Most Evil Is Done by Good People Who Do Not Know That They Are Not Good


Book Description

This book takes the view that Christian truth is the basis for all answers to social issues and that there are not two opposing but equal answers within Christian truth that are equally valid and equally acceptable to God. Any so called truth or "right" that circumvents or undercuts the required sacrifices, disciplines and self denial demanded by God in any given social or moral issue ceases to be truth, ceases to be right the moment it becomes a force unto itself, outside of or independent of the Scripturally required obedience. Human history has shown over the millennia that when the letter and spirit of God's laws are not obeyed, the truth is abused, nations become confused and people are used. Many of our political and social issues are rooted in our misplaced belief that tolerance, inclusion, equal respect for unequal truth and live and let live is the way to greater peace and prosperity. They are all wrong. Each individual, government and nation is judged by their response to Christ. The Christian nation or one which ascribes to being one, is tasked to set the Christian standard as every nation's point of reference. It is the Christian's duty to show that the valid rule of God's law, the letter of God's law and the spirit of God's law are superior to any other alternative standard. The biggest obstacle to Christianity today is the undisciplined, misinformed and unfaithful lifestyles of professing Christians. The Church has become so indoctrinated in its aversion to any form of discrimination that it has placed a higher priority on keeping the peace by compromising than by keeping the truth by discriminating. By accepting a false peace and rejecting a hard truth that resists compromise, it begets neither peace nor truth.




Breathe Restlessness Into Me


Book Description

Ted Loder continues to inspire readers with his powerful prayers, sermons, and reflections. This compilation includes Guerrillas of Grace, Wrestling the Light, The Haunt of Grace, and Tracks in the Straw. Loder's words speak to the human experience, drawing out the beauty and struggle as we respond to the grace of God.




The Voice of This Calling


Book Description

Collection of addresses by one of the Church of England's most loved and respected pastors.




The Haunt of Grace


Book Description

From the pen of one of today's most visionary spiritual thinkers comes a book of profound explorations on the mysteries and marvels of faith, love, and life. Believing that mystery is at the very heart of faith, Loder delves deep into the "sneaky" ways God surfaces in the muddle of everyday experience. In fourteen chapters crafted from his best-loved sermons as Senior Minister of the First United Methodist Church of Germantown (Philadelphia), Loder's persistently evocative images call us to live in this scarred, beautiful world differently, to find a truer, more compassionate place in it. This is not a book for the timid or complacent; it's one of the most exciting spiritual reads you'll come across in a long time.




Eichmann in Jerusalem


Book Description

The controversial journalistic analysis of the mentality that fostered the Holocaust, from the author of The Origins of Totalitarianism Sparking a flurry of heated debate, Hannah Arendt’s authoritative and stunning report on the trial of German Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann first appeared as a series of articles in The New Yorker in 1963. This revised edition includes material that came to light after the trial, as well as Arendt’s postscript directly addressing the controversy that arose over her account. A major journalistic triumph by an intellectual of singular influence, Eichmann in Jerusalem is as shocking as it is informative—an unflinching look at one of the most unsettling (and unsettled) issues of the twentieth century.




The Life of the Mind


Book Description

The author's final work, presented in a one-volume edition, is a rich, challenging analysis of man's mental activity, considered in terms of thinking, willing, and judging. Edited by Mary McCarthy; Indices.




Deliver Us from Evil


Book Description

What do we mean when we call something or someone evil? The word “evil” tends to conjure up images of demons, devils, and horrifying crimes, things that you and I couldn’t possibly get involved with! But is that true? Is evil really something that only wicked people who are “quite unlike ourselves” get up to? Could it be that you and I are not only capable of doing evil things, but are already involved with such things? This book explores the hidden nature of evil and draws out the ways in which all of us, knowingly or otherwise, are caught up in webs of evil that bring about disastrous consequences, often to the weakest and most vulnerable amongst us. We need to find ways of learning to see evil and resisting it by all means possible. If we can’t see evil, we can’t resist it. If we can’t resist it, we get sucked into it.




Inherent and Instrumental Values


Book Description

The essays in this book range broadly over different aspects of value theory and include contributions by Nicholas Rescher, Frances Kamm, Barry Smith, and Jan Narveson. Portions examine the theoretical foundations of values and valuation exploring the rational groundwork for judgments. Other aspects, appealing to value distinctions of inherent, intrinsic, and instrumental, drawn most notably by C. I. Lewis, bring to light matters of aesthetic, social political, ethical, and ontological issues. Throughout Inherent and Instrumental Values, the authors address questions assessing the intrinsic worth of utility of actions and whether manual or professional labor can hold an equal value rating and the implications of this assessment. In other portions of the anthology, authors explore the extent to which such value categories above, help clarify and assess moral issues we encounter in everyday life. Among some analyzed in this book are racism and affirmative action, abortion, euthanasia, homelessness, care, and friendship. The theme of the nature of value and the role of valuation we encounter in the days of our life, provide a basis for examining other aspects of axiology that lie beyond the scope of this work.




The Evil of Banality


Book Description

In this expanded edition of The Evil of Banality, Elizabeth Minnich argues for a tragic yet hopeful explanation of “extensive evil,” her term for systematic, normalized harm-doing on the scale of genocide, slavery, sexualized dominance. The book now includes a new preface, new chapter, and expanded afterword addressing ongoing extensive evils, the paradox of lying, and the importance of developing the thinking without which conscience remains mute. Extensive evils are actually carried out not by psychopaths, but by people like your quiet next-door neighbor, your ambitious colleagues. There simply are not enough moral monsters to do the long hard work of extensive evils, nor enough saints for extensive good. In periods of extensive evil, people little different from you and me do its work for no more than a better job, a raise, the house of the family “disappeared” last week. So how can there be hope? Such evils are neither mysterious nor demonic. If we avoid romanticizing both the worst and best of which humans are capable, we can recognize and say no to extensive evil, practice and sustain extensive good, where they must take root – in ordinary lives.




Letters to the Editor That Were Never Published


Book Description

Over the course of the last ten years, Dr. Alex Caemmerer has written well over one hundred letters to the editors of the New York Times, the Record (of Bergen County, New Jersey), and Psychiatric News, a journal aimed at psychiatrists and other behavioral health providers. The letters, arranged in chapters, represent his response to articles on a variety of topics, including psychiatry, psychoanalysis, religion, priests and bishops, depression, violence, homosexuality, and miscellaneous subjects of general interest. He was also inspired to write in on a variety of subjects, including the business of Big Money, the American automobile and its role in American culture, the symbolic meanings and needs the automobile satisfies in ones psychology, and the practice of psychiatry (including a few examples of what brings one to a psychiatrist). He shared his opinions on business newscasters and their use of language, specifically the words and phrases aimed at scaring the public with frightening metaphors. Over the decades of his career, Dr. Caemmerer has been a witty observer and commentator on how people and society are changingand not always for the betterment of either. These letters capture his unique perspective and his creative solutions to get things back on track.