In the course of an academic career spanning five decades, Professor Roy Arthur Swanson established himself as an internationally recognized scholar and outstanding teacher in Classics and literary studies. He is the author of five books and the co-author of three books, and has been active as an editor and contributor of articles and reviews to scholarly publications.
Twelve former students, colleagues, and friends have contributed papers in honor of Professor Swanson s seventy-fifth birthday. These papers all touch on subjects close to his heart, ranging from Greek, Roman, Italian,...

In The False Promises of Constructivist Theories of Learning: A Global and Ecological Critique, C. A. Bowers examines why constructivist-based educational reforms fail to take into account these current critical issues: the deepening ecological crisis, globalization, and undermining of the world s diverse cultural commons. Special attention is given to the ethnocentrism and Social Darwinism that created the foundations for the ideas of Dewey, Piaget, and Freire. Also considered is how the neo-liberal promoters of economic globalization share their taken-for-granted assumptions....

Compiled on the occasion of Evelyn Waugh s centenary in 2003, this collection of essays shows a renewed critical interest in the author extended by scholars from both sides of the Atlantic. The contributions go back to an international symposium held at La Rioja University, 15-17 May 2003. Apart from traditional debate over questions of fact and interpretation, the book contains innovative approaches to Waugh s uvre, some of which make use of theories of discourse and media studies and denote an increasingly sophisticated awareness of his religious, political, and social...

How does what happened 2000 years ago in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ radically alter the human nature and life situation of men and women in every generation up to the present day? Pursuit of this question provided the initial impetus for this book, a study of two vital themes pertaining to the doctrine of atonement representation and substitution. The author explores their meaning and role within the theologies of three significantly diverse contemporary theologians Dorothee Solle, John Macquarrie, and Karl Barth concluding with a comparative analysis of all...

The Mandate of the Church in the Apocalypse of John fills a gap in the scholarly literature on the Apocalypse of John by offering a comprehensive discussion of what the Church is called upon to be and do. It delineates various tasks and functions of the Church, showing how they relate to one another and also how they are all unified under the mandate to provide faithful witness to Jesus. With its strong emphasis on the ethical concerns of the Apocalypse, this book challenges the view that John s Apocalypse is sub-Christian in its ethics."

From Perfectibility to Perversion: Meliorism in Eighteenth-Century France traces the evolution of human perfectibility discourse during the second half of the eighteenth century and the early post-Revolutionary era in France. Examining key articulations of Enlightenment meliorism as it shifts between open-ended models of human perfectibility and -fixist- conceptions of the human body, this book will appeal to a range of specialists because it draws on a variety of primary sources, from Buffon and Rousseau to important medical theorists of the pre- and post-Revolutionary period, and...

This book offers a thought-provoking analysis of the controversial Camp David II peace negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis in July 2000 and the ensuing political events. The author s understanding of Middle Eastern politics is fresh and unconventional. Oded Balaban argues that the true political positions in the conflict do not coincide with traditional divisions between left and right, East and West, Israeli and Palestinian. Although his insights are surprising his reasoning is always rigorous and logical. This book is recommended to all those interested in new approaches...

Questioning Keats: An Introduction to Applied Hermeneutics proposes a new way of approaching textual analysis. Basing its ideas of language and meaning on the work of Heidegger, Gadamer, and Ricoeur, it analyzes essays on -Ode to a Nightingale- by Earl Wasserman and Cynthia Chase to show how the meaning of the textual words ostensibly being analyzed has merely been assumed thus missing the richness of their meaning. This book will be useful in courses on critical theory, practical criticism, and Romantic poetry."

The publication of James Baldwin s Go Tell It on the Mountain ushered in a new age of the urban telling of a tale twice told yet rarely expressed in such vivid portraits. Go Tell It unveils the struggle of man with his God and that of man with himself. Baldwin s intense scrutiny of the spiritual and communal customs that serve as moral centers of the black community directs attention to the striking incongruities of religious fundamentalism and oppression. This book examines these multiple impulses, challenging the widely held convention that politics and religion do not mix."