Christianity Books - Page 4

Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession

Anne Rice

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Interesting 3 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

First, let me say how happy I am that Anne has found Christ again, or as I think she would say, that He has refound her.

This was an interesting book on several counts. The first part, about her childhood, seemed overly detailed, and I found myself skipping forward. But two points were worth retaining. First, Anne was a poor reader, and her information came to her via visual stimuli or the spoken word. I found it amazingly ironic that so colorful a wordsmith would start out life that way. The importance of the visual in Anne's life probably accounts for the level of detail in her descriptions.

Second, young Anne perceived her all-encompassing Catholicism to be at perfect peace with the world's scientific, intellectual, and cultural pursuits. I'm not sure I fully agree with that, considering the Legion of Decency, which she mentions, never mind the RCC's dealings with the Galileos of history. But I do see much of contemporary Catholicism, anyway, embracing man's search for knowledge.

Once Anne began being drawn back to Christ the pages turned faster. I think my big takeaway here was that her conversion mirrored the dynamics of her childhood experience, in that it was initially driven by the visual rather than by the word. No one reasoned with her regarding the claims of Christ. No sermon convicted her. She didn't repent. Her wooing came via visual impressions of the religious statues to which she became addicted. Later it came via the spoken word of the masses she would watch on TV.

The impression I have is a deeper-than-words yearning of the soul for its lover. Words come only afterward, to describe the relationship. And their ability to describe must be, as she admits, imperfect.

The Body of Christ is diverse, as Scripture tells us. There are different gifts and callings, there are different perspectives on received truth. There are, Anne writes, Christmas Christians and Passion Christians. And each of us is at different stages of our growth in the reality of Christ. Yet the paradox is that Christians have the central unity of Christ in us, even as we work out our salvation.

Anne's tells her story differently from the way I would tell mine, but there were enough touchpoints that it gave me some things to think about.

Editorial Review:

In 2005, Anne Rice startled her readers with her novel Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, and by revealing that, after years as an atheist, she had returned to her Catholic faith.

And now, in her powerful memoir, Rice tells the story of the spiritual transformation that produced a complete change in her literary goals. She begins with her girlhood in New Orleans as the devout child in a deeply religious family. She writes about her years in Berkeley, where her career as a novelist began with the publication of Interview with the Vampire. She writes about loss and tragedy (her mother’s drinking; the death of her daughter and, later, her beloved husband); about new joys; about the birth of her son. She tells how after an adult lifetime of questioning, she experienced the intense conversion and consecration to Christ that lie behind her most recent novels.

Jesus of Nazareth

Pope Benedict XVI

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 154 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

“This book is . . . my personal search ‘for the face of the Lord.’” –Benedict XVI

In this bold, momentous work, the Pope––in his first book written as Benedict XVI––seeks to salvage the person of Jesus from recent “popular” depictions and to restore Jesus’ true identity as discovered in the Gospels. Through his brilliance as a theologian and his personal conviction as a believer, the Pope shares a rich, compelling, flesh-and-blood portrait of Jesus and incites us to encounter, face-to-face, the central figure of the Christian faith.

From Jesus of Nazareth: “. . . the great question that will be with us throughout this entire book: But what has Jesus really brought, then, if he has not brought world peace, universal prosperity, and a better world? What has he brought? The answer is very simple: God. He has brought God! He has brought the God who once gradually unveiled his countenance first to Abraham, then to Moses and the prophets, and then in the wisdom literature–the God who showed his face only in Israel, even though he was also honored among the pagans in various shadowy guises. It is this God, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, the true God, whom he has brought to the peoples of the earth. He has brought God, and now we know his face, now we can call upon him. Now we know the path that we human beings have to take in this world. Jesus has brought God and with God the truth about where we are going and where we come from: faith, hope, and love.”

Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana (Anne Rice) (Anne Rice) (Anne Rice)

Anne Rice

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 72 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

faithful, readable, compelling and unobjectionable 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

Anne Rice continues her excellent narrative on the life of Christ in "The Road to Cana" and gives a readable, credible, story line that does not contradict the Tradition of the Catholic Church and a harmony of the Gospels. Her attention to detail of the Holy people and ordinary life of a first century Jewish town is wonderfully helpful for modern readers to understand what the life of Our Lord was like day to day.

The story begins with a horror though, a stoning of boys for an unnamed but suspected crime that a careful reader would assume is a homosexual act.

Rice's narrative style is leaner than her period pieces and her lush prose in, for example, The Witching Hour. One suspects that part of it is Rice's own evolution as a writer, part of it is her own care in writing only what is accurate, probable, and plausible, and part of it is that the lean style echoes the setting of the book: the Mediterranean/desert climate of Judea during the first century.

Rice's horror fans will find much to enjoy, for she is a gifted writer. Those who took up Rice for the first time (as I did) from her earlier "Out of Egypt" will find this work equally satisfying. I eagerly await the next volume.

Editorial Review:

Having completed the two cycles of legend to which she has devoted her career so far, Anne Rice gives us now her most ambitious and courageous book, a novel about the early years of CHRIST THE LORD, based on the Gospels and on the most respected New Testament scholarship.

The book s power derives from the passion its author brings to the writing and the way in which she summons up the voice, the presence, the words of Jesus who tells the story.


From the Hardcover edition.

The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why

Phyllis Tickle

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Noticed the serious problems with her thesis? 1 out of 5 stars.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful.

There simply is no real evidence to support her thesis. Gregory the Great as the creator of a great emergence of monasticism? Nonsense. Monasticism emerged in the 3rd century and there was a slow but steady growth of the church and of monasticism throughout the first 1,500 years. Gregory the Great was famous for lots of things. But there was no Great Emergence.

And can the schism between the Latin and Eastern churches be called a "Great Emergence"? What the heck emerged? No theology, no new moral changes; indeed, many of the various Eastern churches quietly returned to full communion with the Roman church without any noticeable changes. So, mostly, it was a political spat.

No, there is only one era that could be called a "Great Emergence" and that was the Protestant reformation. And I cannot see how you can take that one instance and call it a trend for change every 500 years.

Moreover, although Tickle is a good writer and she posits a number of intriguing theories, she is crippled by her narrow viewpoint. Again and again she mistakes a small number of liberal believers in America for the world itself.

The growth in religion is in places like Africa and Asia. There, membership is extraordinary, an explosion unimaginable here in America or in the new dark continent for religion: Europe. And it is an explosion of traditional religion, conservative, orthodox religion.

Moreover, what emergence is even going on here? Liberal denominations are shrinking to size of peas and blowing away. Surely she can't think anything will come from the ranks of those ancient citizens--feminist nuns in their 70's, gay bishops lording it over nonexistent churchgoers, and hippie theologians no one reads anymore. Are you kidding?

No, what is emerging here in the US is...ta dum...no religion. If you look at the statistics for the young--that is, the future--you find a group of theological illiterates. Bookstores are stocked with books on wicca, psychics, magic crystals, revivals of pagan religions, and magical books on how to believe your way to great wealth.

A "Great Emergence" it is not.

Editorial Review:

Rooted in the observation that massive transitions in the church happen about every 500 years, Phyllis Tickle shows readers that we live in such a time right now. She compares the Great Emergence to other "Greats" in the history of Christianity, including the Great Transformation (when God walked among us), the time of Gregory the Great, the Great Schism, and the Great Reformation. Combining history, a look at the causes of social upheaval, and current events, The Great Emergence shows readers what the Great Emergence in church and culture is, how it came to be, and where it is going. Anyone who is interested in the future of the church in America, no matter what their personal affiliation, will find this book a fascinating exploration.

The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

Francis S. Collins

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 303 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Dr. Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, is one of the world's leading scientists -- yet he is also a man of unshakable faith in God and scripture. Dr. Collins has resolved the dilemma that haunts everyone who believes in God and respects science. Faith in God and faith in science can be harmonious -- not separately but together, combined into one worldview. For Collins, science does not conflict with the Bible, science enhances it.

The Language of God makes the case for God and for science. Dr. Collins considers and dismisses several positions along the spectrum from atheism to young-earth creationism -- including agnosticism and Intelligent Design. Instead, he proposes a new synthesis, a new way to think about an active, caring God who created humankind through evolutionary processes.

He explains his own journey from atheism to faith, and then takes listeners on a stunning tour of modern science to show that physics, chemistry, and biology can all fit together with belief in God and the Bible. The Language of God is essential for anyone who wonders about the deepest questions of all: Why are we here? How did we get here? And what does life mean?

Before You Do: Making Great Decisions That You Won't Regret

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

He's Back! 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Bishop is back. This book returns to the engaging, yet informative style of Bishop Jakes' early books ie. Woman thou art Loosed, 10 Commandments.... If you did not like Reposition Yourself because of all the flowery modifiers and theatrical symbolism, then you'll be happy to read this book. Although the book centers around the decision to choose a mate and draws from his daughters wedding, it provides insight and strategies to making any type of decision i.e. financial, career, family. Bishop encourages people to research before they make a decision. This is an entertaining read and you walk away with better decision making skills.

Editorial Review:

In his latest work, bestselling author T.D. Jakes presents his take on attracting love in abundance. Jakes suggest that a loving bond - whether marital, sibling, or parental - is one of the key fundamentals toward a prosperous life. T. D Jakes explores ways to strengthen these relationships, urging children to be more patient with their elder parents and siblings to show more gratitude and respect for each other's differences. Jakes shares what it takes to recover after a divorce and make dreams of true love accessible even when the odds seem against it. He uses the lessons he has learned from his own marriage and family life as well as those of others to encourage and inspire people to give and receive the greatest love possible.

My Utmost for His Highest

Oswald Chambers

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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 Heart of the Five Love Languages

Gary Chapman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Short but Sweet 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is a dummied down version of the Five Love Languages. It works, but I wish I would have bought the complete version instead.

Heart of the Five Love Languages 2 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This was not quite what I expected. It is an abridgement of the original Five Love Languages. "It sorta leaves ya hangin". Gives an overview of common sense, then it makes a person get a bit mad. Chapman blames a lot of the problems in relationships on women, and as people know, it takes two to be in a relationship, so where is the mans responsibility? Also, I disagree with his point that in order to make someone else happy and "fill their love tank" you must get out and do what they like to do and get out of your comfort zone. If that is how the relationship is going to be...then maybe that is not the relationship for you to be in. You can never make another person happy, they must choose to be happy on their own, otherwise you wear yourself out trying and just resent that person because they don't appreciate you. From my perspective, a relationship should be something that BOTH people are willing to work on. If someone is reading or listening to this book or any other relationship book, then koodoes to them for bettering themselves. I think that there are many other books that are much better and so much more worth the money.

Editorial Review:

We all know that the greatest commandment is to love. However, relatively few of us know how to express our love in the heart language of our family and friends. Fortunately, in The Five Love Languages Gary Chapman identifies the five primary love languages and teaches us how to use these languages to express our love.

Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality

Rob Bell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 103 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Antiquated 2 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Should have looked more closely at the author before purchasing. Although it's a refreshing view of the beauty of sex and the spiritual connection it creates between you and God, it also has a very conservative sexual undercurrent. My sense was that the author would not consider a queer relationship as applicable to his theory and he also strongly advocates for abstinence before marriage, which is something that I think is antiquated.

Divorced Dad Loves This Book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I am a divorced single dad, who has really spent the last few years just wondering how to put things back together. I am a strong Christian who is very active in a supportive church. This book has clarified some confusing questions I have have about starting another relationship after vowing to be with my now ex-wife untill the end of time. Rob Bell's writing has also shown me other quetions I need to ask myself, and has also shown me how great a sexual relationship can be. This book would be a great resource for any couple.

Editorial Review:

God and sex go together. You can’t separate the two, says Rob Bell, because this physical world is intimately linked to deeper spiritual realities. And so, in order to make sense of sexuality, at some point you have to talk about God. With beauty and unusual insight, Sex God explores this connection.

The Power of a Praying® Wife Audiobook (Power of a Praying)

Stormie Omartian

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 271 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

You need this book! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book reallly jumps into what God intended us wives to be. If you look at marriage many years ago it was about commitment, it was about the wife being the heart of the home while her husband was the head of it. God made woman as a partner and a helper for man and Stormie really covers it in detail. Marriages need the basic principals that she lays out in order to survive.

It really goes into great detail on how you can change your marriage just by changing yourself. IF YOU ARE SELFISH NATURED then you will hate this book. This book is about giving your heart and soul over to God and changing yourself to benefit your marriage. If you are the type that "won't change until he does" then don't buy this book because you need a Bible. You have to be willing to be completely unselfish the way Jesus Christ was when he was on earth. God is not saying "let the husband walk all over his wife." Most marriages that you see that have lasted 25 years or more today have God as the center of their marriage. The divorce rate 53% today, that has to tell you something? Something is missing, and it's God. If you change yourself to be a wife after God's own heart, then through you, God will reach your husband. Giving up is not the answer.

Editorial Review:

Hear the power on CD! Thirty segments from Stormie’s award–winning book encourage women to pray for every part of their husbands’ lives, including work, spiritual strength, fears, and decision–making.