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In a sweeping examination of the sexual rules of the Bible, Carr asserts that Biblical “family values” are a far cry from anything promoted as such in contemporary politics. He concludes that passionate love–our preoccupaton therewith and pursuit thereof–is the primary human vocation, that eros is in fact the flavoring of life.

Based on a true story, The Priest’s Madonna tells the tale of the love relationship between Bérenger Saunière, a priest in the tiny French village of Rennes-le-Château, and his housekeeper and longtime companion, Marie Dénarnaud.

Standing Still is another book of engaging, luminous and memorable stories about people who are on their everyday spiritual journey. The author reminds the reader to “remember the power of story to touch what might otherwise remain untouched in us, something deep in the soul that could be changed forever.” And she cautions readers, “Be prepared, for your life may be shaken or upended by the simple stories in this book.” At the end of each story, there are questions which will help you “stand still” to see what is happening in your life right now and experience “awe and reverence at the Mystery.”

The thesis of the author that it is a “mistake to regard myth as an inferior mode of thought, which can be cast aside when human beings have attained the age of reason.” In her short history of myth, she demonstrates that it is “designed to help us to cope with the problematic human predicament.”

Writing from his prison cell in Nazi Germany in 1945 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a young German theologian, sketched a vision of what he called “religionless Christianity.” In this book, John Shelby Spong puts flesh onto the bare bones of Bonhoeffer’s radical thought. The result is a strikingly new and different portrait of Jesus of Nazareth—a Jesus for the non-religious.
Spong invites his readers to look at Jesus through the lens of both the Jewish scriptures and the liturgical life of the first-century synagogue. Dismissing the dispute about Jesus’ nature that consumed the church’s leadership for the first 500 years of Christian history as irrelevant, Spong proposes a new way of understanding the divinity of Christ: as the ultimate dimension of a fulfilled humanity. Traditional Christians who still cling to dated concepts of the past will not be comfortable with this book; however, skeptics of the twenty-first century will not be quite so certain that dismissing Jesus is the correct pathway to walk. Jesus for the Non-Religious may be the book that finally brings the pious and the secular into a meaningful dialogue, opening the door to a living Christianity in the post-Christian world.

This book was conceived by the passion of the author to discover and share the living faith of “leaders in the twenty-first century who will guide us in our search for a more just world.” He is Professor of Reconciliation Studies at Bethel University in Saint Paul, Minnesota and has spent over twenty years of his life seeking to understand the essence of social justice and reconciliation.

From Publishers WeeklyWhere is it written that literary women must move to coastal California (if they don’t already live there), become Episcopalians and write conversion memoirs? Miles, like recent memoirists Diana Butler Bass, Nora Gallagher and Lindsey Crittenden, loves Jesus and detests the religious right, though she is also critical of “the sappy, Jesus-and-cookies tone of mild-mannered liberal Christianity.” Mild-mannered she is not. Converted at age 46 when she impulsively walked into a church and received communion for the first time, the former war correspondent suddenly understood her life’s mission: to feed the hungry. What her parish needed, she decided, was a food pantry-and within a year (and over opposition from some fellow parishioners) she had started one that offered free cereal, fruit and vegetables to hundreds of San Francisco’s indigent every Friday. Not willing to turn anyone away, she raised funds and helped set up other food pantries in impoverished areas, occasionally “crossing the line from self-righteous do-gooder to crusading zealot.” For Miles, Christianity “wasn’t an argument I could win, or even resolve. It wasn’t a thesis. It was a mystery that I was finally willing to swallow.” Grittier than many religious memoirs, Miles’s story is a perceptive account of one woman’s wholehearted, activist faith. (Feb. 20)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A massive shift in Western religious attitudes has taken place almost without our noticing it. The Judeo-Christian tradition of Western culture has slowly but steadily been eclipsed by a new way of viewing spirituality.
This shift has been in the making for some three hundred years. James A. Herrick tells the story of how the old view has been dismantled and a new one created not primarily through academic or institutional channels but by means of popular religious media–books, speeches, magazines and pamphlets, as well as movies, plays, music, radio interviews, television programs and websites.

Anyone who is thinking about going to seminary; anyone that is thinking about leaving the church; anyone who is wondering why church has become so difficult; anyone who is wondering why good clergy are becoming more difficult to find; anyone who cares about the postmodern church; anyone who is trying to find a way to re-conceptualize their Christian faith so that it matches the reality of the twenty-first century-anyone interested in any of these things should read this book.

Romanticism, Marxism, pre and post war German theology, non-realism and the nineteen sixties death of God movement, and now many contemporary writers around the world- they have all reshaped our ideas about God, giving it the rich diversity of experience and expression it comprises today. Tracing the history of the key idea in Western thought from its origins through to the present day, this is the story of the intellectual journey that remade God in the image of man, so that he might become one of us.

What The twenty-first century has witnessed a dangerous shift in focus about belief (or non-belief) in God. God is not to be debated but defended at all costs. in short, God has become a problem. How then might we return to a reasoned debate about God’s existence? In this book, Nigel Leaves evaluates four ways of addressing the “God problem” – panentheism, non-realism, grassroots spirituality, and religious naturalism. These are the current responses to the increasing difficulty of God-talk in the context of the latest critical and scientific thinking. Leaves provides an excellent point of departure and a resource for a discussion on how we may speak of God today.

Holy War The Blood of Abraham, by David Anderson, is a book about the validity of the belief origins of Christianity. It exposes many of the underlying flaws that are built into Christianity and argues for a revisionist view that will take believers into a more authentic and higher spiritual dimension.

Joan Chittister is executive director of Benetvision, A Resource and Research Center for Contemporary Spirituality in Erie, Pennsylvania. She has written many books and carries on an active speaking schedule. Over the years, she has received many letters asking about the central issues and concerns of the spiritual life. While responding to these queries, she realized that the wisdom literature of the world’s religions offers the best and most relevant insights into the spiritual path. Summary by: Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Progressive Christianity, by its very nature, resists having a ‘systematic theology’. But Del Brown has written the nearest thing to it. A man both of the church and the academy, he writes with a passion for clear thinking about what it means to be a pluralistic, compassionate, open-minded, justice-seeking Christian today.

Distill the great spiritual teachings from around the world down to their most basic principles, and one thread emerges to unite them all: kindness. In The Force of Kindness, Sharon Salzberg, one of the nation’s most respected Buddhist authors and meditation teachers, offers practical instruction on how we can cultivate this essential trait within ourselves.

Marilyn Salmon’s persuasive and practical work helps preachers to identify the ways that Christian preachers perpetuate the long tradition of Christian anti-Judaism. She situates the Gospels precisely as Jewish literature then addresses specific thorny issues that arise in preaching: supersessionism; portrayals of the Law; the Pharisees; the relationship between the Testaments; preaching the Passion; and misrepresentations of Judaism. Using examples from many sermons, she shows how to avoid the pitfalls of misportraying the people of Jesus.