Holy Curiosity

Popular author and columnist Winn Collier invites readers to hear Jesus's persistent questions, to allow them to penetrate the soul, and to be called to the untamed life that Jesus offers.

Since we think of Jesus as a teacher with divine authority, it may be surprising to discover how often he asked his disciples a question rather than giving them an answer. What kind of an all-knowing God asks questions of mere humans? This thought-provoking study of the "questioning" Jesus explores the depths of his subversive ways. In Holy Curiosity, Winn Collier invites readers to allow Jesus' persistent questions to penetrate the soul, to be called toward the untamed life Jesus offers.

Listening skills, and the perspective gained through careful listening, are more important in congregations than ever. Many factors make attentive listening a significant contributor to healthy congregations. As we enter into a post-Christendom culture, the people coming into congregations, as well as the people in the wider community, are less likely to be operating from a shared set of assumptions. With world-wide migration reshaping our communities and congregations, diverse perspectives coming from varied cultural backgrounds are also more common. The breakdown of many support structures in society has created profound pastoral care needs, making listening increasingly significant for both ministers and lay leaders. Polarization over so many issues and the increasing emphasis on story-telling in the journey of faith are two additional reasons why listening matters today. Careful and loving listening nurtures care, connection and depth, which contribute to congregational life and health. Listening to God is another aspect of listening which is gaining increased attention today. Many congregational leaders have become weary of church as a business and are looking for authentic experiences of God’s guidance. Congregations are increasingly engaging in communal discernment. Many listening skills used in human interactions are also building blocks for listening to God.

One passage, two verses, four words. As a writer and an adjunct professor of psychology, Amy Hollingsworth is on her way to becoming an "expert" on creativity. But just days before delivering her first professional seminar on the topic, she has an unsettling dream. The dream awakens her to the fact that she has missed a crucial element in understanding what true creativity is. Trying to unravel the dream, she soon discovers its contents reflected in a single passage of ancient literature. In this passage she sees for the first time creativity's core, its spiritual roots, and as its meaning unfolds through months of spiritual reflection and study, it confirms the very scientific theories she's been teaching all along. In fact, she discovers the underpinnings of the whole body of creativity research tucked into four small words penned centuries ago, kernels of truth that explode with a new depth of meaning. As she digs deeper, she uncovers for the reader God's blueprint for cultivating the creative spirit in everyday life, through a practical outworking of her spiritual findings. In the end, both writer and reader come away with a new understanding of their own creative abilities--and a profound sense of what's truly holy about holy curiosity.

Why did people argue about curiosity in France, Germany, and elsewhere in Europe between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries, so much more than today? Why was curiosity a fashionable topic in early modern conduct manuals, university dissertations, scientific treatises, sermons, newspapers, novellas, plays, operas, ballets, poems, from Corneille to Diderot, from Johann Valentin Andreae to Gottlieb Spizel? Universities, churches, and other institutions invoked curiosity in order to regulate knowledge or behaviour, to establish who should try to know or do what, and under what circumstances. As well as investigating a crucial episode in the history of knowledge, this study makes a distinctive contribution to historiographical debates about the nature of 'concepts'. Curiosity was constantly reshaped by the uses of it. And yet, strangely, however much people contested what curiosity was, they often agreed that what they were disagreeing about was one and the same thing.

2,000 years ago, the Son of God prayed to His Father, “Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” This prayer, the greatest ever uttered by the lips of man, will not go unanswered. Jesus has revealed to an Italian mystic named Luisa that the time has now at last arrived for its fulfillment; that is, for the restoration of what was destroyed by Adam 6,000 years ago in the Fall of Man. In brief: the entire world is about to be radically transformed like never before in its history. This is probably something you should know about. This book has been written to inform you about the transformation and to enable you to take part in it and hasten it. But this transformation will not be achieved through human effort. It will be given directly from Heaven by way of God's greatest Gift: the Gift of Living in the Divine Will, which is the Crown of Sanctity, and which even now we must all strive to receive. In this sanctity is found The Culmination of Deification, the Fruitfulness of Mystical Marriage, the Aspiration of the Unification of Wills, and the Essence of Marian Consecration. This is none other than the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary promised at Fatima. It is the coming of the Kingdom of God. This is a long book, but its length should turn away no one, as a thorough and detailed table of contents is given so that each reader can easily select only those sections in which he is interested for his perusal. And any reader is sure to find much that interests him. Within these pages is a treasury of resources; not only concerning Luisa's revelations directly, but also on new arguments for God's existence and the truth of Christianity, extensive Catechesis on Private Revelation in general and on the spiritual life in general (including overviews of the greatest teachings on spirituality in the history of the Church), and details on the Era of Peace as revealed to Luisa and many other mystics, visionaries, and seers (Fatima, Medjugorje, Venerable Conchita, Fr. Gobbi, and dozens more). You will not regret reading this book. This is our great hope and our petition: "Your Kingdom come" - a kingdom of peace, justice, and serenity, that will re-establish the original harmony of creation. – Pope St. John Paul II

Wisdom, Faith, and Service captures the essence of the institutional vocation and mission of Bushnell University from its founding in 1895. The Bushnell Saga—past, present, and future—is shaped and framed by the individual “wisdom, faith, and service sagas” of Bushnell People—women, men, professors, students, alumni, administrators, and countless friends—whose own vocational callings have contributed to and benefited from the saga of this institution. In this book, current Bushnell People reflect theologically and practically on the university’s mission and share the stories of other Bushnell People whose lives embody the high calling of wisdom, faith, and service.

An imaginary, extended dialogue with Plato, Socrates, Spinoza and William James presents philosophical ideas that have never been more relevant for Western civilization. Neal K. Grossman discusses how a post-materialist social order can solve the challenges of modern life, and insure our survival.