Best of
Religion

1956

The Wonderful Works of God


Herman Bavinck - 1956
    Adapting the magisterial systematic theology found in his four-volume Reformed Dogmatics, this is perhaps Bavinck’s most eminently practical work – a single, accessible volume for the college classroom and the family bookshelf. Previously published in America as Our Reasonable Faith, this book has had a deep and lasting influence on the growth and development of Reformed theology. It is the publisher’s hope that in its new form, this book continues to astonish readers with the wonderful works of God, and provide a deeper knowledge of their triune God.

Zen Buddhism: Selected Writings of D. T. Suzuki


D.T. Suzuki - 1956
    Suzuki. In the reissue of his best work, readers are given the very heart of Zen teaching. These writings are brought together to form the most accessible & definitive overview of Zen philosophy available.The sense of ZenZen in relation to Buddhism generallyThe history of Zen Satori, or, EnlightenmentPractical methods of Zen instruction The reason of unreason: the koan exercise The Zen doctrine of no-mind The role of nature in Zen BuddhismExistentialism, pragmatism & ZenPainting, swordsmanship, tea ceremony

The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structure of Alchemy


Mircea Eliade - 1956
    In The Forge and the Crucible, Mircea Eliade follows the ritualistic adventures of these ancient societies, adventures rooted in the people's awareness of an awesome new power.The new edition of The Forge and the Crucible contains an updated appendix, in which Eliade lists works on Chinese alchemy published in the past few years. He also discusses the importance of alchemy in Newton's scientific evolution.

Doctrines of Salvation Vol. III


Joseph Fielding Smith - 1956
    The path to salvation and happiness is explored and explained.

Saint Pius X: The Farm Boy Who Became Pope


Walter Diethelm - 1956
    Young readers will be inspired by the life of this holy man--from his youthful days of hard work and prayer to receive the education he needed; to his years as a country priest, encouraging his people to holiness; through the steady promotions to pastor, monsignor, bishop, cardinal, and archbishop, which he reluctantly accepted but in which he always became the beloved of those he served; to his days as the Holy Pontiff, Pope Pius X, the only canonized Pope of this century. This simple man who never forgot the poor will always be a timely example of holiness.   Born of very humble circumstances, young Giuseppe Sarto had one burning desire while growing up on a farm--to become a priest. But never did he or his generous parents ever dream that he would one day sit in the Chair of St. Peter. This is the inspiring story of the humble "Pope of little children," whose love for Christ and children moved him to change the requirements for First Communion so that young children as early as 7 years old could receive the Holy Eucharist. Illustrated.

The Bible and the Liturgy


Jean Daniélou - 1956
    It is to remedy this situation that Father Daniélou has written this book. The Bible and the Liturgy illuminates, better than has ever before been done, the vital and meaningful bond between Bible and liturgy.   Father Daniélou aims at bringing clearly before his reader's minds the fact that the Church's liturgical rites and feasts are intended, not only to transmit the grace of the sacraments, but to instruct the faithful in their meaning as well as the meaning of the whole Christian life. It is through the sacraments in their role as signs that we learn. So that their value will be appreciated, Daniélou attempts to help us rediscover the significance of these rites so that the sacraments may once again be thought of as the prolongation of the great works of God in the Old Testament and the New.

Bahá'í World Faith: Selected Writings of Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha


Bahá'u'lláh - 1956
    

The Prayers of Kierkegaard


Søren Kierkegaard - 1956
    The nearly one hundred of his prayers gathered here from published works and private papers, not only illuminate his own life of prayer, but speak to the concerns of Christians today.The second part of the volume is a reinterpretation of the life and thought of Kierkegaard. Long regarded as primarily a poet or a philosopher, Kierkegaard is revealed as a fundamentally religious thinker whose central problem was that of becoming a Christian, of realizing personal existence. Perry D. LeFevre's penetrating analysis takes the reader to the religious center of Kierkegaard's world.

Order and History, Vol. I: Israel and Revelation


Eric Voegelin - 1956
    This volume examines the ancient near eastern civilizations as a backdrop to a discussion of the historical locus of order in Israel. The drama of Israel mirrors the problems associated with the tension of existence as Israel attempted to reconcile the claims of transcendent order with those of pragmatic existence and so becomes paradigmatic. According to Voegelin, what happened in Israel was a decisive step, not only in the history of Israel, but also in the human attempt to achieve order in society. The uniqueness of Israel is the fact that it was the first to create history as a form of existence, that is, the recognition by human beings of their existence under a world-transcendent God, and the evaluation of their actions as conforming to or defecting from the divine will. In the course of its history, Israel learned that redemption comes from a source beyond itself. Voegelin develops rich insights into the Old Testament by reading the text as part of the universal drama of being. His philosophy of symbolic forms has immense implications for the treatment of the biblical narrative as a symbolism that articulates the experiences of a people's order. The author initiates us into attunement with all the partners in the community of being: God and humans, world and society. This may well be his most significant contribution to political thought: "the experience of divine being as world transcendent is inseparable from an understanding of man as human."

Saint Francis


Nikos Kazantzakis - 1956
    He was the author of poetry, plays, articles and novels, including The Last Temptation of Christ, Zorba the Greek and The Greek Passion.

The Eternal Now


Paul Tillich - 1956
    Discussing among other topics, wisdom, salvation, loneliness and solitude, the author gives free reign to the discreet and compassionate intelligence that everywhere is a hallmark of his thinking. 'There is not one of these addresses that does not deserve careful scrutiny.' Times Literary Supplement

The Year and Our Children: Catholic Family Celebrations for Every Season


Mary Reed Newland - 1956
    Mary Reed Newland wrote numerous beloved books for Catholic families, but The Year and Our Children is her undisputed masterpiece. Read it, cherish it, share it, put it into practice and give your kids the gift of a fully lived faith, every day and in every season.

The Angels and Their Mission


Jean Daniélou - 1956
    Jean Danielou discusses the mission of the angels by following a historical order, looking at guardian angels, the angels and the sacraments, the spiritual life, death, and the Second Coming.

Naught For Your Comfort


Trevor Huddleston - 1956
    

The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle (Schweitzer Library)


Albert Schweitzer - 1956
    Teacher, preacher, conciliator, diplomat, theologian, rule giver, consoler, and martyr, his life and writings became foundations for Christianity. Paul inspired a vast, serious, and intelligent literature that seeks to recapture his meaning, his thinking, and his purpose.In his letters to early Christian communities, Paul gave much practical advice about organization and orthodoxy. These treated the early Christian communities as something more than a group of people who believed in the same faith: they were people bound together by a common spirit unknown before. The significance of that common spirit occupied the greatest of Christian theologians from Athanasius and Augustine through Luther and Calvin.In The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle Albert Schweitzer goes against Luther and the Protestant tradition to look at what Paul actually writes in the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians: an emphasis upon the personal experience of the believer with the divine. Paul's mysticism was not like the mysticism elsewhere described as a soul being at one with God. In the mysticism he felt and encouraged, there is no loss of self but an enriching of it; no erasure of time or place but a comprehension of how time and place fit within the eternal. Schweitzer writes that Paul's mysticism is especially profound, liberating, and precise. Typical of Schweitzer, he introduces readers to his point of view at once, then describes in detail how he came to it, its scholarly antecedents, what its implications are, what objections have been raised, and why all of this matters. To students of the New Testament, this book opens up Paul by presenting him as offering an entirely new kind of mysticism, necessarily and exclusively Christian."There is at least one other point that Albert Schweitzer scores here... The hard-won recognition that divine authority and human freedom ultimately cannot be in conflict must never be taken for granted, and the irony that the thought of Paul has repeatedly been invoked to undo that recognition truly does make this insight one of 'the permanent elements.'"—from the Introduction

The Growing Edge


Howard Thurman - 1956
    For Thurman, the sermon is an act of worship in which the preacher exposes his spirit and mind as they seek to reveal the spirit of the Living God upon them. Thurman presents his sermons in six sections: Concerning Enemies, Concerning Prayer, Concerning God, Concerning Peace, Concerning Festivals, and Concerning Christian Character.

Srimad Bhagavatam: The Wisdom of God


Prabhavananda - 1956
    This version focuses primarily on the teachings of Krishna, and the generally more interesting portions of the book. The aim of translation of this book by Swami Prabhavananda is to be true to the spirit of the original Sanskrit and be easily readable.

Faith and Prejudice (Illustrated)


John Henry Newman - 1956
    If the most striking of them is that intended for the opening of the Seminary at Olton in 1873, with its grim forecast of the future course of unbelief, the earlier ones have a special interest of their own. They were preached at St. Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham, in the Spring of 1848, almost at once after Newman’s return from Rome as a priest of the Oratory. They are thus the first sermons he preached in England after he had left Oxford and the Anglican Communion. Aeterna Press

The Heart of the Parish: A Theology of the Remnant


Martin Thornton - 1956
    Mr. Thornton argues that considerations of biblical and philosophical theology, history, and psychology alike demand that pastoral work should be based on that Remnant of faithful souls—often very few in number—to be found in any parish; and that their training and direction is of very much greater importance than devising schemes to interest the multitude. He argues forcefully against the parochial activity which aims at adding numbers of individuals to the Church by methods of recruitment; this he holds to be theologically unsound and ascetically ineffective. His faith is that God will add to the Church such as are being saved when there is at the heart of the parish this Remnant living by rule, a center of adoration and charity—the rightful heir, he contends, of medieval monastic Order. There is probably no other modern work which attempts such a serious and thorough examination of the type of spirituality to which Christians can aspire in the world today.

Praying the Psalms


Thomas Merton - 1956
    Guiding the reader through the more representative psalms, he explains why the Church also considers the psalms as the best way to praise God.

The Nature Of Man According To The Vedanta


John Levy - 1956
    In this book he makes the classic argument against subject- object duality and determines that the true Self cannot be known.

He That Cometh: The Messiah Concept in the Old Testament and Later Judaism


Sigmund Mowinckel - 1956
    He That Cometh by Sigmund Mowinckel offers the most comprehensive study available of messianic thought in the Bible. Featuring here a new retrospective foreword by John J. Collins, He That Cometh first explores the antecedents of the term "Messiah" in the Old Testament, focusing on the idea of a coming future king in early Jewish eschatology. It then examines the messianic concept as used in later Judaism and in the early church. The book concludes with an impressive discussion of the phrase "Son of Man," the term Jesus himself used to interpret his own messianic mission. Every student of biblical history and theology can profit immensely from a careful study of this monumental work. Mowinckel's exhaustive documentation and his comprehensive analyses of both scriptural sources and modern scholarship have earned for this volume a high standing among studies of Jewish and Christian thought.

More Catholic Tales for Boys and Girls


Caryll Houselander - 1956
    More of Caryll Houselander's delightful stories of princes and gypsies, bishops and bears, and Catholic boys and girls to remind us that especially in young souls the Faith is quite strong, and evil is never a match for goodness.

History of the Jews: Volume 1. From the Earliest Period to the Death of Simon the Maccabee


Heinrich Graetz - 1956
    This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1891 edition by the Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia.