Crossing Thresholds

The human transformation available at the 'limen' (literally: the edge or threshold), noticed across different cultures by anthropologists, is at the heart of the Gospel. Indeed the liminal place is the place of transformation and change par excellence. We live in age of enormous and rapid change to which we do not yet see an end. There is therefore a 'kairos' moment here for the church to understand the importance of liminality through this unique book. Reading this book will offer new 'lenses' to understand humanity, God's world, the shape of Christian discipleship, the church and its mission differently. The authors believe engaging with liminality can help both readers' faith and the church to be re-imagined - and have included case studies, exercises and questions in each chapter to help this process.

With candor, passion, and deep love for her work, Lucy Forster-Smith takes us across the threshold as a chaplain on a college campus. This vocational narrative braids the story of her faith journey that began on a porch when she was a four-year-old, was shaken by a sexual assault as a seminarian, and through healing and grace brought her to claim a call to ministry with students. With delightful humor and an infectious love for her work, Forster-Smith invites the reader into her world. Crossing Thresholds is a theological narrative, weaving together the story of faith in the context of the professional life of a college chaplain. Lighting on the power of spiritual awakening at a college, once named as the number one institution of higher education that "ignored God on a regular basis," Forster-Smith jars loose the assumptions about the avowedly secular campus. Her journey of healing and grace illuminates and guides to cross the threshold of the campus's soul.

Through 40 eloquent prayers and small simple photographs that mirror and interpret the text, Being Home is a celebration of mindfulness. As M. Scott Peck put it, "This is simply the best book I know on the subject of the sacrament of the present moment, and a great work of devotional literature." 43 duotone photographs..

A great international bestseller, the book in which, on the eve of the millennium, Pope John Paul II brings to an accessible level the profoundest theological concerns of our lives. He goes to the heart of his personal beliefs and speaks with passion about the existence of God; about the dignity of man; about pain, suffering, and evil; about eternal life and the meaning of salvation; about hope; about the relationship of Christianity to other faits and that of Catholicism to other branches of the Christian faith.With the humility and generosity of spirit for which he is known, John Paul II speaks directly and forthrightly to all people. His message: Be not afraid!

From the author of the bestselling Anam Cara comes a beautiful collection of blessings to help readers through both the everyday and the extraordinary events of their lives. John O’Donohue, Irish teacher and poet, has been widely praised for his gift of drawing on Celtic spiritual traditions to create words of inspiration and wisdom for today. In To Bless the Space Between Us, his compelling blend of elegant, poetic language and spiritual insight offers readers comfort and encouragement on their journeys through life. O’Donohue looks at life’s thresholds—getting married, having children, starting a new job—and offers invaluable guidelines for making the transition from a known, familiar world into a new, unmapped territory. Most profoundly, however, O’Donohue explains “blessing” as a way of life, as a lens through which the whole world is transformed. O’Donohue awakens readers to timeless truths and shows the power they have to answer contemporary dilemmas and ease us through periods of change.

In Crossing Thresholds, Amba Gale deeply touches upon themes that are relevant to living our lives with meaning, gratitude, and wonder. Through photographs and poems, taken and written in the Isle Royale area of Lake Superior, she shares her own story of tapping into Silence, through connecting with the natural world, and, from there, into her own deep wisdom and creativity, as she crossed a personal threshold, which crossing necessitated embracing impermanence, letting go of resistance to what is, accepting change, making room for endings, creating completion, and opening up space for new beginnings. As a coach for and leader in people's personal development and transformation, and a stand for the awakening of human consciousness, she creates compelling reflective inquiries, inquiries to think within, associated with each poem and photograph, which allow us to engage with our own, parallel, journey, as we, too, move into our depths.

Articles chiefly with reference to Maharashtra, India.

Who is Hindu, who is Muslim? The answer, according to Dominique-Sila Khan, is not as simple as generally assumed. By analyzing documentary sources as well as original field data, she examines the shaping of religious identities in South Asia, particularly in North India. The author argues that the perception of Islam and Hinduism as two monolithic and perpetually antagonistic faiths coexisting uneasily in South Asia has become so deeply ingrained that the complexity of the historical fabric is often overlooked or ignored. She demonstrates how the emergence of clear-cut categories is a comparatively recent phenomenon, and shows how the past is characterized by a remarkable fluidity and diversity in the social and religious milieus of the two faiths. In exploring the historical mechanisms that have led to the emergence and crystallization of religious identities the author sheds light on the increasing number of conflicts which threaten the harmonious co-existence of South Asian communities today.