose not to comply. Non-compliance is estimated to cost the pharma industry US$70 billion per year. No figures exist for the cost to healthcare insurers and public health but non-compliance is undoubtedly one of the top five issues facing both drug developers and healthcare providers. During clinical trials, non-compliance undermines the accuracy of the data generated from the whole trial as well as particular aspects such as the efficacy of different dosages. This book explores the key factors which drive compliance and the part that healthcare professionals can play in improving this, with the key underlying goal of improving public health in its broadest sense.

Organizational Development (OD) consultants often face dilemmas when they market their services because there is a gap between clients' expectation and the actual role of OD consultants. This book is about how to overcome that dilemma by finding effective marketing strategies for a different approach to consulting. Marketing Organization Development: A How-To Guide for OD Consultants focuses on the challenges faced by internal and external consultants in marketing and selling their services. By distinguishing between performance consulting and Organization Development (OD) consulting, this book demonstrates why marketing and selling OD consulting services are unique. This book meets not only unique OD consultants' needs by reflecting the philosophical background of OD and unique marketing challenges but the needs of Human Resource Development (HRD) managers' need who are interested in promoting or selling their change interventions within their organizations. This comprehensive book: Reviews important terms and popular tools used in the marketing process and outlines the many roles a consultant must fill to obtain and keep the business (i.e., marketer, salesperson, brand manager, account management) .Describes the criteria for self-evaluation as an OD consultant. It examines how to identify your strengths and the competencies you need to develop based on OD competencies. Provides an introduction to actionable steps and resources for organization development, change management, and performance management consultants to evaluate unmet needs and opportunities through a niche market for consulting services. Covers how to communicate value to your target customers and how to brand your service. Describes various channels of OD marketing such as viral, word of mouth, and social media marketing. . Reviews selling tactics for l your consulting service and discusses the importance of having a defined sales process to which you adhere.

Pain is inevitable. Almost everyone is living with some kind of pain, whether the cause is physical, emotional, financial, social, or spiritual. A desire to escape it has led thousands of Canadians to seek euthanasia, and countless others into opioid addiction. What can we learn from people around the world for whom pain is a fact of life? How can we help others bear their pain? How might the wisdom of earlier eras help us? What answers does faith offer? On this theme: - Navid Kermani visits farming Madagascar battling drought caused by climate change. - Benjamin Crosby asks why churches haven’t spoken out against Canada’s euthanasia experiment. - Tom Holland sums up the history of pain in two artworks and three lives. - Lisabeth Button shares correspondence with a friend succumbing to Alzheimer’s. - Rick Warren demonstrated how our own suffering can lead to our best ministry. - Wang Yi, an imprisoned Chinese pastor, calls churches to face repression boldly. - Leah Libresco Sargeant profiles nuns providing palliative care. - Eleanor Parker considers an Anglo-Saxon poem, “The Dream of the Rood.� - Brewer Eberly tells what he learned from an insufferable patient. - Randall Gauger, who lost his son to cancer, finds lessons in C. S. Lewis. Also in the issue: - A report on the resurgence of bison by Nathan Beacom - Original poetry by Sofia M. Starnes and Julia Nemirovskaya - An excerpt from a new graphic novel, By Water - Reviews of Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead, James K. A. Smith’s How to Inhabit Time, and Nick Cave’s and Seán O’Hagan’s Faith, Hope and Carnage. - Readings from Eduardo Galeano, Felicity of Carthage, Anselm of Canterbury, Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther, and J. Heinrich Arnold Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to apply their faith to the challenges we face. Each issue includes in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art.

Pipeline integrity is key to maintaining operational success, safety and security and minimising harm to the environment. Corrosion is a dominant contributory factor to failures, leaks and integrity threat in pipelines. Therefore, its optimum control within an integrity management framework is paramount for the cost effective design of facilities and ensuring continued, uninterrupted and safe operations within the expected design life. This recommended practice (RP) is a compendium of current best practices and state of the art knowledge by major operators, engineering contractors and service companies involved in hydrocarbon production and transportation. The RP incorporates some minimum operational requirements and practices to ensure that when managing corrosion in pipelines, fundamental principles are followed. It covers management of corrosion for pipelines carrying hydrocarbons, injection water and/or produced water from design to decommissioning. It is structured to follow the logical steps of a basic corrosion management process and makes references to relevant and available International standards and/or recommended practices. It is intended for use by personnel from the petroleum industry having knowledge of corrosion and materials. It is hoped that this RP will prove to be a key reference document for engineers, suppliers and contractors working in the oil and gas industry, paving the way for corrosion free operation of pipelines with the ultimate goal of improving safety, security and minimising the impact on the environment.

What happens when one of Germany's most important writers, himself a Muslim, immerses himself in the world of Christian art? In this book, Navid Kermani is awestruck by a religion full of sacrifice and lamentation, love and wonder, the irrational and the unfathomable, the deeply human and the divine - a Christianity that today's Christians rarely speak of so earnestly, boldly and enthusiastically. With the open-minded curiosity of a non-believer - or rather a believer in another faith - Kermani engages with Christian art in its great richness and diversity. The result is an enchanting reflection which reinvests in Christianity both its spectacular beauty and its terror. Kermani struggles with the cross, falls in love at the sight of Mary, experiences the Orthodox Mass and appreciates the greatness of St Francis. He teaches us to see the questions of our present-day lives in the pictures of old masters such as Botticelli, Caravaggio and Rembrandt - not with lectures on art history or theology, but with an intelligent eye for the essential details and the underlying relations to seemingly remote worlds, to literature and to mystical Islam. Kermani's poetic school of seeing draws us in as we are carried along by his unique perspective on Christianity, rekindling our interest in great art at the same time. We are captivated by his unique and brilliant Islamic reading of the West.

‘When your grandpa was in hospital, he asked me one night to promise him that, when he had gone from us, I would teach you Islam – our Islam: the Islam I grew up with … In that dark, impersonal room, he was thinking of you.’ This is why one father began to teach his daughter night after night not only about his own religion, but about that which unites all believers, about God and death, about love and the infinity that surrounds us. This highly personal book is not only a magical literary masterpiece, but also a rich resource of knowledge, and this because Navid Kermani dares to venture into the darkness in order to give expression to our confusion. And because his way of talking, his openness, his knowledge which derives from his immersion in two cultures, are so unique, so light and so deep.

For most of its history, contemporary Paganism has been a religion of converts. Yet as it enters its fifth decade, it is incorporating growing numbers of second-generation Pagans for whom Paganism is a family tradition, not a religious worldview arrived at via a spiritual quest. In Pagan Family Values, S. Zohreh Kermani explores the ways in which North American Pagan families pass on their beliefs to their children, and how the effort to socialize children influences this new religious movement. The first ethnographic study of the everyday lives of contemporary Pagan families, this volume brings their experiences into conversation with contemporary issues in American religion. Through formal interviews with Pagan families, participant observation at various pagan events, and data collected via online surveys, Kermani traces the ways in which Pagan parents transmit their religious values to their children. Rather than seeking to pass along specific religious beliefs, Pagan parents tend to seek to instill values, such as religious tolerance and spiritual independence, that will remain with their children throughout their lives, regardless of these children's ultimate religious identifications. Pagan parents tend to construct an idealized, magical childhood for their children that mirrors their ideal childhoods. The socialization of children thus becomes a means by which adults construct and make meaningful their own identities as Pagans. Kermani's meticulous fieldwork and clear, engaging writing provide an illuminating look at parenting and religious expression in Pagan households and at how new religions pass on their beliefs to a new generation.

Organizational Development (OD) consultants often face dilemmas when they market their services because there is a gap between clients' expectation and the actual role of OD consultants. This book is about how to overcome that dilemma by finding effective marketing strategies for a different approach to consulting. Marketing Organization Development: A How-To Guide for OD Consultants focuses on the challenges faced by internal and external consultants in marketing and selling their services. By distinguishing between performance consulting and Organization Development (OD) consulting, this book demonstrates why marketing and selling OD consulting services are unique. This book meets not only unique OD consultants' needs by reflecting the philosophical background of OD and unique marketing challenges but the needs of Human Resource Development (HRD) managers' need who are interested in promoting or selling their change interventions within their organizations. This comprehensive book: Reviews important terms and popular tools used in the marketing process and outlines the many roles a consultant must fill to obtain and keep the business (i.e., marketer, salesperson, brand manager, account management) .Describes the criteria for self-evaluation as an OD consultant. It examines how to identify your strengths and the competencies you need to develop based on OD competencies. Provides an introduction to actionable steps and resources for organization development, change management, and performance management consultants to evaluate unmet needs and opportunities through a niche market for consulting services. Covers how to communicate value to your target customers and how to brand your service. Describes various channels of OD marketing such as viral, word of mouth, and social media marketing. . Reviews selling tactics for l your consulting service and discusses the importance of having a defined sales process to which you adhere.

Between Germany and Russia is a region strewn with monuments to the horrors of war, genocide and disaster - the bloodlands where the murderous regimes of Hitler and Stalin unleashed the violence that scarred the twentieth century and shaped so much of the world we know today. In September 2016 the German-Iranian writer Navid Kermani set out to discover this land and to travel along the trenches that are now re-emerging in Europe, from his home in Cologne through eastern Germany to the Baltics, and from there south to the Caucasus and to Isfahan in Iran, the home of his parents. This beautifully written travel diary, enlivened by conversations with the people Kermani meets along the way, brings to life the tragic history of these troubled lands and shows how this history leaves its traces in the present. It will be of great interest to anyone concerned with current affairs and with the events that have shaped, and continue to shape, the world in which we live today.

Navid Kermani is not only one of Germany's most distinguished writers and public intellectuals, he is also an outstanding public speaker who mesmerizes audiences with his well-crafted sentences and turns of phrase. Whether he is speaking about the plight of refugees or delivering a eulogy at his father's graveside, Kermani finds words that surprise his listeners, enlighten them, provoke them, disturb them or move them to tears. As a German of Iranian descent whose parents settled in Germany, Kermani is particularly sensitive to the issues raised by migration and the perceived tensions between Islam and the West. His speeches are a powerful demonstration of how much we stand to gain by adhering to the values of openness, tolerance and mutual respect for the beliefs and practices of those from other cultures who live among us.

What happens when one of Germany s most important writers, himself a Muslim, immerses himself in the world of Christian art? In this book, Navid Kermani is awestruck by a religion full of sacrifice and lamentation, love and wonder, the irrational and unfathomable, the deeply human and the divine a Christianity that today s Christians rarely speak of so earnestly, boldly and enthusiastically. With the open-minded curiosity of a non-believer, Navid Kermani engages with Christian art in its great richness and diversity. The result is an enchanting set of reflections which re-invest in Christianity both its spectacular beauty and its terror. Kermani struggles with the cross, falls in love at the sight of Mary, experiences the Orthodox Mass and appreciates the greatness of St Francis. He teaches us to see the questions of our present-day lives in the pictures of old masters such as Botticelli, Caravaggio and Rembrandt not with lectures on art history or theology, but with an intelligent eye for the essential details and the underlying relations to seemingly remote worlds, to literature and to mystical Islam. Kermani s poetic school of seeing draws us in as we are carried along by his unique perspective on Christianity, re-igniting our interest in great art at the same time. We are captivated by his unique and brilliant Islamic reading of the West.

Autogenic training is one of the most powerful techniques ever developed for reducing stress, promoting relaxation and awakening the innate healing power we all possess. With this practical, comprehensive book you can learn for the first time how to practise it yourself. Simple step-by-step instructions explain how to perform a series of easy mental exercises which will help you to achieve deep relaxation in mind and body and make your subconscious receptive to the healing effects of the therapy. You will learn how to: Improve your health and well-being to a dramatic degree Strengthen your immune response to combat illness Increase your energy levels Release your latent creativity Deal with unresolved emotions Cure yourself of phobias and anxieties Improve your ability to concentrate. Autogenic Training: The Effective Holistic Way to Better Health also gives guidance on combining autogenic training with diet, exercise and other therapies for a complete holistic health programme. Dr Kai Kermani has undertaken extensive clinical and spiritual work on Healing and Autogenics. Since 1991 he has devoted his time entirely to Autogenics, making him a leading name in this field of holistic therapy. To learn more, visit his website: http://www.healing-with-doctorkai.com/ Autogenic training can reduce stress, promote relaxation, increase energy levels, release creativity and deal with unresolved emotions. Explaining how to perform a series of mental exercises which can help mind and body to relax and make your body receptive to the healing effects of the therapy. It also gives guidance on combining autogenic training with diet, exercise and other therapies for a complete holistic health programme.

The Persian Presence in Victorian Poetry surveys the variety of ways in which Persia, and the multitude of ideological, historical, cultural and political notions that it embodied, were received, circulated and appropriated. Providing the first systematic index of nineteenth-century poems that were in any way involved with Persia, the book explores its presence across a broad range of works incorporating literary, historical and cultural material.

Several works have been published on concentration of solar radiation by mirrors or lenses onto smaller size solar panels, which reduce cost and increase conversion efficiency at higher concentration ratio. One of the challenges is active and uniform cooling of high heat flux solar arrays, because conversion efficiency is dependent on device temperatures and drops with increasing temperature. This research is targeted at cooling of small, high concentrated solar cells. Benefits of manifold microchannel are attractive for cooling of electronic devices but have not been studied for cooling of high concentrated solar cells which is the objective of this research, where the microchannel can be microfabricated and etched on the backside of the silicon solar cell to form a sealed heat sink with the manifold fabricated in the silicon substrate. This design not only minimizes the pressure drop, but also maximizes the heat transfer and provides uniform temperature across the device.

Navid Kermani is one of the outstanding public intellectuals of his generation. Not one for drawing hard and fast conclusions, his style of thought is probing, observant, often straying from well-trodden paths and always peering beyond the present moment to trace connections and grasp the bigger picture. Well known for his prize-winning novels and major works of nonfiction, Kermani has also written for newspapers and magazines ever since he started working at the local desk of a newspaper at the age of 15.  Reporting from war zones and crisis hot spots, he gained widespread acclaim as a journalist, displaying a rare political sensitivity which manages to illuminate what politicians fail to see and to seek out solutions where all appears hopeless. This volume brings together his brilliantly perceptive writing from the last thirty years, on topics ranging from terror in the Middle East to crisis in Europe and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As a record of Kermani’s uniquely compassionate curiosity, this absorbing book is an antidote to the spectre of confusion and despair that stalks global politics today.

The Persian Presence in Victorian Poetry surveys the variety of ways in which Persia, and the multitude of ideological, historical, cultural and political notions that it embodied, were received, circulated and appropriated.

How can suffering and injustice be reconciled with the idea that God is good, that he loves humans and is merciful to them? Job's question runs through the history of the three monotheistic religions. Time and again, philosophers, theologians, poets, prophets and laypersons have questioned their image of God in the light of a reality full of hardship. Some see suffering as proof of God's existence, others as a demonstration that there can be no God, while others still respond by rebelling against Him. In this remarkable book Navid Kermani - a distinguished Islamic scholar of Iranian origin - sees this revolt against God as the central motif of one of the great but neglected works of literature: The Book of Suffering by the thirteenth-century Persian poet Faridoddin Attar. Through the prism of Attar's text Kermani tells the story of a religious faith that knows God but is angry with Him: a counter-theology that runs through many religions and connects Judaism, Islam and modernity. With astonishing range and stylistic brilliance Kermani brings Attar to life as one of us, enabling the great Persian poet to speak directly to us today despite the time that separates us.