The Bible is full of instructions for how we ought to behave if we want to be a follower of Jesus, but these often seem to belong to a by-gone age, far removed from our busy twenty-first century lives. Follow Me helps us uncover how Jesus' words are still relevant, and distils the essence of the Gospel message for today, providing practical steps that all of us can take to live the sayings of Jesus.Using true stories to bring us closer to scripture, Ian Black draws connections between what Jesus said and how we live today in all its messiness and complexity. Based on Jesus' words "follow me," he reflects on acts of loving service, the commandment to love, prayer, money, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, mission, and the Eucharist (Communion).

Describing a great variety of funeral ritual from major world religions and from local traditions, this book shows how cultures not only cope with corpses but also create an added value for living through the encouragement of afterlife beliefs. The explosion of interest in death in recent years reflects the key theme of this book - the rhetoric of death - the way cultures use the most potent weapon of words to bring new power to life. This new edition is one third longer than the original with new material on the death of Jesus, the most theorized death ever which offers a useful case study for students. There is also empirical material from contemporary/recent events such as the death of Diana and an expanded section on theories of grief which will make the book more attractive to death counsellors.

Bringing together prominent scholars in the sociology of religion, this collection of essays offers a framework for understanding the transition from the essentially penitential purposes of the medieval pilgrimage, to the rise of the varied spiritualities of contemporary religious tourism. Covering over 1,500 years of religious travel, these essays explore the forms of expression and experience which we must engage reflectively to better understand the idea of pilgrimage and religious tourism as an important aspect of religious affirmation. This unique volume sheds light on the transformation of the traditional religious pilgrimage into a tourist activity and examines the influence of modern culture, technology, and secularization on spiritually motivated travel.

The editors conclude that a sharp distinction between pilgrimage and religious tourism is historically unjustified. While the purposes of such travel have changed over time, they remain a part of a larger religio-cultural context, offering avenues for religious encounter, just as pilgrimage in earlier eras permitted the development of various secular dimensions. Covering such diverse topics as Pagan pilgrimage and Postmodern Traditionalism, medieval pilgrimage and disaster site visitation, the authors provide an interesting look at an often misunderstood phenomenon.

Dwight Lyman Moody defines a Prevailing Prayer as one which involves the entire being of the person praying: the entirety of the mind is focused not upon material or life circumstances, but the very being of God. Such an effort to pray so deeply is difficult: Moody, himself an experienced evangelist and preacher, had encountered many Christians who struggled to attain depth and connection with the Lord during their prayers. This book intends to help the true believer attain a material closeness to the divine through prayer which prevails. It is ideal for devotional reading before and after your daily prayers, that the insights within remain in mind. To help his fellow believers, Moody quotes numerous stories from the Biblical scriptures together with personal anecdotes from his long career as a man of God. We also hear of incidents in the life of Jesus Christ, and the many obstacles He surmounted to teach humanity of God.