The God Beyond Organized Religion

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The God Beyond Organized Religion

Author : Laurene Beth Bowers
Publisher : Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1498232132
Total Pages : 158 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (982 download)

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Book Synopsis The God Beyond Organized Religion by : Laurene Beth Bowers

Download or read book The God Beyond Organized Religion written by Laurene Beth Bowers and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2016-01-05 with total page 158 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Following the death of her best friend since high school, a religion professor re-examines her own personal beliefs about god. She realizes she doesn't want to be consoled by a 'transactional' god who exchanges 'right' belief and 'good' behavior for services upon request. She explores the concept of a 'transformative' god, one not aligned with any particular religion, who equips people to adapt to challenges and to spiritually grow from crises and traumas. Out of our experiences, something positive can emerge which helps us to be more empathic toward the suffering of others. Her story demonstrates how grief can be an opportunity to ponder the great mysteries of life and make meaning of our existence. She describes this process as a journey up the side of a mountain to explore how a concept of god both reflects and impacts the way a society approaches its contemporary social problems, such as global warming, poverty, and inequality. In doing so, she encounters a god beyond organized religion.

Finding God Beyond Religion

Author : Tom Stella
Publisher : SkyLight Paths Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1594734852
Total Pages : 162 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (947 download)

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Book Synopsis Finding God Beyond Religion by : Tom Stella

Download or read book Finding God Beyond Religion written by Tom Stella and published by SkyLight Paths Publishing. This book was released on 2013 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do you describe yourself as spiritual but not religious? Whether young or old, church connected or not, are you spiritually restless for an authentic faith life but do not find conventional religious teachings pertinent to you? This accessible guide to a meaningful spiritual life is a salve for your soul. It reinterprets traditional religious teachings central to the Christian faith - God, Jesus, faith, prayer, morality and more - in ways that connect with people who have outgrown the beliefs and devotional practices that once made sense to them.

On the Outside Looking Up

Author : Elizabeth Massie
Publisher : Valley House Books
ISBN 13 : 9780692731420
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (314 download)

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Book Synopsis On the Outside Looking Up by : Elizabeth Massie

Download or read book On the Outside Looking Up written by Elizabeth Massie and published by Valley House Books. This book was released on 2016-06-16 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An increasing number of people are leaving their established religions behind. Some embrace atheism or agnosticism. Others, a more "New Age" spiritual pathway. Then there are those who have discovered their own personal God-centered religions that speak deeply yet don't necessarily match up to what they were taught within their houses of worship. These are the un-churched believers. They are out there. We are out here. And our love for God and our understandings of the Divine are as meaningful and beautiful as that of the churched. On the Outside Looking Up is part spiritual memoir, part musings on issues that religions tend to tackle, and part extended hand to un-churched believers to assure them they are not the only ones. Elizabeth Massie shares how the basic truth of God - that He Loves and it is His Will that we also love - is the Light that illuminates every topic and struggle we face and is available to all. On the Outside Looking Up invites un-churched, churched, and non-believers alike to give the word "religion" a break and encourages us to take on the profound task of finding our commonalities and loving one another. Elizabeth Massie is no minister, theology scholar, or spiritual leader. She's an ordinary, wondering-wandering un-churched believer who felt a Tap on her shoulder and decided not to ignore it. She has authored a wide variety of works including the Stoker-winning Sineater, the Scribe Award-winning The Tudors: Thy Will Be Done, the mainstream novel Homegrown, the meditative collection Night Benedictions, and more.

Wide Open Spaces

Author : Jim Palmer
Publisher : Thomas Nelson
ISBN 13 : 1418537543
Total Pages : 223 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (185 download)

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Book Synopsis Wide Open Spaces by : Jim Palmer

Download or read book Wide Open Spaces written by Jim Palmer and published by Thomas Nelson. This book was released on 2007-12-02 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jim Palmer's critically acclaimed Divine Nobodies was only half the story - the deconstruction and shedding of a religious mentality that hindered his knowing God. In his next book, Jim takes the reader along into the wide open spaces of exploring and experiencing God beyond religion. Jim writes, "It is no secret that God can be lost beneath the waving banner of religion. Divine Nobodies is my story of how this happened to me. Sometimes you have to disentangle God from religion, even Christ from Christianity, to find the truth. With the help of some unsuspecting nobodies, I uncovered a new starting line with God. As I've put one foot in front of another, I've experienced God in ways that are deeply transforming." Each chapter revolves around a central question related to knowing God on fresh terms: Is God a belief system? Is the Bible a landing strip or launching pad? Can what we're feeling inside be God? Are we too religiously minded to be any earthly good? Brian McLaren wrote, "I am tempted to say that Jim Palmer could well be the next Don Miller, but what they have in common, along with an honest spirituality and extraordinary skill as storytellers, is a unique voice." The Library Reviews said of him, "Jim Palmer's casual, yet compelling writing style cuts through the religious rhetoric and gets to the real issues...readers will love this author! His sense of humor is alternately mixed with shocking sentences and poignant moments. Laced throughout is a refreshing honesty that ties his ideas together with a ribbon of reality...each turn of the page strips away a little more of the contrived mystery of Christianity until the simplicity and sincerity of it stands in realistic splendor." More and more people seek a deeper spirituality beyond status-quo religion. Others are left empty and weary from a shallow and narrow pop-Christianity. Palmer says that God's kingdom of love, peace, and freedom can be a present reality in any person's life. He proclaims that God is indeed in the process of birthing something deep and wide among unlikely people in unconventional ways, which is changing the world...one "nobody" at a time.

Finding God Beyond Harvard

Author : Kelly Monroe Kullberg
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
ISBN 13 : 0830837205
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (38 download)

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Book Synopsis Finding God Beyond Harvard by : Kelly Monroe Kullberg

Download or read book Finding God Beyond Harvard written by Kelly Monroe Kullberg and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2009-04-21 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Engaging narrative and provocative content come together in this mind-stretching and heart-challenging journey. Come with Kelly Monroe Kullberg on an intellectual road trip as The Veritas Forum explores the deepest questions of the university world and the culture at large. Discover that Veritas transcends philosophy or religion and instead brings us to true life.

The God Con

Author : Lee Moller
Publisher : FriesenPress
ISBN 13 : 152550682X
Total Pages : 248 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (255 download)

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Book Synopsis The God Con by : Lee Moller

Download or read book The God Con written by Lee Moller and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2017-06-28 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The crucifix is in! You can fool most of the people most of the time. In The God Con, Lee Moller, a life-long atheist and skeptic, looks at organized religion through the lens of the con. Organized religion has been selling an invisible product, that it never has to deliver, for thousands of years. It has given us bigotry, rampant pedophilia, terrorism, and bloodshed beyond imagining. And its acolytes have, in turn, given organized religion power over their bank accounts, their reproduction, and their very “souls”.

Back Pocket God

Author : Melinda Lundquist Denton
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0190064781
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis Back Pocket God by : Melinda Lundquist Denton

Download or read book Back Pocket God written by Melinda Lundquist Denton and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "What do the religious and spiritual lives of American young people look like as they reach their mid-to-late twenties, enter the full-time job market, and start families? In Back Pocket God, Melinda Lundquist Denton and Richard Flory provide a look beyond conflicting stories that argue that emerging adults are either overwhelmingly leaving religion, or that they are earnest spiritual seekers maintaining a significant place in their lives for religion. Denton and Flory show that while the dominant trend among young people is a move away from religious beliefs and institutions, there is also a parallel trend in which a small, religiously committed group of emerging adults claim faith as an important fixture in their lives. Yet, whether religiously committed or not, emerging adults are increasingly personalizing, customizing and compartmentalizing religion in ways that suit their idiosyncratic desires. For emerging adults, God has become increasingly remote yet is highly personalized to meet their particular needs. In the process, they have transformed their conception of God from a powerful being or force that exists "out there" to their own personal Pocket God--a God that they can carry around with them, but that exerts little power or influence in their daily lives. God functions, in a sense, like a smartphone app-readily accessible, easy to control, and useful but only for limited purposes. Back Pocket God shows the changing relationship between emerging adults and religion, providing a window into the future of religion and more broadly, American culture"--

Divine Nobodies

Author : Jim Palmer
Publisher : HarperChristian + ORM
ISBN 13 : 1418575550
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (185 download)

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Book Synopsis Divine Nobodies by : Jim Palmer

Download or read book Divine Nobodies written by Jim Palmer and published by HarperChristian + ORM. This book was released on 2006-10-15 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does a Hip-Hop artist, Waffle House waitress, tire salesman, and disabled girl have to do with discovering spiritual truth? What if embracing authentic Christianity is a journey of unlearning? Welcome to Jim Palmer's world! Don Miller meets Anne Lamott meets Brian McLaren in this tale of shedding religion and plunging into uncharted depths of knowing God. Jim Palmer, emergent pastor, shares his compelling off-road spiritual journey and the unsuspecting people who became his guides. "Perhaps God's reason for wanting me," writes Palmer, "is much better than my reason for wanting him. Maybe God's idea of my salvation trumps the version I am too willing to settle for. Seeing I needed a little help to get this, God sent a variety pack of characters to awaken me." For all those hoping there's more to God and Christianity than what they've heard or experienced, each chapter of Divine Nobodies gives the reader permission and freedom to discover it for themselves. Sometimes comical, other times tragic, at times shocking, always honest; Jim Palmer's story offers an inspiring and profound glimpse into life with God beyond institutional church and conventional religion. "I am tempted to say that Jim Palmer could well be the next Donald Miller, but what they have in common, along with an honest spirituality and extraordinary skill as storytellers, is a unique voice . . . Divine Nobodies is a delight to read, and it was good for my soul to read it." -BRIAN MCLAREN Author of The Secret Message of Jesus "You hold in your hands an amazing story of a broken man finding freedom in all the right places-in God's work in the lives of some extraordinarily ordinary people around him. You will thrill to this delightful blend of gut-wrenching honesty and laugh-out-loud hilarity, and in the end you'll find God much closer, the body of Christ far bigger and your own journey far clearer than you ever dreamed." -WAYNE JACOBSEN Author of Authentic Relationships

Living Beyond Belief: The God of No Religion

Author : N.B. Singh
Publisher : N.B. Singh
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 82 pages
Book Rating : 4./5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Living Beyond Belief: The God of No Religion by : N.B. Singh

Download or read book Living Beyond Belief: The God of No Religion written by N.B. Singh and published by N.B. Singh. This book was released on with total page 82 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Living Beyond Belief: The God of No Religion" explores spirituality beyond traditional religious confines, advocating for a personal connection with the divine that transcends dogma. Through introspective reflections and philosophical insights, the book invites readers to embrace a liberated and inclusive approach to spirituality, emphasizing the universal essence of human connection and the limitless potential for personal growth outside the boundaries of organized religion.

Of Gods and Minds

Author : James Heisig
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781092151856
Total Pages : 222 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (518 download)

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Book Synopsis Of Gods and Minds by : James Heisig

Download or read book Of Gods and Minds written by James Heisig and published by . This book was released on 2019-03-30 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The five lectures that make up this book were delivered at Boston College in 2019 as the Duffy Lectures in Global Christianity. In them the author begins from the assumption that if the Christian God is to have global significance, it will not merely be a matter of Christianity accepting cultural and religious diversity and retreating from its mission of converting the entire world to its own way of thinking about God. The conversion to tolerance and hospitality towards other modes of belief and practice marks a watershed for Christianity, but only as a transition to straighten out its past in the face of a graver, commoner concern: the care of an earth abused by human civilization and devalued by organized religion. The author approaches this question from a broader consideration of the origins and functions of gods in minds and from there suggests grounding metaphors of the divine and its relationship to the natural world in a nothingness beyond being and becoming.

God Is Not Great

Author : Christopher Hitchens
Publisher : McClelland & Stewart
ISBN 13 : 1551991764
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (519 download)

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Book Synopsis God Is Not Great by : Christopher Hitchens

Download or read book God Is Not Great written by Christopher Hitchens and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2008-11-19 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christopher Hitchens, described in the London Observer as “one of the most prolific, as well as brilliant, journalists of our time” takes on his biggest subject yet–the increasingly dangerous role of religion in the world. In the tradition of Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris’s recent bestseller, The End Of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope’s awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.

The Future of God and Organized Religion

Author : Ben Carter
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781466246072
Total Pages : 118 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (46 download)

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Book Synopsis The Future of God and Organized Religion by : Ben Carter

Download or read book The Future of God and Organized Religion written by Ben Carter and published by . This book was released on 2011-11-13 with total page 118 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a book about the future of organized religion, projected into future years -- as science and technology replace the fantasy of organized religion.It also contains a section on productivity in the business world -- and several short stories on various subjects.

Why We Love the Church

Author : Kevin L. DeYoung
Publisher : Moody Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1575673533
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (756 download)

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Book Synopsis Why We Love the Church by : Kevin L. DeYoung

Download or read book Why We Love the Church written by Kevin L. DeYoung and published by Moody Publishers. This book was released on 2009-06-24 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the case for loving the local church. It paints a picture of the local church in all its biblical and real life guts, gaffes, and glory in an effort to edify local congregations and entice the disaffected back to the fold. It also provides a solid biblical mandate to love and be part of the body of Christ and counteract the "leave church" books that trumpet rebellion and individual felt needs. Why We Love the Church is written for four kinds of people - the Committed, the Disgruntled, the Waffling & the Disconnected.

Is Organized Religion a Sham

Author : Ed Sepernik
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781413444551
Total Pages : 415 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (445 download)

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Book Synopsis Is Organized Religion a Sham by : Ed Sepernik

Download or read book Is Organized Religion a Sham written by Ed Sepernik and published by . This book was released on 2004-06 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: IS ORGANIZED RELIGION A SHAM? Delivers a well-researched treatise on the origins of various religions, their effects on mankind, and takes into account aspects of history, theology, and sociology. The text is an accumulation of facts from primitive man's first practice of animism to today's televangelism. Through this historic detail, the book focuses on the religious righteous and their manipulation of theology to control the masses. Clearly not everyone will agree with my provocative conclusions, however, een the most devout practitioner of any religion will find it difficult to argue with the historical accuracy of the research. I begin with how primitive man conceived gods. The early chapters hinge on specific moments in history and bibical accounts, such as Moses' first encounter with Yahweh. Following this is a survey of Jesus, the man, and how Christianity started. In chapter five I focus on the beliefs and obligations of Islam and in subsequent chapters move on to Hinduism and Buddhism. I Cover religious cults and discuss televantelist figures, Jerry Falwell, Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart. In chapter twelve, I lay out crimes committed in the name of God and in chapter fifteen I have juxtaposed both the creationist and evolutionist arguments for existence. Overall my contribution is designed to enlighten and provoke thought, as well as to participate in what may be viewed as an ongoing debate.

Reorganized Religion

Author : Bob Smietana
Publisher : Worthy Books
ISBN 13 : 9781546001621
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (16 download)

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Book Synopsis Reorganized Religion by : Bob Smietana

Download or read book Reorganized Religion written by Bob Smietana and published by Worthy Books. This book was released on 2023-08-29 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A superb examination of the future of Christian institutions.... A must-read for anyone invested in the fate of the American church." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) Uncover the ways the Christian church has changed in recent years--from the decline of the mainline denominations to the mega-churchification of American culture to the rise of the Nones and Exvaneglicals--and a hopeful reimagining of what the church might look like going forward. The United States is in the middle of an unprecedented spiritual, technological, demographic, political and social transformation-- moving from an older, mostly white, mostly Protestant, religion-friendly society to a younger diverse, multiethnic, pluralistic culture, where no one faith group will have the advantage. At the same time, millions of Americans are abandoning organized religion altogether in favor of disorganized disbelief. Reorganized Religion is an in-depth and critical look at why people are leaving American churches and what we lose as a society as it continues. But it also accepts the dismantling of what has come before and try to help readers reinvent the path forward. This book looks at the future of organized religion in America and outline the options facing churches and other faith groups. Will they retreat? Will they become irrelevant? Or will they find a new path forward? Written by veteran religion reporter Bob Smietana, Reorganized Religion is a journalistic look at the state of the American church and its future. It draws on polling data, interviews with experts, and reporting on how faith communities old and new are coping with the changing religious landscape, along with personal stories about how faith is lived in everyday life. It also profiles faith communities and leaders who are finding interesting ways to reimagine what church might look like in the future and discuss various ways we can reinvent this organization so it survives and thrives. The book also reflects the hope that perhaps people of faith can learn to become, if not friends with the larger culture, then at least better neighbors.

How God Becomes Real

Author : T.M. Luhrmann
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691211981
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis How God Becomes Real by : T.M. Luhrmann

Download or read book How God Becomes Real written by T.M. Luhrmann and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-10-27 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The hard work required to make God real, how it changes the people who do it, and why it helps explain the enduring power of faith How do gods and spirits come to feel vividly real to people—as if they were standing right next to them? Humans tend to see supernatural agents everywhere, as the cognitive science of religion has shown. But it isn’t easy to maintain a sense that there are invisible spirits who care about you. In How God Becomes Real, acclaimed anthropologist and scholar of religion T. M. Luhrmann argues that people must work incredibly hard to make gods real and that this effort—by changing the people who do it and giving them the benefits they seek from invisible others—helps to explain the enduring power of faith. Drawing on ethnographic studies of evangelical Christians, pagans, magicians, Zoroastrians, Black Catholics, Santeria initiates, and newly orthodox Jews, Luhrmann notes that none of these people behave as if gods and spirits are simply there. Rather, these worshippers make strenuous efforts to create a world in which invisible others matter and can become intensely present and real. The faithful accomplish this through detailed stories, absorption, the cultivation of inner senses, belief in a porous mind, strong sensory experiences, prayer, and other practices. Along the way, Luhrmann shows why faith is harder than belief, why prayer is a metacognitive activity like therapy, why becoming religious is like getting engrossed in a book, and much more. A fascinating account of why religious practices are more powerful than religious beliefs, How God Becomes Real suggests that faith is resilient not because it provides intuitions about gods and spirits—but because it changes the faithful in profound ways.

The Enoch Factor

Author : Stephen B. McSwain
Publisher : Steve McSwain
ISBN 13 : 9781573125567
Total Pages : 260 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (255 download)

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Book Synopsis The Enoch Factor by : Stephen B. McSwain

Download or read book The Enoch Factor written by Stephen B. McSwain and published by Steve McSwain. This book was released on 2010 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Never before has this country-indeed this world-faced such a need for a book that unites people, a book that reassures those disillusioned by faith that they can navigate their way back to God and even experience a profound spiritual awakening. For author and entrepreneur Steve McSwain, such an epiphany transformed his life. In The Enoch Factor, readers discover a kindred spirit in an author who understands how religion can subvert a spiritual life. His story will help them navigate their own spiritual journeys. More than a personal odyssey, The Enoch Factor is also a testimonial to the innate dangers of fundamentalist thinking. It is a persuasive argument for a more enlightened religious dialogue in America, one that affirms the goals of all religions-guiding followers in self-awareness, finding serenity and happiness, and discovering what the author describes as "the sacred art of knowing God." Unapologetic and moving, McSwain's take on The Almighty is sure to ignite spirited debate. Full of wisdom, humor, and truth, The Enoch Factor bridges the gap between secular and Christian book titles on spirituality, setting a new standard in both.