Religion-Philosophy

Gravity & Grace by Simone Weil

Simone Weil, a twentieth-century French philosopher and political activist, possessed excellent academic training and worked in the Spanish leftist political movements. Around the advent of World War II, however, she became disillusioned with the totalitarian politics of Europe and made a reflective move inward. She began to convert to a Roman Catholic form of Christianity. Unfortunately, she died in obscurity before the war’s end as a result of a longstanding struggle with anorexia. She had…

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Religion-Philosophy Science

Questions of Truth: Fifty-one Responses to Questions about God, Science & Belief

John Polkinghorne is a Cambridge physicist who decided, mid-career, to become an Anglican priest. Like a good scientist working out a theory, he worked out how his orthodox Christian beliefs were essentially compatible with modern physics. He has won international acclaim and awards for his insights about religion and science. Especially central to his contributions is the idea that both disciplines require a certain amount of belief and faith. This book, compiled with his collaborator…

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Religion-Philosophy

The Inconvenient Gospel: A Southern Prophet Tackles War, Wealth, Race, & Religion

The Baptist faith I grew up with, at its best, tries to transform the world by living out values alien to contemporary society. Clarence Jordan, a son of Georgia in the American South, paid attention to his Christian upbringing, but as an adult, realized that American society often did not follow Jesus Christ’s lead. Religion was often kept in the walls of the church instead of being practiced on the street. This collection of writings,…

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Biography-Memoir Religion-Philosophy

Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved

In her early career, Bowler had accomplished some of her life’s major goals. She earned a PhD and wrote the first religious history of the prosperity gospel movement. She got a teaching position at a prestigious divinity school (Duke). She was married and started a family with her partner. Then she received a diagnosis of stage IV colon cancer. Obviously, this rocked her life. Soon enrolling in a clinical trial, she responded to chemotherapy, but…

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Biography-Memoir Religion-Philosophy

In Memoriam: Frederick Buechner (1926-2022)

It is impossible for me to assess Frederick Buechner’s impact on readers without assessing his impact on my life, which remains profound. Thus, I will start there. At age 16, I chose to take my Christian faith seriously. For a Southern Baptist teenager, that meant not cursing, hanging out with the “right” crowd, and other pieties. I began to pay attention at church more, especially at our youth group meetings, and began to pay more…

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Fiction-Stories History Religion-Philosophy

The Fire & the Ore: A Novel

This book is an exploration of polygamy – i.e., plural marriage – how it forms and how it operates. It’s an exploration of a topic that is controversial because of its place in early Mormon society and curious because it runs contrary to how much of society has organized itself. I live in the American South and am a Protestant Christian. Southern Christians would never deign to practice public plural marriages. (Polyamory is another matter,…

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Fiction-Stories Religion-Philosophy

Moses, Man of the Mountain: A Novel

In Western and Middle-Eastern thought, undergirded by three monotheistic faiths, the Moses story carries overarching significance. It tells of liberation from bondage and the struggle of living with that freedom. It tells of the temptations to lapse into prior, seeming comforts of slavery. It tells how freedom, best exercised, consists of communing with a transcendent yet imminent God. This story is taught to children regularly in synagogues, churches, and mosques the world over. For those…

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Biography-Memoir Religion-Philosophy

Howard Thurman & the Disinherited: A Religious Biography

Howard Thurman is a name that scholars of twentieth-century Christianity and African-American culture know well, but few in the mainstream United States are familiar with it. However, more people should be, and Harvey writes this religious biography to bring his name to the fore. Thurman was known as “the mentor to the movement” and mentored dozens of civil rights’ leaders, including Martin Luther King. He laid the groundwork for the dismantling of Jim Crow and…

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Humanities Religion-Philosophy Society

Reading Black Books: How African American Literature Can Make Our Faith More Whole & Just

The year 2022 resides in an era where there is renewed interest in the African American experience. That experience, of course, is incredibly rich and deep and historically spans Slavery, Reconstruction, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Civil Rights Movement. Atcho, a Christian pastor, brings out that spiritual depth by highlighting ten pieces of literature that illuminate the African American experience and the African American perspective on theology. This book in unabashedly in the Christian tradition.…

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Religion-Philosophy

The Study of Man by Michael Polanyi

Academic and professional life can seem fragmented at times. After receiving a course of general education, we specialize and then sub-specialize. (Will we sub-sub-specialize in the future?) In particular, the humanities can seem vastly different from the natural sciences, which can seem vastly different from engineering. Into this fragmentation, Polanyi offers a comprehensive philosophy with humans at the center. Polanyi, a physical chemist with economic and philosophical interests, can speak with authority on such broad…

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