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The Second Coming of the New Age : The Hidden Dangers of Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America and Its Churches
by Steven Bancarz
All across North America, Christian churches have unknowingly encouraged occult beliefs and practices far removed from what the Bible teaches. This unfortunate reality is intrinsically linked to the popularity increase of New Age spirituality in the twenty-first century, and we've been so influenced by the integration into our society that we have become blind to recognizing, and preventing, the effects of this mainstream, pop-culture heresy, even within the walls of God's house. Our lives, our realtionships, our world, and our churches all depend on our willingness to take action against the deceit of New Age spirituality. The first step toward prevention is knowledge. Now is the time to be informed.
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Walking to Jerusalem : Blisters, Hope and Other Facts on the Ground : Sacred and Profane Reflections on the Just Walk to Jerusalem 10 June - 2 November 2017
by Butcher, Justin
2017 marked three important anniversaries for the Palestinian people: 100 years since the Balfour Declaration; 50 years since the Six-day War; and ten years since the Blockade of Gaza. As an act of penance, solidarity and hope, actor and musician Justin Butcher; along with ten other companions for the full route, plus another hundred joining him for various stretches along the way, walked from London to Jerusalem. This book is the record of his journey: a combination of walking journal, travel writing and pilgrim stories. It's less of a travel guide to walking across Europe and more an exploration of the many strands radiating from the Holy Land and its narrative, weaving paths across place and history, through the lives of Justin's fellow-walkers, and, of course, his own life. Between the route itinerary and the themes of Balfour and Christian Zionism, Weizmann and cordite, colonialism, Jerusalem Syndrome and Desert spirituality, Justin charts a chronicle of serendipity: happenstances hilarious, infuriating and occasionally numinous, or, as pilgrims might say, encounters with the Divine.
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| Muhammad: Forty Introductions by Michael Muhammad KnightWhat it is: a compelling take on the Forty Hadith genre of Islamic literature, in which 40 sayings of the Prophet Muhammad are chosen from thousands to fit a particular theme or topic -- in this case the Prophet himself.
Read it for: Michael Muhammad Knight's included commentary, which expands on each hadith and his own spiritual journey.
Reviewers say: "The author's portrait of Muhammad is progressive, sometimes controversial, and he aims to be inclusive of a variety of Muslim voices" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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Next level thinking : 10 powerful thoughts for a successful and abundant life
by Joel Osteen
Joel Osteen invites you to set aside the shortcomings of your past and step into a new level of victory and favour. Many of us have let our minds become conditioned to thinking we've reached our limits, we've made too many mistakes, we'll never do anything great. What's happened? Instead of moving forward, we've adapted to our environment. Instead of pushing beyond our bounds, we've allowed a bad break, how we were raised, living with insecurity, or what someone did or didn't do to hold us back. The good news is that people don't determine our destiny; God does. And He has already taken into account every detail of our lives and factored them all into His plan. In his new book, Next Level Thinking, Joel Osteen writes that we weren't created to go through life weighed down by the past. God has destined us to rise higher; to the next level. When we leave behind the negative mind-sets, the scarcity mentality, and the limits others have put on us, we'll experience the life of victory, favour, and abundance that was meant for us all along.
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| How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian: Struggling With Divine Violence... by John Dominic CrossanWhat it's about: the ostensible contradictions between the Bible's portrayal of God as being capable of both boundless love and acts of violence.
Author alert: John Dominic Crossman has published several other books about Christian history, including The Historical Jesus and The Power of Parable.
You might also like: Zealot by Reza Aslan, Kosher Jesus by Shmuel Boteach. |
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| The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious... by Joshua HammerWhat it is: the compelling tale of a treasure trove of Islamic manuscripts from Mali's medieval period and the clandestine mission to save them from destruction at the hands of Al Qaeda sympathizers.
Featuring: Abdel Kader Haidara, the archivist who first gathered the disparate manuscripts into a central library and later led the effort to smuggle them to safety.
Did you know? Medieval Timbuktu was a scholarly and literary powerhouse; in the 1500s the city allegedly contained 70 paper mills and almost 200 educational institutions. |
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| What the Qur'an Meant And Why It Matters by Garry WillsWhat it's about: a non-Muslim's observations on the Islamic holy book, detailing the differences between it and the Bible and more often, the things the two texts have in common.
Is it for you? Pulitzer Prize-winning author Garry Wills is known for his conservative politics, although his published work is generally considered scholarly and well-researched (if sometimes controversial). |
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| The Book of the People: How to Read the Bible by A.N. WilsonWhat it is: a thought-provoking examination of the Bible as a work of literature, with discussions of its effects on both writers and believers.
Read it for: the conversational tone; the personal account of the author's own experiences reading the Bible as a believer.
Try this next: Out of the Garden, a collection of essays on the Bible featuring authors such as Louise Erdrich, Ursula LeGuin, and June Jordan. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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