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Profaning Paul (Class 200: New Studies in Religion)
by Cavan W. ConcannonA critical reconsideration of the repeated use of the biblical letters of Paul. The letters of Paul have been used to support and condone a host of evils over the span of more than two millennia: racism, slavery, imperialism, misogyny, and anti-Semitism, to name a few. Despite, or in some cases because of, this history, readers of Paul have felt compelled to reappropriate his letters to fit liberal or radical politics, seeking to set right the evils done in Paul’s name. Starting with the language of excrement, refuse, and waste in Paul’s letters, Profaning Paul looks at how Paul’s “shit” is recycled and reconfigured. It asks why readers, from liberal Christians to academic biblical scholars to political theorists and philosophers, feel compelled to make Paul into a hero, mining his words for wisdom. Following the lead of feminist, queer, and minoritized scholarship, Profaning Paul asks what would happen if we stopped recycling Paul’s writings. By profaning the status of his letters as sacred texts, we might open up new avenues for imagining political figurations to meet our current and coming political, economic, and ecological challenges.
Professing Darkness: Cormac McCarthy's Catholic Critique of American Enlightenment
by D. Marcel DeCosteProfessing Darkness confirms the centrality of Catholic thought, imagery, and sacrament to the spiritual and ethical outlook of the work of Cormac McCarthy and, more specifically, its consistent assessment of Enlightenment values and their often-catastrophic realization in American history. D. Marcel DeCoste surveys McCarthy’s fiction from both his Tennessee and Southwest periods, with chapters devoted to eight of his published novels—from Outer Dark to The Road—and a conclusion that examines the writer’s screenplay for The Counselor and the duology of The Passenger and Stella Maris. DeCoste’s attentive, wide-ranging interpretations demonstrate that McCarthy’s work mounts a sustained critique of core Enlightenment ideals and their devastating results in the American context, especially for Indigenous peoples, the environment, the viability of community, and the integrity of a self irreducible to the status of a commodity. Professing Darkness shows that Roman Catholic understandings of Penance and Eucharist, along with specific Catholic teachings—such as those regarding the goodness of Creation, the nature of evil, the insufficiency of the self, and the radical invitation to conversion—enable McCarthy’s revelatory engagement with American Enlightenment. An important contribution to the ever-expanding critical literature on a towering contemporary author, Professing Darkness offers an innovative reading of both the spiritual and political valences of McCarthy’s writing.
Professional Chaplaincy and Clinical Pastoral Education Should Become More Scientific: Yes and No
by Larry Van De CreekDoes the scientific process belong in pastoral counseling? Professional Chaplaincy and Clinical Pastoral Education Should Become More Scientific: Yes and No examines the widespread ambivalence among pastoral caregivers and educators over the growing inclusion of science in pastoral care and counseling methodologies. Twenty-three seasoned professionals in the field give candid and sometimes emotional accounts of their interest in-and reservations about-the role scientific research plays in their profession. Some authors look at the issue from a historical perspective; others voice additional concerns. A few make concrete proposals on how chaplaincy can become more scientific. The result is a unique insight into the relationship between the secular and the religious. The question of whether science belongs in pastoral care and counseling is moot; pastoral care already makes extensive use of psychological testing and psychotherapeutic skills-all products of scientific thinking. But as technology becomes more dominant and health care delivery reflects a more corporate perspective, pastoral caregivers and educators are divided on whether the changes represent the significant opportunity to improve a ministry or the surrender of the ministry&’s very essence. The essays collected in Professional Chaplaincy and Clinical Pastoral Education Should Become More Scientific: Yes and No go a step farther, breaking down the issue of faith versus science into more specific questions for pastoral caregivers, such as: Can what you do be measured? Do you have an obligation to embrace the challenge of change? Is becoming more scientific a necessity for staying in touch with your health care peers? How cost effective is the pastoral care you provide if it doesn&’t include the scientific process? Could a reluctance to incorporate science into your counseling cost you your job? Professional Chaplaincy and Clinical Pastoral Education Should Become More Scientific: Yes and No presents thoughtful and thought-provoking debate that is a must-read for all pastoral caregivers and educators.
Professional Chaplaincy: What Is Happening to It During Health Care Reform?
by Larry Van De CreekChoose innovative strategies for ministering to patients, families, and staff in a time of change! In the scramble to cut health care costs and the need to make every penny count, the hospital chaplaincy program is at serious risk for being trimmed or eliminated. Professional Chaplaincy: What Is Happening to It During Health Care Reform? offers a clear look at the current situation and positive suggestions for showing administrators just how essential chaplaincy is.This essential volume includes original research showing the specific consequences of the new emphasis on economic rationalism, as well as moving firsthand accounts of the effects of downsizing and budget cuts. An Australian case study catalogs and analyzes the outcomes of a drive for cost efficiency in a hospital chaplain department. A thorough literature review provides opportunities for chaplains and administrators to investigate the value of pastoral care in hospital settings.Professional Chaplaincy includes practical suggestions for ways to respond to budget cuts, such as: redefining the scope of your ministry strengthening community ties ministering to staff worried about heath care reform efforts offering new programs to enrich spiritual life documenting pastoral care visits researching the value of chaplaincy to the well-being of patients and familiesProfessional Chaplaincy offers positive ways that hospital chaplains can take action in response to the new health care paradigm. This informative book will assist you in developing future plans for maintaining and improving your hospital ministry.
Professional Sexual Ethics: A Holistic Ministry Approach
by Patricia Beattie Jung Darryl W. StephensSexual health is an essential part of maintaining professional relationships in ministry. Focusing on implications for the practice of ministry, this book engages all dimensions of theological education and academic disciplines. Each chapter includes an analysis of common ministry situations, discussion questions, practical guidelines, and resources for further study. The volume is ideal for use in courses on professional ethics for ministry, advanced leadership training, and continuing education for clergy.
Professional Spiritual and Pastoral Care: A Practical Clergy and Chaplain's Handbook
by Willard W. C. Ashley George Fitchett Brian Hughes Rabbi Stephen B. Roberts Bill Gaventa H. Rafael Godstein Daniel Grossoehme Norma Gutierrez George Handzo Curtis W. Hart Martha R. Jacobs Gerald L. Jones Nancy K. Anderson Robert A. Kidd Yoke Lye Kwong Michele J. Guest Lowrey Marcia Marino Lynne M. Mikulak Nancy Osborne Jon Overvold Brent Peery Linda F. Piotrowski David B. Plummer Glenn A. Robitaille Dane R. Sommer Timothy G. Serban Teresa E. Snorton Shira Stern Sue WIntz Jo Clare Wilson Nancy Berlinger W. L. Bill Bross Robin C. Brown-Haithco Zahara Davidowitz-Farkas Paula DeAngelo D. W. DonovanThe first comprehensive resource for spiritual and pastoral caregivers―a vital resource for clergy, seminarians, chaplains, pastoral counselors and caregivers of all faith traditions. <P><P>This essential resource integrates the classic foundations of pastoral care with the latest approaches to spiritual care. It is specifically intended for professionals who work or spend time with congregants in acute care hospitals, behavioral health facilities, rehabilitation centers and long-term care facilities. <P><P>Offering the latest theological perspectives and tools, along with basic theory and skills from the best pastoral and spiritual care texts, research and concepts, the contributors to this resource are experts in their fields, and include eight current or past presidents of the major chaplaincy organizations.
Professionalisierung der Moscheegemeinden: Ausgangslage, Herausforderungen und best Practice Beispiele (Islam in der Gesellschaft)
by Rauf Ceylan Samy CharchiraDieser Sammelband nähert sich dem Thema zunächst aus einer historischen Perspektive an und geht der Frage nach der Entwicklung der Religionsgemeinschaften, insbesondere nach der Gründung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der seither verfassungsrechtlich verbrieften Rechte und Privilegien von Religionsgemeinschaften und ihr weitreichenden Kooperationen mit dem säkularen Staat. Der Sammelband geht auch der Frage nach dem juristischen Status von Religionsgemeinschaften. Spätestens seit Anspruchserhebung Islamische Dachverbände in Deutschland auf dem Status der Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechtes entfacht eine gesellschaftliche Debatte über Möglichkeiten der Anerkennung (oder Nichtanerkennung) von Islamischen Dachverbänden als Religionsgemeinschaften an. Der Sammelband widmet sich dann die Frage nach Aufgaben und Herausforderung (islamische) Religionsgemeinschaft im Kontext von Recht, Gesellschaft und Politik und erforscht die internen und externen Faktoren, die einen Professionalisierungsprozess von Moscheegemeinden fördern oder behindern können.
Professor of Apocalypse: The Many Lives of Jacob Taubes
by Jerry Z. MullerThe controversial Jewish thinker whose tortured path led him into the heart of twentieth-century intellectual lifeScion of a distinguished line of Talmudic scholars, Jacob Taubes (1923–1987) was an intellectual impresario whose inner restlessness led him from prewar Vienna to Zurich, Israel, and Cold War Berlin. Regarded by some as a genius, by others as a charlatan, Taubes moved among yeshivas, monasteries, and leading academic institutions on three continents. He wandered between Judaism and Christianity, left and right, piety and transgression. Along the way, he interacted with many of the leading minds of the age, from Leo Strauss and Gershom Scholem to Herbert Marcuse, Susan Sontag, and Carl Schmitt. Professor of Apocalypse is the definitive biography of this enigmatic figure and a vibrant mosaic of twentieth-century intellectual life.Jerry Muller shows how Taubes&’s personal tensions mirrored broader conflicts between religious belief and scholarship, allegiance to Jewish origins and the urge to escape them, tradition and radicalism, and religion and politics. He traces Taubes&’s emergence as a prominent interpreter of the Apostle Paul, influencing generations of scholars, and how his journey led him from crisis theology to the Frankfurt School, and from a radical Hasidic sect in Jerusalem to the center of academic debates over Gnosticism, secularization, and the revolutionary potential of apocalypticism.Professor of Apocalypse offers an unforgettable account of an electrifying world of ideas, focused on a charismatic personality who thrived on controversy and conflict.
Profeta levántate: El llamado para hablar con denuedo la Palabra del Señor
by John EckhardtAlgo se mueve dentro de ti pero ha sido acallado, gravemente socavado y malentendido. Tienes que creer que Dios no te ha olvidado. El no te ha dejado fuera. No estás loco, Profeta, ¡levántate! Sal de tu cueva y anímate a hablar la palabra del Señor. Dios te está llamando a ser su trompeta y a sonar la alarma. El Cuerpo de Cristo tiene una gran necesidad de que los profetas se despierten y salgan adelante. Ya sea que nunca hayas pronunciado una palabra profética o que uses tu don de manera activa, el popular autor John Eckhardt te ofrece una enseñanza inspiradora sin igual. El revela valientemente las características de un profeta, que pudieran estar dormidas en tu vida, para que Dios te lance a tu llamado. Aprenderás:Las características únicas de un profetaLos detalles del llamamiento de un profetaQué motiva al corazón de un profeta y mueve la unciónLa recompensa que lleva el profeta a aquellos que lo recibenCómo encontrar sanidad y liberación para el profeta que ha sido herido ¡Y mucho más!
Profits and Prophets: Market Economics and Jewish Social Ethics
by Nancy Ruth FoxThis book is a study of potential, perceived, and real conflicts and similarities between market economics and Jewish social justice. The book’s ultimate focus is on public policy issues. In the first two chapters, the author presents the conceptual and theoretical foundations of market economics and Jewish social justice. Subsequent chapters analyze minimum wage, immigration, climate change, and usury from both market economics and Jewish social justice perspectives, discussing conflicts, and, if they exist, similarities.
Profound Good: See God Through the Lens of His Love
by Blake K. HealyWhat you see of God is only part of the story.From the time Blake Healy was a small child, he has seen angels, demons, and other spiritual things. He sees them with his naked eyes, as vividly and clearly as anything else. Everyplace he goes, every person he meets, every day that goes by, he sees in the spirit.After thirty years of seeing in the spirit, one thing has consistently been the most painful for him to see. It is not when he sees someone trapped in demonic oppression. It is not when he sees the gaping wounds of emotional trauma. It is when he sees the goodness of God go unclaimed by His people.In this book Healy takes readers on a journey of rediscovering the goodness of God. It fills the churches we visit every week. It moves across the sea from nation to nation. All we have to do is learn how to see it and receive it, and then we will watch every corner of the world be completely transformed by the power of His profound good. Other books by Blake Healy include:The Veil 978-1-62999-490-1
Profound Healing: The Power of Acceptance on the Path to Wellness
by Joseph Chilton Pearce Cheryl CanfieldA woman faced with advanced cancer shares the story of how preparing to die led her to experience a profound healing on all levels--physical, emotional, and spiritual. • Explores the practical and spiritual aspects of confronting a life challenge as a springboard for spiritual growth. • Includes accounts of dreams, exercises, and visualizations that inspire profound healing. • Outlines 12 self-help practices of wellness--emotional clearing, meditations, and lifestyle changes--through the living example of a cancer survivor. • By the co-compiler of the spiritual classic Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words. At the age of 41 Cheryl Canfield was diagnosed with advanced cervical cancer. Going against warnings from doctors, she rejected proposed surgeries that would involve removing her uterus, cervix, lymph nodes, and surrounding nerves. Instead, she decided to accept death and focused her energy on attempting to die well. In the process, she cured herself. Profound Healing is Canfield's down-to-earth account of her journey as she inadvertently experiences a modern-day miracle, and her subsequent reflections on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing. More than a biography, Canfield's story contains exercises, dreams, visualizations, and experiences--from encounters with the modern mystic Peace Pilgrim to her own acceptance of cancer--that assisted her healing process. Others can use her hard-earned insights as a source of hope, inspiration, and practical advice. Relevant to anyone seeking personal growth and life wisdom, Profound Healing is not merely about dying or living. It is about discovering one's life and living it fully while here.
Programming Your Lucid Dreams
by Von BraschlerLucid dreams stand out from ordinary dreams in the meaning and clarity that they can bring us. Learn to control these dreams and access times, places, and information usually hidden from our senses. In Programming Your Lucid Dreams, discover accessible exercises and insights that will enable you to self-direct your lucid dreams to their fullest potential. Learn how to • Understand spontaneous lucid dreams, • Analyze your dreams and keep a dream journal, • Cultivate body and mind to prepare for lucid dreaming, • Map your dream destination and create dream guides through visualization, • Use lucid dreams to transcend space and time, • Ensure your safety while lucid dreaming, • Understand lucid dreams through the arc of the hero&’s journey, • Use lucid dreams to achieve goals, and • Share thought forms with others and join others in the dreamscape.Learn what to expect in the lucid dreamscape and how to use this liminal state of consciousness for transformative change and profound insight.
Progress in Theology: Does the Queen of the Sciences Advance? (Routledge Science and Religion Series)
by Rik Peels Gijsbert van den Brink Bethany SollerederThis book explores the intriguing relationship between theology, science, and the ideal of progress from a variety of perspectives. While seriously discussing the obstacles and pitfalls related to the notion of progress in theology, it argues that there are in fact many different kinds of progress in theology. It considers how this sheds positive light on what theologians do and suggests that other disciplines in the humanities can equally profit from these ideas. The chapters provide tools for making further progress in theology, featuring detailed case studies to show how progress in theology works in practice and connecting with the role and place of theology in the University. The book rearticulates in multiple ways theology’s distinctive voice at the interface of science and religion.
Progress in the Pulpit: How to Grow in Your Preaching
by Jerry Vines Jim Shaddix"Progress in the Pulpit is a master class in preaching, written by two most-qualified authors. Dr. Jerry Vines is truly a Prince of the Pulpit.&” — Dr. Albert Mohler Jr., from the forewordLike musical instruments, preachers get better over time—unless, of course, they neglect maintenance. Progress in the Pulpit is for seasoned preachers looking to refresh their craft and receive guidance for contemporary challenges to preaching. While most preaching books are geared toward new preachers, Progress in the Pulpit builds on the basics and focuses on what often falls into neglect. You will learn to better: Connect to audiences without compromising biblical truthPlan, evaluate, and get feedback on sermonsBattle biblical illiteracy in your congregationEmploy word studies and other technical aspects of biblical interpretationIncrease imagination and creativity in sermon writing Extend the life of a sermon via social media, small groups, and moreEstablish habits for continued growth Drs. Jerry Vines and Jim Shaddix, who wrote Power in the Pulpit (a book still used in seminaries today), remain committed to pure expository preaching. Yet they understand that the times change and present new challenges. Here they offer guidance to help preachers stay sharp and grow in the craft of faithfully proclaiming God&’s Word.
Progress in the Pulpit: How to Grow in Your Preaching
by Jerry Vines Jim Shaddix"Progress in the Pulpit is a master class in preaching, written by two most-qualified authors. Dr. Jerry Vines is truly a Prince of the Pulpit.&” — Dr. Albert Mohler Jr., from the forewordLike musical instruments, preachers get better over time—unless, of course, they neglect maintenance. Progress in the Pulpit is for seasoned preachers looking to refresh their craft and receive guidance for contemporary challenges to preaching. While most preaching books are geared toward new preachers, Progress in the Pulpit builds on the basics and focuses on what often falls into neglect. You will learn to better: Connect to audiences without compromising biblical truthPlan, evaluate, and get feedback on sermonsBattle biblical illiteracy in your congregationEmploy word studies and other technical aspects of biblical interpretationIncrease imagination and creativity in sermon writing Extend the life of a sermon via social media, small groups, and moreEstablish habits for continued growth Drs. Jerry Vines and Jim Shaddix, who wrote Power in the Pulpit (a book still used in seminaries today), remain committed to pure expository preaching. Yet they understand that the times change and present new challenges. Here they offer guidance to help preachers stay sharp and grow in the craft of faithfully proclaiming God&’s Word.
Progressive Evangelicals and the Pursuit of Social Justice
by Brantley W. GasawayIn this compelling history of progressive evangelicalism, Brantley Gasaway examines a dynamic though often overlooked movement within American Christianity today. Gasaway focuses on left-leaning groups, such as Sojourners and Evangelicals for Social Action, that emerged in the early 1970s, prior to the rise of the more visible Religious Right. He identifies the distinctive "public theology--a set of biblical interpretations regarding the responsibility of Christians to promote social justice--that has animated progressive evangelicals' activism and bound together their unusual combination of political positions.The book analyzes how prominent leaders, including Jim Wallis, Ron Sider, and Tony Campolo, responded to key political and social issues over the past four decades. Progressive evangelicals combated racial inequalities, endorsed feminism, promoted economic justice, and denounced American nationalism and militarism. At the same time, most leaders opposed abortion and refused to affirm homosexual behavior, even as they defended gay civil rights. Gasaway demonstrates that, while progressive evangelicals have been caught in the crossfire of partisan conflicts and public debates over the role of religion in politics, they have offered a significant alternative to both the Religious Right and the political left.
Progressive Minds, Conservative Politics: Leo Strauss's Later Writings on Maimonides (SUNY series in the Thought and Legacy of Leo Strauss)
by Aryeh TepperLeo Strauss (1899–1973), one of the preeminent political philosophers of the twentieth century, was an astute interpreter of Maimonides's medieval masterpiece, The Guide of the Perplexed. In Progressive Minds, Conservative Politics, Aryeh Tepper overturns the conventional view of Strauss's interpretation and of Strauss's own mature thought. According to the scholarly consensus, Strauss traced the well-known contradictions in the Guide to the fundamental tension in Maimonides's mind between reason and revelation, going so far as to suggest that while the Jewish philosopher's overt position was religiously pious (i.e., on the side of "Jerusalem"), secretly he was on the side of reason, or "Athens." In Tepper's analysis, Strauss's judgments emerge as much more complex than this and also more open to revision. In his later writings, Tepper shows, Strauss pointed to contradictions in Maimonides's thought not only between but also within both "Jerusalem" and "Athens." Moreover, Strauss identified, and identified himself with, an esoteric Maimonidean teaching on progress: progress within the Bible, beyond the Bible, and even beyond the rabbinic sages. Politically a conservative thinker, Strauss, like Maimonides, located man's deepest satisfaction in progressing in the discernment of the truth. In the fullness of his career, Strauss thus pointed to a third way beyond the modern alternatives of conservatism and progressivism.
Progressive Muslims: On Justice, Gender and Pluralism (Islam in the Twenty-First Century)
by Omid SafiConfronting such key contemporary issues as racism, justice, sexuality, and gender, this book offers a revealing insight into the real challenges faced by Muslims of both sexes in Western society.
Progressive Sexuality Education: The Conceits of Secularism (Routledge Research in Education)
by Mary Lou RasmussenThis book engages contemporary debates about the notion of secularism outside of the field of education in order to consider how secularism shapes the formation of progressive sexuality education. Focusing on the US, Canada, Ireland, Aotearoa-New Zealand and Australia, this text considers the affinities, prejudices, and attachments of scholars who advocate secular worldviews in the context of sexuality education, and some of the consequences that ensue from these ways of seeing. This study identifies and interrogates how secularism infuses progressive sexuality education. It asks readers to consider their own investments in particular ways of thinking and researching in the field of sexuality education, and to think about how these investments have developed and how they shape existing discourses within the field of sexuality education. It hones in on how progressive sexuality education has come to develop in the way that it has, and how this relates to conceits of secularism. This book prompts a consideration of how "progressive" scholarship and practice might get in the way of meaningful conversations with students, teachers, and peers who think differently about the field of sexuality education.
Progressive and Conservative Religious Ideologies: The Tumultuous Decade of the 1960s
by Richard LintsThis book explores the surprisingly disruptive role of religion for progressive and conservative ideologies in the tumultuous decade of the 1960s. Conservative movements were far more progressive than the standard religious narrative of the decade alleges and the notoriously progressive ethos of the era was far more conservative than our collective memory has recognized. Lints explores how the themes of protest and retrieval intersect each other in ironic ways in the significant concrete controversies of the 1960s - the Civil Rights Movement, Second Feminist Movement, The Jesus Movements, and the Anti-War Movements - and in the conceptual conflicts of ideas during the era - The Death of God Movement, the end of ideology controversy, and the death of foundationalism. Lints argues that religion and religious ideologies serve both a prophetic function as well as a domesticating one, and that neither "conservative" nor "progressive" movements have cornered the market in either direction. In the process Lints helps us better understand the complex role of religion in cultural formation.
Prohibido
by Ted DekkerEN EL AÑO 2005, especialistas en Genética descubrieron el gen humano que controla el temor innato y adquirido. Se denominó Estatmina u Oncoproteína 18. En 15 años se identificaron de forma similar todos los genes que influyen en las principales emociones. Cerca de una década después, tras una guerra catastrófica que destruyó gran parte de la civilización, la humanidad prometió renunciar a todo lo que había conspirado para su destrucción. De las cenizas surgió un nuevo mundo del que fueron eliminadas las tecnologías avanzadas y las emociones apasionadas que llevaron a su ruina. Un mundo sin odio, sin malicia, sin aflicción, sin ira. En general, la única emoción que genéticamente se permitió sobrevivir fue el temor. Durante 480 años, reinó la paz perfecta. Hasta ahora...
Project Bible Truth
by Joe E. HolmanAfter nine years of preaching fundamentalist Christianity for the denomination known as the Church of Christ, minister Joe E. Holman decided to call it quits. Walking away from the ministry forever, Holman explains the reasons for making such a life-altering and controversial decision.
Project Inspired
by Kristin Billerbeck Nicole WeiderNicole Weider is on a mission: to help young girls avoid the traps that culture sets. The trap that baits you into thinking you must sacrifice your self-worth in order to be beautiful and popular. Nicole launched Project Inspired in 2010 (www.projectinspired.com), a website for teen girls that analyzes pop culture and explores ways girls can live in their authentic beauty.In Project Inspired, Nicole shares tips for you to stay true to yourself—to how you were created to be—as well as how to dress modestly yet fashionably, how to make a positive difference in the world, and how to enjoy your teen years while standing firm in your faith. With photographs, real behind-the-scenes stories from inside the fashion world, and an honest look at living a life that looks great on the outside and feels great on the inside, Project Inspired is a book you’ll turn to time and time again.
Project Pope: I Am Crying All Inside And Other Stories, Highway Of Eternity, And Project Pope (The\works Of Clifford D. Simak Ser. #3)
by Clifford D. SimakRobot believers at the far end of the galaxy endeavor to create a true religion, but their efforts could be shattered by a shocking revelation Far in the future, on the remote planet End of Nothing, sentient robots are engaged in a remarkable enterprise. They call their project Vatican-17: an endeavor to create a truly universal religion presided over by a pope, whose extreme godliness and infallible artificial intelligence are fed by telepathic human Listeners who psychically delve into the mysteries of the universe. But the great and holy mission could be compromised by one shocking revelation that threatens to inspire serious crises of faith among the spiritual, truth-seeking robotic acolytes while tearing them into warring religious factions. For the Listener Mary is claiming that she has just discovered Heaven. There are those among the Clifford D. Simak faithful who consider Project Pope his masterpiece. But whether the crowning literary achievement of a multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science fiction Grand Master or merely another brilliant novel of speculative fiction to stand among his many, Simak's breathtaking search for God in the machine ingeniously blends science and spirituality in a truly miraculous way that few science fiction writers, if any, have been able to accomplish.