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Showing 12421 - 12440 of 24107 items
This is the story of the early life and escape from the Chinese of a young tulku of Tibet, an…
incarnate lama of high rank. The book, first published in 1966, shows the quality of human life as lived in Tibet at all levels. The account of his religious education is detailed and of equal value is his description of the meditational centres and seminaries and of his tutors and spiritual teachers.By Sandra Glahn. 2020
Expert biblical and practical advice for handling today's most challenging sexual issuesAlthough modern culture constantly changes its views on sexuality,…
God's design for sexuality remains the same.Bringing together twenty-five expert contributors in relevant fields of study, Gary Barnes and Sandra Glahn address the most important and controversial areas of sexuality that Christians face today. From a scriptural perspective and with an irenic tone, the contributors address issues such as:The theology of the human bodyMale and female in the Genesis creation accountsAbortionCelibacySexuality in marriageContraceptionInfertilityCohabitationDivorce and remarriageSame-sex attractionGender dysphoriaAn ideal handbook for pastors, counselors, instructors, and students, Sanctified Sexuality provides solid answers and prudent advice for the many questions Christians encounter on a daily basis.By Carlton Stowers, Carroll Pickett. 2002
Within These Walls is the powerful memoir of Rev. Carroll Pickett, who spent fifteen years as the death house chaplain…
at "The Walls," the Huntsville unit of the Texas prison system. In that capacity Reverend Pickett ministered to ninety-five men before they were put to death by lethal injection. They came with sinister nicknames like "The Candy Man" and "The Good Samaritan Killer," some contrite, some angry--a few who might even have been innocent. All of them found in Reverend Pickett their last chance for an unbiased confessor who would look at them only as fellow humans, not simply as the convicted criminals the rest of society had already dismissed them as. This firsthand experience gave Reverend Pickett the unique insight needed to write an impassioned statement on the realities of capital punishment in America. The result is a thought-provoking and compelling book that takes the reader inside the criminal mind, inside the execution chamber, and inside the heart of a remarkable man who shares his thoughts and observations not only about capital punishment, but about the dark world of prison society.This book is for everyone: Atheists will find excellent arguments to help them defend their positions; Agnostics will appreciate the…
clarification it brings; Christians who are struggling will find this book a great help in breaking free from their shackles as they learn exactly why there's no possible way Christianity is true and why they don't have to worry ever again. The Bible says that the world's languages began with the Tower of Babel. Today we know better. But how could the Bible contain stories that aren't true? Author Jeffrey Mark was a devout Christian throughout his life until, during his early 30s, he began studying the Bible more seriously than he ever had. And that's when he made the disturbing realization that so many stories were simply untrue. For him, this realization started with the Tower of Babel. That in turn launched a series of events that eventually led him to abandon his long-held beliefs. Go into the mind of a former Christian. Understand why he believed what he did, why it was so hard to let go, and why, after understanding the truth about the Bible, he ultimately had no choice but to stop believing. Travel with him as you see how Christianity and Judaism rehash older beliefs that have long been written off as mythical. Find out how the Bible in its original form spoke of multiple gods creating the Earth, and how the dearly-held beliefs of today's Christians bear no resemblance to the Bible's stories in their original form. As you take a journey into reason and the scientific method, find out why there is simply no possible way Christianity's teachings can be true, and why we live in a universe that is guided by science--not by a god and his mythical son who rose from the dead.By Edward T. Babinski. 1995
Protestant fundamentalism claims many converts each year as the devout serve as "witnesses" to draw people "into the fold." This…
is where the media hype stops. Little is known of the thousands who leave, frustrated, anguished, confused. For them there are no trumpets of glory, no energized fanfare. No one knows fundamentalism like a fundamentalist, and no one can express what it means to struggle with one's faith to the breaking point, like an ex-fundamentalist. After presenting a fascinating history of "Fundamentalism's Grotesque Past," this riveting new collection offers testimonies of former fundamentalists who became so disillusioned with their church that they chose to leave. Presenting more than thirty personal journeys, this book gives a clear picture of what attracts a person to the fundamentalist faith and what can drive believers away from their religion. Leaving the Fold includes the religious odysseys of those who left fundamentalism behind in favor of atheism or agnosticism, as well as the spiritual journeys of those who remained Christians but backed away from the powerful attraction of fundamentalism. These testimonies convey not only deep feelings and penetrating facts, but the appeal of dogmatic fundamentalism and each individual's struggle to maintain their faith. Leaving the Fold discusses the fears and dilemmas faced by each person who chose to part ways with the church, their gradual dawning of courage to continue asking questions, and their success in giving their intellectual curiosity the freedom it craves. Christians, atheists, and those who may be questioning their own religious convictions will find Leaving the Fold engrossing. This volume also contains a collection of quotations and an annotated bibliography for those interested in tracking down further testimonies.The modern materialist approach to life has conspicuously failed to explain such central mind-related features of our world as consciousness,…
intentionality, meaning, and value. This failure to account for something so integral to nature as mind, argues philosopher Thomas Nagel, is a major problem, threatening to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology. Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete. And the cosmological history that led to the origin of life and the coming into existence of the conditions for evolution cannot be a merely materialist history, either. An adequate conception of nature would have to explain the appearance in the universe of materially irreducible conscious minds, as such. Nagel's skepticism is not based on religious belief or on a belief in any definite alternative. In Mind and Cosmos, he does suggest that if the materialist account is wrong, then principles of a different kind may also be at work in the history of nature, principles of the growth of order that are in their logical form teleological rather than mechanistic. In spite of the great achievements of the physical sciences, reductive materialism is a world view ripe for displacement. Nagel shows that to recognize its limits is the first step in looking for alternatives, or at least in being open to their possibility.By Henry Goldschmidt, Elizabeth McAlister. 2004
The pioneering essays collected in this volume bring critical new perspectives to the interdisciplinary study of racial, national, and religious…
identities. The authors demonstrate that one cannot study these categories of identity formation in isolation, but must instead examine the ways each intersects with-and ultimately helps construct-the others. This innovative theoretical perspective sheds new light on the role of religion in shaping the lives of diverse communities throughout the Americas and forces us to reevaluate the reductive opposition between secular and religious identities. The twelve essays in the volume explore the ties between race, nation, and religion in ethnographic and historical detail. Topics range from Jesuit mission work to Hollywood film, manifest destiny to liberation theology, the Haitian Rara festival to American immigration law. In these and other contexts, the authors explore the intertwined histories of a hemisphere defined at the charged intersections of race, nation, and religion.By Perel Grossman. 2009
Popular humor columnist Perel Grossman shares her not-so-run-of-the-mill experiences as a modern-day; Yiddishe Mama (a.k.a. Jewish Mom) with you, her…
lucky readers! Join the Grossmans and a whole cast of other characters from; everyone's life; for a rollicking journey around the year and around the block. From the mundane to the madcap, fun and hilarity lurk at every street corner and under each pack 'n play.By Timothy Larsen. 2004
From a location in nineteenth-century England, this study seeks to shed fresh light on a range of subjects by introducing…
new conversation partners into a variety of discussions. The orientating discipline is religious history, more specifically the history of Christianity--and the other side of that coin in Victorian currency the history of religious skepticism. Nevertheless, religious history is explored in this volume at its crossroads with other fields, both in religious studies (especially biblical studies and historical theology) and in historical studies, notably political, intellectual, social, cultural, and women's history. This book is comprised of both original and previously published material.By Mark Zelcer, Heshey Zelcer. 2021
Providing a concise but comprehensive overview of Joseph B. Soloveitchik’s larger philosophical program, this book studies one of the most…
important modern Orthodox Jewish thinkers. It incorporates much relevant biographical, philosophical, religious, legal, and historical background so that the content and difficult philosophical concepts are easily accessible. The volume describes his view of Jewish law (Halakhah) and how he takes the view to answer the fundamental question of Jewish philosophy, the question of the "reasons" for the commandments. It shows how numerous of his disparate books, essays, and lectures on law, specific commandments, and Jewish religious phenomenology, can be woven together to form an elegant philosophical program. It also provides an analysis and summary of Soloveitchik’s views on Zionism and on interreligious dialogue and the contexts for Soloveitchik’s respective stances on two issues that were pressing in his role as a leader of a major branch of post-war Orthodox Judaism. The book provides a synoptic overview of the philosophical works of Joseph B. Soloveitchik. It will be of interest to historians and scholars studying neo-Kantian philosophy, Jewish thought and philosophy of religion.By Marguerite Mary Rigoglioso. 2021
• Explains how Mary was born into a lineage of powerful women who cultivated and passed on the ability to…
consciously conceive elevated beings • Includes a complete translation of the Infancy Gospel of James and reveals the hidden codes it contains relating to the practice of miraculous conception • Shows how Mary was trained and initiated in the &“womb mysteries&” and reveals the esoteric techniques she used to conceive Jesus Delving into one of the Virgin Mary&’s forgotten gospels, the Infancy Gospel of James, Marguerite Mary Rigoglioso, Ph.D., reveals a truth that has been suppressed for nearly two millennia: that Mother Mary was not a passive bystander to her own pregnancy but an advanced member of a sacred order of women trained in divine conception. Unlocking the hidden codes of Mary&’s gospel and other ancient source texts, the author reveals how Mary conceived Jesus through a careful process that she willed and initiated. She explains how Mary was born into a family of powerful priestesses, women who possessed, cultivated, and passed on the ability to consciously conceive elevated beings to help the planet. This lineage included Mary&’s own mother, Anne, who conceived Mary with this method, her relative Elizabeth (mother of John the Baptist), and the biblical matriarch Sarah, the wife of Abraham and mother of Isaac. These women were schooled in the shamanic &“womb mysteries,&” secret knowledge of the capacity of the womb. Decoding the Infancy Gospel of James, the author shows how Mary was trained and initiated, reveals the esoteric techniques she used to conceive Jesus, and explores the birth itself and the mind-altering reality that accompanied it. By revealing the Virgin Mary as a trained holy woman and a conscious actor in the conception of Jesus, the author corrects the impression we have been given of a passive and bewildered girl who had no idea how or why she was pregnant. She also restores Mary as the empowered feminine orchestrator of these significant events, paralleling the redemption of Mary Magdalene in recent years. Explaining how and why virgin birth was accomplished, this book allows us to make sense of miraculous conception and reveals the power that lies in all women&’s wombs.By Rosemarie Anderson. 2021
• Restores the feminine essence of the Tao Te Ching as well as the simplicity and poetic undertones of the…
chapters • Offers commentary for each of the 81 chapters and key Chinese characters to reveal their profound wisdom • Translated from ancient silk and bamboo slip manuscripts, the oldest known copies of the Tao Te Ching • Paper with French flaps In this book, Rosemarie Anderson shares her discoveries of the Divine Feminine Tao alongside her original translation of the Tao Te Ching. Working from ancient silk and bamboo slip manuscripts, the oldest known copies of the Tao Te Ching, the author slowly translated all 81 chapters over the course of two years, allowing each section to reveal its intimate poetic and spiritual nature. To her surprise, she discovered that the Tao was unmistakably feminine, consistently referred to as &“mother,&” &“virgin,&” and the &“womb&” of creation. Anderson explains how the Tao is a feminine force, the Dark Womb of Creation, the Immortal Void renewing life again and again in ordinary times and in times of crisis. She offers commentary for each of the 81 chapters to help reveal their profound wisdom. The author also restores the chapters&’ simplicity and musical undertones, explaining how, in the original Chinese manuscripts, the text is poetic and rhymed because the Tao Te Ching was often recited or sung--yet most English translations are written in scholarly prose with long sentences and complex syntax. She shows how the great Tao&’s message of wei wu wei--&“act without acting&” and &“do without doing&”--offers a path of peace and well-being for ourselves and for our relationships with others and the earth, a path that arises from spontaneous action that seeks no gain for the self. Capturing the original feminine nature of this ancient text, Anderson&’s translation sheds new light on the esoteric wisdom contained within the Tao Te Ching and on the mystical feminine essence of the Tao.By Josh Greenberg. 2021
"Josh Greenberg is my kind of nature writer."—The Wall Street Journal It's the beginning of trout fishing season, and Josh…
Greenberg — proprietor of one of the nation&’s most famous fishing outfitters, on America's most iconic trout-fishing stream, the Au Sable River in Michigan —is standing in the Au Sable at dusk when he gets the call that a dear fishing buddy has died. The solace he takes from fishing — from reading the movement of the river water, studying the play of the light, and relying on his knowledge of insect and fish life — prompts him to reflect on the impact of the natural world on his life in his fisherman&’s journal. Over the course of a year, the journal transcends fishing notes to include some beautifully lyrical nature writing, entertaining stories of the big one that got away, cheerful introspection about a love that&’s hard to explain, and yes, a tip or two. Eventually, Josh Greenberg realizes he hasn&’t been all alone in the woods, not really. Much of his relationship with his family and friends has played out on the river. And as he catches — and releases — trout after trout back into one of the most beautiful rivers in America, Greenberg comes to help us realize, too, that there&’s more to fishing than catching fish.By Miguel A. De La Torre. 2021
&“How curiously different is this white God from the one preached by Jesus who understood faithfulness by how we treat…
the hungry and thirsty, the naked and alien, the incarcerated and infirm. This white God of empire may be appropriate for global conquerors who benefit from all that has been stolen and through the labor of all those defined as inferior; but such a deity can never be the God of the conquered.&” Echoing James Cone&’s 1970 assertion that white Christianity is a satanic heresy, Miguel De La Torre argues that whiteness has desecrated the message of Jesus. In a scathing indictment, he describes how white American Christians have aligned themselves with the oppressors who subjugate the &“least of these&”—those who have been systemically marginalized because of their race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status—and, in overwhelming numbers, elected and supported an antichrist as president who has brought the bigotry ingrained in American society out into the open. With this follow-up to his earlier Burying White Privilege, De La Torre prophetically outlines how we need to decolonize Christianity and reclaim its revolutionary, badass message. Timid white liberalism is not the answer for De La Torre—only another form of complicity. Working from the parable of the sheep and the goats in the Gospel of Matthew, he calls for unapologetic solidarity with the sheep and an unequivocal rejection of the false, idolatrous Christianity of whiteness.By Stephen C. Meyer. 2020
The New York Times bestselling author of Darwin’s Doubt presents groundbreaking scientific evidence of the existence of God, based on breakthroughs…
in physics, cosmology, and biology. Beginning in the late 19th century, many intellectuals began to insist that scientific knowledge conflicts with traditional theistic belief—that science and belief in God are “at war.” Philosopher of science Stephen Meyer challenges this view by examining three scientific discoveries with decidedly theistic implications. Building on the case for the intelligent design of life that he developed in Signature in the Cell and Darwin’s Doubt, Meyer demonstrates how discoveries in cosmology and physics coupled with those in biology help to establish the identity of the designing intelligence behind life and the universe. Meyer argues that theism — with its affirmation of a transcendent, intelligent and active creator — best explains the evidence we have concerning biological and cosmological origins. Previously Meyer refrained from attempting to answer questions about “who” might have designed life. Now he provides an evidence-based answer to perhaps the ultimate mystery of the universe. In so doing, he reveals a stunning conclusion: the data support not just the existence of an intelligent designer of some kind—but the existence of a personal God.By Danielle Achikian. 2018
By W. Clark Gilpin, Brett Colasacco, Willemien Otten. 2019
For the past twenty years, Martin Marty and the editors of Sightings, a digital publication of the University of Chicago Divinity…
School&’s Martin Marty Center, have published informed, accessible, and witty commentary on religion in current events. Featuring more than seventy authors—including Marty himself, Eboo Patel, and Krista Tippett—this book collects one hundred of the best essays that originally appeared in Sightings.Religion in public life fluctuates in temperature, but in the last twenty years, the religious climate has produced some harsh and extreme conditions that make the need for public discussion and understanding of religion more vital than ever. In this volume writers intelligently engage and elucidate many critical trends, issues, and practices of faith in our pluralistic world. Rich food for thought awaits readers here.By Alan G. Padgett, Kiara Jorgenson. 2020
Just as God loves creation, so are Christians called to care for it. Now, amid the accelerating degradation of our…
global environment, that task has taken on greater urgency than ever. How should Christians respond to the climate crisis and widespread pollution of earth&’s shared commons, water and air? How might Christian communities think about human responsibility to other living creatures? In roundtable format, Richard Bauckham, Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Steven Bouma-Prediger, and John F. Haught navigate the layers of what it means for humans to live in right relationship with earth&’s lifesystems. After each contributor&’s essay, the other three contributors issue a response—including points of disagreement and questions—thereby modeling for readers productive and respectful dialogue. The ecumenical conversations in Ecotheology represent the diverse viewpoints of contributors&’ theological and practical commitments, exploring creation care through a variety of frameworks, including natural science, biblical studies, systematic theology, and Christian ethics.By Martin E. Marty. 2018
Positive mentoring relationships are held to be essential to the formation of strong Christian leaders—but why? How can theological and…
biblical insights inform mentoring relationships? And what do these vital relationships look like across a range of Christian experience? Opening multiple angles of vision on the practice of mentoring, Dean K. Thompson and D. Cameron Murchison here present a group of eminent scholars who explore mentoring from biblical-theological perspectives, within the context of diverse national and international communities, and across generations. CONTRIBUTORS: David L. Bartlett Walter Brueggemann Katie Geneva Cannon Thomas W. Currie Cristian De La Rosa Jill Duffield Elizabeth Hinson Hasty Luke Timothy Johnson Kwok Pui Lan Thomas G. Long Melva Lowry Martin E. Marty Rebekah Miles D. Cameron Murchison Camille Cook Murray Rodger Nishioka Douglas Ottati Alton B. Pollard III Cynthia L. Rigby Dean K. Thompson Theodore J. WardlawBy Baháí World Centre Staff. 2005
There is every reason for confidence that the period of history now opening will be far more receptive to efforts…
to spread Bahá'u'lláh's message than was the case in the century just ended. All the signs indicate that a sea change in human consciousness is under way.