This volume collects both classic and cutting-edge readings related to gender, sex, sexuality, and the Bible. Engaging the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, and surrounding texts and worlds, Rhiannon Graybill and Lynn R. Huber have amassed a selection of essays that reflects a wide range of perspectives and approaches towards gender and sexuality. Presented in three distinct parts, the collection begins with an examination of gender in and around biblical contexts, before moving to discussing sex and sexualities, and finally critiques of gender and sexuality. Each reading is introduced by the editors in order to situate it in its broader scholarly context, and each section culminates in an annotated list of further readings to point researchers towards other engagements with these key themes.

Fifty-Two Weeks with God is composed of fifty-two meditations on God, God's creation, and men and women who gave their lives for others. The book begins with New Year, the time we think of what we have done before and repent and resolve to correct ourselves. We sit in awe at God's magnificent creation and what He has done for us. We meditate on the lives of others who felt the call to follow Christ and care for those in need. We meditate on the innocent children whose characters and beliefs we mold as we care for them by word and deed. We meditate on the spirit of God, the spirit of love and truth. We meditate on God's promise for us to be with him in the warmth of his love for eternity if we follow His example and teaching.

"Whatever is true, whatever is good, whatever is honorable, whatever is of good report. Whatever is lovely, whatever is pure; think on these things (Philippians 4:8)."

The excitement of the spiritual life is as fulfilling as friendship, as mysterious as the soul, and as infinite as the universe. This book is a jumpstart in the faith for those who have tried religion and not found the spirit, or have tried pleasure and not found joy, or have chased after life and not found deep meaning, or thought God to be imagined and not been awakened.

The book includes chapters on the infinite interior life, expectant faith, mystery traveler, sex in God's creation, beautiful simplicity, storytelling, difficulties connecting with God, religion unfettered, the New Evangelization, with humor throughout. The final chapter, titled "Evolutionary Christogenesis," includes quotes from Teilhard de Chardin.

The author, a Catholic priest, writes unabashedly of straitjacket rituals, institutional stonewalling, and the cynicism of people. Positively, he conveys an enthusiasm in the surge of goodness that is present in this generation. He conveys how you can become a fully rigged ship with sails unfurled in the sea of God's spirit. The divine force has never been absent from nature's scene or from human relational ways. We are called to be faith rebels.

You ever wanted love, but didn't know what it was? You ever been hurt by what you thought was love? You ever missed love, because you couldn't recognize it?

"All You Wanted To Know About Love, But Refused To Accept" is a book about love that explains the true meaning of love. It discusses the character traits of love, to enable you to recognize it. This book also explains the main ingredient of love, without which love cannot exist. The information in this book will help you avoid the hurt, the deception, and the heartache that often comes with erroneous concepts about love. This book will enable you to look at love from a new perspective, and hopefully, enjoy it more.

Baghdadi Jewish Networks in the Age of Nationalism traces the participation of Baghdadi Jews in Jewish transnational networks from the mid-nineteenth century until the mass exodus of Jews from Iraq between 1948 and 1951. Each chapter explores different components of how Jews in Iraq participated in global Jewish civil society through the modernization of communal leadership, Baghdadi satellite communities, transnational Jewish philanthropy and secular Jewish education. The final chapter presents three case studies that demonstrate the interconnectivity between different iterations of transnational Jewish networks. This work significantly expands our understanding of modern Iraqi Jewish society by going beyond its engagement with Arab/Iraqi nationalism or Zionism/anti-Zionism to explore Baghdadi participation within Jewish transnational networks.

This book investigates how Buddhism gradually integrated itself into the Chinese culture by taking filial piety as a case study because it is an important moral teaching in Confucianism and it has shaped nearly every aspect of Chinese social life. The Chinese criticized Buddhism mainly on ethical grounds as Buddhist clergies left their parents' homes, did not marry, and were without offspring-actions which were completely contrary to the Confucian concept and practice of filial piety that emphasizes family life. Chinese Buddhists responded to these criticisms in six different ways while accepting good teachings from the Chinese philosophy. They also argued and even refuted some emotional charges such as rejecting everything non-Chinese. The elite responded in theoretical argumentation by (1) translations of and references to Buddhist scriptures that taught filial behavior, (2) writing scholarly refutations of the charges of unfilial practices, such as Qisong's Xiaolun (Treatise of Filial Piety), (3) interpreting Buddhist precepts as equal to the Confucian concept of filial piety, and (4) teaching people to pay four kinds of compassions to four groups of people: parents, all sentient beings, kings, and Buddhism. In practice the ordinary Buddhists responded by (1) composing apocryphal scriptures and (2) popularizing stories and parables that teach filial piety, such as the stories of Shanzi and Mulian, by ways of public lectures, painted illustrations on walls and silk, annual celebration of the ghost festival, etc. Thus, Buddhism finally integrated into the Chinese culture and became a distinctive Chinese Buddhism.

Entrepreneurial Ministry is a partnership of visible testimony that the traditional church can continually be a vital and vibrant avenue for effective ministry without compromise or loss of heritage and sacredness. It is outreach ministry at its best. By leveraging their entrepreneurial gifts, these ministerial Christ-followers are compelled to provide community outreach in their vocation or occupation. Many of these ministers are teachers, artist, medical doctors, consultants, counselors, architects, salesman, etc., who work in their vocation or profession, which is guided by their spiritual gifts of purpose. These spiritual gifts unleash qualities that call for focused prayer, which develops a kingdom culture that nurtures kingdom families in their human and spiritual needs. In this type of ministry, the world is your territorial boundary. In order to become what you are purposed to be, you must go beyond your normal boundaries to do what you never before dreamed of doing to obtain your destiny. Since it is all about kingdom building, entrepreneurial ministry is an unwavering partnership in God's agenda, and its initiatives are destined to reach the masses wherever they are in their hierarchy of social, emotional, economic, and spiritual need.