Over more than twenty years as a mediator, Aaron T. Wolf has learned that successful conflict resolution is shaped by complicated dynamics--from how comfortable the meeting room is to the participants' deepest senses of self. Bridging seemingly intractable issues means addressing multiple layers of needs. Wolf's approach may be surprising to Westerners who are accustomed to separating rationality from spirituality and science from religion. The Spirit of Dialogue draws lessons from a diversity of faith traditions to transform conflict, from identifying the root cause of anger to aligning with an energy beyond oneself--what Christians call grace--to the true listening practiced by Buddhist monks. Whether atheist or fundamentalist, Muslim or Jewish, Quaker or Hindu, any reader involved in difficult dialogue will find concrete steps towards a meeting of souls.
The author’s original intent in writing this memoir was to reflect on her life and share personal stories of faith with her children and grandchildren. She writes of prayer and of God’s often unrecognized availability, presence, and providence. A writer-editor at one Christian Writers Conference examined the developing manuscript and encouraged her to add questions at the end of each chapter, directing reader reflection and extending the book’s usefulness far beyond just family. A contemplative Quaker upbringing created keen awareness of the Holy Spirit and established a mystical foundation for the author’s life, helping her understand what it means to be in an active living-loving relationship with God, a channel of divine love such as revealed in the life and teachings of Jesus. Each chapter has its own theme, and the stories are not always in chronological order because some themes recur over a lifetime. The author shares openly the highs and lows of her less-than-perfect life—things not uncommon to humankind but which are seldom subjects of conversation in our fast-paced, secular world. The stories reveal vulnerability and challenges to faith as well as affirmations. Poems and prayers, written at or near the time of the unfolding stories, plumb the depths of the author’s experience. Questions at the end of each chapter are similar to those a spiritual director might ask to invite consideration of one’s own spiritual journey—where faith has strengthened them, where it has faltered, or where it has invited new growth.
St. Catherine of Siena's Dialogue describes the entire spiritual life through a series of conversations between God and the soul, represented by Catherine herself. Readers of The Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena, will find her revelations from God as informative - and formative - as those who recognized her sanctity during her life. The universally applicable yet intimately personal messages she received from God are as much for us as they were for Catherine. We can read God's communications to his beloved daughter with detached awe or we can receive His messages to us through her writings. Do you long for certainty that Divine Providence exists in the midst of our chaotic world? Does your prayer seem too dry, or too routine? Have you sought guidance for the challenges of your life from unhelpful people or things? Or has pride kept you from humble obedience to the Church? If so, The Dialogue will provide consolation, encouragement, and hope.
Suppose you could ask God any question and get an answer. What would it be? Young people all over the world have been asking those questions. So Neale Donald Walsch, author of the internationally bestselling Conversations with God series had another conversation. Conversations with God for Teens is a simple, clear, straight-to-the-point dialogue that answers teens questions about God, money, sex, love, and more. Conversations with God for Teens reads like a rap session at a church youth group, where teenagers discuss everything they ever wanted to know about life but were too afraid to ask God. Walsch acts as the verbal conduit, showing teenagers how easy it is to converse with the divine. When Claudia, age 16, from Perth, Australia, asks, "Why can't I just have sex with everybody? What's the big deal?", the answer God offers her is: "Nothing you do will ever be okay with everybody. 'Everybody' is a large word. The real question is can you have sex and have it be okay with you?" There's no doubt that the casual question-and-answer format will help make God feel welcoming and accessible to teens. Conversations with God for Teens is the perfect gift purchase for parents, grandparents, and anyone else who wants to provide accessible spiritual content for the teen(s) in their lives.
Fleshing the Spirit brings together established and new writers to explore the relationships between the physical body, the spirit and spirituality, and social justice activism. The anthology incorporates different genres of writing—such as poetry, testimonials, critical essays, and historical analysis—and stimulates the reader to engage spirituality in a critical, personal, and creative way.
Rosenau helps Christians to respond to conflict in healthy ways by learning to dialogue in the Spirit of Christ. He presents practical ways to transform communication skills and respond to conflict more effectively.
The contemporary theologian Hans Küng has asked if the "death of God," proclaimed by Nietzsche as the event of modernity, was inevitable. Did the empowering of new forms of rationality in Western culture beginning around 1500 lead necessarily to the reduction or privatization of faith? In Dialogues between Faith and Reason, John H. Smith traces a major line in the history of theology and the philosophy of religion down the "slippery slope" of secularization—from Luther and Erasmus, through Idealism, to Nietzsche, Heidegger, and contemporary theory such as that of Derrida, Habermas, Vattimo, and Asad. At the same time, Smith points to the persistence of a tradition that grew out of the Reformation and continues in the mostly Protestant philosophical reflection on whether and how faith can be justified by reason. In this accessible and vigorously argued book, Smith posits that faith and reason have long been locked in mutual engagement in which they productively challenge each other as partners in an ongoing "dialogue." Smith is struck by the fact that although in the secularized West the death of God is said to be fundamental to the modern condition, our current post-modernity is often characterized as a "postsecular" time. For Smith, this means not only that we are experiencing a broad-based "return of religion" but also, and more important for his argument, that we are now able to recognize the role of religion within the history of modernity. Emphasizing that, thanks to the logos located "in the beginning," the death of God is part of the inner logic of the Christian tradition, he argues that this same strand of reasoning also ensures that God will always "return" (often in new forms). In Smith's view, rational reflection on God has both undermined and justified faith, while faith has rejected and relied on rational argument. Neither a defense of atheism nor a call to belief, his book explores the long history of their interaction in modern religious and philosophical thought.
Cutting-edge explorations and discussions of DMT experiences and plant sentience from leading luminaries in the field of psychedelic research • Includes contributions from Rupert Sheldrake, Rick Strassman, Dennis McKenna, Graham Hancock, Jeremy Narby, Erik Davis, Peter Meyer, David Luke, and many others • Explores DMT beings, plant sentience, interspecies communication, discarnate consciousness, dialoguing with the divine, the pineal gland, the Amazonian shamanic perspective on Invisible Entities, and the science behind hallucinations Encounters with apparently sentient beings are reported by half of all first time users of the naturally occurring psychedelic DMT, yet the question of DMT beings and plant sentience, interspecies communication, discarnate consciousness, and perhaps even dialoguing with the divine has never been systematically explored. In September 2015, ten of the world’s leading luminaries noted for exploring the mysterious compound DMT (dimethyltryptamine) gathered with other researchers at Tyringham Hall in England to discuss the subject. Over three days, they pooled their expertise from a wide range of subjects--archaeology, anthropology, religious studies, psychology, neuroscience, chemistry, and psychopharmacology, to name a few--to explore the notion of “entheogenic plant sentience” and the role of DMT as a conduit between Spirit and Matter. Offering cutting-edge insights into this visionary domain, this book distills the potent exchange of ideas that occurred at Tyringham Hall, including presentations and discussions on DMT entities, the pineal gland, the possibility of DMT as a chemical messenger from an extraterrestrial civilization, the Amazonian shamanic perspective on Invisible Entities, morphic resonance, and the science behind hallucinations. Contributors to the talks and discussions include many leading thinkers in this field, including Rupert Sheldrake, Rick Strassman, Dennis McKenna, Graham Hancock, Jeremy Narby, Erik Davis, Ede Frecska, Luis Eduardo Luna, Bernard Carr, Robin Carhart-Harris, Graham St. John, David Luke, Andrew Gallimore, Peter Meyer, Jill Purce, William Rowlandson, Anton Bilton, Vimal Darpan, Santha Faiia, and Cosmo Feilding Mellen.
In these dialogues, Jesus, now teaching as the fully awakened Christ shares how he awakened to this Reality and clarifies many of his own experiences when he too once experienced the state of mind we now identify as being a separate body in a world.
