If you're religious about your coffee, you're in holy company. If you like your coffee with a bit of inspiration, a hint of humor, and a dose of insight, you'll enjoy pouring a mug full of java and curling up with Holy Grounds. Popular author and avid coffee drinker Tim Schenck brews just the right blend of the personal and historical as he explores the sometimes amusing and often profound intersection between faith and coffee. From the coffee bean's discovery by ninth-century Ethiopian Muslims to being condemned as "Satan's drink" by medieval Christians, to becoming an integral part of Passover in America, coffee has fueled prayer and shaped religious culture for generations. In Holy Grounds, Schenck explores the relationship between coffee and religion, moving from faith-based legends that have become entwined with the history of coffee to personal narrative. He takes readers on a journey through coffee farms in Central America, a pilgrimage to Seattle, coffeehouses in Rome, and a monastic community in Pennsylvania. Along the way, he examines the power of ritual, mocks bad church coffee, introduces readers to the patron saint of coffee, wonders about ethical considerations for today's faith-based coffee lovers, and explores lessons people of faith should learn from coffeehouse culture about building healthy, authentic community.

Standing on Holy Ground in the Middle Ages illuminates how the floor surface shaped the ways in which people in medieval western Europe and beyond experienced sacred spaces. The ground beneath our feet plays a crucial, yet often overlooked, role in our relationship with the environments we inhabit and the spaces with which we interact. By focusing on this surface as a point of encounter, Lucy Donkin positions it within a series of vertically stacked layers—the earth itself, permanent and temporary floor coverings, and the bodies of the living above ground and the dead beneath—providing new perspectives on how sacred space was defined and decorated, including the veneration of holy footprints, consecration ceremonies, and the demarcation of certain places for particular activities. Using a wide array of visual and textual sources, Standing on Holy Ground in the Middle Ages also details ways in which interaction with this surface shaped people's identities, whether as individuals, office holders, or members of religious communities. Gestures such as trampling and prostration, the repeated employment of specific locations, and burial beneath particular people or actions used the surface to express likeness and difference. From pilgrimage sites in the Holy Land to cathedrals, abbeys, and local parish churches across the Latin West, Donkin frames the ground as a shared surface, both a feature of diverse, distant places and subject to a variety of uses over time—while also offering a model for understanding spatial relationships in other periods, regions, and contexts.

Sacred sites offer believers the possibility of communing with the divine and achieving deeper insight into their faith. Yet their spiritual and cultural importance can lead to competition as religious groups seek to exclude rivals from practicing potentially sacrilegious rituals in the hallowed space and wish to assert their own claims. Holy places thus create the potential for military, theological, or political clashes, not only between competing religious groups but also between religious groups and secular actors. In War on Sacred Grounds, Ron E. Hassner investigates the causes and properties of conflicts over sites that are both venerated and contested; he also proposes potential means for managing these disputes. Hassner illustrates a complex and poorly understood political dilemma with accounts of the failures to reach settlement at Temple Mount/Haram el-Sharif, leading to the clashes of 2000, and the competing claims of Hindus and Muslims at Ayodhya, which resulted in the destruction of the mosque there in 1992. He also addresses more successful compromises in Jerusalem in 1967 and Mecca in 1979. Sacred sites, he contends, are particularly prone to conflict because they provide valuable resources for both religious and political actors yet cannot be divided. The management of conflicts over sacred sites requires cooperation, Hassner suggests, between political leaders interested in promoting conflict resolution and religious leaders who can shape the meaning and value that sacred places hold for believers. Because a reconfiguration of sacred space requires a confluence of political will, religious authority, and a window of opportunity, it is relatively rare. Drawing on the study of religion and the study of politics in equal measure, Hassner's account offers insight into the often-violent dynamics that come into play at the places where religion and politics collide.

A simple prayer can be an act of physical, spiritual, and emotional healing for everyone involved. Healing Prayer on Holy Ground conveys a message of hope in the presence of a loving God who longs to hear from us. Readers will be encouraged as you read Dr. Sheehan's transformative story and the experiences of his patients, including example after example of the powerful presence of God inside the rooms of dying patients. This is a hopeful, helpful resource for doctors and patients seeking a biblical interpretation of experiences with the afterlife and for those desiring to better understand the balance between medical and spiritual healing.

In America's Holy Ground: 61 Faithful Reflections on Our National Parks, dive deeper into a unique aspect of each park, from Acadia to Zion, and reframe how you think about the parks and your faith. Connections, sabbath, reflection, perspective, beginnings, art, restoration - these are just a few of the themes you'll encounter on your national park journey. A trio of questions with each entry will help you see the bigger picture of your life and new ways to approach your relationship with God, your community, and your faith. Whether you're on the road or at home in your reading nook, think about your favorite national park in a whole new way!

On the fourteenth day after His perfect enlightenment, Shakyamuni Buddha gave definitive teachings in nine assemblies. In these assemblies, He revealed to advanced Bodhisattvas the hindrance-free dharma realm of the one mind, and gave them the One Vehicle to Buddhahood through the six stages of the Bodhisattva Way. These teachings are contained in the Mahavaipulya Sutra of Buddha Adornment (Buddhavatamsaka-mahavaipulya-sutra), which is revered by Chinese Buddhists as the king of all sutras. Based on texts in the Chinese Buddhist Canon, this book, Rulus fifth, presents the English translations of the teachings in this sutra on the last two stages of the Bodhisattva Way, the Virtual Buddha Ground and the Buddha Ground. The translators introduction summarizes the teachings in this sutra and presents the five theses of the Huayan School of China, which explain that all things in the universe are interconnected and in complete unity. This book will benefit readers at all levels and can serve as a basis for scholarly research.

Sacred Playgrounds explores the wisdom of camping ministry for Christian education and faith formation, examining its rich history and fundamental characteristics with compelling stories, groundbreaking research, and theological grounding. Christian summer camp is an integral part of the ecology of faith formation in North America, though it has received surprisingly little attention in the scholarly community until now. Camping ministry is often dismissed as simple fun and games or a brief spiritual high that does not last. However, camp experiences often serve as deeply relational and immersive faith experiences that have lasting impacts on participants. Five fundamental characteristics combine dynamically in the effective camp experience: participatory, faith-centered, safe space, relational, and unplugged from home. Together, they open the space for participants to consider new understandings of God, to have time for deep self-reflection, and to build intentional Christian community. These camp experiences are essential components in a larger ecology of faith formation, including the home and congregation. The insight and evidence presented in this book demonstrate that the contributions of camping ministry must be taken seriously among scholars, Christian educators, and ministry professionals.