Download or read book The Journey toward God in Augustine s Confessions written by Carl G. Vaught and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This detailed discussion of Augustine's journey toward God, as it is described in the first six books of the Confessions, begins with infancy, moves through childhood and adolescence, and culminates in youthful maturity. In the first stage, Augustine deals with the problems of original innocence and sin; in the second, he addresses a pear-stealing episode that recapitulates the theft of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and confronts the problem of sexuality with which he wrestles until his conversion; and in the third, he turns toward philosophy, only to be captivated successively by dualism, skepticism, and Catholicism. Augustine's journey exhibits temporal, spatial, and eternal dimensions and combines his head and his heart in equal proportions. Vaught shows that the Confessions should be interpreted as an attempt to address the person as a whole rather than through our intellectual or volitional dimensions exclusively. The passion with which Augustine describes the end of his journey is reflected best in a sentence found in the opening chapter of the text—"You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." Interpreting this statement, Carl G. Vaught presents a more emphatically Christian Augustine than is usually found in contemporary scholarship. Refusing to view Augustine in an exclusively Neoplatonic framework, Vaught holds that Augustine baptizes Plotinus just as successfully as Aquinas baptizes Aristotle. It cannot be denied that Ancient philosophy influences Augustine decisively. Nevertheless, he holds the experiential and the theoretical dimensions of his journey toward God together as a distinctive expression of the Christian tradition.
Download or read book Journey in Prayer written by John Smed and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Evangelism Tool for a New Generation. Today’s seekers are far more likely to be open to prayer than a traditional gospel presentation. This beautifully designed book is unintimidating, inviting, and effective. It’s a seven-day journey through the Lord’s prayer. Each day explores a new petition in the Lord’s prayer and helps show the reader the prayer’s importance and impact. The author offers reflection questions, prayer prompts, and sample prayers to help readers begin and deepen their personal journeys in prayer. It’s a perfect resource for anyone exploring the Christian faith or young Christians learning to pray. Plus it works well one-on-one and in small groups.
Download or read book Celebration of Discipline written by Richard J. Foster and published by Zondervan. This book was released on 1988-10-05 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the twenty years since its publication, Celebration of Discipline has helped over a million seekers discover a richer spiritual life infused with joy, peace, and a deeper understanding of God. For this special twentieth anniversary edition, Richard J. Foster has added an introduction, in which he shares the story of how this beloved and enduring spiritual guidebook came to be. Hailed by many as the best modern book on Christian spirituality, Celebration of Discipline explores the "classic Disciplines," or central spiritual practices, of the Christian faith. Along the way, Foster shows that it is only by and through these practices that the true path to spiritual growth can be found. Dividing the Disciplines into three movements of the Spirit, Foster shows how each of these areas contribute to a balanced spiritual life. The inward Disciplines of meditation, prayer, fasting, and study, offer avenues of personal examination and change. The outward Disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission, and service, help prepare us to make the world a better place. The corporate Disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration, bring us nearer to one another and to God. Foster provides a wealth of examples demonstrating how these Disciplines can become part of our daily activities-and how they can help us shed our superficial habits and "bring the abundance of God into our lives." He offers crucial new insights on simplicity, demonstrating how the biblical view of simplicity, properly understood and applied, brings joy and balance to our inward and outward lives and "sets us free to enjoy the provision of God as a gift that can be shared with others." The discussion of celebration, often the most neglected of the Disciplines, shows its critical importance, for it stands at the heart of the way to Christ. Celebration of Discipline will help motivate Christians everywhere to embark on a journey of prayer and spiritual growth.
Download or read book The Quest for Wholeness written by Carl G. Vaught and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 1983-06-30 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book has been written for the artist, for the theologian, and for the philosopher, each of whom must be concerned with the question, "What does it mean to be human?" But at a deeper level, it is written for any reader who knows what it means to be fragmented, and who is willing to undertake a quest for wholeness in experiential and reflective terms." — from the Preface The Quest for Wholeness is a philosophic odyssey into humankind's feelings of fragmentation, and the search for unity born of those feelings. It blends the concreteness of art and religion with the discipline of philosophy to illuminate those places in experience and reflection where fragmentation is encountered and the meaning of wholeness is first discovered. Carl Vaught discusses the problems of fragmentation and unity, beginning with the aesthetic concreteness represented by the quest in Herman Melville's Moby Dick; moving through the religious dimension represented by the biblical stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses; passing on to the reflective discourse in Plato's Euthyphro; and ending in a confrontation with Hegel that unites the concrete particularity of religious and communal life with the dialectic of Socrates' normative reasoning. This book is written with the conviction that the professional philosopher should not address a merely professional audience, but the larger world as well, and that in the end he must come to terms with himself and with the most pressing questions that confront the human spirit.
Download or read book Journeys of Faith written by Chris Castaldo and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research indicates that on average, Americans change their religious affiliation at least once during their lives. Today, a number of evangelical Christians are converting to Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Anglicanism. Longtime Evangelicals often fail to understand the attraction of these non-Evangelical Christian traditions. Journeys of Faith examines the movement between these traditions from various angles. Four prominent converts to Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Evangelicalism and Anglicanism describe their new faith traditions and their spiritual journeys into them. Response chapters offer respectful critiques. Contributors include Wilbur Ellsworth (Eastern Orthodoxy), with a response by Craig Blaising; Francis J. Beckwith (Roman Catholicism), with Gregg Allison responding; Chris Castaldo (Evangelicalism) and Brad Gregory's Catholic response; and Lyle Dorsett (Anglicanism), with a response by Robert Peterson. This book will provide readers with first-hand accounts of thoughtful Christians changing religious affiliation or remaining true to the traditions they have always known. Pastors, counselors and students of theology will gain a wealth of insight into current faith migration within the church today.
Download or read book Confessions of a Bible Thumper written by Michael Camp and published by Engage Faith. This book was released on 2012-06 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What happens when a devout religious conservative questions his own evangelical traditions using the Socratic principle, and follows where the evidence leads? ... This brutally honest personal pilgrimage challenges and encourages readers to rethink all things sacred and embrace a faith full of grace and reason.
Download or read book Let Hope In written by Pete Wilson and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2013-10-08 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hope changes everything. It can disarm guilt, shatter shame, and put your past in its place. All you have to do is make the choice to let it in. It won’t be easy. It won’t be quick. But it is possible and we serve a God who promises over and over again that anything is possible. Pete Wilson, pastor and the author of Plan B, presents a new look at the power of healing through hope, revealing 4 unique choices that have the potential to change your life forever. With Wilson’s telltale cadence and candor, Let Hope In explores accounts of seemingly hopeless moments in the Bible illustrating God’s ultimate plan for healing by letting hope fill the dark places of your past. Discover how pain that is not transformed becomes transferred. Embrace the freedom of being okay with not being okay. Learn that a life of trusting is far more magnificent than a life of pleasing. Because hurt people hurt people, but free people have the power to free people. So make today the day that you get unstuck. The day you fill your past with the light of hope, the day you say good-bye to regret and shame. The day you choose to change your future and embrace who God created you to be, simply by making the choice to let hope in.
Download or read book Life Together written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1978-10-25 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After his martyrdom at the hands of the Gestapo in 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer continued his witness in the hearts of Christians around the world. His Letters and Papers from Prison became a prized testimony to Christian faith and courage, read by thousands. Now in Life Together we have Pastor Bonhoeffer's experience of Christian community. This story of a unique fellowship in an underground seminary during the Nazi years reads like one of Paul's letters. It gives practical advice on how life together in Christ can be sustained in families and groups. The role of personal prayer, worship in common, everyday work, and Christian service is treated in simple, almost biblical, words. Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for the real life of Christian fellowship.
Download or read book Confessions of a Boy Crazy Girl written by Paula Hendricks and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2013-08-26 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sound familiar? 1. You spot a cute boy (we’ll call him Boy A). 2. You dream about Boy A. 3. You do whatever it takes to make Boy A notice you. 4. Even though Boy A doesn’t pursue you, you hang on to your dream of Boy A until he (a) moves to the North Pole with no access to a cell phone or computer, (b) dies and is buried or cremated, or (c) begins dating another girl. 5. You mend your broken heart by hating Boy A and finding another cute boy (Boy B). You replace Boy A with Boy B and begin all over again . . . Paula has gone through an entire alphabet—and more—of boys over the years. As she shares her journal entries and stories—the good, the bad, and the ugly—you’ll be encouraged to trust God with your love life and buckle up for the ride! Written for teen girls, Confessions of a Boy-Crazy Girl will help you on your own journey from neediness to freedom. Part of the True Woman publishing line, whose goal is to encourage women to exude God’s beauty by embracing his design for womanhood
Download or read book Not Sure written by John D. Suk and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2011-09-02 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2002, while touring North America with his wife in an RV, John Suk -- lifelong Christian, longtime pastor, and noted leader in the Christian Reformed Church -- experienced a crippling crisis of faith. He emerged from that dark time with a strange new gift -- doubt. In Not Sure Suk takes readers on an eyes-wide-open, deeply personal voyage through the past and present of Christian belief, reexamining Christian faith -- in his own life and in fifteen centuries of Christian history -- through a skeptic's eyes. He exposes major pitfalls of modern Christian movements and questions what he considers to be faulty paradigms: the "personal relationship with Jesus," the "health-and-wealth gospel," and traditional ethnicity-based belief systems. In the end he is left clinging to what is for him a truer, wiser kind of faith in Jesus Christ -- faith that struggles and lives with doubt.
Download or read book Begin written by Ken Ham and published by New Leaf Publishing Group. This book was released on 2011-07-01 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Begin is a journey through the Scriptures designed to help someone simply understand the structure and context of the Bible. Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge compiled this critical resource which brings to light often difficult concepts through easy-to-understand commentary. Readers will enjoy a quick and concise presentation of the following core concepts with a brief summary of events and history in-between Genesis 1- 11 (The Foundation), Exodus 20:1-17 (The 10 Commandments), John (The Gospel), Romans (An Epistle from Paul to the Christians), and Revelation 21-22 (The Fulfillment in Heaven). New believers, seekers, and even skeptics can use Begin as a first step to building a consistent study of God’s Word. It is not intended to replace the Bible but to serve as a supplemental resource. Pastors and teachers will find this book helpful when leading congregants and students into a greater understanding and focus on the infallible message of God.
Download or read book Augustine s Intellectual Conversion written by Brian Dobell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-11-05 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines Augustine's intellectual conversion from Platonism to Christianity, as described at Confessions 7.9.13-21.27. It is widely assumed that this occurred in the summer of 386, shortly before Augustine's volitional conversion in the garden at Milan. Brian Dobell argues, however, that Augustine's intellectual conversion did not occur until the mid-390s, and develops this claim by comparing Confessions 7.9.13-21.27 with a number of important passages and themes from Augustine's early writings. He thus invites the reader to consider anew the problem of Augustine's conversion in 386: was it to Platonism or Christianity? His original and important study will be of interest to a wide range of readers in the history of philosophy and the history of theology.
Download or read book The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert written by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Rosaria, by the standards of many, was living a very good life. She had a tenured position at a large university in a field for which she cared deeply. She owned two homes with her partner, in which they provided hospitality to students and activists that were looking to make a difference in the world. In the community, Rosaria was involved in volunteer work. At the university, she was a respected advisor of students and her department's curriculum. And then, in her late 30s, Rosaria encountered something that turned her world upside down -- the idea that Christianity, a religion that she had regarded as problematic and sometimes downright damaging, might be right about who God was. That idea seemed to fly in the face of the people and causes that she most loved. What follows is a story of what she describes as a train wreck at the hand of the supernatural. These are her secret thoughts about those events, written as only a reflective English professor could."--Back cover.
Download or read book Confessions of a Raging Perfectionist written by Amanda Jenkins and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2013-04-19 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Amanda is a raging perfectionist. She begins each day with a long list. “Keep the house picked up; limit myself to two Diet Cokes; spend special time with each of the kids; work out; pray; avoid sugar; read a chapter in a book about something very important; read my Bible; call my mom.” She determines each day’s worth, and ultimately her own, by keeping track of her stats—pounds gained or lost, stuff accomplished. That is, until God spoke into her life, waking her up to the true costs of her addiction to perfection. Confessions of a Raging Perfectionist is more than Amanda’s confession; it’s a journey of letting go of the subtle but destructive idols of her overactive inner voice and replacing them with God’s truth. Amanda hopes her journey can inspire others to let God dig in to their own lives, uncovering the subtle lies we unconsciously live by.
Download or read book Spiritual Mentoring written by Keith R. Anderson and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 1999-05-20 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on the writings of Augustine, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila and others, Keith R. Anderson and Randy D. Reese show that the age-old practice of Christian mentoring is meant to facilitate our growth throughout life. They provide motivation, principles and plans for starting and continuing mentoring relationships.
Download or read book Teach Us to Want written by Jen Pollock Michel and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2014-06-04 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Isn't desire sinful and selfish? The story of each person is a story of want—desires unmet, hopes dashed, passions pursued and ambitions fulfilled. Jen Pollock Michel guides us on a journey that reintroduces us to a God who purifies our longings and gives us the desires of our hearts.
Download or read book Common Worship Times and Seasons President s Edition written by Common Worship and published by Canterbury Press. This book was released on 2013-07-15 with total page 657 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This revised, expanded edition of the Common Worship President’s Edition contains everything to celebrate Holy Communion Order One throughout the church year. It combines relevant material from the original President’s Edition with Eucharistic material from Times and Seasons, Festivals and Pastoral Services, and the Additional Collects.
