"Long before the European Renaissance, while the western world was languishing in what was once called the 'Dark Ages', the Arab world was ablaze with the creativity of its Golden Age. This is the story of how Islamic science, which began in eighth-century Baghdad, enhanced the knowledge acquired from Greece, Mesopotamia, India and China. Through the astrologers, physicians, philosophers, mathematicians and alchemists of the Muslim world, this knowledge influenced western thinkers from Thomas Aquinas and Copernicus and helped inspire the Renaissance and give birth to modern science."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

This extraordinary collection of full-page, full-color icons introduces readers, art appreciators, and historians to the spiritual riches of the Byzantine liturgical tradition. Father Michael Evdokimov, a Russian Orthodox priest living in Paris, has presented an icon for each of the twelve great feasts of the Orthodox Christian liturgical year, as well as for other special moments of prayer. Preceding each icon is a brief commentary explaining its meaning and significance. Furthermore, facing each icon are prayers appropriate for meditation that have been translated by the Monks of New Skete Monastery in upstate New York. In a simple and accessible manner, translator Robert Smith has brought text, prayers, and icons together to show how the beliefs and practices common to Orthodox people everywhere in the world can be appreciated by all. Book jacket.

This is a collection of writings about the spiritual meeting of East and West in the modern world including articles by the Dalai Lama, Huston Smith, Frithjof Schuon, Thomas Merton, Titus Burckhardt, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Diana Eck, Gary Snyder and Aldous Huxley. Highlighting aspects of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism that have proved most attractive to Western seekers, it explores the similarities and differences between Eastern and Western traditions while emphasizing respect amongst the adherents of different faiths.

Drawing on a millennia of calligraphy theory and history, Brushed in Light examines how the brushed word appears in films and in film cultures of Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and PRC cinemas. This includes silent era intertitles, subtitles, title frames, letters, graffiti, end titles, and props. Markus Nornes also looks at the role of calligraphy in film culture at large, from gifts to correspondence to advertising. The book begins with a historical dimension, tracking how calligraphy is initially used in early cinema and how it is continually rearticulated by transforming conventions and the integration of new technologies. These chapters ask how calligraphy creates new meaning in cinema and demonstrate how calligraphy, cinematography, and acting work together in a single film. The last part of the book moves to other regions of theory. Nornes explores the cinematization of the handwritten word and explores how calligraphers understand their own work.