Religion to Reality


Book Description

Religion to Reality follows Dr. Terry Thomas's spiritual quest, prompted by a devastating loss. The book traces his journey across the U.S. and around the world in search of purpose and truth outside of or inside of a religious framework.







Religion Vs. Reality


Book Description

Since Jesus, religion is obsolete. "Go figure out what this Scripture means: 'I'm after mercy, not religion.' I'm here to invite outsiders, not to coddle insiders." (Matt. 9:13,14TMB) Shortly before the prequel to this book No Small Snakes: A Journey into Spiritual Warfare went to press, my then-teenaged son and I were enjoying the summer breeze on a late-night drive in our trusty old convertible. Just that morning, I had carefully folded the windshield sunscreen and stuffed it securely under the back of the driver's seat so it wouldn't blow away with the top down. That night in the outside lane, as a pickup was about to pass us, we were startled by a loud Pop! Fwhoosh! Suddenly, the sunscreen leapt out behind us from under the driver's seat and flew up above us and foreword, unfolded, and fell spread-out across our faces. In a flash of blindness, we sideswiped the pickup and shot off the freeway. Slamming from 65 to zero in seconds, an explosive blast of impact left us stunned and wedged under a foot-thick tree branch just inches above the windshield. Dazed, and covered with leaves and dirt, we managed to pull ourselves out of the wreckage and debris. Soon afterwards, a patrolman arrived to find my son and me trembling and holding each other, dusty and trembling. The grey-haired officer studied the crumpled remains of our beloved sports car wedged under the huge branch-low enough to have crushed through the windshield and cabin of any sedan. Finally, he shook his head in amazement and turned to my son. "Do you go to church?" he asked. Shaken, but alive and filled with grace, we both nodded. This book, like its prequel, presumes that ours is a planet at war. What's more, the enemy of God quite deliberately attacks first and most fiercely those surrendered to Jesus, because we're the only ones capable of recognizing and empowered to overcome the kingdom of darkness. Those who are not surrendered to Jesus dare not even see the battle, because they have no power to win it. Thus opting out of the battle into denial, they bear no threat to the enemy (see 1 Corinth. 2:14). Spiritual warfare, that is, allows no conscientious objectors, but only deluded deserters and persevering victors. To withdraw is neither honorable nor safe-but simply to capitulate to the enemy, whose objective is precisely to remove opposition from the battlefield. I pray this book will stir you not only to acknowledge the battle in the larger world, but indeed, to face it within yourself; not to surrender to the enemy's deceptions as a comfortably ensconced POW, but to surrender to Father God as an active, victorious combatant. The Father of us all has set our destiny. Jesus has blazed the trail. Holy Spirit has empowered us to get there. History awaits us. Religion fabricates relationship with God. Tragically, few people today, even in the Church, dare to face and walk in this reality. Proudly, we discount spiritual power and trust instead in our own. This denial sustains religion as an unholy distraction from what God is doing and thereby, marks it as a tool of God's enemy. The enemy of God hides in religion... In fact, the increasing work of evil among us today-from warmaking, family breakups, and gender confusion to addictions, racism, and corporate greed-reveals graphically both our desperate need for saving power and the inability of religion to provide it. ... but the heart of God shines in Jesus. Chapters include Christmas after 9/11, Terrorism and Spiritual Warfare, Secularization and White Racism, Homosexuality: Outing the Man-Hating Spirit, Hollywood's X-Rated Spirituality, Ball Games and the Battle for Men's Souls, Old Demons in the New Age, Depression or Expression?, But Is Jesus the Only Way?, The Commandment to Enjoy, and Unmasking Halloween.




Religion in American Public Life


Book Description

A thought-provoking discussion of the public and political expression of America's diverse religious beliefs.




Reality’s Fugue


Book Description

Science, religion, philosophy: these three categories of thought have organized humankind’s search for meaning from time immemorial. Reality’s Fugue presents a compelling case that these ways of understanding, often seen as competing, are part of a larger puzzle that cannot be rendered by one account of reality alone. This book begins with an overview of the concept of reality and the philosophical difficulties associated with attempts to account for it through any single worldview. By clarifying the differences among first-person, third-person, and dualist understandings of reality, F. Samuel Brainard repurposes the three predominant ways of making sense of those differences: exclusionist (only one worldview can be right), inclusivist (viewing other worldviews through the lens of one in order to incorporate them all, and thus distorting them), and pluralist or relativist (holding that there are no universals, and truth is relative). His alternative mode of understanding uses Douglas Hofstadter’s metaphor of a musical fugue that allows different “voices” and “melodies” of worldviews to coexist in counterpoint and conversation, while each remains distinct, with none privileged above the others. Approaching reality in this way, Brainard argues, opens up the possibility for a multivoiced perspective that can overcome the skeptical challenges that metaphysical positions face. Engagingly argued by a lifelong scholar of philosophy and global religions, this edifying and accessible exploration of the nature of reality addresses deeply meaningful questions about belief, reconciliation, and being.




Biblical Religion and the Search for Ultimate Reality


Book Description

Dr. Tillich shows here that in spite of the contrast between philosophical and biblical language, it is neither necessary nor possible to separate them from each other. On the contrary, all the symbols used in biblical religion drive inescapably toward the philosophical quest for being. An important statement of a great theologian's position, this book presents an eloquent plea for the essential function of philosophy in religious thought.




Sacred Stories, Spiritual Tribes


Book Description

Nancy Tatom Ammerman examines the stories Americans tell of their everyday lives, from dinner table to office and shopping mall to doctor's office, about the things that matter most to them and the routines they take for granted, and the times and places where the everyday and ordinary meet the spiritual. In addition to interviews and observation, Ammerman bases her findings on a photo elicitation exercise and oral diaries, offering a window into the presence and absence of religion and spirituality in ordinary lives and in ordinary physical and social spaces. The stories come from a diverse array of ninety-five Americans — both conservative and liberal Protestants, African American Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Mormons, Wiccans, and people who claim no religious or spiritual proclivities — across a range that stretches from committed religious believers to the spiritually neutral. Ammerman surveys how these people talk about what spirituality is, how they seek and find experiences they deem spiritual, and whether and how religious traditions and institutions are part of their spiritual lives.




Science and Religion in Quest of Truth


Book Description

From the vantage point of eighty years, a highly regarded scientist and theologian surveys the full spectrum of critical issues between science and theologyJohn Polkinghorne, an international figure known both for his contributions to the field of theoretical elementary particle physics and for his work as a theologian, has over the years filled a bookshelf with writings devoted to specific topics in science and religion. In this new book, he undertakes for the first time a survey of all the major issues at the intersection of science and religion, concentrating on what he considers the essential insights for each. Clearly and without assuming prior knowledge, he addresses causality, cosmology, evolution, consciousness, natural theology, divine providence, revelation, and scripture. Each chapter also provides references to his other books in which more detailed treatments of specific issues can be found.For those who are new to what Polkinghorne calls "one of the most significant interdisciplinary interactions of our time," this volume serves as an excellent introduction. For readers already familiar with John Polkinghorne's books, this latest is a welcome reminder of the breadth of his thought and the subtlety of his approach in the quest for truthful understanding.




Godwired


Book Description

Godwired offers an engaging exploration of religious practice in the digital age. It considers how virtual experiences, like stories, games and rituals, are forms of world-building or "cosmos construction" that serve as a means of making sense of our own world. Such creative and interactive activity is, arguably, patently religious. This book examines: the nature of sacred space in virtual contexts technology as a vehicle for sacred texts who we are when we go online what rituals have in common with games and how they work online what happens to community when people worship online how religious "worlds" and virtual "worlds" nurture similar desires. Rachel Wagner suggests that whilst our engagement with virtual reality can be viewed as a form of religious activity, today’s virtual religion marks a radical departure from traditional religious practice – it is ephemeral, transient, rapid, disposable, hyper-individualized, hybrid, and in an ongoing state of flux.




Truth in Religion


Book Description

Continuing his exploration of the philosophical questions and doubts plaguing civilization today, Dr. Mortimer J. Adler explores where the truth lies in religion and the effects of diversity among religions. Truth in Religion is the product of Dr. Mortimer J. Adler’s search for a resolution to the age-old conflict between logic and faith. Aiming to discover where the truth lies among the plurality of the world’s organized religion, Dr. Adler explores the philosophy of religion and its true meanings among civilization as dictated by the principle of the unity of truth.