In the book Shoeless Joe, what does the quote "a ballpark at night is more of a church than a church" mean and how does it relate to the theme of religion in the book?

Shoeless Joe is Canadian author W. P. Kinsella's 1982 novel about a baseball-devoted farmer who is inspired to build a baseball park in the middle of his corn field. Despite its grounding in sport, Shoeless Joe is an intensely religious novel which uses biblical allusion and metaphor to argue that the power of faith is strong enough to transform even nature and reality.
Throughout the story, Ray Kinsella's love for--and near obsession with--baseball is contrasted against the more rote dogma of traditional Christianity. Baseball is, in effect, Kinsella's religion, and the baseball park becomes identified with the same sacred space that a church or temple might. Its supernatural power, through Kinsella's experiences, becomes as real as nature itself.
In one scene in the story, Ray Kinsella, Archie Graham, and J.D. Salinger visit Bloomington, Minnesota's Metropolitan Stadium. Inquiring whether either Graham or Salinger has spent time in an empty baseball stadium, Kinsella observes that a "ballpark at night is more of a church than a church."

Kinsella's statement underscores the magical properties he sees in the stadium as an element in the larger baseball "religion" to which he subscribes. Later in the story, Ray's own stadium is called "heaven on Earth." This statement, taken in tandem with his earlier comment about the baseball park being "more of a church than a church" highlights that baseball is, for Kinsella, an organic, tangible religion in which mortals can directly interact with the supernatural. In the arena of the ballpark, the gods themselves (the players) gather on ordained days for worship by their devotees (the fans).
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How does Mattie change from the beginning to the end of Fever 1793?

Over the course of the book, Mattie develops from a regular teenage girl into a mature young woman.
When the story begins, Mattie has to be roused out of bed by her mom, who needs her to do some chores. But Mattie is incredibly lazy and deeply resents having to do anything that might resemble hard work. Contrast this with how she behaves later on in the story when her mom goes missing. Under these trying circumstances, Mattie is forced to take on the running of the coffeeshop, which she does with remarkable efficiency. There's certainly no sign of the lazy young adult we saw earlier.
Mattie also develops emotionally throughout the story. To some extent, this is a result of the empathy that she's gained from tending to the sick. At first, she gives the impression that she regards Nathaniel Benson as a good friend but nothing more. It's only later on, when she discovers than Nathaniel didn't die from the fever, that she realizes she's developed deep feelings for him.

What challenges does the old man face during his fight with the giant fish?

The biggest challenge that Santiago has to face in his fight with the marlin is that he's not getting any younger. Santiago's too old to be engaging in such a long, grueling battle with one of nature's aristocrats. But he rises to the challenge, seeing the marlin as a formidable opponent, well worth all the time and effort he puts into catching it. Strong, relentless, and full of tricks that can throw even the most experienced fisherman off the scent, this is a worthy adversary indeed, and Santiago's ego cannot resist the challenge.
Although the old man eventually prevails in this epic battle of wills, it takes a lot out of him, both physically and mentally. By rights, this really ought to be Santiago's last fishing expedition, but as this is a man with such an active personality, we can't really imagine his getting out the pipe and slippers just yet.
Once he's caught the big fish, Santiago then has to deal with the additional challenge of getting his catch home in one piece. But that's easier said than done with a large school of sharks circling round his boat. Santiago somehow needs to fend off these fearsome creatures if he's to bring his marlin safely home. Unfortunately, he's unable to do so, and his prize catch is reduced to a bag of bones by the greedy sharks.
Maybe when he was a lot younger Santiago would've been able to overcome this particular obstacle. But now that he's rapidly heading towards his twilight years, this is just one challenge too many for the aging fisherman.

Was the cold war mostly . . . An arms/weapons race? An ideological conflict? A power struggle? A race to fill the power vacuum after the European superpowers? A technological race?

The Cold War was all of those things. If you have to pick just one answer though, you are best off picking number 3. In the end, the Cold War was indeed a power struggle. The so-called "free world," with the United States as its leader, and the socialist regimes led by the Soviet Union were engaged in a contest for influence over as much of the globe as possible.
Keep in mind that this power struggle played out in ways that meet the criteria of the other possible answers. At times, the Cold War was an arms and technological race, with the United States and the Soviet Union competing for the most nuclear weapons, most advanced weapons platforms, and the best military intelligence. It was also an ideological conflict between ideas of capitalism and democracy versus socialism and communism.
Furthermore, it did start out, in many ways, as an effort to fill the void left by the defeated Axis powers after WWII. However, you can consider all these to be just part of the greater power struggle that defined the conflict. Without the forces of communism and democracy competing for power and influence, none of these other factors would have occurred as they did.

What are some quotes that show being free or freedom in Fahrenheit 451?

Montag is fortunate to meet Clarisse early in the book, as she opens up to him how numb his life has become. He might have a high status job, but his life has become one of routinized conformity. Listening to her talk about what she does, which shows she has freed herself to live on her own terms, Montag is struck with the realization of his own unhappiness and lack of freedom. She says to him:

I rarely watch the 'parlour walls' or go to races or Fun Parks. So I've lots of time for crazy thoughts, I guess.

Clarisse's words shows she lives freely, or as Beatty will later say, is a misfit who asks too many questions. All through the book, Beatty tries to frame freedom as a burden and a problem. Nevertheless, Montag's encounter with Clarisse radicalizes him, and he pursues his own path from then on, primarily the freedom to read and think.
Granger counsels Montag on freedom after he escapes the city and the Mechanical Hound. He says you can't force people to accept your ideas. It has to come from free choice:

But you can't make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up under them.

Granger also advises Montag to embrace a radical freedom. This is the opposite of the security Montag's old society offered him in exchange for his freedom to think, question, or forge his own path:

Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal.

After the atomic blast destroys his city, Montag thinks about how free he and the other men are who have memorized books. He is excited by the prospect of the life ahead, even if it will be harder than the life he is leaving behind:

We'll just start walking today and see the world and the way the world walks around and talks, the way it really looks. I want to see everything now.

In this classic novel by Ray Bradbury, the government censors books and prohibits intellectualism. The novel's antagonist, Captain Beatty, is a staunch proponent of censorship and conformity. During a conversation with Montag, Captain Beatty tells him,

A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man?

Books, and everything they convey, represent intellectual freedom and personal expression, both of which threaten the government's authoritative reign. Beatty comparing a book to a loaded gun emphasizes the lack of freedom in Bradbury's dystopia.
During a conversation with Professor Faber, Montag is told,

Books can be beaten down with reason. But with all my knowledge and skepticism, I have never been able to argue with a one-hundred-piece symphony orchestra, full color, three dimensions, and I being in and part of those incredible parlors.

According to Faber, reading and exercising one's intellect is the epitome of personal freedom. While reading, individuals exercise their freedom of thought, which is something that cannot happen while watching the distracting, loud parlor walls. The parlor walls and mainstream media are the government's way of suppressing intellectualism and limiting personal freedoms.
Professor Faber also elaborates on the importance of independent thought by telling Montag,

But remember that the Captain belongs to the most dangerous enemy of truth and freedom, the solid unmoving cattle of the majority. Oh, God, the terrible tyranny of the majority.

Individuality is an extension and expression of personal freedom, which is oppressed by the authoritative regime. Faber encourages Montag to exercise his individuality by challenging the government and warns him about becoming a passive, thoughtless member of the majority. Fortunately, Montag takes Faber’s advice and ends up fleeing the dystopian nation to exercise his individuality among the traveling intellectuals.

In Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, freedom is a theme that is explored and contrasted with the heavily oppressed lives that the characters of Fahrenheit 451 live.
On page 150, Granger passionately says to the novel's protagonist, Montag, “Stuff your eyes with wonder . . . live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.”
Through this declaration, Granger speaks to the need for the human spirit to experience a freedom that cannot be constructed by a ruling state or corporation. He implores Montag to experience the freedom that exists in the hearts and minds of every person, should that person choose to unchain himself from the shackles of an oppressive society and truly experience the natural beauty of the world around him.
On page 52, Mildred implores Montag to leave her alone, and, in turn, Montag replies: “Let you alone! That’s all very well, but how can I leave myself alone? We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?”
Montag is lamenting the lack of meaning in his controlled life. He speaks to the need for humans to be able to be affected by, and react to, their environments. In Montag's life, his ability to be impacted in meaningful ways by the world is stifled by an oppressive state. In order for an individual to be free, one must be able to experience true meaning in life.
On pages 84–85, Faber tells Montag that there are three things necessary to change the world. He asserts that "Number one, as I said: quality of information. Number two: leisure to digest it. And number three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two."
This quote is significant to the theme of freedom in the novel, as Faber speaks to the importance of the freedom to receive uncensored information, the freedom to consider this information, and the freedom to carry out actions in response to information.

What was the New England colonies' relationship with the natives?

The relationship between indigenous people of the land now typically known as "New England" was certainly one of colonizers taking land and displacing natives, and of the colonized being displaced with some attempting to fight back. The colonists quickly began attacking native tribes and forcing them off their ancestral lands. As European diseases and European weaponry began devastating the indigenous population, more and more land was stolen from indigenous tribes as their numbers significantly dwindled. European missionaries attempted to coerce indigenous tribes into Christianity under threat of violence and slavery. In the mid 1600s, indigenous folks of the Pequot tribe launched an uprising against the colonists of so-called "Connecticut" in what became known as the Pequot Wars. While many tribes fought bravely and fiercely to push the colonists back and away from their lands, the colonists had too many resources, as they had the entire backing of the British crown behind them.

What are some quotes by Selina that show how she values beauty in So Big by Edna Ferber?

The protagonist of Edna Ferber's novel So Big is the formidable Selina Peake DeJong, for whom life is very difficult indeed. Scarred from struggle, Selina often finds herself in "a trackless waste," her best efforts to find an earthly paradise notwithstanding. But even when she is at her lowest, she uses her aesthetic imagination and innate sense of hopefulness to see things differently:

But always, to her, red and green cabbages were to be jade and burgundy, chrysoprase and porphyry. Life has no weapons against a woman like that.

Ferber says that life lacks weapons against Selina because it cannot defeat her spirit. But the mere fact that life requires weapons in order to see things as beautiful indicates that the world of the novel is a world at war, in which the vision of beauty must contend against the reality of ugliness, poverty, scars, and loss.
Selina's vision of beauty, it should be noted, is not a vision of inhuman perfection but rather of a beauty tempered by the shadow of suffering:

“Any piece of furniture, I don't care how beautiful it is, has got to be lived with, and kicked about, and rubbed down, and mistreated . . . , and repolished, and knocked around and dusted and sat on or slept in or eaten off of before it develops its real character,” Selina said.

This shows that Selina's aesthetics are related to her sense of character; with human beings, as with pieces of furniture, Selina values what has endured through trials and misfortune over and against that which is untouched.
In a discussion with the character of Dirk, Selina warns him against abandoning the restless pursuit of beauty. She warns him against settling for safety.

Suddenly she raised a warning finger. Her eyes were luminous, prophetic. “Dirk, you can’t desert her like that!”“Desert who?” He was startled.“Beauty! Self-expression. Whatever you want to call it. You wait! She’ll turn on you some day. Some day you’ll want her, and she won’t be there.”

In this passage, beauty is almost an anthropomorphic deity—if she is abandoned, she will flee. Here, Selina assumes the role of a prophetess, warning against succumbing to hopelessness and mediocrity. Her vision for Dirk is of an impoverished future, in which one day he will turn to beauty again in hopes of inspiration, and she will not be there.