In our globalized world, differing conceptions of human nature and human values raise questions as to whether universal and partisan claims and perspectives can be reconciled, whether interreligious and intercultural conversations can help build human community, and whether a pluralistic ethos can transcend uncompromising notions as to what is true, good, and just. In this volume, world-class scholars from religious studies, the humanities, and the social sciences explore what it means to be human through a multiplicity of lives in time and place as different as fourth-century BCE China and the world of an Alzheimer patient today. Refusing the binary, these essays go beyond description to theories of aging and acceptance, ethics in caregiving, and the role of ritual in healing the inevitable divide between the human and the ideal.

Despite ongoing efforts to find alternatives, oil is still one of the most critical-and valuable-commodities on earth. This two-volume set provides extensive background information on key topics relating to oil, profiles countries that are major producers and consumers of oil, and examines relevant political issues. Aside from air and water, oil is perhaps the most valuable natural resource. Oil supplies the tremendous energy needs of the modern world. What exactly is "oil," where does it come from, how does it get consumed, and who is using it? This encyclopedia provides clear answers to these questions and more, offering students entries on the fundamentals of the oil industry and profiles of the countries that play a major role in oil production and consumption. Volume 1 presents topical entries on critical concepts, key terms, major oil spills and disasters, and important organizations and individuals relating to the oil industry. Entries define terms such as "barrel" and "reserve," cover incidents such as the BP oil spill, and explain the significance of organizations such as OPEC. The second volume spotlights specific countries that are major producers, consumers, exporters, and importers of oil, from the United States to Russia to Saudi Arabia to Venezuela. Each profile shows readers the importance of oil in that country through a brief background history, data on its oil usage or production, information about major trading partners, and an explanation of political issues. Offers a complete resource that covers basic concepts relating to the oil industry as well as major incidents such as various oil spills and the specifics of the oil industry in key countries Includes sidebars throughout the encyclopedia that present interesting information to supplement the main text as well as images, maps, and charts that provide additional meaning and context Serves as an essential reference for students of social studies, geography, current events, political science, and environmental science

To Overcome Oneself offers a novel retelling of the emergence of the Western concept of "modern self," demonstrating how the struggle to forge a self was enmeshed in early modern Catholic missionary expansion. Examining the practices of Catholics in Europe and New Spain from the 1520s through the 1760s, the book treats Jesuit techniques of self-formation, namely spiritual exercises and confessional practices, and the relationships between spiritual directors and their subjects. Catholics on both sides of the Atlantic were folded into a dynamic that shaped new concepts of self and, in the process, fueled the global Catholic missionary movement. Molina historicizes Jesuit meditation and narrative self-reflection as modes of self-formation that would ultimately contribute to a new understanding of religion as something private and personal, thereby overturning long-held concepts of personhood, time, space, and social reality. To Overcome Oneself demonstrates that it was through embodied processes that humans have come to experience themselves as split into mind and body. Notwithstanding the self-congratulatory role assigned to "consciousness" in the Western intellectual tradition, early moderns did not think themselves into thinking selves. Rather, "the self" was forged from embodied efforts to transcend self. Yet despite a discourse that situates self as interior, the actual fuel for continued self-transformation required an object-cum-subject - someone else to transform. Two constant questions throughout the book are: Why does the effort to know and transcend self require so many others? And what can we learn about the inherent intersubjectivity of missionary colonialism?