Al-Ghazali on Poverty and Abstinence is the thirty-fourth chapter of the Revival of the Religious Sciences. It falls in the section dealing with the virtues. Ghazali traces poverty and abstinence back to the Prophet Muhammad who exhorted the faithful to love the poor and described this love as a key to heaven. But behind the Prophet's love of the poor lay his legendary humility, and the life of poverty on which Ghazali expatiates in this treatise refers to what every devoted follower of the Prophet is meant to adopt, not simply an accidental state of destitution that might befall anyone. What is true piety? What spiritual infirmities impede the path of poverty? These are the questions that preoccupy Ghazali in the Book on Poverty and Abstinence. His aim in this chapter is to teach the ordinary believer about inner purification through inner poverty and abstinence. The result is a rich tapestry of practises, thoughts, concepts and anecdotes drawn from some of the most fascinating figures in the tradition of practical ethics in Islam, a tradition that harks back to the enduring examples of pre-Islamic prophets like Jesus, Moses and Joseph.

The complete guide to spirit-filled speech and speaking with spirit

This book is a spiritual guide to using the holy gift of speech. It is a ... how-to ... grounded in a humble way of being, expressing an attitude of gratitude toward the tongue, in the knowledge that speech is a gift from God and we have a choice to use our mouths virtuously, in the most humble and searching sense of that word. from the Introduction

So much of our time is spent in conversation, yet little time is devoted to thinking about the words we choose to use, or the manner in which we speak. Taking the time to make our words count to make our speech sacred can lead to positive changes in our lives, and improve our relationships with others.

"Sacred Speech" is a personal, warm-hearted approach to a complex matter how we can use speech in holy ways. Drawing support from literary and spiritual sources, Rev. Donna Schaper offers compelling advice from her own experience as a clergyperson, teacher, partner, and parent, empowering us to: Acknowledge the Divine in the words we use Use speech to maximize the possibility of love and care Use speech to minimize fear Link, connect, and contact with others through words

A clear invitation to improve our communications with others, "Sacred Speech" is ideal for spiritual and religious leaders, professionals who work in multifaith settings, the politically correct and the not-so politically correct, and anyone who wants to do more than simply "watch what they say."

From the hosts of Tablet magazine's wildly popular Unorthodox podcast, The New Jewish Encyclopedia is an edifying, entertaining, and thoroughly modern introduction to Judaism. It offers everything: from an illustrated guide to determining different Hasidic sects based on their garb to practical advice for throwing an unconventional Jewish wedding to humorous, accessible explanations of Judaism's myriad holidays. The book is an alphabetical encyclopedia of short entries - some profane, some profound, and some both - heavy on the graphics and, like contemporary Judaism itself, featuring a panoply of divergent voices, all amusing and well-informed and none in perfect agreement. By weaving together the essential and the esoteric, the snarky and the earnest, the Jewish and the Jew-ish, this book honors its title, offering a truly unorthodox approach to Judaism and allowing each reader to find his or her point of connection with the culture, the tradition, and the religion. Inside, under any given letter, readers will find short essays evocatively explaining Judaism's key holidays and practices and why they still matter today; visual guides to things Jews love, like smoked fish, and how to tell your gravlax from your pastrami-smoked salmon; definitive lists of things that matter, from the best Christmas songs written by Jews to the most essential Seinfeld episodes; advice from an Orthodox sex guru, a bridesmaid-for-hire, and other people whose wisdom would benefit Jews and non-Jews alike; brief histories of Jewish traditions new and old, such as the sacred ritual of eating Chinese food on December 25; a vocabulary of words and phrases only Jews use; and so much more.

Arab Masculinities provides a groundbreaking analysis of Arab men's lives in the precarious aftermath of the 2011 Arab uprisings. It challenges received wisdoms and entrenched stereotypes about Arab men, offering new understandings of rujula, or masculinity, across the Middle East and North Africa. The 10 individual chapters of the book foreground the voices and stories of Arab men as they face economic precarity, forced displacement, and new challenges to marriage and family life. Rich in ethnographic details, they illuminate how men develop alternative strategies of affective labor, how they attempt to care for themselves and their families within their local moral worlds, and what it means to be a good son, husband, father, and community member. Arab Masculinities sheds light on the most private spaces of Arab men's lives-offering stories that rarely enter the public realm. It is a pioneering volume that reflects the urgent need for new anthropological scholarship on men and masculinities in a changing Middle East.

Sometimes valuable lessons from childhood are not appreciated until years later. Millions of us went to Vacation Bible School during Summer growing up. Memories of those experiences tend to spur a smile and a nod as we realize how we continue to learn those lessons every day.

Fire blazes from heaven, and a stone altar erupts in flame. So begins a spiritual awakening, the kindling of a revival fire still burning today. Beginning with Elijah and God's tremendous one-day revival of Israel, Wesley Duewel tells stories of revivals spanning the globe from America to China to Africa, all brought by obedience and heartfelt prayer. He illustrates how God has used revival fire through the centuries to revive the church and reveal the glorious presence of the Holy Spirit.

The Islamic tradition has always held animals in high esteem, deserving the same level of consideration as humans. The Qur'an opines that 'there is not an animal in the earth nor a flying creature flying on two wings, but they are people like you'. This fascinating and highly original book examines the status and nature of animals as they are portrayed in the Qur'an and in adjacent exegetical works, in which animals are viewed as spiritual, moral, intelligent and accountable beings. In this way, the study presents a challenge to the prevalent view of man's superiority over animals and suggests new ways of interpreting the Qur'an. By placing the discussion within the context of other religions and their treatment of animals, the book also makes a persuasive case for animal rights from an Islamic perspective.

This new edition of the beloved devotional is the first edition of Jesus Calling® to include true stories from readers and from Sarah herself. You'll be able to identify and draw strength from these personal accounts of struggle and weakness, burdens and fears, forgiveness and redeeming love as you savor the presence of the One who understands you perfectly and loves you forever.

With Scripture and personal reflections, bestselling author Sarah Young brings Jesus' message of peace--for today and every day.

This #1 bestselling 365-day devotional is written as if Jesus Himself is speaking directly to you--words of encouragement, comfort, and reassurance of His unending love. Sarah Young shares her personal prayer journal and her reflections based on Jesus' words of hope, guidance, and peace within Scripture. Penned by one who loves Jesus and reveres His Word, these writings have helped millions of people grow in their relationship with Jesus.

This new edition of the beloved devotional includes written-out Scriptures and more than 100 pages of stories from Sarah and readers of Jesus Calling®. Its beautiful packaging and artistic design makes a wonderful gift for anyone eager for a new experience of Jesus Calling® as well as for those reading it for the first time.

The first-ever Jesus Calling® devotional to include real-life, inspirational stories, Jesus Calling, 365 Devotions with Real-Life Stories, Hardcover, with Full Scriptures invites you to experience peace in the presence of the Savior who is closer than you can imagine. These much-loved devotions will help you look forward to your time with the Lord and experience peace in the presence of the Savior who is always with you.

The rule that exempts women from rituals that need to be performed at specific times (so-called timebound, positive commandments) has served for centuries to stabilize Jewish gender. It has provided a rationale for women's centrality at home and their absence from the synagogue. Departing from dominant popular and scholarly views, Elizabeth Shanks Alexander argues that the rule was not conceived to structure women's religious lives, but rather became a tool for social engineering only after it underwent shifts in meaning during its transmission. Alexander narrates the rule's complicated history, establishing the purposes for which it was initially formulated and the shifts in interpretation that led to its being perceived as a key marker of Jewish gender. At the end of her study, Alexander points to women's exemption from particular rituals (Shema, tefillin and Torah study), which, she argues, are better places to look for insight into rabbinic gender.

Enacting social justice is essential to the Christian faith. But the Bible's call to seek justice is not a call to superficial activism. True justice requires biblical wisdom and communal discernment. Maybe you're frustrated with a version of Christianity that doesn't seem to take justice seriously. Perhaps you've witnessed the rise of ideologies that brand themselves as 'social justice,' but you have a sense that something is off about them. Maybe you have a hunch that God offers a better way to do justice than what's offered by the snarky memes on our news feeds. In this 14-session, video-based study guide, teacher and lecturer Thaddeus Williams furthers the case he made in his book, taking study groups and individuals deeper into complex question of how to pursue a path of justice without compromising the truth of the gospel. Participants will watch video segments (DVD/streaming video sold separately), hear from a diverse range of experts, interact in group discussions, and answer personal reflection questions to discover what the Bible and the example of Jesus have to teach us about justice. Williams confronts religious and political tribalism and challenges participants to discover a compelling vision of justice for all God's image-bearers that offers hopeful answers to life's biggest questions and a way forward. Sessions Include: What is Social Justice The God Question The Imago Question The Idolatry Question The Collective Question The Splintering Question The Fruit Question The Disparity Question The Color Question The Gospel Question The Tunnel Vision Question The Suffering Question The Standpoint Question Conclusion

This collection of essays by Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scholars underscores the significance of sustained and serious ethical, inter-religious, and interdisciplinary reflection on children. Essays in the first half of the volume discuss fundamental beliefs and practices within the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam regarding children, adult obligations to them, and a child's own obligations to others. The second half of the volume focuses on selected contemporary challenges regarding children and faithful responses to them. Marcia J. Bunge brings together scholars from various disciplines and diverse strands within these three religious traditions, representing several views on essential questions about the nature and status of children and adult-child relationships and responsibilities. The volume not only contributes to intellectual inquiry regarding children in the specific areas of ethics, religious studies, children's rights, and childhood studies, but also provides resources for child advocates, religious leaders, educators, and those engaged in inter-religious dialogue. Marcia J. Bunge is Professor of Humanities and Theology at Christ College, the Honors College of Valparaiso University (Indiana); Director of the Child in Religion and Ethics Project; and the University's W.C. Dickmeyer Professor. She is the translator and editor of selected texts by J. G. Herder entitled Against Pure Reason: Writings on History, Language, and Religion (1993). She has also edited and contributed to The Child in Christian Thought (2001); The Child in the Bible (2008, co-edited with Terence Fretheim and Beverly Roberts Gaventa); and Children and Childhood in World Religions: Primary Sources and Texts (2009, co-edited with Don S. Browning).

Food often defines societies and even civilizations. Through particular commensality restrictions, groups form distinct identities: those with whom 'we' eat ('us') and those with whom 'we' cannot eat ('them'). This identity is enacted daily, turning the biological need to eat into a culturally significant activity. In this book, Jordan D. Rosenblum explores how food regulations and practices helped to construct the identity of early rabbinic Judaism. Bringing together the scholarship of rabbinics with that of food studies, this volume first examines the historical reality of food production and consumption in Roman-era Palestine. It then explores how early rabbinic food regulations created a distinct Jewish, male, and rabbinic identity. Rosenblum's work demonstrates how rabbinic food practices constructed an edible identity.

This is an accessible and up-to-date account of the Jews during the millennium following Alexander the Great's conquest of the East. Unusually, it acknowledges the problems involved in constructing a narrative from fragmentary yet complex evidence and is, implicitly, an exploration of how this might be accomplished. Moreover, unlike most other introductions to the subject, it concentrates primarily on the people rather than issues of theology and adopts a resolutely unsentimental approach to the subject. Professor Schwartz particularly demonstrates the importance of studying Jewish history, texts and artefacts to the broader community of ancient historians because of what they can contribute to wider themes such as Roman imperialism. The book serves as an excellent introduction for students and scholars of Jewish history and of ancient history.

"This is a life-altering book. It contains New Revelations. It provides the tools with which to pull ourselves out of despair, lifting the whole human race to a new level of experience, to a new understanding of life itself, to a new expression of its grandest vision."
Neale Donald Walsch believes that the human race has reached a Time of Choosing. Our options are being placed before us by the tide of events -- and by those whoa re creating them. We can either move forward, building together at last a new world of peace and harmony based on new beliefs about God and Life, or move backward, separately and continuously reconstructing the old world of conflict and discord.
In "The New Revelations, " bestselling author Walsch offers possible and powerful answers to the questions facing the world, and urges us to open our hearts and minds to what may be one of the most important spiritual statements of our time.

This book is all about kindness behaviour training (KBT). The authors have drawn on their clinical experience as well as Buddhism to develop a practical course in cultivating kindness, intended to complement and augment other mindfulness-based approaches. They are now presenting this training in an eight-week course book. Amid the recent explosion of secular mindfulness, their aim is to reemphasize the importance of the heart, introducing the reader to a variety of ways of approaching kindness-based meditation, as well as to how to put kindness into practice in daily life.A range of psychological theories and areas of research inform the KBT approach, primarily findings from cognitive neuroscience, as well as evolutionary and positive psychology literatures. It also uses a range of exercises found to be helpful in Eastern traditions, such as Buddhism. The KBT exercises have been isolated from their religious or spiritual origins and are used on a secular basis.The book will act as a companion, walking the reader through each week of the course offering guidance, reflections, and outlining the exercises in a concise user-friendly style.Worksheets and homework tasks to be completed into the book for each week will make the book interactive and accessible. Led meditations will be available to be downloaded by a KBT website.

A practical and inspiring approach to tackling our environmental crisis, from a master spiritual teacher. We can heal our earth by choosing a simpler, more fulfilling lifestyle, as trustees of a compassionate universe. Eknath Easwaran presents a penetrating analysis of the spiritual roots of our current predicament and offers a realistic and hopeful way forward. Each of us has a role to play in making wise choices, and each of us can genuinely make a difference. Drawing inspiration and insight from Mahatma Gandhi, Saint Francis, and his own experience of living in the East and the West, Easwaran shows the connections between individual thoughts and actions that move beyond consumerism to the unity of life. Mahatma Gandhi formulated a series of diagnoses of our seemingly perpetual state of crisis, which he called "the seven social sins": knowledge without character, science without humanity, wealth without work, commerce without morality, politics without principles, pleasure without conscience, and worship without self-sacrifice. Easwaran explores each of these diagnoses in turn and presents an alternative hypothesis of who we are and how we fit into the universe. This is ecology as a great adventure, filled with the challenges and rewards of inner growth. Easwaran tells us that "once we open our eyes to cooperation, artistry, thrift, and compassion, we begin to see thousands of little things we can do to help restore the environment - and restore dignity and deeper fulfillment to our own lives." Eknath Easwaran is renowned as a teacher of meditation and for his translations of the Indian scriptures. His writings express timeless spiritual insights and are illustrated by stories from East and West. His books reflect two cultures: India, where he grew up in a self-supporting agrarian village, and the United States, where he taught and lectured for over thirty years. His early experiences of living in harmony with nature, his firsthand acquaintance with Gandhi's India, and his long familiarity with an American audience have resulted in this book: a deeply thoughtful examination of our present situation, and a blueprint for living as trustees of a compassionate universe, in a world that we would want our children and grandchildren to inherit.

What does it mean to preside like a woman at the Eucharist? Do women do it differently, or should they? How do lay women and men experience women's priestly ministry? This is an accessible, broadly popular book, pushing the boundaries in new and unusual ways, and making a serious contribution to feminist and liturgical debate. Contributors: Alistair Barrett; Andrea Bieler; June Boyce- Tillman M.B.E.; Veronica Brady; Barbara Darling; Susan Durber; Alison Green; Mary Grey; Gillian Hill; Ann Loades C.B.E.; Dorothy McRae-McMahon A.M.; Rachel Mann; Anita Monro; Julia Pitman; David Pluss; Natalie K Watson; Val Webb.