If you're looking for a great love story, for an adventure that pits a noble fighter against the darkest of villains and wins through to a mighty victory, then look no further than The Christian Cosmic Narrative: The Deep History of the World. Written in a way that captivates the imagination, come inside and discover the greatest story ever told from the pages of the Bible.

Why has Christianity been around for a mere 2,000 years when Earth life has abounded for 3.8 billion years and even humans for nearly 300,000 years? What was God doing all this time? And what if humans are not the center of God’s universe? In Amending the Christian Story, Ron Rude asserts that current versions of the Christian faith are inadequate, and more than this, are fueling humanity’s assault on Earth’s biosphere. Through the window of nature’s natural sciences—especially astronomy, geology, evolutionary biology, paleoanthropology—Rude provides a fuller and more expansive view of God’s story of life and God’s story of Jesus. Can humans continue the lived-out assumption that we are separate from, superior to, the reason for, and the rulers of everything? With new perspectives into ancient stories and current narratives, Rude compels us to urgently shift Christianity’s claim and conduct in order to unite with God’s more sustainable and just world.

A foremost thinker on science and religion argues that an adequate understanding of cosmic history requires attention to the emergence of interiority, including religious aspiration Over the past two centuries scientific advances have made it clear that the universe is a story still unfolding. In this thought-provoking book, John F. Haught considers the deeper implications of this discovery. He contends that many others who have written books on life and the universe--including Stephen Hawking, Stephen Jay Gould, and Richard Dawkins--have overlooked a crucial aspect of cosmic history: the drama of life's awakening to interiority and religious awareness. Science may illuminate the outside story of the universe, but a full telling of the cosmic story cannot ignore the inside development that interiority represents. Haught addresses two primary questions: what does the arrival of religion tell us about the universe, and what does our understanding of the cosmos as an unfinished drama tell us about religion? The history of religion may be ambiguous and sometimes even barbarous, he asserts, but its role in the story of cosmic emergence and awakening must be taken into account.

At its beginning Christianity was surprising, powerful, creative, world-shaking. Today in the West it is many times familiar, common, and expected, losing its power to surprise and transform. We have developed societal amnesia and ignorance of what Christianity originally was – and what it still can be. We need to recover the surprise of Christianity. We need to ask the same fundamental questions as the early Christians, which will help us rediscover the surprising power of Christianity in our midst. Focusing on the surprise of the gospel message takes us into the heart of what it is to understand Christianity at all, and thus what it is to remember and relearn the life-giving power and witness that went with being Christian at the beginning. This remembering and relearning can, in turn, surprise us all over again and chart a course for our witness today.

When we lack a basic understanding of what the Church teaches, we can feel as if we’re on a road without a map, or have the wrong map, or only pieces of the map. So how can we journey to the Father and the eternal life Christ won for us? Rerouting addresses this problem head on, putting the map once again into our hands—or, in today’s language, providing us with the voice of a GPS device telling us where we must go in order to come safely home. Fr. Riccardo, in his distinctive, incisive way, brings us face-to-face with Christ as the Church has proclaimed him from its earliest days. Guiding us around obstacles we often face as we try to understand our faith, this book answers questions Catholics commonly ask: What is the goal of human life? What really happens at Mass? Why is sexuality holy, and why must it be treated as such? In the culture in which we live, we can often be blinded to transcendence—and therefore to the saving work of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. Rerouting presents us with a sweeping vista of what we believe in a way that makes sense and causes our faith to grow and flourish, both in our hearts and in the world.

Have you ever seriously questioned Christianity? If so, you’re not alone. A lot of people have wondered if this faith is outdated . . . irrelevant . . . maybe even harmful. But what if everything is not as it seems? What if there’s more to the story? Questioning Christianity explores the nature and relevance of the Christian story in an accessible and compelling way. No slogans. No politics. No simple solutions to complex problems. After many years of exploring issues of faith with skeptics, seekers, and new believers, Dan Paterson and Rian Roux serve as guides to help you navigate what can be a disorienting and confusing journey. Perhaps you’re feeling lost, unable to find your bearings, and you need some help to map out the terrain around you. Or maybe you’ve encountered obstacles and have hard questions that need to be addressed before you can move ahead. Whatever it is that has made you curious about this faith, there are good answers waiting to be discovered. So go ahead. Question Christianity. Just give Christianity the chance to answer back.

"This book outlines a new theological paradigm focusing on the Spirit at work in creation, rather than the Jesus concerned primarily with human salvation, thus offering an empowering theology to which every human being can make a contribution"--