You Are What You Love

You Are What You Love
Author: James K. A. Smith
Publisher: Brazos Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2016-03-29
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1493403664

You are what you love. But you might not love what you think. In this book, award-winning author James K. A. Smith shows that who and what we worship fundamentally shape our hearts. And while we desire to shape culture, we are not often aware of how culture shapes us. We might not realize the ways our hearts are being taught to love rival gods instead of the One for whom we were made. Smith helps readers recognize the formative power of culture and the transformative possibilities of Christian practices. He explains that worship is the "imagination station" that incubates our loves and longings so that our cultural endeavors are indexed toward God and his kingdom. This is why the church and worshiping in a local community of believers should be the hub and heart of Christian formation and discipleship. Following the publication of his influential work Desiring the Kingdom, Smith received numerous requests from pastors and leaders for a more accessible version of that book's content. No mere abridgment, this new book draws on years of Smith's popular presentations on the ideas in Desiring the Kingdom to offer a fresh, bottom-up rearticulation. The author creatively uses film, literature, and music illustrations to engage readers and includes new material on marriage, family, youth ministry, and faith and work. He also suggests individual and communal practices for shaping the Christian life.

Flame of Love

Flame of Love
Author: Clark H. Pinnock
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Total Pages: 207
Release: 2022-04-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1514001314

In what may be regarded as his magnum opus, Clark Pinnock explores the vital Christian doctrine of the Holy Spirit, restoring the Spirit to centrality in the life and witness of the church. For this second edition, theologian Daniel Castelo draws from his experience using this book in the classroom to add helpful commentary and brief reflections on each chapter.

The Four Loves

The Four Loves
Author: C. S. Lewis
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2017-02-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0062565451

The revered author's classic work that examines the four types of human love: affection, friendship, erotic love, and the love of God.? In this work Lewis examines four varieties of love, as approached from the Greek language: storge, the most basic form; philia, the rarest and perhaps most insightful; eros, passionate love; and agape, the love of God, the greatest and least selfish. ?Throughout this compassionate and reasoned study, he encourages readers to open themselves to all forms of love—the key to understanding that brings us closer to God.? "There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable . . . draw nearer to God, not be trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armor. If our hearts need to be broken, and if He chooses this as the way in which they should break, so be it."? In Four Loves, C. S. Lewis explores love to help you · Strengthen your interpersonal relationships · Understand the different between needed pleasures and appreciation pleasures and need-love and gift-love · Care for the people in your life, avoid pitfalls, and improve your relationship God The Four Loves holds a mirror to our current society and leaves no doubt that our modern understanding of love is heavily misunderstood.

Relational Theology

Relational Theology
Author: Brint Montgomery
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 112
Release: 2012-11-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1621894991

A growing number of Christians feel drawn to relational theology. The God of the Bible seems thoroughly relational, and we are increasingly aware of our own interrelatedness with others. Contributors to this volume tease out some implications of relational theology in light of a host of issues, doctrines, and agendas. The result is a must-read collection of essays with proposals sure to be the center of conversations for decades to come!

Working with Oneness

Working with Oneness
Author: Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
Publisher: The Golden Sufi Center
Total Pages: 172
Release: 2002-05-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1890350052

Humanity has been given access to the secrets of oneness, but we need to learn how to work with them. Working with Oneness brings mysticism into the center of the marketplace, into the world of business and technology, and shows how we can work with it in everyday life. The dynamic energy of oneness has the potential to heal the planet and revolutionize life more than we can imagine, but it requires our individual participation and awareness to become fully alive. The energy of oneness is already present but waiting to be lived, and Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee provides a blueprint for working consciously with this energy. As we understand how our consciousness affects the whole fabric of life, the potential for real global change comes alive. Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee stresses the need to change from hierarchical, patriarchal power structures to organic patterns that allow for the free flow of energy and ideas. Through these patterns the dynamic energy of oneness can become part of everyday life. Working with Oneness includes a number of additional important topics, including: the changing energy structure of the planet and how to work with it; the power of individual consciousness; the danger of the desire for spiritual security; the return of joy to everyday life; the awakening of the heart of the world; a new understanding of magic; the use of the imagination; and mystical participation in life with the energy of oneness. Working with Oneness offers guidance on how to work with the energy of oneness, to learn how to participate in life free of the patterns of the past, so that the divine can come alive in every moment of every day. Working with Oneness is mystical activism at its most potent. “There is a growing and eager audience waiting for a vision of unity consciousness... Working with Oneness offers a salutary antidote to worn-out antagonisms. It challenges readers to join other kindred souls in a mystical activism that can bring new hope to humanity.” —Spirituality & Health “A book filled with wonder and the kind of insights that can leap out to your heart and gladden you for having read them. It's words are simple and straightforward—always a blessing—but its message it the most vital and important for the time in which we live. I recommend it.” —David Spangler, author, Blessings: the Art and the Practice

When Angels Speak of Love

When Angels Speak of Love
Author: bell hooks
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 113
Release: 2007-02-06
Genre: Poetry
ISBN: 1416538232

Feminist icon bell hooks reminds us of the full spectrum of feeling we spend in love through her inspiring collection of love poetry, with a new introduction by Cole Arthur Riley, author of Black Liturgies. Written from the heart, When Angels Speak of Love is a book of fifty love poems by bell hooks, one our most beloved public intellectuals, and author of over twenty books, including the bestselling All About Love. Poem after poem, hooks challenges our views and experiences with love—tracing the links between seduction and surrender, the intensity of desire, and the anguish of death. “Love must clean house, choose memories to keep, and memories to let go,” she writes. These verses are expansive yet accessible—encompassing romantic love, to love of family, friends, or oneself. In any iteration, these poems remind us of both the beauty and possibility of love.

The Book of Love

The Book of Love
Author: Andrew M. Greeley
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
Total Pages: 649
Release: 2008-01-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 142991825X

Love. Of all the virtues that have been passed on to us through the ages, from the great poets to the saints and scholars, throughout history and literature, love is the one virtue that we as a society cannot live without. The ability to love well and to love wisely is the most important trait that parents can pass on to their children. As children grow, the longing to share this love as well as receive it will remain strong throughout their lives. Bestselling author Andrew M. Greeley and his sister, Dr. Mary G. Durkin have complied a beautiful and inspiring anthology that will help us comprehend this the most important of virtues and also help us express and understand what it means to love, and how to love wisely. The Book of Love is a perfect gift for a parent to give to a child, for relatives or friends to share, or for those who are coming to know this virtue in all its glory. People of all nations, creeds, colors, and denominations will appreciate this treasury of essays, poems, stories, and songs reflecting the one human need that has remained constant: Love. It has been written about in the Bible, and it was passed down orally in myth and legend. It was discussed by the Chinese philosopher Confucius and in the Koran, and it inspired great works of literature and the pages of popular fiction. The Book of Love is a testament to the enduring nature of our own good, a good expressed through the human bond. In the tradition of William J. Bennett's The Book of Virtue, The Book of Love is a collection to be treasured, and shared, but most of all, it will guide us to express and to pass on the greatest of life's virtues: Love. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.