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Trees were central to Henry David Thoreau's creativity as a writer,
his work as a naturalist, his thought, and his inner life. His
portraits of them were so perfect, it was as if he could see the
sap flowing beneath their bark. When Thoreau wrote that the poet
loves the pine tree as his own shadow in the air, he was speaking
about himself. In short, he spoke their language. In this original
book, Richard Higgins explores Thoreau's deep connections to trees:
his keen perception of them, the joy they gave him, the poetry he
saw in them, his philosophical view of them, and how they fed his
soul. His lively essays show that trees were a thread connecting
all parts of Thoreau's being-heart, mind, and spirit. Included are
one hundred excerpts from Thoreau's writings about trees, paired
with over sixty of the author's photographs. Thoreau's words are as
vivid now as they were in 1890, when an English naturalist wrote
that he was unusually able to "to preserve the flashing forest
colors in unfading light." Thoreau and the Language of Trees shows
that Thoreau, with uncanny foresight, believed trees were essential
to the preservation of the world.
This monograph examines the impact of modernism on contemporary
security strategy development for religious, non-violent threats in
the context of the Information Age. The monograph focuses on the
challenge of strategy formulation resulting from modernism's
interface with the threat from the Islamic Movement, the emergence
of the digital terrain, and the US Department of Defense's (DOD)
organizational culture. The thesis is presented in a deductive
manner and argues that modernism has created a strategic security
seam that is being exploited by the Islamic Movement to create and
perpetuate a strategic pseudo-reality. Based on Islamic functional
doctrines of deception, the pseudo-reality is amplified by the
digital environment and the DOD's organizational culture. The
thesis leads the reader to conclude that a new category of strategy
must be created to free the US from this pseudo-reality and to
compensate for the modernist shortfalls afflicting security
strategy formulation.
Whether simply uneasy or downright hostile, the relation between
religion and liberal democracy in this country has long been vexed
and complex--and crucial to what America is and aspires to be. Amid
increasingly contentious exchanges over fundamentalism, abortion
rights, secularism, and pluralism, this book reminds us of the
critical role that religion plays in the health and well-being of a
democracy.
A healthy democracy draws strength from a rich civic and social
life, many forms of which are religious. Moreover, these
contributions are anchored in the intrinsic commitments of faith,
commitments that extend over time, linking generations past and
present. Strengthening these commitments and practices, the authors
suggest, will also fortify pluralistic civil society and democratic
participation. Their book provides the analytical tools and
historical perspective for building and reinforcing such a
constructive engagement between religion and liberal democracy--and
for understanding the ongoing dialogue between secular political
philosophy and communities of faith.
"Taking Faith Seriously" offers nine case studies that describe
the multiple and subtle roles that religion plays on many levels in
our civic life: increasing moral and social "capital," inspiring
citizens to serve their neighbors, building relationships across
barriers of race and income, and providing a moral vision of what
kind of society we are called to be.
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