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 Stuff That Needs To Be Said written by John Pavlovitz and published by . This book was released on 2020-04-22 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past few years, John Pavlovitz's blog, Stuff That Needs To Be Said, has become a virtual hub for millions of people from all over the world, drawn there by his clear, compelling words on compassion, equity, love, and justice. This expansive, like-hearted community transcends race, orientation, gender, religious tradition, political affiliation, and nation of origin--and finds its affinity in the deeper place of our shared humanity, which is the True North of his writing. This collection lovingly pulls together some of John's most widely-read and most beloved essays on faith, politics, grief, and the elemental parts of being human. It is an encouraging, inspiring, challenging storehouse of "stuff that needs to be said."

Download or read book God Spare the Girls written by Kelsey McKinney and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-06-22 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Read it for twists on twists, meditations on faith, and a deeply thoughtful treatment of an evangelical community." — Glamour, Beach Reads That Are Like Summer in a Book “A thoughtful and candid meditation on faith, family, and forgiveness . . . fabulous.” —Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of The Most Fun We Ever Had Recommended by Good Housekeeping, Elle, Parade, Real Simple, Glamour,Refinery29,Bustle, Oprah Daily, The Millions, Shondaland, Yahoo!, Literary Hub, and more! A mesmerizing debut novel set in northern Texas about two sisters who discover an unsettling secret about their father, the head pastor of an evangelical megachurch, that upends their lives and community—a story of family, identity, and the delicate line between faith and deception. Luke Nolan has led the Hope congregation for more than a decade, while his wife and daughters have patiently upheld what it means to live righteously. Made famous by a viral sermon on purity co-written with his eldest daughter, Abigail, Luke is the prototype of a modern preacher: tall, handsome, a spellbinding speaker. But his younger daughter Caroline has begun to notice the cracks in their comfortable life. She is certain that her perfect, pristine sister is about to marry the wrong man—and Caroline has slid into sin with a boy she’s known her entire life, wondering why God would care so much about her virginity anyway. When it comes to light, five weeks before Abigail’s wedding, that Luke has been lying to his family, the entire Nolan clan falls into a tailspin. Caroline seizes the opportunity to be alone with her sister. The two girls flee to the ranch they inherited from their maternal grandmother, far removed from the embarrassing drama of their parents and the prying eyes of the community. But with the date of Abigail’s wedding fast approaching, the sisters will have to make a hard decision about which familial bonds are worth protecting. An intimate coming-of-age story and a modern woman’s read, God Spare the Girls lays bare the rabid love of sisterhood and asks what we owe our communities, our families, and ourselves. “A deeply felt book about love — love for family and community, for people who sustain you and people who disappoint you. And love for God, too, which Kelsey McKinney writes about with humane and incisive frankness.”—Linda Holmes, New York Times bestselling author of Evvie Drake Starts Over “The accomplishment of this canny novel is in positing coming of age itself as a loss of faith—not only in the church, but in our parents, our family, and the world as we thought we understood it.” — Rumaan Alam, New York Times bestselling author of Leave the World Behind and Rich and Pretty

Download or read book Losing Your Faith Finding Your Soul written by David Robert Anderson and published by Convergent. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that one can retain their faith, even when distancing oneself from the traditional methods of worship through the organized church, and helps readers identify six life-tested passages that lead through changes in faith towards authentic renewal.

Download or read book Man Enough written by Frank Pittman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1994-10-01 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How does a boy learn to be a man? A man learns masculinity primarily from his father. But generations of boys who grow up without caring fathers or male mentors to emulate are left to guess what "men" are really like. They rely on cultural icons--larger-than-life images--as models of masculinity. As a result, they grow up mirroring overblown myths of manhood. Obsessed with being "man enough," they become philanderers, controllers, and competitors--constantly overcompensating for their loss of a true role model, yet sorely unprepared for family life. In Man Enough, psychiatrist and family therapist Frank Pittman explores what it is like to grow up male today. With great poignancy, humor, and candor, he weaves together case studies from his practice, examples from literature and films, plus personal vignettes from his own experiences as a father to examine these hyper-masculine men and to illustrate how they developed and how they can change. Dr. Pittman asserts that men can move past proving their masculinity and start practicing it by striving with the other guys rather than against them, achieving equality and intimacy with their mates--and by fathering. A man raises himself as he raises children and learns to understand and forgive his parents as he becomes one. An important book for men and women, Man Enough offers a new approach to issues of commitment, caring and control and creates a positive model for the fathers of tomorrow's men.

Download or read book Blessed Are the Nones written by Stina Kielsmeier-Cook and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2020-09-08 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When her husband left Christianity several years into their marriage, Stina Kielsmeier-Cook was left struggling to live the Christian life on her own. In this memoir, she tells the story of her mixed-faith marriage and how she found unexpected community with an order of Catholic nuns, discovering that she was not "spiritually single" after all—and that no one really is.

Download or read book Faith and Fat Loss written by Ron Williams and published by Wesscott Marketing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ron Williams combined and applied his study of Biblical truths concerning fitness and nutrition with today's science to become the world's most decorated natural bodybuilder. In Faith and Fat Loss, these timeless, proven revelations become reality for permanent fat loss and body transformation. By applying the physical and spiritual principles found in this book you will experience the body that seemed unattainable in the past.

Download or read book The Invisible Church written by Steve Aisthorpe and published by Saint Andrew Press. This book was released on 2016-04-27 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For anyone who is concerned about Church decline, the contents of this book offer an essential blueprint for building God’s whole community in the coming years. This unique set of resources offers practical help and insight for all who want to grow, enrich and develop their congregational life. The Church of Scotland has drawn on the findings of extensive new research that it has commissioned in order to put together this set of carefully crafted and informed resources aimed at helping every congregation to understand why people leave the Church, how to avoid unnecessary departures and, above all, to develop an enriching, vital Christian fellowship with the large numbers of Churchless Christians in every community across the country. This ground-breaking book, illustrated by Dave Walker, offers information, hope, insight, prayerful reflection and practical ideas for bringing together in fellowship all Christians, whether they are members of an institutional Church or not.

Download or read book Losing Faith in Faith written by Dan Barker and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Losing Faith in Faith records Dan Barker's dramatic journey from devout soul-winner to one of America's most prominent freethinkers.Following his "calling" at age 15, Dan Barker worked as a missionary, ordained minister, associate pastor, touring evangelist, Christian songwriter, performer and record producer. After preaching for 19 years, Barker "lost faith in faith." Throwing out the bath water, he discovered: "There is no baby there!"Today Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Inc., (www.ffrf.org) frequently represents freethought on the talkshow circuit and at personal appearances, concerts, and debates around the country, turning his experience as a former minister into ammunition against superstition and irrationality.In Losing Faith in Faith, Barker explains why he left the ministry. He also offers a definitive, compelling analysis of why he rejects belief in a god and the claims of religion. He explores the fallacies, inconsistencies, and harm of Christian doctrine and theistic dogma. In its place, he issues an appealing and compassionate invocation of freethought, reason, and humanism.Losing Faith in Faith is both a challenge to believers and an arsenal for skeptics.

Download or read book Misquoting Jesus written by Bart D. Ehrman and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-06 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When world-class biblical scholar Bart Ehrman first began to study the texts of the Bible in their original languages he was startled to discover the multitude of mistakes and intentional alterations that had been made by earlier translators. In Misquoting Jesus, Ehrman tells the story behind the mistakes and changes that ancient scribes made to the New Testament and shows the great impact they had upon the Bible we use today. He frames his account with personal reflections on how his study of the Greek manuscripts made him abandon his once ultraconservative views of the Bible. Since the advent of the printing press and the accurate reproduction of texts, most people have assumed that when they read the New Testament they are reading an exact copy of Jesus's words or Saint Paul's writings. And yet, for almost fifteen hundred years these manuscripts were hand copied by scribes who were deeply influenced by the cultural, theological, and political disputes of their day. Both mistakes and intentional changes abound in the surviving manuscripts, making the original words difficult to reconstruct. For the first time, Ehrman reveals where and why these changes were made and how scholars go about reconstructing the original words of the New Testament as closely as possible. Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our cherished biblical stories and widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself stem from both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes -- alterations that dramatically affected all subsequent versions of the Bible.

Download or read book Making Sense of God written by Timothy Keller and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-09-20 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.

Download or read book A Strategy for a Loss of Faith written by John P. Dourley and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author: "If the values of Jung's good news are to be realized, the religious horsemen of death must first be faced. Jung fingers them. They are faith, hope and charity, clothed in religious or political certitude."

Download or read book The Slain God written by Timothy Larsen and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2014-08-29 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout its entire history, the discipline of anthropology has been perceived as undermining, or even discrediting, Christian faith. Many of its most prominent theorists have been agnostics who assumed that ethnographic findings and theories had exposed religious beliefs to be untenable. E. B. Tylor, the founder of the discipline in Britain, lost his faith through studying anthropology. James Frazer saw the material that he presented in his highly influential work, The Golden Bough, as demonstrating that Christian thought was based on the erroneous thought patterns of 'savages.' On the other hand, some of the most eminent anthropologists have been Christians, including E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Mary Douglas, Victor Turner, and Edith Turner. Moreover, they openly presented articulate reasons for how their religious convictions cohered with their professional work. Despite being a major site of friction between faith and modern thought, the relationship between anthropology and Christianity has never before been the subject of a book-length study. In this groundbreaking work, Timothy Larsen examines the point where doubt and faith collide with anthropological theory and evidence.

Download or read book If God Is Good written by Randy Alcorn and published by Multnomah. This book was released on 2014-06-17 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Suffering is, in the end, God’s invitation to trust him. “As he did in his best-selling book, Heaven, Randy Alcorn delves deep into a profound subject, and through compelling stories, provocative questions and answers, and keen biblical understanding, he brings assurance and hope to all.” –Publishers Weekly Every one of us will experience suffering. You may be in such a time now. We see the presence of evil in the headlines every day. It all raises questions about God—Why would an all-good and all-powerful God create a world full of evil and suffering? How can there be a God if suffering and evil exist? Atheists such as Richard Dawkins and even former believers like Bart Ehrman answer the question simply: The existence of suffering and evil proves there is no God. But in this illuminating book, best-selling author Randy Alcorn challenges the logic of disbelief, and brings a fresh, hopeful, and thoroughly biblical insight to the issues these important questions raise. Alcorn offers insights from his conversations with men and women whose lives have been torn apart by suffering, and yet whose faith in God burns brighter than ever. He reveals the big picture of who God is and what God is doing in the world—now and forever. And he shows the beauty of God’s sovereignty—how it ultimately triumphs over suffering and evil in our lives and the world around us.

Download or read book God s Grace in Your Suffering written by David Powlison and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2018-02-20 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where Is God? There are never quick fixes or easy answers when it comes to suffering. But even when we can't immediately see God's hand—when the struggle is hard and painful—he is working. Weaving together Scripture, personal stories, and the words of the classic hymn "How Firm a Foundation," David Powlison brings an experienced counselor's touch to exploring how God enters into our sufferings, helping us see God working in our own particular struggles—and discover how God's grace goes deeper than we could ever imagine.

Download or read book Elie Wiesel s Night written by Harold Bloom and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2014-05-14 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the characters, plot and writing of Night by Elie Wiesel. Includes critical essays on the novel and a brief biography of the author.

Download or read book God Land written by Lyz Lenz and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2019-07-19 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Will resonate with any readers interested in understanding American landscapes where white, evangelical Christianity dominates both politics and culture.” —Publishers Weekly In the wake of the 2016 election, Lyz Lenz watched as her country and her marriage were torn apart by the competing forces of faith and politics. A mother of two, a Christian, and a lifelong resident of middle America, Lenz was bewildered by the pain and loss around her—the empty churches and the broken hearts. What was happening to faith in the heartland? From drugstores in Sydney, Iowa, to skeet shooting in rural Illinois, to the mega churches of Minneapolis, Lenz set out to discover the changing forces of faith and tradition in God’s country. Part journalism, part memoir, God Land is a journey into the heart of a deeply divided America. Lenz visits places of worship across the heartland and speaks to the everyday people who often struggle to keep their churches afloat and to cope in a land of instability. Through a thoughtful interrogation of the effects of faith and religion on our lives, our relationships, and our country, God Land investigates whether our divides can ever be bridged and if America can ever come together. “God Land, Lyz Lenz’s much-anticipated debut book, is a marvel. Not only is it a window into the middle America so many like to stereotype but fail to fully understand in all of its complexity, but it mixes reportage, memoir, and gorgeous prose so seamlessly I wanted to know how she did it.” —Sarah Weinman, author of The Real Lolita