With candor, passion, and deep love for her work, Lucy Forster-Smith takes us across the threshold as a chaplain on a college campus. This vocational narrative braids the story of her faith journey that began on a porch when she was a four-year-old, was shaken by a sexual assault as a seminarian, and through healing and grace brought her to claim a call to ministry with students. With delightful humor and an infectious love for her work, Forster-Smith invites the reader into her world. Crossing Thresholds is a theological narrative, weaving together the story of faith in the context of the professional life of a college chaplain. Lighting on the power of spiritual awakening at a college, once named as the number one institution of higher education that "ignored God on a regular basis," Forster-Smith jars loose the assumptions about the avowedly secular campus. Her journey of healing and grace illuminates and guides to cross the threshold of the campus's soul.

We live in an age of enormous and rapid change, but how do people, organisations, even whole cultures and societies change? And where is God in such transformations? For more than a hundred years, anthropology has taught us that entering a chaotic, awesome and fraught 'threshold' - or liminal space - is fundamental to our renewal as human beings. Yet none of us goes willingly into such places. We need to be 'held' in liminal movement so that it is safe enough to change. Crossing Thresholds is the first inter-disciplinary theological treatment of the universal phenomenon of liminality. Developing practical wisdom from foundations in the work of Victor Turner, Donald Winnicott and Bruce Reed, the authors explore the place of liminality in the worship, mission and hermeneutics of the Church and reflect on its usefulness to a wide range of Christian practice. For all those who strive to think theologically about the great transitions of life, this comprehensive work offers unique insight into what it is to safely cross the threshold of chaos and embrace the future with courage.

The human transformation available at the 'limen' (literally: the edge or threshold), noticed across different cultures by anthropologists, is at the heart of the Gospel. Indeed the liminal place is the place of transformation and change par excellence. We live in age of enormous and rapid change to which we do not yet see an end. There is therefore a 'kairos' moment here for the church to understand the importance of liminality through this unique book. Reading this book will offer new 'lenses' to understand humanity, God's world, the shape of Christian discipleship, the church and its mission differently. The authors believe engaging with liminality can help both readers' faith and the church to be re-imagined - and have included case studies, exercises and questions in each chapter to help this process.

Through 40 eloquent prayers and small simple photographs that mirror and interpret the text, Being Home is a celebration of mindfulness. As M. Scott Peck put it, "This is simply the best book I know on the subject of the sacrament of the present moment, and a great work of devotional literature." 43 duotone photographs..

A great international bestseller, the book in which, on the eve of the millennium, Pope John Paul II brings to an accessible level the profoundest theological concerns of our lives. He goes to the heart of his personal beliefs and speaks with passion about the existence of God; about the dignity of man; about pain, suffering, and evil; about eternal life and the meaning of salvation; about hope; about the relationship of Christianity to other faits and that of Catholicism to other branches of the Christian faith.With the humility and generosity of spirit for which he is known, John Paul II speaks directly and forthrightly to all people. His message: Be not afraid!

What does God want for your life? Christine Valters Paintner, bestselling Catholic author and online abbess for Abbey of the Arts, uses reflections, stories, guided activities, prayer experiences, and a variety of creative arts to help you patiently and attentively listen to God’s invitation. Everyone wants to understand God’s will for their lives. Christine Valters Paintner shares one of the most ancient paths to understanding from her study of monasticism and immersion into Celtic spirituality while living in Ireland. The Celtic way, which Paintner distills into twelve practices, offers discernment that focuses on the environment rather than the intellectual focus present in other forms of discernment. It allows for what Paintner calls the “soul’s slow ripening,” coming into the fullness of our own sweetness before we pluck the fruit. Each chapter begins with a story of a particular Irish saint—some well-known like Patrick or Brigid, others less so, such as Ita and Ciaran—and then introduces a helpful practice for discernment that the saint’s life illustrates. Paintner explores the call of dreams, the importance of thresholds, the practice of peregrination (wandering for the love of God), walking the rounds, learning by heart, soul friends, blessing each moment, and the wisdom of the landscape and the seasons. Readers are invited to explore these concepts through photography and writing. She invites us to contemplative walks with specific themes along with poetic writing prompts for expression. As you explore an alternate way of discerning a spiritual path—one which honors the moment-by-moment invitations and the soul’s seasonal rhythms—you will discover that this book will help you become more aligned with creativity and wholeness.

Who is Hindu, who is Muslim? The answer, according to Dominique-Sila Khan, is not as simple as generally assumed. By analyzing documentary sources as well as original field data, she examines the shaping of religious identities in South Asia, particularly in North India. The author argues that the perception of Islam and Hinduism as two monolithic and perpetually antagonistic faiths coexisting uneasily in South Asia has become so deeply ingrained that the complexity of the historical fabric is often overlooked or ignored. She demonstrates how the emergence of clear-cut categories is a comparatively recent phenomenon, and shows how the past is characterized by a remarkable fluidity and diversity in the social and religious milieus of the two faiths. In exploring the historical mechanisms that have led to the emergence and crystallization of religious identities the author sheds light on the increasing number of conflicts which threaten the harmonious co-existence of South Asian communities today.