Aiming At Maturity

It seems that much of American Christianity has lost sight of the goal of growing to maturity in Christ. This loss of vision has had serious consequences for the quality of our witness and ministry. In Aiming at Maturity, Steven W. Rankin seeks to bring back into focus key qualities of spiritual maturity and summarizes important biblical passages to show the scriptural foundations that call for spiritual maturity. Rankin also addresses certain tendencies in popular Christian culture to reduce doctrinal truths to sound bites with the laudable but counterproductive goal to make doctrine memorable, therefore applicable. Thinking more expansively about certain key doctrines related to the work of Christ and the impact of grace contributes to growth toward maturity in a way that popular descriptions of these doctrines do not. Finally, Rankin also challenges readers to consider the important role of emotions in developing Christlike dispositions, which contribute toward producing the fruit of a mature Christian life. By looking at relevant modern research, Aiming at Maturity shows the inherent connection between thoughts and feelings that draw us closer to the actual biblical description of the heart.

This book offers an interpretation of the work of Theodor Adorno. In contrast to the conventional view that Adorno's is in essence a critical philosophy, Yvonne Sherratt traces systematically a utopian thesis that pervades all the major aspects of Adorno's thought. She places Adorno's work in the context of German Idealist and later Marxist and Freudian traditions, and then analyses his key works to show how the aesthetic, epistemological, psychological, historical and sociological thought interconnect to form a utopian image. The book will be eagerly sought out by students and specialists in philosophy, social and political theory, intellectual history, literary theory and cultural studies.

Three ’windows’ to spiritual maturity How can a faithful Christian avoid stagnating in their spiritual development? Moving Toward Spiritual Maturity: Psychological, Contemplative, and Moral Challenges in Christian Living explores effective ways in which Christian discipleship can grow in spiritual maturity. This thoughtful, integrative roadmap explains the journey through three interrelated perspectives, or ’windows,’ psychotherapeutic psychology, prayer and contemplation, and moral theology. The author uses numerous examples from everyday life to make the reflections interesting and practical. Unlike other books on Christian spirituality, this book is more challenging and sophisticated in its depth of thought. Spiritual maturity is a process that begins when a person accepts Jesus Christ as Savior, and progresses ongoing through a Christian’s life. Moving Toward Spiritual Maturity discusses in detail the challenges one must face, including the sustained, in-depth, and faithful attention to psychological wholeness, conversion to the true self, and interpersonal and social responsibility. Effective strategies are given through example and personal story, making understanding of the principles easier. This reflection on Christian maturity helps readers to focus directly on the personal issues all must face when attuning to the Spirit of Christ. Topics in Moving Toward Spiritual Maturity include: reforming the wayward self moral or guilt-based perfectionism achievement or shame-based perfectionism the two types of conversion responsibility and accountability agape and the loving of oneself three virtues at the heart of the responsible life—integrity, courage, and compassion virtues as habits the relationship between personal fulfillment and the Christian vocation Moving Toward Spiritual Maturity is a unique look at the path toward spiritual maturity, and is challenging, thoughtful reading for laypersons, ministers, priests, and theological students.

“Everyone today is an expert on love,” is Dr. Allan Fromme’s cryptic reflection on our current mood. With a sense of human adventure, Eugenia Price suggests in Make Love Your Aim that anyone can be “an expert on love” if he will dare to discover for himself the love God offers. “We have so sentimentalized our concept of love that it bears no resemblance to the original,” Miss Price writes. “We have taken the word of romantic novels and motion pictures and TV and perfume and men above the Word of God. The Bible declares that God is love. How closely does your concept of love resemble the love of God? We tend to judge the quality of love according to the way it makes the loved one feel. But to judge love by feeling is our big error and the point at which we turn aside from God’s original concept.” Make Love Your Aim is a companion piece to the author’s last book, The Wider Place, which was described by some readers as a “controversial challenge” to try the inner freedom God grants to anyone who want it enough to assume the responsibilities that come with it. Freedom and love are two sides of the same coin. And we can only understand them enough to practice them if we know the way God defines them. How does He do this? In Jesus Christ, the final yet continuing revelation of God’s true intentions toward all of us. Those who are familiar with Eugenia Price’s books will recognize this as a recurring theme. Make Love Your Aim develops it with imagination and versatility: “Jesus said, ‘If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.’ But He was offering to wave no magic wand over our heads so that we could do as we pleased. He also said, ‘This is my commandment, That you love one another as I have loved you.’ His is the love of the Cross, without self-defense, without self-pity – and totally free.”

Addressing the key research question of how organizations transform to generate new forms of public and shareholder value by leveraging digital technology, expert contributors provide a deep dive into a diverse variety of business models from around the globe. The book also provides a timely focus on multisector ecosystems where organizations have limited, if any, ability to operate using monopolistic and/or command-and-control mechanisms.

This textbook is intended for use by SPI (Software Process Improvement) m- agers and researchers, quality managers, and experienced project and research managers. The papers constitute the research proceedings of the 13th EuroSPI (European Software Process Improvement, www. eurospi. net) conference, held in Joensuu, Finland, 11-13 October 2006. The conference was held in 1994 in Dublin (Ireland), 1995 in Vienna (Austria), 1997 in Budapest (Hungary), 1998 in Gothenburg (Sweden), 1999 in Pori (Finland), 2000 in Copenhagen (D- mark), 2001 in Limerick (Ireland), 2002 in Nuremberg (Germany), 2003 in Graz (Austria), 2004 in Trondheim (Norway), and 2005 in Budapest (Hungary). - roSPI has established an experience library (library. eurospi. net) which will be continuously extended over the next years and will be made available to all - tendees. EuroSPI has also initiated a European Quali?cation Network in which di?erent SPINs and national initiatives join mutually bene?cial collaborations (EQN -- EU Leonardo da Vinci network project). With a founding conference on 5. 12. 2006 through EuroSPI partners and n- works, incollaborationwiththeEuropeanUnion(supportedbytheEULeonardo da Vinci Programme), a European certi?cation association will be created for the IT and services sector to o?er SPI knowledge and certi?cates to industry, establishing close knowledge transfer links between research and industry. The biggest value of EuroSPI lies in its function as a European knowledge and ex- rience exchange mechanism for SPI know-howbetween researchinstitutions and industry. September 2006 Richard Messnarz www. eurospi. net Organization OrganizationCommittee EuroSPI 2006 is organized by the EuroSPI partnership (www. eurospi.

A Guide to Navigate Evangelical Feminism In a society where gender roles are a hot-button topic, the church is not immune to the controversy. In fact, the church has wrestled with varying degrees of evangelical feminism for decades. As evangelical feminism has crept into the church, time-trusted resources like Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood help remind Christians of what the Bible has to say. In this edition of the award-winning best seller, more than 20 influential men and women such as John Piper, Wayne Grudem, D. A. Carson, and Elisabeth Elliot offer thought-provoking essays responding to the challenge egalitarianism poses to life in the church and in the home. Covering topics like role distinctions in the church, how biblical manhood and womanhood should work out in practice, and women in the history of the church, this helpful resource will help readers learn to orient their beliefs with God's unchanging word in an ever-changing culture.

Though first a doctor who treated patients, the author became a professor, questioning facts (researching), exciting students (teaching), borrowing ideas (from the breadth of science, statistics, technology, engineering and medicine), and challenging 'how it all works'. Though beginning gently, the question in the book eventually leads fiercely into how research, teaching, practice and service really occur, and to ferocious challenges both inside academia and out in society.It is hoped that this double-ferocity will be useful: to students wondering about their futures; to physician and scientist parents looking at the possibility of their children following them; to all parents and grandparents worrying about the careers of all offspring; to anyone interested in the processes of discovery, teaching, and service; and for everyone, concerned about the wider implications for education and for society.