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C.S. Lewis – The Screwtape Letters

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Title: The Screwtape Letters
Series:
Published by: HarperCollins
Release Date: 2001
Contributors: C.S. Lewis
Genre:
Pages: 209
ISBN13: 978-0060652890

This engaging correspondence between two devils is one of Lewis’s most brilliantly imaginative creations and has sold millions of copies worldwide

A TIMELESS CLASSIC ON ‘HELL’S LATEST NOVELTIES AND HEAVEN’S UNANSWERABLE ANSWER’. Screwtape is an experienced devil. His nephew Wormwood is just at the start of his demonic career and has been assigned to secure the damnation of a young man who has just become a Christian. In this humorous exchange, C.S. Lewis delves into moral questions about good v. evil, temptation, repentance and grace. Through this wonderful tale, the reader emerges with a better knowledge of what it means to live a good, honest life.

“If wit and wisdom, style and scholarship are requisites to passage through the pearly gates, Mr. Lewis will be among the angels.”

The New Yorker

From the Back Cover
A milestone in the history of popular theology, The Screwtape Letters is an iconic classic on spiritual warfare and the dynamics of temptation.

This profound and striking narrative takes the form of a series of letters from Screwtape, a devil high in the Infernal Civil Service, to his nephew Wormwood, a junior colleague engaged in his first mission on earth, trying to secure the damnation of a young man who has just become a Christian. Although the young man initially looks to be a willing victim, he changes his ways and is "lost" to the young devil.

Dedicated to Lewis's friend and colleague J. R. R. Tolkien, The Screwtape Letters is a timeless classic on spiritual conflict and the psychology of temptation which are part of our religious experience.

Early Christian Lives

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Title: Early Christian Lives
Series:
Published by: Penguin Classics
Release Date: July 1, 1998
Contributors: Athanasius (Author), Jerome (Author), Sulpicius Severus (Author), Gregory the Great (Author), Carolinne White (Translator)
Genre:
Pages: 288
ISBN13: 978-0140435269

Written between the mid-fourth and late sixth centuries to commemorate and glorify the achievements of early Christian saints, these six biographies depict men who devoted themselves to solitude, poverty and prayer. Athanasius records Antony's extreme seclusion in the Egyptian desert, despite temptation by the devil and visits from his followers. Jerome also shows those who fled persecution or withdrew from society to pursue lives of chastity and asceticism in his accounts of Paul of Thebes, Hilarion and Malchus. In his Life of Martin, Sulpicius Severus describes the achievements of a man who combined the roles of monk, bishop and missionary, while Gregory the Great tells of Benedict, whose Rule became the template for monastic life. Full of vivid incidents and astonishing miracles, these Lives have provided inspiration as models for centuries of Christian worship.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Carolinne White divides her time between research projects and tutoring in patristic and medieval Latin at Oxford University. She has worked on the supplement to the Liddell and Scott Greek Lexicon and the Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources and has published a translation of the correspondence between St Jerome and St Augustine of Hippo (1990) alongside other work.

Fagles – The Iliad

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Title: The Iliad
Published by: Penguin Classics
Release Date: January 1, 1998
Contributors: Homer (Author), Robert Fagles (Translator), Bernard Knox (Introduction)
Genre:
Pages: 704
ISBN13: 978-0140275360

Dating to the ninth century B.C., Homer’s timeless poem still vividly conveys the horror and heroism of men and gods wrestling with towering emotions and battling amidst devastation and destruction, as it moves inexorably to the wrenching, tragic conclusion of the Trojan War. Renowned classicist Bernard Knox observes in his superb introduction that although the violence of the Iliad is grim and relentless, it coexists with both images of civilized life and a poignant yearning for peace.

Combining the skills of a poet and scholar, Robert Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, brings the energy of contemporary language to this enduring heroic epic. He maintains the drive and metric music of Homer’s poetry, and evokes the impact and nuance of the Iliad’s mesmerizing repeated phrases in what Peter Levi calls “an astonishing performance.”

Homer was probably born around 725BC on the Coast of Asia Minor, now the coast of Turkey, but then really a part of Greece. Homer was the first Greek writer whose work survives. He was one of a long line of bards, or poets, who worked in the oral tradition. Homer and other bards of the time could recite, or chant, long epic poems. Both works attributed to Homer – the Iliad and the Odyssey – are over ten thousand lines long in the original. Homer must have had an amazing memory but was helped by the formulaic poetry style of the time.
In the Iliad Homer sang of death and glory, of a few days in the struggle between the Greeks and the Trojans. Mortal men played out their fate under the gaze of the gods. The Odyssey is the original collection of tall traveller’s tales. Odysseus, on his way home from the Trojan War, encounters all kinds of marvels from one-eyed giants to witches and beautiful temptresses. His adventures are many and memorable before he gets back to Ithaca and his faithful wife Penelope.

We can never be certain that both these stories belonged to Homer. In fact ‘Homer’ may not be a real name but a kind of nickname meaning perhaps ‘the hostage’ or ‘the blind one’. Whatever the truth of their origin, the two stories, developed around three thousand years ago, may well still be read in three thousand years’ time.

Robert Fagles (1933-2008) was Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professor of Comparative Literature, Emeritus, at Princeton University. He was the recipient of the 1997 PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His translations include Sophocles’s Three Theban Plays, Aeschylus’s Oresteia (nominated for a National Book Award), Homer’s Iliad (winner of the 1991 Harold Morton Landon Translation Award by The Academy of American Poets), Homer’s Odyssey, and Virgil's Aeneid.

Bernard Knox (1914-2010) was Director Emeritus of Harvard’s Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington, D.C. He taught at Yale University for many years. Among his numerous honors are awards from the National Institute of Arts and Letters and the National Endowment for the Humanities. His works include The Heroic Temper: Studies in Sophoclean Tragedy, Oedipus at Thebes: Sophocles’ Tragic Hero and His Time and Essays Ancient and Modern (awarded the 1989 PEN/Spielvogel-Diamonstein Award).

Fiction – The Count of Monte Cristo

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Title: The Count of Monte Cristo
Series:
Published by: Penguin Classics
Release Date: May 27, 2003
Contributors: Alexandre Dumas père (Author), Robin Buss (Introduction)
Genre:
Pages: 1276
ISBN13: 978-0140449266

Thrown in prison for a crime he has not committed, Edmond Dantes is confined to the grim fortress of If. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. Dumas’ epic tale of suffering and retribution, inspired by a real-life case of wrongful imprisonment, was a huge popular success when it was first serialized in the 1840s.

Robin Buss’s lively English translation is complete and unabridged, and remains faithful to the style of Dumas’s original. This edition includes an introduction, explanatory notes and suggestions for further reading

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) was the son of Napoleon’s famous general Dumas. A prolific author, his body of work includes a number of popular classics, including The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask.

Robin Buss (1939–2006) was a writer and translator who worked for the Independent on Sunday and as television critic for the Times Educational Supplement. He was also the translator of a number of volumes for Penguin Classics.

Moody – The Pilgrim’s Progress

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Title: The Pilgrim's Progress
Series:
Published by: Moody Classics
Release Date: October 1, 2007
Contributors: John Bunyan (Author), Rosalie De Rosset (Editor)
Genre:
Pages: 218
ISBN13: 978-0802456540

This is not a devotional classic; it is a dangerous tale. It is a call to the high stakes of every Christian's journey. Don't pick it up expecting quaint amusement- it is a story woven through with undeniable truth, great cost, and overwhelming joy.

One of the most widely read books of all time, this adventure reveals John Bunyan's intense grasp of the Scriptures. Penned while in prison for refusing to compromise the gospel, The Pilgrim's Progress is a guide for the journey from death to life. The times have changed, but the landmarks and adversaries are very much the same.

John Bunyan was an English writer and Puritan preacher best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, which also became an influential literary model. In addition to The Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan wrote nearly sixty titles, many of them expanded sermons.

John Bunyan (baptised 30 November 1628 – 31 August 1688) was an English writer and Puritan preacher best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory The Pilgrim's Progress, which also became an influential literary model. In addition to The Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan wrote nearly sixty titles, many of them expanded sermons.

Bunyan came from the village of Elstow, near Bedford. He had some schooling and at the age of sixteen joined the Parliamentary Army during the first stage of the English Civil War. After three years in the army he returned to Elstow and took up the trade of tinker, which he had learned from his father. He became interested in religion after his marriage, attending first the parish church and then joining the Bedford Meeting, a nonconformist group in Bedford, and becoming a preacher. After the restoration of the monarch, when the freedom of nonconformists was curtailed, Bunyan was arrested and spent the next twelve years in prison as he refused to give up preaching. During this time he wrote a spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, and began work on his most famous book, The Pilgrim's Progress, which was not published until some years after his release.

Bunyan's later years, in spite of another shorter term of imprisonment, were spent in relative comfort as a popular author and preacher, and pastor of the Bedford Meeting. He died aged 59 after falling ill on a journey to London and is buried in Bunhill Fields. The Pilgrim's Progress became one of the most published books in the English language; 1,300 editions having been printed by 1938, 250 years after the author's death.

Bunyan is remembered in the Church of England with a Lesser Festival on 30 August. Some other churches of the Anglican Communion, such as the Anglican Church of Australia, honour him on the day of his death (31 August).

Wikipedia 12/2022

The Divine Comedy

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Title: Dante's Divine Comedy: Hell, Purgatory, Paradise
Series:
Published by: Chartwell Books, Inc.
Release Date: July 23, 2008
Contributors: Dante Alighieri (Author), Henry W. Longfellow (Translator), Gustave Dore (Illustrator)
Genre:
Pages: 384
ISBN13: 978-0785821205

Long narrative poem originally titled Commedia (about 1555 printed as La divina commedia) written about 1310-14 by Dante. The work is divided into three major sections--Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso--which trace the journey of a man from darkness and error to the revelation of the divine light, culminating in the beatific vision of God. It is usually held to be one of the world's greatest works of literature. The plot of The Divine Comedy is simple: a man is miraculously enabled to visit the souls in Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. He has two guides: Virgil, who leads him through the Inferno and Purgatorio, and Beatrice, who introduces him to Paradiso. Through these fictional encounters taking place from Good Friday evening in 1300 through Easter Sunday and slightly beyond, Dante the character learns of the exile that is awaiting him (an actual exile that had already occurred at the time of writing). This device allowed Dante not only to create a story out of his exile but also to explain how he came to cope with personal calamity and to offer suggestions for the resolution of Italy's troubles as well.

Dante Alighieri (c. 1265-1321) was an Italian poet, writer, and political thinker. After studying at the University of Bologna, he married and had four children. Dante was exiled from his hometown of Florence in 1302 due to his political leanings, finally settling in the city of Ravenna in 1307, when he began writing The Divine Comedy.

God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology

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Title: God's Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology
Series:
Published by: Crossway
Release Date: November 4, 2010
Contributors: James M. Hamilton Jr. (Author)
Genre:
Pages: 640
ISBN13: 978-1581349764

In Exodus 34 Moses asks to see God’s glory, and God reveals himself as a God who is merciful and just. James Hamilton Jr. contends that from this passage comes a biblical theology that unites the meta-narrative of Scripture under one central theme: God’s glory in salvation through judgment.

Hamilton begins in the Old Testament by showing that Israel was saved through God’s judgment on the Egyptians and the Caananites. God was glorified through both his judgment and mercy, accorded in salvation to Israel. The New Testament unfolds the ultimate display of God’s glory in justice and mercy, as it was God’s righteous judgment shown on the cross that brought us salvation. God’s glory in salvation through judgment will be shown at the end of time, when Christ returns to judge his enemies and save all who have called on his name.

Hamilton moves through the Bible book by book, showing that there is one theological center to the whole Bible. The volume’s systematic method and scope make it a unique resource for pastors, professors, and students.

About the Author
James M. Hamilton Jr. (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is professor of biblical theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and preaching pastor at Kenwood Baptist Church.

Einstein: His Life and Universe

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Title: Einstein: His Life and Universe
Published by: Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition
Release Date: May 13, 2008
Contributors: Walter Isaacson (Author)
Genre:
Pages: 704
ISBN13: 978-0743264747

How did his mind work? What made him a genius? Isaacson’s biography shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. His fascinating story is a testament to the connection between creativity and freedom.

Based on newly released personal letters of Einstein, this book explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk—a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn’t get a teaching job or a doctorate—became the mind reader of the creator of the cosmos, the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom, and the universe. His success came from questioning conventional wisdom and marveling at mysteries that struck others as mundane. This led him to embrace a morality and politics based on respect for free minds, free spirits, and free individuals.

These traits are just as vital for this new century of globalization, in which our success will depend on our creativity, as they were for the beginning of the last century, when Einstein helped usher in the modern age.

Review
"Walter Isaacson has captured the complete Einstein. With an effortless style that belies a sharp attention to detail and scientific accuracy, Isaacson takes us on a soaring journey through the life, mind, and science of the man who changed our view of the universe." -- Brian Greene, Professor of Physics at Columbia and author of The Fabric of the Cosmos

"This book does an amazing job getting the science right and the man revealed." -- Sylvester James Gates, Professor of Physics at the University of Maryland

"This book will be widely and deservedly admired. It is excellently readable and combines the personal and the scientific aspects of Einstein's life in a graceful way." -- Gerald Holton, Professor of Physics at Harvard and author of Einstein, History, and Other Passions

"Once again Walter Isaacson has produced a most valuable biography of a great man about whom much has already been written. It helps that he has had access to important new material. He met the challenge of dealing with his subject as a human being and describing profound ideas in physics. His biography is a pleasure to read and makes the great physicist come alive." -- Murray Gell-Mann, winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize in Physics and author of The Quark and the Jaguar

"With unmatched narrative skill, Isaacson has managed the extraordinary feat of preserving Einstein's monumental stature while at the same time bringing him to such vivid life that we come to feel as if he could be walking in our midst. This is a terrific work." -- Doris Kearns Goodwin, author of Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

"Isaacson's treatment of Einstein's scientific work is excellent: accurate, complete, and just the right level of detail for the general reader. Taking advantage of the wealth of recently uncovered historical material, he has produced the most readable biography of Einstein yet." -- A. Douglas Stone, Professor of Physics at Yale

"This is a brilliant intellectual tapestry -- and a great read. Skillfully weaving Einstein's revolutionary scientific achievements, his prolific political initiatives, his complex personal life, and his fascinating personality, Isaacson has transformed the transformer of the twentieth century into a beacon for the twenty-first century." -- Martin J. Sherwin, coauthor of American Prometheus:The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for biography

"I found so much to admire; there are many places where I just had to cheer what Isaacson had written." -- Dudley Herschbach, Professor of Science at Harvard

"Isaacson has written a crisp, engaging, and refreshing biography, one that beautifully masters the historical literature and offers many new insights into Einstein's work and life." -- Diana Kormos Buchwald, General Editor of the Collected Papers of Albert Einstein

"Isaacson has admirably succeeded in weaving together the complex threads of Einstein's personal and scientific life to paint a superb portrait." -- Arthur I. Miller, author of Einstein, Picasso

“This is a biography that happens to be treatise on creativity. I was about to say scientific creativity, but I think I mean creativity itself. It shows us the creative exuberance of a man with an extraordinary visual imagination, able to recast certain problems in surprising ways.” -- Ian McEwan
About the Author
Walter Isaacson, a professor of history at Tulane, has been CEO of the Aspen Institute, chair of CNN, and editor of Time. He is the author of Leonardo da Vinci; The Innovators; Steve Jobs; Einstein: His Life and Universe; Benjamin Franklin: An American Life; and Kissinger: A Biography, and the coauthor of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. Visit him at Isaacson.Tulane.edu.

Regulated Power Supplies

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Title: Regulated Power Supplies
Published by: TAB Books
Release Date: January 1, 1992
Contributors: Irving Gottlieb (Author)
Genre:
Pages: 464
ISBN13: 978-0830625406

For engineers, technicians, and hobbyists involved in the design, testing, and implementation of regulated power supplies, this fourth edition is revised to include up-to-date guidance for building regulated power supplies. The author provides full coverage of standard power supply sources now found in the majority of applications. He also describes how new high-frequency devices such as the insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), the mos-controlled thyristor (MCT), and current- and resonant-mode regulators have reduced production costs and improved power supply efficiency and reliability.

High-frequency Switching
Current-mode Operation
PWM Switching
Resonant-mode Switching

Regulated power supplies play a vital role in electronic circuits and systems - they provide the constant voltages needed for many modern solid-state devices.

- Detailed discussion of the circuitry and operation of solid-state regulators
- Numerous circuits designed to fit almost any application
- Linear and Switching type circuits

The Earthly Career of Jesus, the Christ

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Title: The Earthly Career of Jesus, the Christ: A Life in Chronological, Geographical and Social Context
Series:
Published by: Mentor
Release Date: November 21, 2002
Contributors: Robert Duncan Culver
Genre:
Pages: 272
ISBN13: 978-1857927986

A balanced blend of doctrinal, historical, archaeological, and geographical detail on the life of Jesus written in a fresh style. Culver uses his skills honed as a professor of both Biblical and Systematic Theologies to present an all-rounded book that should be an invaluable handbook on the life of Christ.

Robert Duncan Culver (1916-2015) was Professor of Theology at Wheaton College and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. An author, preacher, pastor, and teacher all of his adult life right up until his 98th year.

C.S. Lewis – The Great Divorce

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Title: The Great Divorce
Series:
Published by: HarperCollins
Release Date: March 3rd, 2009
Contributors: C.S. Lewis
Genre:
Pages: 160
ISBN13: 978-0061774195

C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce is a classic Christian allegorical tale about a bus ride from hell to heaven. An extraordinary meditation upon good and evil, grace and judgment, Lewis’s revolutionary idea in The Great Divorce is that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside. Using his extraordinary descriptive powers, Lewis’ The Great Divorce will change the way we think about good and evil.

From the Back Cover
C. S. Lewis's dazzling allegory about Heaven and Hell—and the chasm fixed between them—is one of his most brilliantly imaginative tales, where we discover that the gates of Hell are locked from the inside.

In a dream, the narrator boards a bus on a drizzly afternoon in Hell and embarks on an incredible voyage to Heaven. Anyone in Hell is invited on board, and anyone may remain in Heaven if he or she so chooses. But do we really want to live in Heaven? This powerful, exquisitely written fantasy is one of C. S. Lewis's most enduring works of fiction and a profound meditation on good and evil and on what God really offers us.

The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks

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Title: The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks
Series:
Published by: Penguin Classics
Release Date: July 29, 2003
Contributors: Benedicta Ward (Editor)
Genre:
Pages: 240
ISBN13: 978-0140447316

The Desert Fathers were the first Christian monks, living in solitude in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. In contrast to the formalized and official theology of the "founding fathers" of the Church, they were ordinary Christians who chose to renounce the world and live lives of celibacy, fasting, vigil, prayer, and poverty in direct and simple response to the gospel. First recorded in the fourth century, their Sayings—consisting of spiritual advice, anecdotes, parables, and reflections on life—influenced the rule of St. Benedict, set the pattern for Western monasticism, and have inspired centuries of poetry, opera, and art.

Benedicta Ward is a reader in the history of early Christian spirituality at the Theology Faculty in Oxford. She has translated The Prayers and Meditations of St. Anselm for Penguin Classics.