The book recounts the awakening and journey of the Narrator who seeks to make sense of the questions and enigmas, which perplex us and cause more and more anxieties.The Narrator comes across a chance acquaintance. Compelled by what he hears, he embarks on discussions, which make up the fears, hopes, and aspirations of us all. These conversations are interspersed with dream sequences with another Stranger. The dreams often reinforce a conversation, with an alternative perspective. Each conversation/chapter focuses on a value, which is central to human living, some of which we all get wrong most of the time. These values are crucial to rebuilding human life post 2012.There is a mounting sense of new discovery as one Stranger, Jonathan, peels back the inner layers of the Narrator's hidden self to reveal the greatest adventure of all. In the future, we shall live according to renewed values, not based on greed, power and destruction, but based on love, understanding and co-existence. The diverse aspects of these three values form the storyline and subject matter of this book.

The book recounts the awakening and journey of the Narrator who seeks to make sense of the questions and enigmas which perplex us in life and cause more and more anxieties. The Narrator comes across a chance acquaintance. Compelled by what he hears, he embarks on discussions which make up the fears, hopes, and aspirations of us all. These conversations are interspersed with dream sequences with another stranger. The dreams often reinforce a conversation with an alternative perspective. Each conversation and chapter focuses on a value which is central to human living, some of which we all get wrong most of the time. These values are crucial to rebuilding human life post 2012. There is a mounting sense of new discovery as one stranger, Jonathan, peels back the inner layers of the Narrator's hidden self to reveal the greatest adventure of all. In the future, we shall live according to renewed values, not based on greed, power and destruction, but based on love, understanding and co-existence. The diverse aspects of these three values form the storyline and subject matter of this book.

Picturing God demonstrates the importance of confronting our unconscious selves and allowing our images of God " both positive and negative " to surface. Such inner exploration reveals not only relevant insights about ourselves, but also pulls us beyond our private pictures of God toward a truer view of the living God. Picturing God shows us how to explore our unconscious selves and how this spiritual exercise can change the whole of our lives: how we respond to God, how we relate to others, and how we view ourselves.

We live in a world of oppositional relationships and increasing in-group/out-group divisions. Christian sociologist Matthew Vos explains how the problem of the stranger lies at the root of many problems humanity faces, such as racism, sexism, and nationalism. He applies classic sociological theory on "the stranger" to matters of faith and social justice, showing that an identity in Christ frees us to love strangers as neighbors and friends. The book also includes two guest chapters, one on intersex persons and the church and one on stranger-making in the "correctional" system.

We are profoundly social creatures--more than we know. In Social, renowned psychologist Matthew Lieberman explores groundbreaking research in social neuroscience revealing that our need to connect with other people is even more fundamental, more basic, than our need for food or shelter. Because of this, our brain uses its spare time to learn about the social world--other people and our relation to them. It is believed that we must commit 10,000 hours to master a skill. According to Lieberman, each of us has spent 10,000 hours learning to make sense of people and groups by the time we are ten. Social argues that our need to reach out to and connect with others is a primary driver behind our behavior. We believe that pain and pleasure alone guide our actions. Yet, new research using fMRI--including a great deal of original research conducted by Lieberman and his UCLA lab--shows that our brains react to social pain and pleasure in much the same way as they do to physical pain and pleasure. Fortunately, the brain has evolved sophisticated mechanisms for securing our place in the social world. We have a unique ability to read other people’s minds, to figure out their hopes, fears, and motivations, allowing us to effectively coordinate our lives with one another. And our most private sense of who we are is intimately linked to the important people and groups in our lives. This wiring often leads us to restrain our selfish impulses for the greater good. These mechanisms lead to behavior that might seem irrational, but is really just the result of our deep social wiring and necessary for our success as a species. Based on the latest cutting edge research, the findings in Social have important real-world implications. Our schools and businesses, for example, attempt to minimalize social distractions. But this is exactly the wrong thing to do to encourage engagement and learning, and literally shuts down the social brain, leaving powerful neuro-cognitive resources untapped. The insights revealed in this pioneering book suggest ways to improve learning in schools, make the workplace more productive, and improve our overall well-being.