Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower

Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower
Author: Tom Krattenmaker
Publisher: Convergent Books
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2016
Genre: Agnosticism
ISBN: 1101906421

Offers an argument for secular non-believers maintaining that following Jesus Christ as a teacher, example, and primary guide for living can serve to give meaning and direction to those who don't believe in the supernatural elements of Christianity.

Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower

Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower
Author: Tom Krattenmaker
Publisher: Convergent Books
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2016-10-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 110190643X

An award-winning USA Today columnist makes the case for how a Jesus freed from religion and politics meets the need for meaning and purpose in secular America. Tom Krattenmaker is part of a growing conversation centered at Yale University that acknowledges—and seeks to address—the abiding need for meaning and inspiration in post-religious America. What, they ask, gives a life meaning? What constitutes a life well led? In Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower, Krattenmaker shares his surprising conclusion about where input and inspiration might best be found: in the figure of Jesus. And Jesus, not only as a good example and teacher, but Jesus as the primary guide for one's life. Drawing on sociological research, personal experience, and insights from fifteen years studying and writing on religion in American public life, Krattenmaker shows that in Jesus, nonreligious people like himself can find unique and compelling wisdom on how to honor the humanity in ourselves and others, how to build more peaceful lives, how generosity can help people and communities create more abundance, how to break free from self-defeating behaviors, and how to tip the scales toward justice. In a time when more people than ever are identifying as atheist or agnostic, Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower is a groundbreaking and compelling work that rediscovers Jesus--and our own best selves--for the world of today.

Confessions of a Bible Thumper

Confessions of a Bible Thumper
Author: Michael Camp
Publisher: Engage Faith
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2012-06
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781936672271

What happens when a devout religious conservative questions his own evangelical traditions using the Socratic principle, and follows where the evidence leads? ... This brutally honest personal pilgrimage challenges and encourages readers to rethink all things sacred and embrace a faith full of grace and reason.

Onward Christian Athletes

Onward Christian Athletes
Author: Tom Krattenmaker
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2010
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780742562479

In Onward Christian Athletes, religion expert and commentator Tom Krattenmaker provides a first-of-its-kind exploration of what is really happening where sports and faith converge, and the larger story it tells about popular Christianity in American life in the new century.

Misfit Faith

Misfit Faith
Author: Jason J. Stellman
Publisher: Convergent Books
Total Pages: 178
Release: 2017
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0804140626

Ex-Presbyterian pastor turned Catholic convert coveys his feeling of being an outsider in today's Christian faith.

Confession of a Buddhist Atheist

Confession of a Buddhist Atheist
Author: Stephen Batchelor
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 348
Release: 2010-03-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1588369846

Does Buddhism require faith? Can an atheist or agnostic follow the Buddha’s teachings without believing in reincarnation or organized religion? This is one man’s confession. In his classic Buddhism Without Beliefs, Stephen Batchelor offered a profound, secular approach to the teachings of the Buddha that struck an emotional chord with Western readers. Now, with the same brilliance and boldness of thought, he paints a groundbreaking portrait of the historical Buddha—told from the author’s unique perspective as a former Buddhist monk and modern seeker. Drawing from the original Pali Canon, the seminal collection of Buddhist discourses compiled after the Buddha’s death by his followers, Batchelor shows us the Buddha as a flesh-and-blood man who looked at life in a radically new way. Batchelor also reveals the everyday challenges and doubts of his own devotional journey—from meeting the Dalai Lama in India, to training as a Zen monk in Korea, to finding his path as a lay teacher of Buddhism living in France. Both controversial and deeply personal, Stephen Batchelor’s refreshingly doctrine-free, life-informed account is essential reading for anyone interested in Buddhism.

The Utility and Importance of Creeds and Confessions

The Utility and Importance of Creeds and Confessions
Author: Samuel Miller
Publisher:
Total Pages: 138
Release: 1839
Genre:
ISBN:

The Utility and Importance of Creeds and Confessions : Addressed Particularly to Candidates for the Ministry by Samuel Miller, first published in 1839, is a rare manuscript, the original residing in one of the great libraries of the world. This book is a reproduction of that original, which has been scanned and cleaned by state-of-the-art publishing tools for better readability and enhanced appreciation. Restoration Editors' mission is to bring long out of print manuscripts back to life. Some smudges, annotations or unclear text may still exist, due to permanent damage to the original work. We believe the literary significance of the text justifies offering this reproduction, allowing a new generation to appreciate it.

Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement

Why I Left the Contemporary Christian Music Movement
Author: Dan Lucarini
Publisher: EP BOOKS
Total Pages: 141
Release: 2002
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780852345177

For many churches today, music has become one of the most important factors in attempting to reach unbelievers with the gospel. Writing from his own personal experience as a former worship leader, Dan Lucarini questions the use of contemporary music in the worship of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

The Universe Is on Our Side

The Universe Is on Our Side
Author: Bruce Ledewitz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 2021
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0197563937

"There has been a breakdown in American public life that no election can fix. Americans cannot even converse about politics. All the usual explanations for our condition have failed to make things better. Bruce Ledewitz shows that America is living with the consequences of the Death of God, which Friedrich Nietzsche knew would be momentous and irreversible. God was this culture's story of the meaning of our lives. Even atheists had substitutes for God, like inevitable progress. Now we have no story and do not even think about the nature of reality. That is why we are angry and despairing. America's future requires that we begin a new story by each of us asking a question posed by theologian Bernard Lonergan: Is the universe on our side? When we commit to live honestly and fully by our answer to that question, even if our immediate answer is no, America will begin to heal. Beyond that, pondering the question of the universe will allow us to see that there is more to the universe than blind forces and dead matter. Guided by the naturalism of Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy, and the historical faith of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we can learn to trust that the universe bends toward justice and our welfare. That conclusion will complete our healing and restore faith in American public life. We can live without God, but not without thinking about holiness in the universe"--

Sacred Strangers

Sacred Strangers
Author: Nancy Haught
Publisher: Liturgical Press
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2017
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0814645046

The Bible is laced with stories in which strangers behave better than believers. What do these encounters with "others"--people from different cultures, religions, genders, economic and social classes--teach us about our own spiritual values, about the faith and God behind them? In Sacred Strangers, Nancy Haught leads readers through these stories, line by line, offering insight to open hearts to sacred strangers at a time when personal encounters can make us or break us--as people, Americans, and citizens of the world.