Thorough and enlightening, this account examines the religious practices of Islam. From discourses on reciting the Qur'an and abiding by the five pillars of Islam--profession of faith, prayers, fasting, giving of alms, and pilgrimage--to the role of taqwa--or God fearing--in attaining a good ending to life, this comprehensive guide touches upon many essential aspects of Islam. Additional chapters cover "Ruinous Things," such as arrogance, resentful envy, and avarice, as well as "Saving Things," including repentance, sincerity, reflection, and short hopes.
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, in his Book of Counsels, compiles powerful spiritual lessons and reminders, weaving hadith into direct speech and presenting it to the reader. This is a book that is intended to stir the heart to submission and mindfulness of Allah. This translation has sought to retain the literary aspects of this collection while also applying an attentive engagement with the hadith employed within.
For more than a century, the teaching authority of the Catholic Church has attempted to walk along with the modern world, criticizing what is bad and praising what is good. Counsels of Imperfection described the current state of that fairly bumpy journey. The book is divided into 11 chapters. First comes an introduction to ever-changing modernity and the unchanging Christian understanding of human nature and society. Then come two chapters on economics, including a careful delineation of the Catholic response, past and present, to socialism and capitalism. The next topic is government, with one chapter on Church and State, another on War, and a third that runs quickly through democracy, human rights, the welfare state, crimes and punishments (including the death penalty), anti-Semitism, and migration. Counsels of Imperfection then dedicates two chapters on ecology, including an enthusiastic analysis of Francis’s “technocratic paradigm”. The last topic is the family teaching, which presents the social aspects of the Church’s sexual teaching. A brief concluding chapter looks at the teaching’s changing response to the modern world, and at the ambiguous Catholic appreciation of the modern idea of progress. For each topic, Counsels of Imperfection provides biblical, historical and a broad philosophical background. Thomas Aquinas appears often, but so does G. W. F Hegel. The goal is not only to explain what the Church really says, but also how it got to its current position and who it is arguing with. In the spirit of a doctrine that is always in development, Counsels of Imperfection points out both strong-points and imperfections in the teaching. The book should be of interest to specialists in Catholic Social Teaching, but its main audience is curious newcomers, especially people who do not want to be told that there are simple Catholic answers to the complicated problems of the modern world.
Now in its second printing, this modest work is an anthology of spiritual advice given by various of the nineteenth-century teachers of Optina Monastery in central Russia, organized thematically under headings such as spiritual warfare, the love of neighbor, faith, the will of God, the education of children, the commandments of God, the path of salvation, etc. Each piece of advice varies in length from a single sentence to a full paragraph. Pithy, immediately accessible, and universally applicable, these counsels resemble the sayings of the ancient Desert Fathers. Appropriate both for prolonged study and for daily devotional reading.
Why were the early Christians willing to die to protect a single iota of the creed? Why have the Judeans, Romans, and Persians—among others—seen the Christian creed as a threat to the established social order? In The Creed: Professing the Faith Through the Ages, bestselling author Dr. Scott Hahn recovers and conveys the creed’s revolutionary character. Tracing the development of the first formulations of faith in the early Church through later ecumenical councils, The Creed tells the story of how the very profession of our belief in Christ fashions us for heavenly life as we live out our earthly days.
Section 1. The World's NeedSection 2. Essentials to HealthSection 3. Diet and HealthSection 4. Outdoor Life and Physical ActivitySection 5. Sanitariums--Their Objects and AimsSection 6. Successful Institutional WorkSection 7. The Christian PhyscianSection 8. Nurses and HelpersSection 9. Teaching Health PrinciplesSection 10. Health Food WorkSection 11. Medical Missionary WorkSection 12. Ensamples to the FlockSection 13. Holiness of Life
With a new afterword Acts of Faith is a remarkable account of growing up Muslim in America and coming to believe in religious pluralism, from one of the most prominent faith leaders in the United States. Eboo Patel’s story is a hopeful and moving testament to the power and passion of young people—and of the world-changing potential of an interfaith youth movement.
This book was published in some forty-nine editions prior to the Russian revolution. It is now in its third printing in English. In it, St. Tikhon, who lived from 1724 to 1783 , gives his counsel on living the Christian life. It touches many areas including "Love of God," "The Way of Duty" and "Towards Eternity."The work is further enhanced by two lives of the Saint, a glossary of terms, a bibliography and a Scriptural and a Subject index.
