Spirituality In Dark Places

Jeffreys explores the spiritual consequences and ethics of modern solitary confinement and emphasizes how solitary confinement damages our spiritual lives. He focuses particularly on how it destroys one's relationship to time and undermines our creativity, and proposes institutional changes in order to mitigate profound damage to prisoners.

This book brings the key evidence together and presents a new picture of Parmenides, the ancient Greek poet, as priest, initiate and healer.

"The true stories in Through Dark Places are in turn heartbreaking and inspiring as they explore the human response to loss, mortality, and the intervening hand of God. The men and women at the center of each account face life-changing experiences that shake and strengthen their faith, forcing them to grapple with fundamental questions about the meaning of life."--P. [4] of cover.

The Christian believer routinely experiences periods in their life referred to as a dark night of the soul. In such times a person feels as if God has left him or her alone and God has distanced himself from the individual in this period of liminality. It is considered to be a time of trial and testing which only afterwards is viewed as a period of growth and maturing in Christ. In this book, Daniel McGregor explores the Biblical foundation for this concept, as well as providing a historical survey of Christian theologians and authors who examine these themes and experiences. This volume will provide an ideal introduction to the subject for the serious layperson or a suitable reading for an introductory class in religious studies.

A gay priest explores his experiences loosing his faith and regaining it through charity.

Why are people drawn to alternative religions that deviate from the norm of Christian beliefs? Why do they stay? What compels them to cling to a false dogma, even in the face of evidence that their beliefs are in error? Why do they engage in scriptural gymnastics in defense of beliefs that have no grounding in Christian theology? Why do they tolerate abusiveness from charismatic leaders and cede personal freedom? Why are they willing to defend these leaders and their institutions to the bitter end? After a lifetime of spiritual incarceration, Jim Turner began studying the cult mentality in order to better understand his actions. He researched religious cults and their practices and traced their teachings throughout history as they found their way into the "New Religions." His studies have convinced him that there is indeed "nothing new under the sun." New Religions offer amended ideas that identified past cults. Modern cults have extracted beliefs from past groups and added a spin that presents them as original and, of course, inspired. Psychological manipulation plays a significant role in the development and continuation of modern cults, but Jim Turner has presented a convincing argument that the psychological condition and willingness of cultists to surrender their freedom to cult leaders and their irrational tendencies to elevate a revered leader to a semi-divine level are equally responsible for the advancement of cults. Follow the author through the early stages of cult indoctrination, the personal abuses he experienced at the hands of the cult, his personal choices as he rose through the ranks of the cult and his eventual enlightenment to the deceptiveness of the cult led by Herbert W. Armstrong. Walk with him out of the darkness of cultic deception into the glorious light of the Grace of God through Jesus Christ.