Showing titles in Religious Studies

Former minister and chaplain Chris Highland presents over 60 brief reflections and perspectives on nature and the nature of religion and secularism. from the Introduction: "This book is a little different from my other writing collections. I’ve drawn a few of these essays from the weekly columns I write for the Asheville Citizen-Times, but most of the brief jottings here are taken from various blogposts and short thinking-aloud moments on experimental websites. As with most of my wordsmithing, these writings are not for the “faint of faith” or the “aggressive of atheism.” I write ...

Hoy en día, el dominio de la fe cristiana parece ser un hecho fácilmente aceptado. Sin embargo, en la época en que alcanzó su máximo esplendor, para la mayoría de los observadores externos, esta idea habría parecido muy improbable.

For nearly thirty years Chris Highland sauntered the rivers and streams of poverty and homelessness as an interfaith chaplain, teacher, shelter director and housing manager. His "practice of presence" among people who find themselves stuck on the muddy banks or in the swirling eddies of financial, housing or mental insecurity revealed something surprising. He discovered gifted ability among those who have disabilities, the meaning of freedom among incarcerated people and a profound sense of home among houseless women, men, youth and children. "Chaplain Chris," as he was affectionately known...

The ability of the world system to conquer and divide has always been based on its efforts to try to divide groups through skewed narratives and warped beliefs. The ultimate agenda of wicked men in power is to separate people because of social class, race, and status. While groups devour one another, those in power gain control by subjecting the people through programs and ideologies that are specifically designed to cause people to bow to the very men creating the narrative. These beliefs and narratives indoctrinate the people to operate in beliefs that place them in further bondage.

A fresh collection of scattered thoughts from the curious mind of a freethinking humanist who is not anti-religious. Chapters include: 1-Secrets of the Universe 2-What Have You Really Seen Today? 3-Ubuntu: A Secular Answer to Spiritual Questions 4-The Greatest Love of All 5-Is There a “Natural Spirituality”? 6-Ego de Lego (You Have Heard that it was Said) 7-What Ever Happened to the Golden Rule? 8-Frames of Faith & Points of Reference 9-Religious Morality & Secular Ethics 10-Disturbing Disruptions/Insightful Interruptions 11-Paul Laurence Dunbar & the Heart of Happy Hollow 12-The ...

Since 2016, Chris Highland has written weekly columns for the Asheville Citizen-Times in North Carolina. Drawing from his own experience in ministry and chaplaincy in the San Francisco Bay Area, he now writes as a freethinker from a humanist perspective. He engages many subjects and issues that concern people of faith--any faith--especially topics and ideas that also matter to non-religious people. Highland Views includes over 50 essays published as columns in the Citizen-Times. Writing with a tone of invitation, Highland welcomes readers across the spectrum from Evangelical to Atheist as ...

Another concise collection of selected short essays from Chris Highland, a freethinking humanist and former minister. With an inviting approach to the intersections of faith and freethought, the author presents a model for critical thinking beyond fearful faith and angry atheism. Companions along the way include: Sojourner Truth and John Muir, Margaret Fuller and Frederick Douglass, James Baldwin and Jesus of Nazareth, Charles Darwin and Booker T. Washington, Thomas Paine and Thich Nhat Hanh, Martin Buber and Aldo Leopold. Many of these reflections come from the author's weekly "Highland ...

A collection of devotional essays on the Gods of Olympus.

Children and adults alike will enjoy these amazing, entertaining and fascinating stories from The Lotus Sutra. Originally told to illustrate the challenging concepts of the Buddha’s most important lesson, they easily stand on their own and will quickly become family favorites, presenting meaningful and useful insights today, tomorrow and for a lifetime. Read the exciting adventure of how children rescued themselves from a burning house, the rags to riches story of how a Janitor became CEO, how treasure hunters found a City of Dreams, how a man thought he lost everything because he ...

Romans 9-11 may be the most perplexing portion of the Pauline Epistles. These three chapters are teeming with citations from the Hebrew Scriptures. Paul’s purpose for the quotations is often obscure, the logic of his reasoning is confusing, and attempts to understand what he is telling us can be frustrating. Dr. Anne Davis has recovered ancient Hebraic methods of searching the Scriptures, which penetrate Paul's mysteries and explain how "all Israel will be saved."

The Jonah Complex: Meditations on the Sovereignty of God explores a struggling man who tries to make sense of a confusing world. The Jonah Complex proclaims the unwavering sovereignty of God, exalts the Creator of the cosmos, and calls all creatures to stand in awe of his regal majesty.

‘In the beginning was the Word,’ says the Gospel of John. This sentence – and the words of all four gospels – is central to the teachings of the Christian church and has shaped Western art, literature and language, and the Western mind. Yet in the years after the death of Christ there was not merely one word, nor any consensus as to who Jesus was or why he had mattered.

Christianity and Judaism are two separate religions with two separate approaches to life. Nevertheless, these two religions have often operated in similar spheres, and Christians and Jews have interacted over the centuries. Tragically, even in more modern times, this interaction often culminated in Christian assaults on Jewish communities and forced conversions to Christianity. But this Christian anti-Judaism did not always exist. Originally, Christianity shared its history with Judaism. The first Christians were all Jews. The first Christians used the Jewish Scriptures as their sacred text...

A religion can be very complex, can’t it? One religion has millions of gods, another has thousands of canonized saints, and a religion may have a plethora of doctrines, dogmas, creeds, and rules to live by. I was a Protestant Christian who, over five decades, tried several of the thousands of denominations available, but never found one that fulfilled my spiritual needs. After exploring a few other religions, I eventually tried Spiritualism even though Christianity had misled me with its teachings against it. In Spiritualism, I found a simple religion, one accepting of all people, one ...

Armageddon is the 6th volume in the series, Related Events in the Second Coming of the Christ. It depicts Christ descending from the heavens on a milk white stallion war horse, with the armies of heaven, saints and angels, following Him. His face shines over the intensity of the midday sun; brave men fall to their knees, and others run for cover. He is confronted with the Gentile nations of earth, armed with their collective nuclear arsenal and ready for war. They have already besieged Jerusalem and tightening the noose to annihilate the Jewish State. But the Messiah arrives in the nick of ...

Why Are We Here on Earth? addresses this and other existential Who, What, Where, Why and How questions pertaining to our perceptions of spirituality, consciousness, time and dimensions. Through taking on such subjects, the reader will gain a better understanding of God.

"By proving contraries, truth is made manifest," said Joseph Smith. Good thing, because Stephen Carter's religious life is full of contradictions. "Sometimes the priesthood is a wonderful thing to me," he writes. "Other times, it's an oppressive weight. Sometimes I can feel the binding power of the temple. Other times, it seems only to cut me off from my loved ones. My mission was at once an elating and awful time." A Cub Scout fishing trip reveals Christianity's earthier corners. Receiving the priesthood sends Carter on a spiritual roller-coaster ride. A death-metal concert hammers into ...

• Want to know how science, logic, archaeology, and mathematics support the Bible's message? Every person is building a unique universe and relationship with God. New scientific discoveries about both the universe and humanity support this relationship. • Archaeology and mathematics are used to validate the human stories within the Bible, as well as the historical development of the Bible. Logic and science show that humans can never completely understand God, but God can completely understand and communicate with each of us. • If you liked Max Lucado’s “Unshakable Hope” or Adam...

Bestselling and multiple award-winning author, Lisa Worthey Smith, continues the political suspense in part 2 of this Selah Award finalist series. This heart-pounding thriller intertwines tomorrow's headlines with Scripture. America will rise or fall depending on the path they choose. Following the parallels in Israel from the time of Elijah and Elisha, God equips modern-day Christians to face down the evil that threatens America.

Bryan McWhorter teaches you to control fear associated with public speaking by using the same methods he used to teach karate students to control fear for self-defense. With over two thousand hours of public speaking under his belt, the author gives the system he has shared with others to control fear associated with public speaking. This is a proven system that has worked for others and will work for you. Public speaking is a learned skill. At some point, most of us will have to do some form of public speaking. We can control fear and even enjoy the experience.