Showing titles in Christian Literature & Art

Many Christians view the Bible as an instruction manual. While the Bible does provide instruction, it can also captivate, comfort, delight, shock, and inspire. In short, it elicits emotion - just like poetry. By learning to read and love poetry, says literature Professor Matthew Mullins, listeners can increase their understanding of the biblical text and learn to love God's word more. Each chapter includes exercises and questions designed to help listeners put the book's principles and practices into action.

After nine years serving on the staff of a big urban church in Atlanta, Barbara Brown Taylor arrives in rural Clarkesville, Georgia (population 1,500), following her dream to become the pastor of her own small congregation. The adjustment from city life to country dweller is something of a shock - but small-town life offers many of its own unique joys. Taylor has five successful years that see significant growth in the church she serves, but ultimately she finds herself experiencing "compassion fatigue".

This volume contains essays, epistles, letters, and notes from the men who were taught and influenced by the Apostles of Jesus. These first men, who influenced the development of our doctrines and the establishing of the church are called The Apostolic Fathers. The Apostolic Fathers played a pivotal role in the early development of Christianity, offering insights into the theological, ecclesiastical, and moral challenges faced by the early Christian communities.

Art and the Bible has been a foundational work for generations of Christians in the arts. In this book's classic essays, Francis Schaeffer first examines the scriptural record of the use of various art forms, and then establishes a Christian perspective on art. With clarity and vigor, Schaeffer explains why "the Christian is the one whose imagination should fly beyond the stars."

For centuries Christians have been tormented by one question above all, "If God is good and all-powerful, why does he allow his creatures to suffer pain?"

By early 1943, it had become increasingly clear the Allies would win the Second World War. Christian intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic thought the soon-to-be-victorious nations were not culturally or morally prepared for their success. These Christian intellectuals - Jacques Maritain, T. S. Eliot, C. S. Lewis, W. H. Auden, and Simone Weil, among others - sought both to articulate a sober and reflective critique of their own culture and to outline a plan for the moral and spiritual regeneration of their countries in the post-war world.

Popular author Katherine Valentine pens the highly anticipated fourth novel in her beloved Dorsetville series. On a Wing and a Prayer is an enchanting portrait of life in a quaint New England town "where miracles are never far away". The 12-year-old Gallagher twins fall through the ice on Fenns Pond and need a miracle of their own. Father James, the parishioners of St. Cecilia’s, Doc Hammond, and all the regulars at the Country Kettle Café struggle to keep their faith as God’s will is eventually revealed.

In Literature: What Every Catholic Should Know, Joseph Pearce provides a survey of literary works of which all Catholics should be aware of. Beginning with Homer and Virgil, the book progresses chronologically through the greatest works of all time, including Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Dickens, Chesterton, Eliot, Tolkien, and Lewis.

The deepest longing of your heart is for one person and one place. Jesus is that person. Heaven is that place. A thousand counterfeits vie for your attention, trying to convince you that they are what you're looking for. But you'll never find true satisfaction with what this world has to offer. What you really crave can only be found in the land of substance: heaven. In Light of Eternity will grip your soul and open your eyes to the realities of heaven. Far from boring, heaven promises to be an exhilarating adventure in which every chapter is better than the one before.

Aquinas at Prayer draws attention to important aspects of Aquinas's life and work which have been all too often overlooked or forgotten. Today Aquinas is almost exclusively regarded as an outstanding scholastic philosopher and theologian. But what is little known is that Aquinas was, first and last, a teacher of the Bible - a Master of the Sacred Page. Moreover there is a distinctly mystical character to his theology. And, as a writer, he was not only a poet but, arguably, the greatest Latin poet of the Middle Ages.

Be inspired by the whimsical world of VeggieTales like never before with Me, Myself, and Bob by Phil Vischer. This memoir is not just a tale; it’s a heartfelt adventure that unfolds the incredible journey of dreaming big, facing monumental challenges, and ultimately finding true success. Phil Vischer, the mastermind behind those beloved animated vegetables as well as creator of The Holy Post, What's in the Bible, and The Mr. Phil Show, candidly shares his story of spectacular success, breathtaking failure, and the whispered answers from God that came after shouted questions.

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.

At the center of The Dark Night of the Soul (La noche oscura del alma) is a poem written by the 16th century Spanish poet and mystic St John of the Cross. Consisting of eight stanzas, each of five lines, the poem outlines the journey in pursuit of divine union, within which the only source of light comes from the soul. This recording in English includes the poem itself and St John's two accompanying treatises (1584-1585), essentially commentaries, which offer line-by-line explanations of the poem. Many modern listeners have found guidance and consolation in this work.

In the latest chapter of his best-selling Joshua series, Joseph Girzone offers fresh inspiration in this collection of fifty never-before-published contemporary vignettes that underscore the most important lessons of the gospel. In The Parables of Joshua, perhaps his most powerful since since the original Joshua, Girzone distills the essence of Christian teaching in entertaining and inspiring "bite-sized" tales set against the background of current society.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy has delighted millions of fans worldwide in book and movie form. With the theatrical release of the two-part film The Hobbit slated for 2012 and 2013, attention will once again turn to J. R. R. Tolkien's classic works. In a culture where truth is relative and morality is viewed as old-fashioned, we welcome the chance to view the world through hobbit eyes: we have free will, our choices matter, and living a morally heroic life is possible....

The Definitive Prose Version of The World's Greatest Epic Poem! If you know anything about Milton’s poem, you know it is not for the casual listener. The complicated language will turn away most at the first page. If you were waiting for a simplified version of this tale that you could actually read and enjoy, look no further. This unique novelization, not only renders it accessible to the masses, but offers the unsuspecting reader a spectacularly entertaining action adventure.

Recently named the #1 piece of 20th century literature, The Lord of the Rings trilogy is more than a great story. It's a much-needed reminder that, like J.R.R. Tolkien's hobbits, Christians are all on an epic quest. In examining the Christian themes in the trilogy, authors Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware find that truth and fiction are not as far apart as they seem.

That, which is usually presented as the first 36 chapters of The Book of Enoch was originally known as the Book of the Watchers and dates to around 200 BC. This translation of the Book of the Watchers comes to us from notable scholar of apocryphal literature, R. H. Charles, who published it in 1917. The narrative of the Book of the Watchers is told from the point of view of Enoch and not surprisingly focuses on a class of angels known as the Watchers.

Seven years ago, Christian Wiman, a well-known poet and the editor of Poetry magazine, wrote a now-famous essay about having faith in the face of death. My Bright Abyss, composed in the difficult years since and completed in the wake of a bone marrow transplant, is a moving meditation on what a viable contemporary faith - responsive not only to modern thought and science but also to religious tradition - might look like.

The Wisdom of the Desert was one of Thomas Merton's favorites among his own books, surely because he had hoped to spend his last years as a hermit. The personal tones of the translations and the blend of reverence and humor so characteristic of him show how deeply Merton identified with the legendary authors of these sayings and parables, the fourth-century Christian fathers who sought solitude and contemplation in the deserts of the Near East.