For centuries mankind has been taught to view the divine from an established point of view to the extent that any attempt to explore the Divine from a totally different angle could be regarded as blasphemous. This book attempts to position the reader at an unusual angle to enable him to see the Divine from an unusual perspective. Viewing the Divine from such an unusual perspective, the reader would be able to see the errors in mankind's beliefs about the Divine as well as the hidden identities of such Divine personalities like the Prophet Elijah, John the Baptist and Jesus Christ; including secular personalities like Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy. The errors in our beliefs about the Divine are expressed in satire and are meant to elicit humor, particularly for those who falsely claim Christhood. The book also attempts to bring out the common denominators between human and Divine endeavors.

Divine Paradigm highlights the difference a worldview makes when facing life's daily challenges. Part One defines what a worldview is, explains how a worldview provides a paradigm for all of life, and describes current worldviews vying for our embrace and allegiance. Part Two addresses specific topics that are in crisis in our current culture and that confront each of us daily. Each of the 19 topical chapters follows a pattern of identifying and describing the topic, and then presenting a biblical paradigm as a solution or, at the least, a consideration for the topic. Topics range from... vocations to making important decisions, education to dating, morality to marriage, parenting to dealing with illness and grief, and more. An interesting read. I enjoyed reviewing and working on it. Divine Paradigm is erudite in its content and style, yet accessible enough to appeal to a wide audience. The author demonstrates authority in the subject while remaining humble in tone, allowing him to connect with the reader in applying these biblical truths. At first glance, it's a powerful book that successfully combines biblical wisdom with life experience in a cohesive, convincing whole. Well done. -David, professional editor This book is intended for personal growth and is practical for small group use. William Bartlett has served as a parish pastor for 29 years and as the founding executive director of Crean Lutheran High School, Irvine, CA, for nine years. The common denominator of Pastor Bartlett's ministry in both congregation and school has been a love for Jesus Christ and the Bible - both of which reveal God's gift of salvation and His paradigm for life.

Spirituality and spiritual experiences have been the bedrock of every civilization and together form one of the highest mechanisms for making sense of the world for billions of people. Current research paradigms, due to their limitation to empirical, sensory, psychologically, or culturally constructed realities, fail to provide a framework for exploring this essential area of human experience. The development of a spiritual research paradigm will provide researchers from the social sciences and education the tools and abilities to systematically explore fundamental questions regarding human spiritual experiences and spiritual growth. A spiritual research paradigm requires an ontology that considers all reality to be multidimensional, interconnected, and interdependent. It requires an epistemology that integrates knowing from outer sources as well as inner contemplation, acknowledging our integration of soul and spirit with the body and mind. Three additional aspects are useful to a spiritual research paradigm: axiology, methodology, and teleology. An axiology concerns what is valued, good, and ethical. A methodology is the appropriate approach to systematic inquiry. A fifth and less frequently mentioned aspect is teleology, an explanation of the goal or end (telos) to which new knowledge is applied, such as gaining wisdom and truth, touching the divine, increasing inner peace, exploring hidden dimensions, or improving society. This book takes the first step to develop such a research paradigm. We draw from world spiritual traditions as well as scholarship that has arisen from contemplative practices. We also attempt to build a bridge between science and spirituality. Spiritual research is not necessarily opposed to scientific research; in fact, each can shed light on the other.

A Jungian psychoanalyst with a background in Judaism and Zen Buddhism explores the history of God concepts in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions. This book is about the Abrahamic God’s inner journey, an epic that begins in the Hebrew Bible—the common source of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This God emerges as a living, textured personality as tormented as a Shakespearean character and as divided against humanity as the devil who personifies his dark side. Yet in heroic fashion, he embarks on a journey to greater consciousness, stretching into himself in the Talmud, New Testament, Qur’an, and Gnostic writings. Then finally, with and through the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic mystics, he discovers his true self as the absolute Godhead. He takes up residence in their psyches as their own Divine Mind or true self. The book suggests that what God learned from his journey might be something that we in turn could learn from and that could help us at the dawn of the twenty-first century. In this way, God’s inner journey becomes a metaphor for our own. Michael Gellert, a Jungian psychoanalyst, treats this story and the sacred writings that convey it as psychological facts—as expressions of the human psyche—regardless of whether or not God actually exists. He shows how the Hebrew Bible presents God as a primitive, barbaric tribal war god while centuries later the mystics portray him as their innermost essence and emptied of all projected, external, anthropomorphic images. Thus, God’s inner journey and the evolution of human consciousness—his story and ours—parallel each other and are integrally related. Rich in historical detail and psychological insights, this is a book that will be welcomed by seekers of every background and orientation.

What distinguishes evils from ordinary wrongs? Is hatred a necessarily evil? Are some evils unforgivable? Are there evils we should tolerate? What can make evils hard to recognize? Are evils inevitable? How can we best respond to and live with evils? Claudia Card offers a secular theory of evil that responds to these questions and more. Evils, according to her theory, have two fundamental components. One component is reasonably foreseeable intolerable harm -- harm that makes a life indecent and impossible or that makes a death indecent. The other component is culpable wrongdoing. Atrocities, such as genocides, slavery, war rape, torture, and severe child abuse, are Cards paradigms because in them these key elements are writ large. Atrocities deserve more attention than secular philosophers have so far paid them. They are distinguished from ordinary wrongs not by the psychological states of evildoers but by the seriousness of the harm that is done. Evildoers need not be sadistic:they may simply be negligent or unscrupulous in pursuing their goals. Cards theory represents a compromise between classic utilitarian and stoic alternatives (including Kants theory of radical evil). Utilitarians tend to reduce evils to their harms; Stoics tend to reduce evils to the wickedness of perpetrators: Card accepts neither reduction. She also responds to Nietzsches challenges about the worth of the concept of evil, and she uses her theory to argue that evils are more important than merely unjust inequalities. She applies the theory in explorations of war rape and violence against intimates. She also takes up what Primo Levi called the gray zone, where victims become complicit in perpetrating on others evils that threaten to engulf themselves. While most past accounts of evil have focused on perpetrators, Card begins instead from the position of the victims, but then considers more generally how to respond to -- and live with -- evils, as victims, as perpetrators, and as those who have become both.

An examination of the relationship between faith in God and the concept of ecological care within a crisis of biodiversity