A Taste of Grace is an easy-to-read page-turning exploration of God's amazing grace, demonstrated and illustrated by the teachings of Jesus. A Taste of Grace proclaims God's grace as irreconcilably opposed to the core values and beliefs of institutionalized religion and reveals God's grace to be an absurd and foolish sentiment that doesn't add up to the human mind.
On a cold February morning in 1987, amidst freezing rain and driving winds, a group of protesters stood outside of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Amherst, Massachusetts. The target of their protest was the minister inside, who was handing out condoms to his congregation while delivering a sermon about AIDS, dramatizing the need for the church to confront the seemingly ever-expanding crisis. The minister's words and actions were met with a standing ovation from the overflowing audience, but he could not linger to enjoy their applause. Having received threats in advance of the service, he dashed out of the sanctuary immediately upon finishing his sermon. Such was the climate for religious AIDS activism in the 1980s. In After the Wrath of God, Anthony Petro vividly narrates the religious history of AIDS in America. Delving into the culture wars over sex, morality, and the future of the American nation, he demonstrates how religious leaders and AIDS activists have shaped debates over sexual morality and public health from the 1980s to the present day. While most attention to religion and AIDS foregrounds the role of the Religious Right, Petro takes a much broader view, encompassing the range of mainline Protestant, evangelical, and Catholic groups--alongside AIDS activist organizations--that shaped public discussions of AIDS prevention and care in the U.S. Petro analyzes how the AIDS crisis prompted American Christians across denominations and political persuasions to speak publicly about sexuality--especially homosexuality--and to foster a moral discourse on sex that spoke not only to personal concerns but to anxieties about the health of the nation. He reveals how the epidemic increased efforts to advance a moral agenda regarding the health benefits of abstinence and monogamy, a legacy glimpsed as much in the traction gained by abstinence education campaigns as in the more recent cultural purchase of gay marriage. The first book to detail the history of religion and the AIDS epidemic in the U.S., After the Wrath of God is essential reading for anyone concerned with the intersection of religion and public health.
#NeverTrustATitan Maisey thought the worst thing to happen to her was Insta shaming or a midnight shift at the Crab Shack. Until she got dragged into the world of the gods.Or more specifically, the world of one very annoying, bad at sarcasm, sex on legs, Titan. Cronus was everything she never knew she wanted, or needed, in her life. And then he just left.Left her alone, with no idea what's happening to the world, what's happening with the sins. Only someone miscalculated. Whether it was Cronus or the fates, there's no way they can do this without Maisey. Turns out, she's the most important piece
As war rages, both sides are in a race to find the one thing that could turn the tides to their favor -- a stone with the power to turn humans into gods -- in the second book of Brian McClellan's epic fantasy tale of magic and gunpowder. The country is in turmoil. With the capital city occupied, half a million refugees are on the march, looking for safety on the frontier, accompanied by Lady Flint's soldiers. But escaping war is never easy, and soon the battle may find them, whether they are prepared or not. Back in the capital, Michel Bravis smuggles even more refugees out of the city. But internal forces are working against him. With enemies on all sides, Michel may be forced to find help with the very occupiers he's trying to undermine. Meanwhile, Ben Styke is building his own army. He and his mad lancers are gathering every able body they can find and searching for an ancient artifact that may have the power to turn the tides of war in their favor. But what they find may not be what they're looking for. Continue the pistol-packing fantasy series by the author whose debut novel Brandon Sanderson called "just plain awesome!" Gods of Blood and PowderSins of EmpireWrath of Empire For more from Brian McClellan, check out: Powder MagePromise of BloodThe Crimson CampaignThe Autumn Republic
In these never-before-collected tales from the 1990s, the Spectre witnesses genocide on a global scale, leading him to sit in judgement on humanity itself. And when he decides to wipe out the human race, it's up to DC's mystic heroes including John Constantine - Hellblazer, Etrigan the Demon, the Phantom Stranger, Doctor Fate, Zatanna and more to try and stop him. Plus: Professor Nicodemus Hazzard tries to control the Spectre with the magical artifact known as the Spear of Destiny, sending the Spectre on a rampage that only Superman has a hope of stopping. Collects THE SPECTRE #13-22.
In these never-before-collected tales from the 1990s, the Spectre witnesses genocide on a global scale, leading him to sit in judgement on humanity itself. And when he decides to wipe out the human race, it's up to DC's mystic heroes including John Constantine - Hellblazer, Etrigan the Demon, the Phantom Stranger, Doctor Fate, Zatanna and more to try and stop him. Plus: Professor Nicodemus Hazzard tries to control the Spectre with the magical artifact known as the Spear of Destiny, sending the Spectre on a rampage that only Superman has a hope of stopping. Collects THE SPECTRE #13-22.
“You can’t trust the Bible — it’s full of hundreds of contradictions.” Really? Just because the critic mindlessly declares it so? Don’t be so fast to believe everything you hear! In this book Dr. Jason Lisle examines 420 claims of Bible contradictions and sets the record straight. Contradiction #139 Was Abraham justified by faith or by works? Romans 4:2 - says by faith VS. James 2:21 - says by works Bifurcation fallacy. Abraham was justified both by faith and by works (James 2:24, 26). To “justify” means either to be in right moral standing or to show that one is (morally) in right standing. Abraham was justified by faith before God since God knows all things — including Abraham’s faith (James 2:23). God sees our hearts (1 Samuel 16:7), so we are justified before God by our faith alone, which God can see. But men cannot see another man’s faith. They only see the outward works that follow from inward faith. Therefore, Abraham was justified before men by the works that followed from his faith, since men cannot see faith but can see works. James explicitly teaches this (James 2:18–26).
Just after half past nine on the morning of Sunday 1 November 1755, the end of the world came to the city of Lisbon. On a day that had begun with blue skies and gentle warmth, Portugal's proud capital was struck by a massive earthquake. After a brief, two-minute tremor came six minutes of horror as Lisbon swayed 'like corn in the wind before the avalanches of descending masonry hid the ruins under a cloud of dust'. A third tremor shook most of the buildings still standing to the ground, causing catastrophic loss of life. Lisbon had been struck by a seismic disturbance estimated at 8.7 on the Richter scale - more powerful than the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. An hour later, riverine Lisbon and the Algarve coast were engulfed by a series of tsunamis. In areas of the city unaffected by the waves, fires raged for six days, completing the destruction of Europe's fourth-largest city. By the time it was all over, 60,000 souls had perished and 85% of Lisbon's buildings, plus an unimaginable wealth of cultural treasures, had been destroyed by quake, fire or water. The earthquake had a searing impact on the European psyche. Theologians and philosophers were baffled by this awesome manifestation of the anger of God. How could the presence of such suffering in the world be reconciled with the existence of a beneficent deity? For Portugal itself, despite an ambitious programme of reconstruction (which gave birth to the modern science of seismology), the quake ushered in a period of decline, in which her seaborne supremacy was eclipsed by the inexorable rise of the British empire.Drawing on primary sources, Edward Paice paints a vivid picture of a city and society changed for ever by a day of terror. He describes in thrilling detail the quake itself and its immediate aftermath, but he is interested just as much in its political, economic and cultural consequences. Wrath of God is a gripping account from a master writer of a natural disaster that had a transformative impact on European society.
Art imitates life. Or does it? One sleepy Sunday morning in Buenos Aires, the protagonist of Martinez's brilliant new mystery finds himself unexpectedly tangled up in the story of Luciana, a former authors' assistant whom he has not seen for at least ten years, and Kloster, a rival writer - only far more successful; bestselling, in fact. What he discovers will make him question everything he had always believed - taken for granted - about chance and calculation, cause and effect. Luciana is desperate. In the decade since she last had anything to do with either of the writers, nearly all her close family have died, in highly unusual circumstances. And Luciana or her sister could be next. Luciana's convinced that her one-time employer Kloster is behind the deaths, punishing her for her part in the break-up of his marriage in a murderous frenzy of revenge worthy of one of his own prodigiously successful crime novels. But which comes first, murder or novel? Clever and gripping, THE BOOK OF MURDER is a chilling crime story in which the line between fact and fiction suddenly seems blurred.
