They do not just awaken the heart; they put it in the foreground. They do not merely invite our emotions to respond to God’s truth; they put our emotions on display.The Psalms are more than commanding—they are contagious. We are not just listening to profound ideas and feelings. We are living among them in their overflow. We touch pillows wet with tears. We hear and feel the unabashed cries of affliction, shame, regret, grief, anger, discouragement, and turmoil. But what makes all this stunningly different from the sorrows of the world is that all of it—absolutely all of it—is experienced in relation to the totally sovereign God.This book is an invitation. God wants our hearts. He will take them as he finds them. And then, with the healing contagion of the Psalms, he will shape them. Accept his invitation to come.

    Kundera is a passionate defender of the moral rights of the artist and the respect due a work of art and its creator’s wishes. The betrayal of both—often by their most passionate proponents—is one of the key ideas that informs this strikingly original and elegant book.

    Benedict" provides the inspiration for Christine Valters Paintner's newest exploration of the mutually nourishing relationship between contemplative practices and creative expression. Artists of all stripes and stations in life—poets or painters, potters or photographers—will discover how traditions of Benedictine, Celtic, and desert spirituality can offer new sources of inspiration for their work. Through this twelve-week course, themes like "Sacred Tools and Sacred Space," "Creative Solitude and Community," and "Nature as a Source of Revelation and Inspiration" are enriched by Paintner's perceptive discussion and enhanced by insightful quotations from well-known artists and writers. Each week offers suggestions for grounding both the creative and the spiritual life through three basic practices: walking, lectio divina, and journaling. In sync with Paintner's vibrant Internet presence, The Artist's Rule is supplemented with online resources, including guided meditation podcasts, video lessons, and discussions.

    The author reveals the many opportunities for artistic expression that can be found in ordinary, everyday life.

    First, Leithart shows that the biblical view of history is essentially comic and hopeful, in contrast to the classical Greco-Roman view, which is essentially and irredeemably tragic. Then he develops the same point by examining Greek philosophy and its descendants (including postmodernism) in contrast to orthodox Trinitarian theology. Finally, he shows how the tragic and comic worldviews have been reflected in literature, with discussions of Greek epics and two Shakespearean plays. The result is a tour through three thousand years of intellectual history that celebrates the living power of orthodoxy."

    Vivid, eloquent, haunting, For the Time Being evokes no less than the terrifying grandeur of all that remains tantalizingly and troublingly beyond our understanding.

    Roaring Lambs was written from Briner's personal experience as an Emmy Award-winning television producer. It takes you into the work world strategies anyone can use. There's also a useful discussion guide that will help you and your friends put shoe leather to your faith. Bob Briner's greatest legacy may well be the way in which, through his own courageous roam, he helped countless Christians discover theirs. John their ranks. Roar with conviction -- and change your world!

    Byrne wanted the book to be the size and shape of a portable Bible, and thus The New Sins resembles the sort of book a strange person in a robe would try to give you in an airport. Bizarre and profound, the book includes 80 color photographs taken by the author.

    It resides in expected and unexpected places in our world. Beauty is present in our world in a variety of forms. Yet while the average person might think about the reality of beauty from time to time, few people would think about the source of beauty. Where does beauty come from? Why is it here?Several hundred years ago Jonathan Edwards did some thinking of his own on this difficult subject. This volume explores his meditation on the subject and lays out a Christian framework for understanding and experiencing the beauty God has planted in His world.Edwards found in the study of beauty the person of God. Where Edwards saw beautiful images and acts, he saw a representation, a small picture, of a reality too great to comprehend, a God too majestic to adequately adore. He sets in motion a path of glory that begins with the Lord, moves to creation, continues to the incarnation of Christ, moves to the church, and ascends to the glory of heaven, where the Holy Trinity dwells.Easily accessible and readable, you do not need to be a scholar to enjoy these insights about Jonathan Edwards and his writings.

    Now readers can discover the stories behind seventy-five of these masterpieces and the artists who created them. From the art of the Roman catacombs to Rembrandt to Makoto Fujimura; from Gregorian Chant to Bach to U2; from John Bunyan and John Donne to Flannery O'Connor and Frederick Buechner; this book unveils the rich and varied artistic heritage left by believers who were masters at their craft.Author and historian Terry Glaspey shares the absorbing true stories behind these masterpieces and helps readers see the fascinating details they might have missed. By looking through the eyes of these creative artists, readers will gain deeper perspectives about the human condition, the Christian story, and their own spiritual lives.

    It tells the basic beliefs, short history, important aspects, and it identifies the religions in pop culture-all in a teen-magazine style of writing. The goal of this book is to educate teens to be able to identify the religions they come in contact with daily. All content has been reviewed by experts in Christian theology.

    Tolkien's On Fairy-stories is his most-studied and most-quoted essay, an exemplary personal statement of his own views on the role of imagination in literature, and an intellectual tour de force vital for understanding Tolkien's achievement in writing The Lord of the Rings .Contained within is an introduction to Tolkien's original 1939 lecture and the history of the writing of On Fairy-stories, with previously unseen material. Here, at last, Flieger and Anderson reveal the extraordinary genesis of this seminal work and discuss how the conclusions that Tolkien reached during the composition of the essay would shape his writing for the rest of his life.

    We're still making this version available, even though there's now a Third Edition of Exploring Worship, because this Second Version has a Workbook to go with it. The new Third Edition has no accompanying Workbook. Get this brown-covered version only if you want to have a book/workbook combo for your class. If you don't want to use the Workbook, then get the Third Edition of Exploring Worship (white and blue cover). The book/workbook combo is especially useful for college classes.

    Artists' manifestos are nothing if not revolutionary. They are outlandish, outrageous, and frequently offensive. They combine wit, wisdom, and world-shaking demands. This collection gathers together an international array of artists of every stripe, including Kandinsky, Mayakovsky, Rodchenko, Le Corbusier, Picabia, Dali, Oldenburg, Vertov, Baselitz, Kitaj, Murakami, Gilbert and George, together with their allies and collaborators - such figures as Marinetti, Apollinaire, Breton, Trotsky, Guy Debord and Rem Koolhaas. This title is edited with an Introduction by Alex Danchev.

    Infused with a love of learning, compelling in its arguments for a unifying written culture, it argues brilliantly against the politicization of literature and presents a guide to the great works of the western literary tradition and essential writers of the ages. The Western Canon was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award.