First Religion

In the pattern of his best-selling book The Master Plan of Evangelism, author Robert E. Coleman offers a close examination of how Jesus made disciples and how his followers did the same throughout the book of Acts.

The Age of Paradise is the first of a projected four-volume history of Christendom, a civilization with a supporting culture that gave rise to what we now call the West. At a time of renewed interest in the future of Western culture, author John Strickland—an Orthodox scholar, professor, and priest—offers a vision rooted in the deep past of the first millennium. At the heart of his story is the early Church’s “culture of paradise”, an experience of the world in which the kingdom of heaven was tangible and familiar.

John W. O'Malley gives us the most comprehensive account ever written of the Society of Jesus in its founding years, one that heightens and transforms our understanding of the Jesuits in history and today. Following the Society from 1540 through 1565, O'Malley shows how this sense of mission evolved. He looks at everything—the Jesuits' teaching, their preaching, their casuistry, their work with orphans and prostitutes, their attitudes toward Jews and "New Christians," and their relationship to the Reformation.

Diana Oestreich, a combat medic in the Army National Guard, enlisted like both her parents before her. But when she was commanded to run over an Iraqi child to keep her convoy rolling and keep her battle buddies safe, she was confronted with a choice she never thought she'd have to make. Torn between God's call to love her enemy and her country's command to be willing to kill, Diana chose to wage peace in a place of war. For the remainder of her tour of duty, Diana sought to be a peacemaker—leading to an unlikely and beautiful friendship with an Iraqi family.

The First and Second Books of Adam and Eve make up an apocryphal story, written in a midrash style, detailing the time from the planting of the Garden of Eden and creation of Adam to the time of Enoch. For those interested in angels and demons and the dialogue and tactics of Satan in his quest to destroy mankind, this book will be of special value. For serious students of religion and religious history, this book is a must-have.

A powerful Islamic challenge to conventional Judeo-Christian theology, The First and Final Commandment combines this best-selling author's two books, MisGod'ed and God'ed, within one program. Written in clear, fluid, and at times amusing style, The First and Final Commandment incorporates common sense with scholarly analysis to demand reappraisal of the Judeo-Christian religions.

The First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ, also commonly referred to as The Infancy Gospel of Thomas (not to be confused with the apocryphal book simply called the Gospel of Thomas), dates to AD 185 and tells stories of the early events in the life of Christ, including miracles; although, also included are stories depicting the childhood Jesus behaving less sacredly than one might expect, which may be exactly the reason why the infancy gospels were never considered canon by the Church.

This book is about the heart of religious experience, namely Enlightenment (which is finding the truth concerning oneself), and about science (which is finding the truth concerning other things), and about the relationship between them. It claims that Enlightenment is more truly scientific than science itself; and that, without Enlightenment, science is only half the story and therefore full of contradictions, of insoluble problems both theoretical and practical.

Let the songs of the first Christmas turn your heart toward God’s glory. During the holidays, the musical tunes of the season are everywhere. Their nostalgic melodies warm our hearts. But, the original Christmas songs are different; they lift our hearts to a holy God. They reveal the greatness, glory, and goodness of our savior. Taking us beyond quaint imagery and feel-good lyrics, the Advent songs of the Bible unfold God’s redemptive plan for the world and his eternal purpose for the ages.

The ever-popular and prolific Peter Kreeft says that the most important question he has written about is how one becomes holy, or, to put it another way, how one becomes a saint. This question is central to all the great religions, as Kreeft demonstrates, for striving toward holiness, moving toward perfect love, is the whole purpose of life.

René Descartes is often described as the first modern philosopher, but much of the content of his "Meditations on First Philosophy" can be found in the medieval period that had already existed for more than a thousand years. Does God exist? If so, what is his nature? Is the human soul immortal? How does it differ from the body? What role do sense experience and pure reason play in knowing? Descartes stands out from his predecessors because of the method he developed to treat these and other fundamental questions.

Scott Hahn is an internationally recognized Catholic lecturer and theologian. His books Hail, Holy Queen and Publishers Weekly best seller The Lamb's Supper began Hahn's examination of the Catholic faith. With First Comes Love, he thoughtfully focuses on the connection between the Church, the Holy Trinity, and the family.

In The First Society: The Sacrament of Matrimony and the Restoration of the Social Order, Scott Hahn makes the startling claim that our society's ills and its cures are rooted in whether we reject or accept the divine graces made available through the sacrament of holy matrimony.

Traditionally, the Orthodox Church has appointed forty days of rest and seclusion after childbirth for mothers to recover from the rigors of birth and get to know their new babies. In the modern world, it can be difficult to understand how to use this time to the fullest in the way it was intended. The authors of A Sacred Beginning—a therapist and a pediatrician who are both mothers themselves—come to the rescue with a resource that addresses the spiritual, emotional, and physical aspects of a mother's recovery from birth and embarkation on her new life.

When do you find time to connect with God? Even if we try to be intentional about it, everyday activities and responsibilities often find a way to take priority over our time with Jesus. Prayer can happen at any time, and of course it does, but there is value in setting aside a specific time to communicate with the Lord. The notion of getting alone with God to start the day was an example set by Jesus himself! He got up before daylight to pray in a solitary place. We don’t know what about or who for, we just know it was his way of connecting with the Father before doing anything else.

Read by the author. The only way to truly change the world is to truly love it, and the only way to truly love it is to go first and move toward it. Today, the cultural climate in the West is characterized by increasing amounts of mistrust and even hatred for others. We are fearful of other...

Join Frederica Mathewes-Green on a guided retreat through an ancient Orthodox text. Regardless of your denominational background, First Fruits of Prayer will bring to life the prayer experience of first millennium Christianity through immersion in this poetic hymn, an extraordinarily beautiful work that is still chanted by Christians around the world each Lent. It weaves together Old and New Testament scriptures with prayers of hope and repentance and offers ancient ways of seeing Christ that still feel new today.

First invites listeners into a journey of new beginnings. Not the kind marked by dates or events, but the stirrings of the soul as it awakens to meaning, purpose, and faith. Through quiet storytelling and personal insight, a perspective is shared on the spiritual path, where seemingly small moments carry great significance, and the first steps shape the entire journey.

Do you hate sleep and love real ghost stories? Then this 50-story collection is exactly what you’re looking for! These stories are unexplainable true accounts from first responders, police officers, firemen, and 911 operators, told from the perspective of everyday people. Every single tale between these covers is 100 percent true.

1st and 2nd Maccabees tells the story of how the Greek ruler Antiochus IV Epiphanes attempted to suppress the Jewish religion, resulting in the Maccabean Revolt from 175 to 134 BCE. Originally included in the King James Bible, 1st and 2nd Maccabees is a thrilling historical account of the guerrilla warfare in which, with God's help, three Maccabean brothers were empowered to win extraordinary victories against vastly superior armies and restore an independent Jewish kingdom and religion.