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An Anthropology of the Irish in Belgium: Belonging, Identity and Community in Europe
by Sean O’ DubhghaillThe first anthropological account of the Irish diaspora in Europe in the 21st century, this book provides a culture-centric examination of the Irish diaspora. Focusing less on an abstract or technical definition of Irish self-identification, the author allows members of this group to speak through vignettes and interview excerpts, providing an anthropological lens that allows the reader to enter a frame of self-reference. This book therefore provides architecture to understand how diasporic communities might understand their own identities in a new way and how they might reconsider the role played by mobility in changing expressions of identity. Providing firsthand, experiential and narrative insight into the Irish diaspora in Europe, this volume promises to contribute an anthropological perspective to historical accounts of the Irish overseas, theoretical works in Irish studies, and sociological examinations of Irish identity and diaspora.
An Anthropology of the Qur’an (Routledge Studies in Religion)
by Ahmed AchratiThis book presents an anthropological study of the Qur’an, offering an unprecedented challenge to some of the epistemological and metaphysical assumptions of the tawḥīdic discourses. Combining primary textual materials and anthropological analysis, this book examines transcendence as a core principle of the Qur’an, uniquely signified in the divine name al-Quddūs (the Holy). It shows how the tawḥīdic representations of Allah constitute an inversion of this attribute; examines how this inversion has been conceived, authorized, and maintained; and demonstrates how it has affected Islamic thinking and practices, especially as relates to authority. This book also explores how a return to the Qur’anic primacy of God’s otherness as al-Quddūs can influence Islamic thinking and practices moving forward. Therefore, it will be highly useful to scholars of Islamic Studies, philosophical theology, Qur’anic studies, political science, ethics, anthropology, and religious studies.
An Anti-Zionist Path to Embodied Jewish Healing: Somatic Practices to Heal Historical Wounds, Unlearn Oppression, and Create a Liberated World to Come
by Wendy Elisheva Somerson PhDUnapologetically anti-Zionist and firmly rooted in Jewish spiritual values—a liberatory model for Jewish healing Body-based tools and faith-based practices for processing trauma, reclaiming our agency, and building a world where "never again" means "never again for anyone""...an accessible pathway for healing from historical trauma, releasing it from our bodies, and preventing it from being passed on to future generations. This may well be the missing piece for breaking the pattern of violence undergirding Israeli apartheid and occupation.&”—Naomi Klein, author of Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World Dr. Wendy Elisheva Somerson, PhD, shows how Jewish history lives in Jewish bodies—and how antisemitism and oppression disrupt our access to safety, dignity, and belonging. This unmetabolized trauma can lock us into a survival state that brings historical grief into the present moment…and keep us from exploring critical questions that help us tend our legacies and live into a better world.How does ancestral grief live on in our bodies and keep us from feeling safe—and how is that fear enacted on other peoples? How do we reconcile a history of persecution with the state power of Israel today?Each chapter invites us back into the body, exploring healing as a spiritual and political reclamation. With skills-based wisdom for trauma, safety, spiritually grounded intentions, and resourcing ourselves for difficult conversations, this book also helps readers understand: Trauma and healing through our bodiesJewish longing, belonging, legacies of assimilationHealing shame—of not being Jewish enough, of being too much, and of being complicitEmbodied experiences of Jewish resilience, ritual, and griefRooted in justice, care, and spiritual depth, this book asks us to live into a Judaism beyond Zionism. It invites us to heal toward liberation—to reclaim Jewish faith and release Jewish identity from the colonial project of Israel in power, skill, and community.
An Anxious Age
by Joseph BottumWe live in a profoundly spiritual age, but not in any good way. Huge swaths of American culture are driven by manic spiritual anxiety and relentless supernatural worry. Radicals and traditionalists, liberals and conservatives, together with politicians, artists, environmentalists, followers of food fads, and the chattering classes of television commentators: America is filled with people frantically seeking confirmation of their own essential goodness. We are a nation desperate to stand of the side of morality--to know that we are righteous and dwell in the light. In An Anxious Age, Joseph Bottum offers an account of modern America, presented as a morality tale formed by a collision of spiritual disturbances. And the cause, he claims, is the most significant and least noticed historical fact of the last fifty years: the collapse of the mainline Protestant churches that were the source of social consensus and cultural unity. Our dangerous spiritual anxieties, broken loose from the churches that once contained them, now madden everything in American life. Updating The Protestant Ethic and the Sprit of Capitalism, Max Weber's sociological classic, An Anxious Age undertakes two case studies of contemporary social classes adrift in a nation without the religious understandings that gave them meaning. Looking at the college-educated elite he calls "the Poster Children," Bottum sees the post-Protestant heirs of the old mainline Protestant domination of culture: dutiful descendants who claim the high social position of their Christian ancestors even while they reject their ancestors' Christianity. Turning to the Swallows of Capistrano, the Catholics formed by the pontificate of John Paul II, Bottum evaluates the early victories--and later defeats--of the attempt to substitute Catholicism for the dying mainline voice in public life. Sweeping across American intellectual and cultural history, An Anxious Age traces the course of national religion and warns about the strange angels and even stranger demons with which we now wrestle. Insightful and contrarian, wise and unexpected, An Anxious Age ranks among the great modern accounts of American culture.From the Hardcover edition.
An Apology Gone Horribly Wrong: A Novel
by William HammesAn Apology Gone Horribly Wrong is a romantic comedy set in the mid-1980s that explores deep wounds and the role trust plays in everyday life.When Sam Milton tries to apologize to the beautiful Chantell León, a top recording artist, for a minor traffic accident, the apology goes horribly wrong. Having already fumbled the apology once in the moment, Sam makes it worse by chasing Chantell down at Universal Studios, sending Chantell into a tirade on national TV, and pleading with her fans for protection. The situation continues to spin out of control as a vigilante mob goes looking for Sam. Within hours, Sam loses everything, including his house, finances and reputation.Fortunately, a friend of Sam&’s is able to get the two together in hopes of resolving the situation. To avoid a huge multimillion dollar lawsuit, Sam comes up with a plan to let Chantell reimburse everything she has taken from him by completing six simple tasks. Although each is simple in nature and starts out easy, each sequential task becomes more difficult and requires her to have more and more trust in someone she doesn&’t trust at all. As the pair moves through their journey, feelings develop, and they realize God is using them to vet out deep wounds. However, things don&’t go as planned and, soon, massive amounts of trust will be required of each. Can they learn to trust each other and heal their emotional wounds despite all they&’ve been through?
An Apology for Atheism
by Charles SouthwellIt would be absurd to doubt that religion has an important bearing on all the relations and conditions of life. The connexion between religions faith and political practice is, in truth, far closer than is generally thought. Public opinion has not ripened into a knowledge that religious error is the intangible but real substratum of all political injustice. Though the 'schoolmaster' has done much, there still remain and hold some away among us, many honest and energetic assertors of 'the rights of man,' who have to learn that a people in the fetters of superstition, can never achieve political freedom. Many of these reformers admit the vast, the incalculable influence of Mahommedanism on the politics of Constantinople, and yet persist in acting as if Christianity had little or nothing to do with the politics of England.
An Apology for Raymond Sebond
by Michel De Montaigne M. A. ScreechIn his introduction, Screech writes: "Montaigne gives his readers the fruits of his own wide reading and of his own reflections upon it, all measured against his personal experience during a period of intellectual ferment and of religious and political disarray. Montaigne never let himself be limited by his office or station. As husband, father, counsellor, mayor, he kept a critical corner of himself to himself, from which he could judge in freedom and seek to be at peace with himself. He does not crush his reader under the authority of the great philosophers: he tries out their opinions and sees whether they work for him or for others. Traces of Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, Cicero, St Augustine or of his own contemporaries can be found in every page he wrote, but they are skilfully interwoven into his own discourse, being renewed and humanized in the process. And he hardly ever names them. An Apology For Raymond Sebond has all these qualities, despite its being the longest piece Montaigne ever wrote. In it, Montaigne remains triumphantly himself."
An Apology for Raymond Sebond
by Michel MontaigneAn Apology for Raymond Sebond is widely regarded as the greatest of Montaigne's essays: a supremely eloquent expression of Christian scepticism. An empassioned defence of Sebond's fifteenth-century treatise on natural theology, it was inspired by the deep crisis of personal melancholy that followed the death of Montaigne's own father in 1568, and explores contemporary Christianity in prose that is witty and frequently damning. As he searches for the true meaning of faith, Montaigne is heavily critical of the arrogant tendency of mankind to create God in its own image, and offers his personal reflections on the true role of man, the need to eschew personal arrogance, and the vital importance of faith if we are to understand our place in the universe. Wise, perceptive and remarkably informed, this is one of the true masterpieces of the essay form.
An Apostate's Guide to Witchcraft: Finding Freedom Through Magic
by Moss MattheyEscape the Cult, Explore the Craft: A Journey of Healing and Self-DiscoveryJoin Moss Matthey as he recounts his uplifting transition from the confines of a fundamentalist Christian cult to an empowering Pagan coven. Weaving his lived experiences with a gentle introduction to Witchcraft, Moss explores what differentiates Paganism from cults and high-control religions, inviting you to shed oppressive spiritual experiences and find support.Through his story of self-searching and religious liberation, Moss teaches that spiritual pursuits should be freeing and presents Paganism as one such path. He invites you to dip your toe in the waters of Witchcraft with a sampling of exercises and journal prompts inspired by Welsh and German traditions. A celebration of culture, authenticity, and spiritual recovery, this book will inspire you to question restrictive ideologies and develop a healthy practice of your own. Includes a foreword by Mhara Starling, author of Welsh Witchcraft
An Appeal to the World: The Way to Peace in a Time of Division
by Dalai Lama Franz AltThe #1 international bestseller that “makes the case for unity in a world rife with divisions.” Features exclusive new material on the Trump presidency (The New York Times Book Review).In this brief yet profound address to global humanity, His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet reveals that we all hold the seeds of world peace within us: “I see with ever greater clarity that our spiritual well-being depends,” the Nobel Peace Prize winner writes, “on our innate human nature, our natural affinity for goodness, compassion, and caring for others.”Already a major international bestseller, An Appeal to the World, the new book by one of the most revered spiritual leaders of our time, outlines both the inward and outward paths to peace, addressing a wide range of contemporary topics—from the rise of nationalism, Trump presidency, refugee crisis, climate catastrophes, and materialism to meditation, universal ethics, and even neuroscience. Here is a small book that can truly change the world.“Always inspiring and accessible, this lovely book is, itself, readers will discover, worth meditation and contemplation.” —Booklist“The authors explain how patience, forbearance, humility, and generosity are essential components of secular ethics. This revolution in thinking has the potential to increase empathy and compassion, as life is interdependent and our actions have global impacts.” —Library Journal
An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist
by Richard DawkinsNew York Times bestselling author and renowned atheist and evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins delivers an intimate look into his own childhood and intellectual development, illuminating his path to becoming one of the foremost thinkers in modern science today &“A memoir that is funny and modest, absorbing and playful. Dawkins has written a marvelous love letter to science . . . and for this, the book will touch scientists and science-loving persons . . . Enchanting.&” —NPR Richard Dawkins&’s first book, The Selfish Gene, was an immediate sensation and dramatically shifted the study of biology by offering a gene-centered view of evolution. Published in 1976, the book transformed the way we think about genes and evolution and has sold more than a million copies. In 2006, Dawkins transformed the world&’s cultural and intellectual landscape again with The God Delusion, a scientific dismantling of religion. It was a New York Times bestseller and has sold more than two million copies worldwide. An Appetite for Wonder is Dawkins&’s insightful memoir examining his own evolution as a man and as a thinker. From his beginnings in colonial Kenya to his intellectual awakening at Oxford, Dawkins shares his path to the creation of The Selfish Gene, and offers readers an in-depth look at the man and the mind that has changed the way we view science and evolution.
An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures
by Clarice LispectorA love story by the great Clarice Lispector that asks: Just how might two people be joined? <P><P>What to make of a writer who follows the metaphysical heights of her great Passion According to GH with a book that looks suspiciously like a romance novel? <P><P>In An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures, Clarice Lispector tries to discover how to bridge the gap between people, or how to even begin to try. <P><P> A woman struggles to emerge from solitude and sadness into love, including sexual love: her guide on this journey is Ulisses, who (yes) leads her patiently into the fullness of life. An Apprenticeship was a bestseller and, as her biographer Benjamin Moser writes, "This accessible love story surprised many readers. When it came out, an interviewer said: 'I thought The Book of Pleasures was much easier to read than any of your other books. Do you think there’s any basis for that?' Clarice answered: 'There is. I humanized myself, the book reflects that.'” <P><P><i>Advisory: This book offers only partial accessibility. We have kept it in the collection because it is useful for some of our members. Benetech is actively working on projects to improve accessibility issues such as these in the future.</i>
An April Bride (A Year of Weddings Novella)
by Lenora WorthA year&’s worth of novellas from twelve inspirational romance authors. Happily ever after guaranteed.War changed everything . . . even their love.Bride-to-be Stella Carson cannot wait another day to marry her longtime sweetheart, Marshall Henderson. But her plans fall to pieces when she receives the terrible news that Marshall has suffered a near-fatal head wound while serving overseas. Diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, he asks to recover privately in a D.C. hospital, and Stella gives him space to heal. But when Marshall returns home to Louisiana, it becomes clear to them both that he is not the man he used to be.Marshall's memories of home have disappeared, and he suffers from violent, vivid nightmares night after night. Struggling to regain their life together, Stella reintroduces him to their town, reminding him of his history and their love story and watching glimpses of recognition dance in his eyes. But there is one dark corner in his memory, one important part he can&’t remember: his life with Stella.With only weeks until the wedding, Stella and Marshall must choose between a marriage built on the past and faith in long-ago love or a very different future than the one Stella imagined.&“As a romance writer, there's nothing more exciting than writing about a wedding. I was a March bride, so writing a wedding set in the same month was perfect." —Rachel Hauck, author of A March Bride
An Aquinas Reader: Selections from the Writings of Thomas Aquinas
by Mary T. ClarkAvailable in a new digital edition with reflowable text suitable for e-readersThis new edition of An Aquinas Reader contains in one closely knit volume representative selections that reflect every aspect of Aquinas’s philosophy. Divided into three section – Reality, God, and Man – this anthology offers an unrivaled perspective of the full scope and rich variety of Aquinas’s thought. It provides the general reader with an overall survey of one of the most outstanding thinks or all time and reveals the major influence he has had on many of the world’s greatest thinkers. This revised third edition of Clark’s perennial still has all of the exceptional qualities that made An Aquinas Reader a classic, but contains a new introduction, improved format, and an updated bibliography.
An Archaeology of the Soul: North American Indian Belief and Ritual
by Robert L. HallThis book describes North American Indian beliefs and rituals. It also includes bibliographical references and an index.
An Aria for Nick: Song of Suspense #2
by Hallee BridgemanThe Only Man Who Can Save Her Life Has Been Dead for a Decade. Raised in a loving home, Aria Suarez dreamed of becoming a professional pianist happily married to her high school crush. After the only boy who ever caught her eye dies a hero's death and her wrist is shattered along with her future plans, she turns her brilliant musical mind to nuclear engineering and solving mysteries of science. Abandoned to an abusive father at five, Nick Williams grew up dreaming of escape; of enlisting in the Army and leaving his wretched life behind; of proving himself worthy of the girl he loves. But the crucible of combat offers only the escape of death. A decade later, Aria uncovers a nuclear plot that threatens the heart of our very nation. Sinister forces surround and threaten her when, out of nowhere, the man who reportedly died so many years before returns as if from the grave - intent on protecting her. Has God finally joined them together? Or is Aria doomed to mourn Nick twice?
An Arrow Through the Heart
by Deborah Daw HeffernanIn the words of Mehmet Oz, MD: "An Arrow Through the Heart is an epiphany for women who mistakenly believe that they are immune from the ravages of heart disease. Using her heart as a magnifying glass, Deborah Daw Heffernan provides readers with a window into their souls." This groundbreaking memoir was first mentioned on Oprah Winfrey's life-saving 2002 show announcing cardiovascular disease as a leading cause of death among young women. That tragic fact is still true. With both depth and humor, Deborah Daw Heffernan recounts her first year of recovery from the massive heart attack that ambushed her in a gentle yoga class--during the prime of her life and despite her impeccable health history. Ranging from high-stakes action in the OR at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston to quietly unfolding seasons on a lake in Maine, An Arrow Through the Heart is a moving and informative story of what it takes to find one's own path to true healing. Ultimately, Heffernan combines allopathic and complementary medicine to create a sensible recovery strategy for our times. She touchingly describes her husband's devotion and the toll that her cardiovascular disease takes on him, as well as how he, too, grew from the experience. Weaving their story with the lives of family and friends, Heffernan demonstrates how illness can be transformative for all involved. Not only an empowering companion for cardiac patients, this medical classic is a guide to recovery from catastrophic change of any kind. Above all, it is a powerful testament to the unexpected joy that can come from leading a life of acknowledged impermanence. Updates include cardiovascular data for today's reader, links to the author's website and other resources, a new section on SCAD (spontaneous coronary artery dissection), and-- spoiler alert--a heart transplant in 2006. All author's proceeds are donated to cardiac causes. Deborah Daw Heffernan is a graduate of Georgetown and Harvard Universities. She has worked as a teacher in Switzerland, an associate dean at Boston University, and a freelance writer. For fourteen years she was vice president of a leading Boston-based corporate training/consulting firm--until a near-fatal heart attack changed her life forever. She lives with her husband, Jack, on a small lake in Maine.
An Artful Relic: The Shroud of Turin in Baroque Italy
by Andrew R. CasperIn 1578, a fourteen-foot linen sheet bearing the faint bloodstained imprint of a human corpse was presented to tens of thousands of worshippers in Turin, Italy, as one of the original shrouds used to prepare Jesus Christ’s body for entombment. From that year into the next century, the Shroud of Turin emerged as Christianity’s preeminent religious artifact. In an unprecedented new look, Andrew R. Casper sheds new light on one of the world’s most famous and controversial religious objects.Since the early twentieth century, scores of scientists and forensic investigators have attributed the Shroud’s mysterious images to painterly, natural, or even supernatural forces. Casper, however, shows that this modern opposition of artifice and authenticity does not align with the cloth’s historical conception as an object of religious devotion. Examining the period of the Shroud’s most enthusiastic following, from the late 1500s through the 1600s, he reveals how it came to be considered an artful relic—a divine painting attributed to God’s artistry that contains traces of Christ’s body. Through probing analyses of materials created to perpetuate the Shroud’s cult following—including devotional, historical, and theological treatises as well as printed and painted reproductions—Casper uncovers historicized connections to late Renaissance and Baroque artistic cultures that frame an understanding of the Shroud’s bloodied corporeal impressions as an alloy of material authenticity and divine artifice. This groundbreaking book introduces rich, new material about the Shroud’s emergence as a sacred artifact. It will appeal to art historians specializing in religious and material studies, historians of religion, and to general readers interested in the Shroud of Turin.
An Artful Relic: The Shroud of Turin in Baroque Italy
by Andrew R. CasperWinner of the 2022 Roland H. Bainton Book Prize from the Sixteenth Century Society & ConferenceIn 1578, a fourteen-foot linen sheet bearing the faint bloodstained imprint of a human corpse was presented to tens of thousands of worshippers in Turin, Italy, as one of the original shrouds used to prepare Jesus Christ’s body for entombment. From that year into the next century, the Shroud of Turin emerged as Christianity’s preeminent religious artifact. In an unprecedented new look, Andrew R. Casper sheds new light on one of the world’s most famous and controversial religious objects.Since the early twentieth century, scores of scientists and forensic investigators have attributed the Shroud’s mysterious images to painterly, natural, or even supernatural forces. Casper, however, shows that this modern opposition of artifice and authenticity does not align with the cloth’s historical conception as an object of religious devotion. Examining the period of the Shroud’s most enthusiastic following, from the late 1500s through the 1600s, he reveals how it came to be considered an artful relic—a divine painting attributed to God’s artistry that contains traces of Christ’s body. Through probing analyses of materials created to perpetuate the Shroud’s cult following—including devotional, historical, and theological treatises as well as printed and painted reproductions—Casper uncovers historicized connections to late Renaissance and Baroque artistic cultures that frame an understanding of the Shroud’s bloodied corporeal impressions as an alloy of material authenticity and divine artifice. This groundbreaking book introduces rich, new material about the Shroud’s emergence as a sacred artifact. It will appeal to art historians specializing in religious and material studies, historians of religion, and to general readers interested in the Shroud of Turin.
An Asian American Theology of Liberation
by Tian An WongWhat does liberation mean for Asians at the core of an anti-Black, settler-colonial empire? This landmark book is the first to offer an Asian American theology of liberation for the present and future global crises. The broad scope of contemporary ideas that the book engages with will be of interest to students, activists, clergy, and scholars alike. Readers interested in radical politics, political theology, and Asian American history will find this book an important addition to their bookshelves. Providing an intersectional frame that considers the breadth and diversity of Asian American experiences alongside those of Black, Indigenous, and Latinx thinkers in the United States and across the globe, An Asian American Theology of Liberation puts Asian American theology in dialogue with theories from psychoanalysis, Afro-pessimism, Black Marxism, postcolonial studies, and queer theology. In this groundbreaking work, Wong Tian An combines archival research uncovering a much overlooked theology of liberation — born in the 1970s out of Asian Americans’ struggles for political recognition and civil rights in the United States — with powerful analyses drawing from the theological, intellectual, and political developments of the last half century. This wide-ranging study connects urgent themes such as protest movements in Hong Kong, anti-Asian violence in the United States, and Indigenous struggles everywhere, while building on Asian theologies such as Dalit theology in India, theology of struggle in the Philippines, and Minjung theology in Korea. Drawing deeply and broadly across disciplines, the book altogether revives and renews an Asian American theology of liberation for a new generation.
An Asian Woman's Religious Journey with Thomas Merton: A Journey To The East / A Journey To The West (Asian Christianity in the Diaspora)
by Jung Eun ParkJoin Jung Eun Sophia Park on her personal quest for God and her true self through the writings of Thomas Merton. Approaching Merton as an Asian immigrant feminist in the postcolonial era, Park's perspective is a unique one, and in this dance sometimes it is her and sometimes Merton who leads. Throughout, Eastern and Western spirituality are organically woven together in reflection on Merton's narratives and in the examination of late capitalism, poverty, beauty, and violence. These reflections are insightful, provocative, and illuminating, particularly with regard to his androcentric spirituality, especially as it relates to his relationships with women.
An Atheism That Is Not Humanist Emerges in French Thought
by Stefanos GeroulanosIf the 19th century was marked by a "Death of God," than the 20th century evolution of French philosophical and political thought can be said to be marked by the "Death of Man," in that humanism (placing the human at the center of understandings of knowledge, thought, and ethics) came to be seen by many as inextricably tied to some of the worst disasters of the modern era. Geroulanos (modern European intellectual history, New York U. ) reconstructs the development of this intellectual trend in France during the second quarter of the 20th century, arguing that it should be understood in terms of a synthesis of the interconnected movements of the development of an anti-humanist atheism, the emergence of a negative philosophical anthropology, and the elaboration of critiques of humanism. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Bar: Talking about God, the Universe, and Everything
by Justin Schieber Randal RauserThe question of God is simply too important--and too interesting--to leave to angry polemicists. That is the premise of this friendly, straightforward, and rigorous dialogue between Christian theologian Randal Rauser and atheist Justin Schieber. Setting aside the formality of the traditional debate, the authors invite the reader to join them in an extended, informal conversation. This has the advantage of easing readers into thorny topics that in a debate setting can easily become confusing or difficult to follow. Like any good conversation, this one involves provocative arguments, amusing anecdotes, and some lively banter. Rauser and Schieber begin with the question of why debates about God still matter. They then delve into a number of important topics: the place of reason and faith, the radically different concepts of God in various cultures, morality and its traditional connection with religious beliefs, the problem of a universe that is overwhelmingly hostile to life as we know it, mathematical truths and what they may or may not say about the existence of God, the challenge of suffering and evil to belief in God, and more. Refreshingly upbeat and amicable throughout, this stimulating conversation between two friends from opposing points of view is an ideal introduction to a perennial topic of debate.From the Trade Paperback edition.
An Athiest Defends Religion: Why Humanity Is Better Off with Religion than without It
by Bruce SheimanA new perspective. Defending religion as a cultural institution in the face of resurgent atheistic thought For centuries, the theism-atheism debate has been dominated by two positions: stringent believers committed to the "yes, there is a God" argument, and atheists vehemently driven to repudiate not only God, but also religion as a cultural institution. To date, this is the first and only mainstream book in which a nonbeliever criticizes atheism and affirms religion. An Atheist Defends Religion persuasively argues that religion is overwhelmingly beneficial for humanity, regardless of whether God exists, based on a new paradigm of 10 affirmative dimensions that make up religious experience. It also puts to rest the theory that religion is behind most of the world's sectarian violence by showing that religion becomes evil when it is politicized. Readers will learn they do not have to be fundamentalists to be believers, and about the value and benefits of religion itself.
An August Bride (A Year of Weddings Novella)
by Debra CloptonA year&’s worth of novellas from twelve inspirational romance authors. Happily ever after guaranteed.As far as Kelsey Wilcox is concerned, her last cowboy was the last cowboy. Kelsey Wilcox has had enough of cowboys. After the last one broke her heart, Kelsey traded in her boots for flip-flops, and the open range for a bistro on the beach. Her life on Corpus Christi&’s gorgeous beach might be a little lonely, but at least it&’s heartbreak-free. At least until her cousin&’s beachside wedding bucks Kelsey right back into the rodeo.When unlucky-in-love Brent Corbin packed his groomsman&’s tux for his friend&’s wedding, he brought his boots and belt buckle with him. Brent isn&’t exactly looking for love, but when he sees what appears to be a mermaid in distress, he jumps right in to rescue her. So Kelsey finds herself plucked from the sea—and certain-drowning—by a gorgeous groomsman . . . in soaked cowboy boots. She&’s quick to say thanks, but no thanks.Brent dedicates the weekend to pursuing Kelsey—and Kelsey spends the weekend trying to deny an obvious match. She&’s as stubborn as a wild horse, but Brent&’s determination may tame her yet.