"Tending the Fire: Through War and The Path of Meditation " Raised on a South Carolina sea island, tempered by experiences in the Vietnam War, and trained as a psychotherapist, Ralph Steele decided midlife that tending the fire of his life would be to take robes as a forest monk in Thailand and Myanmar-for a year or for a lifetime. He left his career and twenty-year relationship without knowing if he would return. " Tending the Fire " is the gripping, enlightening, and very human story of Ralph's transformative journey through war and meditation to a sense of wholeness, responsibility, peace, and compassion. Partial Endorsements: "Ralph Steele's memoir will be of great value, an inspiration for many who are seeking release from ignorance and suffering" " Ajahn " Sumedho "A beautifully written, humbling, uplifting, and profoundly sweet and electrifying life story illustrating the transformative value of the cultivation of mindfulness . . ." Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of " Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness" "One can't help but marvel at Ralph Steele's extraordinary life." Joseph Goldstein, author of "Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening " "Buddha was a Kshatriya; he came from the warrior class, Ralph, too is a warrior who, like Buddha, had to climb the walls of his enclosures to breathe the fresh air." Stephen and Ondrea Levine, authors of " Becoming Kuan Yin: The Evolution of Compassion " and "The Healing I Took Birth For " "Ralph is able to show us, in an unflinchingly graphic story, what is at once intimate and honest, heart-shredding and tender." Wayne Muller, M. Div., author of " Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives " "Ralph Steele's " Tending the Fire " offers a glimpse into worlds few of us will ever experience-and yet the humanity he shares with us is something we all can resonate with." Alexandra Kennedy, M.A., LMFT, author of " Losing A Parent: Passage to a New Way of Living " and " Creating a Space to Let Yourself Heal "

Book Description: Blake Ostler, author of the groundbreaking Exploring Mormon Thought series, explores two of the most important and central aspects of Mormon theology and practice: the Atonement and the temple endowment. Utilizing observations from Soren Kierkegaard, Martin Buber, and others, Ostler offers further insights on what it means to become alienated from God and to once again have at-one-ment with Him.. Praise for Fire on the Horizon: "Fire on the Horizon distills decades of reading, argument, and reflection into one potent dose. Urgent, sharp, and intimate, it's Ostler at his best." --Adam S. Miller, author of Rube Goldberg Machines: Essays in Mormon Theology "Blake Ostler has been one of the most stimulating, deep, and original thinkers in the Latter-day Saint community. This book continues and consolidates that status. His work demonstrates that Mormonism can, and indeed does, offer profound nourishment for reflective minds and soul-satisfying insights for thoughtful believers." --Daniel C. Peterson, editor of Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture About the author: Blake T. Ostler, a practicing attorney, is one of the premiere philosophical thinkers on Mormonism. He is the author of the multi-volume Exploring Mormon Thought series and has been published widely in journals such as Religious Studies, International Journal for the Philosophy of Religion, BYU Studies, and Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.

"Jason Allen's A Meditation on Fire is a fierce, courageous collection of poems, a ferocious, yet meditative mission to dig for the truth beneath the surface of all that it means to be human. Allen's poetry is gritty and lyrical, profound and sardonic, and his use of language is as precise as a scalpel. Allen is willing to risk being vulnerable while exploring the darkest moments of his life, and all the while he straddles the line between compassion and desire. A must read for anyone who loves poetry, and for those who don't yet know they love poetry. What an amazing, powerful book!" -Maria Mazziotti Gillan, American Book Award Winner

• A collection of earth-centered meditations to enhance our connection to the natural world. • Reveals the Old Wisdom of the Cherokee elders for living in harmony with all beings. • Written by J. T. Garrett, of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, who was taught the ancient ways by his grandfather and other medicine men of his tribe. In a time before ours, humans could talk with animals, hear whisperings from plant life, and understand the origin stories written in the stars. Survival depended on active kinship with family and tribe, with four-leggeds and plant people, with sun and moon and fire. The Cherokee, known widely as the Principal People or the First People, hold a deeply tapestried collection of stories about human interrelatedness with nature. Those stories, passed down through countless generations of Cherokee, are especially significant at this time in human history, when Mother Earth suffers under the weight of unchecked "progress." As a boy, J. T. Garrett sat beside his grandfather and the other medicine men of his tribe as they chanted and drummed the stories of his ancestry. From those stories of Nu-Dah (the Sun), Grandmother Moon, Spring Rain, and Little Eagle comes this collection of active meditations for reconnecting with the natural intelligence that is our birthright. Recognizing that we are all kin in the Universal Circle of life opens us to communication with all beings, bringing us back to our natural spirit selves. If we listen carefully to the Cherokee stories of the Old Ways we can gain understanding of lost social and spiritual traditions that can help ensure a thriving future.

Inaugural issue of the INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RELIGION | ISSN: 2633-352X (Print) | ISSN: 2633-3538 (Online) | Volume 1 | Number 1 | November 2020 | Special Issue: Politics of Religious Dissent Edited by Jeffrey Haynes, Ahmet Erdi Öztürk, and Eric M. Trinka | Editorial: Launching the International Journal of Religion - Jeffrey Haynes, Ahmet Erdi Öztürk, and Eric M. Trinka| From the Editorial Desk - Eric M. Trinka | Dissent among Mormons in the 1980 Senatorial Election in Idaho - Ronald Hatzenbuehler | Creating the Internal Enemy: Opportunities and Threats in Pro and Anti-LGBT Activism within South Korean Protestantism - Hendrick Johannemann| Is Right-wing Populism a Phenomenon of Religious Dissent? The Cases of the Lega and the Rassemblement National - Luca Ozanno and Fabio Bolzonar| A Religious Movement on Trial: Transformative Years, Judicial Questions and the Nation of Islam - Sultan Tepe | Finding the Right Islam for the Maldives: Political Transformation and State-Responses to Growing Religious Dissent - La Toya Waha| Islam, Catholicism, and Religion-State Separation: An Essential or Historical Difference? - Ahmet T. Kuru| Secularism, Religion, and Identification beyond Binaries: The Transnational Alliances, Rapprochements, and Dissent of German Turks in Germany - Nil Mutluer| Dissenting Yogis: The Mīmāṁsaka-Buddhist Battle for Epistemological Authority - Jed Forman| Tar & Feathers: Agnotology, Dissent, and Queer Mormon History - Nerida Bullock| New Religious-Nationalist Trends among Jewish Settlers in the Halutza Sands - Hayim Katsman

p> Tending the Fire encourages us to be intensely loyal to ourselves and give our gifts while we are on earth. We are creators, and imagination is one of our God tools. We have a drive to be creative, to partake of our godness through the DNA of every cell. Outside the human body, creativity lives in the astral realm of consciousness. This is a realm of psychic phenomenon, telepathy, and clairvoyance. When a dream or a symbol is speaking to us, we can watch for a gut, heart, or inner-word response. The mind is the thinker, not the feeler. Feeling is a major component in creative discovery. To be a creator is at the heart of deep understanding of our roles in cosmic unfolding. Tending the Fire guides us through ideas, transformation practices, and celebrations to stand in our light and live joyfully.