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Emptiness is a strange phenomenon that haunts us in many ways. Most of us have felt empty at one time or another, though we don't often talk about it. We have a sense that something is missing in life. This absence extends beyond human experience to the physical world. As contemporary science has revealed to us on both a macroscopic and subatomic level, curiously, the vast majority of the universe is composed mostly of nothing but empty space. Emptiness is "abundant" and beckons for our attention. Drawing on the Judeo-Christian wisdom of the Bible, in conversation with Eastern and Celtic thought, David Arthur Auten offers us an eye-opening and profoundly practical examination of the much neglected gift of absence. Nothing, ironically, turns out to be endlessly fascinating and significant.
The church has been inundated in recent years with literature emphasizing the relational and the value of community. David Auten provides an alternative perspective and counterbalance, bringing our attention back to the other indispensable side to the communal--the individual and the sacredness of the self. Eccentricity is a sustained meditation on this strange and fundamental fact: there has never been, nor will there ever be, another you. You are inescapably and irrevocably different. But what does your difference mean? And who are "you" really? Weaving together insights from Calvin, Caussade, Jung, Derrida, Wolterstorff, and others, Auten guides the reader through a spiritual exploration of the difference implicit in being a self, the divine calling to make a difference, and the interconnectedness of the two. The result is an arresting bricolage reminding us of the wonderfully eccentric nature of human existence.
With warmth, wisdom, and compassion, David Arthur Auten invites us to reclaim the secretive, intuitive nature of authentic becoming. In a time when many are increasingly disenchanted with traditional demarcations between belief and unbelief, the sacred and secular, Auten offers a refreshing account of what faith can look like beyond the bounds of religion. Those thirsting for reacquaintance with true selfhood, and the ability to heed the gift of their own inner voice, will find consolation and inspiration in the author's story of leaving behind the church, ministry, and also God, not in exchange for an atheist or even humanist outlook, but as an act of faith itself. Transgressive, insightful, and candid, Leaving God Behind is a memoir of following God beyond God, to a place of self-compassion, surrender, and homecoming.
About the fifth century BC, three civilizations independently and simultaneously began to philosophize about nothing: China (chapter 3), India (chapters 4 and 5), and Greece (chapters 6-10). They had previously focused on what is the case. Light poured on nature, architecture, and society. But then, in a cross-civilizational black-out, emerged disparate nay-sayers who shifted attention to what is not the case. Behold, the holes in a sponge are absences of sponge! Holes are what make the sponge useful for absorbing liquid. The sponge can exist without the holes. But the holes cannot "exist" without the sponge. They are parasites that depend on their host. Yet the two get along well. Without holes, there would not be so many sponges in your house. Your shadow is a more complex parasite. It is a hole you bore into the light. Your shadow depends on both you and the light. You and light are rather mysterious. Your shadow partakes of both mysteries. .
With warmth, wisdom, and compassion, David Arthur Auten invites us to reclaim the secretive, intuitive nature of authentic becoming. In a time when many are increasingly disenchanted with traditional demarcations between belief and unbelief, the sacred and secular, Auten offers a refreshing account of what faith can look like beyond the bounds of religion. Those thirsting for reacquaintance with true selfhood, and the ability to heed the gift of their own inner voice, will find consolation and inspiration in the author's story of leaving behind the church, ministry, and also God, not in exchange for an atheist or even humanist outlook, but as an act of faith itself. Transgressive, insightful, and candid, Leaving God Behind is a memoir of following God beyond God, to a place of self-compassion, surrender, and homecoming.
Wesley Ellis exposes the harmful impact of developmental psychology in youth ministry, proposing a theological anthropology that frees us for deeper relationship with young people. Propelled by the conviction that we must see youth as beings rather than becomings, Ellis reorients us toward relational inclusion and away from rigid developmentalism.
From a bestselling author, an “incendiary and uproarious” assault on the pretensions of scientific atheists (National Review) Militant atheism is on the rise. Prominent thinkers including Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens have published best-selling books denigrating religious belief. And these authors are merely the leading edge of a larger movement that includes much of the scientific community. In response, mathematician David Berlinski, himself a secular Jew, delivers a biting defense of religious thought. The Devil's Delusion is a brilliant, incisive, and funny book that explores the limits of science and the pretensions of those who insist it is the ultimate touchstone for understanding our world.
Fully illustrated, the charm of his English Roses comes across on every page, even if the reader has to imagine their scent. The Irish Garden Like its highly-respected companion in the series, Old Roses, this title draws the most useful information fr
The Sunday Times bestseller, with a new introduction by Nassim Nicholas Taleb 'If great books encourage you to look at the world in an entirely new way, then Dominion is a very great book indeed' Dominic Sandbrook, Sunday Times History Book of the Year 'Terrific: bold, ambitious and passionate' Peter Frankopan Dominion tells the epic story of how those in the West came to be what they are, and why they think the way they do. Ranging from Moses to Merkel, from Babylon to Beverley Hills, from the emergence of secularism to the abolition of slavery, it explores why, in a society that has become increasingly doubtful of religion's claims, so many of its instincts remain irredeemably Christian. C...