Religion Theory

Is meditation an escape from - or a solution to - our psychological problems? Is the use of antidepressants counter to spiritual practice? Does a psychological approach to meditation reduce spirituality to "self-help"? What can Zen and psychoanalysis teach us about the problems of the mind and suffering?

Love is mysterious! On one hand, it is the only thing that can save us from perpetual darkness; the world from chaos and disintegration. On the other hand, very few of us feel any love day in and day out for our entire lifetimes. Love is self-luminous bliss; it is light; it is life. It is the core of our being and yet it has been lost and forgotten to the world because it means the death of our egos.

There is a glory to life that most people—including believers—never see. In this insightful new book, John Eldredge presents the heart as central to life. Not only is the heart essential, the heart God has ransomed is also good. Building on these foundational truths, Eldredge shows listeners why real Christianity is a process of restoration, where the broken parts of our hearts are mended and the captive parts are set free.

In this study, Fromm argues that man needs to analyze his unconscious thoughts, his dreams, and his conscious fantasies, as they reflect a universal and symbolic representation of himself.

What is the meaning of the Lord’s Supper? Jesus instituted the Supper to strengthen the faith of his followers by reminding them of his promises. More than an ancient church tradition or a complex doctrinal controversy, it has practical importance in the lives of Christians today. God has always made promises to his people through covenants, and along with them given signs and meals to point to and confirm his blessings. In this book, professor Guy Prentiss Waters defines and explores the unity of the covenants in the Old and New Testaments.

We don't understand the reactionary mind. As a result, argues Mark Lilla in this timely book, the ideas and passions that shape today's political dramas are unintelligible to us. The reactionary is anything but a conservative. He is as radical and modern a figure as the revolutionary, someone shipwrecked in the rapidly changing present, and suffering from nostalgia for an idealized past and an apocalyptic fear that history is rushing toward catastrophe.

In this candid book based on his own struggle with doubt, John Ortberg traces the line between belief and unbelief and finds that it's less a dividing line between hostile camps than a razor's edge that runs through every soul. His findings point toward the relief of being totally honest. Doubt … Questions … Honest faith … Outrageous hope … It's a chain reaction that can actually strengthen our relationship with God, and that, says Ortberg, is cause for celebration.

What does the Bible mean when it says that Christians have died to sin? How is it possible for a just God to justify the ungodly without becoming unjust Himself? What is regeneration? What is justification? This book attempts to set forth in clear Biblical light the nature and characteristics of justification and regeneration that God may be glorified and His children brought to know more fully the liberty that is theirs in Christ.

This book, Words of Warning, is an analysis of people and the gospel of Christ. Under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Charles H. Spurgeon sheds light on the many ways people may refuse to come to Christ, but he also shines a brilliant light on how we can be saved. Unsaved or wavering individuals will be convicted, and if they allow it, they will be led to Christ. Sincere Christians will be happy and blessed as they consider the great salvation with which they have been saved.

Among our greatest fears is the dread of what others would think of us "if they only knew" - the parts of our past we hope to forget, the parts of our present we work to conceal. Yet the part we actually do the best job of hiding is not the unsightly debris of our own mess, but rather the stunning beauty of God's grace. The fear that demands we protect this false image at all costs leads us to unwittingly declare a false gospel at every turn. Jamie Ivey finally grew tired of doing that, tired of being too ashamed and insecure to let others see the full extent of what God was capable of doing with our unworthiness. So she quit hiding.

The September 11 assault on the World Trade Center was the most sophisticated and horrifying in a series of operations masterminded by Osama bin Laden and his Jihad group - an organization that CNN's terrorism analyst Peter Bergen calls Holy War, Inc. One of only a handful of journalists to have interviewed the world's most wanted man face to face, Bergen explains the Jihadist network that operates globally and in secrecy.

In the post-9/11 West, there is no shortage of strident voices telling us that Islam is a threat to the security, values, way of life, and even existence of the United States and Europe. In this fearless, original, and surprising book, Anne Norton demolishes the notion that there is a "clash of civilizations" between the West and Islam. What is really in question, she argues, is the West's commitment to its own ideals: to democracy and the Enlightenment trinity of liberty, equality, and fraternity.

In this writing I will demonstrate that the scriptures emphatically teach a contingent of angels called “Holy Watchers” decided to have offspring with human women and knowingly commit this great abomination of sin toward the Most High. The Sons of God and the Divine Council mentioned in the Bible are these same “Holy Watchers” (a position of angelic authority) mentioned in Enoch and Jasher and in Genesis 6 that not only conceived children with human women but also gave mankind knowledge, technologies, and weapons.

The alleged spontaneous and even intelligent movements of various inanimate objects, under some circumstances, without the application of any known mechanical force, is a phenomenon which has never been explained to the satisfaction of scientific men. I do not think it possible to explain away the allegations of the fact on the assumption that all the persons who have testified to the evidence of their senses in this matter have been either mistaken or mendacious.

In his first memoir, Richard Dawkins shares a rare view into his early life, his intellectual awakening at Oxford, and his path to writing The Selfish Gene. This is an intimate memoir of the childhood and intellectual development of the evolutionary biologist and world-famous atheist and how he came to write what is widely held to be one of the most important books of the 20th century.

The belief in thought-transference prevailed from time immemorial. Passing over the legendary tales, and coming down to the time of recent history, we see many instances of the acceptance of this idea by the people of that old land of the strange and mysterious.

Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a lightning rod in American politics and evangelical Christianity. This book offers a critical but constructive and sympathetic introduction to CRT written from a perspective rooted in Scripture and Christian theology. The authors take us beyond caricatures and misinformation to consider how CRT can be an analytical tool to help us understand persistent inequality and injustice—and to see how Christians and churches working for racial justice can engage CRT in faithful and constructive ways.

In Saved from What?, Dr. R.C. Sproul reveals that the greatest danger we face is the holy wrath of God against our sin. But the glory of the gospel is that the One from whom we need to be saved is the very One who saves us. As we better understand the severity of our sin and the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement, the truth of God’s grace will deepen our worship and drive us to make his salvation known.

Big Bang Theory vs. the Bible has a truly unique comparison between two seemingly opposite perspectives. It brings religion and science together by using the truths of the Big Bang Theory, evolution, astronomy, mathematics, statistical probabilities, and the solar system. It reconciles the calendar of the creation recorded in the Book of Genesis with the calendar of the Big Bang Theory—as the two calendars perfectly and mathematically correlate.

Like no book before it, Preachers of Hate uncovers an ancient hatred that threatens the life and livelihood of every American. The "new" anti-Semitism targets not only Jews, but Americans specifically and the West in general. It targets our values, our lifestyle, and our freedoms. It is the single most important issue we face when trying to make sense of the Arab world.