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My Utmost for His Highest

Oswald Chambers

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Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( C ) -> Chambers, Oswald

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 119 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great Truths 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Oswald Chambers gives the awesome truths of the Bible and God's character in this easy, daily study.

Profound Devotional 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This book has been a profound daily devotional for me for 15 + years. I have read it every year. The insights this man of God had are some of the most relevant, authentic, and remarkable devotions I have ever read. I continue to be amazed.

Most Beautiful Edition of a Wonderful Devotional 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I have been an Oswald Chambers follower for many years. I had been reading a tattered copy that belonged to my dad. For my birthday today I got this copy for my birthday and it is so very special. The leather cover is so soft and beautiful. Two shades of purple and liliac. Soft and comfortable to hold.

The dovotions are still current today. They make you look deep within your heart to what God is saying to you.

Highly recommend.

Editorial Review:

Large print allows the elderly or anyone with vision problems to enjoy this classic devotional. Guided by Scripture, Chambers explores every facet of Christian living from the cost of obedience to the rewards of surrender. A gift that will bring lasting joy and peace.

The History of God

Karen Armstrong

List Price: $20.65 By: Vintage Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $3.90

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Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Religious Studies -> Theology -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 200 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A true work of scholarship 4 out of 5 stars.
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This scholarly book traces the cultural and philosophical evolution of the human conception of God surrounding the 3 major monotheistic faiths. Armstrong explains the common lineage, the similarities and the variance of the conceptual understandings of God that shape people's lives...for better or for worse. This book is best understood if you have a little bit of background in religious and world history and it does require concentration. I particularly enjoyed this audio version because I could listen to certain chapters a second time. However, the audio book is abridged. This book encourages people to understand that no single person, group, or religious tradition has a monopoly of truth. It also calls people to learn about history to avoid the tragic consequences of claiming human agendas as the will of God.

Editorial Review:

The idea of a single divine being - God, Yahweh, Allah- has existed for over 4000 years. In this account of the evolution of belief Armstrong examines Western society's unerring fidelity to this idea of one God and the many conflicting convictions it engenders. Originally published in 1993 by William Heinemann.

Confessions

Saint Augustine

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( A ) -> Augustine, Saint
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( A ) -> Augustine

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 46 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In his own day the dominant personality of the Western Church, Augustine of Hippo today stands as perhaps the greatest thinker of Christian antiquity, and his Confessions is one of the great works of Western literature. In this intensely personal narrative, Augustine relates his rare ascent from a humble Algerian farm to the edge of the corridors of power at the imperial court in Milan, his struggle against the domination of his sexual nature, his renunciation of secular ambition and marriage, and the recovery of the faith his mother Monica had taught him during his childhood.
Now, Henry Chadwick, an eminent scholar of early Christianity, has given us the first new English translation in thirty years of this classic spiritual journey. Chadwick renders the details of Augustine's conversion in clear, modern English. We witness the future saint's fascination with astrology and with the Manichees, and then follow him through scepticism and disillusion with pagan myths until he finally reaches Christian faith. There are brilliant philosophical musings about Platonism and the nature of God, and touching portraits of Augustine's beloved mother, of St. Ambrose of Milan, and of other early Christians like Victorinus, who gave up a distinguished career as a rhetorician to adopt the orthodox faith. Augustine's concerns are often strikingly contemporary, yet his work contains many references and allusions that are easily understood only with background information about the ancient social and intellectual setting. To make The Confessions accessible to contemporary readers, Chadwick provides the most complete and informative notes of any recent translation, and includes an introduction to establish the context.
The religious and philosophical value of The Confessions is unquestionable--now modern readers will have easier access to St. Augustine's deeply personal meditations. Chadwick's lucid translation and helpful introduction clear the way for a new experience of this classic.

City of God

St. Augustine

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Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Church History -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 38 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Some things are better read about than read 2 out of 5 stars.
5 of 17 people found this review helpful.

I read this for a book group I was in, and was rather peeved at being forced to blow so much time on what is essentially useful only to the Classical historian or Scholasticism buff. Realistically, Augustine is just a particularly eloquent proponent of a religious argument we all get in Sunday School at age 10: The things of this world are transitory and passing, but the things of the next world are eternal and more valuable. You can almost hear the monotonous cadence. If what you want is to add to your already-considerable knowledge of the particulars of late Roman civilization, then this is the book for you. If you're in seminary and reading Aquinas, and you're thinking, "I'd certainly like to know more about his major intellectual influences," then this is the book for you. But if what you want is an increased familiarity with the major ideas of Western civilization, then do yourself a favor and go pick up a pair of textbooks: one on ancient history, the other on classical philosophy. Augustine of Hippo will get a few pages in each one, and that's honestly all he's worth. Plowing through the entirety of The City of God for simple philosophical or theological curiosity would be like reading the complete works of Louis Agassiz just to see what scientific racism was like. Both efforts would be fruitful, in one sense, but in another sense you'd have spent an awful lot of time learning about antiquated theories.

Editorial Review:

St. Augustine's masterpiece is an interpretation of history in terms of the struggle between good and evil: the City of God in conflict with the City of the Devil. Abridged for the modern reader.

Lord, I Want to Know You: A Devotional Study on the Names of God

Kay Arthur

Amazon Price: $11.19 List Price: $13.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: WaterBrook Press Amazon Marketplace: 76 new & used starting at $3.69

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Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Bible & Other Sacred Texts -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Enjoy the expanded and updated editions of the best-selling "Lord" Bible Study Series from Kay Arthur.  The "Lord" study series is an insightful, warm-hearted Bible study series designed to meet readers where they are--and help them discover God's answers to their deepest needs.

Discover the Limitless Power of God's Name.

        So much of our confusion and pain results because we don't know God -- who He really is, how He works in our lives.
        But with Lord, I Want to Know You, that will all change. When you know God more fully by studying His names -- Creator, Healer, Protector, Provider, and many others -- you'll gain power to stand strong. You'll find strength for times of trial, comfort for pain, provision for your soul's deepest needs. And your walk with God will be transformed.
        Let Kay Arthur guide you through the Scriptures in this deeply insightful study. Your daily time with God in His Word will introduce you to the limitless treasure available to you as His child. And these are truths you can share easily with others, individually or in small groups.

The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions

Karen Armstrong

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Subjects -> History -> World -> General AAS
Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Ancient

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 48 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Lucid reading 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Extremely well-written record of the Axial ages, of the Axial people and the Axial spirituality. This book traces the history of the Aryans, the vedic people in India; the Greeks and their times; the Jews and their spirituality and rituals; the Chinese people and their history. This book is the precursor of Karen Armstrong's book "The history of God".
See my detailed review at [..]

Editorial Review:

From Karen Armstrong, the bestselling author of A History of God and The Spiral Staircase, comes this extraordinary investigation of a critical moment in the evolution of religious thought.

In the ninth century BCE, events in four regions of the civilized world led to the rise of religious traditions that have endured to the present day--the development of Confucianism and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, and philosophical rationalism in Greece. Armstrong, one of our most prominent religious scholars, examines how these traditions began in response to the violence of their time. Studying figures as diverse as the Buddha and Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah, Armstrong reveals how these still enduring philosophies can help address our contemporary problems.

The Unfolding Now: Realizing Your True Nature through the Practice of Presence

A. H. Almaas

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Subjects -> Nonfiction -> Philosophy -> Consciousness & Thought
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Behavioral Sciences -> Cognitive Psychology

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Extraordinary "how to" of practicing Presence 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

We spend so much of our lives trying to get somewhere else. This book revealed to me how this habit of striving interferes in my inner experience of what is happening now. Learning to truly experience what is happening now does not mean being passive. It does not mean that I refuse to take action. It means that if I am sad, I experience that sadness, rather than rushing to cover it up with wishing for a different inner experience. I can take action to change circumstances without denying what my experience is with the current circumstance. Wanting my experience to be different is subtly different from wanting external change. I can work to improve communication and understanding in my family or community without denying my own inner experience at each moment whether it be frustration, anger, fear or joy. Almaas teaches with great clarity the "how to" of being present and tells us that being ourselves, being real, means being our True Nature.

Editorial Review:

The keys to self-knowledge and deep contentment  are right here before us in this very moment—if we can simply learn to live with open awareness. In The Unfolding Now, A. H. Almaas presents a marvelously effective practice for developing the transformative quality of presence. Through a particular method of self-observation and contemplative exploration that he calls inquiry, we learn to live in the relaxed condition  of simply "being ourselves," without interference from feelings of inadequacy, drivenness toward goals, struggling to figure things out, and rejecting experiences we don't want. Almaas explores the many obstacles  that keep us from being present—including defensiveness, ignorance, desire, aggression, and self-hatred—and shows us how to welcome with curiosity and compassion whatever we are experiencing.

The Spiral Staircase: My Climb Out of Darkness

Karen Armstrong

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 100 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Empathy 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Written with much sensitivity (and courage), it induced much empathy with the author. A good read.

I was less than impressed with some of her books on history of religion, but this autobiography shows where she was coming from, and helped me better appreciate what she was trying to convey in those other books.

I look forward to the next installment in this autobio series. :-)

Editorial Review:

In 1962, at age seventeen, Karen Armstrong entered a convent, eager to meet God. After seven brutally unhappy years as a nun, she left her order to pursue English literature at Oxford. But convent life had profoundly altered her, and coping with the outside world and her expiring faith proved to be excruciating. Her deep solitude and a terrifying illness–diagnosed only years later as epilepsy–marked her forever as an outsider. In her own mind she was a complete failure: as a nun, as an academic, and as a normal woman capable of intimacy. Her future seemed very much in question until she stumbled into comparative theology. What she found, in learning, thinking, and writing about other religions, was the ecstasy and transcendence she had never felt as a nun. Gripping, revelatory, and inspirational, The Spiral Staircase is an extraordinary account of an astonishing spiritual journey.

The Battle for God

Karen Armstrong

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Subjects -> History -> Middle East -> Israel
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Authors, A-Z -> ( A ) -> Armstrong, Karen
Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Christianity -> Theology -> Fundamentalism

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 127 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In our supposedly secular age governed by reason and technology, fundamentalism has emerged as an overwhelming force in every major world religion. Why? This is the fascinating, disturbing question that bestselling author Karen Armstrong addresses in her brilliant new book The Battle for God. Writing with the broad perspective and deep understanding of human spirituality that won huge audiences for A History of God, Armstrong illuminates the spread of militant piety as a phenomenon peculiar to our moment in history.

Contrary to popular belief, fundamentalism is not a throwback to some ancient form of religion but rather a response to the spiritual crisis of the modern world. As Armstrong argues, the collapse of a piety rooted in myth and cult during the Renaissance forced people of faith to grasp for new ways of being religious--and fundamentalism was born. Armstrong focuses here on three fundamentalist movements: Protestant fundamentalism in America, Jewish fundamentalism in Israel, and Islamic fundamentalism in Egypt and Iran--exploring how each has developed its own unique way of combating the assaults of modernity.

Blending history, sociology, and spirituality, The Battle for God is a compelling and compassionate study of a radical form of religious expression that is critically shaping the course of world history.

Islam: A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles)

Karen Armstrong

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Subjects -> Religion & Spirituality -> Islam -> History

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 140 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Apologetic in capital letters 1 out of 5 stars.
4 of 8 people found this review helpful.

Armstrong seems to be aware of the existence of Ibn-Ishaq's text "Sirat Rasul Allah", yet she doesn't seem to have read it. Instead, she uses Qu'ranic verses to show the peaceful nature of Islam. These verses however are often dating from the Meccan period. Very poetic and often very incomprehensible without the Qu'ran commentaries. She ignores the (more militant) verses from the Medinah period. Unfortunuatly she doesn't explain why she cites so arbitrary from the Qu'ran. On a more personal note I think it's academic suicide to support your (secular) view on history with quotes from religious scriptures alone. But than, she probably doesn't have any academic pretentions.

Some information she presents as 'facts' contradicts the sources we have about the formative years of Islam. These sources could be very 'wrong' since most of them were writen after Muhammad's death, but unfortunuatly she doesn't tell us why she thinks she can push them aside. That would be interesting to read. To know how she got to certain findings. But those conclusions lack footnotes and we'll have to assume she knows more about it than any other person in the world.

A very apologetic book which relies more on the imagination of the writer than on what we know about Islam sofar.

Editorial Review:

No religion in the modern world is as feared and misunderstood as Islam. It haunts the popular imagination as an extreme faith that promotes terrorism, authoritarian government, female oppression, and civil war. In a vital revision of this narrow view of Islam and a distillation of years of thinking and writing about the subject, Karen Armstrong’s short history demonstrates that the world’s fastest-growing faith is a much more complex phenomenon than its modern fundamentalist strain might suggest.