Objectivity in law

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Bertrand Russell

THE attempt to conceive imaginatively a better ordering of human society than the destructive and cruel chaos in which mankind has hitherto existed is by no means modern: it is at least as old as Plato, whose ``Republic'' set the model for the Utopias of subsequent philosophers. Whoever contemplates the world in the light of an ideal - whether what he seeks be intellect, or art, or love, or simple happiness, or all together - must feel a great sorrow in the evils that men needlessly allow to continue, and - if he be a man of force and vital energy - an urgent desire to lead men to the realization of the good which inspires his creative vision.

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Michael Pennock

" ... the first in a three book series written for the beginning courses of the U.S. Bishops' Curriculum Framework. It provides a map for high school students to navigate the wonderful work of God--Father, Son, and Spirit--in forming a People, giving a Law, and preparing for the Messiah. The one-semester course is intended to give students a general knowledge and appreciation of Sacred Scripture while coming to encounter Jesus Christ."--Publisher's website.

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Heidi Moksnes

"Maya Exodus offers a richly detailed account of how a group of indigenous people has adopted a global language of human rights to press claims for social change and social justice. Anthropologist Heidi Moksnes describes how Catholic Maya in the municipality of Chenalhó in Chiapas, Mexico, have changed their position vis-à-vis the Mexican state--from being loyal clients dependent on a patron, to being citizens who have rights--as a means of exodus from poverty. Moksnes lived in Chenalhó in the mid-1990s and has since followed how Catholic Maya have adopted liberation theology and organized a religious and political movement to both advance their sociopolitical position in Mexico and restructure local Maya life. She came to know members of the Catholic organization Las Abejas shortly before they made headlines when forty-five members, including women and children, were killed by Mexican paramilitary troops because of their sympathy with the Zapatistas. In the years since the massacre at Acteal, Las Abejas has become a global symbol of indigenous pacifist resistance against state oppression. The Catholic Maya in Chenalhó see their poverty as a legacy of colonial rule perpetuated by the present Mexican government, and believe that their suffering is contrary to the will of God. Moksnes shows how this antagonism toward the state is exacerbated by the government's recent neoliberal policies, which have ended pro-peasant programs while employing a discourse on human rights. In this context, Catholic Maya debate the value of pressing the state with their claims. Instead, they seek independent routes to influence and resources, through the Catholic Diocese and nongovernmental organizations--relations, however, that also help to create new dependencies. This book incorporates voices of Maya men and women as they form new identities, rethink central conceptions of being human, and assert citizenship rights. Maya Exodus deepens our understanding of the complexities involved in striving for social change. Ultimately, it highlights the contradictory messages marginalized peoples encounter when engaging with the globally celebrated human rights discourse." -- Publisher's description.

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Jane Daggett Dillenberger

In the two years before he died, Andy Warhol made over one hundred paintings, drawings, and prints based on Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. The dramatic story of these works is told here for the first time. It reveals the part of Andy Warhol that he kept very secret: his lifelong church attendance and his personal piety. In The Religious Art of Andy Warhol, art historian and curator Jane Daggett Dillenberger explores the sources and manifestations of Warhol's spiritual side. The sources are to be found in Warhol's childhood in a Slovakian ghetto of Pittsburgh and in the rich rituals of its Byzantine Catholic Church, but particularly in his devotion to his mother, Julia, with whom he lived for almost 40 of his 58 years. And the manifestations are to be found mostly in the paintings of the last decade of Warhol's life: his Skull paintings, the prints based on Renaissance religious paintings, the Cross paintings, and the large series based on Leonardo's Last Supper.