Enjoying Religion

“Enjoying religion” seems to be a contradiction because religion is generally perceived as a serious or even suppressive phenomenon. This volume is the first to study the increase of enjoying religion systematically by presenting eleven new case studies, occurring on four continents. The volume concludes that in our late modern secular societies the enjoyment of religion or of its loose elements is growing. In particular when scholars concentrate on “lived religion” of ordinary people, the cheerful experiences appear to prevail. Many people use pleasant (elements of) religion to add meaning to their lives, to find spiritual fulfillment or a way to salvation, and to experience belonging to a larger unity. At the same time, diverse cultural dynamics of late modern society such as popular culture, commercialization, re-enchantment, and feminization influence this trend of enjoying religion. In spite of secularization, playing with religion appears to be attractive.

We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.

This is an innovative and interactive book that is the first of a four-part series. Enjoying Your Journey With God is a totally practical, non-religious guide to understanding the Christian faith. Throughout this book, you will find words laced with mercy and kindness, inviting you to encounter and examine God through biblical eyes, without a bunch of religious overtones weighing the process down. You will have the opportunity to come face-to-face with the God of covenant relationships instead of the dictator of law and religion. This is truly a book that offers insightful study into the very nature of God and his ways.

"I am in the F.S.P. F.S.P. stands for Field Security Personnel. That is the authorized version." So begins this remarkable account of six months' service with the British Expeditionary Force in France, up to and including the terrible retreat to and evacuation from the beaches of Dunkirk at the end of May, 1940. Absorbing, affecting, thrilling, often funny, this book is very different from other war memoirs. It was the first on-the-ground account of Dunkirk to be published (in 1942) and lacks nothing in the immediacy of its telling. The narrative is gripping and the style is revolutionary, immersing the readers in the emotional and psychological turbulence of the author's experience, and making them feel they are living through it themselves. The result is a stunningly authentic and involving record of one of the defining episodes of twentieth-century British history. Editor N.H. Reeve provides a lucid critical and biographical Afterword, and includes two extracts from an unfinished work by Gwynn-Browne, in which his idiosyncratic stream-of-consciousness style is used to describe the London Blitz and the mood of the civilian population in wartime.

Offers practical advice to retirees while challenging them to approach this period of life with fidelity to the inner values of their hearts, so they can truly live with purpose in later life.

This title provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary account of the scholarship on religion, conflict, and peacebuilding. Extending that inquiry beyond its traditional parameters, the volume explores the legacies of colonialism, missionary activism, secularism, orientalism, and liberalism. While featuring case studies from diverse contexts and traditions, the volume is organised thematically.