Books published by ATF Press

An engagingly visual guide book to a lost city from a scholar in the forefront of research on Colossae. Alan Cadwallader distils information, insights and interpretation into a rich collection of evidence from Colossae and its environs, giving us access to a fascinating and under-researched city. Together with a significant chapter by Rosemary Canavan, Cadwallader's often ground-breaking work gives us unprecedented access into the life and context of this city. A book for all who enjoy time travel with expert guides!

Frank Brennan has been a long time advocate for human rights and social justice in Australia. This collection of essays brings together some of his major addresses and writings on justice in the Catholic Church and in Australian society. Placing the individual's formed and informed conscience as the centre piece in any work for justice, he surveys recent developments in the Catholic Church including the handling of child sexual abuse claims and the uplifting effect of the papacy of Francis, the first Jesuit pope. He then applies Catholic social teaching and the jurisprudence of human rights to contested issues like the separation of powers and the right of religious freedom, and to the claims of diverse groups including Aborigines, asylum seekers, the dying, and same sex couples. At every step, he is there in the public square amplifying that still, small voice of conscience, especially the voice of those who are marginalised.

This book contains a series of essays based on previously published articles but all revised and updated. One on the founding of the university of Sydney has been totally re-written. They deal with the cultural and political tsunami that swept over the British empire and especially the colonies in Australia in the middle of the nineteenth century. The effects on those changes continue to this day for both church and state. The recent debates on marriage and religious freedom have about them the marks of these nineteenth century changes. Not all is simple continuity. State aid for independent schools initiated by Robert Menzies but carried to enormous lengths by his successors to this day actually turned the nineteenth century resolution totally on its head. The issues in these essays turn of the collapse of the English Christendom version of church state relations. The implications of that long running change are still central to the stuttering re-thinking by Anglicans of what it means to be a church in Australia in the twenty first century. That struggle has its analogues in the broader culture and nation as it tries to find a way to be Australia.

For a long time what we now know as space was inaccessible to humans, not because it was at a height which was unattainable without the least astronautical technology or principles, but because of the cosmic and dualistic representation of reality. Humans were relegated to the centre, to a sort of ecesspiti of imperfection, alteration, incompleteness and finally death. Around them were crystal spheres which held the planets and starsoimmutable, eternal and perfectoa domain which was completely off-limits to humans, unless they had discarded their carnal envelope, either through a mystical experience or after death. It took a revolution, the Copernican Revolution, to shatter the celestial spheres and make them no longer forbidden territory. Galileo was one of the first revolutionaries: through his astronomical observations, he showed the Earth and the Sky were in fact made of the same fabric, the same material, and therefore belonged to the same world. Then followed Kepler and others. Centuries passed, and human conquered the air, and then space. Their feet touched the surface of the Moon and their wheels the surface of Mars. The Earth and the entire universe somehow became flat again with no folds, no curves, at least in appearance, to hide any dark corners. The horizon once again retreated out of reach taking with it perhaps the last dreams of exploration. The human imagination does not like horizons which are too flat, too clear; humanity needs to meet resistance, brakes, constraints to stop them in their tracks, to cross them and lead them, to new unknown territories. An impossible Horizon, writes Jacques Arnould in this work, but a horizon without which our adventures, our explorations would lose their savor and especially their meaning. We will then understand that even if the goal is never fully achieved, it is the quest that enriches us.i Bertrand Piccard. (Balloonist, aviator and psychiatrist, Bertrand Piccard is the first to complete a non-stop balloon flight around the globe, in a balloon named Breitling Orbiter 3. With Andre Borschberg, he is the initiator, chairman, and pilot of Solar Impulse, the first successful round-the-world solar powered flight)

The Sydney Language was written to revive interest in the Aboriginal language of the Sydney district. It makes readily available the small amount of surviving information from historical records. Author, Professor Jakelin Troy refers to the language as the Sydney Language'' because there was no name given for the language in these historical records until late in the nineteenth century when it was referred to as Dharug. The language is now called by its many clan names, including Gadigal in the Sydney city area and Dharug in Western Sydney. The word for Aboriginal person in this language is yura'', this word has been used to help identify the language, with the most common spellings being Iyora and Eora. The Sydney Language is ideal for anyone interested in learning more about the language and culture of the Aboriginal owners of what is now called Sydney.

This is an overdue and extremely valuable resource for the Dhurga speaking people of Yuin Country and of any person wanting to learn the traditional language. The Dhurga language is spoken from south of Nowra to Narooma and west to Braidwood and Araluen. This publication is the most concise compilation of the Dhurga language to date with over 730 words including informant and recorder details as validation of authenticity. The dictionary is user-friendly for all literacy levels and readers, it is the very first of its kind and in high demand.

If St. Thomas reached India in 52 AD, where was he preaching in the years prior to ths? Can there be truth to the idea that he traveled to India? This book tries to give comprehensive answers to these questions.