Religious Theology

Brian Godawa, Hollywood screenwriter and novelist, explores the nature of imagination in the Bible. How God subverts pagan religions by appropriating their creativity and redeeming them within a Biblical worldview. Improve your imagination in glorifying God and defending the faith.

Artist and screenwriter Brian Godawa used to revel in his ability to argue the truth of the gospel, often crushing his opponents in the process. In time, however, he began to realize that winning an argument about the logic of Christianity did not equal persuading people to follow Jesus. What was missing?

Of all the gods, gurus, and good people out there, why Jesus? Why follow some ancient carpenter-turned-philosopher from a Podunk town in the Middle East? A man whose own people didn't believe in him for the most part. It just doesn't make any sense.

An inside snapshot view of the innovative Seattle church called Mars Hill and its Acts 29 network. This audiobook provides - with a touch of sarcasm and humor - both principles and practices shared from the people actually doing missional church ministry with people often untouched by todays traditional and contemporary churches.

In the past, Christians could easily answer the question of whether or not it was permissible to use cannabis by deferring to state prohibitions. We could simply say, “It’s against the law.” Today, that answer is no longer possible. Christians are now forced to do what they should have been doing all along: Think like disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ and bring to bear the wisdom of the sufficient word of God.

Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, Mother Teresa humbly accepted it on behalf of the poorest of the poor to whom she joyfully dedicated her life. Truly a saint for the 20th century, she taught compassion not only for the sick and destitute, but also for the lonely, neglected, and unappreciated who surround us every day.

Tim Chester invites a new generation to experience the Christian life as John Stott envisioned it - not simply a theological puzzle to be solved, but the daily practice of humble service and compassion found in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

While most of us have heard about Christians suffering for their faith, we tend to think "persecution" mainly impacts believers in times past or in hostile nations today, far removed from our daily lives. But this eye-opening book describes the various stages of persecution, revealing that persecution is something all followers of the Way can expect to face in this fallen world. Trouble on the Way will not only help listeners recognize persecution in all its forms but enable them to stand firm against it.

In our day, much as in Chadwick's, Pentecost is mostly misunderstood by the Church at large and is therefore either feared or turned into a circus. In both cases the Spirit of God is either lacking or completely grieved. This is evident in the absence of power; power to embrace and live a holy life in spite of the deprivations of the professing church and the pollutions of the world around us.

What is the relationship between charity and knowledge in the theology of Thomas Aquinas? Did Aquinas in his mature thought portray charity's act as antecedent to and independent of practical reasoning? Did he view charity's motion as rendering us morally good before God, apart from whether or not we do what is right in our actions? A dominant stream in contemporary Catholic ethics holds for precisely such a concept of charity, and many recent commentators on Aquinas maintain that this is his position as well.

The world is a very religious place. Wherever you look, people are worshipping, praying, believing, following, even dying for their faith. But what does it mean to be religious? Are all religions the same? Do they all call on the same God simply using different names? Are their beliefs and practices simply cultural expressions of the same spiritual longings? This audiobook presents each of the world's five major systems of faith, carefully outlining the history, doctrines, beliefs, and spiritual practices of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

While Christian faith cannot be reduced to mere superstition, few would deny that Christianity is too easily plagued by superstition. Indeed, many Christian theologians have tried to purify Christianity of magical thinking in favor of genuine piety.

A man of reason and vigorous discourse, and a renowned professor of literature and philosophy, C.S. Lewis, always "Jack" to family and friends, never shied from intellectual debate, and through his written works encouraged others to wrestle with the difficult questions of faith. A master of visual illustration and allegory, Lewis wrote with the intuitive understanding that his readers wrestled with the same questions about the Christian story, about pain, suffering, and notions of Heaven and Hell, as he himself had wrestled.

This audiobook is divided into three parts. The first part "sclaffolding", attempts to sketch out the mechanicals of "evangelical desconstruction". The second part, "A Letter to a Friend" is the centerpiece of the audiobook, which is a personal, autobiographical account of my de- and re-construction experience. The third part consists of appendices - reference material aimed at re-orienting those who are skeptical and those who aren't sure where to get next in re-building their intellectual and spiritual lives as Christians.

The Fool and the Heretic is a deeply personal story told by two respected scientists who hold opposing views on the topic of origins, share a common faith in Jesus Christ, and began a sometimes-painful journey to explore how they can remain in Christian fellowship when each thinks the other is harming the church. This book provides a model for how faithful Christians can hold opposing views on deeply divisive issues yet grow deeper in their relationship to each other and to God.

Fear and Trembling is a philosophical work by Søren Kierkegaard, published in 1843 under the pseudonym Johannes de Silentio (John of the Silence). The title refers to a line from the book Philippians 2:12, "...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling" which in its turn may be a reference to Psalm 55:5, "Fear and trembling came upon me..." Kierkegaard wanted to understand the feeling that must have arisen in Abraham when God tested him with the sacrifice of Isaac.

America's two greatest strengths - her liberal democratic culture and her free market economy - have made her a global superpower. But left unchecked, these two strengths can become great cultural weaknesses, sowing selfishness, recklessness, and apathy. In Resurrecting the Idea of a Christian Society, theologian R. R. Reno argues that America needs a renewal of Christian ideals - ideals that encourage self-sacrifice, responsibility, and solidarity.

Recent discoveries in the fields of astronomy, astrophysics, particle physics, and molecular biology have cast a new light on the traditional accounts of Genesis One. Find out why the most advanced views of the universe's origin prove to be surprisingly consistent with the insights of the Hebrew scholars eight centuries ago! Among the most elusive areas of modern science has been the nature of light - the subject of the first direct quote by God in the Bible.

Editors Denis Alexander and Alister McGrath gather other intelligent minds from around the world to share their startling commonality: Richard Dawkins and his fellow New Atheists were instrumental in their conversions to Christianity. Despite a wide range of backgrounds and cultures, all are united in the fact that they were first enthusiasts for the claims and writings of the New Atheists. But each became disillusioned by the arguments and conclusions of Dawkins, causing them to look deeper and with more objectivity at religious faith.

In 1892, a young man left his home in the coastal foothills of Lebanon in search of a better life. Coming to America with his newlywed wife, he found work as a traveling peddler, before settling on a small farm in central Nebraska. Years later, personal tragedy and an unexpected midnight visit from a saint changed the course of his life. Seeing the desperate need of his fellow orthodox Christians and heeding God’s call, he would spend the rest of his life traversing the Great Plains as a circuit-riding priest, known to his thousands of parishioners as Father Nicola Yanney.