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Foolishness to the Greeks
- The Gospel and Western Culture
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
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This work treats the First World as a mission field, offering a unique perspective on the relationship between the gospel and current society by presenting an outsider's view of contemporary Western culture.
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What are the arguments for and against religion and religious belief - all of them - right across the range of reasons and motives that people have for being religious, and do they stand up to scrutiny? Can there be a clear, full statement of these arguments that once and for all will show what is at stake in this debate? Equally important: what is the alternative to religion as a view of the world and a foundation for morality?
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Fascinating Topic Made Mind Numbingly Dull
- By m.emery on 06-17-15
By: A. C. Grayling
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The History of Philosophy
- By: A. C. Grayling
- Narrated by: Neil Gardner
- Length: 28 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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The story of philosophy is an epic tale, spanning civilizations and continents. It explores some of the most creative minds in history. But not since the long-popular classic by Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, published in 1945, has there been a comprehensive and entertaining single-volume history of this great, intellectual, world-shaping journey.
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A much needed update to Bertrand Russell's classic
- By Michael on 06-27-20
By: A. C. Grayling
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The Case for God
- By: Karen Armstrong
- Narrated by: Karen Armstrong
- Length: 16 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Moving from the Paleolithic age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality that it called by many names, such as God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, or Dao. Focusing especially on Christianity but including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Chinese spiritualities, Armstrong examines the diminished impulse toward religion in our own time, when a significant number of people either want nothing to do with God or question the efficacy of faith. Why has God become unbelievable?
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Great recasting of how God should be interpreted
- By John Doyle on 02-18-11
By: Karen Armstrong
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Worshipping the State
- How Liberalism Became Our State Religion
- By: Benjamin Wiker PhD
- Narrated by: Ken Maxon
- Length: 11 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Many Christians feel that they are being opposed at every turn by what seems to be a well-orchestrated political and cultural campaign to de-Christianize every aspect of Western culture. They are right, and it goes even further back than the Obama Administration. In Worshipping the State: How Liberalism Became Our State Religion, Benjamin Wiker argues that it is liberals who seek to establish an official state religion: one of unbelief.
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An Excellent Excellent book
- By Rara Sh on 01-22-24
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Why You Think the Way You Do
- The Story of Western Worldviews from Rome to Home
- By: Glenn S. Sunshine
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Why You Think the Way You Do traces the development of the worldviews that underpin the Western world. Professor and historian Glenn S. Sunshine demonstrates the decisive impact that the growth of Christianity had in transforming the outlook of pagan Roman culture into one that—based on biblical concepts of humanity and its relationship with God—established virtually all the positive aspects of Western civilization.
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"Christian's view of the western world"
- By Bradley on 03-21-10
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The Passion of the Western Mind
- Understanding the Ideas that Have Shaped Our World View
- By: Richard Tarnas
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 21 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Here are the great minds of Western civilization and their pivotal ideas, from Plato to Hegel, from Augustine to Nietzsche, from Copernicus to Freud. Richard Tarnas performs the near-miracle of describing profound philosophical concepts simply but without simplifying them. Ten years in the making and already hailed as a classic, The Passion of the Western Mind is truly a complete liberal education in a single volume.
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Great content, Reader not great
- By M. Henderson on 02-18-23
By: Richard Tarnas
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Irrationality
- A History of the Dark Side of Reason
- By: Justin E. H. Smith
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 13 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Discovering that reason is the defining feature of our species, we named ourselves the “rational animal”. But is this flattering story itself rational? In this sweeping account of irrationality from antiquity to today - from the fifth-century BC murder of Hippasus for revealing the existence of irrational numbers to the rise of Twitter mobs and the election of Donald Trump - Justin Smith says the evidence suggests the opposite.
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A good brain workout
- By ThomasC on 04-09-19
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Fundamentalism and American Culture
- 2nd Edition
- By: George M. Marsden
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Fundamentalism and American Culture has long been considered a classic in religious history, and to this day remains unsurpassed. Now available in a new edition, this highly regarded analysis takes us through the full history of the origin and direction of one of America's most influential religious movements.
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a accurate survey of the American theological land
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Maybe not best as an audio book
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Just finished
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Letter to the American Church
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Turning the other cheek does not mean standing by while the enemies of God dismantle Christian civilization and brainwash our children. Decrying the cowardice that masquerades as meekness, Eric Metaxas summons the Church to battle. An attenuated and unbiblical “faith” based on what Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace” has sapped the spiritual vitality of millions of Americans. Paying lip service to an insipid “evangelism,” they shrink from combating the evils of our time. Metaxas refutes the pernicious lie that fighting evil politicizes Christianity.
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Buy a physical copy of this book
- By Kaitlin Kalkwarf on 10-05-22
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What listeners say about Foolishness to the Greeks
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Steve Erickson
- 05-30-23
This is a must read and reread for any Christian leader, who takes seriously to call to make Multiply disciples.
This book helps us to understand the cultural context in which we seek to advance the good news of Jesus Christ him to. It is absolutely crucial that we understand the world we live in if we are going to be affective in reaching it with the good news. Read this book once read it twice. Read it through Reiss and ask her accordingly
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- justin lamison
- 07-02-21
Very interesting and thought provoking
Upon the first time through, I know I’ve missed a lot. However, what I’ve grasped so far has me really thinking about how I view Christianity and how my witness cannot be a simplistic message. I have to do the hard work of thinking through the contemporary story and seeing where the gospel of the kingdom agrees with and opposes that story. But not only must I do it on my own, but also through the context of the local church. I’m looking forward to going through this book again.
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- WT
- 11-23-19
Not a light listen
Prepare for a repeat listen. I had a quite a few moments “whoa, what did he just say?” If you’re looking to fall asleep, this could probably accomplish that, but if you’re looking for brainy concepts, this is also the book for you. I thoroughly enjoyed, have told a number of my friends and will probably have to listen again.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-16-21
enlightening
I would recommend this book to anyone striving to find a way forward in our ever advancing post-christian and post Christendom america. this book is so applicable and it is shocking that it was written so long ago when I was only 4 years old. I wish more of my church leader friends would read this because I believe out of it we can find a way to be faithful now.
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- Adam Shields
- 01-26-12
Outsiders can sometimes see us better than we can
Lesslie Newbigin is one of the most important Christian thinkers of the last couple decades. He was a missionary in India for 40 years before returning to teach in England. His work on missiology and culture are very important and I have read some short articles by him and had his work referred to frequently, but I think this is the first full length book of his that I have read.
I really do think that all pastors need to take some classes in cross cultural missions and translation theory. In many ways it is like requiring high school and college students to take a couple of years of a foreign language. Most students will never get enough of the language to really communicate or actually use the foreign language, but they will learn enough of the other language to take a new appreciation and perspective on English.
So at the beginning of this book I was a huge cheerleader because Newbigin was giving a lesson in culture and some of the ways that we often forget that we are embedded in a particular culture. But once he got past the initial cultural critique and translation theory types of discussion I was a bit less excited.
This book is nearly 30 years old now. It was before the fall of communism and there is clearly some issues that are dated. But it seemed to get bogged down on issues that I find less important. Of course, I am not the author and I was not in 1986 in the UK when this was written. I like that Newbigin wants to chart a narrow path, that we can no longer either revert to Christendom and create theocracies nor withdraw from society and make our faith purely private.
Newbigin wants us to struggle to balance. I want to read more of him. Because I think he can say what he was trying to say more clearly, and I assume he did in other books. He seemed to be caught up here in philosophical categories and seemed to need some of the post-modern tools to help him get out of the tangle.
This is a good critique of the ability of Western culture to be fully Christian. He is one of the early voices that I know of that was calling for non-Western voices to speak to Western Christianity and participate in the evangelism of the West. I also appreciate that he was clear that the gospel is not just about salvation but about Christ as King. It was a message that I needed to hear a long time ago, and I am glad he was speaking to the weaknesses of the Western church while I was too young to be aware of the discussion.
(originally published on my blog bookwi.se)
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2 people found this helpful