Cimke: Religion

The Book of Saints

During times of division and realignment, God’s Holy Spirit raises up leaders, thinkers, and mentors to guide the body of Christ. This is especially true during the turbulent years of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Book of Saints: The Reforming Era is a rich sampling from the writings of monastics, ministers, and mystics who found themselves in times of unrelenting change but who became godly beacons of light. In these devotional readings, discover priceless insights for the church today from those whose words have been tested for centuries.

Introduction to Classical and New Testament Greek : A Unified Approach

The defining feature of this textbook is the treatment of classical and New Testament Greek as one language using primary sources. All the example sentences the students will translate are real Greek sentences, half of which are taken from classical literature and philosophy and half of which are directly from the New Testament. The advantage of this approach is that it highlights the linguistic, literary, and historical connections between classical Greece and early Christianity.

Operating on Faith : A Painfully True Love Story

At age 29, Matt Weber was newly married to Nell, the girl of his dreams. They had bought their first house, adopted a dog, and looked forward to a blissful first year together. But shortly after his honeymoon, Matt’s recurring, severe stomach troubles send him to the emergency room—and after a five-hour, life-saving surgery in which a third of his stomach is removed, Matt and Nell’s plans for their new life are dramatically altered. Forced to undergo a lengthy and painful recovery, Matt finds that his relationships with God, himself, and his wife are forever changed.

No Fear Zen : Discovering Balance in an Unbalanced World

No Fear Zen presents an approach to Zen practice that focuses on concentration and sitting (shikantaza) as a discipline that can be practiced in everyday life with the dedication of the samurai. And in a world that requires bravery and decisive action in addition to generosity and compassion, we can learn much from the now-extinct samurai in creating a new kind of warrior for peace in the twenty-first century. While some practices focus on compassion and mindfulness as the goals of Zen practice, No Fear Zen contends that these are outcomes that occur naturally, spontaneously, and automatically from right practice without any goal or object whatsoever.

Very Married : Field Notes on Love and Fidelity

Katherine Willis Pershey has never slept with the mailman or kissed an ex-boyfriend. Good thing, since she’s married. But simply not committing adultery does not give you the keys to “happily ever after,” as Pershey has come to find out in her own marriage and in her work as a pastor. What is this sacred covenant that binds one person to another, and what elements of faith and fidelity sustain it? In Very Married: Field Notes on Love and Fidelity, Pershey opens the book on all things marital. With equal parts humor and intelligence, Pershey speaks frankly about the challenges and consolations of modern marriage.

A Short History of the Normans

The Battle of Hastings in 1066 is the one date forever seared on the British national psyche. It enabled the Norman Conquest that marked the end of Anglo-Saxon England. But there was much more to the Normans than the invading army Duke William shipped over from Normandy to the shores of Sussex. How a band of marauding warriors established some of the most powerful dominions in Europe – in Sicily and France, as well as England – is an improbably romantic idea. In exploring Norman culture in all its regions, Leonie V Hicks is able to place the Normans in the full context of early medieval society.

Magic and Magicians in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Time: The Occult in Pre-Modern Sciences, Medicine, Literature, Religion, and Astrology

There are no clear demarcation lines between magic, astrology, necromancy, medicine, and even sciences in the pre-modern world. Under the umbrella term’magic,’the contributors to this volume examine a wide range of texts, both literary and religious, both medical and philosophical, in which the topic is discussed from many different perspectives. The fundamental concerns address issue such as how people perceived magic, whether they accepted it and utilized it for their own purposes, and what impact magic might have had on the mental structures of that time.

Jerusalem Throne Games: The Battle of Bible Stories After the Death of David

Presents an individual and thought-provoking exploration of who wrote the Bible (or, indeed Bibles), re-examining the documented evidence for possible individual authors set against the personal, religious, economic and political background of the period of its compilation.