Reiki is an emerging adjunctive therapy that claims to provide physical and psychological healing as well as an experience of spiritual connection. It is increasingly employed in counseling centers, hospitals, and even churches. Reiki is believed by many to be a safe, non-invasive healing intervention that draws individuals towards God. Reiki practitioners maintain that they imitate Jesus' laying on of hands and claim that their praxis is essentially the same as the healing used by Jesus as well as by Buddha. An ethnographic multi-case study was performed comparing the experiences of nine individuals, four who received Reiki therapy and five who received Christ-based hands-on healing. The long interview format was employed. The transcribed data were coded and analyzed for similar and distinct themes. In addition, a brief survey was utilized to determine the spiritual interests and involvement of each participant and the spiritual consequences of their healing experiences. The findings indicate that Reiki healing is distinct from that which is depicted in the Bible. Reiki appears to open up individuals to an "energy-based" healing modality that is spiritual in nature but is not specifically Christian. As reported by Reiki practitioners, it is a spirituality which welcomes shamanism, psychic healing, clairvoyance, spirit guides, and a host of other metaphysical practices as individuals become more intimately involved. In addition, the research demonstrates that Reiki therapy, over time, can cause physical, emotional, and spiritual harm. The writer contends that biblical healing, which at its core is soteriological and dependent upon the ministry of the Holy Spirit, heals mind, body, and spirit without harmful consequences.

For fans of authors like Barbara Kingsolver and Leif Enger, a stunning new voice in contemporary literary fiction. "Tragedy and blessing. Leave them alone long enough, and it gets real hard to tell them apart." Elena Alvarez is living a cursed life. From the deadly fire she accidentally set as a child, to her mother's abandonment, and now to an unwanted pregnancy, she knows better than most that small actions can have terrible consequences. Driven to the high mountains surrounding Leadville, Colorado by her latest bad decision, she's intent on putting off the future. Perhaps there she can just hide in her grandmother's isolated cabin and wait for something–anything–to make her next choice for her. But instead of escape, she finds reminders of her own troubles reflected from every side–the recent widower and his two children adrift in a changed world, Elena's own mysterious family history, and the interwoven lives within the town itself. Bit by bit, Elena begins to reconsider her role in the tragedies she's held on to and the wounds she's refused to let heal. But then, in a single afternoon, when threads of cause and effect tangle, Elena's fragile new peace is torn apart. It's only at the prospect of fresh loss and blame that she will discover the truth of the terrible burdens we take upon ourselves, the way tragedy and redemption are inevitably bound together–and how curses can sometimes lead to blessings, however disguised.

The truth about demons is far stranger—and even more fascinating—than what's commonly believed. Are demons real? Are they red creatures with goatees holding pitchforks and sitting on people's shoulders while whispering bad things? Did a third of the angels really rebel with Satan? Are demons and "principalities and powers" just terms for the same entities, or are they different members of the kingdom of darkness? Is the world a chaotic mess because of what happened in Eden, or is there more to the story of evil? What people believed about evil spiritual forces in ancient biblical times is often very different than what people have been led to believe about them today. And this ancient worldview is missing from most attempts to treat the topic. In Demons, Michael Heiser debunks popular presuppositions about the very real powers of darkness. Rather than traditions, stories, speculations, or myths, Demons is grounded in what ancient people of both the Old and New Testament eras believed about evil spiritual forces and in what the Bible actually says. You'll come away with a sound, biblical understanding of demons, supernatural rebellion, evil spirits, and spiritual warfare.

Christians throughout history have been strengthened by their confidence that God knows everything about the future. But consider this: What if it simply is not true? What if God can only rely on His best guess about tomorrow—just as you and I do? Would it not affect your trust in Him, your confidence in facing the future, your worship, and your motivation to leave everything in His hands? And yet this is the consequence that has to be faced if you trust what a number of leading voices in evangelicalism are proposing under the doctrine of open theism. In its redefinition of the nature of divine providence, open theism adjusts the entire picture of God's sovereignty and involvement in our lives. Bruce Ware carefully summarizes and critiques this dangerous doctrine from a thoroughly biblical perspective, providing an excellent treatment of both the classical and openness views. He explores their implications and faithfully pinpoints the subtle ways that open theism undermines our trust in God and lessens His glory in our lives.

In this volume, the author shows how the Akan concepts of sunsum and honhom offer a degree of Christian pneumatological similarity, providing the avenue for translating and contextualizing the doctrine of the Holy Spirit within the context of the Akan people of West Africa.

This book connects traditional religions to the thriving religious activity in Africa today.

Among the many factors that separate churches in the West from those of the global South, there may be no greater difference than their respective attitudes toward supernatural “powers and principalities.” In this follow-up to her book For Freedom or Bondage? African theologian Esther Acolatse bridges the enormous hermeneutical gap not only between the West and global Christianity but also between the West and its own biblical-theological heritage.