In its scope and itnerest it can be compared with Freud's Totem and Taboo, the subtext Girard refutes with polemic daring, vast erudition, and a persuasiveness that leaves the reader compelled to respond, one way or another.This is the single fullest summation of Girard's ideas to date, the book by which they will stand or fall. In a dialogue with two psychiatrists (Jean-Michel Oughourlian and Guy Lefort), Girard probes an encyclopedic array of topics, ranging across the entire spectrum of anthropology, psychoanalysis, and cultural production.Girard's point of departure is what he calles "mimesis," the conflict that arises when human rivals compete to differentiate themselves from each other, yet succeed only in becoming more and more alike. At certain points in the life of a society, according to Girard, this mimetic conflict erupts into a crisis in which all difference dissolves in indiscriminate violence. In primitive societies, such crises were resolved by the "scapegoating mechanism," in which the community, en masse, turned on an unpremeditated victim. The repression of this collective murder and its repetition in ritual sacrifice then formed the foundations of both religion and the restored social order.How does Christianity, at once the most "sacrificial" of religions and a faith with a non-violent ideology, fit into this scheme? Girard grants Freud's point, in Totem and Taboo, that Christianity is similar to primitive religion, but only to refute Freud—if Christ is sacrificed, Girard argues, it is not becuase God willed it, but because human beings wanted it.The book is not merely, or perhaps not mainly, biblical exegesis, for within its scope fall some of the most vexing problems of social history—the paradox that violence has social efficacy, the function of the scapegoat, the mechanism of anti-semitism.

    A populist rebellion against the established churches, it became the dominant religious force in the country.During the nineteenth century white evangelicals split apart dramatically, first North versus South, and then at the end of the century, modernist versus fundamentalist. After World War II, Billy Graham, the revivalist preacher, attracted enormous crowds and tried to gather all Protestants under his big tent, but the civil rights movement and the social revolution of the sixties drove them apart again. By the 1980s Jerry Falwell and other southern televangelists, such as Pat Robertson, had formed the Christian right. Protesting abortion and gay rights, they led the South into the Republican Party, and for thirty-five years they were the sole voice of evangelicals to be heard nationally. Eventually a younger generation of leaders protested the Christian right’s close ties with the Republican Party and proposed a broader agenda of issues, such as climate change, gender equality, and immigration reform.Evangelicals have in many ways defined the nation. They have shaped our culture and our politics. Frances FitzGerald’s narrative of this distinctively American movement is a major work of history, piecing together the centuries-long story for the first time. Evangelicals now constitute twenty-five percent of the American population, but they are no longer monolithic in their politics. They range from Tea Party supporters to social reformers. Still, with the decline of religious faith generally, FitzGerald suggests that evangelical churches must embrace ethnic minorities if they are to survive.

    Now, in the book PASSION & PURPOSE: Believing the Church Can Still Change the World (Clear Day Publishing), Jimmy Seibert, Senior Pastor of Antioch Community Church and Founder & President of Antioch Ministries International, tells the firsthand account of a church that is cultivating a global impact. With an intentional focus on intimacy with Jesus, discipleship, church planting and evangelism, Antioch Ministries International has become one of the fastest growing evangelical movements in the country as well as a common case study among students of church planting and mission work. Based out of the Antioch Community Church of Waco, TX, the Antioch Ministries International movement is spearheaded by Seibert. After deciding to follow Jesus at any cost, Seibert started Antioch Community Church in one of poorest, most crime-ridden and drug-infested part of Waco. Along with a small group of likeminded believers, Seibert embarked on a journey to simply say "yes" to the next thing God was doing. The result has been an astounding adventure of walking with the Holy Spirit, building intimate community, and living with radical intentionality. "God has called us to be a people who passionately pursue Him with all our hearts and are deeply committed to His purposes. Nothing more. Nothing less. Now after 26 years, we feel like we can tell our story with integrity," explains Seibert, when asked about the timing of this book about Antioch and his personal journey. Seibert speaks with humility. A leader who has purposefully avoided the spotlight, Seibert prefers the role of teacher who seeks to encourage and motivate the church. "We have a heart for the body of Christ to believe in the church again, and to know that Jesus is enough." The once small gathering has turned into a network of 78 churches around the world in 24 nations, with 30 churches in the United Stated alone. At the original Waco, Texas home base, more than 3,000 people now attend regularly, with 170 Lifegroups meeting in members' homes across the city. Since its infancy, the church has focused on growing in relational and spiritual depth at home, and sending the message of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. The movement has inspired hundreds of Antioch members to leave their lives of comfort to proclaim the Gospel around the world, often in remote and even hostile environments. Currently, Antioch has more than 200 long-term missionaries who are active around the globe. In 2001, two of Antioch's missionaries who were in Afghanistan, Heather Mercer and Dayna Curry, were arrested and held prisoner by the Taliban. The captivity-and the missionaries' miraculous rescue-became a major international news story after the 9/11 attacks, bringing Antioch's evangelical intentionality into the international conversation. PASSION & PURPOSE: Believing the Church Can Still Change the World chronicles the movement's humble beginnings, shares testimonies of powerful encounters with God along the way, and inspires with its rock-solid belief that the local church is God's "Plan A" for reaching the corners of the earth with the good news of Jesus Christ. The book explains Antioch's vision to be a people with "a passion for Jesus and His purposes in the earth." Early responses to PASSION & PURPOSE have begun pouring in. The book foreword is written by Max Lucado who has been acquainted with Seibert and the vision for Antioch Community Church for many years., In the foreword, Lucado states, "To visit Antioch Community Church is to visit the book of Acts; To hear their passion is to hear the heart of God; To listen to their stories of global impact makes you realize...it can happen today!"

    Today's young Muslims will be tomorrow's leaders, and yet too many are vulnerable to extremist propaganda that seems omnipresent in our technological age. The burning question, Ghobash argues, is how moderate Muslims can unite to find a voice that is true to Islam while actively and productively engaging in the modern world. What does it mean to be a good Muslim?What is the concept of a good life? And is it acceptable to stand up and openly condemn those who take the Islamic faith and twist it to suit their own misguided political agendas? In taking a hard look at these seemingly simple questions, Ghobash encourages his sons to face issues others insist are not relevant, not applicable, or may even be Islamophobic. These letters serve as a clear-eyed inspiration for the next generation of Muslims to understand how to be faithful to their religion and still navigate through the complexities of today's world. They also reveal an intimate glimpse into a world many are unfamiliar with and offer to provide an understanding of the everyday struggles Muslims face around the globe."

    Limbaugh, a practicing attorney and former professor of law, approaches the canonical gospels with the same level of scrutiny he would apply to any legal document and asks all the necessary questions about the story of Jesus told through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. His analysis of the texts becomes profoundly personal as he reflects on his own spiritual and intellectual odyssey from determined skeptic to devout Christian. Ultimately, Limbaugh concludes that the words Christians have treasured for centuries stand up to his exhaustive enquiry—including his examination of historical and religious evidence beyond the gospels—and thereby affirms Christian faith, spirituality, and tradition.

    If you did not fear death. If you did not fear life and what it might bring. If you did not fear any man, or woman, or any living creature. How would you go about your days differently?In Life Without Lack, Dallas Willard revolutionizes our understanding of Psalm 23 by taking this comfortably familiar passage and revealing its extraordinary promises: "The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. . . . I will fear no evil." The psalmist claims to live without any need and without any fear. How is that possible?Written with Willard's characteristic gentle wisdom, Life Without Lack helps readers experienceGod's presence,his abundant generosity, andpeace and freedom from worry.Based on a series of talks by the late author and edited by his friend Larry Burtoft and by his daughter, Rebecca Willard Heatley, Life Without Lack will forever change the way you understand and apply the most well-known passage in all Scripture.

    But what if these long held beliefs were all wrong? In this stunning, powerful, and ultimately persuasive book, Rodney Stark, one of the most highly regarded sociologists of religion and bestselling author of The Rise of Christianity (HarperSanFrancisco 1997) argues that some of our most firmly held ideas about history, ideas that paint the Catholic Church in the least positive light are, in fact, fiction. Why have we held these wrongheaded ideas so strongly and for so long? And if our beliefs are wrong, what, in fact, is the truth? In each chapter, Stark takes on a well-established anti-Catholic myth, gives a fascinating history of how each myth became the conventional wisdom, and presents a startling picture of the real truth. For example,Instead of the Spanish Inquisition being an anomaly of torture and murder of innocent people persecuted for “imaginary” crimes such as witchcraft and blasphemy, Stark argues that not only did the Spanish Inquisition spill very little blood, but it was a major force in support of moderation and justice.Instead of Pope Pius XII being apathetic or even helpful to the Nazi movement, such as to merit the title, “Hitler’s Pope,” Stark shows that the campaign to link Pope Pius XII to Hitler was initiated by the Soviet Union, presumably in hopes of neutralizing the Vatican in post-World War II affairs. Pope Pius XII was widely praised for his vigorous and devoted efforts to saving Jewish lives during the war.Instead of the Dark Ages being understood as a millennium of ignorance and backwardness inspired by the Catholic Church’s power, Stark argues that the whole notion of the “Dark Ages” was an act of pride perpetuated by anti-religious intellectuals who were determined to claim that theirs was the era of “Enlightenment.”In the end, readers will not only have a more accurate history of the Catholic Church, they will come to understand why it became unfairly maligned for so long. Bearing False Witness is a compelling and sobering account of how egotism and ideology often work together to give us a false truth.

    The great king of Israel, Solomon, though the wisest man, was not immune to their song. But at the end of his life, Solomon, in all of his God-given wisdom, stopped to contemplate on all that competed for his attention. He wrote his conclusions in the Book of Ecclesiastes.Tommy Nelson continues his study of Solomon's writings by taking an in-depth look at Ecclesiastes. In a world such as ours, where the search for meaning and purpose propels mankind to try everything under the sun, Solomon's conclusions ring louder than ever for a people who need answers more than ever.

    This is an account of the world's greatest ‘intellectual virtuosos,' who are also humanity's greatest doubters and disbelievers, from the ancient Greek philosophers, Jesus, and the Eastern religions, to modern secular equivalents Marx, Freud and Darwin—and their attempts to reconcile the seeming meaninglessness of the universe with the human need for meaning,This remarkable book ranges from the early Greeks, Hebrew figures such as Job and Ecclesiastes, Eastern critical wisdom, Roman stoicism, Jesus as a man of doubt, Gnosticism and Christian mystics, medieval Islamic, Jewish and Christian skeptics, secularism, the rise of science, modern and contemporary critical thinkers such as Schopenhauer, Darwin, Marx, Freud, Nietzsche, the existentialists.

    If you live in divine health and prosperity, you won’t need a miracle to get healed or to pay your bills. If you can’t see the difference between the two, that may be one reason you only visit God’s best instead of truly living in it.Most Christians live in a place where it’s just a matter of time before there’s a crisis in their lives and they need a miracle. You might think it would be wonderful to go from miracle to miracle, but that means you’d also be going from crisis to crisis! Miracles are great when you need one, but you weren’t meant to continually get by on them. God wants to change where you live. Let Andrew show you how to live in God’s best today!

    How and when did the books of the Bible originate? In what sense are these books different from other books? How have these books been preserved and transmitted to us? Why do we have so many different translations of the Bible? This book provides accessible answers to these questions.

    Sift through expert testimony. Then reach your own verdict in The Case for the Real Jesus.

    It will take you on a journey in which you will encounter some startling conclusions. If you believe in unbelievable things without proof, then put this book down now, and if you think that you’re a thinker, think again!The man in the Red Underpants will make sure your life is never the same again…

    Full of passion, biblical insight and real-world application, it demands not just to be read but to be acted on!'Revd Canon J. John'Be warned: this book could seriously affect your view of yourself, of the world and of God - I highly recommend it to you!'Paula Gooder, Bible Society'Has God become as familiar and forgettable as a fridge-magnet? That's the danger Krish Kandiah faces up to in this wonderfully readable and very challenging book. Bible stories come to life as Krish tells them afresh, richly illustrated with personal experience and social relevance, and in each case the living God turns up - strange, dangerous, and, like Aslan, not safe but good.'Chris Wright, Langham Partnership'An important and timely book from someone who lives out its message in the spheres of politics, church and (most important of all) his own family home.'Pete Greig, 24-7 Prayer International

    After over a decade of successful ministry, he had to make a painful self admission: although he believed in God, he was leading his church like God didn’t exist.To Christians and non-Christians alike, to the churched and the unchurched, the journey leading up to Groeschel’s admission and the journey that follows—from his family and his upbringing to the lackluster and even diametrically opposed expressions of faith he encountered—will look and sound like the story of their own lives.Now the founding and senior pastor of the multicampus, pace-setting LifeChurch.tv, Groeschel's personal journey toward a more authentic God-honoring life is more relevant than ever.Christians and Christian Atheists everywhere will be nodding their heads as they are challenged to take their own honest moment and ask the question: am I putting my whole faith in God but still living as if everything was up to me?