Religion Theory

In How Jesus Saves, Joshua McNall unpacks the meaning of Jesus’ life and death for everyday people. Taking listeners on a journey through Scripture, McNall brings together the primary models of atonement doctrine making the latest theology accessible.

We don't understand the reactionary mind. As a result, argues Mark Lilla in this timely book, the ideas and passions that shape today's political dramas are unintelligible to us. The reactionary is anything but a conservative. He is as radical and modern a figure as the revolutionary, someone shipwrecked in the rapidly changing present, and suffering from nostalgia for an idealized past and an apocalyptic fear that history is rushing toward catastrophe.

"Candy Jones" was the stage name of Jessica Wilcox who became famous as a model and "pinup girl" in the early 1940s. Her story seems too bizarre to be true. One of America's most famous models, brainwashed by the CIA? Yes, it is another example of truth being stranger than fiction. The story begins with Candy's wedding to Long John Nebel, New York's most successful radio talk-show host. During the wedding, and regularly thereafter, Candy's personality would seem to shift. She would suddenly change from her affable, self-effacing self to a brusque, aggressive "stranger".

In the aftermath of World War II, the United States stood at a precipice. The forces of modernity unleashed by the war had led to astonishing advances in daily life, but technology and mass culture also threatened to erode the country's traditional moral character. As award-winning historian George M. Marsden explains in The Twilight of the American Enlightenment, postwar Americans looked to the country's secular liberalelites for guidance in this precarious time, but these intellectuals proved unable to articulate a coherent common cause by which America could chart its course.

In Baptism: Answers to Common Questions, Dr. Guy M. Richard tackles the key questions people have about baptism: What does it mean? Is it necessary for salvation? Who should be baptized, and how should we baptize them? As he searches the Scriptures, Dr. Richard helps us think through what the Bible teaches about baptism and encourages us to deal graciously with our brothers and sisters in Christ even when we disagree.

We humans are prone to failure. We’re experts at muddying, mixing, and messing up our lives. Who among us hasn’t looked up from the bottom of a pit and realized he dug it himself? Who hasn’t fallen so far, messed up so badly that she thought there was no hope? And it’s at these low points that we crave reminders that there’s hope for the broken. No reminder is quite as poignant as a story of second chances. A story of grace in action. Who couldn’t use more stories of grace like this? Second Chances includes tales of second chances for the rebellious and more.

The Left has seized on our economic troubles as an excuse to “blame the rich guy” and paint a picture of capitalism and the free market as selfish, greedy, and cruel. Exactly the opposite is true, says Father Robert Sirico in his thought-provoking book Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Economy. Father Sirico argues that a free economy actually promotes charity, selflessness, and kindness. In Defending the Free Market, he shows why free-market capitalism is not only the best way to ensure individual success and national prosperity but also the surest route to a moral and socially just society.

According to attachment theory, we tend to experience love in predictable ways—based on our style and that of our partner. The good news is, whatever relationship style you have naturally, you're not stuck with it! Using the strategies found in this book, you can identify your relationship style (and your partner's); understand the strengths and challenges of that style; overcome feelings of rejection and failed relationships; recognize the patterns and behaviors that are affecting your relationships; and develop better ways to express and receive love.

There is a tug of war going on for the future of America. At one end of the rope are those who think America is a secular nation; at the other end are those who believe religion is at the root of our country's foundation. In this audio release of the thought-provoking America's Real War, renowned leader and speaker Rabbi Daniel Lapin encourages America to reembrace the Judeo-Christian values on which our nation was founded and logically demonstrates why those values are crucial to America's strength in the new millennium.

An excellent, comprehensive introduction to Early Buddhism. It covers both theory and practice. This is a great audiobook for anyone - from beginner to teacher - who wants to learn or teach Early Buddhism.

A Groundbreaking Exploration of Faith and Physics — Discover the Eternal Truths Hidden in the Quantum World What if the mysteries of quantum physics could help reveal the deepest truths of Christianity? In The Stub and the Branch: A Quantum Parable of Life and Death, author C. W. Steinle presents a bold and illuminating comparison between modern quantum theory and timeless biblical revelation. With clarity and depth, Steinle invites readers into a mind-expanding journey where wavefunctions and multiverses serve as metaphors for mortality, rebirth, and the promise of eternal life. At the ...

In 1765, 11 years before composing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson bought a Qur'an. This marked only the beginning of his lifelong interest in Islam, and he would go on to acquire numerous books on Middle Eastern languages, history, and travel, taking extensive notes on Islam as it relates to English common law. Jefferson sought to understand Islam notwithstanding his personal disdain for the faith, a sentiment prevalent among his Protestant contemporaries in England and America.

A breathtaking thriller, employing both history and mystery, capturing the attention of the reader from the first to the last page and which illuminating the darkest scenarios of the history of Christianity and Judaism. A novel about men ready to do anything, interested not in the truths of their faith, but in protecting some of the greatest mysteries of humanity. What is the Ark of the Covenant, really? What is hidden inside? Who was Moses, really? What if, despite the millennial tradition of the Promised Land, Moses had been no one other than a warrior in search of the power and fame he ...

The September 11 assault on the World Trade Center was the most sophisticated and horrifying in a series of operations masterminded by Osama bin Laden and his Jihad group - an organization that CNN's terrorism analyst Peter Bergen calls Holy War, Inc. One of only a handful of journalists to have interviewed the world's most wanted man face to face, Bergen explains the Jihadist network that operates globally and in secrecy.

Raw, intimate, and timely, Bolz-Weber’s latest book offers a full-blown overhaul of our harmful and antiquated ideas about sex, gender, and our bodies. This is a journey of holy resistance. Along the way, as antidotes to shame, heresy, and all-too-familiar injustice, Bolz-Weber shares stories, poetry, and scripture, cultivating resilient hope and audacious love rooted in good news that is “powerful enough, transgressive enough, and beautiful enough to heal not only the ones who have been hurt but also those who have done the hurting.”

Be Amazed by a Book Unlike Anything You Have Read Before Is the doctrine of dualism encoded in the Bible, and how does it relate to the fall of man? Is it possible that something as simple as the doctrine of dualism can provide the key to all that is presently wrong in the world? Could ideological dualism be the basis of all degenerate ideologies, such as Marxism? Could this heretic doctrine be the root of the degeneration of all religions over time? And is there a place for the concept of dualism in the scheme of all things? Discover how ideological dualism corrupts all aspects of human ...

How did the Islamic State attract so many followers and conquer so much land? By being more ruthless, more apocalyptic, and more devoted to state building than its competitors. The shrewd leaders of the Islamic State combined two of the most powerful yet contradictory ideas in Islam - the return of the Islamic Empire and the end of the world - into a mission and a message that shapes its strategy and inspires its army of zealous fighters.

Wounds Are Where Light Enters is a collection of stories that are warm, sometimes funny, sometimes not, but always taking unexpected turns to find the care of God in all the pathways of life. In them we find the grace that enables us to live with the answers we see and the answers we don't see. In this collection we meet Arthur Bias, the retired black police officer who loves those who hate; Agnes Brill, the shrill piano teacher of patience; Junie Piper, precious of the homeless; Melvin, who honors his aging mother by honoring the little girl she has become; Lucian; and more.

The gritty business of politics is not something we usually associate with the occult. But esoteric beliefs have influenced the destiny of nations since the time of ancient Egypt and China, when decisions of state were based on portents and astrology, to today, when presidents and prime ministers privately consult self-proclaimed seers. Politics and the Occult offers a lively history of this enduring phenomenon. A few of the fascinating topics include the fate of the Knights Templar and the medieval Gnostic Cathars, the occult roots of America and the French Revolution in Freemasonry, Gurdjieff and the swastika, and much more.

In December 2010 residents of Kalimpong, a town on the Indian border with Tibet, turned out en masse to welcome the Dalai Lama. It was only then they realized for the first time that the neighbor they knew as the noodle maker of Kalimpong was also the Dalai Lama's older brother. The Tibetan spiritual leader had come to visit the Gaden Tharpa Choling monastery and join his brother for lunch in the family compound.