Dramatically converted on the stormy seas, a slave-trader-turned-abolitionist penned the best-loved hymn of the Christian faith. A church father was arrested and martyred for teaching the truth about Christ's incarnation. Captured by pirates and shipped off to Ireland, a priest baptized thousands of pagans, from paupers to princes. Now who ever said church history was boring? The Church History ABCs is a fun way for kids to learn about great figures in Christian history. Twenty-six heroes of the faith march through the alphabet, boldly telling their stories in language children can understand. This wide range of characters -- men and women from across the centuries, from all over the globe -- reflects the breadth of church history and reminds children that these great figures of the past were living, breathing people who lived and died for the glory of God. - Publisher.

When Trojan Horse in the City of God is the principal defense of conservative Catholicism and an indictment of "progressive" or "liberal" Catholicism. Dietrich von Hildebrand exposes the "progressive" Catholic agenda, its modus operandi and the dangerous heresies it promotes, contrary to traditional Catholic truth including the two main factors contributing to the deterioration of the Church, why true renewal in the church requires reaffirmation (not denigration) of tradition, why translating scripture into "everyday" language undermines faith and trivializes Christ's message, the war against beauty in Catholic art, architecture, and worship, the fundamental error in the "new theologies", the stark contrast between what Vatican II actually said and how it's been interpreted, why heresy must be condemned (and even punished), how relativism supplanted belief in objective truth, tricks progressive theologians play with language, three types of contemporary Catholic philosophers and where they go wrong, and much, much more.

It concerns the states of consciousness of those desiring God/Enlightenment which take one to the mindfulness/mindlessness described as the goal in many Eastern traditions. The individual must come to a place of living totally in the moment, without anticipation or personal programs, in order to live a perpetual experience of Union.

The development of meaningful relationships, where every member carries a significant sense of belonging, is central to what it means to be the church. So why do many Christians feel disappointed and disillusioned with their efforts to experience authentic community? Despite the best efforts of pastors, small group leaders, and faithful lay persons, church too often is a place of loneliness rather than connection. In this revised and updated version of his best-selling book, Randy Frazee shows us how church can be so much...better. More intimate and alive. The answer may seem radical today, but it was a central component of life in the early church. First-century Christians knew what it meant to live in vital community with one another, relating with a depth and commitment that made "the body of Christ" a perfect metaphor for the church. What would it take to reclaim that kind of love, joy, support, and dynamic spiritual growth? Read this book and find out.

Teaching Outline + Study Guide for The Consequences of Ideas

NEW FOREWORD BY ERIC METAXAS Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the most important theologians of the twentieth century, illuminates the relationship between ourselves and the teachings of Jesus in this classic book on living as a Christian. What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the government worker? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between "cheap grace" and "costly grace." "Cheap grace," Bonhoeffer wrote, "is the grace we bestow on ourselves...grace without discipleship....Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the girl which must be asked for, the door at which a man must know....It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life." The Cost of Discipleship is a compelling statement of the demands of sacrifice and ethical consistency from a man whose life and thought were exemplary articulations of a new type of leadership inspired by the Gospel, and imbued with the spirit of Christian humanism and a creative sense of civic duty.

An exploration of Mark's Gospel.

The work of a lifetime, from one of the world's most influential thinkers, about the heart of the Christian faith. "I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. . . . In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?" With compelling honesty John Stott confronts this generation with the centrality of the cross in God's redemption of the world -- a world now haunted by the memories of Auschwitz, the pain of oppression and the specter of nuclear war. Can we see triumph in tragedy, victory in shame? Why should an object of Roman distaste and Jewish disgust be the emblem of our worship and the axiom of our faith? And what does it mean for us today? Now from one of the foremost preachers and Christian leaders of our day comes theology at its readable best, a contemporary restatement of the meaning of the cross. At the cross Stott finds the majesty and love of God disclosed, the sin and bondage of the world exposed. More than a study of the atonement, this book brings Scripture into living dialogue with Christian theology and the twentieth century. What emerges is a pattern for Christian life and worship, hope and mission. Destined to be a classic study of the center of our faith, Stott's work is the product of a uniquely gifted pastor, scholar and Christian statesman. His penetrating insight, charitable scholarship and pastoral warmth are guaranteed to feed both heart and mind.

A murderer, an outcast, a man cursed by God and exiled from his people - Cain, the biblical killer of Abel, is a figure of utter disdain. But that disdain is curiously in evidence well before his brother's death, as God inexplicably refuses Cain's sacrifice while accepting Abel's. Cain kills in a rage of exclusion, yet it is God himself who has set the brothers apart.

For Regina Schwartz, we ignore the dark side of the Bible to our peril. The perplexing story of Cain and Abel is emblematic of the tenacious influence of the Bible on secular notions of identity - notions that are all too often violently exclusionary, negatively defining "us" against "them" in ethnic, religious, racial, gender, and nationalistic terms.

In this compelling work of cultural and biblical criticism, Schwartz contends that it is the very concept of monotheism and its jealous demand for exclusive allegiance - to one God, one Land, one Nation or one People - that informs the model of collective identity forged in violence, against the other.

The Hebrew Bible is filled with narratives of division and exclusion, scarcity and competition, that erupt in violence. Once these narratives were appropriated and disseminated by western religious traditions, they came to pervade deep cultural assumptions about how collectives are imagined - with collective hatred, with collective degradation, and with collective abuse.

Recovering the Bible's often misguided role as a handbook for politics and social thought, Schwartz demonstrates just how dangerous it can be.

In large, easy to read print (Tahoma, 16') prolific writer Arthur W. Pink's "The Divine Inspiration of the Bible is presented. In one of Pink's classic and most widely read books, he defines the meaning of "divine inspiration" and goes on to give evidences of the constantcy and trustworthiness of the Bible. In addition, he shows how various Old Testament characters are types of Christ. Pink is easy to understand, concise, and to the point.

Frame explores our relationship with God as a knowing relationship. He writes, "We tend to forget how often in Scripture God performs His mighty acts so that men will 'know' that He is Lord." He thus examines our knowledge of God as it relates to our knowledge of ourselves and of the world in which we live. Reflecting his conviction that theology is the application of Scripture to life in all situations, Frame combines trenchant analysis of theological, apologetical, and epistemological issues with refreshingly practical insights for living in the knowledge of God. -- Publisher's description.

Davey was a young donkey who was bored and unhappy because he was never given anything to do. Then one day, some strangers came to the gate―and Davey’s master picked him for a very special task. Davey carried the King, Jesus, into Jerusalem. A few days later, Davey saw some angry people making the King carry a heavy beam of wood. Davey could not understand it―until another donkey helped him see that the King was being a Servant on behalf of His people.

"The cross is too important a matter to be left to the theologians. If it is true that God almighty was in Christ redeeming the world on Calvary, then we need to understand what that cross can mean for ordinary individuals and communities." With this conviction, Green reexamines the question of atonement. Why did Jesus have to die? How could a loving God allow his son to suffer? And what role does the resurrection play in this divine drama? Rooting his discussion in Scripture, Green opens up the meaning of Easter in an easy, nontechnical style. The empty cross of Jesus liberates the theologian, inspires the preacher, comforts the counselor, and fortifies every disciple for a life of self-sacrifice.

Observing totalitarian and authoritarian governments falling around the world, Fukuyama develops an hypothesis that the end state of all this change will be liberal democracy everywhere (The End of History), and considers how people will react (The Last Man).

The dialogue between science and theology has grown to mammoth proportions over the past decade. These two disciplines search continually to discover their common ground. Each discipline is anxious to warrant its own truth claims concerning the nature of reality and the nature of God. In order to be fruitful, such dialogue, argue the authors of this collection, should focus on one subject. In this volume, 16 scientists and theologians contend that eschatology provides a common concern for both theology and the sciences. Eschatology, they claim, will "help clarify and cultivate the differences between truth claims in both fields." Moreover, a focus on eschatology offers an opportunity to examine the reasons people can be hopeful and optimistic even in the face of physical death and the finitude of the universe. Included in this provocative collection are essays on "eschatology and the natural sciences," "eschatology in cultural sciences and ethics," "eschatology in the biblical tradition," and "eschatology and theology." John Polkinghorne is the president of Queens' College, Cambridge and the author of Reason and Reality (Trinity) and Serious Talk: Science and Religion in Dialogue (Trinity). Michael Welker teaches at the University of Heidelberg. Contributors to the volume include William R. Stoeger, S.J., Steward Observatory, The University of Arizona; Detlef Linke, Bonn University; Fraser Watts, Queens' College, Cambridge; Larry Bouchard, University of Virginia; William Schweiker, University of Chicago; Janet Soskice, Jesus College, Cambridge; Christoph Schwöbel, Heidelberg; Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary; Patrick D. Miller, Princeton Theological Seminary; Donald H. Juel, Princeton Theological Seminary; Hans Weder, University of Zurich; Gerhard Sauter, University of Bonn, Germany; Kathryn Tanner, University of Chicago; Jürgen Möltmann, University of Tübingen; and Miroslav Volf, Yale University. For: Seminarians; clergy; graduate students; general audience

The collection includes carols from many European countries as well as traditional Christmas songs of England

Looking into the face of our alleged ape ancestor, popular Christian apologist Hank Hanegraaff dissects and debunks the astonishingly weak arguments for the evolutionary theory, revealing it as nothing more than a "fairy tale for grown-ups." The author uses his own Memory Dynamics to make it easy for Christians to speak intelligently about evolution and speak persuasively about the Creator.