Armies of Heaven

Armies of Heaven PDF Author: Jay Rubenstein
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465027482
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
At Moson, the river Danube ran red with blood. At Antioch, the Crusaders -- their saddles freshly decorated with sawed-off heads -- indiscriminately clogged the streets with the bodies of eastern Christians and Turks. At Ma'arra, they cooked children on spits and ate them. By the time the Crusaders reached Jerusalem, their quest -- and their violence -- had become distinctly otherworldly: blood literally ran shin-deep through the streets as the Crusaders overran the sacred city. Beginning in 1095 and culminating four bloody years later, the First Crusade represented a new kind of warfare: holy, unrestrained, and apocalyptic. In Armies of Heaven, medieval historian Jay Rubenstein tells the story of this cataclysmic event through the eyes of those who witnessed it, emphasizing the fundamental role that apocalyptic thought played in motivating the Crusaders. A thrilling work of military and religious history, Armies of Heaven will revolutionize our understanding of the Crusades.

Armies of Heaven

Armies of Heaven PDF Author: Jay Rubenstein
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0465027482
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
At Moson, the river Danube ran red with blood. At Antioch, the Crusaders -- their saddles freshly decorated with sawed-off heads -- indiscriminately clogged the streets with the bodies of eastern Christians and Turks. At Ma'arra, they cooked children on spits and ate them. By the time the Crusaders reached Jerusalem, their quest -- and their violence -- had become distinctly otherworldly: blood literally ran shin-deep through the streets as the Crusaders overran the sacred city. Beginning in 1095 and culminating four bloody years later, the First Crusade represented a new kind of warfare: holy, unrestrained, and apocalyptic. In Armies of Heaven, medieval historian Jay Rubenstein tells the story of this cataclysmic event through the eyes of those who witnessed it, emphasizing the fundamental role that apocalyptic thought played in motivating the Crusaders. A thrilling work of military and religious history, Armies of Heaven will revolutionize our understanding of the Crusades.

Revealing Heaven

Revealing Heaven PDF Author: Kat Kerr
Publisher: Xulon Press
ISBN: 1602665168
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 150

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Book Description
"Caught up by the Spirit of God, taken on tours of Heaven and now commissioned to reveal the truth and give hope for eternity."--page 4 of cover.

Halfway to Heaven

Halfway to Heaven PDF Author: Mark Obmascik
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1416567267
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Fat, forty-four, father of three sons, and facing a vasectomy, Mark Obmascik would never have guessed that his next move would be up a 14,000-foot mountain. But when his twelve-year-old son gets bitten by the climbing bug at summer camp, Obmascik can't resist the opportunity for some high-altitude father-son bonding by hiking a peak together. After their first joint climb, addled by the thin air, Obmascik decides to keep his head in the clouds and try scaling all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot mountains, known as the Fourteeners -- and to do them in less than one year. The result is Halfway to Heaven, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Obmascik's rollicking, witty, sometimes harrowing, often poignant chronicle of an outrageous midlife adventure that is no walk in the park, although sometimes it's A Walk in the Woods -- but with more sweat and less oxygen. Half a million people try climbing a Colorado Fourteener every year, but only twelve hundred have reported summiting them all. Can an overweight, stay-at-home dad become No. 1,201? With his ebullient personality and sparkling prose, Obmascik brings us inside the quirky, colorful subculture of mountaineering obsessives who summit these mountains year after year. Honoring his concerned wife's orders not to climb alone, Obmascik drags old friends up the slopes, some of them lifelong flatlanders tasting thin air for the first time, and lures seasoned Rockies junkies into taking on a huffing, puffing newbie by bribing them with free beer, lunches, and car washes. Among the new friends he makes are an ex-drag racer trying to perform a headstand on every summit, the lead oboe player in a Hebrew salsa band, and a climber with the counterproductive pre-climb ritual of gulping down four beers and a burrito. Along the way, Obmascik experiences the raw, rowdy, and rarely seen intimacy of male friendship, braced by the double intoxicants of adrenaline and altitude. Though danger is always present -- the Colorado Fourteeners have killed more climbers than Mount Everest -- Mark knows his aging scalp can't afford the hair-raising adventures of Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, and his quest becomes a story of family, friendship, and fraternity. In Obmascik's summer of climbing, he loses fifteen pounds, finds a few dozen man-dates, and gains respect for the history of these storied mountains (home to cannibalism, gold rushes, shoot-outs, and one of the nation's most famed religious shrines). As much about midlife and male bonding as it is about mountains, Halfway to Heaven tells how weekend warriors can survive them all as they reach for those most distant things -- the summits of mountains and a teenage son. And as one man exceeds the physical achievements of his youth, he discovers that age -- like summit height -- is just a number.

Heaven's Mirror

Heaven's Mirror PDF Author: Graham Hancock
Publisher: Michael Joseph
ISBN: 9780718143701
Category : Astronomy, Ancient
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description


The Number of the Heavens

The Number of the Heavens PDF Author: Tom Siegfried
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 067497588X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
The award-winning former editor of Science News shows that one of the most fascinating and controversial ideas in contemporary cosmology—the existence of multiple parallel universes—has a long and divisive history that continues to this day. We often consider the universe to encompass everything that exists, but some scientists have come to believe that the vast, expanding universe we inhabit may be just one of many. The totality of those parallel universes, still for some the stuff of science fiction, has come to be known as the multiverse. The concept of the multiverse, exotic as it may be, isn’t actually new. In The Number of the Heavens, veteran science journalist Tom Siegfried traces the history of this controversial idea from antiquity to the present. Ancient Greek philosophers first raised the possibility of multiple universes, but Aristotle insisted on one and only one cosmos. Then in 1277 the bishop of Paris declared it heresy to teach that God could not create as many universes as he pleased, unleashing fervent philosophical debate about whether there might exist a “plurality of worlds.” As the Middle Ages gave way to the Renaissance, the philosophical debates became more scientific. René Descartes declared “the number of the heavens” to be indefinitely large, and as notions of the known universe expanded from our solar system to our galaxy, the debate about its multiplicity was repeatedly recast. In the 1980s, new theories about the big bang reignited interest in the multiverse. Today the controversy continues, as cosmologists and physicists explore the possibility of many big bangs, extra dimensions of space, and a set of branching, parallel universes. This engrossing story offers deep lessons about the nature of science and the quest to understand the universe.

Heaven's Gate

Heaven's Gate PDF Author: Benjamin E. Zeller
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1479881066
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
In March 1997, thirty-nine people in Rancho Santa Fe, California, ritually terminated their lives. To outsiders, it was a mass suicide. To insiders, it was a graduation. The author explores the question of why the members of Heaven's Gate committed ritual suicides, and examines the origin and evolution of the religion, its appeal, and practices.

Shamanic Quest for the Spirit of Salvia

Shamanic Quest for the Spirit of Salvia PDF Author: Ross Heaven
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620551489
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
The first practical guide to the transformative uses of salvia • Explains how salvia connects you with your higher purpose and aids you in envisioning your unique path in life • Describes appropriate methods of use, a shamanic diet to increase effectiveness, and the meaning of the symbols experienced during salvia’s ecstatic embrace • Explores recent clinical research into salvia’s long-term positive psychological effects and its potential as a treatment for Alzheimer’s, depression, and addiction Salvia divinorum has been used since ancient times by the Mazatec shamans of Mexico for divination, vision quests, and healing. Known by many names--nearly all associated with the Virgin Mary, who has come to symbolize the spirit of salvia--this plant ally is now regarded as the most powerful natural hallucinogen. Providing the first practical guide to the shamanic, spiritual, and therapeutic uses of salvia, Ross Heaven shares his in-depth quest to connect with the spirit of this plant teacher. He explores recent clinical research into its many long-term psychological effects, such as increased insight and self-confidence, improved mood and concentration, and feelings of calmness and connection with nature, as well as salvia’s potential for combating diseases like Alzheimer’s, depression, and even cocaine addiction. Reviewing the traditional Mazatec ceremonies surrounding salvia’s harvest and use, Heaven describes appropriate methods of consumption, typical dosages, and the shamanic diet he used to increase salvia’s effectiveness. Examining firsthand accounts of salvia journeys from around the world, he decodes the meaning of the symbolic images experienced during salvia’s ecstatic embrace and details the interplay between salvia and the lucid dreaming state. Comparing salvia to ayahuasca and the San Pedro cactus, Heaven explains that salvia’s greatest strength as a shamanic plant ally lies in its ability to connect you with your higher purpose and aid you in envisioning your unique path in life.

Heavens on Earth

Heavens on Earth PDF Author: Michael Shermer
Publisher: Henry Holt
ISBN: 1627798579
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
"In his most ambitious work yet, Shermer sets out to discover what drives humans' belief in life after death, focusing on recent scientific attempts to achieve immortality by radical life extentionists, extropians, transhumanists, cryonicists, and mind-uploaders, along with utopians who have attempted to create heaven on earth. For millennia, religions have concocted numerous manifestations of heaven and the afterlife, the place where souls go after the death of the physical body. Religious leaders have toiled to make sense of this place that a surprising 74% of Americans believe exists, but from which no one has ever returned to report what it is really like. Heavens on Earth concludes with an uplifting paean to purpose and progress and what we can do in the here-and-now, whether or not there is a hereafter" --

The First Crusade

The First Crusade PDF Author: Jay Carter Rubenstein
Publisher: Macmillan Higher Education
ISBN: 1319328245
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Focusing on the ways in which the First Crusade changed the direction of warfare, religion, and perhaps history itself, First Crusade helps you gain a deeper understanding of the crusading ethos by exploring this time in history through the theme of prophecy.

Catechetical Series

Catechetical Series PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description