The Death of the Mythic God


Book Description

Is God dead? Jim Marion says that what has really died is our myth of God, our worn-out notion of the deity in the sky, separate from us, who intervenes in our lives only when petitioned strenuously. God still exists, but we need to update our interpretation of God's nature. The mythic sky God was never real, says Marion. It was only a concept of God, now outdated.The real God is in the human heart, within the world, operating as the engine of evolution. God grows us from within into ever higher levels of awareness.In a bold revisioning of contemporary spirituality, Marion, author of the acclaimed Putting on the Mind of Christ, shows us how to expand consciousness and follow the genuine path of Jesus and the world's mystics into greater inner development.




The Death of the Mythic God


Book Description

Is God dead? Jim Marion says that what has really died is our myth of God, our worn-out notion of the deity in the sky, separate from us, who intervenes in our lives only when petitioned strenuously. God still exists, but we need to update our interpretation of God's nature. The mythic sky God was never real, says Marion. It was only a concept of God, now outdated. The real God is in the human heart, within the world, operating as the engine of evolution. God grows us from within into ever higher levels of awareness. In a bold revisioning of contemporary spirituality, Marion, author of the acclaimed Putting on the Mind of Christ, shows us how to expand consciousness and follow the genuine path of Jesus and the world's mystics into greater inner development.




Homeric Durability


Book Description

Homeric Durability investigates the concepts of time and decay in the Iliad. Through a framework informed by phenomenology and psychology, Lorenzo Garcia argues that, in moments of pain and sorrow, the Homeric gods are themselves defined by human temporal experience, and so the epic tradition cannot but imagine its own eventual disintegration.




Gods and Robots


Book Description

Traces the story of how ancient cultures envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving devices and human enhancements, sharing insights into how the mythologies of the past related to and shaped ancient machine innovations.




Putting on the Mind of Christ


Book Description

“Jim Marion’s book returns us to the central challenge Christianity ought to be handing us. Indeed, how do we put on the mind of Christ? How do we see through his eyes? How do we feel through his heart? How do we learn to respond to the world with that same wholeness and healing love? That’s what Christian orthodoxy really is all about. It’s not about right belief; it’s about right practice.” —Cynthia Bourgeault, author of The Wisdom Jesus What does it mean to follow the path of Christ today? Putting on the Mind of Christ is the first book to offer an integral understanding of the Christian spiritual path--one that examines the basic stages of spiritual development described by the great saints and sages, along with the psychological stages of development used by modern psychology. American mystic Jim Marion draws upon his own rich spiritual experience and deep understanding of scriptural models, to show readers how to emulate the developmental stages of the Christ: how to put on the mind of Christ to achieve spiritual illumination and communion with the Christ. He examines the seven levels of consciousness of the human personality mapped by the work of Jean Piaget, Carol Milligan, and Lawrence Kohlberg, and leads readers to the consciousness that Jesus called the Kingdom of Heaven--the highest level of spiritual development. Marion shows how inner spiritual growth has always been the true essence of Christian practice and shares his own spiritual experiences within a "Christ-focused" framework. Pioneering, transcendent, and grounded, Putting on the Mind of Christ will permanently alter the landscape of 21st-century Christianity.




The Myth of Sisyphus And Other Essays


Book Description

One of the most influential works of this century, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays is a crucial exposition of existentialist thought. Influenced by works such as Don Juan and the novels of Kafka, these essays begin with a meditation on suicide; the question of living or not living in a universe devoid of order or meaning. With lyric eloquence, Albert Camus brilliantly posits a way out of despair, reaffirming the value of personal existence, and the possibility of life lived with dignity and authenticity.




The Riddle of Resurrection


Book Description

"Dying and Rising Gods"--a detailed critique of the scholarly consensus! Tammuz, Osiris, Baal, and Adonis are well-known from J.G. Frazer's Golden Bough. These gods have been a hotly debated issue for a whole century. During the 1990's, a consensus developed to the effect that the "dying and rising gods" died but did not return or rise to new life. In the first monograph on the whole issue subsequent to the studies by Frazer and Baudissin, professor Tryggve N.D. Mettinger offers a detailed critique of this position. The work is based on a fresh perusal of the source material from the ancient Near East, the Greco-Roman world, and Egypt. It profits from new finds of great importance. Modern theory in comparative religion and anthropology on the nature of rite and myth informs the discussion. The author concludes that Dumuzi, Baal, and Melqart were dying and rising gods already in pre-Christian times and that Adonis and Eshmun may well have been so too. After his magisterial presentation of the ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean material, the author provides some succinct notes on the resurrection of Jesus in the light of his findings. The author, Tryggve N.D. Mettinger, is professor of Hebrew Bible at Lund University, Sweden, and a member of the Royal Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, Stockholm.




It's All God, the Flowers and the Fertilizer


Book Description

In his best-selling classic, It's All God, modern mystic, Walter Starcke bridges the gap between our humanity and Divinity, as well as our traditional limited perspectives and our emerging Cosmic Consciousness. With the insight of a biblical scholar, Starcke clarifies the foundational Truths of our Judeo-Christian tradition, as he takes humanity's spiritual roots forward into the light of the new state of human consciousness that is emerging today. His masterful knowledge of Scriptures unlocks the truths laid out in both the Old and New Testament not found in other metapshyical books. Starcke calls us to no longer separate God from our humanity and the world. With this awareness we understand that the teachings of Jesus have not been fully realized until now as humanity begins the new cycle of the Age of the Gods. The awareness that It's All God is a requirement for living fully in this new Age of the Gods, which is this Golden Cycle we have just begun. Starcke wrote that, "we have been given all the pieces, each necessary, none missing, and if we want to complete the picture it is up to us to stop excluding those parts of ourselves and of our feelings that we have thought did not belong in the picture. If God is truly the only Power and Presence, then every piece, no matter how seemingly negative, insignificant, or inappropriate, has a purpose. Instead of discarding those aspects of ourselves that seem faulty or unworthy, when we stop judging them and see what they are telling us, we can find a right place for those energies and then we can complete the puzzle." In Part One his in-depth knowledge takes us from the traditional approach through the Gnostics, to clear in-sights on the teachings of Jesus and Paul. Uniquely Starcke relates these teachings to modern Quantum Physics and the evolution of Consciousness. Starcke is not only a Biblical scholar, but also well versed in the workings of consciousness, perceptions, and reality. Part One also includes Starcke's marvelous mystical insights and meditations. In Part Two of It's All God, Starcke gives us the "how to's" of practical mysticism to apply Divine Truth to our daily lives. No matter where a reader is on the path, he will find the steps to greater awareness and the clarification of the puzzle humanity has been working on for countless lifetimes. "We are all on the right path at the right time. The time is Now." These how to's are not superficial, they require that we come to understand our True Self and live the Truth of our Being. In part three Starcke takes us beyond our customary perspective into the realms of Higher Consciousness. These take us clearly into the new cycle, The Age of the Gods. The realization that It's All God is the key to spiritual healing, true transformative forgiveness, and the daily expression of our Divine humanity. It is a book whose time has come. We are now ready as never before to delve into it's insights and live it's Truths. It's All God is required reading for many ministerial programs and should now be require reading for us all to live fully during this new cycle far beyond 2012. Starcke was not only ahead of his time, but a master for all Ages with tools for the rest of our journey in awareness as we live fully as Divine Humans.




The Complete Idiot's Guide to Paganism


Book Description

Presents a complete idiot's guide to understanding paganism and examines the basic principles of shamanism, druidism, and Wicca as well as the fundamentals of meditation, magic, divination, and spiritual healing.




Greek Myth and the Bible


Book Description

Since the nineteenth-century rediscovery of the Gilgamesh epic, we have known that the Bible imports narratives from outside of Israelite culture, refiguring them for its own audience. Only more recently, however, has come the realization that Greek culture is also a prominent source of biblical narratives. Greek Myth and the Bible argues that classical mythological literature and the biblical texts were composed in a dialogic relationship. Louden examines a variety of Greek myths from a range of sources, analyzing parallels between biblical episodes and Hesiod, Euripides, Argonautic myth, selections from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and Homeric epic. This fascinating volume offers a starting point for debate and discussion of these cultural and literary exchanges and adaptations in the wider Mediterranean world and will be an invaluable resource to students of the Hebrew Bible and the influence of Greek myth.