The Sense Of Religious Wonder

Author : Robert C. Fuller
Publisher : Univ of North Carolina Press
Page : 200 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2009-06-23
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780807889909

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Wonder by Robert C. Fuller Pdf

The attempt to identify the emotional sources of religion goes back to antiquity. In an exploration that bridges science and spirituality, Robert C. Fuller makes the convincing case that a sense of wonder is a principal source of humanity's belief in the existence of an unseen order of life. Like no other emotion, Fuller argues, wonder prompts us to pause, admire, and open our hearts and minds. With a voice that seamlessly blends the scientific and the contemplative, Fuller defines wonder in keeping with the tradition of Socrates--as an emotion related to curiosity and awe that stimulates engagement with the immediate physical world. He draws on the natural and social sciences to explain how wonder can, at the same time, elicit belief in the existence of a more-than-physical reality. Chapters examining emotions in evolutionary biology and the importance of wonder in human cognitive development alternate with chapters on John Muir, William James, and Rachel Carson, whom Fuller identifies as "exemplars of wonder." The writings and lives of these individuals express a functional side of emotion: that the very survival of life on earth today may depend on the empathy, compassion, and care that are aroused by a sense of wonder. Forging new pathways between the social sciences, philosophy, belief, and cultural history, Wonder deepens our understanding of the complex sources of personal spirituality and fulfillment.

Author : Bernard Joseph Verkamp
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 144 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : Religion
ISBN : UOM:39015055601721

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The Sense of Religious Wonder by Bernard Joseph Verkamp Pdf

Author : Carl Sagan
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2006-11-02
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781101201831

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The Varieties of Scientific Experience by Carl Sagan Pdf

“Ann Druyan has unearthed a treasure. It is a treasure of reason, compassion, and scientific awe. It should be the next book you read.” —Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith “A stunningly valuable legacy left to all of us by a great human being. I miss him so.” —Kurt Vonnegut Carl Sagan's prophetic vision of the tragic resurgence of fundamentalism and the hope-filled potential of the next great development in human spirituality The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, Sagan presents his views on a wide range of topics, including the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, creationism and so-called intelligent design, and a new concept of science as "informed worship." Originally presented at the centennial celebration of the famous Gifford Lectures in Scotland in 1985 but never published, this book offers a unique encounter with one of the most remarkable minds of the twentieth century.

Author : Mike Cosper
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
Page : 185 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2017-07-14
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780830890767

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Recapturing the Wonder by Mike Cosper Pdf

15th Annual Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year - Inspirational Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Top Shelf Book Cover Award 2017 When we're young, it's easy to believe in the supernatural, the mysterious, the enchanted. But as we grow older, we learn to be more "rational" and more confident that reality is merely what we can see. Even as Christians who believe in the resurrection, we live as if miracles and magic have been drained from the world. As Mike Cosper wrestled with his own disillusionment, he found writers, thinkers, and artists like Hannah Arendt, Charles Taylor, James K. A. Smith, and David Foster Wallace whose words and ideas reassured him that he was not alone. And he discovered ancient and modern disciplines that shape a Christian way of life and awaken the possibility of living again in an enchanted world. Exquisitely written with thoughtful practices woven throughout, this book will feed your soul and help you recapture the wonder of your Christian walk.

Author : Christine Aroney-Sine
Publisher : InterVarsity Press
Page : 245 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2019-03-26
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780830871582

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The Gift of Wonder by Christine Aroney-Sine Pdf

2020 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award Finalists - Body, Mind and Spirit I choose to breathe in the wonder of God's eternal love, And dance to the rhythm of eternal breath, Listening to the whispers calling me to slow down and take notice. I choose to absorb the beauty of the divine presence, to delight in the Creator of all things and relish the delight God takes in me. Can you imagine a God who dances with shouts of joy, laughs when you laugh, loves to play, enjoys life, and invites us to join the fun? Like many of us, Christine Sine had spent many years with an image of God who was "a very serious, workaholic type of God." And even when her theology told her this was not true, she struggled to live into this new way of thinking. What she needed was a childlike spirituality. In this book, Christine Sine, online host of the Godspace community, invites us to pay attention to childlike characteristics that have the power to reshape us. Each chapter addresses a childlike characteristic to embrace, including delight, playfulness, imagination, awe and wonder, love of nature, the ability to live in the present, and much more. Fresh spiritual practices that engage all our senses help us live a new spiritual life that embraces the wonder and joy that God intends for us.

Author : Barbara Fiand
Publisher : Paulist Press
Page : 124 pages
File Size : 54,6 Mb
Release : 2014-05-14
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781616436162

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Awe-filled Wonder by Barbara Fiand Pdf

Invites us to enter into the spiritual transformation and the expansion of consciousness that the extraordinary discoveries especially in quantum physics and cosmology are opening up for us today and inviting us to apply to our God quest, to our personal understanding of ourselves, and to our view of the world we live in.

Author : Alister McGrath
Publisher : Image
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 52,5 Mb
Release : 2002-09-17
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780385508261

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The Reenchantment of Nature by Alister McGrath Pdf

In this provocative assessment of the world's current ecological crisis, the author of the critically acclaimed In the Beginning exposes the false assumptions underlying the conflicts between science and religion, and proposes an innovative approach to saving the planet. Traditionally, science and religion have been thought of as two distinct and irreconcilable ways of looking at the world, and scientists have often chastised the world's religions for keeping their eyes on the heavens and paying scant attention to the destruction of Earth's precious resources and its natural wonders. In The Reenchantment of Nature, Alister McGrath, who holds doctorates in both molecular biology and divinity, challenges this long-held and dangerously misguided dichotomy. Arguing that Christianity and other great religions have always respected and revered the bounty and beauty of the earth, McGrath calls for a radical shift in perspective. He shows that by defining the world in the narrowest of scientific terms and viewing it as a collection of atoms and molecules governed by unchanging laws and forces, we have lost our ability to appreciate nature's enchantments. In order to address the threats to our environment, he maintains, it is essential to reawaken our sense of awe and look at the world as a glorious creation, an irreplaceable gift of God. In setting forth a new framework for the debate between science and religion on ecological theory, The Reenchantment of Nature points the way to integrating two different traditions in a sane and productive effort to rescue the natural world from its present environmental decline.

Author : Donald Harman Akenson
Publisher : McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Page : 672 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 1998
Category : Bible
ISBN : 9780773522893

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Surpassing Wonder by Donald Harman Akenson Pdf

What Noam Chomsky did for political commentary, and Stephen Hawking did for cosmology, Donald Harman Akenson does for the Bible and its interpreters, and the resulting conclusions are just as astounding. Surpassing Wonder illuminates how the greatest cultural artifacts of our civilization are related to one another and constitute the very core of our consciousness. With biting irreverence for denominational prejudices and the pretensions of academics, Akenson renews our sense of awe before these religious works. He challenges received doctrines, arguing that the ancient Jews were indeed idol worshippers and that Saint Paul did not believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth or in the virgin birth. With wit, elegance, and clarity Surpassing Wonder makes the ancient Hebrew scriptures, the Christian New Testament, and the Talmuds of the Rabbis accessible to all and shows they can be understood only in relation to each other and against their specific historical settings. Akenson argues that each of the great texts must be considered as the product of a single author and thus as a religious invention - that is, as a self-consciously formed unity rather than an anthology of disparate works. He also argues that the great inventor of the Hebrew scriptures should be credited with constructing the very concept of narrative history and thus the foundations of Western civilization. Using a rich and imagistic language that combines tractor mechanics, Winnie-the-Pooh, and architecture with analogies from astronomy, evolutionary biology, and economics, Akenson brings about nothing less than a radical reformation of how to think about the sacred texts. He restores their spiritual power through a just appreciation of the achievement of their authors while leaving readers to decide for themselves on the presence of a "guiding hand." Surpassing Wonder is a penetrating study of the historian's craft and a brilliant exposé of how theologians and biblical scholars abuse historical reasoning and evidence in their treatment of the sacred texts. Just as a previous reformation cast out the priestly intercessors, so Akenson casts the scholars out of the temple and lets readers in to see the texts anew. In so doing he reinvests religion with meaning for a contemporary world and shows us how Western civilization was created not by the Greeks of Athens or the patricians of Rome but by the desert worshippers of Yahweh.

Author : David D. Hall
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 332 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 1990
Category : History
ISBN : 0674962168

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Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment by David D. Hall Pdf

A look at 17th-century New England religion as it was practiced by the vast majority of the population, not by the clergy. This work offers insight into Puritan rituals, attitudes toward the natural word, and the creative tension between Puritan laity and clergy.

Author : David L Weddle
Publisher : NYU Press
Page : 269 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 2010-07-09
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780814794838

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Miracles by David L Weddle Pdf

Despite the dominance of scientific explanation in the modern world, at the beginning of the twenty-first century faith in miracles remains strong, particularly in resurgent forms of traditional religion. In Miracles, David L. Weddle examines how five religious traditions—Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam—understand miracles, considering how they express popular enthusiasm for wondrous tales, how they provoke official regulation because of their potential to disrupt authority, and how they are denied by critics within each tradition who regard belief in miracles as an illusory distraction from moral responsibility. In dynamic and accessible prose, Weddle shows us what miracles are, what they mean, and why, despite overwhelming scientific evidence, they are still significant today: belief in miracles sustains the hope that, if there is a reality that surpasses our ordinary lives, it is capable of exercising—from time to time—creative, liberating, enlightening, and healing power in our world.

Author : Navid Kermani
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2017-11-22
Category : Art
ISBN : 9781509514878

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Wonder Beyond Belief by Navid Kermani Pdf

What happens when one of Germany's most important writers, himself a Muslim, immerses himself in the world of Christian art? In this book, Navid Kermani is awestruck by a religion full of sacrifice and lamentation, love and wonder, the irrational and the unfathomable, the deeply human and the divine – a Christianity that today’s Christians rarely speak of so earnestly, boldly and enthusiastically. With the open-minded curiosity of a non-believer – or rather a believer in another faith – Kermani engages with Christian art in its great richness and diversity. The result is an enchanting reflection which reinvests in Christianity both its spectacular beauty and its terror. Kermani struggles with the cross, falls in love at the sight of Mary, experiences the Orthodox Mass and appreciates the greatness of St Francis. He teaches us to see the questions of our present-day lives in the pictures of old masters such as Botticelli, Caravaggio and Rembrandt – not with lectures on art history or theology, but with an intelligent eye for the essential details and the underlying relations to seemingly remote worlds, to literature and to mystical Islam. Kermani's poetic school of seeing draws us in as we are carried along by his unique perspective on Christianity, rekindling our interest in great art at the same time. We are captivated by his unique and brilliant Islamic reading of the West.

Author : Andrew Farley
Publisher : Baker Books
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2012-04-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781441235824

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Heaven Is Now by Andrew Farley Pdf

What if heaven wasn't just meant to be experienced after we die? What if heaven can be enjoyed here on earth--right now? Bestselling author Andrew Farley shows us how to take in the beauty of heaven no matter what our circumstances. With insight firmly rooted in the reality of pain and suffering, Andrew assures readers that heaven is not some pie-in-the-sky dream for the future--it is now. He shows us how to awaken our five spiritual senses in order to see, hear, smell, taste, and feel the grace of heaven, even in the midst of trouble here on earth. He says the heaven we can experience in this life lies within us, far beyond the reach of the world--but well within our grasp.

Author : Robert W. Bailor
Publisher : AuthorHouse
Page : 182 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2006-10-09
Category : Self-Help
ISBN : 9781467089272

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A Month of Wonders by Robert W. Bailor Pdf

ABOUT THE BOOK No one is bornwith a human operators manual attached. We are challenged to come upon guidelines for successful living while already living. It would be very helpful to know what to consider and to consider this well before we stumble badly. A good philosophic self-help book would be much appreciated. A Month of Wonders is just such a book. Its purposeisto bring readersto special moments of discovery and delight. With theformatof a personal journal,A Month of Wonders offersthirty thought provoking yet accessible reflections, just enough to consider for a month. It focuses on Wonder, Philosophy, Conceit, Self-Transcendence, Birth, Destiny, Death, Afterlife, Being Human (2), Incarnation, The Natural World (2), Love, Friendship (2), Sex, Forgiveness, Evil, Adversity, Suffering, Grace, The Sacred, Faith, God, Happiness, Hope, Joy, and Truth (2). Each sectionbegins with aneasily remembered proverb expressing the overall point of the reflection. Each reflection concludes with a sense that the reflection really ends with the readers further consideration. The overall theme is this: Happiness requires proper focus of my life, not proper focus on my life. A Month of Wonders is meant as a companion to those who seek insights about the meaning of life for themselves. The hope is that the process will be wonder-full.

Author : Debra Rienstra
Publisher : Fortress Press
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2022-02-22
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781506473802

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Refugia Faith by Debra Rienstra Pdf

In Refugia Faith, Debra Rienstra explores nature's refugia--places where life endures in a crisis--and applies this model to faith. Drawing from theology, nature writing, and science, she examines how Christian spirituality and practice must adapt for a climate-altered planet.

Author : Alister Mcgrath
Publisher : Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2020
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781496436207

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Born to Wonder by Alister Mcgrath Pdf

"Previously published in 2017 as The Great Mystery: Science, God and the Human Quest for Meaning by Hodder & Stoughton under ISBN 978-1-473-63431-2."