Download or read book The Crossroads written by Niccolo Ammaniti and published by Text Publishing. This book was released on 2010-01-04 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thousands of depressed little towns, villages and hamlets dot the vast plain where Cristiano Zena lives with his hard-drinking father Rino. Unfocused urban sprawl with no centre to look to and nothing to look forward to. Rito Zena and his cronies Danilo and Qauttro Formaggi are planning a ram raid on an ATM using a converted tractor. The wary, adoring Cristiano sits in on their meetings, watching their half-baked plans unravel, and thinks about the unattainable Fabiana Ponticelli. He has no idea that something very, very bad is about to happen. Or that it will change his life forever. Niccolo Ammaniti, author of the loved and acclaimed I'm Not Scared, brings an extraordinary blend of tenderness, buffoonery and violent tragedy to this gritty, compelling novel from Italy's industrial wastelands.
Download or read book As God Commands written by Niccolò Ammaniti and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The bestselling author of I’m Not Scared delivers “a black thriller with the momentum of an action-packed Hollywood movie” (The Times Literary Supplement). The winner of the prestigious Strega Prize, As God Commands is a dizzying and compulsively readable novel set in a moribund town in industrial Italy, where a father and son contend with a hostile world and their own inner demons. The economically depressed village of Varrano, where Cristiano Zena lives with his hard-drinking, out-of-work father, Rino, is a world away from the picturesque towns of travel-brochure Italy. When Rino and his rough-edged cronies Danilo and Quattro Formaggi come up with a plan to reverse all their fortunes, Cristiano wonders if maybe their lives are poised for deliverance after all. But the plan goes horribly awry. On a night of apocalyptic weather, each character will act in a way that will have irreversible consequences for themselves and others, and Cristiano will find his life changed forever, and not in the way he had hoped. Gritty and relentless, As God Commands moves at breakneck speed, blending brutal violence, dark humor, and surprising tenderness. With clear-eyed affection, Niccolò Ammaniti introduces a cast of unforgettable characters trapped at the crossroads of hope and despair. “It is impossible not to be gripped.” —Financial Times “Punk-rock desperadoes and a daft father-son tragicomedy team run riot through the mess and splendor of today’s Italy . . . Propulsive from the first page . . . Not at all pretty, but darkly, ferociously beautiful—a triumph for Europe’s hottest novelist.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Download or read book Ten Words to Live By written by Jen Wilkin and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New from the Best-Selling Author of Women of the Word Christianity isn't about following rules, it's about a relationship. The rise in popularity of this phrase coincides with a growing disinterest and misunderstanding regarding the role of God's life-giving, perfect law in the Christian life. Rather than the source of joy it was intended to be, the law is viewed as an angry god's restrictions for a rebellious people. In Ten Words to Live By, Jen Wilkin presents a fresh biblical look at the Ten Commandments, showing how they come to bear on our lives today as we seek to love God and others, to live in joyful freedom, and to long for that future day when God will be rightly worshiped for eternity. Learn to see the law of God as a feast for your famished soul, open to anyone who calls on the name of the Lord.
Download or read book The God who Commands written by Richard J. Mouw and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, Richard Mouw probes, from a Calvinist tradition, the place of obedience to a divine command. He suggests that a Calvinist perspective on moral theology can profit from an openness to some contemporary developments, particularly narrativist ethics and feminist thought.
Download or read book God s Call written by J. E. Hare and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2001 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There has been a debate between modern ethicists who see moral judgments as objectively corresponding to a moral reality independent of human opinion and those who insist that moral judgments are essentially expressions of our will. In this excellent philosophical work John Hare outlines a theory that combines the merits of both views, arguing that what makes something right is that God calls us to it. In the first chapter Hare gives a selective history of the sustained debate within Anglo-American philosophy over the last century between moral realists and moral expressivists. Best understood as a disagreement about how objectivity and subjectivity are related in value judgment, this debate is of particular interest to Christians, who necessarily feel pulled in both directions. Christians want to say that value is created by God and exists whether we recognize it or not, but they also want to say that when we value something, our hearts' fundamental commitments are also involved. Hare suggests "prescriptive realism" as a way to bring both perspectives together. The second chapter examines the divine command theory of John Duns Scotus, looking particularly at the relationship that Scotus established between God's commands, human nature, and human will. Hare shows that a Calvinist version of the divine command theory of obligation can be defended via Scotus against natural law theory as well as against contemporary challenges. A significant theme treated here is the view that the Fall disordered our natural inclinations, rendering them useless as an authoritative source of guidance for right living. In the last chapter Hare moves to the key philosophical juncture between the medieval period and our own time -- the moral theory of Immanuel Kant in the late eighteenth century. Modern moral philosophy has largely taken Kant's work as a refutation of divine command theory and a refocusing of the discussion on human autonomy. Hare shows that Kant was in fact not arguing against the kind of divine command theory that Hare supports. He discusses what Kant meant by saying that we should recognize our duties as God's commands, and he defends a notion of human autonomy as appropriation. Featuring original moral theory and fresh interpretations of the thought of Duns Scotus and Kant, God's Call is valuable both for its overview of the history of moral debate and for its construction of a sound Christian ethic for today.
Download or read book The God I Don t Understand written by Christopher J. H. Wright and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009-05-26 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many Christians believe that they have to understand everything about their faith for that faith to be genuine. This isn't true. There are many things we don't understand about God, His Word, and His works. And this is actually one of the greatest things about the Christian faith: that there are areas of mystery that lie beyond the keenest scholarship or even the most profound spiritual exercises. Sadly, for many people these problems raise so many questions and uncertainties that faith itself becomes a struggle. But questions, and even doubts, are part of faith. Chris Wright encourages us to face the limitations of our understanding and to acknowledge the pain and grief they can often cause. In The God I Don't Understand, he focuses on four of the most mysterious subjects in the Bible and reflects upon why it's important to ask questions without having to provide the answer: The problem of evil and suffering. The genocide of the Canaanites. The cross and the crucifixion. The end of the world. "However strongly we believe in divine revelation, we must acknowledge both that God has not revealed everything and that much of what he has revealed is not plain. It is because Dr. Wright confronts biblical problems with a combination of honesty and humility that I warmly commend this book." —John Stott
Download or read book Impossible Commands written by Jonty Allcock and published by . This book was released on 2019-06 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Rejoice always." "Don't be a afraid." "Give cheerfully." What do we do when God's commands sound impossible? Most of us find opt-outs and excuses, or pretend we're doing better than we are-or we give up trying. There is a better way. A way to accept the impossibility of obedience, and then do it anyway. A way to enjoy obeying God, even when it feels that you can't. This book will show you how. Book jacket.
Download or read book Hell and Beyond written by Michael Phillips and published by RosettaBooks. This book was released on 2017-03-07 with total page 123 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Michael Phillips has done the impossible—written a thriller on hell:” The final book in the spiritual fantasy trilogy, following Heaven and Beyond (C. Baxter Kruger, author of The Shack Revisited). A prominent atheist dies unexpectedly and goes to hell. Or so it appears, but nothing is what it seems in this engrossing allegorical novel about the afterlife. In the tradition of C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Michael Phillips has produced a riveting tale of eternity. Hell and Beyond is a lively and fascinating trip through the afterlife—one that will inspire you to rediscover the significance of your life here and now. “Phillips has offered a breathtaking and important addition to the world of traditional theological allegory, joining Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress and C.S. Lewis’ Pilgrim’s Regress . . . It is beautiful beyond describing and stunning in its impact.” —William Paul Young, author of The Shack, from the foreword
Download or read book The Violence of the Biblical God written by L. Daniel Hawk and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2019-01-08 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How can we make sense of violence in the Bible? Joshua commands the people of Israel to wipe out everyone in the promised land of Canaan, while Jesus commands God’s people to love their enemies. How are we to interpret biblical passages on violence when it is sanctioned at one point and condemned at another? The Violence of the Biblical God by L. Daniel Hawk presents a new framework, solidly rooted in the authority of Scripture, for understanding the paradox of God’s participation in violence. Hawk shows how the historical narrative of the Bible offers multiple canonical pictures for faithful Christian engagement with the violent systems of the world.
Download or read book Shards written by Ismet Prcic and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2011-10-04 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book: “Brilliant . . . With verbal glee, Prcic serves up a darkly comic vision of the terrors and misunderstandings of immigration” (Shelf Awareness). Ismet Prcic’s brilliant, provocative, and energetic debut novel is about a young Bosnian, also named Ismet Prcic, who has fled his war-torn homeland and is now struggling to reconcile his past with his present life in California. He is advised that in order to make peace with the corrosive guilt he harbors over leaving his family behind, he must “write everything.” The result is a great rattlebag of memories, confessions, and fictions: sweetly humorous recollections of Ismet’s childhood in Tuzla appear alongside anguished letters to his mother about the challenges of life in this new world. As Ismet’s foothold in the present falls away, his writings are further complicated by stories from the point of view of another young man—real or imagined—named Mustafa, who joined a troop of elite soldiers and stayed in Bosnia to fight. When Mustafa’s story begins to overshadow Ismet’s new-world identity, the reader is charged with piecing together the fragments of a life that has become eerily unrecognizable, even to the one living it. Shards is a thrilling read—a harrowing war story, a stunningly inventive coming of age, and a heartbreaking saga of a splintered family. “Fierce, funny and real, it also says much about war, exile, guilt and fear.” —Chicago Sun-Times, Favorite Books of 2011
Download or read book Enjoying God written by R. C. Sproul and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2017-09-19 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Confused, angry, and hurt after the death of his father, a young R. C. Sproul began his personal search for ultimate truth with these piercing questions: Who are you, God? And why do you do the things you do? In Enjoying God, readers journey with R. C. Sproul to discover the attributes of God through the questions many of us have asked: Where are you, God? Can I trust you, God? and more. In this warm, personal account, Dr. Sproul communicates deep truths in a fresh and easy-to-understand style as he shares his passion to know God and urges the reader to dig deep and seek the God who is alive, who is real, and who loves each one of us.
Download or read book Holy Bible NIV written by Various Authors, and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2008-09-02 with total page 6637 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The NIV is the world's best-selling modern translation, with over 150 million copies in print since its first full publication in 1978. This highly accurate and smooth-reading version of the Bible in modern English has the largest library of printed and electronic support material of any modern translation.
Download or read book Did God Really Command Genocide written by Paul Copan and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2014-11-11 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. Even Christians have a hard time stomaching such a thought, and many avoid reading those difficult Old Testament passages that make us squeamish. Instead, we quickly jump to the enemy-loving, forgiving Jesus of the New Testament. And yet, the question doesn't go away. Did God really command genocide? Is the command to "utterly destroy" morally unjustifiable? Is it literal? Are the issues more complex and nuanced than we realize? In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages. Pastors, youth pastors, campus ministers, apologetics readers, and laypeople will find that this book both enlightens and equips them for serious discussion of troubling spiritual questions.
Download or read book The Commands of Christ written by Tom Blackaby and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jesus says in John 15:10-11, “If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” The Commands of Christ is an unpacking of that key promise, a simply powerful presentation of the loving imperatives we sometimes know more by rote than by heart: Love your enemies; Don’t store up treasures on earth; Seek first the kingdom of God; Let your light shine before men, etc. Tom Blackaby’s focused writing serves as a plumb line of sorts, guiding us toward a vibrant commitment to the Lordship of Christ that better shapes our lives, how we worship, and how we relate to others. You will begin to know more clearly and experience more fully the freedom that comes through obedient acts of love and service to God.
Download or read book What Jesus Demands from the World written by John Piper and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2006 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: for every healthy tree bears good fruit --; Demand #28 : love your enemies--lead them to the truth --; Demand #29 : love your enemies--pray for those who abuse you --; Demand #30 : love your enemies--do good to those who hate you, give to the one who asks --; Demand #31 : love your enemies to show that you are children of God --; Demand #32 : love your neighbor as yourself,
Download or read book Is God a Moral Monster written by Paul Copan and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2011-01-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A recent string of popular-level books written by the New Atheists have leveled the accusation that the God of the Old Testament is nothing but a bully, a murderer, and a cosmic child abuser. This viewpoint is even making inroads into the church. How are Christians to respond to such accusations? And how are we to reconcile the seemingly disconnected natures of God portrayed in the two testaments? In this timely and readable book, apologist Paul Copan takes on some of the most vexing accusations of our time, including: God is arrogant and jealous God punishes people too harshly God is guilty of ethnic cleansing God oppresses women God endorses slavery Christianity causes violence and more Copan not only answers God's critics, he also shows how to read both the Old and New Testaments faithfully, seeing an unchanging, righteous, and loving God in both.
Download or read book Three Commands written by Bruce Pagano II and published by Ink Publishing House LLC. This book was released on 2020-04-06 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How do you love God? Like, really, tangibly, and practically participate in a loving relationship with God? Is it through more prayer? More Bible reading? Spiritual disciplines? Since the second command is like the first, is it by loving and serving your neighbor? What happens when you just become tired and burned out and never feel loved back? Mother Theresa served the poorest of the poor in Kolkata for 40 years and wrote often about how she didn't feel loved by God.? how are we supposed to do something that the Israelites couldn't do over hundreds of years? What if we're not supposed to? What if instead Jesus knew the heaviness in the burden of all that and sought to give us a new way; a new command??? His new command changed everything about the way we love. It's only through learning to love each other that we are able to live in the fullness of a loving relationship with God; one in which we are moved toward loving our neighbor as a means of inviting them into His kingdom of love.
