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The Alphabet of Grace
by Frederick BuechnerWith characteristic eloquence and insight, Buechner presents a three-part series of reflections that probe, through the course of one day, the innermost mysteries of life. Blending an artist's eye for natureal beauty, the true meaning of human encounters, and the significance of occurances (momentous or seemly trival), with a wealth of personal, literacy, biblical, and spiritual insights, he offers a matchless opportunity for readers to discover the hidden wisdom that can be gleaned through a heightened experience of daily life.
The Alphabet of Grief: Words to Help in Times of Sorrow
by Andrea Raynor“I chose each word in this book based on the countless hours I have spent with grieving people. Not only have they have shared with me the pain of loss but they have taught me about the daunting and sometimes mysterious journey of living.” —Andrea Raynor, The Alphabet of GriefChaplain and spiritual counselor Andrea Raynor knows that when the funeral service is over, the friends leave, and the house grows quiet, grief can be overwhelming. In The Alphabet of Grief, she uses the letters of the alphabet as starting points for simple reflections on loss and hope. Each chapter concludes with a meditation and an affirmation—something to do and something to believe. You are not alone. Find spiritual companionship in these brief but powerful thoughts on the sacred journey of grief.
The Altar Steps
by Compton MackenzieThe theme is of boyhood and growth instead of manhood and decay. The hero, Mark Lidderdale, is the son of a parish priest in London, one of the martyrs of the ritualistic controversy of the eighties. His own education for the priesthood through the Catholic Movement in the Church of England is the substance of the book, which is but an overture to The Parson's Progress.
The Altar at Home: Sentimental Literature and Nineteenth-Century American Religion
by Claudia StokesDisplays of devout religious faith are very much in evidence in nineteenth-century sentimental novels such as Uncle Tom's Cabin and Little Women, but the precise theological nature of this piety has been little examined. In the first dedicated study of the religious contents of sentimental literature, Claudia Stokes counters the long-standing characterization of sentimental piety as blandly nondescript and demonstrates that these works were in fact groundbreaking, assertive, and highly specific in their theological recommendations and endorsements. The Altar at Home explores the many religious contexts and contents of sentimental literature of the American nineteenth century, from the growth of Methodism in the Second Great Awakening and popular millennialism to the developing theologies of Mormonism and Christian Science. Through analysis of numerous contemporary religious debates, Stokes demonstrates how sentimental writers, rather than offering simple depictions of domesticity, instead manipulated these scenes to advocate for divergent new beliefs and bolster their own religious authority. On the one hand, the comforting rhetoric of domesticity provided a subtle cover for sentimental writers to advance controversial new beliefs, practices, and causes such as Methodism, revivalism, feminist theology, and even the legitimacy of female clergy. On the other hand, sentimentality enabled women writers to bolster and affirm their own suitability for positions of public religious leadership, thereby violating the same domestic enclosure lauded by the texts. The Altar at Home offers a fascinating new historical perspective on the dynamic role sentimental literature played in the development of innumerable new religious movements and practices, many of which remain popular today.
The Altar of My Soul: The Living Traditions of Santería
by Marta Moreno VegaLong cloaked in protective secrecy, demonized by Western society, and distorted by Hollywood, Santería is at last emerging from the shadows with an estimated 75 million followers worldwide. In The Altar of My Soul, Marta Moreno Vega recounts the compelling true story of her journey from ignorance and skepticism to initiation as a Yoruba priestess in the Santería religion. This unforgettable spiritual memoir reveals the long-hidden roots and traditions of a centuries-old faith that originated on the shores of West Africa. As an Afro-Puerto Rican child in the New York barrio, Marta paid little heed to the storefront botanicas full of spiritual paraphernalia or to the Catholic saints with foreign names: Yemayá, Ellegua, Shangó. As an adult, in search of a religion that would reflect her racial and cultural heritage, Marta was led to the Way of the Saints. She came to know Santería intimately through its prayers and rituals, drumming and dancing, trances and divination that spark sacred healing energy for family, spiritual growth, and service to others. Written by one who is a professor and a Santería priestess, The Altar of My Soul lays before us an electrifying and inspiring faith--one passed down from generation to generation that vitalizes the sacred energy necessary to build a family, a community, and a strong, loving society.
The Altars Where We Worship: The Religious Significance Of Popular Culture
by Juan M. Floyd-Thomas Stacey M. Floyd-Thomas Mark G. ToulouseWhile a large percentage of Americans claim religious identity, the number of Americans attending traditional worship services has significantly declined in recent decades. Where, then, are Americans finding meaning in their lives, if not in the context of traditional religion? In this provocative study, the authors argue that the objects of our attention have become our god and fulfilling our desires has become our religion. They examine the religious dimensions of six specific aspects of American culture—body and sex, big business, entertainment, politics, sports, and science and technology—that function as "altars" where Americans gather to worship and produce meaning for their lives. The Altars Where We Worship shows how these secular altars provide resources for understanding the self, others, and the world itself. "For better or worse," the authors write, "we are faced with the reality that human experiences before these altars contain religious characteristics in common with experiences before more traditional altars." Readers will come away with a clearer understanding of what religion is after exploring the thoroughly religious aspects of popular culture in the United States.
The Alter of Novardok The Life of Rav Yosef Yoizel Horowitz and his worldwide impact
by Rabbi Shlomo WeintraubRav Yosef Yoizel Horowitz, the "Alter of Novardok," was a child prodigy and, later, a successful merchant. A "chance" meeting with Rav Yisrael Salanter sparked in him the passionate desire to immerse himself in Torah learning, and he spent years in solitude, delving into the Torah's teachings. Then, reluctantly but with great determination, he left his ascetic and solitary life to establish more than eighty yeshivos whose talmidim would go on to change the face of Torah learning forever. The Alter of Novardok tells the story of this fascinating and complex personality, who was one of the most influential figures of the 19th and early 20th century. He lived in a time when Torah study was under attack, and many fell into despair - but not the Alter. He lived in a world of faith, and his faith was well-rewarded as he helped build a thriving Torah network. The Alter of Novardok examines Rav Yosef Yoize'l's unusual life, his teachings, and his hashkafah, and includes nearly 300 vivid photographs. It also introduces many Torah luminaries, such as Rav Yerucham Levovitz, Rav Chaim Ozer Grodzinski, Rav Chaim Shmulevitz, and many more, who helped him save the world of Torah learning at a time when many thought it was beyond hope. At the same time inspiring and informational, this is a must-read book for anyone interested in the world of the yeshivah and mussar.
The Alternative: Awaken Your Dream, Unite Your Community, and Live in Hope
by John Luke Robertson Caleb Stanley Austin Dennis“The Alternative is about thinking differently. Doing differently. Creating your own path. Taking paths of great resistance. And actually making a difference in the lives around us … and in the world at large.” —Caleb Stanley and Austin DennisThe Alternative: Awaken Your Dreams, Unite Your Community and Live in Hope focuses on the big issues in life: friendship, dating, anxiety, self-esteem, faith, and the future—to name a few. Caleb Stanley and Austin Dennis, cofounders of The Alternative nonprofit, bring together inspirational voices such as Jefferson Bethke, Luke Lezon, Chelsea Crockett, and more to tackle tough issues with honesty and humor.Based on the core principles of The Alterative movement, Caleb and Austin inspire readers to awaken their dreams, to unite communities in today’s tumultuous world, and to amplify hope in themselves and the people around them. In addition to advice and real-world anecdotes, this book is packed with mini-essays, Q&As, and devotions from today’s best-known faith leaders.This full-color ebook is perfect for fans of Do Hard Things and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.
The Altruists: A Novel
by Andrew Ridker"With humor and warmth, Ridker explores the meaning of family and its inevitable baggage. The Altruists may not paint the prettiest picture, but it's a relatable, unforgettable view of regular people making mistakes and somehow finding their way back to each other." --People magazine's "Book of the Week""Super brilliant, super funny."--Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story and Lake SuccessNamed a Most Anticipated Book of 2019 by The Millions and PureWowA vibrant and perceptive novel about a father's plot to win back his children's inheritanceArthur Alter is in trouble. A middling professor at a Midwestern college, he can't afford his mortgage, he's exasperated his much-younger girlfriend, and his kids won't speak to him. And then there's the money--the small fortune his late wife, Francine, kept secret, which she bequeathed directly to his children.Those children are Ethan, an anxious recluse living off his mother's money on a choice plot of Brooklyn real estate, and Maggie, a would-be do-gooder trying to fashion herself a noble life of self-imposed poverty. On the verge of losing the family home, Arthur invites his children back to St. Louis under the guise of a reconciliation. But in doing so, he unwittingly unleashes a Pandora's box of age-old resentments and long-buried memories--memories that orbit Francine, the matriarch whose life may hold the key to keeping them together.Spanning New York, Paris, Boston, St. Louis, and a small desert outpost in Zimbabwe, The Altruists is a darkly funny (and ultimately tender) family saga that confronts the divide between baby boomers and their millennial offspring. It's a novel about money, privilege, politics, campus culture, dating, talk therapy, rural sanitation, infidelity, kink, the American beer industry, and what it means to be a "good person."
The Always God: He Hasn't Changed and You Are Not Forgotten
by Jarrett StephensOur unchanging God can change everything. Discover how with the influential teaching pastor of one of America&’s largest and most diverse churches.There&’s a rising sense of uncertainty and turmoil in the world and in our lives. Loss and disappointment seem endless—whether because of an unexpected diagnosis, a desperate search for a job, or our concern for the future of those we love. During heart-crushing &“Why is this happening?&” moments, we can feel abandoned. Has God given up on us? Is he no longer responding? Has he just . . . left? Pastor Jarrett Stephens understands. He&’s battled his own doubt and frustration and has walked with others through their struggles and anxieties. And he&’s discovered some really good news. Even when we don&’t understand what God is doing, he is always at work—pursuing the lost, restoring thebroken, calming the anxious, comforting thelonely, helping the angry, encouraging the fearful, and forgiving the guilty. The Always God invites us to quiet ourselves and listen to the God who does not change or forget us. Not ever. And that truth changes everything.
The Amazing D. Randall MacRae
by James InglesD. Randall MacRae, popular Princeton football star of the roaring twenties, has everything most people want: looks, intelligence, athletic ability, musical talent, and the promise of a successful future. What more could he ask for? But Randall MacRae is bored; something is missing. Falling in love quite by accident, he leaves Princeton, giving up the prestigious advertising career planned for him, and enters a small Christian college in an ordinary Midwestern town. The rest of his story is anything but ordinary.
The Amazing D. Randall MacRae
by James InglesD. Randall MacRae, popular Princeton football star of the roaring twenties, has everything most people want: looks, intelligence, athletic ability, musical talent, and the promise of a successful future. What more could he ask for? But Randall MacRae is bored; something is missing. Falling in love quite by accident, he leaves Princeton, giving up the prestigious advertising career planned for him, and enters a small Christian college in an ordinary Midwestern town. The rest of his story is anything but ordinary.
The Amazing Discernment Of Women: Learning to Understand Your Spiritual Intuition and God's Plan For It
by Jentezen FranklinA comprehensive and practical book about the spiritual significance of the often extraordinary spiritual intuition that God has given to women.
The Amazing Discernment of Women: Learning to Understand Your Spiritual Intuition and God's Plan for It
by Jentezen FranklinBased on scriptural principles and stories this book will teach you how to activate and apply discernment in every area of your life.This book teaches how God many times used women because of their discernment throughout the Bible. It also shows that every woman has been given a special gift (sometimes referred to as intuition). When a woman exercises this discernment, they will find help/insight in these areas: favor, the atmosphere of their home, children, husband, outside associations, protection, provision, recovery of what's been lost, timing, right place, right plan, right people, living a life that will be remembered
The Amazing John Wesley: An Unusual Look at an Uncommon Life
by H. Newton Malony Jr.Much has been written about John Wesley's heartwarming experience that propelled him to preach salvation all over the UK, but little is known about the other facets of his life that made the movement he started have the effect of saving England from the ravages of the French Revolution. You will be surprised to discover much about Wesley that you never knew, his skills in organizing prayer groups, his writing of over 200 books, how he established free health clinics for the poor, supported the abolition of slavery, and even his painful failure at marriage. His preaching among average citizens assured that the Wesleyan movement would grow into one of the largest evangelical movements in the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Amazing Secret of the Souls in Purgatory
by Sister Emmanuel of MedjugorjeThis small book contains an interview with Maria Simma, an elderly Austrian woman, who testifies to being regularly visited by souls in Purgatory who answer secrets about that realm and who plead for the prayers of the living.
The Amazing Treasury of the Sakya Lineage: Volume 1
by Ameshab Ngakwang SonamA lucid and landmark translation that offers an intriguing glimpse into Tibetan history, the Mongol Empire, and the spiritual development and remarkable lives of the early luminaries of the Sakya lineage of Tibetan Buddhism.In this first of two volumes of The Amazing Treasury of the Sakya Lineage, translators Khenpo Kunga Sherab and Matthew W. King capture a truly remarkable period in Buddhist and Asian history. Here, Ameshab Ngakwang Kunga Sonam (1597–1659), a member of the Khon aristocracy and the twenty-seventh throne holder of Sakya Monastery, offers a narrative that recounts the lives of numerous iconic leaders of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism during the transformational period between the tenth and fourteenth centuries. This landmark volume reconstructs that long era of religious and political innovation and upheaval through the rise of the Mongol Empire. In this book, you'll see how Sakya Buddhist leaders emerged in this early period as translators, adopters, arbiters, and innovators of newly circulating Indian Buddhist scholastic and tantric cultures. In the thirteenth century, when the Mongol Empire forever transformed medieval Eurasia, leaders of the Sakya school became confidants and tutors to some of its most powerful leaders. The biographies of numerous Sakya luminaries are retold here, like Sakya Pandita and Phakpa Lodro Gyaltsen; along with their Mongol contemporaries, Koden Ejen and Qubilai Qayan, these leaders laid the groundwork for forms of patronage, religious and political sovereignty, scholasticism and tantrism, and righteous rule that would endure for the next eight centuries down to today.
The Amazon Quest (House of Winslow #25)
by Gilbert MorrisThe Perils of the Amazon Reveal the Depths of the Heart's Entanglements. . . . Emily Winslow meets James Parker, the man who tried to save her brother's life in the trenches of World War I in France, and she and her family feel deeply indebted to him. They offer to help him in any way they can to get a new start after recovering from his own wounds. By the time the family is confronted with the surprising truth of what actually happened on that distant battlefield, Emily has fallen in love with James. Overwhelmed by bitterness and the betrayal of her love, Emily throws herself into her writing career. When an opportunity comes to travel deep into the Amazon rain forest and record the life of an isolated tribe of headhunters, she readily accepts the challenge. But all of her inner turmoil returns with a vengeance when Ian Marlowe walks into her life. Is Emily's faith strong enough to sustain her? Can she trust her heart this time around?
The Ambassadors: A Novel
by George LernerAn eye-opening account of the Rwandan civil war and an achingly tender portrait of a family at odds from an exciting, new literary talent With its sweeping historical and geographical range, George Lerner's beautifully ambitious debut novel takes readers deep into the complex lives of a New York family and the searing upheavals of late 20th century Africa. Embedded in real events, The Ambassadors takes readers on an unforgettable journey through the Congo, Germany, and Brooklyn as it examines one family's passage through genocide and grief. Jacob Furman has always chosen his call to duty over his wife, Susanna, and their son, Shalom. When he's deployed to the Congo as a Mossad operative to help the Tutsis in their fight against the Hutus, Susanna and Shalom are once again left to contemplate his absence. Susanna, a Holocaust survivor and an esteemed linguistics scholar, buries herself in work as she searches for the biological roots of human language, while Shalom, overwhelmed by the accomplishments of his parents, struggles in search of his identity. After years apart, a fragile reunion borne out of illness sparks a sense of family they never had before, connecting the three in a web of emotion not just to one another, but to the political events that have defined our century.
The Ambedkar–Gandhi Debate: On Identity, Community and Justice
by Bindu PuriThis book reconstructs the philosophical issues informing the debate between the makers of modern India: Ambedkar and Gandhi. At one level, this debate was about a set of different but interconnected issues: caste and social hierarchies, untouchability, Hinduism, conversion, temple entry, and political separatism. The introduction to this book provides a brief overview of the engagements and conflicts in Gandhi and Ambedkar's central arguments. However, at another level, this book argues that the debate can be philosophically re-interpreted as raising their differences on the following issues: The nature of the self,The relationship between the individual self and the community,The appropriate relationship between the constitutive encumbrances of the self and a conception of justice,The relationship between memory, tradition, and self-identity. Ambedkar and Gandhi’s contrary conceptions of the self, history,itihaas, community and justice unpack incommensurable world views. These can be properly articulated only as very different answers to questions about the relationship between the present and the past. This book raises these questions and also establishes the link between the Ambedkar--Gandhi debate in the early 20th century and its re-interpretation as it resonates in the imagination and writing of marginalized social groups in the present times.
The Amber Photograph
by Penelope StokesDiedre McAlister's mother is dying. But before she lets go of this life, she givers her daughter an old photograph and these parting words: "Find yourself. Find your truth. Just don't expect it to be what you thought it would be." And Now Diedre's search begins-a quest to find the only person who can provide the missing pieces, the truth. But that search will cost Diedre her naïve innocence and expose her family's unknown dark side. It will shake up Diedre's world, threaten lives, bring out the shadow of her past, challenge her faith-and quite possibly save her life.
The Ambiguity of Play
by Brian Sutton-SmithFrom the Pilgrims who settled at Plymouth Rock to Christian Coalition canvassers working for George W. Bush, Americans have long sought to integrate faith with politics. Few have been as successful as Hollywood evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. During the years between the two world wars, McPherson was the most flamboyant and controversial minister in the United States. She built an enormously successful and innovative megachurch, established a mass media empire, and produced spellbinding theatrical sermons that rivaled Tinseltown's spectacular shows. As McPherson's power grew, she moved beyond religion into the realm of politics, launching a national crusade to fight the teaching of evolution in the schools, defend Prohibition, and resurrect what she believed was the United States' Christian heritage. Convinced that the antichrist was working to destroy the nation's Protestant foundations, she and her allies saw themselves as a besieged minority called by God to join the "old time religion" to American patriotism. Matthew Sutton's definitive study of Aimee Semple McPherson reveals the woman, most often remembered as the hypocritical vamp in Sinclair Lewis's Elmer Gantry, as a trail-blazing pioneer. Her life marked the beginning of Pentecostalism's advance from the margins of Protestantism to the mainstream of American culture. Indeed, from her location in Hollywood, McPherson's integration of politics with faith set precedents for the religious right, while her celebrity status, use of spectacle, and mass media savvy came to define modern evangelicalism.
The Ambiguity of Virtue
by Bernard WassersteinIn May 1941, Gertrude van Tijn arrived in Lisbon on a mission of mercy from Germanâe#144;occupied Amsterdam. She came with Nazi approval to the capital of neutral Portugal to negotiate the departure from Hitler's Europe of thousands of German and Dutch Jews. Was this middleâe#144;aged Jewish woman, burdened with such a terrible responsibility, merely a pawn of the Nazis, or was her journey a genuine opportunity to save large numbers of Jews from the gas chambers? In such impossible circumstances, what is just action, and what is complicity? A moving account of courage and of all-too-human failings in the face of extraordinary moral challenges, The Ambiguity of Virtue tells the story of Van Tijn's work on behalf of her fellow Jews as the avenues that might save them were closed off. Between 1933 and 1940 Van Tijn helped organize Jewish emigration from Germany. After the Germans occupied Holland, she worked for the Naziâe#144;appointed Jewish Council in Amsterdam and enabled many Jews to escape. Some later called her a heroine for the choices she made; others denounced her as a collaborator. Bernard Wasserstein's haunting narrative draws readers into the twilight world of wartime Europe, to expose the wrenching dilemmas that confronted Jews under Nazi occupation. Gertrude van Tijn's experience raises crucial questions about German policy toward the Jews, about the role of the Jewish Council, and about Dutch, American, and British responses to the persecution and mass murder of Jews on an unimaginable scale.
The Ambivalent Impact of Religion on Human Rights: Empirical Studies in Europe, Africa and Asia (Religion and Human Rights #7)
by Hans-Georg Ziebertz Francesco ZaccariaThis volume presents the most recent joint study of the research group Religion and Human Rights. This text is comprised of studies carried out in twelve countries and divided into three parts according to their respective tree continents. Almost 10,000 youths have participated and all chapters deal with the question of whether and to what extent religious or worldview convictions hinder or favor the support of human rights. Studies are comparative on multiple levels because of the many religious groups and countries. The studies take into account personal, religious and socio-cultural differences, showing the ambivalent role of religion in the striving to make the world safer, more democratic, just, and compassionate thru human rights. This text appeals to students and researchers.