Religion & Spiritual

Brief Summary God Is for Real: And He Longs to Answer Your Most Difficult Questions. GOD IS FOR REAL addresses the questions: What is God like? Why are things the way they are in spite of who God is? If Todd's first book, Heaven Is for Real, was about the then and there of heaven, GOD IS FOR REAL is about the here and now on earth: Why are there are so many hypocritical church people? Why do Christians make such a big deal about the cross? Why doesn't God seem to answer our biggest prayers? People are tired of pat answers offered up in churchy language explaining away their questions; we want the down-and-dirty truth. What bothers us about life and faith is real and gritty. We need a plain-spoken voice to offer God's answers to difficult struggles and painful doubts. Todd charges into these subjects with a fireman's courage, a small-town friend's vulnerability, and a local pastor's compassion. He helps articulate the questions people have, then gives them relevant biblical wisdom for taking their next steps in faith. God is ready to meet you! Are you ready to meet Him? ISBN:9781478923930 Author:Todd Burpo and David Drury

Brief Summary In this deeply informed and absorbing exchange, Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz present an antidote to the polarizing rhetoric and obscurantism that have become defining features of our time: honest dialogue. A renowned critic of religion, Harris finds the doctrines of Islam dangerous and irredeemable. No, the Muslim anti-extremist Nawaz argues, Islam is amenable to reform and can find its place in a secular world. Rather than devolve into bigotry or caricature, their exchange presents an inspiring example of courteous attention, sharp-edged wisdom, and finally hope. A former member of the Islamist revolutionary group Hizb ut-Tahrir, author of Radical, and cofounder of the anti-extremist think tank Quilliam, Nawaz speaks with unique authority about the possibility of Islamic reform. Since the 2004 publication of The End of Faith, Harris has critiqued religion and asserted that reason and science are the true guardians of our deepest human values. Islam and the Future of Tolerance is an exemplar of how the fog can lift when hyperbole and posturing are put aside in pursuit of understanding. Guided by a mutual commitment to the belief that no idea is above scrutiny and no people beneath dignity, Harris and Nawaz challenge each other, and consequently their readers, to defend incompatible positions, define and explore their facts, and discover common ground. Published with the explicit hope to inspire many more such conversations, this dialogue extends an invitation to a world riven by violence to take up the task of engagement. ISBN:9780674088702 Author:Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz

Brief Summary The Crusades as seen through the eyes of Muslims A significant contribution to the understanding of the medieval holy wars between Christians and Muslims, this volume brings together the best and most complete eyewitness account of the Crusades from the perspective of a medieval Muslim writer. Focusing on twelfth-century Arab aristocrat Usama ibn Munqidh's Book of Contemplation but also including extracts from The Book of the Staff and Kernels of Refinement, this volume offers a strikingly human portrayal of Islamic perspectives on day-to-day existence, warfare, and the curious European invaders. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators. ISBN:9780140455137 Author:Usama ibn Munqidh

Brief Summary In the ninth century BCE, the peoples of four distinct regions of the civilized world created the religious and philosophical traditions that have continued to nourish humanity to the present day: Confucianism and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, and philosophical rationalism in Greece. Later generations further developed these initial insights, but we have never grown beyond them. Rabbinic Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, for example, were all secondary flowerings of the original Israelite vision. Now, in The Great Transformation, Karen Armstrong reveals how the sages of this pivotal "Axial Age" can speak clearly and helpfully to the violence and desperation that we experience in our own times. Armstrong traces the development of the Axial Age chronologically, examining the contributions of such figures as the Buddha, Socrates, Confucius, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the mystics of the Upanishads, Mencius, and Euripides. All of the Axial Age faiths began in principled and visceral recoil from the unprecedented violence of their time. Despite some differences of emphasis, there was a remarkable consensus in their call for an abandonment of selfishness and a spirituality of compassion. With regard to dealing with fear, despair, hatred, rage, and violence, the Axial sages gave their people and give us, Armstrong says, two important pieces of advice: first there must be personal responsibility and self-criticism, and it must be followed by practical, effective action. In her introduction and concluding chapter, Armstrong urges us to consider how these spiritualities challenge the way we are religious today. In our various institutions, we sometimes seem to be attempting to create exactly the kind of religion that Axial sages and prophets had hoped to eliminate. We often equate faith with doctrinal conformity, but the traditions of the Axial Age were not about dogma. All insisted on the primacy of compassion even in the midst of suffering. In each Axial Age case, a disciplined revulsion from violence and hatred proved to be the major catalyst of spiritual change. ISBN:9780385721240 Author:Karen Armstrong