Human nature - In Search of Wisdom

Life at the End of Us vs Them: Cross Culture Stories

Posted by Dr Terry Cooke-Davies | Sep 12, 2020 | Books |

Our present moment can no longer sustain a stable “us” defined against an alien “them.” So say René Girard and Ivan Illich, radical critics of both Christianity and culture. If they are right, this makes our time an endtime. The end of us against them can deteriorate into the chaos of each against each, or it can open outward into freely chosen communion. It is an expectant—and apocalyptic—time. How does one live in this strange, endtime world? As a wanderer in the odd, cross-culture country Girard and Illich have mapped, the author finds himself in a surprising new place in relation to those who are his other: women, queer folk, refugees, Muslims, atheists, and Indigenous people. In this collection of essays, he blinks, looks around, and makes some field notes.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Posted by Dr Terry Cooke-Davies | Sep 12, 2020 | Books |

Assume nothing, question everything.

This is the message at the heart of Freakonomics, Levitt and Dubner’s rule-breaking, iconoclastic book about crack dealers, cheating teachers and bizarre baby names that turned everyone’s view of the world upside-down and became an international multi-million-copy-selling phenomenon

Fooling Houdini

Posted by Dr Terry Cooke-Davies | Sep 12, 2020 | Books |

Alex Stone, part of the underground magic circuit, is determined to take his lifelong hobby to the professional level, to reach the pinnacle of this bizarre world and become a master magician.

Combining his passion for magic with his studies in Physics, Stone takes us on a journey through a strange and colourful subculture of brilliant characters – a blind card sharp, street-hustlers, Las Vegas showmen and world-leading scientists – as he seeks answers to the questions about the limits of perception and the psychology of deception and decision-making. By pulling back the curtain, Stone reveals the principles and history of some of the greatest tricks ever performed.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos

Posted by Dr Terry Cooke-Davies | Sep 12, 2020 | Books |

Acclaimed clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson has influenced the modern understanding of personality, and now he has become one of the world’s most popular public thinkers, with his lectures on topics from the Bible to romantic relationships to mythology drawing tens of millions of viewers. In an era of unprecedented change and polarizing politics, his frank and refreshing message about the value of individual responsibility and ancient wisdom has resonated around the world.

In the Beginning Were Stories not Texts

Posted by Dr Terry Cooke-Davies | Sep 7, 2020 | Books |

The Christian Bible is fundamentally a story. Writers, painters, sculptors, artists, and indeed, people of all walks of life live by the telling of their stories. Stories are the most basic mode of human communication. Thus it is vital to ask why Christians and above all Christian theologians so often fail to express their faith in terms of story. The vast majority of the Hebrew Scriptures, for example, consist of stories. Jesus proclaimed and taught about the Reign of God through stories and parables. At the heart of the Christian faith are stories, not concepts, propositions, or ideas.

Issue: Human nature

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Fooling Houdini

In the Beginning Were Stories not Texts

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