Pope Benedict's first encyclical seeks to show the place of love in the life of the Church. Pope Benedict helps to clarify the meaning of love. He... examines the nature of various kinds of love-human love and divine love, eros, friendship, and charity. He writes beautifully and inspirationally that we were made for love by the God who is love, the God who became one of us out of love-Jesus Christ. Benedict insists that we must take up the word love, which has been so abused, and purify it, showing how faith in this love might transforms us. In an age in which "hostility and greed have become superpowers", and in which religion has been abused "to the point of culminating in hatred," the burden of the encyclical is to show that on its own a neutral rationality can no longer protect us; that we need the God who has loved us unto death. This Love has a human face and a human heart. In the second part, Benedict links the Church's charitable work with the love of the Trinitarian God, stating that the charitable activity of the Church and her works of justice express love. An excellent reflection for both religious and civic leaders, those involved in ministry and those preparing for marriage.

The Second Vatican Council says, "We ought to try to discover a new reverence for the Eucharistic mystery. Something is happening that is greater than... anything we can do. The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is the font from which all her power flows." This profound statement about the Eucharist stands at the center of this book by Cardinal Ratzinger. He compellingly shows us the biblical, historical, and theological dimensions of the Eucharist. The Cardinal draws far-reaching conclusions, focusing on the importance of one's personal devotion to and adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, for the personal reception of Communion by the individual Christian, as well as for the life of the Church. For Ratzinger, any transformation of the world on the social plane grows out of the celebration of the Eucharist. He beautifully illustrates how the omnipotent God comes intimately close to us in the Holy Eucharist, the Heart of Life.

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's recent bestseller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the... ultimate caseagainst religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science andreason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetryof the double helix.

In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's recent bestseller, The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the... ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetryof the double helix.

In the twenty-first century, religion remains the single greatest influence in the world. But, argues religion scholar Stephen Prothero, persistent... attempts to portray all religions as different paths to the same God overlook the distinct human problem that each seeks to solve. For example: Islam: the problem is pride / the solution is submission Christianity: the problem is sin / the solution is salvation Buddhism: the problem is suffering / the solution is awakening Judaism: the problem is exile / the solution is to return to God God Is Not One is an indispensable guide to the questions human beings have asked for millennia—and to the disparate paths we are taking to answer them today.

At the dawn of the twenty-first century, dizzying scientific and technological advancements, interconnected globalized economies, and even the... so-called New Atheists have done nothing to change one thing: our world remains furiously religious. For good and for evil, religion is the single greatest influence in the world. We accept as self-evident that competing economic systems (capitalist or communist) or clashing political parties (Republican or Democratic) propose very different solutions to our planet's problems. So why do we pretend that the world's religious traditions are different paths to the same God? We blur the sharp distinctions between religions at our own peril, argues religion scholar Stephen Prothero, and it is time to replace naÏve hopes of interreligious unity with deeper knowledge of religious differences. In Religious Literacy, Prothero demonstrated how little Americans know about their own religious traditions and why the world's religions should be taught in public schools. Now, in God Is Not One, Prothero provides readers with this much-needed content about each of the eight great religions. To claim that all religions are the same is to misunderstand that each attempts to solve a different human problem. For example: –Islam: the problem is pride / the solution is submission –Christianity: the problem is sin / the solution is salvation –Confucianism: the problem is chaos / the solution is social order –Buddhism: the problem is suffering / the solution is awakening –Judaism: the problem is exile / the solution is to return to God Prothero reveals each of these traditions on its own terms to create an indispensable guide for anyone who wants to better understand the big questions human beings have asked for millennia—and the disparate paths we are taking to answer them today. A bold polemical response to a generation of misguided scholarship, God Is Not One creates a new context for understanding religion in the twenty-first century and disproves the assumptions most of us make about the way the world's religions work.

God Is Not . . . takes on today's prevailing misconceptions about who God is by boldly stating who God is not. Rodney Clapp critiques pop culture's... anthem to a slobby, ineffective "God like us," while D. Stephen Long, in "God Is Not Nice," questions our therapy-fed longing for a useful, nonthreatening deity. If God is not an American or a capitalist or "religious," as contributors Michael Baxter, Mike Budde, and William T. Cavanaugh go on to argue, then who is God? Laytham concludes with a stirring essay on who God is, calling the church to visibly demonstrate where its primary allegiance lies.Audacious without being rude, God Is Not . . . is a lively, necessary, and intelligently reverent read.

First published in 1972, God Is Red remains the seminal work on Native religious views, asking new questions about our species and our ultimate fate.... Celebrating three decades in publication with a special 30th anniversary edition, this classic work reminds us to learn "that we are a part of nature, not a transcendent species with no repsponsibilities to the natural world." It is time again to listen to Vine Deloria Jr.'s powerful voice, telling us about religious life that is independent from Christianity and that reveres the interconnectedness of all living things. Vine's books influenced our generation and are as important to United States culural history as are books by Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe. This will be appreciated by future generations when U.S. history ceases to be fabricated for the glory of the white man. In God is Red Vine explains how Christianity is the root cause of this great weakness of the United States—the inablity to respect to respect or tolerate those who are different. Clearly, this weakness of the United States has only worsened in recent years, with wars against former allies Manuel Noriega, Saddam Hussein, and Osama Bin Laden...God is Red should be read and re–read by Americans who want to understand why the United States keeps losing the peace, war after war. — from the forward by Leslie Marmon Silko, author of Ceremony.

When journalist Liao Yiwu first stumbled upon a vibrant Christian community in the officially secular China, he knew little about Christianity. In... fact, he'd been taught that religion was evil, and that those who believed in it were deluded, cultists, or imperialist spies. But as a writer whose work has been banned in China and has even landed him in jail, Liao felt a kinship with Chinese Christians in their unwavering commitment to the freedom of expression and to finding meaning in a tumultuous society. Unwilling to let his nation lose memory of its past or deny its present, Liao set out to document the untold stories of brave believers whose totalitarian government could not break their faith in God, including: The over-100-year-old nun who persevered in spite of beatings, famine, and decades of physical labor, and still fights for the rightful return of church land seized by the government The surgeon who gave up a lucrative Communist hospital administrator position to treat villagers for free in the remote, mountainous regions of southwestern China The Protestant minister, now memorialized in London's Westminster Abbey, who was executed during the Cultural Revolution as "an incorrigible counterrevolutionary" This ultimately triumphant tale of a vibrant church thriving against all odds serves as both a powerful conversation about politics and spirituality and a moving tribute to China's valiant shepherds of faith, who prove that a totalitarian government cannot control what is in people's hearts.

The four talks collected here transcribe lectures delivered to an audience of children between the ages of ten and fourteen, under the auspices of the... little dialoguesseries at the Montreuil's center for the dramatic arts. Modeled on Walter Benjamin's Aufklrung for Kinderradio talks, this series aims to awaken its young audience to pressing philosophical concerns.Each talk in God, Justice, Love, Beauty explores what is at stake in these topics as essential moments in human experience. (Indeed, the book argues that they are constitutive of human experience.) Following each, Nancy's audience is given a chance to engage with him in a process of philosophical questioning; the texts of these touching and probing exchanges are included in the volume. Despite the fact that these lectures were delivered to an audience of children, the intellectual level they achieve-while remaining easily comprehensible-is astounding. No attempt is made to simplify Nancy's positions or to resolve the complexities that arise in the course of the talks or the question periods that follow. The work of opening performed here is fully in keeping with the strategy of Nancy's philosophy as a whole. Thus, for readers unfamiliar with his work, God, Justice, Love, Beauty will function as an excellent introduction to Nancy's larger corpus. As varied as the individual talks are, they share the motif of incalculability or the immeasurable. Broadly speaking, one could say that the various ways in which Nancy approaches this motif exemplify his deconstructive approach to think of human existence. As well, those treatments exemplify his conviction that the task of thinking is to develop original ways of communicating the incalculable. God, Justice, Love, Beauty is thus a skillful reminder that philosophy is important to all of us. The book is also a model of intellectual generosity and openness. Seamlessly moving from Schwarzenegger to Plato, from Kant, Roland Barthes, and Caravaggio to Caillou, Harry Potter, and the pages of Gala magazine, Nancy's wide-ranging references bear witness to his commitment to think of culturein its broadest sense.

"Why mess around with Catholicism when you can have your own customized religion?" Fed up with his parents' boring old religion,... agnostic-going-on-atheist Jason Bock invents a new god -- the town's water tower. He recruits an unlikely group of worshippers: his snail-farming best friend, Shin, cute-as-a-button (whatever that means) Magda Price, and the violent and unpredictable Henry Stagg. As their religion grows, it takes on a life of its own. While Jason struggles to keep the faith pure, Shin obsesses over writing their bible, and the explosive Henry schemes to make the new faith even more exciting -- and dangerous. When the Chutengodians hold their first ceremony high atop the dome of the water tower, things quickly go from merely dangerous to terrifying and deadly. Jason soon realizes that inventing a religion is a lot easier than controlling it, but control it he must, before his creation destroys both his friends and himself.

Divine jealousy plays a central role in God's activities throughout human history yet it is virtually ignored among those in the church today. ... Christians desire leaders who are dynamic, educated, and entertaining, but it is highly unlikely you will ever see "jealous" as one of the desired qualities of leaders within the church. However, jealousy is one of the primary attributes of the great leaders in the bible. As human jealousy is seldom uncontaminated with sin, it tends only to be understood as a negative emotion. However, the Bible tells us that God is a jealous God, and Erik Thoennes offers us unique insights into Godly jealousy as taught in Scripture, and also looks closely at biblical leaders who displayed Godly human jealousy. Thoennes masterfully draws ethical and theological implications from godly jealousy for the 21st Century. This book is a must read for anyone who is concerned with character development and who seeks to know the central values needed in the church today.

"From a premiere scholar of early American literature, Godly Letters is a masterful study of New England Puritan theology and literature. With wit,... humor, and a full command of the scholarship, Colacurcio's analysis of the complex thought and verbal artistry of the writers reveals their remarkable subtlety, intellectual tenacity, and powerful religious convictions, all of which have had a lasting impact on the culture of the United States. This book is a landmark in American Studies research. " —Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside, author of the Cambridge Introduction to Early American Literature "Michael J. Colacurcio's monumental commentary is a signal contribution to scholarship on early American literature and culture. Colacurcio is the first to present a genuinely comprehensive account of first-generation thought and expression—one that analyzes these writers seriously but critically in their own religious terms. With consummate skill and understanding, Colacurcio achieves this ambitious goal." —John Gatta, University of Connecticut and Sewanee: The University of the South "Michael Colacurcio is a brilliant reader and a prodigious storyteller. He elucidates the theological, political, economic, and social issues that shaped 'the (not quite canonical) books of New England's first Puritan generation,' revealing what was at stake for these writers, and showing why their narratives are so compelling. Colacurcio's account of John Cotton's debates with his colleagues offers the clearest and subtlest account yet written of the theological complexities underlying the Antinomian Controversy, but also captures the rhetorical energy—and the readerly pleasure—of the ministers' sometimes impatient exchanges. Through readings both witty and sympathetic, Colacurcio reveals the poignancy and the poetry of New England's 'godly letters.'" —Lisa Gordis, Barnard College In Godly Letters, Michael J. Colacurcio analyzes a treasury of works written by the first generation of seventeenth-century American Puritans. Arguing that insufficient scrutiny has been given this important oeuvre, he calls for a reevaluation of the imaginative and creative qualities of America's early literature of inspired ecclesiological experiment, one that focuses on the quality of the works as well as the demanding theology they express. Colacurcio gives a detailed, richly contextualized account of the meaning of these "godly letters" in rhetorical, theological, and political terms. From his close readings of the major texts by the first generation of Puritans—including William Bradford, Thomas Hooker, Edward Johnson, John Winthrop, Thomas Shepard, and John Cotton—he expertly illuminates qualities other studies have often overlooked. In his words, close study of the literature yields work "comprehensive, circumspect, determined subtle, energetic, relentlessly intellectual, playful in spite of their cultural prohibitions, in spite of themselves, even, they are in every way remarkable products of a culture that . . . assigned an extraordinarily high place to the life of words." Magisterial in sweep, Godly Letters is likely to stand as the definitive work on the Puritan literary achievement.

Eknath Easwaran taught spiritual living for nearly 40 years and drew deep, ongoing inspiration from the sacred literature of all traditions — the great... river of wisdom that is always flowing throughout the world. The 149 short extracts in this anthology come from the much-loved saints, sages, and scriptures of the Christian, Hindu, Sufi, Jewish, Native American, Buddhist, and Taoist traditions. These passages can be read for daily inspiration, for their insights into other spiritual traditions, for the light they throw on how to live, for the sustenance they offer when we feel sad or tired, and for the deep transformation they can bring in Easwaran’s method of passage meditation. Rich supporting material includes stories from India, detailed background notes, suggestions for memorization and for studying the texts in practices such as lectio divina from the Christian tradition, and instruction in using these texts in passage meditation.