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Understanding the Religions of the World: An Introduction
by Willoughby DemingUnderstanding the Religions of the World offers a new approach to the study of religion which moves away from the purely descriptive and instead helps students understand how religions actually ‘work’. Covering all the main faith traditions, it combines historical context, contemporary beliefs and practices, and original theory, with numerous study features and valuable overviews. A major new student-focused textbook concentrating on contemporary practices and beliefs of world religions Brings together a team of experts to provide a uniquely comprehensive coverage of religious traditions, including African religions and the religions of Oceania, which are rarely covered in detail Integrates original theory by arguing that each religion operates according to its own logic and order, and that they fulfill our need for a point of orientation Incorporates extensive student features including chapter introductions, ‘did you know?’ sections, boxed examples/material, numerous images and maps, conclusions, study questions and teaching plans, available on publication at www.wiley.com/go/deming
Understanding the Revised Mass Texts (2nd edition)
by Paul TurnerThis pamphlet explains the old translation of the Mass from Vatican II to the present time. The changes are shown and beautifully explained. There has been controversy but this book will help.
Understanding the Scriptures: A Complete Course on Bible Study (Revised First Edition)
by Scott Hahn James SociasThis book by Dr. Scott Hahn presents a Catholic approach to Scripture, highlighting the theme of covenant. Tracing a path through salvation history, the book explains the various books of the Bible and the importance of each event in salvation history. Understanding the Scriptures will provide an understanding of Sacred Scripture so critical to the Catholic Faith.
Understanding the Sick and the Healthy: A View of World, Man, and God
by Franz RosenzweigFranz Rosenzweig, one of the century's great Jewish thinkers, wrote his gem of a book in 1921 as a more accessible precis of his famous Star of Redemption. An elegant introduction to Rosenzweig's "new thinking," Understanding the Sick and the Healthy was written for a lay audience and takes the form of an ironic narrative about convalescence. With superb simplicity and beauty, it puts forth an important critique of the nineteenth-century German Idealist philosophical tradition and expresses a powerful vision of Jewish religion. Harvard's Hilary Putnam provides a new introduction to this classic work for a contemporary audience.
Understanding the Social World of the New Testament
by Dietmar Neufeld Richard E. DeMarisThe New Testament is a book of great significance in Western culture yet is often inaccessible to students because the modern world differs so significantly from the ancient Mediterranean one in which it was written. It is imperative to develop a cross-cultural understanding of the values of the ancient Mediterranean society from which the New Testament arose in order to fully appreciate the documents and the communities that they represent. Dietmar Neufeld and Richard E. DeMaris bring together biblical scholars with expertise in the social sciences to develop interpretative models for understanding such values as collectivism, kinship, memory, ethnicity, and honour, and to demonstrate how to apply these models to the New Testament texts. Kinship is illuminated by analysis of the Holy Family as well as to early Christian organisations; gender through a study of Paul’s view of women; and landscape and spatiality through a discussion of Jesus of Nazareth. This book is the ideal companion to study of the New Testament.
Understanding the Times
by Dr Jeff Myers Dr David A. NoebelYour view of God determines your view of the world.You hold in your hands a landmark guide to understanding the ideas and forces shaping our times. Understanding the Times offers a fascinating, comprehensive look at the how the tenets of the Christian worldview compares with the five major competing worldviews of our day: Islam, Secular Humanism, Marxism, New Age, and Postmodernism.Understanding the Times is a systematic way to understand the ideas that rule our world. While the material is expansive, the engaging, easy-to-understand writing style invites you to discover the truths of God - and our world. This classic should be on the shelf of every Christian home, on the desk of every pastor, and in the hands of every Christian student headed off to college.
Understanding the Times: The Collision of Today's Competing Worldviews (Revised 2nd edition)
by David NoebelComparison of Christianity vs. Islam, Secular Humanism, Marxism, Cosmic Humanism, and Postmodernism in the areas of theology, philosophy, ethics, biology, psychology, sociology, law, politics, economics, and history.
Understanding the World in Light of Bible Prophecy
by Jonathan Shuttlesworth“…the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. …and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.” ~2 Peter 3:10We’re coming to the final moments, and the good news is that God doesn’t have us here just to get run over by the Antichrist. Rather, God has us here as the restrainer against the forces of darkness. But if you lay down and give up, what good are you?You must "take up your cross" and follow Jesus. You carry it, or you won’t reach Heaven—Jesus said that.Pastor, Teacher, and Evangelist, Jonathan Shuttlesworth presents readers with a “no holds barred” challenge: Quit trying to make peace with the Devil and choose what you are willing to die for. Prophecy is reliable, and it carries an uncompromising message for humanity.God knows the future better than we know the past, and He has revealed it to us. Bible prophecy is reliable, and even critics of the Bible have referred to it as history written before it takes place.Now, it’s time to seek the truth, for “…the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief.”About the Author:Jonathan Shuttlesworth is an evangelist and founder of Revival Today, a global ministry dedicated to reaching lost and hurting people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is also the pastor of Revival Today Church, a Holy Spirit-filled, Bible-believing church that blesses families and the nation, located in Pittsburgh, PA.
Undertow: My Escape From The Fundamentalism And Cult Control Of The Way International
by Scott Cook Alice Peck Charlene Edge Ruth Mullen Duane Stapp Mary Ann De Stefano Rachel Chase<P>Undertow: My Escape from the Fundamentalism and Cult Control of The Way International(TM) is Charlene Edge's riveting memoir about the power of words to seduce, betray, and, in her case, eventually save. <P>After a personal tragedy left her bereft, teenaged Charlene rejected faith and family when recruiters drew her into The Way International, a sect led by the charismatic Victor Paul Wierwille. <P>The Way became one of the largest cults in America. <P>Charlene gave it seventeen years of her life. Believing that God led her to Wierwille, she underwent his intensive two-year training program, The Way Corps, designed to produce loyal leaders. <P>When Wierwille warned of a possible government attack, she prepared to live off the grid. She ignored warning signs of Wierwille's paranoia and abuse--he condemned dissenters as the Devil's agents, he required followers to watch pornography, he manipulated Corps into keeping his secrets in a "lock box," he denied the Holocaust, and he surrounded himself with bodyguards.<P> She married a Corps graduate and they served across the United States as Way leaders, funneling money into Wierwille's bursting coffers and shunning anyone who criticized him.<P> As obedient Way Corps, they raised their child to believe the doctrines of Wierwille, the cult's designated "father in the Word." Eventually Charlene was promoted to the inner circle of biblical researchers, where she discovered devastating secrets: Wierwille twisted texts of Scripture to serve his personal agenda, shamelessly plagiarized the work of others, and misrepresented the purpose of his organization.<P> Worst of all, after Wierwille died in 1985, shocking reports surfaced of his secret sex ring. Amid chaos at The Way's Ohio-based headquarters, Charlene knew she had to escape--for her own survival and her child's. Reading like a novel, Undertow is not only a brilliant cautionary tale about misplaced faith but also an exposÉ of the hazards of fundamentalism and the destructive nature of cults.<P> Through her personal story, Charlene Edge shows how a vulnerable person can be seduced into following an authoritarian leader and how difficult it can be to find a way out.
Underworld Work: Black Atlantic Religion Making in Jim Crow New Orleans (Class 200: New Studies in Religion)
by Ahmad Greene-HayesA rethinking of African American religious history that focuses on the development and evolution of Africana spiritual traditions in Jim Crow New Orleans. When Zora Neale Hurston traveled to New Orleans, she encountered a religious underworld, a beautiful anarchy of spiritual life. In Underworld Work, Ahmad Greene-Hayes follows Hurston on a journey through the rich tapestry of Black religious expression from emancipation through Jim Crow. He looks within and beyond the church to recover the diverse leadership of migrants, healers, dissidents, and queer people who transformed their marginalized homes, bars, and street corners into sacred space. Greene-Hayes shows how, while enclosed within an anti-black world, these outcasts embraced Africana esotericisms—ancestral veneration, faith healing, spiritualized sex work, and more—to conjure a connection to freer worlds past and yet to come. In recovering these spiritual innovations, Underworld Work celebrates the resilience and creativity of Africana religions.
Undetected
by Dee HendersonWhen asked what he does for a living, Commander Mark Bishop is deliberately low-key: "I'm in the navy." But commanding the ballistic missile submarine USS "Nevada," keeping its crew trained and focused during 90-day submerged patrols, and being prepared to launch weapons on valid presidential orders, carries a burden of command like few other jobs in the military. Mark Bishop is a man who accepts that responsibility, and carries it well. And at a time when tensions are escalating in the Pacific Rim, the navy is glad to have him. Mark wants someone to come home to after sea patrols. The woman he has in mind is young, pretty, and "very" smart. She's a civilian, but she understands life in the navy. And he has a strong sense that life with her would never be boring. But she may be too deep in her work to see the potential in a relationship with him. Gina Gray would love to be married. She has always envisioned her life that way. But a breakup she didn't see coming has her focusing all her attention on what she does best--ocean science research. She's on the cusp of a breakthrough, and she needs Mark Bishop's perspective and help. Because what she's told the navy she's figured out is only the beginning. If she's right, submarine warfare is about to enter a new and dangerous chapter. . .
Undiluted: Rediscovering The Radical Message Of Jesus
by Benjamin L. CoreyAre you ready to begin experiencing an undiluted Jesus? Benjamin Corey confronts our vision of Jesus head-on, asking the hard question: Is what we see and hear in the modern church all there is to the message of Jesus... or is there a more radical side to Jesus than we have been led to believe? Get ready to encounter a Jesus that is determined to turn over the tables of a stale, ineffective and boring gospel that seeks to escape from the world instead of transforming it. This radical Jesus and His message. . . Invites us to reorient our lives not on Christian religion, but on the person of Jesus Calls us to live out faith in the context of authentic community with others, instead of isolation Includes the excluded and invites the outcast to have a seat at the table Responds to enemies with a radical, unexplainable love Undiluted will invite you to step out of your comfort zone and into a process of rediscovering the radical, counter cultural, and life-changing message of Jesus. As you do, you'll discover a more vibrant faith as you embrace an undiluted Jesus and His radical message!
Undines: Lessons from the Realm of the Water Spirits
by William R. MisteleUndines-from the Latin root unda, which means “wave”- are water elementals, or spirits of the water world. Like their fellow elementals-salamanders (fire), sylphs (air), and gnomes (earth)-undines are united with, and personify, their element. First mentioned in the alchemical works of medieval botanist Paracelsus, undines appear throughout European folklore. Who are these mysterious creatures of lakes, oceans, and waterfalls? Undines takes readers directly into the water spirits’ realm through stories, personal encounters, and interviews with such luminaries as Istiphul, the undine queen whose presence embodies the magical essence of the feminine. Whether seen as fact or fairy tale, Undines presents archetypal truths and insights into human nature. The powers and abilities that undines display are latent in us all and crucial to humanity’s evolution (or mere survival): harmony with nature, empathy and compassion, a deep capacity to love, and a cooperative rather than combative relationship to the world. Undines will appeal broadly to readers of mythology, fantasy, and fairy tales, particularly to practitioners that work with nature spirits and elemental beings-Druids, Wiccans, pagans, and those interested in magic and mysticism.
Undistorted God: Reclaiming Faith Despite the Cultural Noise
by Ray WaddleRay Waddle encourages us to find meaning inside, sometimes despite, the contentious times we live in. He helps readers see through spiritual insecurity and distraction to see God in new places: in the sky, in writing, in walking, in music, in memory, in Gospel reading, the bread and wine, worship, the very name Jesus—and get beneath social habits or routine theological assumptions in order to find a fresh core of epiphany.
Undistracted Bible Study Guide plus Streaming Video: Capture Your Purpose. Rediscover Your Joy.
by Bob GoffHas anyone ever told you... You have permission to eliminate distractions! You have permission to live a more fulfilling life!Distractions cause more harm than you might think. And they're all around us, all the time. They can disrupt our focus on what really matters, interfere with our true priorities, and divert our attention from the God who created us for his good purpose.Bestselling author of Love Does Bob Goff has created this video Bible study (streaming code included) to give you guidance in and joyful permission to:Identify the distractions in your life.Eliminate them so that you can recharge and refocus on your God-given purpose.Start living a less-distracted and more joy-filled and love-oriented life.This study guide has everything you need for a full Bible study experience, including:The study guide itself—with discussion and reflection questions, video notes, and a leader's guide.An individual access code to stream all five video sessions online (you don&’t need to buy a DVD!).Distractions can get you stuck in the past, worried about the present, and frazzled by any future you could possibly fret over. It's time to discover how to get undistracted in all aspects of your life.Sessions and run times include:Undistracted in Our Attitude (16:30)Undistracted in Our Service (15:30)Undistracted in Our Relationships (16:30)Undistracted in Our Faith (17:30)Undistracted in Our Purpose (17:30)Streaming video access code included. Access code subject to expiration after 12/31/2027. Code may be redeemed only by the recipient of this package. Code may not be transferred or sold separately from this package. Internet connection required. Void where prohibited, taxed, or restricted by law. Additional offer details inside.
Undistracted: Capture Your Purpose. Rediscover Your Joy.
by Bob GoffThe world has never been more distracting—joy has never been more possible.You live with a massive amount of distraction:desperate headlinessmartphone scrollingan endless to-do listNot to mention the nagging questions of your heart:Am I making the right decision?Am I with the right person?Will my past mistakes keep me from my best future?Through the pithy and inspiring storytelling that has endeared him to millions, New York Times bestselling author Bob Goff invites you to laugh with more gusto, dream with more confidence, and love with more intention in this disarming call to live Undistracted.Bob&’s stories are like the rumble strips on the road that make you suddenly alert to how far you have drifted from your lane. From visiting friends in San Quentin to accidentally getting into a stalker&’s car at the airport to establishing Uganda&’s first space program, Bob shows you the way back to an audaciously attentive life.Your undistracted life is an adventure waiting to happen. What stories will you live with undistracted purpose and unstoppable joy?
Undivided: A Muslim Daughter, Her Christian Mother, Their Path to Peace
by Patricia Raybon Alana Raybon"Mom, I havesomething I need to tell you. . . " They didn't talk. Notfor ten years. Not about faithanyway. Instead, a mother and daughtertiptoed with pain around the deepest gulf in their lives - the daughter'schoice to leave the church, convert to Islam and become a practicingMuslim. Undivided is a real-time story of healing and understanding withalternating narratives from each as they struggle to learn how to love eachother in a whole new way. Although this is certainly a book for mothers and daughtersstruggling with interfaith tensions , it is equally meaningful for mothers anddaughters who feel divided by tensions in general. An important work for parentswhose adult children have left the family's belief system, it will help thosesame children as they wrestle to better understand their parents. Undivided offers an up close and personal look at the life of an Islamicconvert--a young American woman--at a time when attitudes are mixed about Muslims(and Muslim women in particular), but interest in such women is high. Foranyone troubled by the broader tensions between Islam and the West, thispersonal story distills this friction into the context of a family relationship--ajourney all the more fascinating. Undivided is a tremendously important book for our time. Will Patricia be able to fully trust in theChrist who "holds all things together?" Will Alana find new hope or new understanding as the conversation getsdeeper between them? And can they answerthe question that both want desperately to experience, which is "Can we makeour torn family whole again?"
Undivided: Coming Out, Becoming Whole, and Living Free from Shame
by Vicky BeechingVicky Beeching, called “arguably the most influential Christian of her generation” in The Guardian, began writing songs for the church in her teens. By the time she reached her early thirties, Vicky was a household name in churches on both sides of the pond. Recording multiple albums and singing in America’s largest megachurches, her music was used weekly around the globe and translated into numerous languages.But this poster girl for evangelical Christianity lived with a debilitating inner battle: she was gay. The tens of thousands of traditional Christians she sang in front of were unanimous in their view – they staunchly opposed same-sex relationships and saw homosexuality as a grievous sin. Vicky knew if she ever spoke up about her identity it would cost her everything.Faced with a major health crisis, at the age of thirty-five she decided to tell the world that she was gay. As a result, all hell broke loose. She lost her music career and livelihood, faced threats and vitriol from traditionalists, developed further health issues from the immense stress, and had to rebuild her life almost from scratch.But despite losing so much she gained far more: she was finally able to live from a place of wholeness, vulnerability, and authenticity. She finally found peace. What’s more, Vicky became a champion for others, fighting for LGBT equality in the church and in the corporate sector. Her courageous work is creating change in the US and the UK, as she urges people to celebrate diversity, live authentically, and become undivided.
Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church
by Hahrie HanThe inspiring story of evangelicals in Cincinnati struggling to bridge racial divides in their own church, their community, and across the nationIn 2016, even as Ohio helped deliver victory to presidential candidate Donald Trump, Cincinnati voters also passed a ballot initiative for universal preschool. The margin was so large that many who elected Trump must have—paradoxically—also voted for the initiative: how could the same citizens support such philosophically disparate aims? What had convinced residents of this Midwestern, Rust Belt community to raise their own taxes to provide early childhood education focused on the poorest—and mostly Black—communities? When political scientist Hahrie Han set out to answer that question, her investigations led straight to an unlikely origin: the white-dominant evangelical megachurch Crossroads, where Pastor Chuck Mingo had delivered a sermon the prior year that set in motion a chain of surprising events. Raised in the Black church, Mingo felt called by God, he told Crossroads parishioners, to combat racial injustice, and to do it through the very church in which they were gathered. The result was Undivided, a faith-based program designed to foster antiracism and systemic change. The creators of Undivided recognized that any effort to combat racial injustice must move beyond recognizing and overcoming individual prejudices. Real change would have to be radical—from the very roots. In Undivided, Han chronicles the story of four participants—two men, one Black and one white, and two women, one Black and one white—whose lives were fundamentally altered by the program. As each of their journeys unfolded, in unpredictable and sometimes painful ways, they came to better understand one another, and to believe in the transformative possibilities for racial solidarity in a moment of deep divisiveness in America. The lessons they learned have the power to teach us all what an undivided society might look like—and how we can help achieve it.
Undocumented and in College: Students and Institutions in a Climate of National Hostility
by Terry-Ann Jones and Laura Nichols, EditorsThe current daily experiences of undocumented students as they navigate the processes of entering and then thriving in Jesuit colleges are explored alongside an investigation of the knowledge and attitudes among staff and faculty about undocumented students in their midst, and the institutional response to their presence. Cutting across the fields of U.S. immigration policy, theory and history, religion, law, and education, Undocumented and in College delineates the historical and present-day contexts of immigration, including the role of religious institutions. This unique volume, based on an extensive two-year study (2010–12) of undocumented students at Jesuit colleges in the United States and with contributions from various scholars working within these institutions, incorporates survey research and in-depth interviews to present the perspectives of students, staff, and the institutions.
Undoing Babel: The Tower of Babel in Anglo-Saxon Literature (Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series)
by Tristan MajorThe Tower of Babel narrative is one of the most memorable accounts of the Bible, and its interpretative potential has produced a vast array of literary adaptations. Undoing Babel is the first extensive examination of the development of the Babel narrative amongst Anglo-Saxon authors from late antiquity to the eleventh century. Tristan Major’s illuminating and original insight into Anglo-Latin and Old English works, including the writings of Aldhelm, Bede, Alcuin, Ælfric, and Wulfstan, reveals the cultural ideologies and anxieties that transformed the Babel narrative. In doing so, Major argues that these Babel narratives provide a basis for understanding the world’s ethnic and linguistic diversity as well as a theological stimulus to evangelize non-Christian and non-European people. Undoing Babel highlights the depth of literary innovation in this period and disproves any notion of a single Anglo-Saxon reception of biblical sources.
Undoing the Knots: Five Generations of American Catholic Anti-Blackness
by Maureen O'ConnellA personal and historical examination of white Catholic anti-Blackness in the US told through 5 generations of one family, and a call for meaningful racial healing and justice within CatholicismExcavating her Catholic family&’s entanglements with race and racism from the time they immigrated to America to the present, Maureen O'Connell traces, by implication, how the larger Catholic population became white and why, despite the tenets of their faith, so many white Catholics have lukewarm commitments to racial justice.O'Connell was raised by devoutly Catholic parents with a clear moral and civic guiding principle: those to whom much is given, much is expected. She became a theologian steeped in social ethics, engaged in critical race theory, and trained in the fundamentals of anti-racism. And still she found herself failing to see how her well-meaning actions affected the Black members of her congregations. It seemed that whenever she tried to undo the knots of racism, she only ended up getting more tangled in them.Undoing the Knots weaves together narrative history, theology, and critical race theory to begin undoing these knots: to move away from doing good and giving back and toward dismantling the white Catholic identity and the economic and social structures it has erected and maintained.
Undone by Easter: Keeping Preaching Fresh
by William H. WillimonFace the prospect of preaching your next Easter sermon with joy and confidence, rather than worry about finding something new to say.Preachers dread the arrival of Easter, because these holy days bring the daunting task of finding new ways to tell the old stories everyone's heard so many times before. But what if it were only we preachers who are bored with these stories? asks Will Willimon. What if people keep showing up at Easter because the story of God's victory over death continues to hold power for them? What if the point were not to capitulate to the culture's insatiable appetite for novelty, but to tell the old stories faithfully, trusting in the power of the Spirit to make the text, the congregation, and yes, even the preacher come alive again in the preaching event?
Undone: A Story of Making Peace With an Unexpected Life
by Michele CushattUndone is author Michele Cushatt’s quest to make peace with a complicated life. It is an honest confession of a diagnosis of cancer and the joys and disappointments of motherhood and marriage, ripe with regret over what is and, yet, still hopeful for what could be. With enough humor to ease the rawness of the story, Undone takes the reader on a roller coaster two-year journey through the unexpectedness of life. A look back makes Michele long for a do-over, the chance to make fewer mistakes and leave less of a mess to clean up. A look forward makes Michele wonder if all her attempts to control life have robbed her of the vibrancy of it. And, in the middle of this internal chaos, she finds her once-pristine house filled with the sights and sounds of three small, uncontainable children who just want to be loved. In the end, Undone turns complication into a beautiful canvas, angst into joy, and the unknown into an adventure, revealing that sometimes life’s most colorful and courageous stories are written right in the middle of the mess.
Undone: The Why and How of Being in the Presence of God
by Kevin H. GrenierThe Christian life cannot be fully lived as God intended unless we first experience the love and presence of God in a personal way. Even once we do, there are greater experiences of the presence of God available to us - because there is always more of Him to discover. In this book, Kevin Grenier gives us his own personal story and a Biblical framework for experiencing the presence of God more fully in our lives. You can learn more at gatheringhispeople.org