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Spirituality and Religion March 2024
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| Mostly What God Does: Reflections on Seeking and Finding His Love Everywhere by Savannah GuthrieBeginning with her Baptist upbringing, Today co-anchor Savannah Guthrie reflects on the role faith has played in her life and how her relationship with religion has evolved over time. From there, she takes readers through her existing understanding of God as love and the importance of making space for imperfection in her spiritual life. |
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| Far Beyond Gold: Running From Fear to Faith by Sydney McLaughlinIn her debut memoir, Olympic gold medalist Sydney McLaughlin offers a candid account of her life, career, and faith, including the overwhelming anxieties she faced at the 2016 Rio Games, the crisis that followed, and how her spiritual renewal empowered her to confidently face her next chance to go for the gold. |
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A Good Life: 15 Essential Habits for Living With Hope and Joy
by Pope Francis
In this internationally bestselling book, Pope Francis shares fifteen rules for how to live a happy and fulfilling life. Life can be hard, but no matter what challenges you are facing, Pope Francis wants you to know you were created by God for this moment. There is always a way to find joy and to celebrate the wonder of the life we have been given. In this brand-new book, Pope Francis offers fifteen mindsets that allow readers to find hope and meaning in every circumstance. He encourages us to defend and protect the light that shines in us, to believe in the beautiful, to find meaning in the struggles, to work for peace, and to build something wherever we are. He also reminds us of the importance of gratitude, warns Christians against complacency, and encourages real, face-to-face connection over conversations merely on screens. He points us toward the light, and also opens up with powerful vulnerability about times he has faced the darkness himself, calling us all to meaningful prayer. None of us knows how many days are left before us. The wisdom in this heartfelt collection will encourage, inspire, equip, and ultimately help you to live a beautiful and meaningful life.
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The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism
by Tim Alberta
An award-winning journalist follows up his New York Times bestseller American Carnage with this profoundly troubling portrait of the American evangelical movement in which he investigates the ways in which conservative Christians have pursued, exercised and often abused power in the name of securing this earthly kingdom.
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The Life of the Qur'an: From Eternal Roots to Enduring Legacy
by Mohamad Jebara
Based on extensive scholarship, an innovative biography of the central text of Islam Over a billion copies of the Qur`an exist, yet it remains an enigma. Its classical Arabic language resists simple translation, and its non-linear style of abstract musings defies categorization. Moreover, those who champion its sanctity and compete to claim its mantle offer widely diverging interpretations of its core message at times with explosive results. Building on his intimate portrait of the Qur`an's prophet in Muhammad the World-Changer, Mohamad Jebara returns with a vivid profile of the book itself. While viewed in retrospect as the grand scripture of triumphant empires, Jebara reveals how the Qur`an unfolded over 22 years amidst intense persecution, suffering, and loneliness. The Life of the Qur`an recounts this vivid drama as a biography examining the book's obscured heritage, complex revelation, and contested legacy. The Qur`an re-emerges with clarity as a dynamic life force that seeks to inspire human beings to unleash their dormant potential despite often-overwhelming odds, in order to transform themselves and the world.
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Who Are the Jews- and Who Can We Become?
by Donniel Hartman
Who Are the Jews tackles perhaps the most urgent question facing the Jewish people today: Given unprecedented denominational tribalism, how can we Jews speak of ourselves in collective terms? Crucially, the way each of us tells our "shared" story is putting our collective identity at risk, Donniel Hartman argues. We need a new story, built on Judaism's foundations and poised to inspire a majority of Jews to listen, discuss, and retell it. Since our beginnings, Hartman explains, the Jewish identity meta-narrative has been a living synthesis of two competing religious covenants: Genesis Judaism, which defines Jewishness in terms of who one is and the group to which one belongs, independent of what one does or believes; and Exodus Judaism, which grounds identity in terms of one's relationship with an aspirational system of values, ideals, beliefs, commandments, and behaviors. When one narrative becomes too dominant, Jewish collective identity becomes distorted. Conversely, when Genesis and Exodus interplay, the sparks of a rich, compelling identity are found. Hartman deftly applies this Genesis-Exodus meta-narrative as a roadmap to addressing contemporary challenges, including Diaspora Jewry's eroding relationship with Israel, the "othering" of Israeli Palestinians, interfaith marriage, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and- collectively- who we Jews can become.
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| American Zion: A New History of Mormonism by Benjamin E. ParkGiven extensive access to primary sources in church archives, historian Benjamin E. Park provides a thought-provoking chronicle of the history of the Latter-day Saints movement, from its earliest 18th century roots to the present, and how that history has intersected with politics, been shaped by society, and marginalized women and racial minorities. |
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Theurgy Theory and Practice: The Mysteries of the Ascent to the Divine
by P. D. Newman
Connects the magical practice of theurgy to the time of Homer. Explores the many theurgic themes and events in the Odyssey and the Iliad. Analyzes the writings of Neoplatonists Porphyry and Proclus, showing how both describe the technical ritual praxis of theurgy in Homeric terms. Examines the methods of telestikåe, a form of theurgic statue animation and technique to divinize the soul, and how theurgy is akin to shamanic soul flight.
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Alphabets and the Mystery Traditions: The Origins of Letters in the Earth, the Underworld, and the Heavens
by Judith Dillon
Our alphabet hides a Mystery older than its magic of turning sound into shapes. Secrets lie in the choice of objects chosen to represent early alphabet letters and their order, a pattern inherited by numerous traditions, an alchemical spell to return the sun from the dark and guide the soul toward enlightenment. Together, our alphabet symbols are a spell of alchemical stages on a path toward the light. Hidden in plain sight, our alphabet represents a transmission of ancient wisdom, the great alchemical Mystery of transforming dark earth into shining gold, of releasing the soul from the bonds of matter into the gold of enlightenment.
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Arise and Shine
by Allyson Golden
An empowering, encouraging message to be a light for Christ amid the darkness and pain in this world, by the inspirational Instagram writer of Words Are Golden.
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Religion of Sports: Navigating the Trials of Life Through the Games We Love
by Gotham Chopra
The sports documentarian and executive producer of the docuseries The Religion of Sports, who also happens to be the son of world-renowned spiritualist Deepak Chopra, explores how heavily sports and religion are intertwined with the help of personal anecdotes from such luminaries as Tom Brady, Serena Williams and Lebron James.
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Michigan City Public Library 100 E. 4th Street Michigan City, Indiana 46360 219-873-3044mclib.org/ |
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