The Steel Orb
A collection of creative writing exploring life and Orthodoxy that encompasses:
- Your Fast Track to Consecration!, an offbeat chain letter parody.
- Athanasius: On Creative Fidelity, a whimsical work that has a Church Father comments on a postmodern trend.
- Halloween: A Solemn Farewell, a look at the holiday from a spiritual perspective.
- A Pet Owner's Rules, a look at all spirituality boiling down to two basic rules.
- A Wonderful Life, a relatively long short story that looks at what, exactly, can be good about a life filled with pain.
- Hymn to the Creator of Heaven and Earth, a paean of praise about the glory of the Creator reflected in the Creation.
- Meat, one specific thought about responsible use of that Creation.
- The Watch, a dialogue exploring whether, and how, time may be more than what a watch measures.
- Within the Steel Orb, a science fiction short story.
- The Steel Orb, a fantasy novella.
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Hayward's Unabridged Dictionary
A work that treats culture as technical people may view it. It includes creative work ranging from very short to moderately long:
- An Open Letter to Spam Patrons, an explanation about why sending spam represents a business badly.
- All I Really Needed to Learn About Programming, I Learned from Java, which looks at Java and programming.
- The Modern Baccalaureate, a work that turns Gilbert and Sullivan's "Modern Major-General" on its head.
- The Case for Uncreative Web Design, a look at what is good about uncreative web design.
- The Administrator who Cried, "Important!", a look at what is not so good when administrators leave employees drowning in required readings.
- Christian Koans, a few koans from a Christian bent.
- Religion Within the Bounds of Amusement, a look at television and religion.
- So You've Hired a Hacker (Revised and Expanded), a revised version of a classic FAQ list.
- Hayward's Unabridged Dictionary, a satirical dictionary in the tradition of Ambrose Bierce.
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The Christmas Tales
This is a look at Eastern Orthodoxy, creatively explained. It includes:
- 1054 and All That, a not-quite-right historical parody.
- Stephanos, a story of the worlds to be seen in Orthodox icons.
- Jobs for Theologians, a lighter look at the kinds of jobs that are available to theologians.
- Plato: The Allegory of the... Flickering Screen?, a present-day tribute that looks at the most famous allegory in Plato's writing.
- Two Decisive Moments, a look at two momentous moments.
- A Glimpse into Eastern Orthodoxy, a document about Eastern Orthodox Christianity in aspects that can be harder for Western Christians to pick up.
- An Orthodox Looks at a Calvinist Looking at Orthodoxy, which looks more specifically at how a Calvinist impression of Orthodoxy appears to orthodox.
- Money, a look at how much more there is to life than money.
- The Christmas Tales, a collection of vignettes, each of which is meant to provide a little taste of Eastern Orthodox Christianity.
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Firestorm 2034
This is a look at some of the issues and experiences surrounding profound giftedness. It includes:
- Procedures for the Adjustment and Repair of Televisions, a technical procedure for dealing with televisions.
- A Glimpse Through a Crystal, a glimpse, of the world beyond.
- Game Review: Meatspace, a game review for real life.
- The Monastery, a story of a business traveler seeing something more than money.
- Seven-Sided Gem, a well-received lecture on giftedness.
- An Abstract Art of Memory, a rethinking of classical mnemotechnics to provide a tool to work more gracefully with abstractions.
- The Mindstorm, a dialogue about education and giftedness.
- The Wagon, the Blackbird, and the Saab, a story that tells of vehicles that are coveted and vehicles that are completely taken for granted.
- Firestorm 2034, a novella in which a brilliant traveler is brought to our future and causes some slight chaos.
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Yonder
This is a look at men, women, and the life of the world we share. It includes:
- Inclusive Language Greek Manuscript Discovered, a news article about the discovery of an inclusive language New Testament manuscript.
- Knights and Ladies, a qualitative look at men and women.
- What the Present Debate Won't Tell You About Headship, a discussion of a spirituality barely hinted at by Biblical egalitarian concerns.
- A Strange Picture, a very short glimpse of a spiritually ugly image.
- The Patriarchy We Object To, an essay about Orthodoxy and feminism.
- The Fulfillment of Feminism, with some Orthodox answers to feminist questions.
- A Strange Archaeological Find, a letter in which a 26th century historian looks at curiosities today.
- The Commentary, the tale of a man who finds a commentary to explain "all cultural issues needful to understand the Bible as did its first readers," and finds it quite a shock.
- Unashamed, a story of renewed innocence.
- Yonder, a dialogue turning into story that begins with two disembodied minds looking for something beyond their world.
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A Cord of Seven Strands
This is a collection of some of C.J.S. Hayward's older creations. It includes:
- I Learned it All from Jesus, a poster as it appears in print.
- Amazing Providence, a sermon on divine providence.
- The Metacultural Gospel, a recounting of the Gospel as here an now.
- The Grinch who Stole Christmas, a revisited version of the story of someone trying to kill Christmas by stealing presents.
- A Dream of Light, a dreamlike vision in a fantasy world.
- Espiriticthus: Cultures of a Fantasy World not Touched by Evil, a description of cultures in a beautiful world.
- A Cord of Seven Strands, C.J.S. Hayward's first novel.
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The Sign of the Grail
This is a collection of much of C.J.S. Hayward's newer spiritual literature, meant to provide various encounters with Eastern Orthodoxy. It includes:
- Archdruid of Canterbury Visits Orthodox Patriarch, a discussion of the meeting of two worlds.
- The Eighth Sacrament, a homily on the holy kiss.
- Do We Have Rights?, a look at whether we need to understand moral questions through rights.
- Lesser Icons: Reflections on Faith, Icons, and Art, a look at artwork in the shadow of iconography.
- Our Crown of Thorns, a look at the crown of thorns we all need in order to grow.
- The Horn of Joy: A Meditation on Eternity and Time, Kairos and Chronos, which looks at what time is beyond simply being what a clock measures.
- The Sign of the Grail, the story of a young college student whose world grows deeper when he finds a storybook telling the legends of King Arthur, the enchanted and enchanting forest Brocéliande, and the great quest for the Holy Grail: many things happen before, in the end, this man arrives and finds the Sign of the Grail.
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