Peter Atkins

As a food, milk has been revered and ignored, respected and feared. In the face of its 'material resistance', attempts were made to purify it of dirt and disease, and to standardize its fat content. This is a history of the struggle to bring milk under control, to manipulate its naturally variable composition and, as a result, to redraw the boundaries between nature and society. Peter Atkins follows two centuries of dynamic and intriguing food history, shedding light on the resistance of natural products to the ordering of science. After this look at the stuff in foodstuffs, it is impossible to see the modern diet in the same way again.

Memory is a major factor in the composition and practice of liturgy. Recent research into how the brain and memory function points the way to how liturgy can best meet the needs of worshippers. In Memory and Liturgy, Peter Atkins draws on the fruits of his research into the process of the brain and our memory and applies it to liturgical worship. His extensive experience in writing and using liturgy keeps this book rooted in reality. In its ten chapters the author applies the functioning of the brain and the memory to our remembrance of God in worship; God's memory of us through Baptism; our remembrance of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist; the corporate memory of the community created through worship; the healing of memories of sin and pain through forgiveness; three aids to help us worship; the process of continuity and change in liturgy; and the connection between memory, imagination and hope. The conclusion summarizes the main practical issues. This provides a check-list for those serving on Liturgical Commissions and those involved in the teaching of the practice of liturgy. This book is a positive contribution to the ongoing search for suitable liturgical worship and music for the 21st century.

Ascension Now examines the New Testament references to the ascension and exhaltation of Jesus and looks at the theological and liturgical implications. This includes not only the description of the "event" in the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles but also the departure scene that concludes the Gospel of Matthew and the references to Christ as King, as Intercessor, and as "exalted in glory" elsewhere in the New Testament. It also notes the implications for Christians who pray and preach and foreshadows some developments in worship and practical living in the light of the ascension experience.The doctrine of the ascension of Christ is important to theological debates and to the liturgical developments of the Christian Churches. Unless we connect the Christ of history with the Christ of worship, we will fail to hold together the two essential poles of the Christian faith. Christ must be both in time and beyond time. He must have been in history and been more than just a historical figure. He must be both fully human and fully God. Only then can Christ be the object of our faith and our worship. The ascension of Jesus can be seen as the journey of the humanity of Christ into the heart of the Divine God and of our journey in worship into the divine dimension of heaven. In Ascension Now, Bishop Atkins shows that in our worship we are never earthbound; we lift our hearts and minds up to where Christ is seated, symbolically reigning over the world. There he holds them tenderly in love as, through his redemptive power, we are transformed and renewed to fulfill the purposes of its Creator God.Chapters are "Introduction: The Importance of the Doctrine of the Ascension for Today's Church," "Prelude: New Ways of Seeing the Ascension," "The Biblical Evidence for the Doctrine of the Ascension," "The Theological Implications of the Doctrine of the Ascension," "The Liturgical Implications of the Doctrine of the Ascension," "The Implications of the Ascension for Our Personal Prayers," "The Implications of the Doctrine of the Ascension for Preaching," "The Implications of the Doctrine of the Ascension for Future Liturgical Practice," "Conclusion: Personal Implications of the Doctrine of the Ascension," and "Appendix: The Geography of the Ascension."

Who can deny the significance of food? It has a central role in our health and pleasure as well as in our economy, politics and culture. Food in Society provides a social science perspective on food systems and demonstrates the rich variety of disciplinary and theoretical contexts of food studies.While hunger and malnutrition remain a reality in many countries, for some food has become an experience rather than a sustenance. This book addresses the different worldwide understandings of food through thematic chapters and a wide range of material including: description of the political economy of the food chain, from production to the point of sale; analysis of global issues of supply and demand; critical debate of environmental and health aspects of food, including GM food, the role of habits, taboos, age and gender in food consumption.Each chapter contains a guide to further reading and to websites of relevance to food. Extensively illustrated, this book is essential reading for students of food studies in the social sciences and humanities.

This major new text provides an introduction to the interaction of culture and society with the landscape and environment. It offers a broad-based view of this theme by drawing upon the varied traditions of landscape interpretation, from the traditional cultural geography of scholars such as Carl Sauer to the 'new' cultural geography which has emerged in the 1990s. The book comprises three major, interwoven strands. First, fundamental factors such as environmental change and population pressure are addressed in order to sketch the contextual variables of landscapes production. Second, the evolution of the humanised landscape is discussed in terms of processes such as clearing wood, the impact of agriculture, the creation of urban-industrial complexes, and is also treated in historical periods such as the pre-industrial, the modern and the post-modern. From this we can see the cultural and economic signatures of human societies at different times and places. Finally, examples of landscape types are selected in order to illustrate the ways in which landscape both represents and participates in social change.The authors use a wide range of source material, ranging from place-names and pollen diagrams to literature and heritage monuments. Superbly illustrated throughout, it is essential reading for first-year undergraduates studying historical geography, human geography, cultural geography or landscape history.