We want to believe it’s real, but with such an expanse of contradictory information, it’s difficult to know what to believe.    To add even more confusion, we are left to sift through the tales of individuals who have crossed over and returned. With so many competing narratives and accounts based on what many think are beyond-death experiences, wouldn’t it be nice to have a straight forward examination of what the Bible has to say about heaven?   Best-selling author and New Testament scholar Scot McKnight thought so too, which is why he wrote The Heaven Promise.   McKnight, who has penned more than 50 books, including The Jesus Creed, has had a fascination with heaven since he was a child. As a professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary, McKnight is no stranger to academic engagement and scholarly discourse. However; as an ordained deacon, McKnight is well accustomed with the concerns of the everyday thinker. The Heaven Promise represents the perfect blend of thoughtful research coupled with an easily digestible presentation.   “My hope,” McKnight shares, “is that people will be hopeful about heaven.”  The Heaven Promise offers an infusion of hope alongside a healthy anticipation of eternity.   After all, heaven isn’t just a dream; it’s a promise.   Heaven. Eternity. The Afterlife. You mention any of these concepts, and people of all ages and from all walks of life are certain to have opinions. Maybe that’s why there are so many books and movies that feature heaven-and-back experiences. But how can we know if those accounts are accurate?   How can we know for sure what heaven will be like?   Well, according to New Testament scholar and popular author Scot McKnight, all we need to do is to turn to Scripture to answer our questions.   Separating fact from fiction, McKnight helps the reader examine the witness of God’s Word in order to discover what awaits us on the other side of the grave.   Using the Bible, McKnight answers the most-frequently-asked questions regarding heaven, including:   1.      What about Near-Death Experiences? 2.      What about Rewards in Heaven? 3.      Who Will Be Allowed in Heaven? 4.      Is God Fair? 5.      Will There Be Families in Heaven? 6.      What about Children Who Die? 7.      What about Cremation? 8.      What about Purgatory? 9.      Will There be Pets in Heaven? 10.  Why Believe in Heaven?   Heaven isn’t the construction of a fairytale or some mythical narrative. It’s very real; it’s very good; and it’s very much the fulfillment of God’s promise to us.

    In a work free of technical language and jargon, Andrew Fisher covers the main ideas that have shaped metaethics from the work of G.E. Moore to the latest thinking. Written specifically for students new to this subject, Metaethics assumes no prior philosophical knowledge. It also highlights ways to avoid common errors, offers hints and tips on learning the subject, includes a glossary of core terms, and provides guidance for further study.

    He then surveys current views of foundationalism, epistemic justification and reliabilism. Finally he examines the relationship of epistemology to religious belief, and the role of emotions and virtues in proper cognitive functioning Professors will find this text, with its many examples drawn from everyday student experience, especially useful in introducing students to the formal study of epistemology.

    It has become a major subject of debate within the Evangelical Theological Society, and Christianity Today has called for ongoing study of the subject by both classical theists and openness theologians. Now Pinnock, in an effort to continue ongoing conversation, returns with Most Moved Mover to defend the open view of God against criticism.Most Moved Mover, the most passionate and articulate defense of openness theology to date, begins with an analysis of the heated debate sparked by the publication of The Openness of God. Pinnock then clears up misconceptions about openness theology, points out areas of agreement between classical and openness theologians, and lays the groundwork for future discussions.From an insider's perspective, Pinnock takes readers deep into the openness debate that is shaking the evangelical movement, detailing reactions and replies from thinkers as diverse as Millard Erickson, Greg Boyd, and John Polkinghorne.Most Moved Mover is sure to inform all evangelicals, regardless of their viewpoint, of the latest developments concerning the open view of God movement. It will be required reading in the academy and for church leaders who want to keep current with the ongoing evangelical debate about God's nature and attributes.

    Now, in I Want You to Be, Halík examines the connection between faith and love, meditating on a statement attributed to St. Augustine—amo, volo ut sis, “I love you: I want you to be”—and its importance for contemporary Christian practice. Halík suggests that because God is not an object, love for him must be expressed through love of human beings. He calls for Christians to avoid isolating themselves from secular modernity and recommends instead that they embrace an active and loving engagement with nonbelievers through acts of servitude. At the same time, Halík critiques the drive for mere material success and suggests that love must become more than a private virtue in contemporary society. I Want You to Be considers the future of Western society, with its strong division between Christian and secular traditions, and recommends that Christians think of themselves as partners with nonbelievers. Halik’s distinctive style is to present profound insights on religious themes in an accessible way to a lay audience. As in previous books, this volume links spiritual and theological/philosophical topics with a tentative diagnosis of our times. This is theology written on one’s knees; Halik is as much a spiritual writer as a theologian. I Want You to Be will interest both general and scholarly readers interested in questions of secularism and Christianity in modern life.

    MacDonald stressed the necessity of salvation and the importance of combining Christian faith with obedience to Jesus' teachings. He also believed that God's universal grace would eventually save everyone. Though written in the mid-nineteenth century, these sermons, including "Mirrors of Christ," "Glorified through Trouble, "Salvation from Sin," and "The Giver of Rest," continue to provide contemporary followers with the spiritual guidance they seek. For those who wish to know Jesus better, this is a book you will want to hear.

    Jesus gave his members a new way to deal with offenders, with violence, with money, with leadership, with a corrupt society. He gave them a new pattern of relationships between man and woman, and an enlarged understanding of what it means to be human.This is the original revolution: the creation of a distinct community with its alternate set of values and its coherent way of incarnating them. Such a group is not only a novelty, but is also, if lived faithfully, the most powerful tool of social change.

    In this clear, concise account, Siderits makes the Buddhist tradition accessible to a Western audience, offering generous selections from the canonical Buddhist texts and providing an engaging, analytical introduction to the basic tenets of Buddhist thought.

    After her parents' divorce, she rejected her family's Islamic faith and became an atheist. During her stormy adolescence, she tried to convince a Christian missionary that there is no God but was converted to Christ instead.Her winding path through the riddles of God was not over, however. While attending a Turkish university and serving as a Christian youth minister, Derya began to compare the teachings of Protestantism and Catholicism, and during her doctoral studies in England, she entered the Catholic Church. Ultimately, she ended up in the United States, where she has become a citizen and has settled down to raise a family.Derya's story provides a window into both Islam and modernity. It shows that the grace and the mercy of God know no bounds.  Rather, the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ reaches souls in the most unlikely places.

    It's for anyone who thinks big questions are worth talking about. To get us started, Douglas Groothuis unpacks seven pivotal sentences from the history of western philosophy--a few famous, all short, none trivial. Included are:• Socrates—The unexamined life is not worth living.• Augustine—You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.• Descartes—I think, therefore I am.• Pascal—The heart has reasons, that reason knows nothing of.Protagoras, Aristotle and Kierkegaard round out this quick tour. Since every philosopher has a story, not just a series of ideas, Groothuis also offers a bit of each one's life to set the stage. The seven sterling sentences themselves, while they can't tell us all there is to know, offer bridges into other lands of thought which can spark new ideas and adventures. And who knows where they might lead?

     Do we have free will? And if we don’t, why do we feel as if we do? In a godless universe governed by impersonal laws of cause and effect, are you responsible for your actions? Former evangelical minister Dan Barker (God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction) unveils a novel solution to the question that has baffled scientists and philosophers for millennia. He outlines the concept of what he calls “harmonic free will,” a two-dimensional perspective that pivots the paradox on its axis to show that there is no single answer—both sides are right. Free will is a useful illusion: not a scientific, but a social truth.

    They come armed with arguments to show that belief in God is absurd and dangerous. In the name of societal progress, they promote purging the world of all religious practice. And they claim that people of faith are mentally ill. Some of the new atheists openly declare their hatred for the Judeo-Christian God.Christian apologists have been quick to respond to the new atheists’ arguments. But there is another dimension to the issue which begs to be addressed--the root causes of atheism. Where do atheists come from? How did such folks as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens become such ardent atheists? If we are to believe them, their flight from faith resulted from a dispassionate review of the evidence. Not enough rational grounds for belief in God, they tell us. But is this the whole story?Could it be that their opposition to religious faith has more to do with passion than reason? What if, in the end, evidence has little to do with how atheists arrive at their anti-faith? That is precisely the claim in this book. Atheism is not at all a consequence of intellectual doubts. These are mere symptoms of the root cause--moral rebellion. For the atheist, the missing ingredient is not evidence but obedience.The psalmist declares, “The fool says in his heart there is no God” (Ps. 14:1), and in the book of Romans, Paul makes it clear that lack of evidence is not the atheist’s problem. The Making of an Atheist confirms these biblical truths and describes the moral and psychological dynamics involved in the abandonment of faith.

    (2.) The reality that is beyond even the power of beyond words to convey, and that can be known only by experiencing it for yourself."A word a day to keep the demons at bay." This is how Frederick Buechner likes to describe this witty and incisive dictionary. A daily devotional from one of today's greatest spiritual writers, Beyond Words offers 366 entries from Buechner's three alphabet books, Wishful Thinking, Peculiar Treasures, and Whistling in the Dark, including a new Introduction and nineteen new entries.Providing definitions of both sacred and ordinary words, as well as biblical characters, Buechner unabashedly brings his fresh perspective to words, concepts, and characters we thought we understood. This is a great introduction to Buechner's work as well as a library staple for those already well versed in his writing. It is Buechner at his best. Whether readers find themselves tearful from a deeply moving insight or laughing out loud at an unexpected turn of phrase, they will always feel uplifted, illuminated, and enchanted by the wisdom of Frederick Buechner.

    Why wouldn't she be? She made good money as a programmer at a hot tech start-up, had just married a guy with a stack of Ivy League degrees, and lived in a twenty-first-floor condo where she could sip sauvignon blanc while watching the sun set behind the hills of Austin. Raised in a happy, atheist home, Jennifer had the freedom to think for herself and play by her own rules. Yet a creeping darkness followed her all of her life. Finally, one winter night, it drove her to the edge of her balcony, making her ask once and for all why anything mattered. At that moment everything she knew and believed was shattered. Asking the unflinching questions about life and death, good and evil, led Jennifer to Christianity, the religion she had reviled since she was an awkward, sceptical child growing up in the Bible Belt. Mortified by this turn of events, she hid her quest from everyone except her husband, concealing religious books in opaque bags as if they were porn and locking herself in public bathroom stalls to read the Bible. Just when Jennifer had a profound epiphany that gave her the courage to convert, she was diagnosed with a life-threatening medical condition--and the only treatment was directly at odds with the doctrines of her new-found faith. Something Other Than God is a poignant, profound and often funny tale of one woman who set out to find the meaning of life and discovered that true happiness sometimes requires losing it all.

    Originally published: Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1980.