HEAVENLY HIGHS introduces the reader to a world of enthobotanicals (plants which release the god within) used by Shaman and psychedelic explorers. Includes DMT, which is found in psychedelic snuff; Amazonian ayahuasca, which is a bitter tasting beverage that triggers visionary experiences with plant gods; Ibogain, which is a yellowish root ingested by indigenous peoples to achieve visionary experiences; and Belladona, Yohimbe and Kava-Kava. For each group Stafford provides the history, botany, chemistry, mental and physical effects, preparation and use, and legal considerations.

Featuring contributions from Al Mohler, John MacArthur, Mark Dever, and more Curating insights from some of America’s greatest Christian minds, High King of Heaven is a series of reflections on Christology, one of the church’s central doctrines. It contains essays from over twenty well-known pastors and theologians, including John MacArthur, Mark Dever, Albert Mohler, Miguel Nuñez, and Ligon Duncan. Each essay not only elucidates an aspect of Christ’s person and work, but also demonstrates how it applies to the life of the church. After reading High King of Heaven, readers will: Have a deeper understanding of Jesus’ nature and redemptive work Be inspired to worship Christ with greater passion and reverence Come away motivated and equipped to defend the orthodox view of Christ Be equipped to better teach and preach about Jesus’ divinity and humanity Be conversant with current challenges and debates in the area of Christology There are some subjects you can never out-study, and Christology is one of them. Any Christian who wants a greater appreciation for the work of our Lord and Savior, who wants to worship Him in spirit and truth, and who wants increased confidence in the church’s historic confessions concerning Him will delight in High King of Heaven.

The book is on the shortlist of ICAS Book Prize 2023 Humanities The origins of modern Daoism can be traced to the Church of the Heavenly Master (Tianshidao), reputedly established by the formidable Zhang Daoling. In 142 CE, according to Daoist tradition, Zhang was visited by the Lord on High, who named him his vicar on Earth with the title Heavenly Master. The dispensation articulated an eschatological vision of saving initiates—the pure, those destined to become immortals— by enforcing a strict moral code. Under evolving forms, Tianshidao has remained central to Chinese society, and Daoist priests have upheld their spiritual allegiance to Zhang, their now divinized founder. This book tells the story of the longue durée evolution of the Heavenly Master leadership and institution. Later hagiography credits Zhang Daoling’s great-grandson, putatively the fourth Heavenly Master, with settling the family at Longhushan (Dragon and Tiger Mountain); in time his descendants—down to the present contested sixty-fifth Heavenly Master living in Taiwan— made the extraordinary claim of being able to transmit hereditarily the function of the Heavenly Master and the power to grant salvation. Over the next twelve centuries, the Zhangs turned Longhushan into a major holy site and a household name in the Chinese world, and constructed a large administrative center for the bureaucratic management of Chinese society. They gradually built the Heavenly Master institution, which included a sacred site; a patriarchal line of successive Heavenly Masters wielding vast monopolistic powers to ordain humans and gods; a Zhang lineage that nurtured talent and accumulated wealth; and a bureaucratic apparatus comprised of temples, training centers, and a clerical hierarchy. So well-designed was this institution that it remained stable for more than a millennium, far outlasting the longest dynasties, and had ramifications for every city and village in imperial China. In this ambitious work, Vincent Goossaert traces the Heavenly Master bureaucracy from medieval times to the modern Chinese nation-state as well as its expansion. His in-depth portraits of influential Heavenly Masters are skillfully embedded in a large-scale analysis of the institution and its rules, ideology, and vision of society.

This volume reveals the political, religious, theological, institutional, and mythical ideals that formed the self-identity of the Augustinian Order from Giles of Rome to the emergence of Martin Luther. Based on detailed philological analysis, this interdisciplinary study not only transforms the understanding of Augustine's heritage in the later Middle Ages, but also that of Luther's relationship to his Order. The work offers a new interpretative model of late medieval religious culture that sheds new light on the relationship between late medieval Passion devotion, the increasing demonization of the Jews, and the rise of catechetical literature. It is the first volume of a planned trilogy that seeks to return late medieval Augustinian theology to the historical context of Augustinian religion.

Tom Perkinje, the reluctant Greater Demon and recent transplant to the Abyss has defeated and captured the not-so-valiant Sir Talarius, Knight Rampant of Tiernon. He has humiliated and demoralized the army known as the Rod of Tiernon, that helped Talarius cheat in battle. Tom had to hack the mana streams between the god Tiernon and his High Priests. Tom's buddies are telling him that Tiernon is going to send a Host to investigate this unprecedented event. Oh, and the fact that he reversed a Holy Artifact of Tiernon has not gone unnoticed either. The folks upstairs are not pleased. His actions have completely disrupted the plans of not only the Rod of Tiernon, but also the Sky Fleet of Oorstemoth who had thought to bring Tom to justice for illegally destroying the ship trying to obliterate Tom and his friends. The two armies are now looking to unite and rescue Talarius and arrest (permanently) Tom. Then there are the three arch demons trying to steal a book that Lenamare, Tom's accursed master, stole from Oorstemoth; and whose demon horde had been infesting the wizard city of Freehold. So Tom has managed to anger both the Forces of Good and the Forces of Evil.

The present study explores the role of heavenly imagery and symbolism in the Gospel of Matthew. Historical background and narrative criticism are my main methods because the Old Testament and Second Temple Jewish texts form the historical backgrounds for the understanding of Matthew’s heaven and Matthew uses heavenly imagery and symbolism to highlight his main themes in the gospel as a whole. This study investigates Matthew’s distinctive materials and important texts having to do with heaven, exploring their meanings and establishing their roles in each narrative section. Matthew describes heaven as the space where certain events reveal God’s plan of salvation. Heaven is associated with such key matters as revelation and judgment. Each major discourse of Matthew focuses on heavenly imagery with judgment at its end, culminating in the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matt 25:31–46).