The Christian faith is not only about belief and practices, it is also about the kind of people that we become. Yet some of the biggest barriers to our transformation come from our toxic self-narratives. These narratives shape the way we see ourselves and the way we interact in the world. God designed us with a deep longing in our souls to be wanted, loved, alive, and connected to God. Healing our souls requires more than knowing what God thinks about us. Our healing comes not through reason alone, but through revelation. "The best practice I have seen in Christian spiritual formation" was Dallas Willard's endorsement of the Good and Beautiful series a decade ago. Now this fourth book in the series, The Good and Beautiful You, addresses the self-narratives that hinder spiritual growth and the desires of the soul that only God can satisfy. James Bryan Smith reminds us how Scripture reveals the beauty and goodness of our own souls and how we long for healing that only God can provide. Complete with spiritual practices that help us live into that reality, The Good and Beautiful You will serve as a welcome companion on your journey to discover who you truly are in Christ. The Good and Beautiful Series includes four essential discipleship books from James Bryan Smith. Work through these proven Bible study resources individually or with a group to learn who God is, what it means to be a Christian, how to live in community, and how to address toxic self-narratives that hinder spiritual growth.

In this volume, Trevor Leggett presents three texts translated from Japanese and compiled to illuminate the three ages of Zen in Japan: the warrior Zen of crisis and war in the thirteenth century; the feudal Zen of eighteenth-century samurai officials and finally the modern Zen found in 20th-century Japan.

Professionalisation of Journalism has been a subject under global scrutiny since the nineteenth century. Contemporary studies show how journalism profession grapples with the implementation of standard journalism education and practices across the globe. The author discovered that the development of journalism has remarkable link with the advent of Christianity, however, an apparent decline of ethical values in higher education and professional practices abound thereby revealing the type of quality of education provided and the substandard nature of journalistic Professionalisation. Empirical research conducted in this regard geared towards assessing the socio-ethical relevance of Professionalisation as beneficial to democratic development, and the challenges journalists encounter that hinder the implementation of professional ethics and cultural values as a contribution to human dignity, rights, justice, solidarity and the common good. To critically examine these phenomena, this research study is anchored of scientific materials. It adopted the "see-judge-act" (A Theological methodology approach used in appraising socio-ethical situations) as well as qualitative and quantitative methods. The researcher conducted thirteen semi-standardised interviews as well as analysed 200 data samples (twenty-three questions) with Mayring model and (SPSS) was used to evaluate the quantitative data. The research results showed the thirteen different interview partners unanimously consented that "journalism in Nigeria must be professionalised" and "there is need to integrate Christian social ethics and culture driven values into the training curriculum" if journalists are to regain their credibility and integrity. The tested hypotheses showed statistical significance (p<0,05) among several others tested. Data interpreted illustrate huge consensus from the samples that 46,5% (agree) 29% strongly agree while, 11,5% (disagree), 2,5% (strongly disagree) and 10,5% responded with neutrality to the above statements. Founded on this, the author proposes integrating Christian social ethics and culture driven values in journalism to reinforce its social responsibilities, to serve as guidelines for the practical handling of low Professionalisation in Nigeria and across the globe

The Woodcarver is a collection of feature and cover articles written for national and international publications over the past two decades on matters of faith. These true stories illustrate how the Holy Spirit, acting through people and serendipitous events, changes lives in a powerful way. The collection takes its title from The Woodcarver-a true story of a chance encounter with a German woodcarver-an ex-Nazi who had been a prisoner of war in the American South. During his captivity, the whites treated him badly, but the blacks were kind to him. He developed a love for black people that contradicted the stereotypical attitude of the Nazis. The Woodcarver taught the author a valuable lesson about stereotypes and how the Woodcarvers love of the faith found expression in a piece of oak.

The God of the universe created us for a love relationship with Him We long for that sweet intimacy with God, but it often seems so out of reach. Yet even in the busyness of daily life, we hear those whispers calling us, drawing us to sit at the feet of Jesus.
Best-selling author Nancy Leigh DeMoss demystifies the process of coming to know God intimately. For over 10 years "A Place of Quiet Rest" has spoken to readers, helping them to a deeper relationship with Christ. In "A Place of Quiet Rest" Nancy shares from her heart and life how a daily devotional time can forever change your life.
This refreshed edition includes personal reflections by key voices, representing young and mature women, in addition to "Making it Personal" sections for deeper study. This Nancy DeMoss classic will encourage generations to come to find that place of quiet rest.

In this provocative book, Malgorzata Oleszkiewicz-Peralba examines untamed feminine divinities from around the world. Although distant geographically, these divine figures are surprisingly similar-representing concepts of liminality, outsiderhood, and structural inferiority, embodied in the divine feminine. These strong, independent, unrestrained figures are connected to the periphery and to magical powers, including power over sexuality, transformation, and death. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba offers a study of the origin and worship of four feminine deities across cultures and continents: the Slavic Baba Yaga, the Hindu Kali, the Brazilian Pombagira, and the Mexican Santa Muerte. Although these divinities have often been marginalized through dismissal, demonization, and dulcification, they continue to be extremely attractive, as they empower their devotees confronting them with the ultimate reality of transience and death. Oleszkiewicz-Peralba examines how these sacred icons have been adapted and transformed across time and place.

In The Written and Oral Torah: A Comprehensive Introduction, Rabbi Nathan T. Lopes Cardozo offers those interested in Jewish tradition an explanation of and basic insight into Judaism's classical sources. Containing a diverse selection of material culled from the Talmud and from the writings of many of Judaism's most gifted sages, this extensive volume will be a valuable resource for novice students as well as for those with some background in Torah study.

The God Biographers presents a sweeping narrative of the Western image of God since antiquity, following the theme of how the "old" biography of God has been challenged by a "new" biography in the twenty-first century. The new biography has made its case in free will theism, process thought, evolutionary doctrines, relational theology, and "open theism" a story of people, ideas, and events that is brought up to the present in this engaging narrative. Readers will meet the God biographers in the old and new camps. On the one side are Job, Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, Aquinas, and Calvin. On the other side is a group that includes the early Unitarian and Wesleyan thinkers, the process thinkers Alfred North Whitehead, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Charles Hartshorne, and finally a new breed of evangelical philosophers. This story looks closely at the cultural and scientific context of each age and how these shaped the images of God. In the twenty-first century, that image is being shaped by new human experiences and the findings of science. Today, the debate between the old biographers and the new is playing out in the forums of modern theology, courtrooms, and social movements. Larry Witham tells that panoramic story in an engaging narrative for specialists and general readers alike.

Incarnation has always been an important concept within Christian theology. For centuries theologians have wrestled with how best to conceptualize the vexing problem of what it means that Jesus the Christ is fully God and fully human. In this book, Adam Pryor explores how the incarnation has intersected corresponding issues well beyond the familiar question of how any one person might have two natures. Beginning by identifying four critical themes that have historically shaped the development of this doctrine, Pryor goes on to offer a constructive account of the incarnation. His account seeks out the continued meaning of this doctrine given the increasing complexity that characterizes our understanding of human bodies-bodies that can no longer be understood as the locus of distinct subjects separated from the world of objects with the skin as an impenetrable boundary between the two. Making use of contemporary phenomenologies of the flesh and the erotic, Pryor develops an understanding of the incarnation that seeks to go beyond classical issues presented by two natures christologies. Incarnation, in guises as various as Jesus the Christ, cyborg bodies, and sacramental practices, becomes a way that God is diffused into the world, transforming how we are to be-with one another.

Many scholars maintain that the Gospels should be dated later than they currently are. In Divinity of a Birth, Robert Geis reveals why this claim lacks foundation. Prophecy, the key to evidence of the Divine in human existence, is best demonstrated with a dating nearest to the time of the prophesied event. This work argues lexically for evidence of a Semitic substrate in much of the New Testament (NT) Gospels. This makes the timing of its composition an aid to the thesis that the Old Testament (OT) a source of NT prophecy was a Divine instrument, as the NT narratives of Christ make clear. The prophecies of the OT, therefore, support the claim of the divinity of Christ s birth. Geis carefully analyzes prophecies such as the virginity of Mary and argues for a stringent interpretation of Luke s claim to accuracy.

This book explores two kinds of universalist thought that circulated among Jews in the Greco-Roman world. The first, which is founded on the idea that all people may worship the One True God in an engaged and sustained manner, originates in biblical prophetic literature. The second, which underscores a common ethic that all people share, arose in the second century bce. This study offers one definition of Jewish universalism that applies to both of these types of universalist thought: universalist literature presumes that all people, regardless of religion and ethnicity, have access to a relationship with the Israelite God and the benefits promised to those loyal to this God, without demanding that they participate in the Israelite community as a Jew. This book opens with an exploration of four types of relationships between Israelites and non-Israelites in biblical prophetic literature: Israel as Subjugators, Israel as Standard-Bearers, Naturalized Nations, and Universalized Worship. In all of these relationships, the foreign nations will acknowledge the One True God, but it is only the Universalized Worship model that offers a truly universalist vision of the end-time. The second section of this book examines how these four relationship models are expressed in Second Temple literature, and the third section studies late Second Temple texts that employ a second kind of universalist thought that emphasizes ethical behavior. This book closes with the suggestion that Ethical Universalist ideas expressed in late Second Temple texts reflect exposure to Stoic thinkers who were developing universalist ideas in the second century BCE.

Traditionally, university students have gained access to world religions by reading primary texts. Discovering World Religions at 24 Frames Per Second takes students beyond the written page, offering an exploration of the same religious traditions through the study of feature films. The many definitions of religion are examined along with its various components, including doctrine, myth, ethics, ritual, and symbol. Specific religious traditions, including Hinduism, Sikhism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, popular religion, and Shinto are examined. Biographical sketches of directors whose films tend to focus on a particular religious tradition are also included, such as Zhang Yimou, Hayao Miyazaki, Deepa Mehta, and Akira Kurosawa. Discovering World Religions at 24 Frames Per Second is unique in the area of religion and film studies in that it isn't just a collection of essays. Instead it provides the introductory student with the necessary background information on the various religions before looking at how their ideas can be understood not through texts but through the cinematic medium. To keep the conversation fresh, most of the films used in the book were made within the last decade. Furthermore, examples range from popular, mainstream fare, such as Star Wars and the Lord of the Rings trilogy to lesser-known foreign films, such as The Wooden Man's Bride and The Great Yokai War. Several films with a "cult-like" following are also discussed, including Fight Club, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Jacob's Ladder. This book is also unique in that instead of drawing upon the Judeo-Christian tradition, it draws from Eastern traditions.

Finding hope can sometimes feel like a daunting, almost impossible task. How refreshing to be able to experience glimpses of hope in the simplest of daily interactions with others-even animals. All Creatures challenges the reader to see beyond the ordinary to the extraordinary treasures hidden by our Creator in the least of his creations. This collection of twenty-five devotions focuses on learning to look for God's promises of hope regardless of your current circumstances.

The story of one young man's remarkable journey from corporate America to the Society of Jesus. James Martin leads you from his Catholic childhood through his success and ultimate dissatisfaction with the business world, to his novitiate and profession of vows as a Jesuit.

School textbooks in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab and Muslim worlds are filled with anti-Western and anti-Israel propaganda. Most readers will be shocked to discover that history and geography textbooks widely used in America's elementary and secondary classrooms contain some of the very same inaccuracies about Jews, Judaism, and Israel. Did you know that "there is no record of any important Jewish contribution to the sciences?" (World Civilizations, Thomson Wadsworth). Or that "Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus?" (The World, Scott Foresman/Pearson). Supplemental materials and other classroom influences are even worse. The Trouble with Textbooks exposes the poor scholarship and untruths in textbooks about Jews and Israel. The problems uncovered in this ground-breaking analysis are instructive, and illustrate the need for reform in the way textbooks are developed, written, marketed, and distributed. Substitute another area how we teach American history, Western civilization, or comparative religion and we have another, equally intriguing case study. The Trouble with Textbooks shows what can go terribly wrong in discussing religion, geography, culture, or history and in this case all of them. The Trouble with Textbooks tells a cautionary tale for all readers, whatever their background, of how textbooks that Americans depend on to infuse young people with the values for good citizenship and to help acculturate students into the multicultural salad that is American life, instead disparage some groups and teach historical distortions. With millions of young people using these textbooks each year, the denigration of some should be a concern for all."