Living Graciously On Planet Earth
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| Author | : Robert P. Vande Kappelle |
| Publisher | : Wipf and Stock Publishers |
| Total Pages | : 144 |
| Release | : 2016-05-18 |
| Genre | : Religion |
| ISBN | : 1498294162 |
Humans are happiest when they live virtuously. Building on the premise that the purpose of life is happiness conducive to the equitable flourishing of all humanity, Living Graciously on Planet Earth argues that the appropriate way to regard our abilities and moral opportunities is as gifts for the common good, to be used for the glory of God, guided by the biblical principles of stewardship and community. Utilizing a biblical approach and a Trinitarian perspective, while maintaining an appreciative eye to the contributions of the world's living religions, Dr. Vande Kappelle argues for a hierarchy of values necessary for gracious living in the twenty-first century. Ancient wisdom claims there are seven primary virtues, four "natural"--prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance--and three "supernatural"--faith, hope, and love. As the natural virtues help us grow morally, the supernatural virtues are designed for transformation. Using insights from the Enneagram as well as from diverse scholars such as Karen Armstrong, Marcus Borg, James Fowler, Matthew Fox, C. S. Lewis, Robin W. Lovin, and Huston Smith, Living Graciously examines the seven virtues in biblical, social, and cosmic context. This book's uplifting message delivers the perfect antidote to the current social malaise, characterized by arrogance, suspicion, negligence, and consumption. In addition, this book addresses difficult questions such as "Do we live in a moral universe?"; "Is there a benevolent deity watching over us?"; "Is there a purpose to life on earth?"; and "Is there a summum bonum (a greatest good)"? The answers in this insightful presentation will challenge your thinking and energize your living. Useful for individual or group use, each chapter contains aids to learning, including (a) a thesis statement indicating the central idea of the chapter, (b) a list of key biblical passages, (c) a chapter summary, and (d) questions for discussion and reflection.
| Author | : Robert P. Vande Kappelle |
| Publisher | : Wipf and Stock Publishers |
| Total Pages | : 183 |
| Release | : 2022-10-27 |
| Genre | : Religion |
| ISBN | : 1666762415 |
Everyone loves a good story—one with interesting characters, an intriguing plot, lots of twists and turns, and a surprise ending. Jesus was a master storyteller, teaching primarily through a technique we call parables. In fact, over one third of the gospel material in the New Testament is parabolic in nature. Examining the parables of Jesus, Living Water views parables as a wisdom genre belonging to mashal, the Jewish tradition of sacred poetry, stories, proverbs, riddles, and dialogues through which wisdom is conveyed. In the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), mashal is often associated with perplexing sayings, for its meaning is deliberately obscured in order to force the reader or listener to deeper thought and higher consciousness. While examining the parables of Jesus, Living Water focuses not so much on traditional explanations and interpretations but on their paradoxical and perplexing nature. In addition, this book encourages us to take a parabolic approach to all Scripture, viewing it as an aid to help us move from egoic existence to unitive existence. This Spirit-led way of living, thinking, and being requires a transformation from our False Self to our True Self, from dualist self-obsession to nondualist consciousness characterized by risk-taking, compassion, generosity, availability, and joy, a path charted by the parables of Jesus. Benefitting from recent scholarly research, Living Water is unique in content and conception and is useful for individual or group study. Each chapter concludes with questions suitable for discussion or reflection.
| Author | : Robert P. Vande Kappelle |
| Publisher | : Wipf and Stock Publishers |
| Total Pages | : 236 |
| Release | : 2020-02-17 |
| Genre | : Religion |
| ISBN | : 1725263882 |
Contrary to popular culture, the goal of life is not happiness, but meaning. Those who seek happiness by trying to avoid or finesse conflict, suffering, doubt, and change will find life increasingly superficial. Feeling good is a flawed measure of life, but living meaningfully is transformative, for then one is living a developmental rather than a regressive agenda. The ego does whatever it can to make itself comfortable, whereas spirituality is about wholeness. Adventures in Spirituality represents the culmination of Dr. Vande Kappelle’s forty-year teaching career, incorporating in one volume his views on topics as varied as theology, Christology, biblical interpretation, spirituality, ethics, world religions, religion and science, faith and reason, and church history. Reared in Costa Rica, the son of missionary parents, Dr. Vande Kappelle describes his journey from belief to faith as a transition from precritical to postcritical understanding, from evangelical Christianity to what he calls “alternative orthodoxy.” Narrating the shift from first- to second-half-of-life experience, he introduces readers to core principles that shaped his values, thinking, and way of life. Useful for individual or group study, Adventures in Spirituality encourages readers to take risks with their lives and faith, affirming that this is how one grows spiritually.
| Author | : Robert P. Vande Kappelle |
| Publisher | : Wipf and Stock Publishers |
| Total Pages | : 189 |
| Release | : 2022-12-20 |
| Genre | : Religion |
| ISBN | : 1666764949 |
Human beings are happiest when they live virtuously. For Jesus and his first followers, living virtuously meant loving God and others as extensions of oneself. However, what began as an inclusive ethical way of life based on unconditional love gradually degenerated into an exclusive social and political religious movement that came to be known as Christendom. Originally a continuation of Jewish messianism, the Christian movement aligned itself with Platonic and Aristotelian elements, comprising a marriage of specific elements of Greek philosophy with Roman imperialism. What if, instead of aligning with the dualist, idealist, exclusivist, and supremacist Socratic movement perpetuated by Plato and his followers, ancient Christians had aligned with the nondualist, realist, inclusivist, and egalitarian Stoic movement spread by Zeno and his followers, an ethical tradition that, like the teachings of Jesus, was guided by providential and natural law ethics? The results of such a synthesis, laid out in this innovative study, are practical, inspiring, and transformative, for they are based on the greatest vision possible for humanity, a nondualist approach to life that counters authoritarian and exclusivist behavior fostered by supremacist political, ethical, and social religious ideologies. Unlike Christendom, based on ecclesiastical triumphalism, the way of Christlikeness, envisioned by Jesus for humanity, is grounded in humility, compassion, service, and love of others.
| Author | : Robert P. Vande Kappelle |
| Publisher | : Wipf and Stock Publishers |
| Total Pages | : 165 |
| Release | : 2023-01-20 |
| Genre | : Religion |
| ISBN | : 1666768103 |
Whether religiously theists, atheists, agnostics, or simply seekers, each of us is on a journey of faith, spiraling through stages, seasons, or phases of spirituality. On this journey, we discover that spirituality is more caught than taught, and that faith, enriched more by subtraction than by addition, is more about unlearning than learning. At the center of Jesus' life and message stands the exhortation to receive and share divine love. The two volumes of Heart to Heart, excerpted from Dr. Vande Kappelle's published writings, examine the meaning and implications of the biblical Great Commandment to love God and others as oneself. Whereas the first volume examines the spiritual journey inward, this companion volume examines the journey outward. Ultimately there is only one spiritual journey--the journey Godward--and there is only one commandment. Divine love is the key to everything. Unloved people misbehave, fail to love, or fail to change. Loved people aren't concerned with rules, regulations, or beliefs. Rather, because they are loved, they take proper care of themselves, and in so doing, care for nature and others as extensions of themselves. Heart to Heart is written for those who affirm the value of lifelong spiritual growth, realize the limits of logic, and embrace the paradoxes in life. If you are willing to commit less than ten minutes a day over a seven-month period, you will undertake a spiritual journey of epic proportions, guaranteed to transform you morally and spiritually. In addition, you will come to embrace Christianity as the transformative movement envisioned by Jesus for humanity, a way of life grounded in compassion, justice, service, humility, and love of others.
| Author | : Robert P. Vande Kappelle |
| Publisher | : Wipf and Stock Publishers |
| Total Pages | : 161 |
| Release | : 2023-01-20 |
| Genre | : Religion |
| ISBN | : 1666716677 |
Whether religiously theists, atheists, agnostics, or simply seekers, each of us is on a journey of faith, spiraling through stages, seasons, or phases of spirituality. On this journey, we discover that spirituality is more caught than taught, and that faith, enriched more by subtraction than by addition, is more about unlearning than learning. At the center of Jesus’ life and message stands the exhortation to receive and share divine love. The two volumes of Heart to Heart, excerpted from Dr. Vande Kappelle’s published writings, examine the meaning and implications of the biblical Great Commandment to love God and others as oneself. This volume examines the spiritual journey inward, and its companion volume, the journey outward. Ultimately there is only one spiritual journey—the journey Godward—and there is only one commandment. Divine love is the key to everything. Unloved people misbehave, fail to love, or fail to change. Loved people aren’t concerned with rules, regulations, or beliefs. Rather, because they are loved, they take proper care of themselves, and in so doing, care for nature and others as extensions of themselves. Heart to Heart is written for those who affirm the value of lifelong spiritual growth, realize the limits of logic, and embrace the paradoxes in life. If you are willing to commit less than ten minutes a day over a seven-month period, you will undertake a spiritual journey of epic proportions, guaranteed to transform you morally and spiritually. In addition, you will come to embrace Christianity as the transformative movement envisioned by Jesus for humanity, a way of life grounded in compassion, justice, service, humility, and love of others.
| Author | : Robert P. Vande Kappelle |
| Publisher | : Wipf and Stock Publishers |
| Total Pages | : 264 |
| Release | : 2020-07-24 |
| Genre | : Religion |
| ISBN | : 1725283107 |
Spirituality is our connection to a greater whole. It is a journey “from God, to God, and with God,” and thus a journey toward Self. Through this process, we come to differentiate between our temporary self, called ego, and our permanent self, the part of us made for ongoing relationship with God. In the end, we discover that we know God by being known, much like one loves by being loved. There are two “halves” or phases in spirituality, sometimes flawed, sometimes overlapping, and other times distinct. While many people experience first-half-of-life spirituality, most never get to second-half-of-life thinking and living. Designed as a study guide for group or individual use, The Second Journey examines the development of Christian spirituality, starting with its conception in the biblical and Greek philosophical tradition and continuing in orthodox and heterodox expressions. Reading this book is like looking through one’s favorite album of photographs, each illustrating some aspect or dimension vital to spirituality. The range of portraits examined is extensive, including groups such as Platonists, Stoics, Gnostics, Quakers, Revivalists, Neo-Orthodox, and Eastern Orthodox, and individuals such as Philo, Valentinus, Origen, Dionysius, Augustine, Julian of Norwich, John of the Cross, Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, Schleiermacher, Kierkegaard, Barth, Tillich, and Richard Rohr. Examining traditional and non-traditional thinkers, readers will discover that knowing God involves both light and darkness, usually in that order. “Spirituality does not make us otherworldly; it renders us more fully alive.” ––Matthew Fox
| Author | : Robert P. Vande Kappelle |
| Publisher | : Wipf and Stock Publishers |
| Total Pages | : 202 |
| Release | : 2019-05-24 |
| Genre | : Religion |
| ISBN | : 1532690223 |
What is addiction, and how do we know if we are addicted? Speaking sociologically, we are addicted because we live in addictive societies that turn us into consumers and materialists. Speaking biologically, we are addicted because that is how we are hardwired. Speaking spiritually, we are addicted because we seek spiritual satisfaction through things other than God. Humans can be addicted to most any object, ideology, and belief, but they cannot be addicted to the true God, for reasons disclosed in this text. As this book demonstrates, addiction is a pattern of learned behavior that utilizes ancient mental pathways designed to promote survival and reproduction. When neural connections intended to promote eating, reproduction, parenting, and social relationships are diverted into addiction, their blessings can become curses. While heredity, parenting, trauma, and additional psychological and sociological factors play significant roles in compulsive behavior, addiction is essentially a developmental disorder, a way to manage an environment that feels threatening and overwhelming. Change (getting unstuck) is possible, but it requires five ingredients: acknowledgment, resolution, substitution, human help, and divine help. Because addictions represent complex interactions between biological, psychological, social, and spiritual forces, the solution must be holistic as well. Designed as a study guide for groups or individual use, this book approaches the topic comprehensively, examining the nature of addiction; its cause, symptoms, consequences, and means of recovery.
| Author | : Kevin Foo |
| Publisher | : BrainyFoo Wordsmith |
| Total Pages | : 87 |
| Release | : 2023-12-05 |
| Genre | : Family & Relationships |
| ISBN | : |
"Gracious Living Reimagined" – Rediscovering Urban Grace Enter the captivating world of "Gracious Living Reimagined," the latest treasure in Kevin Foo's celebrated series, "Have We Lost It? - Graciousness Chronicles." Step into Elmwood Towers, a bustling high-rise community within a cosmopolitan city. Here, the art of gracious living takes center stage, painting a vibrant tapestry across high-rise apartments and inviting homes. Each apartment unit bears a fruit-inspired name, symbolizing the diverse life within these walls. The Apple-Lees epitomize modern family virtues, blending career success, health consciousness, eco-living, and a love for sports and animals. But Elmwood Towers is a community rich in diversity. The Orange-Jacksons, Cherry-Rahmans, and more add their unique colours. From tech-savvy Persimmon-Dongs to charming Strawberry-Browns, and soaring Berry-Sivas to culinary experts Jackfruit-Magsaysays, this ensemble cast is both diverse and endearing. Beyond, each floor offers a cultural kaleidoscope. Meet the artistic Melon-Kims, fashion-forward Durian-Tahirs, or join the festive Mandarin-Pawlowskis. Yet, true heroes often work in the shadows. Janitors, repairmen, and others maintain this bustling urban maze. "Gracious Living Reimagined" by Kevin Foo isn't just a book; it's an invitation. Wander through pages blending humour, insights, and life lessons into modern urban life. Characters and stories will mirror your experiences, sparking questions and dreams. Open the book, immerse yourself in contemporary life, and rediscover living with zest, grace, and whimsy. Venture closer to the soul of a community, embarking on a journey through modern life's joys and challenges. Your voyage through these pages promises enlightenment, much like a leisurely walk in your neighbourhood. Don't miss this chance to explore the enchantment of "Gracious Living Reimagined," a new edition of a beloved classic.
| Author | : Kevin Foo |
| Publisher | : BrainyFoo Wordsmith |
| Total Pages | : 86 |
| Release | : 2023-12-05 |
| Genre | : Family & Relationships |
| ISBN | : |
"Gracious Living Reimagined" – Rediscovering Urban Grace Enter the captivating world of "Gracious Living Reimagined," the latest treasure in Kevin Foo's celebrated series, "Have We Lost It? - Graciousness Chronicles." Step into Elmwood Towers, a bustling high-rise community within a cosmopolitan city. Here, the art of gracious living takes center stage, painting a vibrant tapestry across high-rise apartments and inviting homes. Each apartment unit bears a fruit-inspired name, symbolizing the diverse life within these walls. The Apple-Lees epitomize modern family virtues, blending career success, health consciousness, eco-living, and a love for sports and animals. But Elmwood Towers is a community rich in diversity. The Orange-Jacksons, Cherry-Rahmans, and more add their unique colours. From tech-savvy Persimmon-Dongs to charming Strawberry-Browns, and soaring Berry-Sivas to culinary experts Jackfruit-Magsaysays, this ensemble cast is both diverse and endearing. Beyond, each floor offers a cultural kaleidoscope. Meet the artistic Melon-Kims, fashion-forward Durian-Tahirs, or join the festive Mandarin-Pawlowskis. Yet, true heroes often work in the shadows. Janitors, repairmen, and others maintain this bustling urban maze. "Gracious Living Reimagined" by Kevin Foo isn't just a book; it's an invitation. Wander through pages blending humour, insights, and life lessons into modern urban life. Characters and stories will mirror your experiences, sparking questions and dreams. Open the book, immerse yourself in contemporary life, and rediscover living with zest, grace, and whimsy. Venture closer to the soul of a community, embarking on a journey through modern life's joys and challenges. Your voyage through these pages promises enlightenment, much like a leisurely walk in your neighbourhood. Don't miss this chance to explore the enchantment of "Gracious Living Reimagined," a new edition of a beloved classic.
