Download or read book Faith Among the Faithless written by Mike Cosper and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2018-05-08 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Encounter a timeless story of evil, awakened faith, and hope for good in a world where God seems absent. Can Christianity survive a secular age? Can Christians live without compromise in an increasingly hostile society? And what if they’ve already given in to that society’s vision and values? In this revelatory and provocative new book, Mike Cosper answers these questions by pointing out the parallels between our world and the story of Esther. A tale of sex, ego, and revenge, the book of Esther reveals a world where God seems absent from everyday life—a world not unlike our own. Far from the gentle cartoon we often hear in Sunday school, the story of Esther is a brutal saga of people assimilated into a pluralistic, pagan society, embracing its standards. Yet when threatened with annihilation, they find the courage to turn to God in humility. A call to spiritual awakening and to faith in an age of malaise and apathy, Faith Among the Faithless is an invitation to remember the faithfulness of God, knowing that in dark times—as in the days of Esther or our own—God may be hidden, but he is never absent.
Download or read book The Faith of the Faithless written by Simon Critchley and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The return to religion has perhaps become the dominant cliché of contemporary theory, which rarely offers anything more than an exaggerated echo of a political reality dominated by religious war. Somehow, the secular age seems to have been replaced by a new era, where political action flows directly from metaphysical conflict. The Faith of the Faithless asks how we might respond. Following Critchley’s Infinitely Demanding, this new book builds on its philosophical and political framework, also venturing into the questions of faith, love, religion and violence. Should we defend a version of secularism and quietly accept the slide into a form of theism—or is there another way? From Rousseau’s politics and religion to the return to St. Paul in Taubes, Agamben and Badiou, via explorations of politics and original sin in the work of Schmitt and John Gray, Critchley examines whether there can be a faith of the faithless, a belief for unbelievers. Expanding on his debate with Slavoj Žižek, Critchley concludes with a meditation on the question of violence, and the limits of non-violence.
Download or read book A Martyr s Faith in a Faithless World written by Bryan Wolfmueller and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lutheran theology is glorious and mysterious. It is relatable and applicable. It is for everyone, in any time, in any place. But it also can be intimidating. A Martyr's Faith in a Faithless World serves as a starting point for those looking to start reading theological works and deepen their understanding of Lutheran theology. Short, poignant chapters show the practical side of Lutheran theology and extol the doctrine of the catechism and the Lutheran Church as true, good, and beautiful. Ultimately, readers will come away with a desire for more theology and a renewed confidence and comfort in God's Word. The budding theologian, the newly catechized, the curious college student, and the inquiring visitor all will be at home in this book. A Martyr's Faith in a Faithless World serves as a great next step for those who have just finished adult confirmation classes and are looking to continue growing in their understanding of Lutheran theology.
Download or read book The Stories We Tell written by Mike Cosper and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2014-08-31 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The average American watches 5 hours of TV every day. Collectively, we spend roughly $30 billion on movies each year. Simply put, we're entertainment junkies. But can we learn something from our insatiable addiction to stories? Mike Cosper thinks so. From horror flicks to rom-coms, the tales we tell and the myths we weave inevitably echo the narrative underlying all of history: the story of humanity's tragic sin and God's triumphant salvation. This entertaining book connects the dots between the stories we tell and the one, great Story—helping us better understand the longings of the human heart and thoughtfully engage with the movies and TV shows that capture our imaginations.
Download or read book The Need for Creeds Today written by J. V. Fesko and published by Baker Academic. This book was released on 2020-11-03 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This brief, accessible invitation to the historic creeds and confessions makes a biblical and historical case for their necessity and shows why they are essential for Christian faith and practice today. J. V. Fesko, a leading Reformed theologian with a broad readership in the academy and the church, demonstrates that creeds are not just any human documents but biblically commended resources for the well-being of the church, as long as they remain subordinate to biblical authority. He also explains how the current skepticism and even hostility toward creeds and confessions came about.
Download or read book Recapturing the Wonder written by Mike Cosper and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2017-07-14 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 15th Annual Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year - Inspirational Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Top Shelf Book Cover Award 2017 When we're young, it's easy to believe in the supernatural, the mysterious, the enchanted. But as we grow older, we learn to be more "rational" and more confident that reality is merely what we can see. Even as Christians who believe in the resurrection, we live as if miracles and magic have been drained from the world. As Mike Cosper wrestled with his own disillusionment, he found writers, thinkers, and artists like Hannah Arendt, Charles Taylor, James K. A. Smith, and David Foster Wallace whose words and ideas reassured him that he was not alone. And he discovered ancient and modern disciplines that shape a Christian way of life and awaken the possibility of living again in an enchanted world. Exquisitely written with thoughtful practices woven throughout, this book will feed your soul and help you recapture the wonder of your Christian walk.
Download or read book Faith in the Shadows written by Austin Fischer and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2018-09-11 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "People don't abandon faith because they have doubts. People abandon faith because they think they're not allowed to have doubts." Too often, our honest questions about faith are met with cold confidence and easy answers. But false certitude doesn't result in strong faith—it results in disillusionment, or worse, in a dogmatic, overweening faith unable to see itself or its object clearly. Even as a pastor, Austin Fischer has experienced the shadows of doubt and disillusionment. In Faith in the Shadows, he leans into perennial questions about Christianity with raw and fearless integrity. He addresses contemporary science, the problem of evil, hell, God's silence, and other issues, offering not only fresh treatments of these questions but also a fresh paradigm for thinking about doubt itself. Doubt, Fischer contends, is no reason to leave the faith. Instead, it's an invitation to a more honest faith—a faith that's not in control, but that trusts more fully in its Lord.
Download or read book Faithmapping written by Daniel Montgomery and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2013 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Helps Christians cultivate unity within the church by articulating a holistic view of the Christian life--the whole gospel for the whole church to the whole world.
Download or read book Faithless written by Karin Slaughter and published by Delacorte Press. This book was released on 2005-08-30 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Brilliant plotting, relentless suspense,” raved the Washington Post. “A new synonym for terror,” crowned the Detroit Free Press. The critics agree: no one writes suspense like Karin Slaughter, whose thrillers featuring medical examiner Sara Linton and her ex-husband, police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, have propelled her to the top of bestseller lists the world over. Now Slaughter fuses her unmatched grasp of forensic science and a mastery of complex relationships in a riveting tale of faith, doubt, and murder. The victim was buried alive in the Georgia woods—then killed in a horrifying fashion. When Sara Linton and Jeffrey Tolliver stumble upon the body, both become consumed with finding out who killed the pretty, impeccably dressed young woman. And for Sara and Jeffrey, a harrowing journey begins, one that will test their own turbulent relationship and draw dozens of lives into the case. Lena Adams is one of them. A Grant County detective for years, she has her own reasons for being drawn to this case and a fierce drive to see justice done. For these three people, who have each seen the darkest side of human nature, the body of the murdered girl is but the first in a series of shocking and sordid revelations. Now, as Jeffrey and Sara narrow the field of suspects, they must confront their own doubts and indiscretions, while Lena Adams sees herself reflected in the frightened eyes of a battered woman who may be the key figure in the case. As Faithless builds to a stunning and unforgettable climax, Karin Slaughter masterfully brings together strands of interlocking lives, family secrets, and hidden passions with one astounding truth: the identity of a killer who is more evil and dangerous than anyone could have guessed. BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Karin Slaughter's Unseen.
Download or read book Losing Our Religion written by Christel Manning and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2015-11-20 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The fastest growing religion in America is--none! Among adults under 30, those poised to be the parents of the next generation, fully one third are religiously unaffiliated. Yet these "Nones," especially parents, still face prejudice in a culture where religion is widely seen as good for your kids. What do Nones believe, and how do they negotiate tensions with those convinced that they ought to provide their children with a religious upbringing?"--Publisher description.
Download or read book Seculosity written by David Zahl and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the heart of our current moment lies a universal yearning, writes David Zahl, not to be happy or respected so much as enough--what religions call "righteous." To fill the void left by religion, we look to all sorts of everyday activities--from eating and parenting to dating and voting--for the identity, purpose, and meaning once provided on Sunday morning. In our striving, we are chasing a sense of enoughness. But it remains ever out of reach, and the effort and anxiety are burning us out. Seculosity takes a thoughtful yet entertaining tour of American "performancism" and its cousins, highlighting both their ingenuity and mercilessness, all while challenging the conventional narrative of religious decline. Zahl unmasks the competing pieties around which so much of our lives revolve, and he does so in a way that's at points playful, personal, and incisive. Ultimately he brings us to a fresh appreciation for the grace of God in all its countercultural wonder.
Download or read book The Naked Public Square written by Richard John Neuhaus and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 1986 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Underlying the many crises in American life, writes Richard John Neuhaus, is a crisis of faith. It is not enough that more people should believe or that those who believe should believe more strongly. Rather, the faith of persons and communities must be more compellingly related to the public arena. "The naked public square"--which results from the exclusion of popular values from the public forum--will almost certainly result in the death of democracy. The great challenge, says Neuhaus, is the reconstruction of a public philosophy that can undergird American life and America's ambiguous place in the world. To be truly democratic and to endure, such a public philosophy must be grounded in values that are based on Judeo-Christian religion. The remedy begins with recognizing that democratic theory and practice, which have in the past often been indifferent or hostile to religion, must now be legitimated in terms compatible with biblical faith. Neuhaus explores the strengths and weaknesses of various sectors of American religion in pursuing this task of critical legitimation. Arguing that America is now engaged in an historic moment of testing, he draws upon Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish thinkers who have in other moments of testing seen that the stakes are very high--for America, for the promise of democratic freedom elsewhere, and possibly for God's purpose in the world. An honest analysis of the situation, says Neuhaus, shatters false polarizations between left and right, liberal and conservative. In a democratic culture, the believer's respect for nonbelievers is not a compromise but a requirement of the believer's faith. Similarly, the democratic rights of those outside the communities of religious faith can be assured only by the inclusion of religiously-grounded values in the common life. The Naked Public Square does not offer yet another partisan program for political of social change. Rather, it offers a deeply disturbing, but finally hopeful, examination of Abraham Lincoln's century-old question--whether this nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.
Download or read book More Than Conquerors written by Megan Hustad and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2014-02-11 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Megan Hustad and her family try to reconcile an evangelical upbringing in a post-Christian America When Megan Hustad was a child, her father uprooted their family from Minneapolis to embark on a cross-cultural journey in the name of evangelical Christianity. As missionaries they brought the Gospel to the Caribbean island of Bonaire and later to the outskirts of Amsterdam. After a decade away, they returned to the States only to find themselves more alien than before. The evangelical landscape had transformed from the idealistic, market-averse movement it was in the 1970s to one where media-savvy pastors held sway over mega-churches. As the family struggled with the economic and spiritual aftermath of their break from middle-class Middle America, Megan and her sister, Amy, began to plot their escape. Megan sets her sights on New York City, where everything she was denied as a child would be at her fingertips, and Amy makes her home among the intellectual swagger of New Englanders. But fitting in proves harder than they'd imagined. As much as Megan tries to shake them, thoughts of the God she was ignoring follow her into every party and relationship. In More Than Conquerors, Hustad explores what happens when the habits of your religion coincide with the demands of your social class, and what breaks when they conflict. With a sharp tongue and deep insight, Hustad offers a vivid account of the cultural divisions, anxieties, and resentments that continue to divide our country and her own family.
Download or read book The Value of Doubt written by Bill Tammeus and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An invitation not to a faith certain of everything but, rather, to a faith that welcomes the discomforting questions. Religious zealotry plagues the world. It drives susceptible people to believe they have all the truth, all the wisdom, all the divine favor. And in some cases it even moves them to murder people who, they have concluded, are enemies of God. In The Value of Doubt, veteran journalist Bill Tammeus draws deeply on his own Protestant experience of doubt and faith and, in a series of reflections, contends that the road to a rich, dynamic, healthy faith inevitably must run through the valley of the shadow of doubt. The opposite of faith, he says, is not doubt; rather, the opposite of faith is false certitude. Tammeus argues in favor of recognizing our mortality, of adopting the Benedictine virtue of humility and of realizing that we live by metaphor, by allegory, by myth. It's the willingness to question, to reconsider, to be comfortable with ambiguity and paradox that will save faith from the hands of those who seem to know all the answers before they ever hear the questions. This lively and challenging look at the religious life is for anyone seeking to build and enrich an authentic faith and courageous enough to see doubt as an essential part of it.
Download or read book Defending Your Faith written by R. C. Sproul and published by . This book was released on 2018-05-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: R. C. Sproul surveys the history and fundamentals of apologetics to show that reason and scientific inquiry can be strong allies in defending the existence of God and the authority of the Bible.
Download or read book Heroes of the Faith written by Gene Fedele and published by Bridge Logos Foundation. This book was released on 2003 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Be inspired through the life sketches of these 70 godly men and woman.
Download or read book The Rescuer written by Jason Sautel and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2020-09-01 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He helped save people every day—but he had no idea how to save himself. Jason Sautel had it all. Confident in his abilities and trusted by his fellow firefighters, he was making a name for himself on the streets of Oakland, California. His adrenaline-fueled job even helped him forget the pain of his childhood—until the day he looked into the eyes of a jumper on the Bay Bridge and came face to face with a darkness he knew would take him down as well. In the following months, a series of traumatic emergency calls—some successful, others impossible-to-forget failures—drove Jason deeper into depression. Even as he continued his lifesaving work, he realized he could never rescue everyone, and he had no idea how to save himself. In the end, Jason was forced to confront the truth: only the relentless power of love could pull him back from his own deadly fall. Action-packed, spiritually honest, and surprisingly romantic, The Rescuer transports readers inside the pulse-pounding world of firefighting and into the heart of a man who needed to be broken before he could finally be made whole.
