The Joy of Sects

The Joy of Sects PDF Author: Peter Occhiogrosso
Publisher: Backinprint.com
ISBN: 9780595373925
Category : Religions
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Narrative histories of the six great religious traditions of East and West, along with brief sections on the scriptures, places of worship, and terminologies, as well as the numerous denominations, orders, and schools that make up world religion.

Sects, Love, and Rock & Roll

Sects, Love, and Rock & Roll PDF Author: Joel Heng Hartse
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1621890074
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
"If this book moves, I hope it moves in the way pop songs do. There will be a lot of talk about songs, but inasmuch as this is a book about listening to music, it's also about how listening to music makes us who we are, or at least about how it makes me who I am, and so it is an exploration, an idiosyncratic and opinionated and particular one, of a self shaped by the oddly intersecting forces of the American evangelical Protestant church and the American popular music scene. I don't mean for that to sound hoity-toity--if this were fifteen years ago, I would say that this book was about Christian music, and I would know exactly what I meant. My purpose now is not only to talk about "Christian music." I am not here to explicate Christian music, to explain why it exists and whether it is any good. Instead, think of what you're about to read as like an iPod playlist, a collection of essays and thoughts on listening to music and having faith and how they have made me, and a lot of people like me, and maybe you. Also, there will be some jokes about Stryper."

Hall of a Thousand Columns

Hall of a Thousand Columns PDF Author: Tim Mackintosh-Smith
Publisher: John Murray
ISBN: 1848546971
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
All the best armchair travellers are sceptics. Those of the fourteenth century were no exception: for them, there were lies, damned lies, and Ibn Battutah's India. Born in 1304, Ibn Battutah left his native Tangier as a young scholar of law; over the course of the thirty years that followed he visited most of the known world between Morocco and China. Here Tim Mackintosh-Smith retraces one leg of the Moroccan's journey - the dizzy ladders and terrifying snakes of his Indian career as a judge and a hermit, courtier and prisoner, ambassador and castaway. From the plains of Hindustan to the plateaux of the Deccan and the lost ports of Malabar, the author reveals an India far off the beaten path of Taj and Raj. Ibn Battutah left India on a snake, stripped to his underpants by pirates; but he took away a treasure of tales as rich as any in the history of travel. Back home they said the treasure was a fake. Mackintosh-Smith proves the sceptics wrong. India is a jewel in the turban of the Prince of Travellers. Here it is, glittering, grotesque but genuine, a fitting ornament for his 700th birthday.

The Truth Book

The Truth Book PDF Author: Joy Castro
Publisher: Arcade Publishing
ISBN: 9781559707879
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
You must always, always tell the truth, no matter the consequences, for you must model yourself on Jehovah, and Jehovah does not lie. This is the most crucial rule of all, Joy Castro is told as a young girl in a Jehovahs Witness family. Joy is 12 years old when her divorced mother marries a brother in the church. He is highly respected in the community, having displayed the ultimate sign of spiritual devotion: he served at Bethel, the Watchtower headquarters in Brooklyn. At home, however, he is a despicable brute. For the two years her mother is married to him, Joy does not grow at all; in fact, she loses 16 pounds, an eloquent testimony to the physical, emotional, psychological, and sexual abuse she suffers at his hands. Her battered mother does nothing to protect her, nor does her church. She is sustained by a consuming fascination for horses and books and her protective love for her younger brother. Their daring escape from this unspeakable cruelty, to discover a nurturing home with their father, is the key to their survival and salvation.

Reinventing the Truth

Reinventing the Truth PDF Author: Kevin N. Daniel
Publisher: RIS Inc
ISBN: 9780963941909
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Explores the historical claims of the Two by Twos, a supposedly nameless worldwide religion. A glimpse into a religious system all but unknown to outsiders, and even families and acquaintances. The group has unofficial and official names, including "The Truth," "Home Meetings," "The Testimony of Jesus," "Cooneyites," "Christian Conventions," "Assemblies of Christians," "the Workers and Friends," "Les Anonymes," "Die Namenlosen," "Gospel Meetings," etc.

Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom

Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom PDF Author: Laura Engelstein
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 9780801488795
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 334

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Book Description
Of the many sects that broke from the official Russian Orthodox church in the eighteenth century, one was universally despised. Its members were peasants from the Russian heartland skilled in the arts of animal husbandry who turned their knives on themselves to become "eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake." Convinced that salvation came only with the literal excision of the instruments of sin, they were known as Skoptsy (the self-castrated). Their community thrived well into the twentieth century, when it was destroyed in the Stalinist Terror.In a major feat of historical reconstruction, Laura Engelstein tells the sect's astonishing tale. She describes the horrified reactions to the sect by outsiders, including outraged bureaucrats, physicians, and theologians. More important, she allows the Skoptsy a say in defining the contours of their history and the meaning behind their sacrifice. Her deft handling of their letters and notebooks lends her book unusual depth and pathos, and she provides a heartbreaking account of willing exile and of religious belief so strong that its adherents accepted terrible pain and the denial of a basic human experience. Although the Skoptsy express joy at their salvation, the words of even the most fervent believers reveal the psychological suffering of life on society's margins.No foreign tribe or exotic import, the sect drew its members from the larger peasant society where marriage was expected and adulthood began with the wedding night. Set apart by the very act that guaranteed their redemption, these "lambs of God" became adept at concealing their sectarian identity as they interacted with their Orthodox neighbors. Interaction was necessary, Engelstein explains, since the survival of the Skoptsy depended upon recruitment of new members and on success in agriculture and trade.Realizing that some prejudices have changed little over the centuries, Engelstein cautions that "we must not cast the shadow of our own distress on the story of the Skoptsy. Their physical suffering was something they willingly embraced." In Castration and the Heavenly Kingdom, she has produced a remarkable history that also illuminates the mysteries of the human heart.

Christianity

Christianity PDF Author: Anonymous
Publisher: PureChristianity.org
ISBN: 1589612825
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1146

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Book Description
Can pure Christianity in the first century be found in our time? If Christ were here today, can He still recognize the religion He founded considering it is now divided into 1001 sects, each asserting the truth? This book, CHRISTIANITY: YESTERDAY & TODAY reveals the answer.

Extraordinary Guidance

Extraordinary Guidance PDF Author: Liza Wiemer
Publisher: Harmony
ISBN: 0307556034
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
"Liza Wiemer opens doors to the soul that few of us realize even exist. Read this book, explore its methods, and open yourself to the wisdom to which each of us is heir." Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro, author of Wisdom of the Jewish Sages A complete guide for readers of any religion, Extraordinary Guidance teaches how to contact the spiritual guides that watch over every soul and apply their wisdom for practical results in your everyday life as well as for a richer spiritual life. In the late 1980s, channeling was the popular way to receive spiritual guidance. In the early '90s, angels became accessible. Now we know we can go directly to the source--to the spiritual guides themselves--and Liza Wiemer reveals how everyone can contact his or her own spiritual guides for invaluable life guidance. Extraordinary Guidance explains what spiritual guides are and provides easy and effective step-by-step instructions for connecting with them, including how to get in the right state of mind to talk with these powers that guide us. Through examples and personal anecdotes of her own spiritual guide, Wil, Wiemer shows how the discovery of the wisdom within enables people to make positive changes in their lives and help others to do the same, and, ultimately, to work toward bridging the gap between the spiritual and physical worlds.

Once a Catholic

Once a Catholic PDF Author: Peter Occhiogrosso
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780345356703
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description


Pathways to Joy

Pathways to Joy PDF Author: Dave DeLuca
Publisher: New World Library
ISBN: 1577317564
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
At the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago, Swami Vivekananda transformed Western thinking. He showed that, far from being an exotic novelty, Hinduism is an important, legitimate spiritual tradition with valuable lessons for the West. Pathways to Joy is a selection of 108 of his sacred teachings on Vedanta philosophy. In accessible and powerful prose, Vivekananda illuminates the four classical yoga paths — karma, bhakti, raja, and jnana — for the different natures of humankind. The messages focus on the oneness of existence; the divinity of the soul; the truth in all religions; and unifying with the Divine within. Invaluable and inspiring, the selections also explore karma, maya, rebirth, and other great revelations of Hinduism.