As the cradle-religion I belong to has been, at every age, probing into her managing and conserving of the Mmysterious Ttreasures entrusted to her, with the enlightenment, offered by Vatican Council II, I too longed to scrutinize my own handling of Catholic Christian Ffaith. I wanted to examine whether the religion I practice personally was real or reel? tTrue or false? gGenuine or false? aAuthentic or artificial? hHeartfelt or routine? fFruitful or poisonous? oOriginal or counterfeit? sSingle-hearted or double-hearted?' Certainly, as a priest I had lot of occasions like recollections and retreats regularly to regularly assess the genuineness of my religious holdings and practices. Though I began 10ten years back, gathering all my scribbles and journals of evaluation about my personal religion, I started putting them seriously into a book form only after Pope Benedict XVI announced year 2012 as the Year of Faith. I considered it a call from God who wanted to befriend me more intensely and to promote to my friends this habit of assessing one's own faith. This is how this book was conceived and shaped. This book can be considered as a self-imposed act of examining my conscience about the identity, nature, and application, and practice of religion in my life. I hope and pray this effort of mine will surely assist my readers do the same, not only during this Year of Faith as it would be ended 24 November 24, 2013;, but also later on in life when tumult of waves and trials is daunting against our faith and religion.

Editor Susanna Wright offers this updated edition of a Christian devotional classic--invoking the daily prayers and timeless imagery of the original text through modern, accessible language.
In this wonderful collection, famed theologian Dr. John Baillie shares personal prayers for people who are seeking a better understanding of God and themselves. Organized by morning and evening--with special prayers for Sundays--"A Diary of Private Prayer" is written with eloquence, piety, and directness. Blending praise and meditative thoughts about God with a concern for the social and individual good, these daily invocations help and inspire us to search our inner selves and find the deep religious beliefs that lie within.
First published in 1936, "A Diary of Private Prayer" remains a seminal Christian devotional with more than a million copies in print. This modern edition--completely redesigned into a gift package--admirably preserves all the qualities of the original, ensuring that the wisdom of God and the wonder of Baillie's prayers remain accessible for many generations to come.

There is more to prayer than meets the eye; it can be hard work. In Prayer: A Force that Causes Change, author David Williamson analyzes how to pray and what to pray and provides a thorough discussion of prayer and effective faith-filled prayers.

In this, his fourth volume, Williamson shares a series of articles previously published in the weekly online newsletter Voice of Thanksgiving. The articles promote power in prayer-prayer that accomplishes God's plans and goals here on earth. In this collection, Williamson continues with themes leading to power in prayer: Partnership of God and man in prayer Dealing with faith killers: doubt, fear, and unbelief Breaking down barriers to prayer Components of effective prayer Breakthrough in prayer The articles in Prayer: A Force that Causes Change illustrate how a life of effective prayer is one of a close relationship to God and a life filled with answers to prayers. Effective prayers can lead to changes in people's lives, family, church, neighborhood, cities, and nations. It shows how prayer opens doors that have previously been closed.

The 'Science of properties' represents a large and fascinating part of Arabic technical literature. The book of 'Isa ibn 'Ali (9th cent.) 'On the useful properties of animal parts' was the first of such compositions in Arabic. His author was a Syriac physician, disciple of Hunayn ibn Ishaq, who worked at the Abbasid court during the floruit of the translation movement. For the composition of his book, as a multilingual scholar, he collected many different antique and late antique sources. The structure of the text itself-a collection of recipes that favoured a fluid transmission-becomes here the key to a new formal analysis that oriented the editorial solutions as well. The 'Book on the useful properties of animal parts' is a new tile that the Arabic tradition offers to the larger mosaic representing the transfer of technical knowledge in pre-modern times. This text is an important passage in that process of acquisition and original elaboration of knowledge that characterized the early Abbasid period.

In the mid 1950s, a British taxi driver named George King claimed that Budha, Jesus, and Lao Tzu had been alien "cosmic masters" who had come to earth to teach mankind the right way to live. Sun Myung Moon claimed that Korean people are descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. Joseph Smith claimed that some lost tribes of Israel had moved to Americas hundreds of years ago. All three people successfully founded new religious movements that have survived to this day. How and why do some people come up with such seemingly strange and bizarre ideas and why do others come to place their faith in these ideas? The first part of this book develops a multidisciplinary theoretical framework drawn from cognitive science of religion and social psychology to answer these critically important questions. The second part of the book illustrates how this theoretical framework can be used to understand the origin and evolution of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at founded by an Indian Muslim in 1889. The book breaks new ground by studying the influence that religious beliefs of 19th century reformist Indian Muslims, in particular, founders of the Ahl-e-Hadith movement, had on the beliefs of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at. Using the theoretical framework developed in part I, the book also explains why many north Indian Sunni Muslims found Ahmad's ideas to be irresistible and why the movement split into two a few years Ahmad's death. The book will interest those who want to understand cults as well as those who want to understand reformist Islamic movements.

Barren Women is the first scholarly book to explore the ramifications of being infertile in the medieval Arab-Islamic world. Through an examination of legal texts, medical treatises, and works of religious preaching, Sara Verskin illuminates how attitudes toward mixed-gender interactions; legal theories pertaining to marriage, divorce, and inheritance; and scientific theories of reproduction contoured the intellectual and social landscape infertile women had to navigate. In so doing, she highlights underappreciated vulnerabilities and opportunities for women's autonomy within the system of Islamic family law, and explores the diverse marketplace of medical ideas in the medieval world and the perceived connection between women's health practices and religious heterodoxy. Featuring copious translations of primary sources and minimal theoretical jargon, Barren Women provides a multidimensional perspective on the experience of infertility, while also enhancing our understanding of institutions and modes of thought which played significant roles in shaping women's lives more broadly. This monograph has been awarded the annual BRAIS - De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World.

Tamara Prosic gives a new explanation of the origins, development and symbolism of Passover. First, she examines Passover from the diachronic perspective, tracing its development from the period before the centralisation of the cult until the second destruction of the temple. Issues with previous scholarship are considered, while at the same time she places the study of Passover within the framework of the new paradigm of historical studies of ancient Israel that advocates the indigenous Canaanitic origin of Israelites. The second part of the book is synchronic in its approach to Passover and deals with its symbolism. Prosic discusses Passover in biblical legends arguing that the pre-Yahwistic Passover was essentially a rite of passage. From there the investigation moves to symbolic elements of Passover such as time symbolism, space symbolism and symbolism of the sacrifice. This is volume 414 in the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement series.

Drawing on the "Parable of the Sower" (Mark 4:1-20) this study explores how the Holy Spirit cultivates our hearts - unseating the rocks of distraction, uprooting the thorns and thistles of the world, and planting the seed of faith. This six-week study includes daily prayer exercises and small group sessions to help deepen your prayer life and strengthen your daily discipline of prayer and Bible reading. Help emphasize the importance of prayer for new or existing prayer groups.

In the sixteenth century, the famous kabbalist Isaac Luria transmitted a secret trove of highly complex mystical practices to a select groups of students. These meditations were designed to capitalize on sleep and death states in order to effectively split one's soul into multiple parts, and which, when properly performed, permitted the adept to free oneself from the cycle of rebirth. Through an in-depth analysis of these contemplative practices within the broader context of Lurianic literature, Zvi Ish-Shalom guides us on a penetrating scholarly journey into a realm of mystical teachings and practices never before available in English, illuminating a radically monistic vision of reality at the heart of Kabbalistic metaphysics and practice.