Pastor John Piper shows how to sever the clinging roots of sin that ensnare us, including anxiety, pride, shame, impatience, covetousness, bitterness, despondency, and lust in Battling Unbelief. When faith flickers, stoke the fire. No one sins out of duty. We sin because it offers some promise of happiness. That promise enslaves us, until we believe that God is more desirable than life itself (Psalm 63:3). Only the power of God’s superior promises in the gospel can emancipate our hearts from servitude to the shallow promises and fleeting pleasures of sin. Delighting in the bounty of God’s glorious gospel promises will free us for a less sin-encumbered life, to the glory of Christ. Rooted in solid biblical reflection, this book aims to help guide you through the battles to the joys of victory by the power of the gospel and its superior pleasure.
In this classic work praised by Pope Pius IX himself, Fr. Nicolas J. Laforet lays out the spiritual causes of unbelief, and shows the antidotes necessary to remedy each. Noting that unbelief is not a particularly modern phenomenon (after all, many people refused to believe in Jesus even after having witnessed his miracles), Fr. Laforet explains that unbelief is not merely a matter of the intellect; on the contrary, where unbelief prevails we almost always find its source in a person’s will. From the fruits of his spiritual and psychological analysis, Fr. LaForet then crafts a simple but powerful remedy — one that is sure to bring to Christ any reasonable person who honestly employs it. No wonder the great Cardinal James Gibbons treasured this book, writing: “I consider its value beyond price, and highly recommend it to all, especially in these days of doubt and denial.” Among the things you will learn here are: The spiritual roots of unbelief, and the main form it takes todayIf you can’t make yourself believe, why does the Church consider unbelief a vice?Why Christianity could conquer the brutal Roman Empire, but suffer even more defeats in our dayFaith and reason: learn how Christian faith purifies reason, strengthens it, extends it, and even elevates itTrue faith: why it isn’t blind — and can never beThe one thing that always opens the gates of faith — even to those who live in darknessDiscover the two forms of materialism — practical and dogmatic— and how each corrodes faith “This book will be a powerful aid to souls, helping them reject error and gain free access to truth.” Blessed Pope Pius IX
How Science and the Supernatural Changed My Life “One day one of my professors asked me if it was true that I was a Bible-believing Christian. When I answered yes, his polite, upbeat attitude instantly turned rude and arrogant. In front of my peers, he insulted my intelligence, belittled my faith, and discredited the Bible. To him there was absolutely no doubt that science and academia had shown the pure ‘insanity of such belief,’” writes author Max Davis. Written from his journalistic point of view, The Insanity of Unbelief is a result of the author’s 30-year walk from childlike belief, to skepticism, and finally deep, secure faith. The contents are based on his expert and thorough research of solid facts versus what many atheists, agnostics, and even some believers tout. Different from other apologetic books is the addition of true, documented, supernatural experiences and miracles making a compelling—and exciting—argument for the reality and power of God!
God's word illumines the darkness of society. Groen van Prinsterer's Unbelief and Revolution is a foundational work addressing the inherent tension between religion and modernity. As a historian and politician, Groen was intimately familiar with the growing divide between secular culture and the church in his time. Rather than embrace this division, these lectures, originally published in 1847, argue for a renewed interaction between the two spheres. Groen's work served as an inspiration for many contemporary theologians, and as a mentor to Abraham Kuyper, he had a profound impact on Kuyper's famous public theology. Harry Van Dyke, the original translator, reintroduces this vital contribution to our understanding of the relationship between religion and society.
How can we present the truth about Jesus to a world that rejects all truth claims as arbitrary? Can we find way to engage in meaningful conversation without appearing arrogant or manipulative? Can we witness to the gospel without simply enlisting in the ongoing culture wars? Curtis Chang has found a unique way to address these pressing questions of our age. He argues that similar challenges confronted Christians at two key moments in church history and stimulated creative responses by two monumental thinkers. Augustine (AD 413) faced a fragmenting society where pagans accused Christians of causing the mounting social ills afflicting Rome. Thomas Aquinas (AD 1259) pondered the disorienting Muslim challenge that provoked most medieval Christians to crusade rather than converse. Through a careful study of Augustine's City of God and Aquinas's Summa Contra Gentiles, Chang argues that both followed a brilliant rhetorical strategy for engaging unbelief. Such a captivating strategy is critical in our cultural context where Christian witness seems as difficult as ever. Connecting these ancient writers to the contemporary analysis of thinkers like Alasdair MacIntyre, James Davison Hunter, Lesslie Newbigin, and Stanley Hauerwas, Chang puts forth his own bold recommendations for Christian rhetoric in the twenty-first century. This book will be of vital interest to a wide audience. Scholars will find a fresh reading of these important texts. Pastors and teachers of evangelism and apologetics will discover crucial resources from our Christian past. And all Christians seeking a faithful strategy for communicating the gospel will receive inspiration and hope for today.
Successor to the highly acclaimed Encyclopedia of Unbelief (1985), edited by the late Gordon Stein, the New Encyclopedia of Unbelief is a comprehensive reference work on the history, beliefs, and thinking of America''s fastest growing minority: those who live without religion. All-new articles by the field''s foremost scholars describe and explain every aspect of atheism, agnosticism, secular humanism, secularism, and religious skepticism. Topics include morality without religion, unbelief in the historicity of Jesus, critiques of intelligent design theory, unbelief and sexual values, and summaries of the state of unbelief around the world.In addition to covering developments since the publication of the original edition, the New Encyclopedia of Unbelief includes a larger number of biographical entries and much-expanded coverage of the linkages between unbelief and social reform movements of the 19th and 20th centuries, including the labor movement, woman suffrage, anarchism, sex radicalism, and second-wave feminism.More than 130 respected scholars and activists worldwide served on the editorial board and over 100 authoritative contributors have written in excess of 500 entries. The distinguished advisors and contributors--philosophers, scientists, scholars, and Nobel Prize laureates--include Joe Barnhart, David Berman, Sir Hermann Bondi, Vern L. Bullough, Daniel Dennett, Taner Edis, the late Paul Edwards, Antony Flew, Annie Laurie Gaylor, Peter Hare, Van Harvey, R. Joseph Hoffmann, Susan Jacoby, Paul Kurtz, Gerd Lüdemann, Michael Martin, Kai Nielsen, Robert M. Price, Peter Singer, Victor Stenger, Ibn Warraq, George A. Wells, David Tribe, Sherwin Wine, and many others. With a foreword by evolutionary biologist and best-selling author Richard Dawkins, this unparalleled reference work provides comprehensive knowledge about unbelief in its many varieties and manifestations.
Powerful reflections on faith and doubt by a leading contemporary evangelist. Fleming Rutledgebs first book, "The Bible and the New York Times, has been hailed for its up-to-the-minute relevance to contemporary life. With this new volume Rutledge speaks directly to readers who are plagued by doubts and uncertainties about Christian faith. Among the host of challenging questions she addresses are: Doesnbt everyone have their own idea of God? What if Ibm not very religious? Can we still believe in the Resurrection today? Rutledgebs approach has been described as a combination of pastoral warmth and intellectual fearlessness. She aligns herself with the struggling questioner as she faces the most penetrating theological challenges of our day. At the same time, she entrusts herself as a preacher in this new millennium to the explosive force of Godbs Word. Duke University chaplain William H. Willimon, in choosing one word to characterize her, selected bbiblical.b Provocative, learned, and displaying the elegance of expression for which Rutledge is well known, "Help My Unbelief offers satisfying answers for those struggling with faith and doubt in our modern world.
Lucien Febvre's magisterial study of sixteenth century religious and intellectual history, published in 1942, is at long last available in English, in a translation that does it full justice. The book is a modern classic. Febvre, founder with Marc Bloch of the journal Annales, was one of France's leading historians, a scholar whose field of expertise was the sixteenth century. This book, written late in his career, is regarded as his masterpiece. Despite the subtitle, it is not primarily a study of Rabelais; it is a study of the mental life, the mentalit , of a whole age. Febvre worked on the book for ten years. His purpose at first was polemical: he set out to demolish the notion that Rabelais was a covert atheist, a freethinker ahead of his time. To expose the anachronism of that view, he proceeded to a close examination of the ideas, information, beliefs, and values of Rabelais and his contemporaries. He combed archives and local records, compendia of popular lore, the work of writers from Luther and Erasmus to Ronsard, the verses of obscure neo-Latin poets. Everything was grist for his mill: books about comets, medical texts, philological treatises, even music and architecture. The result is a work of extraordinary richness of texture, enlivened by a wealth of concrete details--a compelling intellectual portrait of the period by a historian of rare insight, great intelligence, and vast learning. Febvre wrote with Gallic flair. His style is informal, often witty, at times combative, and colorful almost to a fault. His idiosyncrasies of syntax and vocabulary have defeated many who have tried to read, let alone translate, the French text. Beatrice Gottlieb has succeeded in rendering his prose accurately and readably, conveying a sense of Febvre's strong, often argumentative personality as well as his brilliantly intuitive feeling for Renaissance France.
Drawing on material from the last few decades, this book is a survey of theology concerning unbelief, mainly from a European and North American perspective. +
God is calling the Church out of the wilderness of unbelief and into His promised land of faith and abundance. Unbelief: The Deadly Sin speaks of how this sin has robbed many of their destiny and inheritance in Christ. This book will inspire you to take hold of what Satan has stolen from you. In every area of your life, it will teach you how to apply biblical principles that will set you free from your past and from the strongholds of Satan. God's desire is to fully restore us to deepest intimacy with Him through repentance and a total surrender of our wills to Him. He is calling His Church to rise up into a greater power and authority through the power of the cross, and to walk in mighty signs, wonders, and miracles. Jesus is calling forth a "Joshua generation" a holy "remnant" in this hour that will walk in power. The sacrifice will be great, but the rewards of surrendering everything to Jesus will far outweigh the losses. God's inspired prophetic words in this book will awaken a new passion and desire in your heart to take hold of God's end-time plan and purpose for your life.
