Books by SCU Authors 2013

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Beauty and the Bible: Toward a Hermeneutics of Biblical Aesthetics

Richard J. Bautch and Jean-François Racine

These seven essays offer fresh perspectives on beauty s role in revelation. Each essay features a hermeneutical approach informed by the contemporary study of aesthetics. Covering a series of texts in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, from Adam and Eve in the garden to Jesus on trial in the Fourth Gospel, the authors engage beauty from three overarching perspectives: modern philosophy, contextual criticism, and the postcritical return to beauty s primary qualities. The three perspectives are not harmonized but rather explored concurrently to create a volume with intriguing methodological tensions. As this collection highlights beauty in the narratives of scripture, it opens readers to a largely unexplored dimension of the Bible.
Political Islam in the Age of Democratization

Kamran Bokhari and Farid Senzai

The continued prominence of Islam in the struggle for democracy in the Muslim world has confounded Western democracy theorists who largely consider secularism a prerequisite for democratic transitions. Kamran Bokhari and Farid Senzai offer a comprehensive view of the complex nature of contemporary political Islam and its relationship to democracy.
Robert McAfee Brown: Spiritual & Prophetic Writings

Robert McAfee Brown and Paul Crowley SJ

Robert McAfee Brown (1920-2001), an American Presbyterian, was a master theologian, a spiritual guide, and an engaged activist, whose long career reflected many of the critical movements and concerns of the twentieth century. As an official Protestant observer at Vatican II, he was an influential figure in the ecumenical movement. But his concerns ranged widely over the intersection between faith and the issues of his time: the Holocaust and Jewish-Christian relations; the Civil Rights movement and race relations; the emergence of Latin American liberation theology; the Vietnam War and the struggle for peace in Central America; and the changing shape of Protestant theology. Overall, his work represented a prophetic style of public theology, in which faith and practice, prayer and action, words and deeds, and religion and politics came full circle.
Ways to the Center: An Introduction to World Religions (7th Edition)

Denise L. Carmody and T. L. Brink

Striving to be the most student-friendly textbook in this field, WAYS TO THE CENTER: AN INTRODUCTION TO WORLD RELIGIONS, Seventh Edition, weaves together rich historical, cultural, and theological detail into structural and philosophical sections that analyze each of the world’s major religions in terms of its views on nature, society, self, and ultimate reality. The readily accessible text is designed for today’s students and places a premium on the development of critical thinking. Combining both historical and systematic analyses, the book takes as its focus the theme of personal centeredness--a primary goal of each featured religion.
Rural Community Libraries in Africa: Challenges and Impacts

Valeda F. Dent, Geoff Goodman, and Michael J. Kevane

Around the word, in developed as well as developing countries, libraries play an important role in the dissemination of knowledge. The availability of information resources can often mean the difference between poverty and prosperity, particularly in underdeveloped African communities.

Rural Community Libraries in Africa: Challenges and Impacts investigates the relationship between local libraries and community development. From the historical roots of rural libraries to their influence on the literacy, economy, and culture of the surrounding region, this book will present academics, researchers, and, most importantly, librarians with crucial insight into the tangible benefits of rural community libraries and the obstacles they must overcome.
Rights and Revolution: The Rise and Fall of Nicaragua’s Sandinista Movement

Stephen F. Diamond

The victory of the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua in 1979 opened up a major new battleground in the Cold War between east and west. That larger conflict caused many to ignore or misjudge the domestic battle for democratic rights carried out by ordinary Nicaraguans, first against the Somoza dictatorship, and then against the Frente Sandinista, which led the Revolution. In Rights and Revolution: The Rise and Fall of Nicaragua's Sandinista Movement, political scientist and legal scholar Stephen F. Diamond examines the conflict inside Nicaragua from a viewpoint that is critical of the FSLN, which was allied closely with Cuba and the Soviet Union, and of the United States, which formed a proxy army to overthrow the FSLN regime. Such an independent viewpoint yields important and original insights into the complex relationship between authoritarianism and democracy in the developing world.
Think Critically, (2nd Edition)

Peter Facione and Carol Ann Gittens

THINK Critically is a cutting-edge, self-reflective guide for improving critical thinking skills through careful analysis, reasoned inference, and thoughtful evaluation of contemporary culture and ideas.

An engaging visual design developed with extensive student feedback and 15-page chapters makes THINK Critically the textbook your students will actually read. It delivers the core concepts of critical thinking in a way they can easily understand. Additionally, engaging examples and masterful exercises help students learn to clarify ideas, analyze arguments, and evaluate reasoning.
Reflections on Renaissance Venice: A Celebration of Patricia Fortini Brown.

Mary E. Frank and Blake de Maria

Inspired by the teachings and research of Patricia Fortini Brown, a renowned scholar of Venetian art and history, these beautifully illustrated essays by leading scholars address topics ranging from painted Venetian narrative cycles of the late 15th century to the rebuilding of the Campanile in the early 20th century. This book was derived from papers given at the Giorgione Symposium held at Princeton University on the occasion of Fortini Brown’s recent retirement. The superb study offers new reflections on artists as diverse as Andrea Mantegna, the Bellini family, Giorgione, Pietro Lombardo, Paolo Veronese, Andrea Palladio, and Giovanni Battista Piranesi.
Programming with Java: A Multimedia Approach

Radhika S. Grover

Suitable for readers with little or no programming experience, this comprehensive introduction to programming with Java provides readers with an easy-to-understand, in-depth treatment of Java.Programming with Java: A Multimedia Approach uses multimedia-based programs as a means of instruction. With this book, the reader will learn Java using programs that draw graphics and images, perform animation, read and play audio files, display video, and more.

Unlike the conventional approach of using a console output in programs, this book utilizes a multimedia approach right from the start, creating examples that are imaginative and interesting. The author carefully explains both basic and advanced concepts by providing simple frameworks that the reader can use to write programs. With a focus on hands-on learning, a large project is developed incrementally in relevant chapters to help explain new concepts as well as demonstrate how these concepts relate to material previously discussed.

Programming with Java: A Multimedia Approach covers topics such as Java 2D classes, user-defined classes, inheritance, interfaces, exception handling, GUI programming, generics and collections, multithreaded programming, and more.
Days of Revolution: Political Unrest in an Iranian Village

Mary Elaine Hegland

Outside of Shiraz in the Fars Province of southwestern Iran lies "Aliabad." Mary Hegland arrived in this then-small agricultural village of several thousand people in the summer of 1978, unaware of the momentous changes that would sweep this town and this country in the months ahead. She became the only American researcher to witness the Islamic Revolution firsthand over her eighteen-month stay. Days of Revolution offers an insider's view of how regular people were drawn into, experienced, and influenced the 1979 Revolution and its aftermath. Conventional wisdom assumes Shi'a religious ideology fueled the revolutionary movement. But Hegland counters that the Revolution spread through much more pragmatic concerns: growing inequality, lack of development and employment opportunities, government corruption. Local expectations of leaders and the political process―expectations developed from their experience with traditional kinship-based factions―guided local villagers' attitudes and decision-making, and they often adopted the religious justifications for Revolution only after joining the uprising. Sharing stories of conflict and revolution alongside in-depth interviews, the book sheds new light on this critical historical moment. Returning to Aliabad decades later, Days of Revolution closes with a view of the village and revolution thirty years on. Over the course of several visits between 2003 and 2008, Mary Hegland investigates the lasting effects of the Revolution on the local political factions and in individual lives. As Iran remains front-page news, this intimate look at the country's recent history and its people has never been more timely or critical for understanding the critical interplay of local and global politics in Iran.
Great Monologues in Dialect for Young Actors (Ages 17 - 25) Volume II

Kimberly Mohne Hill

The monologues in volume two are taken from the five major dialect regionalisms to be studied: British, Irish, Latina/o, African Continent, and American South. While the plays represented in the selections can use the dialects of the regions in question, it is also possible that no dialect is required by the author. The monologue selections are meant to serve as an in-depth study into the literature, environment, culture, and language of a region.
Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media

Mizuko Ito, Sonja Baumer, Matteo Bittanti, Danah Boyd, Rachel Cody, Becky Herr-Stephenson, Heather A. Horst, Patricia G. Lange, Dilan Mahendran, Katynka Z. Martínez, C.J. Pascoe, Dan Perkel, Laura Robinson, Christo Sims, and Lisa Tripp

An examination of young people's everyday new media practices -- including video-game playing, text-messaging, digital media production, and social media use.

Conventional wisdom about young people's use of digital technology often equates generational identity with technology identity: today's teens seem constantly plugged in to video games, social networking sites, and text messaging. Yet there is little actual research that investigates the intricate dynamics of youths' social and recreational use of digital media. Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out fills this gap, reporting on an ambitious three-year ethnographic investigation into how young people are living and learning with new media in varied settings -- at home, in after-school programs, and in online spaces.

Integrating twenty-three case studies -- which include Harry Potter podcasting, video-game playing, music sharing, and online romantic breakups -- in a unique collaborative authorship style, Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out is distinctive for its combination of in-depth description of specific group dynamics with conceptual analysis.
A Theological Account of Nat Turner: Christianity, Violence, and Theology

Karl W. Lampley

In this unique volume, Lampley analyzes the theology of Nat Turner's violent slave rebellion in juxtaposition with Old Testament views of prophetic violence and Jesus' politics of violence in the New Testament and in consideration of the history of Christian violence and the violence embedded in traditional Christian theology.
Evolving Roles of Sovereign Wealth Managers After the Financial Crisis: Past Present and Future

Bernard Lee

Consider these phenomena: savers at surplus countries are often “penalized” by astronomical consumer prices, while spenders at debtor countries enjoy bargain basement prices; Silicon Valley continues to be the global leader in R&D and innovation despite chaos in public finance; and Surplus countries worry about holding potentially worthless IOUs issued by elected debtor governments.

In this book, Professor Lee has tried to better understand sovereign wealth management in the context of saver and debtor countries, by presenting a unified model that can explain these observed phenomena. His attempt is a clear departure from traditional theories, in which these observations would be considered aberrations from “standard assumptions”. Although no model is perfect, this new framework can be useful to explain why, for example, it will be bad economic news for all if saver countries use their public surpluses to hoard food and fuel.
Learning Curve: A Novel of Silicon Valley

Michael S. Malone

Get an inside view of the breathless, winner-take-all world of high technology — Silicon Valley style — in this fast-paced corporate thriller.

Veteran businessman Dan Crowen is finally handed the reins of a large, successful tech firm, Validator Software — only to be ordered by its eccentric owner, Cosmo Validator, to take a step that could destroy the company.

Young entrepreneur Alison Prue is at the helm of Validator’s upstart rival, eTernity. When the venture capitalists funding eTernity decide it’s time to take the hot young startup public and go head-to-head against Validator, both Alison and Dan are caught up in a global tsunami of high-tech conspiracies.

Nothing’s as it seems in this high-stakes game of cat and mouse that will keep you guessing the whole way through.
The American Legal System and Civic Engagement.

Kenneth A. Manaster

In recent years there has been a widely-recognized and serious lack of rational and civil public discussion about current issues. In The American Legal System and Civic Engagement, Manaster asserts that ordinary citizens can form their opinions on public issues more intelligently, confidently, and responsibly if they have some guidance on how to do it. Drawing from the tools and traditions of the American legal system, he offers guidance to aid citizens in understanding public issues and participating in the type of responsible public debate these challenging issues deserve. From analyzing the influence of the media in informing the public, to examining the role of the citizen as a juror, The American Legal System and Civic Engagement is a practical and informative guide to how Americans can better perform the civic duty that modern democracy requires.
Innovationspotenzialanalyse für die neuen Technologien für das Verwalten und Analysieren von großen Datenmengen (Big Data Management)

Volker Markl, Alexander Löser, Thomas Hoeren, Helmut Krcmar, Holmer Hemsen, Michael Schermann, Matthias Gottlieb, Christoph Buchmüller, Philip Uecker, and Till Bitter

Durch die Digitalisierung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft ist ein rasantes Anwachsen von Datenbeständen zu beobachten. In fast allen Unternehmenssowie Wissenschaftsbereichen werden bereits heute schon Unmengen an Daten erzeugt, deren Größe, Erfassungsgeschwindigkeit oder Heterogenität die Fähigkeiten gängiger Datenbanksoftwareprodukte zur Verwaltung und zur Analyse übersteigt. Dieses Phänomen, welches unter dem Schlagwort „Big Data“ popularisiert wurde, stellt eine große Chance für Unternehmen, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft dar. Allerdings ergibt sich aufgrund der neuen Komplexität der Daten und Analysen eine Vielzahl an Herausforderungen technischer, wirtschaftlicher und rechtlicher Natur. Diese Studie analysiert die Chancen und Herausforderungen von Big Data insbesondere im Hinblick auf eine nachhaltige Wettbewerbsfä- higkeit Deutschlands.
Discrete Probability: Lecture Slide Notes (2nd Edition)

Ralph E. Morganstern

These Lecture Slide Notes have been used for a two-quarter graduate level sequence in probability covering discrete and continuous probability in two separate volumes. Although reasonably self-contained, they do not constitute a formal exposition on the subject; rather the intent is to provide a concise and accessible format for reference and self-study. In this regard, each slide stands alone to encapsulate a complete concept, algorithm, or theorem, using a combination of equations, graphs, diagrams, and comparison tables. The explanatory notes are placed directly below each slide in order to reinforce key concepts and give additional insights. A Table of Contents serves to organize the slides by topic and gives a complete list of slide titles and their page numbers. An index is also provided in order to link related aspects of topics and also to cross-reference key concepts, specific applications, and the abundant visual aids.

This book constitutes the first volume on discrete probability; a second volume will cover continuous probability. Part 1 covers counting with and without replacement, axiomatic probability models, computation techniques, conditional, joint, marginal, and Bayesian update probabilities. The concept of a random variable (RV) is fully characterized by a discrete probability mass function (PMF) and a quasi-continuous cumulative distribution function (CDF). A numerical characterization of a RV is given by the mean, variance, and expectation value. Pairs of RVs give way to new concepts such as independence, covariance, and the effects of linear and bi-linear transformations. Common discrete probability mass functions (PMFs) are discussed in terms of related pairs, tree diagrams, and algebraic representations.
Strangled Cry: The Communication and Experience of Trauma

Aparajita Nanda and Peter Bray

The chapters in this collection seek to set up meaningful dialogue between scholars in the field of trauma studies. The goal is to create conversations that add to a critical appraisal of the primary theme. Communication being crucial in this context, the intention of this compilation is to reflect in its chapter divisions an exchange of ideas about a crucial topic in human history. By history is meant not only knowledge dealing with past events related to the human race but also history as 'his-story' - the personal narrative of a particular person.Hence the fifteen chapters, divided into three sections, move from the individual response, which often seeks a collective voice, to a search for resolution of trauma.
Museum of Seraphs in Torment: An Egyptological Fantasy Thriller

David Pinault

Francis Valerian Hammond: the most gifted young Egyptologist of his generation—or a crackpot so unstable that he merits his current residence in the locked ward of a psychiatric facility? Scrawled writings from his cell hint at a lost treasure known as King Solomon’s Wand—an artifact that Hammond claims somehow links the Egyptian prince Khaemwaset, son of pharaoh Ramses the Great, with otherworldly visitors called the Seraphs. Despised and isolated, Hammond finds his claims laughed off by all his onetime academic colleagues—all except his old friend Ricky Atlas, a grad-school dropout and Egyptological ne’er-do-well now making an odd-job living as a tomb-robber and thief-for-hire serving the pleasure of private collectors. When an entity calling itself the Corporation hires Ricky to unearth Solomon’s Wand, he finds himself on a hazard-filled quest that propels him from Cairo’s Egyptian Museum to a mountaintop cave in the highlands of Yemen, and from there to Chicago’s Oriental Institute and the deserts of the American Southwest. There he meets Annie Martinez, a free-lance antiquities-hunter who joins Ricky in the attempt to free Francis Hammond, vindicate his claims, and keep one step ahead of the Corporation—while also seeking to learn how Solomon’s Wand may unlock the ancient secret of the Seraphs.
Abnormal Psychology across the Ages

Thomas G. Plante PhD, ABPP

In these three volumes, a team of scholars provides a thoughtful history of abnormal psychology, demonstrating how concepts regarding disordered mental states, their causes, and their treatments developed and evolved across the ages.

Compiling current thought from some of the best minds in the field, Abnormal Psychology across the Ages provides essays that reflect on multiple dimensions of abnormal behavior. These experts present biological, psychological, social, cultural, and supernatural perspectives throughout human history on a range of disorders, as well as the global influences on scientific thinking. A fascinating read for anyone in the field of abnormal psychology, from undergraduate students to clinicians, counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists, this three-volume work addresses questions such as: What is "abnormal" psychology and thinking? What are the causes, how have we treated it, and how do we treat it now? And how does the culture of the times affect what we perceive as "abnormality"?
The Evolving God: Charles Darwin on the Naturalness of Religion

J. David Pleins

In focusing on the story of Darwin's religious doubts, scholars too often overlook Darwin's positive contribution to the study of religion. J. David Pleins traces Darwin's journey in five steps. He begins with Darwin's global voyage, where his encounter with religious and cultural diversity transformed his understanding of religion. Surprisingly, Darwin wrestles with serious theological questions even as he uncovers the evolutionary layers of religion from savage roots. Next, we follow Darwin as his doubts about traditional biblical religion take root, affecting his career choice and marriage to Emma Wedgwood. Pleins then examines Darwin's secret notebooks as he searches for a materialist theory of religion. Again, other surprises loom as Darwin's reading of Comte's three stages of religion's development actually predate his reading of Malthus. Pleins explores how Darwin applied his discovery to the realm of ethics by formulating an evolutionary view of the "Golden Rule" in his Descent of Man. Finally, he considers Darwin's later reflections on the religion question, as he wrestled with whether his views led to atheism, agnosticism, or a new kind of theism. The Evolving God concludes by looking at some of the current religious debates surrounding Darwin and suggests the need for a deeper appreciation for Darwin as a religious thinker. Though he grew skeptical of traditional Christian dogma, Darwin made key discoveries concerning the role and function of religion as a natural evolutionary phenomenon.
The Student Leadership Challenge: Five Practices for Becoming an Exemplary Leader (2nd Ed.)

Barry Z. Posner and James M. Kouzes

This edition includes an access code so students can take the Student Leadership Practices Inventory Self Online, a brief, 30-question assessment to help them explore their own leadership behaviors and skills and determine the steps they can take to liberate the leader within and become their best selves. If you rent or purchase a used book, the access code may have been redeemed previously and will no longer work.

In this updated and expanded second edition of "The Student Leadership Challenge, " James Kouzes and Barry Posner apply their extensive research and expertise to demonstrate that anyone can be a leader, regardless of age or experience. They challenge high school and undergraduate college students to examine their leadership actions and aspirations. Your students will learn from first-hand leadership stories from young leaders like themselves around the world, helping them to deeply understand and explore The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership: Model the Way Inspire a Shared Vision Challenge the Process Enable Others to Act Encourage the Heart.

The book guides students through the concrete actions they can take to become exemplary leaders, from finding their voice and clarifying their values, to recognizing others' contributions and celebrating others' victories. The authors ask readers to reflect at the end of each chapter on their own leadership experiences and abilities now and for the future.
Buying the Field: Catholic Religious Life in Mission to the World

Sandra M. Schneiders

Sandra Schneiders continues her rethinking of the traditional religious vows in the context of postmodernism, reaching back into the gospels for the meaning of world in order to discern the meaning of renunciation of the world by religious, examining, the vow of poverty both in its economic and spiritual sense as well as the vow of obedience.
Jesus Risen in Our Midst: Essays on the Resurrection of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel

Sandra M. Schneiders

Jesus Risen in Our Midst mines the Resurrection Narrative of John's gospel as a rich resource for understanding and developing Christian spirituality. In this series of essays, which can be read independently of one another, Scripture scholar Sandra Schneiders draws out especially fascinating insights onthe place of the Resurrection in the overall structure of the Gospel of Johnthe important structure of John 20, which presents a series of episodes that are internally related to each other and constitute a distinctive synthesis of Christian spiritualitywhat the Resurrection story reveals about the New Covenant promised by Jeremiah and Ezekielthe anthropology and eschatology that is operative in John's account of the Resurrectionthe distinction in John between the Glorification and the Resurrection of Jesus