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After Life: My Journey from Incarceration to Freedom
by Nancy French Alice Marie JohnsonForeword by Kim Kardashian WestThe true-life story of the woman whose life sentence for non-violent drug trafficking was commuted by President Donald Trump thanks to the efforts of Kim Kardashian West—an inspiring memoir of faith, hope, mercy, and gratitude.How do you hold on to hope after more than twenty years of imprisonment? For Alice Marie Johnson the answer lies with God.For years, Alice lived a normal life without a criminal record—she was a manager at FedEx, a wife, and a mother. But after an emotionally and financially tumultuous period in her life left her with few options, she turned to crime as a way to pay off her mounting debts. Convicted in 1996 for her nonviolent involvement in a Memphis cocaine trafficking organization, Alice received a life sentence under the mandatory sentencing laws of the time. Locked behind bars, Alice looked to God. Eventually becoming an ordained minister, she relied on her faith to sustain hope over more than two decades—until 2018, when the president commuted her sentence at the behest of Kim Kardashian West, who had taken up Alice’s cause.In this honest, faith-driven memoir, Alice explains how she held on to hope and gave it to others, from becoming a playwright to mentoring her fellow prisoners. She reveals how Christianity and her unshakeable belief in God helped her persevere and inspired her to share her faith in a video that would go viral—and come to the attention of celebrities who were moved to action.Today, Alice is an icon for the prison reform movement and a humble servant who embraces gratitude and God for her freedom. In this powerful book, she recalls all of the firsts she has experienced through her activism and provides an authentic portrait of the crisis that is mass incarceration. Linking social justice to spiritual faith, she makes a persuasive and poignant argument for justice that transcends tribal politics. Her story is a beacon in the darkness of despair, reminding us of the power of redemption and the importance of making second chances count.After Life features 16 pages of color photographs.
After Long Silence: A Memoir
by Helen Fremont"To this day, I don't even know what my mother's real name is."Helen Fremont was raised as a Roman Catholic. It wasn't until she was an adult, practicing law in Boston, that she discovered her parents were Jewish--Holocaust survivors living invented lives. Not even their names were their own. In this powerful memoir, Helen Fremont delves into the secrets that held her family in a bond of silence for more than four decades, recounting with heartbreaking clarity a remarkable tale of survival, as vivid as fiction but with the resonance of truth.Driven to uncover their roots, Fremont and her sister pieced together an astonishing story: of Siberian Gulags and Italian royalty, of concentration camps and buried lives. After Long Silence is about the devastating price of hiding the truth; about families; about the steps we take, foolish or wise, to protect ourselves and our loved ones. No one who reads this book can be unmoved, or fail to understand the seductive, damaging power of secrets.What Fremont and her sister discover is an astonishing story: one of Siberian gulags and Italian royalty, of concentration camps and buried lives. AFTER LONG SILENCE is about the devastating price of hiding the truth; about families; about the steps we take, foolish or wise, to protect ourselves and our loved ones. No one who reads this book can be unmoved, or fail to understand the seductive, damaging power of secrets. -->From the Trade Paperback edition.
After Our Likeness: The Church as the Image of the Trinity (Sacra Doctrina: Christian Theology for a Postmodern Age)
by Miroslav VolfIn After Our Likeness, the inaugural volume in the Sacra Doctrina series, Miroslav Volf explores the relationship between persons and community in Christian theology. The focus is the community of grace, the Christian church. The point of departure is the thought of the first Baptist, John Smyth, and the notion of church as "gathered community" that he shared with Radical Reformers.Volf seeks to counter the tendencies toward individualism in Protestant ecclesiology and to suggest a viable understanding of the church in which both person and community are given their proper due. In the process he engages in a sustained and critical ecumenical dialogue with the Catholic and Orthodox ecclesiologies of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger and the metropolitan John Zizioulas. The result is a brilliant ecumenical study that spells out a vision of the church as an image of the triune God.
After Pentecost: Language and Biblical Interpretation (Scripture and Hermeneutics Series)
by Zondervan"There is always some view of language built into biblical interpretation. If we are to read Scripture to hear God&’s address it is vital that we attend to current debates about language and become critically conscious in this respect." Craig Bartholomew After Pentecost is the second volume from the Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar. This annual gathering of Christian scholars from various disciplines was established in 1998 and aims to reassess the discipline of biblical studies from the foundations up and forge creative new ways for reopening the Bible in our cultures. The Seminar was aware from the outset that any renewal of biblical interpretation would have to attend to the issue of language. In this rich and creative volume the importance of linguistic issues for biblical interpretation is analyzed, the challenge of postmodernism is explored, and some of the most creative recent developments in philosophy and theology of language are assessed and updated for biblical interpretation. CONTRIBULTORS INCLUDE: Mary Hesse Ray Van Leeuwen Anthony Thiselton Kevin Vanhoozer Nicholas Wolterstorff
After Pluralism: Reimagining Religious Engagement (Religion, Culture, and Public Life)
by Pamela E. Klassen Eds. Bender CourtneyThe contributors to this volume treat pluralism as a concept that is historically and ideologically produced or, put another way, as a doctrine that is embedded within a range of political, civic, and cultural institutions. Their critique considers how religious difference is framed as a problem that only pluralism can solve. Working comparatively across nations and disciplines, the essays in After Pluralism explore pluralism as a "term of art" that sets the norms of identity and the parameters of exchange, encounter, and conflict. <P><P>Contributors locate pluralism's ideals in diverse sites-Broadway plays, Polish Holocaust memorials, Egyptian dream interpretations, German jails, and legal theories-and demonstrate its shaping of political and social interaction in surprising and powerful ways. Throughout, they question assumptions underlying pluralism's discourse and its influence on the legal decisions that shape modern religious practice. Contributors do more than deconstruct this theory; they tackle what comes next. Having established the genealogy and effects of pluralism, they generate new questions for engaging the collective worlds and multiple registers in which religion operates.
After Revelation: The Rabbinic Past in the Medieval Islamic World (Jewish Culture and Contexts)
by Marc HermanReveals how medieval Jews developed religious law through contact with their Muslim neighborsAfter Revelation offers a dynamic new perspective on medieval Jewish legal thought and its integration in the wider Islamic world. Here, Marc D. Herman demonstrates that Jews were fully conversant in their contemporaries’ ideas about revelation, law, and legal interpretation. Bookended by the two luminaries of medieval Judaism—Saadia Gaon and Moses Maimonides—After Revelation analyzes the legal theory that medieval Jews produced in Islamic lands, mostly in Arabic, and reveals previously unrecognized commonalities between Jewish and Islamic constructions of religious law.Herman tackles one of the central doctrines of post-biblical Judaism: that God had supplemented the written Hebrew Bible with an Oral Torah. Tracing this idea from Baghdad to Córdoba to Cairo, he shows that the Oral Torah took many new forms in the medieval Islamic world. After Revelation makes plain that medieval Judaism took the shapes that it did largely because of contact with Islam.
After Science and Religion: Fresh Perspectives from Philosophy and Theology
by John Milbank Peter Harrison Paul TysonThe popular field of 'science and religion' is a lively and well-established area. It is however a domain which has long been characterised by certain traits. In the first place, it tends towards an adversarial dialectic in which the separate disciplines, now conjoined, are forever locked in a kind of mortal combat. Secondly, 'science and religion' has a tendency towards disentanglement, where 'science' does one sort of thing and 'religion' another. And thirdly, the duo are frequently pushed towards some sort of attempted synthesis, wherein their aims either coincide or else are brought more closely together. In attempting something fresh, and different, this volume tries to move beyond tried and tested tropes. Bringing philosophy and theology to the fore in a way rarely attempted before, the book shows how fruitful new conversations between science and religion can at last move beyond the increasingly tired options of either conflict or dialogue.
After Secular Law
by Winnifred Fallers Sullivan Robert A. Yelle Mateo Taussig-RubboMany today place great hope in law as a vehicle for the transformation of society and accept that law is autonomous, universal, and above all, secular. Yet recent scholarship has called into question the simplistic narrative of a separation between law and religion and blurred the boundaries between these two categories, enabling new accounts of their relation that do not necessarily either collapse them together or return law to a religious foundation. This work gives special attention to the secularism of law, exploring how law became secular, the phenomenology of the legal secular, and the challenges that lingering religious formations and other aspects of globalization pose for modern law's self-understanding. Bringing together scholars with a variety of perspectives and orientations, it provides a deeper understanding of the interconnections between law and religion and the unexpected histories and anthropologies of legal secularism in a globalizing modernity.
After Secularism
by Erin K. WilsonHaving destabilized dominant assumptions about the nature of religion, there is now a need to develop new ways of thinking about this ever-present phenomenon in global politics. This book outlines a new approach to understanding religion and its relationship with politics in the West and globally for International Relations.
After She Vanished
by Shirley JumpA missing person case…Or a deadly cover-up? When podcaster Kate McAllister focuses her show on the cold case of a missing teenage girl, Detective Mack Snyder is determined to keep the case his father solved closed. But as Kate's investigation reveals new clues, she starts to receive death threats. And when the threats increase, Kate and Mack must decide what could be worth more—justice or their lives.New York Times Bestselling Author
After Shock: Searching for Honest Faith When Your World Is Shaken
by Kent AnnanECPAAre there questions or realities your faith can't handle?After Shock
After This
by Claire Bidwell SmithIn After This, acclaimed author, and therapist Claire Bidwell Smith confronts the question she encounters every day in private practice--what happens after we die? In an exploration of the afterlife that is part personal, part prescriptive--Smith invites us on her journey into the unknown. She wonders: How do we grieve our loved ones without proof that they live on? Will we ever see them again? Can they see us now, even though they are gone?Chronicling our steps along the path that bridges this world and the next, Smith undergoes past-life regressions and sessions with mediums and psychics and immerses herself in the ceremonies of organized religion and the rigor of scientific experiments to try and find the answers. Drawing on both her personal losses, recounted in her memoir The Rules of Inheritance, as well as her background working in hospice as a bereavement counselor, Smith attempts to show how exploring the afterlife can have a positive impact on the grief process. personal journey that underlies the book's message: What we believe about what happens next affects everything about how we live--and love--right now.
After This: God Can Turn Any Season Into a Time of Blessing
by Kevin WallaceWhat if just beyond this season of turmoil is your best season yet? This book will help you understand that God is working all things for your good and that He can turn any season into a time of blessing. It would be easy to navigate life if every problem, every pain, and every setback came with a telegraph that enabled us to prepare for their arrival. But often our greatest struggles come with the least warning and feel like the greatest threat to our future. Even the most committed Christians find themselves in seasons that challenge their faith, shake their hopes, and make them fearful when thinking of the future. In Acts 8, the church experienced an unprecedented season of persecution, pain, and chaos. One of their leaders, Stephen, had been killed. The believers were being hunted. Their lives were being threatened. In addition to the fear and frenzy, Saul was wreaking havoc in the church. But following this season of being persecuted and terrorized, Acts 9:31 reveals that God changed the trajectory of their lives with two words: after this! After the pain, the fear, the loss, the misery, after the confusion and chaos, God decided it was time to change their season. The season of struggle that seemed like it would last forever had an expiration date! Like the early church, we must see that no matter how tough the situation we&’ve walked through has been, it will not end there! There is a blessing and breakthrough coming after this!After This is an encouraging compass that points us to all that is waiting for us in the next season of our lives. It is a prophetic word revealing that this coming shift is a transition into a time of peace, multiplication, comfort, and strength. After the misery, after the mess, after the divorce, after the break up, after the bankruptcy, after the failure—even after COVID-19—there is an &“after this&” coming that will change everything for those who belong to God.
After Vatican II: Trajectories and Hermeneutics
by James L. HeftSince the closing of Vatican II (1962-1965) nearly fifty years ago, several multivolume studies have detailed how the bishops at the council debated successive drafts and finally approved the sixteen documents published as the proceedings of the council. However, opinions vary, sometimes sharply, about the implications of Vatican II. This volume explores the major flashpoints.Contributors:John ConnellyMassimo FaggioliJames L. HeftM. Cathleen KavenyJoseph A. KomonchakJohn O'MalleyFrancis A. SullivanDarlene Fozard WeaverRobin Darling Young
After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging (Theological Education between the Times)
by Willie James JenningsOn forming people who form communion Theological education has always been about formation: first of people, then of communities, then of the world. If we continue to promote whiteness and its related ideas of masculinity and individualism in our educational work, it will remain diseased and thwart our efforts to heal the church and the world. But if theological education aims to form people who can gather others together through border-crossing pluralism and God-drenched communion, we can begin to cultivate the radical belonging that is at the heart of God&’s transformative work.In this inaugural volume of the Theological Education between the Times series, Willie James Jennings shares the insights gained from his extensive experience in theological education, most notably as the dean of a major university&’s divinity school—where he remains one of the only African Americans to have ever served in that role. He reflects on the distortions hidden in plain sight within the world of education but holds onto abundant hope for what theological education can be and how it can position itself at the front of a massive cultural shift away from white, Western cultural hegemony. This must happen through the formation of what Jennings calls erotic souls within ourselves—erotic in the sense that denotes the power and energy of authentic connection with God and our fellow human beings.After Whiteness is for anyone who has ever questioned why theological education still matters. It is a call for Christian intellectuals to exchange isolation for intimacy and embrace their place in the crowd—just like the crowd that followed Jesus and experienced his miracles. It is part memoir, part decolonial analysis, and part poetry—a multimodal discourse that deliberately transgresses boundaries, as Jennings hopes theological education will do, too.
After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies (Religion in Culture)
by David G. Robertson Christopher R CotterThe World Religions Paradigm has been the subject of critique and controversy in Religious Studies for many years. After World Religions provides a rationale for overhauling the World Religions curriculum, as well as a roadmap for doing so. The volume offers concise and practical introductions to cutting-edge Religious Studies method and theory, introducing a wide range of pedagogical situations and innovative solutions. An international team of scholars addresses the challenges presented in their different departmental, institutional, and geographical contexts. Instructors developing syllabi will find supplementary reading lists and specific suggestions to help guide their teaching. Students at all levels will find the book an invaluable entry point into an area of ongoing scholarly debate.
After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters
by N. T. WrightFrom the author of the acclaimed Simply Christian and Surprised by Hope comes a book that addresses the question that has plagued humans for centuries--what is our purpose? As Christians, what are we to do with that ambiguous time between baptism and the funeral? It's easy to become preoccupied with who gets into heaven; the real challenge is how we are going to live in the here and now. Wright dispels the common misconception that Christian living is nothing more than a checklist of dos and don'ts. Nor is it a prescription to "follow your heart" wherever it may lead. Instead, After You Believe reveals the Bible's call for a revolution--a transformation of character that takes us beyond our earthly pursuit of money, sex, and power into a virtuous state of living that allows us to reflect God and live more worshipful, fulfilling lives.We are all spiritual seekers, intuitively knowing there is more to life than we suspect. This is a book for anyone who is hoping there is something more while we're here on Earth. There is. We are being called to join the revolution, and Wright insightfully encourages readers to find new purpose and clarity by taking us on an eye-opening journey through key biblical passages that promise to radically alter the work of the church and the direction of our lives.
After You Die
by Frank SantoraAt a time when people's curiosity about the afterlife is stronger than ever, Pastor Frank Santora tackles this issue head-on, delivering cultural, scientific, philosophical, and biblical evidence to unveil the truth about the mysteries of the afterlife. Pastor Frank covers issues such as: * Is there life after death? * Is there a God? * Do heaven and hell exist? * Is hell the torture chamber that it's been purported to be? * Are there second chances after we die? * Do we have a soul, and what does it look like? * What qualifies a person to get into heaven? * And what does Jesus have to do with it all? Written for both nonbelievers and those familiar with the Bible, After You Die gives insightful answers to life's most probing questions while offering hope to everyone who has ever wondered what happens to us after we leave earth.
After You Drop Them Off: A Parent's Guide to Student Ministry
by Jeramy Clark Jerusha ClarkMaximize Your Student's Church ExperienceMore and more children and teenagers are becoming involved in church. They find that youth ministries are a safe place to make friends and have fun-and a wonderful way to find spiritual support and insight in a confusing world. But if you're a parent of a student in a youth ministry, you may have some questions: ·What actually goes on in group meetings? ·How trustworthy are the leaders?·How can I be more informed, or more involved? ·What if I disagree with a leader? ·How can I support the leaders more effectively? ·How can I help make my student's experience with church as powerful and positive as possible?In After You Drop Them Off, youth leader and author Jeramy Clark provides trustworthy answers to your questions, along with practical suggestions, biblical support, and "real-life" parents' comments and stories.From the Trade Paperback edition.
After You've Blown It: Reconnecting with God and Others (LifeChange Books)
by Erwin LutzerYOU CAN START OVER AGAIN Many Christians become so discouraged because of their sins and failures that they give up on ever having fellowship with God again. They also fear that their broken relationships will never heal. For everyone who has wished for a fresh beginning, here is good news. This gentle, affirming book emphasises how much God wants his wandering children to return to him. Award-winning author and pastor Erwin Lutzer provides solutions to common questions about how to reconnect with God and with those we are estranged from. Thanks to God's grace, it is never too late to do what's right. In this powerful, practical book, bestselling author Erwin Lutzer shows you how to clear your conscience and reestablish broken relationships. Worthy or not, you can know real, lasting peace - and the assurance that God still has a plan for your life.Story Behind the BookThe idea for this book came to me when speaking at Promise Keepers. There were many men who came to faith in Christ, but then failed in their walk the next week or the next month. So they assumed that this new life was not for them; they thought that God was so angry with their failure, they might just as well live on the fringes of the Christian faith, rather than making it the core of their lives. This is a message of grace, not only in establishing our relationship with God, but in reconciling with those we have wronged, or who have wronged us.From the Hardcover edition.
After You, Marco Polo
by Jean Bowie ShorFrom Venice to Pelping across high Asia, an adventurous American couple follows a dangerous trail seven centuries old."Franc and Jean Shor are the most widely traveled American couple on the world scene. They have gone to the farthest reaches, to the bleak places few have ever seen. They are warm-hearted, hospitable people, and keen observers, with great perception and understanding. "It's an exciting and absorbing adventure story that Jean Shor tells. It has a gay and humorous side; and a grim and near tragic one too. She and Franc follow Marco Polo by car, by horse and yak, and on foot over the top of the Pamirs of Central Asia, through heat and freezing cold. She has also followed Marco Polo's example by giving a faithful account of the people of the various regions--their customs, institutions, habits, diet, dress, dances, and religion."This is the best travelogue I know. It takes one where only a handful from the West have ever gone. The account is on par with Marco Polo's great classic. And it has more warmth and meaning, because it is rich in the details that only an understanding woman can contribute."--WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and author of Beyond the High Himalayas, etc.
After the Baby Boomers: How Twenty- and Thirty-Somethings Are Shaping the Future of American Religion
by Robert WuthnowMuch has been written about the profound impact the post-World War II baby boomers had on American religion. But the lifestyles and beliefs of the generation that has followed--and the influence these younger Americans in their twenties and thirties are having on the face of religion--are not so well understood. It is this next wave of post-boomers that Robert Wuthnow examines in this illuminating book. What are their churchgoing habits and spiritual interests and needs? How does their faith affect their families, their communities, and their politics? Interpreting new evidence from scores of in-depth interviews and surveys, Wuthnow reveals a generation of younger adults who, unlike the baby boomers that preceded them, are taking their time establishing themselves in careers, getting married, starting families of their own, and settling down--resulting in an estimated six million fewer regular churchgoers. He shows how the recent growth in evangelicalism is tapering off, and traces how biblical literalism, while still popular, is becoming less dogmatic and more preoccupied with practical guidance. At the same time, Wuthnow explains how conflicts between religious liberals and conservatives continue--including among new immigrant groups such as Hispanics and Asians--and how in the absence of institutional support many post-boomers have taken a more individualistic, improvised approach to spirituality. Wuthnow's fascinating analysis also explores the impacts of the Internet and so-called virtual churches, and the appeal of megachurches. After the Baby Boomers offers us a tantalizing look at the future of American religion for decades to come.
After the Cheering Stops: An NFL Wife’s Story of Concussions, Loss, and the Faith that Saw Her Through
by Mike Yorkey Cyndy FeaselFormer NFL wife Cyndy Feasel tells the tragic story of her family's journey into chaos and darkness resulting from the damage her husband suffered due to football-related concussions and head trauma--and the faith that saved her. "If I'd only known what I loved the most would end up killing me and taking away everything I loved, I would have never done it." - Grant Feasel Grant Feasel spent ten years in the NFL, playing 117 games as a center and a long snapper mostly for the Seattle Seahawks. The skull-battering, jaw-shaking collisions he absorbed during those years ultimately destroyed his marriage and fractured his family. Grant died on July 15, 2012, at the age of 52, the victim of alcohol abuse and a degenerative brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Cyndy Feasel watched their life together become a living hell as alcohol became Grant's medication for a disease rooted in the scores of concussions he suffered on the football field. Helmet-to-helmet collisions opened the door to CTE and transformed him from a sunny, strong, and loving man into a dark shadow of his former self. In this raw and emotional memoir that takes a closer look at the destruction wrought by a game millions love, Cyndy describes in painful and excruciating detail what can happen to an NFL player and his family when the stadium empties and the lights go down. A powerful tale of warning for football moms and NFL wives everywhere, After the Cheering Stops is also a story of the hard-won hope found in God's presence when everything else falls apart.
After the Cross
by Mike Lynch Brandon BarrColton Foster, once hailed as a renowned expert in Latin, Hebrew and Greek, had his reputation destroyed when a shadowy antiquities dealer outwitted him with master forgeries from Solomon's Temple. Years later, his career and self-respect still in pieces, a team discovers an 800-year old letter in Istanbul and his life takes a pivotal turn. The job of translating the letter, purportedly revealing the hidden cross of Jesus, is his for the taking, and with it a chance to redeem himself. Mallory Windom is smart, beautiful, and skilled at getting what she wants. A linguistic prodigy with a dark history, she trusts no one, an important skill in the black market antiquities trade where she regularly sells her expert talents to the highest bidder. As Colton and Mallory hunt for Christianity's most prized relic, mysterious forces seem bent on stopping them at every turn. They soon discover that the most important struggle of their lives is not around them, but from within, testing their beliefs, their ethics, and their growing love for one another.