Free your mind & restore your spirit with: (A) True stories to inspire your direct access to infinite love; (B) personal & group contemplative practices (prayer & meditation); (C) activity guides & self-help exercises aligned with the biblical 7 Spirits of God using the 7 C's (Choice, Comedy, Compassion, Connection, Consciousness, Cosmos & Creativity). Explore truth "powers that shouldn't be" have hidden about: Church (uninspired because real ekklesia is not church & includes everybody); Free will (for learning how to love genuinely because the real deal isn't faked); Jesus (religious change agent, not institution founder, executed by Roman Empire after teaching direct access to tough & tender love of our eternal Father & Mother); Claimed divine blueprint of God's will to predestine harm (monstrosity of error); Mary the Tower (Magdala) & Photine the Enlightened One (erasure by church); Peter, Paul & Augustine (top three biased church influencers against unity); Fraud indicators (scribes, creeds, false trinity & apostolic fabrication); Pope & "Paper Pope" (idolatry as if infallible of mortal man & bible as a politically mixed collection of books); Oppenheimer, "Oppie" (among leaders' causative examples for moral injury); and Togo, not Balto (the most heroic animal the world has ever known & a very good dog). Author JR Sproull JD applies legal expertise to deconstruct institutional Christianity as well as religious and secular laws, leaders & lies of injurious systems generally. After deconstruction, compassionately constructive options point to your best way of life. God's not leaving the cosmos & you deserve joy!

Four Australian thinkers come together to ask and answer the big questions, such as: What is the nature of the universe? Doesn't religion cause most of the conflict in the world? and Where do we find hope? We are introduced to the detail of different belief systems - Judaism, Christianity, Islam - and to the argument that atheism, like organised religion, has its own compelling logic. And we gain insight into the life events that led each author to their current position. Jane Caro flirted briefly with spiritual belief, inspired by 19th century literary heroines such as Elizabeth Gaskell and the Brontë sisters. Antony Lowenstein is proudly culturally, yet unconventionally, Jewish. Simon Smart is firmly and resolutely a Christian, but one who has had some of his most profound spiritual moments while surfing. Rachel Woodlock grew up in the alternative embrace of Baha'i belief but became entranced by its older parent religion, Islam. Provocative, informative and passionately argued, For God's Sake encourages us to accept religious differences but to also challenge more vigorously the beliefs that create discord.

Christopher Hitchens, described in the London Observer as “one of the most prolific, as well as brilliant, journalists of our time” takes on his biggest subject yet–the increasingly dangerous role of religion in the world. In the tradition of Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris’s recent bestseller, The End Of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope’s awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.

Thinking about ultimate reality is becoming increasingly transreligious. This transreligious turn follows inevitably from the discovery of divine truths in multiple traditions. Global communications bring the full range of religious ideas and practices to anyone with access to the internet. Moreover, the growth of the nones and those who describe themselves as spiritual but not religious creates a pressing need for theological thinking not bound by prescribed doctrines and fixed rituals. This book responds to this vital need. The chapters in this volume each examine the claim that if the aim of theology is to know and articulate all we can about the divine reality, and if revelations, enlightenments, and insights into that reality are not limited to a single tradition, then what is called for is a theology without confessional restrictions. In other words, a Theology Without Walls. To ground the project in examples, the volume provides emerging models of transreligious inquiry. It also includes sympathetic critics who raise valid concerns that such a theology must face. This is a book that will be of urgent interest to theologians, religious studies scholars, and philosophers of religion. It will be especially suitable for those interested in comparative theology, inter-religious and interfaith understanding, new trends in constructive theology, normative religious studies, and global philosophy of religion.

We live in an age of skepticism. Our society places such faith in empirical reason, historical progress, and heartfelt emotion that it’s easy to wonder: Why should anyone believe in Christianity? What role can faith and religion play in our modern lives? In this thoughtful and inspiring new book, pastor and New York Times bestselling author Timothy Keller invites skeptics to consider that Christianity is more relevant now than ever. As human beings, we cannot live without meaning, satisfaction, freedom, identity, justice, and hope. Christianity provides us with unsurpassed resources to meet these needs. Written for both the ardent believer and the skeptic, Making Sense of God shines a light on the profound value and importance of Christianity in our lives.

The Beatles brought colour, joy, freedom and love to a grey, post-war world. But the most successful group in popular music history also harboured hidden, sometimes darker worlds and influences that are often downplayed by their biographers. In their career, the Fab Four were to cross paths with many spiritual movements, religious groups, esoteric philosophies and mystical teachings. Inevitably, their thinking was affected by the ideas they encountered. These ideas in turn helped shape their music and – given their vast popularity – the public consciousness. Behind the Wall of Illusion examines the spiritual inspirations that the Beatles brought to the changing cultural landscape of the 1960s. From the popularization of the new religion of rock ‘n’ roll, Beatlemania (the ‘new Cult of Dionysus’) and John Lennon’s explosive statement that the Beatles were ‘bigger than Jesus’, Sean MacLeod takes us on a tour of Indian ashrams, questionable gurus and hallucinatory drugs. He also studies the secreted ‘clues’ in the Beatles’ album covers and films; the growing rumours that Paul had been killed in a car crash and covertly replaced; and the tragic assassination of John Lennon and the unknown perpetrators behind the crime. This is an indispensable book for any lover of the Beatles.

DIVYou never know when God will show up/divAt some point we all feel abandoned--by a friend, spouse, family member, or even God. We search to discover meaning for our lives. Often religion tries to confine the answers we seek to church buildings and candy-coated sermons, but in life's darkest moments hope is sometimes illuminated through the most unlikely people at the most unforeseen times. In Midnight in Aisle Seven Jay Lowder presents encouraging, raw, genuine stories of real people, including himself, to demonstrate how anyone, anywhere, can experience an encounter that brings significance to life.