Download or read book Faith and Certitude written by Fr. Thomas Dubay and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2017-06-28 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The highly regarded Dubay (Fire Within) presents a thorough and concise analysis of the critical questions and issues concerning faith and certitude in our day. Written in a very readable, inspirational and sometimes humorous style, Dubay cuts through the relativism and skepticism of our time and exposes the deepest roots of error, whether scientific or religious. He shows how anyone committed to an honest search for truth and goodness can attain a rock solid religious certitude that will not be shaken by developments in human events and academic studies.

Download or read book Water to Wine written by Brian Zahnd and published by . This book was released on 2016-01-04 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why would the pastor of a large and successful church risk everything in a quest to find a richer, deeper, fuller Christianity? In Water To Wine Brian Zahnd tells his story of disenchantment with pop Christianity and his search for a more substantive faith. "I was halfway to ninety-midway through life-and I had reached a full-blown crisis. Call it garden variety mid-life crisis if you want, but it was something more. You might say it was a theological crisis, though that makes it sound too cerebral. The unease I felt came from a deeper place than a mental file labeled "theology." I was wrestling with the uneasy feeling that the faith I had built my life around was somehow deficient. Not wrong, but lacking. It seemed watery, weak. In my most honest moments I couldn't help but notice that the faith I knew seemed to lack the kind of robust authenticity that made Jesus so fascinating. And I had always been utterly fascinated by Jesus. What I knew was that the Jesus I believed in warranted a better Christianity than what I was familiar with. I was in Cana and the wine had run out. I needed Jesus to perform a miracle." -Water To Wine

Download or read book The Map of the Journey to God written by M. R. Bawa Muhaiyaddeen and published by The Fellowship Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Wisdom s Journey written by John Herlihy and published by World Wisdom, Inc. This book was released on 2009 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Herlihy takes readers on a journey of understanding to the heart of Islam, the world's fastest growing religion. Weaving details of Islam's central beliefs and practices--its Five Pillars--with intimate autobiographical details of his more than thirty years in the religion, Herlihy provides readers with an insightful glimpse into a religion that currently claims more than one billion adherents and yet remains so often misunderstood in the West. In Wisdom's Journey Herlihy speaks openly about his conversion to Islam and intimately retells his moving experiences while performing the pilgrimag.

Download or read book Certitude written by Adam Begley and published by Crown Archetype. This book was released on 2009-05-12 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sometimes all we have is the courage of our convictions. But not all convictions are created equal. In fact, some are downright delusional. And once a foolish notion sinks its teeth into the famous or the powerful, look out–the impact can have profound consequences for the rest of us. So it’s nothing short of gratifying when our most bullheaded and self-righteous leading lights insist on getting their way only to be proven egregiously embarrassingly wrong. From politicians to pontiffs, movie stars to moguls, and artists to inventors, Certitude presents short biographical sketches of notoriously stubborn individuals who were certain they were right–with laughable, disturbing, and often disastrous results. Earning a place among the greatest historical and contemporary bullheads are: •Girolamo Savonarola, the Dominican friar who failed to place his own vanities on the bonfire. •Carry A. Nation, the saloon smasher who didn’t have a temperate bone in her teetotaling body. •Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes series, who lacked the deductive reasoning he bestowed on his own creation. •Joseph Stalin, the hard-line Soviet leader who had a soft spot after all. •Madonna, the queen of pop, who isn’t just a material girl: She’s embraced Kabbalah and the doctrine of reincarnation–in other words, she’ll be back! Informative, irreverent, and brilliantly illustrated by the caricaturist Edward Sorel, Certitude is a book for our time.

Download or read book The Sin of Certainty written by Peter Enns and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2016-04-12 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The controversial evangelical Bible scholar and author of The Bible Tells Me So explains how Christians mistake “certainty” and “correct belief” for faith when what God really desires is trust and intimacy. With compelling and often humorous stories from his own life, Bible scholar Peter Enns offers a fresh look at how Christian life truly works, answering questions that cannot be addressed by the idealized traditional doctrine of “once for all delivered to the saints.” Enns offers a model of vibrant faith that views skepticism not as a loss of belief, but as an opportunity to deepen religious conviction with courage and confidence. This is not just an intellectual conviction, he contends, but a more profound kind of knowing that only true faith can provide. Combining Enns’ reflections of his own spiritual journey with an examination of Scripture, The Sin of Certainty models an acceptance of mystery and paradox that all believers can follow and why God prefers this path because it is only this way by which we can become mature disciples who truly trust God. It gives Christians who have known only the demand for certainty permission to view faith on their own flawed, uncertain, yet heartfelt, terms.

Download or read book Losing My Religion written by William Lobdell and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-03-06 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: William Lobdell's journey of faith—and doubt—may be the most compelling spiritual memoir of our time. Lobdell became a born-again Christian in his late 20s when personal problems—including a failed marriage—drove him to his knees in prayer. As a newly minted evangelical, Lobdell—a veteran journalist—noticed that religion wasn't covered well in the mainstream media, and he prayed for the Lord to put him on the religion beat at a major newspaper. In 1998, his prayers were answered when the Los Angeles Times asked him to write about faith. Yet what happened over the next eight years was a roller-coaster of inspiration, confusion, doubt, and soul-searching as his reporting and experiences slowly chipped away at his faith. While reporting on hundreds of stories, he witnessed a disturbing gap between the tenets of various religions and the behaviors of the faithful and their leaders. He investigated religious institutions that acted less ethically than corrupt Wall St. firms. He found few differences between the morals of Christians and atheists. As this evidence piled up, he started to fear that God didn't exist. He explored every doubt, every question—until, finally, his faith collapsed. After the paper agreed to reassign him, he wrote a personal essay in the summer of 2007 that became an international sensation for its honest exploration of doubt. Losing My Religion is a book about life's deepest questions that speaks to everyone: Lobdell understands the longings and satisfactions of the faithful, as well as the unrelenting power of doubt. How he faced that power, and wrestled with it, is must reading for people of faith and nonbelievers alike.

Download or read book Encyclical Letter Fides Et Ratio of the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II written by Catholic Church. Pope (1978-2005 : John Paul II) and published by USCCB Publishing. This book was released on 1998 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Pilgrimage to Eternity written by Timothy Egan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From "the world's greatest tour guide," a deeply-researched, captivating journey through the rich history of Christianity and the winding paths of the French and Italian countryside that will feed mind, body, and soul (New York Times). "What a wondrous work! This beautifully written and totally clear-eyed account of his pilgrimage will have you wondering whether we should all embark on such a journey, either of the body, the soul or, as in Egan's case, both." --Cokie Roberts "Egan draws us in, making us feel frozen in the snow-covered Alps, joyful in valleys of trees with low-hanging fruit, skeptical of the relics of embalmed saints and hopeful for the healing of his encrusted toes, so worn and weathered from their walk."--The Washington Post Moved by his mother's death and his Irish Catholic family's complicated history with the church, Timothy Egan decided to follow in the footsteps of centuries of seekers to force a reckoning with his own beliefs. He embarked on a thousand-mile pilgrimage through the theological cradle of Christianity to explore the religion in the world that it created. Egan sets out along the Via Francigena, once the major medieval trail leading the devout to Rome, and travels overland via the alpine peaks and small mountain towns of France, Switzerland and Italy, accompanied by a quirky cast of fellow pilgrims and by some of the towering figures of the faith--Joan of Arc, Henry VIII, Martin Luther. The goal: walking to St. Peter's Square, in hopes of meeting the galvanizing pope who is struggling to hold together the church through the worst crisis in half a millennium. A thrilling journey, a family story, and a revealing history, A Pilgrimage to Eternity looks for our future in its search for God.

Download or read book A Farewell to Mars written by Brian Zahnd and published by David C Cook. This book was released on 2014-06-01 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We know Jesus the Savior, but have we met Jesus, Prince of Peace? When did we accept vengeance as an acceptable part of the Christian life? How did violence and power seep into our understanding of faith and grace? For those troubled by this trend toward the sword, perhaps there is a better way. What if the message of Jesus differs radically differs from the drumbeats of war we hear all around us? Using his own journey from war crier to peacemaker and his in-depth study of peace in the scriptures, author and pastor Brian Zahnd reintroduces us to the gospel of Peace.

Download or read book Benefit of the Doubt written by Gregory A. Boyd and published by Baker Books. This book was released on 2013-09-15 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Benefit of the Doubt, influential theologian, pastor, and bestselling author Gregory Boyd invites readers to embrace a faith that doesn't strive for certainty, but rather for commitment in the midst of uncertainty. Boyd rejects the idea that a person's faith is as strong as it is certain. In fact, he makes the case that doubt can enhance faith and that seeking certainty is harming many in today's church. Readers who wrestle with their faith will welcome Boyd's message that experiencing a life-transforming relationship with Christ is possible, even with unresolved questions about the Bible, theology, and ethics. Boyd shares stories of his own painful journey, and stories of those to whom he has ministered, with a poignant honesty that will resonate with readers of all ages.

Download or read book Mary written by Pope John Paul II and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2013-12-02 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Commentary by Hans Urs von Balthasar. Pope John Paul II's only encyclical on our Blessed Mother, with introduction by the Cardinal Prefect of the congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, and commentary by one of the world's leading Catholic theologians, Hans Urs von Balthasar. The Church's supreme magisterium and representative of the Church's most penetrating theological reflection combine to provide for all the faithful a rich and concise compendium of the Mother of the Redeemer. The development of traditional Marian dogma in the light of the present day bears the Pope's unmistakable personal stamp. The three parts of the encyclical ("Mary in the Mystery of Christ", "The Mother of God in the Midst of the Pilgrim Church" and "Motherly Mediation") draw predominantly from two sources: Sacred Scripture and the central documents of the Second Vatican Council. There is a particular emphasis on ecumenism. What binds all Christians to Mary becomes ever clearer: she is the model of their faith. "Preparing for the advent of the year 2000, the great memorial of Christ's birth, is a fundamental concern of the encyclical. In the liturgy, Advent is a Marian time: the time when Mary made room in her womb for the Savior of the world and bore within her humanity's hope and expectation. Celebrating Advent means becoming Marian, imitating Mary's unconditional Yes which is ever anew the place of God's birth, the 'fullness of time'" Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

Download or read book Going Deeper written by Leo Severino and published by Ignatius Press. This book was released on 2017-11-21 with total page 129 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The vast majority of human beings believe in a higher power, but few can ; clearly and articulately explain what they believe in or why. When it ; comes to explaining one's beliefs, most rely on intuition or personal experience, ; relegating faith to the realm of subjective judgment as opposed to objective truth. ; In Going Deeper, Leo Severino presents a systematic, ; easy-to-; understand, journey that grounds the certitude of faith in logic and reason. ; The author maps out a train of thought that begins with everyday events, reasons ; its way through proofs of the existence of God, then goes on to describe the deep ; purpose inscribed in every human heart. For those not well versed ; in theology or philosophy, this book is an accessible way to tether matters of faith ; to demonstrable premises and logical conclusions. For those with deeper ; theological formation, this book will provide fresh perspectives on the classic ; arguments that demonstrate how faith and reason go hand in hand.

Download or read book The Grace Filled Divorce written by Melody Bacon and published by Deep River Books LLC. This book was released on 2012-12-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Divorce is one of those experiences that everyone believes will happen to someone else. So what do you do when it happens to you? As a Christian believer, how can you walk through the valley of divorce and emerge better and not bitter? Christians who check their faith at the courtroom door as they seek to "win" their divorce cases leave their families, communities, churches and, most tragically, their children permanently wounded. In The Grace-Filled Divorce, Dr. Melody Bacon shares a very different perspective on how to approach divorce-one that is an opportunity for personal growth and spiritual formation. Open yourself up to God's grace. Allow it to flow into and through you, so that the confusion and pain you are experiencing can be transformed into a deeper relationship with God, yourself, and others. This book will assist readers in learning How to embrace grief, in order to let go of old ideas, assumptions and perspectives How to recognize and change relationship patterns that contributed to the divorce How to create a workable relationship with an ex-spouse How to use ancient Christian spiritual practices to more fully experience the presence of God How to partner with God to redeem the divorce experience, so that His love may be more fully revealed. Melody Bacon holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology, with an emphasis in depth psychology, from Pacifica Graduate Institute and an M.A. in U.S. history from Cal State Northridge. In their private practice, Melody and her husband Ron (a marriage and family therapist), work with couples and individuals facing relationship challenges. They also conduct workshops for pre-engaged couples: Before You Pop the Question, and married couples: Happily Married After. Dr. Bacon is also a teacher and administrator for the Chicago School of Professional Psychology in Southern California where she chairs the Marital and Family Therapy program. She is passionate about blending the insights of psychology with spiritual formation practices and has been inspired by writings of Calvin Miller, John Eldridge and Alan Jones, among others. Her training in Jungian analytic psychology has given her tremendous respect for the ways in which God reveals himself, particularly through dreams. She endeavors to stay at least one step ahead of her clients in learning the lessons that God has to teach. Periodically, she and her husband test the limits of their marriage and spiritual commitment on the golf course.

Download or read book The Transforming Power of Prayer written by Michael Marshall and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-02-24 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'We are here that we may learn to bear the beams of light', said Blake. This is the purpose of discipleship and the spiritual journey.

Download or read book Self Study Notes for the Kit b I q n written by Sohrab Kourosh and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-19 with total page 630 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: According to Shoghi Effendi, the Kitab-i-Iqan, the Book of Certitude, should be mastered by every Baha'i and those who are interested in Baha'i Faith. The Book of Certitude was written by Baha'u'llah, the founder of the Baha'i Faith. As one of the main spiritual texts given to humanity, it is complex, intricate, and more beautiful each time it is read. With the help of this new self-study guide by Dr. Sohrab Kourosh, engage with the Book of Certitude on a deeper level than ever before. New meanings, connections, and allusions will become clear and lead you down new paths of spiritual study. Kourosh has compiled a wide range of useful contextual information that identifies more obscure theological, philosophical, and religious terms. He shows the connections to other religious texts and sacred scriptures, and he provides more information about references to historical events. Kourosh also deciphers the references to other Writings of Baha'u'llah, as well as Writings of the Bab, 'Abdu'l-Baha, and Shoghi Effendi, which will help illuminate complex passages. According to the teachings of Baha'u'llah, spiritual texts are of no benefit if they can't be understood. Shoghi Effendi stated that this book should be thoroughly studied. Use this guide to honor His advice.

Download or read book Live the Questions written by Jeffrey F. Keuss and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2019-05-21 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Life is full of questions—about our identity, our relationships, our faith—and sometimes it seems like there are no easy answers. But our questioning can lead us on a journey into greater understanding and purpose. Jeffrey Keuss takes us on a tour of Scripture to find insights from people who asked questions of God and others, exploring what those questions can teach us about doubt, faith, and uncertainty in our everyday lives.