Rebecca Davis – författare

Piers Plowman and the Books of Nature explores the relationship of divine creativity, poetry, and ethics in William Langland''s fourteenth-century dream vision. These concerns converge in the poem''s rich vocabulary of kynde, the familiar Middle English word for nature, broadly construed. But in a remarkable coinage, Langland also uses kynde to name nature''s creator, who appears as a character in Piers Plowman. The stakes of thisrepresentation could not be greater: by depicting God as Kynde, that is, under the guise of creation itself, Langland explores the capacity of nature and of language to bear the plenitude of the divine. In doing so, he advances a daring claim for the spiritual value of literary art, including his own searching form of theological poetry.This claim challenges recent critical attention to the poem''s discourses of disability and failure and reveals the poem''s place in a long and diverse tradition of medieval humanism that originates in the twelfth century and, indeed, points forward to celebrations of nature and natural capacity in later periods. By contextualizing Langland''s poetics of kynde within contemporary literary, philosophical, legal, and theological discourses, Rebecca Davis offers a new literary history forPiers Plowman that opens up many of the poem''s most perplexing interpretative problems.

Piers Plowman and the Books of Nature explores the relationship of divine creativity, poetry, and ethics in William Langland''s fourteenth-century dream vision. These concerns converge in the poem''s rich vocabulary of kynde, the familiar Middle English word for nature, broadly construed. But in a remarkable coinage, Langland also uses kynde to name nature''s creator, who appears as a character in Piers Plowman. The stakes of thisrepresentation could not be greater: by depicting God as Kynde, that is, under the guise of creation itself, Langland explores the capacity of nature and of language to bear the plenitude of the divine. In doing so, he advances a daring claim for the spiritual value of literary art, including his own searching form of theological poetry.This claim challenges recent critical attention to the poem''s discourses of disability and failure and reveals the poem''s place in a long and diverse tradition of medieval humanism that originates in the twelfth century and, indeed, points forward to celebrations of nature and natural capacity in later periods. By contextualizing Langland''s poetics of kynde within contemporary literary, philosophical, legal, and theological discourses, Rebecca Davis offers a new literary history forPiers Plowman that opens up many of the poem''s most perplexing interpretative problems.

Graceful Narratives argues that the concept of grace functions as a form of literary theory in late-medieval English texts, generating dilated, deliberative narratives that resist linear plotting and create space for alternative outcomes. Drawing on theological, legal, and courtly contexts, Davis demonstrates that grace operates not merely as a thematic concern but as a formal principle that suspends temporal flow, disrupts predetermined plots, and enables narrative transformation. The book examines six canonical Middle English works in which grace plays a pivotal role: Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, The Tale of Melibee, and The Franklin's Tale; Julian of Norwich's Revelation of Love; Langland's Piers Plowman; and The Castle of Perseverance. Like lyric poetry, these graceful narratives resist temporal pressures associated with linearity and plottedness, forestalling closure and opening paths towards reconciliation and amendment. Reflections on grace in literary contexts produce expanded narratives featuring the imagery and terminology of dwelling as a refuge against linear temporality's demands. By examining how medieval writers used grace to theorize fiction, Graceful Narratives contributes to conversations about premodern fictionality. Thinking grace, this book shows, necessarily means thinking fiction, the contrary to fact, the "e;what if?"e; In its resistive and restorative cultural work, the graceful narrative emerges as a form of medieval speculative fiction, answering a critical intellectual and social need for deliberative space.

Graceful Narratives argues that the concept of grace functions as a form of literary theory in late-medieval English texts, generating dilated, deliberative narratives that resist linear plotting and create space for alternative outcomes. Drawing on theological, legal, and courtly contexts, Davis demonstrates that grace operates not merely as a thematic concern but as a formal principle that suspends temporal flow, disrupts predetermined plots, and enables narrative transformation. The book examines six canonical Middle English works in which grace plays a pivotal role: Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, The Tale of Melibee, and The Franklin's Tale; Julian of Norwich's Revelation of Love; Langland's Piers Plowman; and The Castle of Perseverance. Like lyric poetry, these graceful narratives resist temporal pressures associated with linearity and plottedness, forestalling closure and opening paths towards reconciliation and amendment. Reflections on grace in literary contexts produce expanded narratives featuring the imagery and terminology of dwelling as a refuge against linear temporality's demands. By examining how medieval writers used grace to theorize fiction, Graceful Narratives contributes to conversations about premodern fictionality. Thinking grace, this book shows, necessarily means thinking fiction, the contrary to fact, the "what if?" In its resistive and restorative cultural work, the graceful narrative emerges as a form of medieval speculative fiction, answering a critical intellectual and social need for deliberative space.

Graceful Narratives argues that the concept of grace functions as a form of literary theory in late-medieval English texts, generating dilated, deliberative narratives that resist linear plotting and create space for alternative outcomes. Drawing on theological, legal, and courtly contexts, Davis demonstrates that grace operates not merely as a thematic concern but as a formal principle that suspends temporal flow, disrupts predetermined plots, and enables narrative transformation. The book examines six canonical Middle English works in which grace plays a pivotal role: Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde, The Tale of Melibee, and The Franklin's Tale; Julian of Norwich's Revelation of Love; Langland's Piers Plowman; and The Castle of Perseverance. Like lyric poetry, these graceful narratives resist temporal pressures associated with linearity and plottedness, forestalling closure and opening paths towards reconciliation and amendment. Reflections on grace in literary contexts produce expanded narratives featuring the imagery and terminology of dwelling as a refuge against linear temporality's demands. By examining how medieval writers used grace to theorize fiction, Graceful Narratives contributes to conversations about premodern fictionality. Thinking grace, this book shows, necessarily means thinking fiction, the contrary to fact, the "e;what if?"e; In its resistive and restorative cultural work, the graceful narrative emerges as a form of medieval speculative fiction, answering a critical intellectual and social need for deliberative space.

Piers Plowman and the Books of Nature explores the relationship of divine creativity, poetry, and ethics in William Langland's fourteenth-century dream vision. These concerns converge in the poem's rich vocabulary of kynde, the familiar Middle English word for nature, broadly construed. But in a remarkable coinage, Langland also uses kynde to name nature's creator, who appears as a character in Piers Plowman. The stakes of this representation could not be greater: by depicting God as Kynde, that is, under the guise of creation itself, Langland explores the capacity of nature and of language to bear the plenitude of the divine. In doing so, he advances a daring claim for the spiritual value of literary art, including his own searching form of theological poetry. This claim challenges recent critical attention to the poem's discourses of disability and failure and reveals the poem's place in a long and diverse tradition of medieval humanism that originates in the twelfth century and, indeed, points forward to celebrations of nature and natural capacity in later periods. By contextualizing Langland's poetics of kynde within contemporary literary, philosophical, legal, and theological discourses, Rebecca Davis offers a new literary history for Piers Plowman that opens up many of the poem's most perplexing interpretative problems.

The hill tribes of Southeast Asia told legends that one day the White Book that their ancestors had lost would be brought back to them. When the Karen tribe saw the Bible in 1813 through the mission of Adoniram Judson, they recognised the White Book of their stories. This is the amazing true story of how the faith spread through the land of Myanmar, formerly Burma.

More Muslims in Iran have come to faith in Christ in the last thirty years than in the thirteen hundred years that Islam has been in the country. In a land that is notorious for persecution,through the lives of missionaries and Iranian believers God’s word is being spread far and wide. Seventeen chapters tell true stories of the Living Water of Jesus Christ pouring out for thirsty people to drink in the country of Iran.

Why would a crippled old man wait by the side of the road every day for twenty years? Why would a slave and a witch doctor walk for three days to find a man called Jesus? Why would a lame man purposely walk to a tribe where he knew he could be killed? Sixteen captivating episodes from one Christian mission in Ethiopia show the power of God in the midst of darkness.

From one old woman’s prayer a young girl was brought to faith, a missionary was sent to Africa and then a church was born from among the people of Central Africa. Missionaries from the West came with the message of Jesus Christ – but it was the men and women saved from cannibalism, the young boys who herded goats and who carted water who really brought the Good News even farther to more and more villages and homesteads in Africa … and the Good News must go out.For more background information, as well as links for magazine articles, blogs, photos, and videos, see the Educator Resources Page at Rebecca Davis’s website.