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After Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI resigned from the papacy in 2013, he never stopped thinking or writing. Near the end of his life, he and editor Elio Guerriero gathered together a whole volume of new material, dealing with the themes closest to his heart. The pope asked that it be published upon his death.This final work is What Is Christianity? It takes up a kaleidoscopic array of themes: the Christian faith's relationship with other religions, especially Judaism and Islam; the theology and reform of the liturgy; the priesthood; the saints; the Eucharist; the tragedy of abuse; the beauty of nature; Italian and German culture; and much more.With prophetic insight into our times, Benedict warns of a "radical manipulation of man" in the name of tolerance, insisting that the only "authentic counterweight to every form of intolerance" is Christ himself—and Christ crucified.A lifelong Catholic, the late pope pays tribute to some of the giant figures of Christianity who have served him through the years as guiding stars: his predecessor Pope John Paul II, the 20th-century German Jesuit martyr Alfred Delp, and the silent carpenter Joseph, his patron saint.What Is Christianity? is a frank spiritual testament from a theological master, a churchman who loved the faith of simple Christians but who always stood ready, even in his last days, to dialogue about every aspect of human life—in love and in truth. Read more

What if the Big Bang and Bethlehem were part of the same story?In this poetic and deeply personal journey, J. B. Pennington invites readers to explore the three great beginnings of existence: the birth of the cosmos, the awakening of life, and the incarnation of Christ. Weaving together science, scripture, mysticism, and memory, she bridges the awe of quantum wonder with the intimacy of divine love.From the flash of the first light to the cries from a manger in Bethlehem, Pennington reveals how all creation—stars, cells, and souls—is a sacred conversation between God and mankind. Written with the tender wisdom of a grandmother and the wonder of a seeker, this book is a love letter across generations—calling us to remember who we are, where we come from, and the Light that still speaks through it all. Read more

Experience a deeper prayer life through this fresh take on ancient liturgy for believers today.Designed to help individuals, families, and congregations pray together across denominations, this audiobook of common prayer will help you and your community join together each day with the same songs, scriptures, and prayers. Composed under an advisory team of liturgy experts, these three influential and inspiring authors have created Common Prayer - a tapestry of prayer that will help the church be one as God is one.This universal prayer audiobook allows listeners to greet each day together, remembering significant dates and Christian heroes in church history, as well as important historic dates in the struggle for freedom and justice. There are morning prayers for each day of the year, evening prayers for each of the seven days of the week, a midday prayer to be repeated throughout the year, and prayers for special occasions. In addition, there are morning prayers for Holy Week.Common Prayer also includes a unique songbook composed of music and classic lyrics to more than fifty songs from various traditions, including African spirituals, traditional hymns, Mennonite gathering songs, and Taize chants. Tools for prayer are scattered throughout to aid those who are unfamiliar with liturgy and to deepen the prayer life of those who are familiar with liturgical prayer.Ultimately, Common Prayer makes liturgy dance, taking the best of the old and bringing new life to it with a fresh fingerprint for the contemporary renewal of the church.PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio. Read more

This unique work - no other work yet available in English treats this subject - illustrates the contribution of these Councils in the development and formulation of Christian beliefs. It then shows how their legacies lingered throughout the centuries to inspire - or haunt - every generation. Read more

Understanding the beliefs and practices of other faiths is essential not just to the task of interreligious dialogue, but also to grasping one's own faith.In this brief volume in IVP Academic's Introductions in Seven Sentences, philosopher Douglas Groothuis creatively uses a single sentence representing each of several world religions as a way to open readers to their depth and complexity, including:Atheism: "God Is Dead."Judaism: "I Am Who I Am."Hinduism: "You Are That."Buddhism: "Life Is Suffering."Daoism: "The Dao That Can Be Spoken Is Not the Eternal Dao."Christianity: "Before Abraham Was, I Am."Islam: "There Is One God, and Mohammad Is His Prophet."With a sympathetic but not uncritical approach, Groothuis welcomes readers to a vital and global conversation.The accessible primers in the Introductions in Seven Sentences collection act as brief introductions to an academic field, with simple organization: seven key sentences that give readers a birds-eye view of an entire discipline. Read more

Wendy Cadge and Shelly Rambo demonstrate the urgent need, highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, to position the long history and practice of chaplaincy within the rapidly changing landscape of American religion and spirituality. This book provides a much-needed road map for training and renewing chaplains across a professional continuum that spans major sectors of American society, including hospitals, prisons, universities, the military, and nursing homes.Written by a team of multidisciplinary experts and drawing on ongoing research at the Chaplaincy Innovation Lab at Brandeis University, Chaplaincy and Spiritual Care in the Twenty-First Century identifies three central competencies—individual, organizational, and meaning-making—that all chaplains must have, and it provides the resources for building those skills. Featuring profiles of working chaplains, the book positions intersectional issues of religious diversity, race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and other markers of identity as central to the future of chaplaincy as a profession. Read more

After Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI resigned from the papacy in 2013, he never stopped thinking or writing. Near the end of his life, he and editor Elio Guerriero gathered together a whole volume of new material, dealing with the themes closest to his heart. The pope asked that it be published upon his death. This final work is What Is Christianity? It takes up a kaleidoscopic array of themes: the Christian faith's relationship with other religions, especially Judaism and Islam; the theology and reform of the liturgy; the priesthood; the saints; the Eucharist; the tragedy of abuse; the beauty of nature; Italian and German culture; and much more. With prophetic insight into our times, Benedict warns of a "radical manipulation of man" in the name of tolerance, insisting that the only "authentic counterweight to every form of intolerance" is Christ himself—and Christ crucified. A lifelong Catholic, the late pope pays tribute to some of the giant figures of Christianity who have served him through the years as guiding stars: his predecessor Pope John Paul II, the twentieth-century German Jesuit martyr Alfred Delp, and the silent carpenter Joseph, his patron saint. What Is Christianity? is a frank spiritual testament from a theological master, a churchman who loved the faith of simple Christians but who always stood ready, even in his last days, to dialogue about every aspect of human life—in love and in truth. Read more

In this insightful guide minister Jonalu Johnstone invites readers into an adventure of encountering firsthand the words and stories that have inspired billions throughout the centuries. Exploring the wisdom of the ages, she argues, helps equip us to understand the world we share with a diverse and evolving collection of religious voices.Throughout the ages, adherents of religious traditions from around the world have set apart certain writings and teachings as special, calling them scriptures, sacred texts, or classics. And they have developed particular approaches to reading these texts. In Scripture Unbound, Unitarian Universalist minister Jonalu Johnstone provides an introduction to reading sacred texts, discusses Unitarian Universalist views of scripture, and suggests ways to use sacred texts within our congregations.Each chapter explores an aspect of engaging with scripture and includes a reading from a sacred text—the Hebrew Scriptures, the Christian Bible, the I Ching, the Dhammapada, the Qur’an, and others, including more modern sources—and offers progressive commentary based on scholarly and spiritual approaches to these writings. Scripture Unbound explores many of these approaches, including historical-critical reading, chant, feminist interpretation, Jewish midrash, Unitarian Universalist practice, and more. It provides guidance on selecting translations, considers individual and communal spiritual practice, and reflects on some of the dangers of interpreting scriptures, including cultural misappropriation. Read more

❓ What if everything you believe about strength, purpose, and power is a lie?❄️ What if the truth is colder, harder — and exactly what you need to hear?⚔️ What if discipline isn’t about motivation — but about survival?🔥 What if the life you were meant to live is waiting on the other side of your excuses?In a world that rewards comfort, conformity, distraction, and weakness…The 88 Laws of Self-Mastery is a war cry for those who refuse to decay —for those who still crave meaning, structure, and fire.This is not a book of motivation.It is a mirror. A reckoning. A test. A brutal invitation to rise.Inside, you’ll find poetic, unforgiving truths drawn from the clash between two eternal forces:The Celestial — disciplined, fearless, forged in fire.The Fallon — weak, reactive, lost in the illusion of safety.Line after line, the book asks the same question:Will you live like the Celestial — or die like the Fallon? You already know which voice lives inside you.This book will teach you how to feed the right one.The Celestial Codex Will Help You:• Build mental discipline in a world built for weakness• Kill comfort and ignite purpose• Learn the difference between real power and ego• Cut excuses at the root• Live with fire, structure, and self-masteryIt’s not about being perfect.It’s about choosing who you become — when no one is watching. Don’t just read it.Live it. Carry it. In your bag, your mind, your soul.You weren’t made to be average. ❌You weren’t born to be soft. 🐑You were meant to lead, rise, and remember what you are. 🦅🚫 Don’t wait for permission.⚠️ Don’t scroll past your turning point.🕳️ Don’t let your potential waste in silence.🔥 Take your copy of The 88 Laws of Self-Mastery today — and answer the most important question: Who am I? Read more

The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) was groundbreaking for having introduced to medieval Europe a series of canons that sought to regulate encounters between Christians and Jews and Muslims. Its canon 68 demanded that Jews and Muslims wear distinguishing dress, in order to prevent Christians from entering into illicit sexual relations with them, restricted the movement of Jews in public spaces during Holy Week, and exhorted secular authorities to punish Jews who in any way insult or blaspheme against Christ himself. Other canons sought to exercise greater control over moneylending, to provide relief to Christian borrowers, to extract tithes from Jews who held Christian properties as pledges, and prohibited Jews from exercising power as public officials over Christians. The canons condemned converts who preserved elements from their former religion, promoted a fifth Crusade to the East, exempted Crusaders from taxes and from interest payments to Jewish moneylenders, restricted trade with Muslims or Saracens, and condemned Christians who provided arms or assistance to Saracens. The Council's canons affected the missionary efforts of the late medieval Church and its attempts to convert Jewish and Muslim minorities, and established essential guidance on minority relations not to be surpassed until Vatican II in the 1960s. Read more

The Pentecostal movement has had an incredible impact on the shape of worldwide Christianity in the past century. Estimates are that Pentecostals and charismatics make up approximately one-fourth of Christians worldwide, and the numbers are only expected to grow. With these developments comes the need for thoughtful Christians of all persuasions to better understand Pentecostal theology. In fact, Amos Yong believes that Pentecostal theology can be a great gift to the church at large.Yong presents a thoroughly Pentecostal theology of salvation, the church, the nature of God, and creation. He also provides a fascinating survey of the state of worldwide Pentecostalism, examining how Pentecostal theology is influencing Christian churches in other countries. Read more

Maverick theologian Matthew Fox brings readers into the common heart of the world's great religions, illuminating a "deep ecumenism" for seekers everywhere. We get to the core of religion by going to the heart experience, Matthew Fox says, not by dwelling on doctrines that so easily divide even within religious traditions. In One River, Many Wells, Fox exhorts readers to embrace the common faith of deep ecumenism. Fox masterfully distills the common principles of the world's religions, and shows exactly how the different fingers of world faiths connect to a single hand. Drawing on seminal quotes, lessons, and ideas from the great faiths, he demonstrates how each expresses a common goal and approach to life, and concludes the book with "18 New Myths and Visions" that will inspire readers to embrace deep ecumenism. One River, Many Wells is an indispensable resource, envisioning a new and exciting way of faith that erases the lines of false distinction between religions and calls upon each of us to worship from our common heart. Read more

InterSpiritual Meditation is a universal process drawn from the world's spiritual traditions. It helps individuals to cultivate inner peace, wisdom, and compassion. Its seven-step process enables people of different spiritual practices to create engaged contemplative communities based on empathy, understanding, shared meditative experience, and compassionate service for the common good. InterSpiritual Meditation is the next step in the evolution of InterSpiritual Wisdom and a foundationstone for peace among peoples of all religions."The interfaith world is long on talk and short on practice. While we are eager to learn each other's spiritual practices, what we need is a practice that transcends our respective traditions and engages us in a more inclusive pursuit of awakening. Ed Bastian's InterSpiritual offers just that. --- Rabbi Rami Shapiro, author of Open Secrets Read more

An invitation not to a faith certain of everything but, rather, to a faith that welcomes the discomforting questions.Religious zealotry plagues the world. It drives susceptible people to believe they have all the truth, all the wisdom, all the divine favor. And in some cases it even moves them to murder people who, they have concluded, are enemies of God. In The Value of Doubt, veteran journalist Bill Tammeus draws deeply on his own Protestant experience of doubt and faith and, in a series of reflections, contends that the road to a rich, dynamic, healthy faith inevitably must run through the valley of the shadow of doubt. The opposite of faith, he says, is not doubt; rather, the opposite of faith is false certitude. Tammeus argues in favor of recognizing our mortality, of adopting the Benedictine virtue of humility and of realizing that we live by metaphor, by allegory, by myth. It's the willingness to question, to reconsider, to be comfortable with ambiguity and paradox that will save faith from the hands of those who seem to know all the answers before they ever hear the questions. This lively and challenging look at the religious life is for anyone seeking to build and enrich an authentic faith and courageous enough to see doubt as an essential part of it. Read more

How have Christian theologies of religious superiority underwritten ideologies of white supremacy in the United States? According to Hill Fletcher, the tendency of Christians to view themselves as the "chosen ones" has often been translated into racial categories as well. In other words, Christian supremacy has historically lent itself to white supremacy, with disastrous consequences.How might we start to disentangle the two? Hill Fletcher proposes educational strategies that will help foster racial healing in America, the first of which is to demand of white Christians that they accept their responsibility for racist policies and structural discrimination in America. Read more

Idolatry. The word brings up images in our heads of golden calves, or stone statues carved for pagan gods. We picture people bowing down before these things, and laying offerings at their feet. While these things are indeed linked with idolatry, this sin has a far greater reach than most realize. Idolatry hides behind many masks, and takes on many forms. It is far more widespread than we realize, and is far more dangerous than we give it credit for. What if I told you that things we regularly do have their origin hidden in idolatry? What if I told you that nearly all pagan beliefs can be traced to a similar origin? Are you willing to step out of your comfort zone in order to learn important truths? If so, then join me as we study idolatry, and go on a journey out of Egypt. Read more

In May, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI formally declared 12th century Benedictine nun Hildegard of Bingen a canonized saint, with the canonization ceremony scheduled for October. He regards her as one of the great thinker who has helped shape the thought of the Catholic Church.Today there are many websites and Hildegard groups that celebrate and honor Hildegard's teachings, philosophy, art, and music. Author Matthew Fox writes in Hildegard of Bingen about this amazing woman and what we can learn from her.In an era when women were marginalized, Hildegard was an outspoken, controversial figure. Yet so visionary was her insight that she was sought out by kings, popes, abbots, and bishops for advice. A sixteenth century follower of Martin Luther called her “the first Protestant” because of her appeals to reform the church.As a writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, healer, artist, feminist, and student of science, Hildegard was a pioneer in many fields in her day.For many centuries after her death Hildegard was ignored or even ridiculed but today is finally being recognized for her immense contribution to so many areas, including our understanding of our spiritual relationship to the earth—a contribution that touches on key issues faced by our planet in the 21st century, particularly with regard to the environment and ecology. Read more

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