Download or read book The Paradox of Generosity written by Christian Smith and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2014 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Determining why, when, and to whom people feel compelled to be generous affords invaluable insight into many social practices. Organ donation, gift-giving, the funding of charities, and political views on taxation can all be illuminated by sociological and psychological perspectives on howAmerican adults conceive of and demonstrate generosity. Focusing not only on financial giving but on the many diverse forms philanthropy can take, Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson show the deep impact - usually good, sometimes destructive - that giving has on individuals.The Paradox of Generosity is the first study to make use of the cutting-edge empirical data collected in Smith's groundbreaking, multidisciplinary, five-year Science of Generosity Initiative. It draws on an extensive survey of 2,000 Americans, more than sixty in-depth interviews with individualsacross twelve states, and nuanced analysis of over 1,000 photographs and other visual materials. This wealth of evidence reveals a consistent link between demonstrating generosity and leading a better life: more generous people are happier, suffer fewer illnesses and injuries, live with a greatersense of purpose, and experience less depression. Smith and Davidson also show, however, that to achieve a better life a person must practice generosity regularly - random acts of kindness are not enough.Offering a wide range of vividly illustrative case studies, this volume will be a crucial resource for anyone seeking to understand the true impact and meaning of generosity.

Download or read book The Paradox of Generosity written by Christian Stephen Smith and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this volume, Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson offer vital insight into how American adults conceive of and demonstrate generosity. Focusing not only on financial giving but on the many diverse forms philanthropy can take, they show the impact - both positive and negative - that giving has on individuals.

Download or read book American Generosity written by Patricia Snell Herzog and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-02-01 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American charitable giving veers from the hyperbolically generous to the hyperbolically stingy. On some days, no one has a quarter to spare; in times of disaster, Americans will put their lives on hold to build houses for those displaced by hurricanes. The crucial question of who gives and why they do it lies at the heart of American Generosity. Patricia Snell Herzog and Heather E. Price, sociologists who focus on philanthropy, draw on findings from the groundbreaking Science of Generosity initiative, which combines a nationally representative survey of adult Americans with in-depth interviews and case studies. For most Americans, they find, the important forms of giving are: donating money, volunteering time, and taking political action. Focusing on these three types of activity, the authors go on to examine and analyze multiple dimensions of resources, social status, regional cultural norms, different approaches to giving, social-psychological orientation, and the relational contexts of generosity. Herzog and Price conclude that giving is supported by "circles of generosity," which ripple outward in their reach to targets of giving. The book offers not just analysis, but practical tips for readers who want to increase their own giving, for parents modeling giving to their children, spouses desiring alignment in their giving, and friends and community members seeking to support giving by others. The authors also provide explicit fundraising ideas for nonprofits, foundations, and religious leaders. Thought-provoking and accessibly written, American Generosity lays out a broad yet nuanced explanation of giving that sheds important new light on a topic that touches all of us in one way or another.

Download or read book Giving and Getting in the Kingdom written by R. Mark Dillon and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2012-03-23 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fundraising for an organization or ministry is not merely an important task, it’s a noble one. Successful leaders must possess the theological vision to recognize the necessity of asking, the joy of giving, and the beautifully collaborative nature of advancing the kingdom. It should come as no surprise that the literal translation of the word philanthropy is “love of mankind”– and Christian philanthropy enables us to love God through loving man. Mark Dillon has spent his career interacting with hundreds of thoughtful Christian stewards, and reframing the discussion on giving. He challenges leaders to ensure their organizations and ministries are worthy of the gifts they receive. Highly practical and refreshingly candid, Giving and Getting in the Kingdom delivers much-needed perspective on the eternal significance of our earthly transactions.

Download or read book Life the Gift That Keeps on Giving written by Jane S. Green and published by Balboa Press. This book was released on 2017-11-08 with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyone has a story to tell, and I selected to tell my story through my blog formerly called: Monday Morning Bluees, which is an acronym for "Believe Life Uses Everyone and Everything Spiritually." I have endured many hurts, mistakes, lessons, pains, failures, heartbreaks, disappointments, hardships, and struggles throughout my life, but I have also been on the receiving end of countless success stories, miracles, breakthroughs, victories, accomplishments, awards, accolades, and other blessings. I have come to accept that life is filled with polarities, and I came to this time-space reality to experience All of life including both its ups and its downs, (mostly ups). I am learning that I gain strength and momentum when I go through uncomfortable situations, circumstances, and experiences. Reflecting on my lifes story allows me an opportunity to release and heal my past. I now have a greater appreciation for where I have been, a warm acceptance and peace for where I am presently; and a clearer perspective on where I am going. My intention for this work is to shed light on issues that many females face and provide comfort in knowing that we are not alone on this journey I call Life.

Download or read book Surprised by Paradox written by Jen Pollock Michel and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Word Guild Awards Shortlist — Apologetics/Evangelism Word Guild Award — Best Book Cover Award Christianity Today's Book of the Year Award of Merit - The Beautiful Orthodoxy What if certainty isn't the goal? In a world filled with ambiguity, many of us long for a belief system that provides straightforward answers to complex questions and clarity in the face of confusion. We want faith to act like an orderly set of truth-claims designed to solve the problems and pain that life throws at us. With signature candor and depth, Jen Pollock Michel helps readers imagine a Christian faith open to mystery. While there are certainties in Christian faith, at the heart of the Christian story is also paradox. Jesus invites us to abandon the polarities of either and or in order to embrace the difficult, wondrous dissonance of and. The incarnation—the paradox of God made human—teaches us to look for God in the and of body and spirit, heaven and earth. In the kingdom, God often hides in plain sight and announces his triumph on the back of a donkey. In the paradox of grace, we receive life eternal by actively participating in death. And lament, with its clear-eyed appraisal of suffering alongside its commitment to finding audience with God, is a paradoxical practice of faith. Each of these themes give us certainty about God while also leading us into greater curiosity about his nature and activity in the world. As Michel writes, "As soon as we think we have God figured out, we will have ceased to worship him as he is." With personal stories and reflection on Scripture, literature, and culture, Michel takes us deeper into mystery and into worship of the One who is Mystery and Love.

Download or read book Giving Is the Good Life written by Randy Alcorn and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ECPA 2020 Christian Book Award Finalist! Wouldn’t it be great if we could do what pleases God, helps others, and is best for us—at the same time? Can we live the good life without being selfish? In Giving Is the Good Life, bestselling author Randy Alcorn teaches life-changing biblical principles of generosity and tells stories of people who have put those radical principles into practice. Each story is a practical application that can help stimulate your imagination and expand your dreams of serving Jesus in fresh ways. These real-life models give you not just words to remember but footprints to follow. Giving Is the Good Life reveals a grander view of God and generosity—one that stretches far beyond our imagination and teaches us what the good life is really all about.

Download or read book Generosity written by Richard Powers and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2010-08-03 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The National Book Award-winning author of The Echo Maker proves yet again that "no writer of our time dreams on a grander scale or more knowingly captures the zeitgeist." (The Dallas Morning News). What will happen to life when science identifies the genetic basis of happiness? Who will own the patent? Do we dare revise our own temperaments? Funny, fast, and magical, Generosity celebrates both science and the freed imagination. In his most exuberant book yet, Richard Powers asks us to consider the big questions facing humankind as we begin to rewrite our own existence. A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year

Download or read book Grassroots for Hire written by Edward T. Walker and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-04-03 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines how elite consultants are reshaping democracy by helping corporations and powerful advocacy groups to mobilize grassroots participation.

Download or read book The Wealth Paradox written by Frank Mols and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-25 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents compelling evidence of the 'wealth paradox', where economic prosperity can also fuel prejudice, social unrest, and intergroup hostility.

Download or read book A Generous Orthodoxy written by Brian D. McLaren and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 2009-05-18 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A confession and manifesto from a senior leader in the emerging church movement. A Generous Orthodoxy calls for a radical, Christ-centered orthodoxy of faith and practice in a missional, generous spirit. Brian McLaren argues for a post-liberal, post-conservative, post-protestant convergence, which will stimulate lively interest and global conversation among thoughtful Christians from all traditions.In a sweeping exploration of belief, author Brian McLaren takes us across the landscape of faith, envisioning an orthodoxy that aims for Jesus, is driven by love, and is defined by missional intent. A Generous Orthodoxy rediscovers the mysterious and compelling ways that Jesus can be embraced across the entire Christian horizon. Rather than establishing what is and is not “orthodox,” McLaren walks through the many traditions of faith, bringing to the center a way of life that draws us closer to Christ and to each other. Whether you find yourself inside, outside, or somewhere on the fringe of Christianity, A Generous Orthodoxy draws you toward a way of living that looks beyond the “us/them” paradigm to the blessed and ancient paradox of “we.”

Download or read book The Life You Can Save written by Peter Singer and published by Random House Trade Paperbacks. This book was released on 2010 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that for the first time in history we're in a position to end extreme poverty throughout the world, both because of our unprecedented wealth and advances in technology, therefore we can no longer consider ourselves good people unless we give more to the poor. Reprint.

Download or read book Marilyn written by Lois Banner and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2012-07-17 with total page 663 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like her art, Marilyn Monroe was rooted in paradox: She was a powerful star and a childlike waif; a joyful, irreverent party girl with a deeply spiritual side; a superb friend and a narcissist; a dumb blonde and an intellectual. No previous biographer has recognized-much less attempted to analyze-most of these aspects of her personality. Lois Banner has. With new details about Marilyn's childhood foster homes, her sexual abuse, her multiple marriages, her affairs, and her untimely death at the age of thirty-six, Marilyn is, at last, the nuanced biography Monroe fans have been waiting for.

Download or read book The Gift and its Paradoxes written by Dr Olli Pyyhtinen and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2014-02-28 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bringing social theory and philosophy to bear on popular movies, novels, myths, and fairy tales, The Gift and its Paradoxes explores the ambiguity of the gift: it is at once both a relation and a thing, alienable and inalienable, present and poison. Challenging the nature of giving as reciprocal, the book engages critically with the work of Mauss and develops a new theory of the gift according to which the gift cannot be reduced to a model of exchange, but must instead entail a loss or sacrifice. Ultimately, the gift is examined in the book as the impossible occurrence of gratuitous giving. In addition to exploring the conditions of possibility and impossibility of the gift, the book draws on the thought of figures such as Derrida, Serres, Simmel, Cixous, Irigaray and Heidegger to argue for the relevance of the phenomenon of the gift to broader issues in contemporary social sciences. It takes up questions concerning the constitution of community and the processes by which people are included in or excluded from it, gender relations, materiality, the economy, and the possibility that death itself could be a gift, in the form of euthanasia or self-sacrifice. A rigorous yet accessible examination of the phenomenon of the gift in relation to a range of contemporary concerns, The Gift and its Paradoxes will appeal to scholars and students within sociology, philosophy, anthropology, political theory and film and literature studies.

Download or read book Generous Thinking written by Kathleen Fitzpatrick and published by Johns Hopkins University Press. This book was released on 2019-02-12 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meditating on how and why we teach the humanities, Generous Thinking is an audacious book that privileges the ability to empathize and build rather than simply tear apart.

Download or read book Justice and Generosity written by Andre Laks and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1995-01-26 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hegel's often-echoed verdict on the apolitical character of philosophy in the Hellenistic age is challenged in this collection of essays, originally presented at the sixth meeting of the Symposium Hellenisticum. An international team of leading scholars reveals a vigorous intellectual scene of great diversity.

Download or read book Of Women Borne written by Cynthia R. Wallace and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-08 with total page 476 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The literature of Adrienne Rich, Toni Morrison, Ana Castillo, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie teaches a risky, self-giving way of reading (and being) that brings home the dangers and the possibilities of suffering as an ethical good. Working the thought of feminist theologians and philosophers into an analysis of these women's writings, Cynthia R. Wallace crafts a literary ethics attentive to the paradoxes of critique and re-vision, universality and particularity, and reads in suffering a redemptive or redeemable reality. Wallace's approach recognizes the generative interplay between ethical form and content in literature, which helps isolate more distinctly the gendered and religious echoes of suffering and sacrifice in Western culture. By refracting these resonances through the work of feminists and theologians of color, her book also shows the value of broad-ranging ethical explorations into literature, with their power to redefine theories of reading and the nature of our responsibility to art and each other.