English Religious

Join Merry Hanson, a very modern 16-year-old living in Pennsylvania's Amish country, as she faces the true-to-life struggles and heartfelt triumphs of growing up to be the best she can be in God's eyes. When Chelsea Davis's mom vanishes, unsettling clues lead Merry to suspect a strange religious cult may be involved.

American-born 17-year-old Maya Aziz is torn between worlds. There's the proper one her parents expect for their good Indian daughter: attending a college close to their suburban Chicago home and being paired off with an older Muslim boy who's "suitable" to her mother. And then there is the world of her dreams: going to film school and living in New York City - and maybe, just maybe, pursuing a boy she's known from afar her entire life who's suddenly falling into her orbit at school.

Is religion a force for war, or a force for peace? Some of the most terrible wars in history have been caused and motivated by religion. Much of the violence that fills our screens today springs from the same source. Yet some of the bravest pacifists have also been deeply religious people, and many of the laws and institutions that work to soften or prevent war have deep religious roots. This Very Short Introduction provides an overview of the history of religion and war, and a framework for analyzing it.

By early 1943, it had become increasingly clear the Allies would win the Second World War. Christian intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic thought the soon-to-be-victorious nations were not culturally or morally prepared for their success. These Christian intellectuals - Jacques Maritain, T. S. Eliot, C. S. Lewis, W. H. Auden, and Simone Weil, among others - sought both to articulate a sober and reflective critique of their own culture and to outline a plan for the moral and spiritual regeneration of their countries in the post-war world.

Can business activity in itself be morally good and pleasing to God? Sometimes business can seem so shady-manipulating the "bottom line", deceiving the consumer, or gaining promotions because of whom you know. But Wayne Grudem introduces a novel concept: business itself glorifies God when it is conducted in a way that imitates God's character and creation. He shows that all aspects of business,including ownership, profit, money, competition, and borrowing and lending, glorify God because they are reflective of God's nature.

In this provocative tell-all, David Gushee gives an insider's look at the frictions and schisms of evangelical Christianity, based on his experiences that began with becoming a born-again Southern Baptist in 1978 to being kicked out of evangelicalism in 2014 for his stance on LGBT inclusion in the church. But Gushee's religious pilgrimage proves even broader than that, as he leads his listener through his childhood experiences in Roman Catholicism, his difficult days at the liberal Union Seminary in New York, his encounters with the Christian Right, and more. In telling his story, Gushee speaks to the cultural divisions of a generation.

In his reflections on God, Jesus, suffering, and liberation, James H. Cone relates the gospel message to the experience of the Black community. But a wider theme of the book is the role that social and historical context plays in framing the questions we address to God as well as the mode of the answers provided.

In this provocative new contribution to public theology, world-renowned theologian Miroslav Volf (named "America's New Public Intellectual" by Scot McKnight on his Jesus Creed blog) and Matthew Croasmun explain that the intellectual tools needed to rescue us from our present malaise and meet our new cultural challenge are the tools of theology. A renewal of theology is crucial to help us articulate compelling visions of the good life, find our way through the maze of contested questions of value, and answer the fundamental question of what makes life worth living.

Monastic life and its counter-cultural wisdom come alive in the stories and lessons of Br. Paul Quenon, OCSO, during his more than five decades as a Trappist at the Abbey of Gethsemani. He served as a novice under Thomas Merton, and he also welcomed some of the monastery's more well-known visitors to Merton's hermitage. In Praise of the Useless Life includes Quenon's quiet reflections on what it means to live each day with careful attentiveness. The humble peace and simplicity of the monastery and of Quenon's daily life are beautifully portrayed in this memoir.

Know the enemy. Anticipate his attack. Expert linguist Dr. Andrew Farley encounters a device containing thousands of archived files revealing a worldwide spiritual conspiracy. Operation Screwtape is the largest of these files and details the intelligent scheme to steal, kill, and destroy.

Eighteen-year-old twins Charlene and Max Perigard have grown up under the wealthy but tyrannical rule of their oil-tycoon grandfather. When Max disappears and a ransom note shows up, Charlene's world is shattered. Fearing the worst, she determines to find her brother before it's too late.

The Reformation did not happen instantaneously; it was something God patiently arranged over a number of years. As you listen to this book, you will learn how the Lord used some people to plant the seeds of church reform long before October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther published his 95 theses. Luther's story is well-known; we trust you will find it interesting and instructive to hear about him and many others (John Knox, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Zacharias Ursinus, Willem Teellinck, et al.) who contributed to the Reformation.

Contemporary culture trivializes the "seven deadly sins," or vices, as if they have no serious moral or spiritual implications. Glittering Vices clears this misconception by exploring the traditional meanings of gluttony, sloth, lust, and others. It offers a brief history of how the vices were compiled and an eye-opening explication of how each sin manifests itself in various destructive behaviors. Listeners gain practical understanding of how the vices shape our culture today and how to correctly identify and eliminate the...patterns of sin in their own lives.

Join Merry Hanson, a very modern 16-year-old living in Pennsylvania's Amish country, as she faces the true-to-life struggles and heartfelt triumphs of growing up to be the best she can be in God's eyes. A skating party on Zooks' pond has Merry on edge until a disastrous event forces her to look at things from a fresh perspective.

Join Merry Hanson, a very modern 15-year-old living in Pennsylvania's Amish country, as she faces the true-to-life struggles and heartfelt triumphs of growing up to be the best she can be in God's eyes. An abandoned baby girl appears to be the answer to Merry's prayers, but she isn't the only one with hopes for baby Charity.

Join Merry Hanson, a very modern 15-year-old living in Pennsylvania's Amish country, as she faces the true-to-life struggles and heartfelt triumphs of growing up to be the best she can be in God's eyes. After her Amish neighbors' farm is vandalized, Merry resolves to find the culprit before an innocent person is blamed.

Paige McAllister needs to do something drastic. Her boyfriend can't even commit to living in the same country, her promised promotion is dead on arrival, and the simultaneous loss of her brother and her dream of being a concert violinist has kept her playing life safe and predictable for six years. A moment of temporary insanity finds her leaving her life in Chicago to move to Sydney, Australia. There she finds herself, against many of her convictions, as a logistics planner for one of Australia's biggest churches and on a collision course with her boss' son.

In the beginning, God's garden is beautiful and peaceful, but it doesn't stay that way. Everyone has something to say! Rain brags that it's the most refreshing. Birds boast that they're the most splendid. Earthworms bluster about their busyness. Then Children come along, claiming to be the best of all. And it's only fair that the best is loved most, isn't it?

Sands Hall chronicles her slow yet willing absorption into the Church of Scientology. Her time in the Church, the 1980s, includes the secretive illness and death of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and the ascension of David Miscavige. Hall compellingly reveals what drew her into the religion - what she found intriguing and useful - and how she came to confront its darker sides.

Eric's life brought him to boarding school in England, university in Edinburgh and the fame of Olympic Stardom in Paris. But with that fame came trouble as he struggled to stand up for his Christian faith. Eric's strong belief in keeping the Lord's Day as a day of worship was challenged when his 100 meters race was scheduled for the Sunday. Eric's strength of conviction and his subsequent win in the 400 meters have made him a hero and a role model for many young men and women. But his life was so much more than winning tapes and starters' orders - his whole life was a race for God.