John Henry Newman’s pulpit at St Mary’s, Oxford, was a powerhouse of religious innovation and reinvigoration in English religion through the 1830s and 1840s. This towering neogothic structure gave platform to preachers who conveyed a new imagination for the life of faith, and whose vision of belief provoked personal and societal awakenings. Today, we are in need once again of reimagining the challenges of our world, and the meaning of Christian faith, in ways that cut through the religious jumble, and speak to the fears and failings of our time. This volume collects sermons by one of that pulpit’s most recent preachers. Anxiety, pain, hope, and judgement are key themes. There are liturgical themes and feasts taken in fresh directions, and always an insistence on deconstructing easy answers and pious lingo. These are exercises in reading Scripture, and reading our lives, in ways that speak beyond the borders of religious identity and certainty. These sermons draw us deeper into the reality of our own predicaments and fears, to discover a presence and power that might surprise and disrupt us, and help us to reimagine faith in the modern world.

The creator of the popular Formerly Fundie blog on Patheos explains how the "American Christianity" we are currently taught is actually a fear-saturated distortion of biblical faith. Benjamin L. Corey thought he was suffering a crisis of faith, but it turned out to be a spiritual awakening. Corey became aware that the constant fear of hell and judgment that defined his Christian faith was out of sync with the idea that God acts from love, and promises to deliver us from fear. In the wake of this realization came newfound insights—from reading the Bible to re-examining American life and the church's role in the wider world. Corey learned that what he had been taught was a distorted version of Christianity that was not only untrue but caused real spiritual harm. He also discovered that he wasn’t alone. Many Christians are yearning to distinguish between the Christianity that has become a rigid American civil religion and the authentic Christian faith embodied in Jesus. As he recounts his own spiritual journey, Corey offers a powerful and inspiring message of hope for every Christian increasingly frustrated with the church today. Do not be discouraged, he assures them. You do not need to give up your faith; you can rediscover the reality of a vibrant Christianity that delivers us from fear and inspires and guides us all today.

The Spirit of God spoke to me to write another book, after I had completed my first book entitled “Soul Survivor. I heard the voice of the Lord say write a book about fear back in the year of 2019 not knowing that the world would face a crisis in 2020 through a Coronavirus that would kill thousands of souls. This book is equipped to teach you through the power of the Holy Spirit how to live a life of faith instead of fear. It will also empower your faith to trust and to believe in the Almighty God. It will demonstrate how other people in the bible had to rely on the faith of God to overcome the perils of fear and how they faced many afflictions and trials through opposition, but how they became overcomers through maintaining a strong faith.

Science and faith are often seen as being in opposition. In this book, award-winning sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund questions this assumption based on research she has conducted over the past fifteen years. She highlights the ways these two spheres point to universal human values, showing readers they don't have to choose between science and Christianity. Breathing fresh air into debates that have consisted of more opinions than data, Ecklund offers insights uncovered by her research and shares her own story of personal challenges and lessons. In the areas most rife with conflict--the origins of the universe, evolution, climate change, and genetic technology--readers will find fascinating points of convergence in eight virtues of human existence: curiosity, doubt, humility, creativity, healing, awe, shalom, and gratitude. The book includes discussion questions for group use and to help pastors, small group leaders, and congregants broach controversial topics and bridge the science-faith divide.

When we are fearful, we reveal our hostility toward God. And though this matter of fear is often discussed, it remains amongst the least treated of our negative emotions. Our neglect to treat fear correctly may be due to the fact that it has a dual effect upon us. Primarily, fear is a part of our primitive survival apparatus, but it also serves to prevent us from attempting great feats; exploits which lie well within our capacity to achieve, if only we were able to defeat this foe of our aspirations. It is with the latter effect that this book is concerned. In Beyond Fear, the author, Patrick Creary, teaches us how to overcome fear, how to subdue it, and how to withstand all that would crush our indomitable human spirit. He squarely addresses the root cause of this foreboding emotion, tracing its genesis back to the very root of our spiritual insufficiencies.