La iglesia esta enfrentando su mayor crisis ---y su mayor oportunidad--- en este mundo post-moderno y post-cristiano. Dios esta invitando a 'personas imperfectas' de espiritu curioso a aliarse a su iglesia... pero, como las estamos recibiendo? Este libro lo ayudara a destruir las cinco grandes barreras que existen entre las generaciones emergentes y su iglesia, creando la cultura adecuada. Contiene desde historias reales de personas que estuvieron lejos de Dios, hasta ideas practicas que aplican a cualquier iglesia."

What do Osama bin Laden, Adolph Hitler, David Koresh, Jim Jones, Gene Applewhite, and the slayers of abortion doctors all have in common? All of them based their dangerous and destructive actions, to a large extent, on a message they believed they received from God. The receipt of messages from God is known by many religions as "spiritual gifts theology." In his earlier book, Implicit Rhetoric: Kenneth Burke's Extension of Aristotle's Concept of Entelechy, author Stan Lindsay presented the concept of psychotic entelechy, which is based on Burke's writings. In this new work, Lindsay expands upon the concept of psychotic entelechy by analyzing the religious motives behind the dangerous behavior of some individuals and organizations. Psychotic Entelechy also illustrates the curative aspect of the Burkean methods and presents key indicators of psychotic entelechy. The hope, and ultimate goal, is that as readers learn to identify psychotic entelechy in their own lives and/or the lives of those whom they influence or who influence them, the dangers will be diminished.

Discussions of any religion can easily raise passions. But arguments tend to become even more heated when the religion under discussion is characterized as new. Divisions around the study of new religious movements (NRMs), or cults, or nontraditional or alternative or emergent religions are so acute that there is even controversy over what to call them. John Saliba strives to bring balance to these discussions by offering perspectives on new religions from different academic perspectives: history, psychology, sociology, law, theology, and counseling. This approach provides rich descriptions of a broad range of movements while demonstrating how the differing aims of the disciplines can create much of the controversy around NRMs. The new second edition has been updated and revised throughout and includes a new foreword by noted historian of religion, J. Gordon Melton. For classes in religion or the social sciences, or for interested individuals, Understanding New Religious Movements offers the most objective introduction possible.

Visually organized, essential information on the many cults, sects, and movements throughout today's religious landscape. This collection of charts gives Christians both the overview and the details on the most significant groups, starting with facts about history, membership, worship practices, leaders, and publications for each group. You'll also find the group's doctrinal position presented in its own words, together with the orthodox view in easy-to-read comparison charts. Perfect for enhancing every type of teaching and learning situation and style, including homeschooling curricula and tutoring, church classes and Sunday school. Notable groups include: Christian Identity Movement Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints Eckankar Freemasonry Jehovah's Witnesses Mind Science groups New Age Movement Unification Church United Pentecostal Church The Way International and many more. ZondervanCharts are ready references for those who need the essential information at their fingertips. Accessible and highly useful, the books in this library offer clear organization and thorough summaries of issues, subjects, and topics that are key for Christian students and learners. The visuals and captions will cater to any teaching methodology, style, or program.

The Unification Church and its founder, Dr. Sun Myung Moon, have been in the center of controversy because of their recruiting practices, their financial holdings, and their authoritarian style--including arranged, mass marriages. Most controversial in terms of its teachings in Dr. Moon's claim to be a new Messiah who will finish what Jesus left 'undone.' Is he the Messiah, and is his Diving Principle the third testament of the Bible? Why this series? This is an age when countless groups and movements, old and new, mark the religious landscape in our culture, leaving many people confused or uncertain in their search for spiritual truth and meaning. Because few people have the time or opportunity to research these movements fully, these books provide essential information and insights for their spiritual journeys. All books but the summary volume, Truth and Error, contain five sections: -A concise introduction to the group being surveyed -An overview of the group s theology --- in its own words -Tips for witnessing effectively to members of the group -A bibliography with sources for further study -A comparison chart that shows the essential differences between biblical Christianity and the group -Truth and Error, the last book in the series, consists of parallel doctrinal charts compiled from all the other volumes. -Three distinctives make this series especially useful to readers: -Information is carefully distilled to bring out truly essential points, rather than requiring readers to sift their way through a sea of secondary details. -Information is presented in a clear, easy-to-follow outline form with menu bar running heads. This format greatly assists the reader in quickly locating topics and details of interest. -Each book meets the needs and skill levels of both nontechnical and technical readers, providing an elementary level of refutation and progressing to a more advanced level using arguments based on the biblical text. The writers of these volumes are well qualified to present clear and reliable information and help readers to discern truth from falsehood."

Este es uno de cuatro libros de referencia de una serie acerca de algunas de las sectas de la actualidad escritos por el mismo autor. Este libro vierte luz sobre el mormonismo, los Testigos de Jehova (ruselismo), la Iglesia de la Unificacion (seguidores de Moon), la meditacion trascendental y muchas sectas mas."

Blurb: This book brings unique insight and prize-winning analysis to an extraordinary story - that of a witch-hunt and 'ninja' craze that swept a region of Java, Indonesia, in 1998. Nicholas Herriman shows, on the basis of first-hand accounts, how killings occur when neighbours, family members and friends believe that one among them is a sorcerer. The usually sporadic killings of 'sorcerers' turned into an outbreak in 1998. Muslim organisations attributed the killings to conspirators, alleging that 'ninjas' had been responsible. In response, a paramilitary group (Banser NU) began preparing and training for an onslaught while anxious residents throughout East Java established road-side guards. Dozens of suspected ninjas were caught and some were tortured and killed. Herriman provides a detailed context and history of these events and analyses their development in terms of the interplay of local culture and dynamics (gossip, suspicion of 'sorcerers', violence) and national institutions (the state, political parties, NGOs and the press). About the author Nicholas Herriman is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at La Trobe University. His podcasts on iTunesU, including the Audible Anthropologist and Witch-hunts and Persecution have tens of thousands of listeners. He also regularly contributes opinion pieces to the mainstream media. Based on more than one year's fieldwork, he has written a number of significant and award-winning publications on East Java, including his PhD dissertation - the Australian Anthropological Society's "Best Thesis" in 2008. This book represents the culmination of researching witch-hunts for more than a decade.

This book is at the crossroads where a New Age sensibility, advancing like an ecumen of worldwide spirituality without national, cultural, or ecclesiastical frontiers, meets Latin America's syncretic religions, practiced by groups of people wiht African or indigenous roots or developed from the tradition of popular Catholicism. The Syncretic character of the two sensibilities makes both the New Age and popular religion behave like two, syncretizing and syncreticizable matrices of meaning. This book opens up a rich vein of debate with new dilemmas and discussions, that will provide a framework for a new field of study in anthropology. What new ways of signifying living and experiencing religion is the New Age generating in Latin America? What are its limits?

Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science is L. Ron Hubbard's
own story revealing how he arrived at his
discovery of the Reactive Mind that underlies and
enslaves Man.
Written to coincide with the release of Dianetics:
The Modern Science of Mental Health, Evolution of a Science
was originally published as a book-length feature in a national
magazine. The issue sold out within days, triggering thousands of
letters and creating a storm of interest that grew into a worldwide
phenomenon. Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science contains the only
account of:
- How the optimum computing machine -- the mind -- works
- How Ron discovered Basic Personality
- How the Dynamic Principle of
Existence -- SURVIVE! -- was first isolated
- How wrong answers enter into the mind and are held
down, giving further wrong answers
- How there seem to be "Demons" of the mind
- How the engram was discovered
- How Dianetics techniques were developed
That's why Evolution of a Science is the story of the greatest
adventure of all -- the exploration that discovered the Reactive
Mind and the technology to conquer it. He wrote it so you would
know.

Dictionary of Witchcraft is a must-have resource for anyone interested in witchcraft, pagan religions, and the occult. This historical dictionary was the first reference work to seriously document superstitions, manifestations, magic, and superstitions. The author s interest was to compile a vast amount of matter that would interest, entertain and instruct others. This dictionary was consulted by some of the greatest Romantic writers, notably by Hugo. Collin de Plancy followed the tradition of many previous demonologists of cataloguing demons by name and title of nobility, as it happened with grimoires like Pseudomonarchia Daemonum and The Lesser Key of Solomon among others. It is considered a major work documenting beings, characters, books, deeds, and causes which pertain to the manifestations and magic of trafficking with Hell; divinations, occult sciences, grimoires, marvels, errors, prejudices, traditions, folktales, the various superstitions, and generally all manner of marvelous, surprising, mysterious, and supernatural beliefs. This edition was translated and introduced by occultist Wade Baskin. Collin de Plancy (1794 1881) was a French occultist, demonologist, author, and translator. His best-known work, Dictionary of Witchcraft (Dictionnaire Infernal), was published in 1818 but didn t receive wide acclaim until 1863 when a set of 69 illustrations by Louis Breton were added. Later in life, de Plancy converted to Catholicism and focused his studies on Catholic histories and mysticisms.