Spirituality is a difficult subject in the modern world. Everywhere, from popular media to the university, from the bookshelf to the dinner table, religions are derided or marginalised and public figures, such as Richard Dawkins, set upon anyone who admits to a belief in God.

Secularism: The Hidden Origins of Disbelief

History

King, Mike

World

James Clarke & Co.

Spirituality in the post-9/11 world is a complex topic. The detente between secular culture and religious faith that characterised the 20th century, the 'mutual ignorance pact,' has been shattered. From the rise of Islamic extremism to the American Christian Right to the fiercely anti-religious writings of staunch atheists such as Richard Dawkins, the controversy over what role the spiritual can or should play in our lives, public and private, has never been more widely discussed or hotly contended. In Postsecularism , Mike King posits that out of this conflict between socially dominant secular thinkers and the 'new defenders of faith' is arising a distinct way of thinking that is neither a return to pre-Enlightenment beliefs nor a continued hegemony of the secular - the postsecular. At once a retention of secular critical attitudes and a return in all seriousness to questions of the spirit, the postsecular provides a framework within which to move beyond the extremism of faithful and atheists alike. Drawing on contemporary thinkers from across the spiritual spectrum including Dawkins, Antony Flew, Christopher Hitchens, Alister McGrath, Daniel Dennett, Keith Ward, Richard Swinburne and Martin Amis, King carefully constructs a new mode of thought and explores its relevance to everything from physics to the arts, postmodernism, and feminism. What emerges is a thoughtful and persuasive discussion of the route to reconciliation between the combative worlds of the religious and the secular.

Postsecularism: The Hidden Challenge to Extremism

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

This book draws conclusions about the American mind through analysis of what might be called "cinema of excess:" cinema about Americans that includes culturally transgressive material such as violence, graphic sexuality, apocalyptic themes, and paranoia. The work begins with an introduction to far left and far right schools of film criticism, including Marxism, cultural conservatism, and religious conservatism. The author then takes a balanced look at various films' interpretations of several traits of the American conscious: paranoia (Dr. Strangelove), aggression (Rambo, Natural Born Killers), oedipal/Freudian themes (The Hulk, Star Wars), sexual obsession (American Beauty), the apocalypse (The Passion of the Christ, the Left Behind trilogy), Native Americans and cultural genocide (Little Big Man), new age narcissism (I Heart Huckabees), nihilism and self-destruction (Fight Club, Taxi Driver), intellect and cultural autism (A Beautiful Mind), and virtual reality/fantasy (The Matrix). Finally, a look at American sanity is provided through films like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Fisher King, Vanilla Sky and 21 Grams.

The American Cinema of Excess

Humor & Entertainment

Movies

McFarland

This book is a comprehensive survey of religion and spirituality on film. It explores different aspects of the spiritual life as projected in more than 400 movies. Film settings embrace all of the major faiths, smaller religious groupings, the New Age, and even contexts that are in the first instance secular, atheist or anti-religious. A dozen themes have been identified in which to group them. Two types of film were excluded: escapist fantasy and the religious costume drama. The final selection are films of highly serious intent (which include however very human dramas and humorous moments). The 12 chapters of the book illuminate the lived spiritual life from many angles, mostly within the drama of people's lives rather than in matters of creed or religious specifics. When the unique art-form of film, with its aesthetics of light and movement, coincide with scenes of high spiritual drama we have a cinema that can be called "luminous." The search is on for such films.

Luminous: The Spiritual Life on Film

Religion & Spirituality

When Riot Cops Are Not Enough: The Policing and Repression of Occupy Oakland (Critical Issues in Crime and Society)

In When Riot Cops Are Not Enough, sociologist and activist Mike King examines the policing, and broader political repression, of the Occupy Oakland movement during the fall of 2011 through the spring of 2012. King’s active and daily participation in that movement, from its inception through its demise, provides a unique insider perspective to illustrate how the Oakland police and city administrators lost the ability to effectively control the movement. Drawn from King’s intensive field work, the book focuses on the physical, legal, political, and ideological dimensions of repression—in the streets, in courtrooms, in the media, in city hall, and within the movement itself—When Riot Cops Are Not Enough highlights the central role of political legitimacy, both for mass movements seeking to create social change, as well as for governmental forces seeking to control such movements. Although Occupy Oakland was different from other Occupy sites in many respects, King shows how the contradictions it illuminated within both social movement and police strategies provide deep insights into the nature of protest policing generally, and a clear map to understanding the full range of social control techniques used in North America in the twenty-first century.

Americas

Rutgers University Press

In When Riot Cops Are Not Enough, sociologist and activist Mike King examines the policing, and broader political repression, of the Occupy Oakland movement during the fall of 2011 through the spring of 2012. King’s active and daily participation in that movement, from its inception through its demise, provides a unique insider perspective to illustrate how the Oakland police and city administrators lost the ability to effectively control the movement.   Drawn from King’s intensive field work, the book focuses on the physical, legal, political, and ideological dimensions of repression—in the streets, in courtrooms, in the media, in city hall, and within the movement itself—When Riot Cops Are Not Enough highlights the central role of political legitimacy, both for mass movements seeking to create social change, as well as for governmental forces seeking to control such movements. Although Occupy Oakland was different from other Occupy sites in many respects, King shows how the contradictions it illuminated within both social movement and police strategies provide deep insights into the nature of protest policing generally, and a clear map to understanding the full range of social control techniques used in North America in the twenty-first century.  

How many programs does it take to change a youth group? That question has bothered youth workers for decades, and the cracks in its logic are beginning to show. In place of the contrived, artificial mechanisms employed so widely in modern youth outreach and discipleship, Mike King proposes a ministry centered in the presence of God. Young people encounter Christ not in the flash and pop of arena ministry, but in the sacred shadow of his presence. They learn what it is to love and follow Christ by observing others loving and following Christ--letting Christ shape their worldviews, their habits, their virtues. Presence-Centered Youth Ministry gives shape to such ministry through the classic disciplines and potent symbols and practices that have sustained the church over the centuries. The sound and fury that has characterized youth ministry for so long has left too many youth workers tired and too many young people disillusioned. Come explore the deeper terrain; your students are sure to follow.

Presence-Centered Youth Ministry: Guiding Students into Spiritual Formation

Christian Books & Bibles

Combining commercial success with philanthropy and social activism, ‘Quakernomics’ offers a compelling model for corporate social responsibility in the modern world. Mike King explores the ethical capitalism of Quaker enterprises from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries, testing this theory against those of prominent economists. With a foreword by Sir Adrian Cadbury, this book proves that the Quaker practice of ‘total capitalism’ is not a historically remote nicety but an immediately relevant guide for today’s global economy.

Quakernomics: An Ethical Capitalism (Anthem Other Canon Economics, 1)

Business & Money

Business Culture

Anthem Press

The White Star Line was one of the most illustrious and controversial names in the history of passenger shipping. Its origins lay in Liverpool in the early 19th century, chartering sailing ships to Australia, but financial difficulties led to its takeover by Thomas Ismay in the 1860s. He was the founding father of the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, the official name of the White Star Line. Despite a number of disasters with heavy loss of life, the company grew quickly to dominate the North Atlantic route, with famous ships such as Britannic and Germanic taking the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing several times in the late 19th century. At the turn of the century the company established an unrivalled standard of luxury in its new quartet of ships known as the Big Four, which led to the construction of the Olympic Class, which included Titanic. Despite the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, the Olympic had a long and successful career as the flagship of the White Star Line before the financial pressures of the Depression in the 1930s forced the merger of White Star with its rival Cunard. Ships of the White Star Line is the fruit of years of research by maritime historian Richard de Kerbrech. In it he tells the story of the company through all 89 ships that served the shipping line, each of which is illustrated with photographs, along with detailed technical information and vivid accounts of voyages and incidents.

An Illustrated History Of Southern Wagons: Pictorial

Military

Ian Allan Pub

(Berklee Press). Berklee expert speaks on how to market and distribute your songs and group. Sell more music! Learn the most effective marketing strategies available to musicians, leveraging the important changes and opportunities that the digital age has brought to music marketing. This multifaceted and integrated approach will help you to develop an effective worldwide marketing strategy. Step by step, you will develop an active marketing plan and timeline tailored to your unique strengths and budget. You will learn to time your marketing campaign effectively, publicize your music to traditional print outlets and emerging online opportunities, understand the current opportunities for online, satellite, and terrestrial radio play as well as navigate various retail and distribution options, both at brick-and-mortar and online options, such as iTunes, Rhapsody, and other services.

Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail

Berklee Press

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by King, Mike. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by King, Mike

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by King, Mike. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Secularism: The Hidden Origins of Disbelief

Postsecularism: The Hidden Challenge to Extremism

The American Cinema of Excess

Luminous: The Spiritual Life on Film

When Riot Cops Are Not Enough: The Policing and Repression of Occupy Oakland (Critical Issues in Crime and Society)

When Riot Cops Are Not Enough: The Policing and Repression of Occupy Oakland (Critical Issues in Crime and Society)

Presence-Centered Youth Ministry: Guiding Students into Spiritual Formation

Quakernomics: An Ethical Capitalism (Anthem Other Canon Economics, 1)

An Illustrated History Of Southern Wagons: Pictorial

Music Marketing: Press, Promotion, Distribution, and Retail