Three critics of the Enlightenment

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Hirakawa Akira

This comprehensive and detailed survey of the first six centuries of Indian Buddhism sums up the results of a lifetime of research and reflection by one of Japan's most renowned scholars of Buddhism. Relying on Pali and Sanskrit sources and on inscriptions from archaeological sites and Chinese translations of Indian texts, Hirakawa balances his review of early Buddhist doctrinal development with extensive discussion of historical background and the evolution of Buddhist institutions. The inclusion of Japanese and Western language bibliographies together with an extensive bibliographic essay by the translator should make this volume especially useful as an introduction to a large corpus of Japanese scholarship on Buddhism which is still not widely known in the West.

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Jacques Taminiaux

Appearing for the first time in English, this book by Jacques Taminiaux is a systematic investigation into Hannah Arendt's intellectual relationship to Heidegger, the implications of which are indispensable to understanding the philosophical choices of our times. Contrary to other recent studies on these two figures, Taminiaux claims "that Arendt's two major works... reveal at every page not at all a dependency upon Heidegger... but rather a constant, and increasingly ironic, debate with him." In the process, Heidegger's philosophical work is interpreted in terms of its own political significance.

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John Kenneth White

The election of Barack Obama to the presidency marked a conclusive end to the Reagan era, writes John Kenneth White in Barack Obama's America. Reagan symbolized a 1950s and 1960s America, largely white and suburban, with married couples and kids at home, who attended church more often than not. Obama's election marked a new era, the author writes. Whites will be a minority by 2042. Marriage is at an all-time low. Cohabitation has increased from a half-million couples in 1960 to more than 5 million in 2000 to even more this year. Gay marriages and civil unions are redefining what it means to be a family. And organized religions are suffering, even as Americans continue to think of themselves as a religious people. Obama's inauguration was a defining moment in the political destiny of this country, based largely on demographic shifts, as described in Barack Obama's America.

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photographs by Clark G. Baker

At the crossroads of Central Texas, cotton once ruled as king. Around this demanding monarch, numerous communities grew up and thrived. From the distant horizon, the communities were marked by church steeples stretching skyward. Today, cotton has disappeared from the land, and the communities too are largely gone. Only the churches remain - the rock beneath the sands of time. This powerfully illustrated book seeks to explain the staying power of these rural churches and to introduce the people who keep them alive while the surrounding communities have given way to the larger towns and cities nearby. Beyond the power of religion itself, the authors have uncovered the roles of geography, race, ethnicity, and family in giving life to these small churches. Authors Lois Myers and Rebecca Sharpless enhance our understanding of the interplay of religion and culture, the qualities of late twentieth-century rural life, and the continuing draw of the open country. Photojournalist Clark Baker portrays open-country churches and their members in vivid black and white photographs. Churches featured in the volume include the oldest Norwegian Lutheran church in Texas, four African American Baptist churches organized soon after emancipation, white Southern Baptist churches, Protestant and Catholic churches founded by European and Mexican immigrants, and one union church that for most of the past century accommodated both Methodists and Baptists. Based on memories of longtime members, church minutes and histories, baptism records, and family histories the authors collapse decades of tradition into the enchanting and informative pages of this book. Given in memory of Jameson Garrett Brown by the Rotary Club of Aggieland with matching support from the Sara and John H. Lindsey '44 Fund.