Download or read book An Unorthodox Faith written by Kurt Struckmeyer and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2017-02-14 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The time is ripe for a new Christian reformation--a profound transformation of theological substance, not just liturgical style. Jesus never intended to create a new religion of rites, creeds, and dogma that offered an eternal reward in heaven. Instead he announced the subversive arrival of the kingdom of God--a social and economic revolution of the heart based on a lifestyle of radical love, lavish generosity, extravagant forgiveness, inclusive hospitality, compassionate action, selfless service, a passion for justice, creative nonviolence, and simple living. He invited his followers to transform their lives and change the world. A postmodern Christianity will call people to engage in the Jesus revolution--a conspiracy of love that rises up against the unjust systems of the world through everyday acts of kindness, compassion, and resistance. An Unorthodox Faith provides a framework for a faithful life based on the Way of Jesus--a way of living authentically and humanely for the sake of others. It offers countless people--those who remain in the church, those who have left, and those who have never ventured near--with a life of faith that is meaningful, intelligent, and passionate.
Download or read book An Unorthodox Match written by Naomi Ragen and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2019-09-24 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Unorthodox Match is a powerful and moving novel of faith, love, and acceptance, from author Naomi Ragen, the international bestselling author of The Devil in Jerusalem. California girl Lola has her life all set up: business degree, handsome fiancé, fast track career, when suddenly, without warning, everything tragically implodes. After years fruitlessly searching for love, marriage, and children, she decides to take the radical step of seeking spirituality and meaning far outside the parameters of modern life in the insular, ultraorthodox enclave of Boro Park, Brooklyn. There, fate brings her to the dysfunctional home of newly-widowed Jacob, a devout Torah scholar, whose life is also in turmoil, and whose small children are aching for the kindness of a womanly touch. While her mother direly predicts she is ruining her life, enslaving herself to a community that is a misogynistic religious cult, Lola’s heart tells her something far more complicated. But it is the shocking and unexpected messages of her new community itself which will finally force her into a deeper understanding of the real choices she now faces and which will ultimately decide her fate.
Download or read book Looking for God written by Nancy Ortberg and published by NavPress. This book was released on 2014-10-03 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We get so prescriptive with the spiritual life. We prepackage it, duplicate it, mass-produce it, insist upon it, and brag about it. We make it a formula. As a result, we tend to see God from such a narrow perspective. We box God up and compartmentalize Him into thirty minutes each morning. But in reality, He is waiting for us to realize that He invades all the parts of our days . . . if only we would pay attention. In Looking for God, Nancy Ortberg will inspire you to break away from the bland, formulaic approach to Christianity and embrace the often unexpected, at times unnerving, but always extraordinary power of God’s grace. As you journey with Nancy, you’ll find God in places you have never dreamed of looking, and you’ll experience faith on a deeper level than you have ever imagined possible.
Download or read book Unorthodox written by Deborah Feldman and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-10-02 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The instant New York Times bestselling memoir of a young Jewish woman's escape from a religious sect, in the tradition of Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel and Carolyn Jessop's Escape, featuring a new epilogue by the author. As a member of the strictly religious Satmar sect of Hasidic Judaism, Deborah Feldman grew up under a code of relentlessly enforced customs governing everything from what she could wear and to whom she could speak to what she was allowed to read. It was stolen moments spent with the empowered literary characters of Jane Austen and Louisa May Alcott that helped her to imagine an alternative way of life. Trapped as a teenager in a sexually and emotionally dysfunctional marriage to a man she barely knew, the tension between Deborah's desires and her responsibilities as a good Satmar girl grew more explosive until she gave birth at nineteen and realized that, for the sake of herself and her son, she had to escape.
Download or read book Finding God Beyond Religion written by Tom Stella and published by SkyLight Paths Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you describe yourself as spiritual but not religious? Whether young or old, church connected or not, are you spiritually restless for an authentic faith life but do not find conventional religious teachings pertinent to you? This accessible guide to a meaningful spiritual life is a salve for your soul. It reinterprets traditional religious teachings central to the Christian faith - God, Jesus, faith, prayer, morality and more - in ways that connect with people who have outgrown the beliefs and devotional practices that once made sense to them.
Download or read book Stalking God written by Anjali Kumar and published by Seal Press. This book was released on 2018-01-16 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anjali Kumar, a pragmatic lawyer for Google, was part of a rapidly growing population in America: highly spiritual but religiously uncommitted. But when her daughter was born, she became compelled to find God -- or at least some kind of enlightenment. Convinced that traditional religions were not a fit for her, and knowing that she couldn't simply Google an answer to "What is the meaning of life?", Kumar set out on a spiritual pilgrimage, looking for answers -- and nothing was off limits or too unorthodox. She headed to the mountains of Peru to learn from the shamans, attended the techie haunt of Burning Man, practiced transcendental meditation, convened with angels, and visited saints, goddesses, witches, and faith healers. She even hired a medium to convene with the dead. Kumar's lighthearted story offers a revealing look at the timeless and vexing issue of spirituality in an era when more and more people are walking away from formal religions. Narrated from the open-minded perspective of a spiritual seeker rather than a religious scholar, Kumar offers an honest account of some of the less than mainstream spiritual practices that are followed by millions of people in the world today as she searches for the answers to life's most universal questions: Why are we here? What happens when we die? Is there a God?
Download or read book An Unorthodox Faith written by Kurt Struckmeyer and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2017-02-14 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The time is ripe for a new Christian reformation--a profound transformation of theological substance, not just liturgical style. Jesus never intended to create a new religion of rites, creeds, and dogma that offered an eternal reward in heaven. Instead he announced the subversive arrival of the kingdom of God--a social and economic revolution of the heart based on a lifestyle of radical love, lavish generosity, extravagant forgiveness, inclusive hospitality, compassionate action, selfless service, a passion for justice, creative nonviolence, and simple living. He invited his followers to transform their lives and change the world. A postmodern Christianity will call people to engage in the Jesus revolution--a conspiracy of love that rises up against the unjust systems of the world through everyday acts of kindness, compassion, and resistance. An Unorthodox Faith provides a framework for a faithful life based on the Way of Jesus--a way of living authentically and humanely for the sake of others. It offers countless people--those who remain in the church, those who have left, and those who have never ventured near--with a life of faith that is meaningful, intelligent, and passionate.
Download or read book Wish You Were Gone written by Kieran Scott and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-02-22 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A “captivating thriller full of twists and surprises” (Megan Miranda, New York Times bestselling author) about what happens when the death of a husband and father isn’t the tragedy everyone believes—perfect for fans of the Netflix original series Dead to Me. Emma Walsh has finally worked up the courage to confront her husband James about his drinking. But James never shows up to meet her as planned, and all her righteous words go unsaid. And unsaid they remain, because the next time Emma sees James, his body lies crumpled amidst the wreckage of his flashy car. In the aftermath of the fatal crash, Emma and her teenage children begin to embrace life without James’s looming, volcanic presence. Buoyed by the support of her two closest friends, she struggles to deal with her grief, complicated by the knowledge that her husband’s legacy as an upstanding business owner and family man shines only because so many people, for so long, were so willing to keep his secrets—secrets that twist into new and unexpected shapes as the mysterious details of his last day of life begin to come to light. A “stylish” (Publishers Weekly) and “delicious” (Booklist) domestic thriller, Wish You Were Gone will keep you guessing “until not just the last page, but the last paragraph” (Chandler Baker, New York Times bestselling author).
Download or read book The Kingdom of the Cults written by Walter Martin and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2003-10 with total page 704 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Newly updated, this definitive reference work on major cult systems is the gold standard text on cults with nearly a million copies sold.
Download or read book Migrating Faith written by Daniel Ramírez and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2015-09-14 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daniel Ramirez's history of twentieth-century Pentecostalism in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands begins in Los Angeles in 1906 with the eruption of the Azusa Street Revival. The Pentecostal phenomenon--characterized by ecstatic spiritual practices that included speaking in tongues, perceptions of miracles, interracial mingling, and new popular musical worship traditions from both sides of the border--was criticized by Christian theologians, secular media, and even governmental authorities for behaviors considered to be unorthodox and outrageous. Today, many scholars view the revival as having catalyzed the spread of Pentecostalism and consider the U.S.-Mexico borderlands as one of the most important fountainheads of a religious movement that has thrived not only in North America but worldwide. Ramirez argues that, because of the distance separating the transnational migratory circuits from domineering arbiters of religious and aesthetic orthodoxy in both the United States and Mexico, the region was fertile ground for the religious innovation by which working-class Pentecostals expanded and changed traditional options for practicing the faith. Giving special attention to individuals' and families' firsthand accounts and tracing how a vibrant religious music culture tied transnational communities together, Ramirez illuminates the interplay of migration, mobility, and musicality in Pentecostalism's global boom.
Download or read book TREYF written by Elissa Altman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Washington Post columnist and James Beard Award-winning author of Poor Man’s Feast comes a story of seeking truth, acceptance, and self in a world of contradiction... Treyf: According to Leviticus, unkosher and prohibited, like lobster, shrimp, pork, fish without scales, the mixing of meat and dairy. Also, imperfect, intolerable, offensive, undesirable, unclean, improper, broken, forbidden, illicit. Fans of Augusten Burroughs and Jo Ann Beard will enjoy this kaleidoscopic, universal memoir in which Elissa Altman explores the tradition, religion, family expectations, and the forbidden that were the fixed points in her Queens, New York, childhood. Every part of Altman’s youth was laced with contradiction and hope, betrayal and the yearning for acceptance: synagogue on Saturday and Chinese pork ribs on Sunday; bat mitzvahs followed by shrimp-in-lobster-sauce luncheons; her old-country grandparents, whose kindness and love were tied to unspoken rage, and her bell-bottomed neighbors, whose adoring affection hid dark secrets. While the suburban promise of The Brady Bunch blared on television, Altman searched for peace and meaning in a world teeming with faith, violence, sex, and paradox. Spanning from 1940s wartime Brooklyn to 1970s Queens to present-day rural New England, Treyf captures the collision of youthful cravings and grown-up identities. It is a vivid tale of what it means to come to yourself both in spite and in honor to your past.
Download or read book A Conspiracy of Love written by Kurt Struckmeyer and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2016-02-05 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before there were worshippers of Jesus, there were followers of Jesus. Before there were organized churches with creeds and doctrines, there were small communities of love, equality, and sharing dedicated to the practice of Jesus' teachings and committed to a wholly new way of living. Today, the churches of the Global North are in decline and younger generations no longer seek meaning there. Traditional "church Christianity" is gradually giving way to some new way of faithful living. From a Nazi prison cell, German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer imagined a future "religionless Christianity" consisting of contemplative prayer and righteous action in the secular world. A Conspiracy of Love presents the contours of such a faith based on the "way" of Jesus. It calls us to become troublemakers, revolutionaries, seekers of change, and agents of transformation engaged in conspiracies of love to establish justice and peace in a postmodern world. It offers many different people--those who remain in the church, those who have left, and those who have never ventured near--with a life of faith that is meaningful, intelligent, and passionate.
Download or read book The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia written by Stephanie Butnick and published by Artisan. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Named one of Library Journal’s Best Religion & Spirituality Books of the Year An Unorthodox Guide to Everything Jewish Deeply knowing, highly entertaining, and just a little bit irreverent, this unputdownable encyclopedia of all things Jewish and Jew-ish covers culture, religion, history, habits, language, and more. Readers will refresh their knowledge of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, the artistry of Barbra Streisand, the significance of the Oslo Accords, the meaning of words like balaboosta,balagan, bashert, and bageling. Understand all the major and minor holidays. Learn how the Jews invented Hollywood. Remind themselves why they need to read Hannah Arendt, watch Seinfeld, listen to Leonard Cohen. Even discover the secret of happiness (see “Latkes”). Includes hundreds of photos, charts, infographics, and illustrations. It’s a lot.
Download or read book Sacrilege Shapevine written by Hugh Halter and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2011-10-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is safe to say most Christians do not live like Jesus did, have the same influence on people he had, or draw even the slightest curiosity from the on-looking world. Jesus's ability to woo people to him and win their hearts was directly related to how he challenged their assumptions about religion. He not only gave them a unique, personal way to follow him but also showed them how to participate with him in his mission. Sacrilege helps readers rethink what it really means to become like Jesus. It exposes the patterns of thinking that have held the church hostage for years and inspires readers to rethink the way they understand Scripture, family, spiritual formation, conversion, church, sin, and more.
Download or read book Single Gay Christian written by Gregory Coles and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2017-08-22 with total page 132 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In an age where neither society nor the church knows what to do with gay Christians, Greg Coles shares his story—a story about a boy in love with Jesus who, at the fateful onset of puberty, realized his sexual attractions were persistently and exclusively for other guys. This honest, hopeful account shows life through one man's eyes and assures all people: "You are not a mistake."
Download or read book Art and Faith written by Makoto Fujimura and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2021-01-05 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a world-renowned painter, an exploration of creativity’s quintessential—and often overlooked—role in the spiritual life “Makoto Fujimura’s art and writings have been a true inspiration to me. In this luminous book, he addresses the question of art and faith and their reconciliation with a quiet and moving eloquence.”—Martin Scorsese “[An] elegant treatise . . . Fujimura’s sensitive, evocative theology will appeal to believers interested in the role religion can play in the creation of art.”—Publishers Weekly Conceived over thirty years of painting and creating in his studio, this book is Makoto Fujimura’s broad and deep exploration of creativity and the spiritual aspects of “making.” What he does in the studio is theological work as much as it is aesthetic work. In between pouring precious, pulverized minerals onto handmade paper to create the prismatic, refractive surfaces of his art, he comes into the quiet space in the studio, in a discipline of awareness, waiting, prayer, and praise. Ranging from the Bible to T. S. Eliot, and from Mark Rothko to Japanese Kintsugi technique, he shows how unless we are making something, we cannot know the depth of God’s being and God’s grace permeating our lives. This poignant and beautiful book offers the perspective of, in Christian Wiman’s words, “an accidental theologian,” one who comes to spiritual questions always through the prism of art.
Download or read book Unbelievers written by Alec Ryrie and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-11-19 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “How has unbelief come to dominate so many Western societies? The usual account invokes the advance of science and rational knowledge. Ryrie’s alternative, in which emotions are the driving force, offers new and interesting insights into our past and present.” —Charles Taylor, author of A Secular Age Why have societies that were once overwhelmingly Christian become so secular? We think we know the answer, pointing to science and reason as the twin culprits, but in this lively, startlingly original reconsideration, Alec Ryrie argues that people embraced unbelief much as they have always chosen their worldviews: through the heart more than the mind. Looking back to the crisis of the Reformation and beyond, he shows how, long before philosophers started to make the case for atheism, powerful cultural currents were challenging traditional faith. As Protestant radicals eroded time-honored certainties and ushered in an age of anger and anxiety, some defended their faith by redefining it in terms of ethics, setting in motion secularizing forces that soon became transformational. Unbelievers tells a powerful emotional history of doubt with potent lessons for our own angry and anxious times. “Well-researched and thought-provoking...Ryrie is definitely on to something right and important.” —Christianity Today “A beautifully crafted history of early doubt...Unbelievers covers much ground in a short space with deep erudition and considerable wit.” —The Spectator “Ryrie traces the root of religious skepticism to the anger, the anxiety, and the ‘desperate search for certainty’ that drove thinkers like...John Donne to grapple with church dogma.” —New Yorker
