Bøker av John Reader

Drawing on many years of African experience, John Reader has written a book of startling grandeur and scope that recreates the great panorama of African history, from the primeval cataclysms that formed the continent to the political upheavals facing much of the continent today. Reader tells the extraordinary story of humankind's adaptation to the ferocious obstacles of forest, river and desert, and to the threat of debilitating parasites, bacteria and viruses unmatched elsewhere in the world. He also shows how the world's richest assortment of animals and plants has helped - or hindered - human progress in Africa.

This book is about the relationships between technologies and the content of religious belief and practice. A number of models are now starting to emerge, but each of these depends on the theological or philosophical framework within which the debate is set. At at the same time, there are dilemmas operating at different ends of the spectrum.For example, at one end there is a tendency towards subsuming the digital within the divine, and at the other an instrumental stance relating to how technology is deployed. Either of these stances could be said to ignore rather than acknowledge that the human itself is being changed as a result of the interactions with the digital. The book explores the following areas: * Where is God to be found or present in the postdigital condition? * What are the implications of the postdigital condition for spirituality and indeed for the activity of God through the Holy Spirit? * How do concepts of transhumanism or posthumanism effect understandings of the incarnation? * Does the doctrine of the Trinity need revisiting in the light of the digital as medium of relationship? * Does Creation now include the postdigital? * What of the Kingdom of God now that the kingdom of the Tech giants is so powerful all-consuming? 

Argues that the discipline of practical theology needs to be re-shaped in the light of the impact of various influences created through the encounter with globalization. This book shows how it is in danger of operating with 'zombie categories'.

This book argues that identified weaknesses in recent theological engagement with New Materialism can be successfully addressed by incorporating insights from Relational Christian Realism.

Presents theological reflections on the changing nature of church mission and Christian identity within a theology of 'Blurred Encounter' - a physical, social, political and spiritual space where once solid hierarchies and patterns are giving way to more fluid and in many ways unsettling exchanges.

Many of us are concerned with the structures, systems and values that we meet on a day-to-day basis. We seem to be rushing headlong to a destination not of our choosing. How did we get here and what can we do about it? This book is the result of an exploration into the ideas of transformation. What does it mean to transform the way we live, to something that we value? In this book we take on the challenge of exploring a potential transformation in one professional field, that of engineering, as an example of how we might break free of common dysfunctional discourses and enter what we call a counter hegemonic Heterotopia - a space or place where we might dream alternative futures. The text is a unique collaboration spanning the disciplines of engineering education, philosophy and social theory.

The story of one of the world's most important crops From the gold potatoes at the Sun Temple in Cuzco, Peru, the muddy ones in Ireland and those grown in China for McDonald's chips, the story of the spud is both satisfying and fascinating.

Mr Potato Head. But the story of the solanum tuberosum is darker - one of struggle, disease, dirt and survival. Before domestication thousands of years ago, high up on the Andean antiplano, the high alkaloid content of potatoes made them poisonous to humans.

Cities is a fascinating exploration of the nature of the city and city life, of its structures, development and inhabitants. From the ruins of the earliest cities to the present, Reader explores how cities coalesce, develop and thrive, how they can decline and die, how they remake themselves.