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Saint Augustine is one of the most influential figures in all of Christianity, yet his path to sainthood was by no means assured. Born in AD 354 to a pagan father and a Christian mother, Augustine spent the first 30 years of his life struggling to understand the nature of God and his world. He learned about Christianity as a child but was never baptized, choosing instead to immerse himself in the study of rhetoric, Manicheanism, and then Neoplatonism - all the while indulging in a life of lust and greed.

Jezebel was the most wicked woman in the Bible, a powerful seductress who killed the prophets, led Israel into idolatry and immorality, and emasculated men. She was seductive and determined to snuff out the voices coming against her In 21st-century America, Jezebel is not a person. But it’s as if the spirit of Jezebel is alive again today. The influence of the same demonic force is being felt in the massive increase of pornography and sexual temptation, the militant spirit of abortion, the rise of radical feminism, and most importantly, in the attempt to silence prophetic voices.

Five hundred years after the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, many people - Christians and non-Christians alike - view it as a conflict about issues that are no longer relevant to the church. But what if the Reformation still has something to teach us? What if the doctrines so vigorously debated and defended by the Reformers still matter today? In this accessible primer on the Reformation, Michael Reeves and Tim Chester introduce listeners to 11 key questions raised by the Reformers.

For 70 years, we have been taught that Jesus died on the cross from asphyxiation (strangulation) because in the hanging position he was unable to exhale. This theory is not based on sound science. This audiobook explains the medical cause of Jesus's death and why even Pilate was surprised how soon Jesus had died. The dramatic changes that took place in Jesus's body from the Last Supper until death are described in layman's terms.

This year Christians worldwide will celebrate the 1700th anniversary of Constantine's conversion and victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. No Roman emperor had a greater impact on the modern world than did Constantine. The reason is not simply that he converted to Christianity but that he did so in a way that brought his subjects along after him. Indeed, this major new biography argues that Constantine's conversion is but one feature of a unique administrative style that enabled him to take control of an empire beset by internal rebellions and external threats by Persians and Goths.

The church in the West is at a critical moment. While the Gospel is exploding throughout the global South, Western civilization faces militant assaults from aggressive secularism and radical Islam. Will the church resist the seductive shaping power of advanced modernity? More than ever Christians must resist the negative cultural forces of our day with fortitude and winsomeness. What is needed is followers of Christ who are willing to face reality without flinching and respond with a faithfulness that is unwavering.

In this beautifully told story of the Church's love of Mary, Phillip Campbell, author of the best-selling Story of Civilization series, immerses children in the Church's Marian piety—scripture, history, theology, devotion, apologetics, and more are all covered in this comprehensive introduction to the blessed virgin Mary. Walk with our lady as she accompanies her son to Calvary, meet wonderful saints who ordered their spiritual lives around the blessed mother, and experience wondrous apparitions that have been a source of inspiration to millions.

Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts is a remarkable examination of 12 illuminated manuscripts from the medieval period. Noted authority Christopher de Hamel invites the listener into intimate conversations with these texts to explore what they tell us about nearly a thousand years of medieval history - and sometimes about the modern world too. In so doing, de Hamel introduces us to kings, queens, saints, scribes, artists, librarians, thieves, dealers, and collectors.

Throughout history, countless women have boldly stepped out in faith and courage, leaving their indelible mark on those around them and on the kingdom of God. In lively prose, Michelle DeRusha tells their stories, bringing into focus 50 incredible heroines of the faith. From Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, and Anne Hutchison, to Susanna Wesley, Harriet Tubman, and Corrie ten Boom, women both famous and admirable live again under DeRusha's expert pen.

World-renowned pollster George Barna has the numbers, and they indicate a revolution is already taking place within the Church: one that will impact every believer in America. Committed, born-again Christians are exiting the established church in massive numbers. Why are they leaving? Where are they going? And what does this mean for the future of the Church?

In this electrifying social and intellectual history, Paula Fredriksen answers the question of how Jewish missionaries ended up inaugurating a movement that would grow into the gentile church by reconstructing the life of the earliest Jerusalem community. As her account arcs from this group’s hopeful celebration of Passover with Jesus, through their bitter controversies that fragmented the movement’s midcentury missions, to the city’s fiery end in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, she brings this vibrant apostolic community to life.

In Inventing a Christian America, Green, a leading historian of religion and politics, explores the historical record that is purported to support the popular belief in America's religious founding and status as a Christian nation.

The findings here—in this strange volume—bring the listener into a large inland sea, cut off from the traffic and the tempest that have sprung up in the West, and untouched by the crosscurrents of dogmas and presumptions that have cluttered historic centuries. Here is the virgin water that gushes, troubled by abysmal forces only, out of the very Earth itself.

Did Columbus believe that God called him west to undiscovered lands? Does American democracy owe its inception to the handful of Pilgrims that settled at Plymouth? If, indeed, there was a specific, divine call upon this nation, is it still valid today?

Dan Brown's immensely popular New York Times best-selling The Da Vinci Code is one of the most successful books of recent history. It has captivated millions the world over with its enthralling suspense and its provocative questions about the true nature of Jesus' life.

Fourteen centuries ago, Irish saints brought the Word of God to the Hebrides and Scotland's Atlantic shore. These "white martyrs" sought solitude, remoteness, even harshness, in places apart from the world where they could fast, pray, and move closer to an understanding of God: places where they could see angels. Columba, who founded the famous monastery at Iona, was the most well-known of these courageous men who rowed their curraghs towards danger and uncertainty in a pagan land, but the many others are now largely forgotten by history.

Considered to be the first autobiographical work in history, this timeless book is completely applicable to everyone who has experienced the struggle between good and evil in his own soul. Saint Augustine, born in Constantine in 354 C.E., was raised by a devout Christian mother. He abandoned the Christianity of his upbringing and had an illegitimate son. After hearing the sermons of Ambrose, he began his great internal struggle which led to his conversion in 387 C.E. The Confessions describe his conversion, shedding light on the questions that had troubled him on his way to the Cross. Outside Scripture it is the most famous - and perhaps the most important - of all spiritual books.

Beginning with the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, this fully revised and updated second volume of The Story of Christianity continues the marvelous history of the world's largest religion. Award-winning historian Justo González brings to life the people, dramatic events, and theological debates that have shaped Protestantism, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy.

In American Gospel (literally meaning the "good news about America"), New York Times best-selling author Jon Meacham sets the record straight on the history of religion in American public life. As Meacham shows, faith, meaning a belief in a higher power, and the sense that we are God's chosen, has always been at the heart of our national experience, from Jamestown to the Constitutional Convention to the Civil Rights Movement to September 11th.

From classics such as the Odyssey and the Aeneid to fifth-century Christian apocrypha, narratives that described guided tours of the afterlife played a major role in shaping ancient notions of morality and ethics. In this new account, acclaimed author Bart Ehrman contextualizes early Christian narratives of heaven and hell within the broader intellectual and cultural worlds from which they emerged.