Mostrando resultados por Editor "Quoir" en Todas las categorías

Ever wonder why much of American Christianity is pro-spanking, pro-tough-on-crime, anti-gun control, pro-war, and hell-affirming, even though Jesus taught mercy, non-violence and enemy love? When Michael Camp started deconstructing his evangelical faith, he noticed a pattern. The doctrines he questioned—original depravity, substitutionary atonement, God-ordained genocide in the Old Testament, the doctrine of hell, etc.—were all tied to retribution and violence.

Ric Machuga argues on biblical, historical, and theological grounds that universal salvation is necessary for a coherent proclamation of the Gospel. A creation in which some people suffer unending torment because God either can’t or won’t bring them to repentance is not good news. This last sentence is sure to provoke protest: “But what about free will?” Machuga responds by exposing modern assumptions.

God Speaks begins by exploring and asserting a number of problematic issues facing popular notions of inspiration today. Gordon then begins to offer an interdisciplinary solution utilizing Thomas Jay Oord's theology of essential kenosis and revealing how it provides a better theological basis for developing a doctrine of biblical inspiration. If God cannot control the biblical authors, then what they produce as the biblical text is not revelation in and of itself, but a contextualized human response to that revelation.

For three decades, Todd R. Vick struggled to be good enough for God, his family, friends, and the churches he ministered in. After years of personal reflections, research, and a total faith deconstruction, he discovered the power of the human mind. The Reconstructing of Your Mind takes a hard look at what the majority of us have been taught to believe within evangelicalism and introduces his findings. With the heart of a pastor and the mind of a student of life, Todd combines the scientific and spiritual while guiding the listener on a journey to total personal transformation.

This is a story of hope. Of profound, personal change from a life of obesity and depression to a life of love and freedom.

What happens when you deconstruct your faith? Aside from all the theological messiness it brings, deconstruction brings with it a lot of personal trauma. Friends and family often distance themselves. Your church sometimes removes you from the pews. And often, you are left with nothing. Enter Michelle Collins' debut book, Into the Gray: The Mental and Emotional Aftermath of Spiritual Deconstruction. Far from a "how-to" guide, this book is much more "pastoral" in that it allows the listener to check in with a fellow spiritual sojourner.

What do we mean when we use the word soul? What are the essential qualities of the soul, seldom explored in systems of faith? What happens when I allow my soul to work its own brand of magic in my life? In The Subversive Soul: the Gentle Revolution Everyone Needs, Phyllis Mathis liberates the soul from of the confines of theology, and plants it deep within the lived experience of regular human beings.

Six percent of Americans are ex-evangelicals. Their stories often include being spiritually abused by authoritarian church leaders and/or psychologically traumatized by harmful religious teachings and practices. Whereas religion and church often provide a welcoming community that has positive effects on mental health, sadly they can just as easily cause devastating hurt and harm. According to therapists and faith transition coaches, they can cause what is being recognized in the mental health community as religious trauma.

You've heard the horror stories about drug addiction. Your eyes glaze over with half-hearted interest when you see the stats surrounding the "opioid crisis." You know you should care that 130 people are dying of accidental overdose every day in America, yet you just can't seem to muster the compassion.

Thierry Laroque, war hero and retired mechanic in rural Tennessee, would like nothing more than to live out his days in peace and quiet, but a dark secret buried in the distant past continues to haunt him. When his Wall Street power-broker brother—the person he blames for the loss of his one true love—shows up destitute at his door after decades of estrangement, Thierry comes face-to-face with the ghosts of a life frozen in time.

In this fascinating book, Mary Terhune shares her personal journey of spiritual awakening, mystical encounters, and visions as well as the universal truths revealed to her in the process. During a life crisis, she spontaneously received a kundalini awakening and revelations from Jesus that transformed her conscious awareness, changing her life forever. A profound experience of self-realization brought her the message that divinity is humankind’s natural state, one that we need to reclaim.

Heretic Happy Hour is an unapologetically irreverent, crass, and sometimes profound conversation about the intersection of culture and the Christian faith. Hosts Keith Giles and Matthew J. Distefano, alongside a rotating panel of guest hosts that include theologians and therapists, professors and prophets, mystics and misfits, pull no punches and leave no stones unturned. For some serious sacred cow-tipping, there’s nothing better than spending an hour of your time with us. New shows every Tuesday, with bonus episodes on Fridays and Sundays.

For years, Bill has lived by himself in the woods with a dark figure haunting the perimeter of his land. When an enigmatic stranger appears and Bill's land becomes uninhabitable, he will be forced to follow the visitor into the one place he vowed never to go: the dark figure's territory.

Is marriage the ultimate human relationship? Since the dawn of mankind, marriage was understood to be the only relationship that expressed the most intimate union possible - the mystery of two people becoming one. With the advent of Jesus, however, an entirely new and revolutionary paradigm for relationships came into view.

Meggie was a weird teenager. We’re talkin’ so weird that her parents worried about her being too religious. After a divine nudge to preach at the age of 13, she answered the call to full-time ministry as a 16-year-old. She became a paid church staff member a year later, and from 18 to 32, served in the same church. While creating sacred space for others, Meggie forgot to nurture her own. In the rush of ministerial leadership, she allowed many limiting beliefs to hold her back. She searched for validation from others but failed to look within and find that she was already enough.

The world is changing, along with our ideas around sexuality, authority, patriarchy, and truth. Despite the Church's best attempts at downplaying the changes, millions of intellectually honest people are entering into a process often referred to as deconstruction. In The Reconstructionist, pastor, and author Jonathan Foster offers up his own deconstruction story, how it stirred up the fear of his denomination, his subsequent expulsion, and how the insights gleaned might just point a way forward. It's based on three simple ideas: people > text, mercy > sacrifice, and love > fear.

A scooter crash, changing plans, and adjustments to the budget sounded like disaster for a careful-minded ex-pastor hoping to salvage what was left of his family's vacation. The Tea Shop is a travelogue of new discoveries and dashed assumptions, where a simple shop owner taught the Forehand family lessons that they were not prepared for, but somehow understood perfectly.

But what do you do when this "life to the fullest" feels so far away? What do you do when the deepest longing of your soul groans for more than what you are experiencing? If there is "life to the fullest," how do we even begin to find it, and then how do we begin to extend it to others? In his most poetic and thought-provoking work to date, Brandon Andress makes the surprising discovery that, even in the heartache, the hostility, the division, the violence, and the oppression, experiencing "life to the fullest," a life of shalom, is not just possible, it can be our present reality.

Katy Walton spent her life trying to be a good girl, or at least giving the appearance of one. When she marries into a long family line of Southern Baptist preachers, it becomes her job to maintain the image of the perfect family in the perfect church with a perfect future ahead. When the facade starts to crumble and even her best intentions fail to fool anyone, she finds herself alone and abandoned. It's not until she realizes how much living in the shadows of secrets and shame has damaged her daughter, Ivy Rose, that she learns to let go of all she once held.

After experiencing an extreme makeover of their faith, Jason and Brandi Elam found themselves wondering if their fear-based parenting methods might need to evolve as well. They reached out to several brilliant friends who had experience parenting through their own faith deconstruction and invited them to write about their journeys. These contributions offer hope and hard-fought wisdom for weary parents desperately trying to forge real connections with their kids before time runs out and the babies fly the nest.