In this her second book, Elizabeth Sharman-Smith, author of JesusChrist - A Never Ending Healing Love, presents us with a hundredChristian blessings. She champions the belief that the simpler the word the more powerful the message, and these blessings reflect this. AsRev Canon Paul Townsend says in his foreword, "I feel sure that Elizabeth'swork contained in these pages will support many as they search for clarity, truth and meaning, which we believe can only be found in Jesus Christ."Believing as Christians that we all have Christ's love first within our hearts, may that spark of love be inflamed by the power of the Holy Spirit through these verses.
An inspirational memoir of Elizabeth "Kuttu" Goh Sharman, from rural Malaya. Given away at birth by her biological parents, she is raised by a saintly aunt, Heok Ee. At birth, she was given the nickname "Kuttu", by her great aunt, the word meaning head lice. The relative explained the name would strengthen her to overcome her weak health and poor prospects. The effect seems to work perhaps leading Elizabeth to great success on a larger stage, however possibly at the cost of an inferiority complex that with the name sticks with her all her life. Initially a poor student, several "guardian angels" come along to encourage her to believe in herself, work hard and persevere. She eventually excels at business school and qualifies for a top job with a UN branch in Kuala Lumpur then in Geneva. In Geneva she marries a renowned international labor organizer, an Englishman. She starts a family and travels the world with her new husband before settling down in the US as her American dream comes true.
This is an inspirational memoir of a naturalized American citizen, Elizabeth "Kuttu" Goh Sharman, who grew up under difficult circumstances and poor possibilities in rural Malaya from the town of Bukit Mertajam. As described lovingly in the book, the famous town is where the St. Anne's Church exists, and an annual 10 day feast is held, drawing the faithful from all over Southeastern Asia. Given away at birth by her biological parents, she is raised by a beloved saintly aunt Heok Ee. She is given the nickname "Kuttu", by her great aunt, the name giver. The word is directly related etymologically to the English slang word "cooties", both words of which refer to forms of lice. The great-aunt explains the name will strengthen her to overcome her weak health and poor prospects. The effect of this lowliest of all possible names seems to work, possibly responsible at least in part for her success on a much larger stage than rural Malaysia, however maybe also at the cost of an inferiority complex that along with the name sticks, with her all her life. Although her early academic performance is poor, several "guardian angels" come along to encourage her to believe in herself, work hard and persevere. She finishes convent high school and then excels at business school, so much so, she qualifies for a top job with a UN branch in Kuala Lumpur the capital of her country. Even greater opportunities open up and she moves to working for the UN in Geneva. There she marries a renowned international labor organizer, an Englishman. She starts a family and travels the world with her new husband before settling down in the US, as her American dream comes true.
An urgent exploration of borders as sacred objects in American culture. Our national conversation about the border has taken a religious turn. When televangelists declare, “Heaven has a wall,” activists shout back, “Jesus was a refugee.” For Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, the standoff makes explicit a longstanding truth: borders are religious as well as political objects. In this book, Hurd argues that Americans share a bipartisan border religion, complete with an array of beliefs and practices, including a reverence for national security, a liturgy for immigration, and an eschatological foreign policy. Through an analysis of the many ways the United States creates, enforces, and ignores borders at home and abroad, Hurd offers a bold new perspective on the ties that bind American religion, politics, and public life.
An urgent exploration of borders as sacred objects in American culture. Our national conversation about the border has taken a religious turn. When televangelists declare, “Heaven has a wall,” activists shout back, “Jesus was a refugee.” For Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, the standoff makes explicit a longstanding truth: borders are religious as well as political objects. In this book, Hurd argues that Americans share a bipartisan border religion, complete with an array of beliefs and practices, including a reverence for national security, a liturgy for immigration, and an eschatological foreign policy. Through an analysis of the many ways the United States creates, enforces, and ignores borders at home and abroad, Hurd offers a bold new perspective on the ties that bind American religion, politics, and public life.
Conflicts involving religion have returned to the forefront of international relations. And yet political scientists and policymakers have continued to assume that religion has long been privatized in the West. This secularist assumption ignores the contestation surrounding the category of the "secular" in international politics. The Politics of Secularism in International Relations shows why this thinking is flawed, and provides a powerful alternative. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd argues that secularist divisions between religion and politics are not fixed, as commonly assumed, but socially and historically constructed. Examining the philosophical and historical legacy of the secularist traditions that shape European and American approaches to global politics, she shows why this matters for contemporary international relations, and in particular for two critical relationships: the United States and Iran, and the European Union and Turkey. The Politics of Secularism in International Relations develops a new approach to religion and international relations that challenges realist, liberal, and constructivist assumptions that religion has been excluded from politics in the West. The first book to consider secularism as a form of political authority in its own right, it describes two forms of secularism and their far-reaching global consequences.
In recent years, North American and European nations have sought to legally remake religion in other countries through an unprecedented array of international initiatives. Policymakers have rallied around the notion that the fostering of religious freedom, interfaith dialogue, religious tolerance, and protections for religious minorities are the keys to combating persecution and discrimination. Beyond Religious Freedom persuasively argues that these initiatives create the very social tensions and divisions they are meant to overcome. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd looks at three critical channels of state-sponsored intervention: international religious freedom advocacy, development assistance and nation building, and international law. She shows how these initiatives make religious difference a matter of law, resulting in a divide that favors forms of religion authorized by those in power and excludes other ways of being and belonging. In exploring the dizzying power dynamics and blurred boundaries that characterize relations between "expert religion," "governed religion," and "lived religion," Hurd charts new territory in the study of religion in global politics. A forceful and timely critique of the politics of promoting religious freedom, Beyond Religious Freedom provides new insights into today's most pressing dilemmas of power, difference, and governance.
This novel tells the comic antics, hapless adventures, and emotional and physical traumas of three women as they come to grips with aging. Although they come from the same southern family, their diverse circumstances and temperaments lead them down very different paths. Mavis Horton assumes the identity of a former invisible playmate, robs a jewelry story, evens the score with a man who has taken her for granted for decades, finds the mother she thought was dead, gets a concussion, and wakes up in the hospital a new woman. Sammie Jo Horton Wooten changes her name, empties the contents of her house into the yard, and runs away. When her husband finds her, she's not the same girl he married fifty years earlier. Elmira Horton papers her walls with jigsaw puzzles, breaks her leg, falls in love with an itinerant roofer, and gets her heart broken. As each woman is transformed and redeemed, she embraces a new season in her life-and new reasons for living.
The extensive collection of letters compiled in The Last Grand Tour chronicles the adventures of a Michigan family's trip to Italy in 1959-1960. Margaret and Gilbert Sherman, with their three children--Helen, Elizabeth (Whiz), and Tom--in tow, detailed their eight-month journey with engaging descriptions, wry observations, and riotous anecdotes in their correspondence with family members back in the States. This candid and witty travelogue highlights the family's visits to a number of Italian cities, including Venice, Rome, and Pisa, along with the everyday joys and trials of life at a rural villa outside Florence.The family sailed from New York City in late August 1959 on board the ocean liner Vulcania and, after stops at the ports of Lisbon, Palermo, Naples, and Venice, disembarked in Trieste. From there they drove to Florence, where they leased a villa, La Colombaia, for five months. While the family enjoyed their time there, country life had its drawbacks, and they found themselves more tied down with daily chores than they expected. With a desire to see more of Florence and free up their time, they moved back into the city for several weeks before going on a long road trip to visit Siena, Verona, Perugia, and other cities in Tuscany. The Shermans had planned originally on a one-year journey, traveling north through Europe and then crossing over to England. But the adventure wore thin on the kids, and their homesickness among other things led to a change in plans. By late April, the family arrived back in Trieste for a return voyage on the Vulcania.In the letters and postcards Peg and Gib not only mention places visited and sights seen, but also describe the hassles of dealing with the Italian police and assorted bureaucrats, the etiquette of driving Italian style, the challenges of homeschooling the two older girls, and the appreciation of art masterpieces as seen through the eyes of a five-year-old boy.The Last Grand Tour will take the reader on a rollicking trip with the Firenze Kids--and no passport is needed.
