This probing and engaging book is a critical guide to some of the most important issues in modern African philosophy. Bell introduces readers to the complexity of Africa, the legacy of colonialism, and the challenges of post-independence Africa, and the history and achievement of the various options in African philosophy. The book discusses African oral and written philosophical traditions, concepts of 'negritude', 'African Socialism', and 'race' and topics in international development ethics.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203800745

"Understanding African Philosophy" serves as a critical guide to some of the most important issues in modern African philosophy. Richard Bell introduces readers to the complexity of Africa, the legacy of colonialism, the challenges of post independence Africa, and other recent developments in African Philosophy. Chapters discuss the value of African oral and written texts for philosophy, concepts of "negritude," "African socialism," and "race," as well as current discussions in international development ethics connected to poverty and human suffering. Two chapters are focused on moral issues related to community, justice, and civic responsibility. Bell's sensitivity to and engagement with the complications of cross-cultural understandings help non-African readers connect with African culture and thought.

The Northwestern Handbook of Surgical Procedures, 2nd Edition, is designed to be reviewed prior to performing or participating in an operation. The authors of the book have identified the key steps of performing each procedure, to provide a framework to the learner for understanding the tasks and the sequence of those tasks necessary for successful performance. Breaking a complex performance like an operation into a series of steps is a technique well validated in the educational literature and provides the basic scaffold upon which the surgeon-in-training can add nuances and variations that are encountered in the course of experience, ultimately building a strong mental model or image of the operation. It is the goal of this portable handbook to try to bring some degree of order to the complexity, focusing on many of the common operations in general, gastrointestinal, plastic, thoracic, vascular and pediatric surgery, and in organ transplantation. Each procedure has been divided into specific and well-defined steps to provide the beginner with a framework that can serve as a baseline and against which real-life experiences can be measured.

Wagner's Ring addresses fundamental concerns that have faced humanity down the centuries, such as power and violence, love and death, freedom and fate. Further, the work seems particularly relevant today, addressing as it does the fresh debates around the created order, politics, gender, and sexuality. In this second of two volumes on the theology of the Ring, Richard Bell argues that Wagner's approach to these issues may open up new ways forward and offer a fresh perspective on some of the traditional questions of theology, such as sacrifice, redemption, and fundamental questions about God. A linchpin for Bell's approach is viewing the Ring in the light of the Jesus of Nazareth sketches, which, he argues, confirms that the artwork does indeed address questions of Christian theology, for those inside and outside the church.

Wagner's Ring is one of the greatest of all artworks of Western civilization, but what is it all about? The power and mystery of Wagner's creation was such that even he felt he stood before his work 'as though before some puzzle'. A clue to the Ring's greatness lies in its multiple avenues of self-disclosure and the corresponding plethora of interpretations that over the years has granted ample scope for directors, and will no doubt do so well into the distant future. One possible interpretation, which Richard Bell argues should be taken seriously, is the Ring as Christian theology. In this first of two volumes, Bell considers, among other things, how the composer's Christian interests may be detected in the 'forging' of his Ring, in his appropriation of sources (whether they be myths and sagas, writers, poets, or philosophers), and in works composed around the same time, especially his Jesus of Nazareth.

About the Contributor(s): Richard Bell is Professor of Theology at the University of Nottingham, UK. He studied theoretical physics at University College London and theology at Oxford and Tubingen. He is author of Provoked to Jealousy (1994), No One Seeks for God (1998), The Irrevocable Call of God (2005), and Deliver us from Evil (2007).

This book brings together a selection of classic spiritual writings from the twentieth century's most inspirational authors. Arranged thematically, this book is ideal for use as a spiritual primer for laity and clergy alike, and is also helpful for sermon preparation. The topics include alienation and loneliness, holiness and spirituality, justice and kindness, purity of heart, humility and renunciation, spiritual presence and incarnation, and worship, gratitude, and joy. Challenging and engaging, these writings will invite us to explore and deepen our sense of the sacred in our everyday lives. Selections are from the work of Karl Barth, Daniel Berrigan, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Buber, Dorothy Day, Matthew Fox, Gustavo Gutierrez, Dag Hammarskjold, Vaclav Havel, Abraham Heschel, Martin Luther King Jr., Madeleine L'Engle, C. S. Lewis, Thomas Merton, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Henri Nouwen, Brother Roger of Taize, Dorothee Soelle, Simone Weil, and many others. A short biography of each writer is included.

In Rethinking Justice, Richard H. Bell lifts up and restores an idea of justice found in classical writers such as Socrates and Seneca as well as in more recent thinkers. Justice, classically, has dealt with righting wrongs and restoring peace to individuals and human communities. We have lost sight of this in our modern political and legal dealings and must find a way to return it to mind and to practice. Each chapter looks at ways to restore such reconciliatory practices to the idea of justice that can be found in our contemporary life and literature and focuses on numerous recent cases of abuse of justice among individuals, groups and nations. Bell approaches justice as a concept that goes hand in hand with compassion, mercy, and trust. Rethinking Justice reminds us that we have an obligation to foster peace, be merciful, and promote reconciliation with our brothers and sisters in humanity.

In Rethinking Justice, Richard H. Bell lifts up and restores an idea of justice found in classical writers such as Socrates and Seneca as well as in more recent thinkers. Justice, classically, has dealt with righting wrongs and restoring peace to individuals and human communities. We have lost sight of this in our modern political and legal dealings and must find a way to return it to mind and to practice. Each chapter looks at ways to restore such reconciliatory practices to the idea of justice that can be found in our contemporary life and literature and focuses on numerous recent cases of abuse of justice among individuals, groups and nations. Bell approaches justice as a concept that goes hand in hand with compassion, mercy, and trust. Rethinking Justice reminds us that we have an obligation to foster peace, be merciful, and promote reconciliation with our brothers and sisters in humanity.

Richard H. Bell analyzes the social and political thought of Simone Weil, paying particular attention to Weil's concept of justice as compassion. Bell describes the ways in which Weil's concept of justice stands in contrast with liberal 'rights-based' views of justice, and focuses upon central aspects of Weil's thought, including 'attention, ' human suffering and 'affliction, ' and the importance of 'a spiritual way of life' in reshaping the individual's role in civic life. Simone Weil: The Way of Justice as Compassion is a valuable addition to the scholarship on this important thinker and a necessary book for students and scholars of political theory and philosophical moral thought.