Of all the famous books ever written, The Song of Songs has been designated as the finest ever produced or ever to be read on the subject of finding love, developing relationships, and experiencing life. Its title, The Song of Songs, is a superlative, an almost exaggerated expression of praise, which insists that this book is «the best of the best.» Designed to be read over fifty days, As Good as It Gets takes the reader through this greatest ...
"Marriage is intimate. Marriage is hard": sober thoughts for a time when movies and television tell us that love is supposed to be romantic and fun. In this eclectic blend of playful and earnest storytelling, social commentary, and fierce argument, Kurt Armstrong offers an up-close look at real-life marriage and the countless ways it differs from what the advertisers tell us it should be. With wisdom, wit, and profound honesty, he ...
Lighten up! Most of us take ourselves too seriously. Christian leaders, in particular, are tempted by the position they hold, or the power they wield, to lose touch with their humanity, become arrogant, and alienate their followers. But what about our tendency to shoot ourselves in the foot, time and time again? Can we laugh at ourselves? David McKenna, a Christian college president, brings a lifetime of learning to th ...
From the polling place to the pulpit, The Romance of Innocent Sexuality investigates the passions that are enacted in debates about same-sex marriage. In a critique that is at once humorous and unrelenting, Geoffrey Rees argues that sexual desire is fundamentally a desire to make sense of oneself as a whole person. Through a constructive engagement with the writings of Saint Augustine on original sin, Rees turns on its head the conventional wisd ...
We do not like to talk about loneliness. We like even less to talk about the fact that the experience that faith does not automatically heal it. This is a problem, but what if it does not have to be that way? What if we can tap into loneliness as a source of personal empowerment? In The Power of One, Anette Ejsing makes exactly this case. Relying on personal stories, she first shows why romantic, spiritual, and social loneliness are particularly ...
At the center of Christianity is Jesus of Nazareth–whose maleness is used by many to justify the subordination of women and to emphasize that men, rather than women, better represent Jesus. This raises a number of questions that are the subject of this book. What is the significance of Jesus' maleness? Does it reveal the character of God? Is it foundational for the gospel? Is Jesus' maleness associated with an ongoing created order o ...
Who is the God in whom Christians believe? Is he just a figment of the human mind as critics of religion claimed in the nineteenth century and as crusading atheists assert again today? Since the beginnings of rational thought the brightest minds among humanity have attempted to assert that God does indeed exist. But even the so-called proofs for God's existence always started with the assumption that there is someone to prove. As soon as we ...
This study offers an intercultural theory of interpretation and religion. It does so by bringing Western and East Asian traditions into dialogue regarding the nature of interpretation. The result of this innovative study is a theory of interpretation which integrates the socially embodied dimension of human life with the study of hermeneutics and religion in post-foundational and cross-cultural perspective. Toward this end, Paul Chung offers a c ...
Is faith a necessary virtue in the contemporary world? May it be, or must it be, detached from religious commitment? What do genealogies of the secular tell us about faith? Does religion need secular faith? Secular Faith brings together leading and emerging scholars to reflect on the apparent paradox of «secular faith.» Ranging over anthropology, religious studies, political science, history, and literature, from Muslims in China to Pent ...
