If you think that Jesus might have had something significant to say related to the well-being of the human race, this book is for you. If you think that Jesus’ purpose was to get people into heaven after they died, this book is not for you. Actually, maybe it is, but you may not like it. Through individual and group encounters and thought-provoking questions, through poetry, prayers, icons, and meditation exercises, this companion for the warrior mystic monk seeks to guide the reader into an encounter with the life force that holds together and flows through all creation. This guide is intended for those who believe that Jesus began something central to the well-being of humanity and all creation, which has become almost lost within the institution of religion. Many who are embracing this emerging spiritual awakening remain within the church. The church continues to be family. At the same time, one’s primary spiritual community is made up of those who are seeking awakening whether they are inside or outside of a religious institution.

National Book Award Winner: A grieving teenager wonders if she’ll ever understand anything—especially the big things—in life. Time passed, and all the minutes hurt . . . After her father’s death, Victoria Finch’s life changes completely. To save money, she and her mother move from Boston to a small house in the town of New Oxford. There, Victoria attends school in a building that resembles a train station, where no one pays her much attention. Then she meets Hugh Todd, the rich kid who runs the school’s theater club. He’s charming, adventurous, and encouraging, and he takes particular interest in Victoria’s writing. Hugh’s presence reinvigorates Victoria’s life. But he needs something as well, and as the months pass, Victoria realizes that his friendship comes at a high price. A New York Times Outstanding Book of the Year, A Place Apart is a lyrical novel of loss, friendship, and moving on.

A Place Apart features essays and firsthand accounts of notable experiences throughout Cape Cod, including native Wampanoag creation myths; eyewitness accounts of the landing of the Pilgrims in 1620; candid stories of early life in the Old Colony; fascinating and often-harrowing accounts of the whaling and fishing industries; and so much more. The collection includes famous passages by and about such writers as Melville, Thoreau, Helen Keller, Edmund Wilson, and Kurt Vonnegut, among others.

Theological conversations about violence typically frame the conversation in terms of victim and perpetrator. Comprehensive theological responses to violence must also address the role of collective passivity of bystanders of violence. Beyond Apathy examines the theological significance of bystander participation in patterns of violence and violation within contemporary Western culture, giving particular attention to the social issues of bullying, white racism, and sexual violence.In doing so, it constructs a theology of redeeming grace for bystanders to violence that foregrounds the significance of social action in bringing about Gods basileia.

Research reveals the causes of violence in a high school, including social inequality among students and the lack of prevention efforts by the staff, and proposes reforms to alleviate this growing problem in all schools.

How do religious traditions create strangers and neighbors? How do they construct otherness? Or, instead, work to overcome it? In this exciting collection of interdisciplinary essays, scholars and activists from various traditions explore these questions. Through legal and media studies, they reveal how we see religious others. They show that Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and Sikh texts frame others in open-ended ways. Conflict resolution experts and Hindu teachers, they explain, draw on a shared positive psychology. Jewish mystics and Christian contemplatives use powerful tools of compassionate perception. Finally, the authors explain how Christian theology can help teach respectful views of difference. They are not afraid to discuss how religious groups have alienated one another. But, together, they choose to draw positive lessons about future cooperation.