Methodist Doctrine: The Essentials


Ted A. Campbell - 1999
    Ted Campbell provides a brief summary of the major doctrines shared in the Wesley family of denominations. Writing in concise and straightforward language, Campbell organizes the material into systematic categories: doctrine of revelation, doctrine of God, doctrine of Christ, doctrine of the Spirit, doctrine of humanity, doctrine of "the way of salvation" (conversion/justification/sanctification), doctrine of the church and means of grace, and doctrine of thing to come. He also supplies substantial but simplified updated references in the margins of the book that allow for easy identification of his sources.John Wesley distinguished between essential doctrines on which agreement or consensus is critical and opinions about theology or church practices on which disagreement must be allowed. Though today few people join churches based on doctrinal commitments, once a person has joined a church it becomes important to know the teachings of that church's tradition. In Methodist Doctrine: The Essentials, Ted Campbell outlines historical doctrinal consensus in American Episcopal Methodist Churches in a comparative and ecumenical dialogue with the doctrinal inheritance of other major families of Christian tradition. In this way, the book shows both what Methodist churches historically teach in common with ecumenical Christianity and what is distinctive about the Methodist tradition in its various contemporary forms. For more information, please see the author's website: http: //tedcampbell.com/methodist-doctrine/

Through the Eyes of Jesus: A Trilogy


Carver Alan Ames - 1996
    A book that has and continues to move hearts.

Time and Despondency: Regaining the Present in Faith and Life


Nicole Roccas - 2018
    Apathy. Restlessness. Procrastination. These are symptoms, of what early Christian theologians called despondency (acedia), a spiritual sickness rooted in a lack of care or effort. A condition as old as the ancients, despondency thrives in today’s culture of leisure, anxiety, and digital distraction. Time and Despondency is a penetrating synthesis of ancient theology, spiritual memoir, and self-help practicality. It envisions despondency as the extension of a broken relationship with the experience of time. Driven by the fear of death and the anxiety of living, despondency drives us to abandon the present moment, forsaking the only temporal realm in which we have true fellowship with Christ. The remedies offered by time-honored Christian thinkers for this predicament constitute not only an antidote to despondency but also stepping stones back to the present moment. In regaining the sacredness of time, we re-encounter the Resurrection of Christ in the dark and restless moments of our lives.

From Christendom to Apostolic Mission: Pastoral Strategies for an Apostolic Age


University of Mary - 2020
    This essay is an attempt to contribute effective strategies to engage our own time and culture once more with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and – for a weary world – to awaken the Catholic imaginative vision.

Praying the Lord's Prayer for Spiritual Breakthrough


Elmer L. Towns - 1997
    Each chapter examines a line from the prayer, revealing power points for every believer desiring a more dynamic prayer life. Towns says: "What would you say if you were ushered into the throne room of God with only one minute to request everything you needed, but didn't know how to put it into words? The Lord's Prayer includes everything you need to ask when you talk to God . . . it is a model prayer that teaches us how to pray."

Where the Hell Is God?


Richard Leonard - 2010
    The problem with these libraries is that they contain books that are generally written by professionals for their peers. Where the Hell Is God? combines the best of the professional's insights with the author's own experience and insights to speculate on how believers can make sense of their Christian faith when experiencing tragedy and suffering. Starting with a very personal story of the author's sister being left a quadriplegic from a car accident twenty years ago, Where the Hell Is God? gently leads the reader through some "take-home" messages that are sane, sound, and practical. Among these messages are: God does not directly send pain, suffering, and disease. God does not punish us; God does not send accidents to teach us things, though we can learn from them; and God does not will earthquakes, floods, droughts, or other natural disasters. This concise, accessible, and experience-based book will help people who are suffering as well as those who minister to them and their families.

Spiritual Plateaus


Glenn L. Pace - 1991
    Sometimes we stay on one plateau thinking that is all we need to do, but if we can move forward toward the next plateau we would find that there is more to learn and more to do.

Sins of the Tongue: The Backbiting Tongue


Jean-Pierre Bélet - 2015
    Belet wages war against one of the worst sins of his (and our) time - backbiting - better known to us as detraction (telling the faults of others without cause). Most of us do not realize how evil this sin is. In fact, many of us don't think it's a sin at all. After ruining someone's reputation, or satisfying our anger (and yes, our hatred) by spewing out every bad thing we can say about someone, we justify ourselves by saying, "Well, it's true!" We even think we are acting justly by giving someone what they deserve.. Due to our lack of charity and also to our pride, little do we see things from God's point of view, to whom these are vile sins - a form of hatred of neighbor - a failure to do the two things necessary - to love God and our neighbor (Matt. 22:37-40). In explaining this sin of backbiting, properly called detraction, Fr. Belet quotes the best men of Western Civilization: Aristotle, Plato, Horace, Seneca, Pliny, the Roman Emperor Constantine, King David, Isaiah, Saints James, Luke, Matthew, Paul, John Chrysostom, Jerome, Cassian, Gregory the Great, Augustine, Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, and many others. A very helpful book for those who wish to know to meaning of backbiting---and how to avoid it.

Redeeming the Feminine Soul: God’s Surprising Vision for Womanhood


Julie Roys - 2017
    Internalizing society’s devaluation of the feminine, some women are killing their own natural impulses to pursue a feminist ideal that bears no relation to God’s good design. Other women struggle to conform to a fundamentalist, feminine caricature, which requires denying their full humanity and gifting.Defying both feminists and fundamentalists, Julie Roys reveals God’s true, affirming, and compelling vision for women, showing them how to reclaim what is uniquely feminine, and become healthy, balanced women of God.

Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross


Richard John Neuhaus - 2000
    But Richard John Neuhaus's sustained exploration of these utterances is something altogether different. Through them he plumbs the depths of human experience and sets forth the central narrative of Western civilization-the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ-in a way that engages the attention of believers, unbelievers, and those who are not sure what they believe. Death on a Friday Afternoon is an invitation to the reader into a spiritual and intellectual exploration of the dark side of human experience with the promise of light and life on the far side of darkness.

Everyday Sacrament: The Messy Grace of Parenting


Laura Kelly Fanucci - 2014
    From dinnertime chaos to bath-time giggles to never-ending loads of laundry, Laura stumbles into the surprising truth of what the seven sacraments really mean: that God is present always, even in the messes of motherhood.A spiritual memoir of parenting’s early years and a sacramental theology rooted in family life, Everyday Sacrament offers an honest, humorous, and hopeful look at ordinary moments as full of grace.

Why We're Catholic: Our Reasons for Faith, Hope, and Love


Trent Horn - 2017
    Why do we believe that God exists, that he became a man and came to save us, that what looks like a wafer of bread is actually his body? Why do we believe that he inspired a holy book and founded an infallible Church to teach us the one true way to live?Ever since he became Catholic, Trent Horn has spent a lot of time answering these questions, trying to explain to friends, family, and total strangers the reasons for his faithSome didn’t believe in God, or even in the existence of truth.Others said they were spiritual but didn’t think you needed religion to be happy.Some were Christians who thought Catholic doctrines over-complicated the pure gospel.And some were fellow Catholics who had a hard time understanding everything they professed to believe on Sunday.Why We’re Catholic assembles the clearest, friendliest, most helpful answers that Trent learned to give to all these people and more. Beginning with how we can know reality and ending with our hope of eternal life, it’s the perfect way to help skeptics and seekers (or Catholics who want to firm up their faith) understand the evidence that bolsters our belief—and brings us joy.

Jesus Is the Question: The 307 Questions Jesus Asked and the 3 He Answered


Martin B. Copenhaver - 2014
    In the Gospels Jesus asks many more questions than he answers. To be precise, Jesus asks 307 questions. He is asked 183 of which he only answers 3. Asking questions was central to Jesus' life and teachings. In fact, for every question he answers directly he asks--literally--a hundred. Jesus is the Question considers the questions Jesus asks--what they tell us about Jesus and, more important, what our responses might say about what it means to follow Him. Through Jesus' questions, he modeled the struggle, the wondering, the thinking it through that helps us draw closer to God and better understand, not just the answer, but ourselves, our process and ultimately why questions are among Jesus' most profound gifts for a life of faith. A game-changer of a book.

Daily Wisdom: Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad


Abdur Raheem Kidwai - 2010
    With 365 traditions covering the whole year, Daily Wisdom explores Islamic morals and manners in all aspects of everyday life. Beautifully presented, this ideal gift item is a must for every home. Abdur Raheem Kidwai is professor of English at the Aligarh Muslim University in India and a well-known author of many works on the Qur'an and Islam.

Awake, Not Woke: A Christian Response to the Cult of Progressive Ideology


Noelle Mering - 2021
    Discourse seems futile when we are no longer a people with shared principles or even a shared understanding of reality. What seems obvious to one person is patently absurd to the next.    This collapse of meaning is not accidental. It has been plotted and documented for decades, and now presents in its current form as Woke ideology.   Awake, Not Woke unmasks this ideology by examining its history, major players, premises, and tactics, showing us that “Wokeness” at its core is an ideology of rupture. Indeed, it is an ideology with fundamentalist and even cult-like characteristics that is on a collision course with Christianity.   With a wit and clarity that both exposes the absurd and mourns the brokenness of our culture,  Noelle Mering provides answers to such questions as:      Why does tolerance seem to only go in one direction?How does the ideology create enemies, eroding friendship across the sexes and races?Why is violence the natural end of Woke ideology?Why are the Woke considered blameless?Why have politics become all-absorbing?Why is the corruption of children a logical outgrowth of Woke principles?How is the movement fundamentally a rejection of the Logos?  This is a spiritual battle, and it is not accidental. The architects of revolution have long known that the transformation of the West had to come by way of destabilizing the social, familial, and religious pieties of a citizenry.   But there is a road to restoration, and it begins with identifying and understanding the operating principles of the Woke movement. While the revolution is a counterfeit religion resulting in alienation and division, the One True Faith brings restoration. It is this restoration -- of the person, the family, and the Faith -- for which we all hunger and is the most fitting avenue toward a more harmonious and whole society