Religious Thought

Various ideas float around about the subject of last things, leading many Christians to conclude that they don't know what to think about the subject. Yet at the core of the Christian doctrine of last things lies two simple and complementary hopes: that God ever and always offers hope for our individual futures and for the future of the whole world. In this helpful book, Allen and Cornwall explain how we don't have to subscribe to sensationalist theories or sketchy interpretations to believe in Christian hope.

"In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message" is a classic work that offers clear and perceptive answers to questions which challenge every human being. Written between the years 1923-1937, it is a collection of 168 essays addressing all spheres of life ranging from God and the Universe to the Laws in Creation, the meaning of life, responsibility, free will, intuition and the intellect, the ethereal world and the beyond, justice and love. It answers eternal questions such as what does it mean to be human, what is the purpose of life on Earth, and what happens to "me" when I die.

Osho responds here to a question relating to meditation, a space of "no-mind": "...meditation covers a very long pilgrimage. When I say 'meditation is witnessing', it is the beginning of meditation. And when I say 'meditation is no-mind', it is the completion of the pilgrimage. Witnessing is the beginning, and no-mind is the fulfillment. Witnessing is the method to reach the no-mind. Naturally you will feel witnessing is easier. It is close to you. But witnessing is only like seeds, and then is the long waiting period."

In Grace (Eventually), Anne Lamott examines the ways we're caught in life's most daunting predicaments: love, mothering, work, politics and maybe toughest of all, evolving from who we are to who we were meant to be. This is a complicated process for most of us, and Lamott turns her wit and honesty inward to describe her own intimate, bumpy and unconventional road to grace and faith.

As Anne Lamott knows, the world is a dangerous place. Terrorism and war have become the new normal. Environmental devastation looms even closer. And there are personal demands on her faith as well – getting older; her mother's Alzheimer's; her son's adolescence and the passing of friends and time. Fortunately for those of us who are anxious about the state of the world, whose parents are also aging and dying, whose children are growing harder to recognise as they become teenagers, Plan B offers hope that we're not alone in the midst of despair.

The co-editors of Gnosis magazine explore the many esoteric traditions that Western culture has to offer. While terms from Eastern spiritual practices such as Zen, mantra, and karma have become part of our daily lexicon, the traditions of Western spirituality have been largely unexplored by people searching for non-mainstream routes to spiritual experience. But for those who identify with Western culture, Western religious traditions have their own wisdom teachings that are more suitable to their needs and expectations.

My 2019 writings on topics from tech to politics to God.

This rich, timely, and highly original portrait of the Buddha explores both the archetypal religious icon and Buddha the man. In lucid and compelling prose, Armstrong brings to life the Buddha's quest, from his renunciation of his privileged life to the discovery of a truth that he believed would utterly transform human beings and enable them to live at peace in the midst of life's suffering.

When acknowledging what it is you love and then pursuing it, you can stand firm and know that “no weapon formed of man” will ever prosper. Growth is realizing that sometimes that weapon against you...is you! Your mind-set could be your biggest ally or worst enemy. The choice is yours. This book's aim is to highlight the importance of getting out of your own way and sticking to a plan through lenses of growth and vulnerability.

Increasing numbers of conservative evangelicals are denying basic tenets of classical Christian teaching about God, with departures occurring even among those of the Calvinistic persuasion. James Dolezal's All That Is in God provides an exposition of the historic Christian position while engaging with these contemporary deviations. His convincing critique of the newer position he styles "theistic mutualism" is philosophically robust, systematically nuanced, and biblically based.

The effects of spiritual practices are now being investigated scientifically as never before, and many studies have shown that religious and spiritual practices generally make people happier and healthier. In this pioneering book, Rupert Sheldrake shows how science helps validate seven practices on which many religions are built, and which are part of our common human heritage: meditation, gratitude, connecting with nature, relating to plants, rituals, singing and chanting, and pilgrimage and holy places.

For anyone wondering if the Christian faith is still relevant in a post-modern culture, for anyone thirsting for a genuine encounter with a God who is real, for anyone yearning for a renewed sense of passion in life...Blue Like Jazz is a fresh and original perspective on life, love, and redemption.

Deepak Chopra's passionate new book, Peace Is the Way, was inspired by a saying from Mahatma Gandhi: "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way." In a world where every path to peace has proved futile, the one strategy that hasn’t been tried is the way of peace itself. "We must not bring one war to an end, or thirty," Chopra tells us, "but the idea of war itself." How can this be done?

Archibald Alexander was a theologian who served as Princeton Theological Seminary's first principal. The theme is about true religion inspired by the spirit, which affects the heart. The author argues that people are brought.

From the fall of Constantinople in 1453 until the 18th century, many Western European writers viewed the Ottoman Empire with almost obsessive interest. In this path-breaking audiobook, Noel Malcolm ranges through these vital centuries of East-West interaction, studying all the ways in which thinkers in the West interpreted the Ottoman Empire as a political phenomenon - and Islam as a political religion.

Bridging the gap between the world of science and the realm of the spiritual, Wallace, a pioneer of modern consciousness research, offers a practical and revolutionary method for exploring the mind that combines the keenest insights of contemporary physics and philosophers with the time-honored meditative traditions of Buddhism.

In Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith, the author of the bestsellers Traveling Mercies and Plan B delivers a poignant, funny, and bittersweet primer of faith, as we come to discover what it means to be fully alive.

Is Western civilization in an accelerating decline? And if it continues will it eventually weaken and cause us to come to the end of cultured civilization as we now know it? "Yes," says David Jeremiah in his audiobook I Never Thought I'd See the Day! Can this downward spiral be reversed? Yes, but only if, one person at a time, we return to God with our hearts, our manner of life, our dedication to genuine worship of God, and by serving God in helping others, in our giving, and in prayer.

What does Plato have to do with the Christian faith? Quite a bit, it turns out. In ways that might surprise us, Christians throughout the history of the church and even today have inherited aspects of the ancient Greek philosophy of Plato, who was both Socrates's student and Aristotle's teacher. To help us understand the influence of Platonic thought on the Christian faith, Louis Markos offers careful readings of some of Plato's best-known texts and then traces the ways that his work shaped the faith of some of Christianity's most beloved theologians.

For those considering walking the Camino de Santiago or just interested in learning more about it, the author shares what led him to his pilgrimage, his initial concerns, the preparation and experiences while walking, the time and financial investment, and his reflections after the walk. He offers a look at the Camino journey that begins before you take your first step and does not end even after your last.