Examines the rise of one of the most prolific spiritual leader of modern timesT.D. Jakes has emerged as one of the most prolific spiritual leaders of our time. He is pastor of one of the largest churches in the country, CEO of a multimillion dollar empire, the host of a television program, author of a dozen bestsellers, and the producer of two Grammy Award-nominated CDs and three critically acclaimed plays. In 2001 Time magazine featured Jakes on the cover ...

It wasn't supposed to go this way...Charlotte didn't want to be stuck on a private island with her ex, Aiden, but couldn't think of a good enough excuse to get out of it.Aiden dreaded seeing Charlotte again and hoped that bringing a few friends would create a shield between him and his past.Sebastian was simply looking for a good time.None of them expected to learn lessons in temptation, desire, and release.While navigating the landmines of the recen...

It was supposed to be an easy job. Aoife planned to spend her days lounging by the pool reading her favorite smut, living the glamorous life of a house-sitter. Except nothing ever goes the way it should.With a murder across the street, a storm knocking out all power and two masked men breaking in, everything is thrown into chaos leaving Aoife feeling something far more dangerous than fear.Meanwhile, Elliot and Oscar only wanted revenge. There wasn't supposed to be anyone in...

This book explicates how many films intersect black suffering and God-talk in ways that instantiate secular limitations to divine efficacy. The book’s concept of a modern God introduces a new method of analysis that reimagines theodical discourses as mechanisms of modern identities and filmmakers as skillful exegetes who recalibrate divine attributes to the sensemaking cadences of their contemporaries. Shayne Lee demonstrates how cinematic theodicy navigates a happy medium between affirmin...

Tyler Perry is the most successful African-American filmmaker of his generation, garnering both accolades and controversies with each new film. In Tyler Perry’s America, Shayne Lee digs into eleven of Perry’s highest-grossing films to explore key themes of race, gender, class, and religion, and, ultimately, to discuss what Perry’s films reveal about contemporary African-American life.Filled with slapstick humor, musical wizardry, and religious imagery, Tyler Perry’s films have insp...

Joel Osteen, Paula White, T. D. Jakes, Rick Warren, and Brian McLaren pastor some the largest churches in the nation, lead vast spiritual networks, write best-selling books, and are among the most influential preachers in American Protestantism today. Spurred by the phenomenal appeal of these religious innovators, sociologist Shayne Lee and historian Phillip Luke Sinitiere investigate how they operate and how their style of religious expression fits into America’s cultural landscape. Drawi...

Why is there no "pro-sex" contingency in black feminist scholarship? Why do so few African-American scholars expound on issues celebrating female sexual pleasure? Perhaps the answers to these questions reside within a discursive matrix of sexual repression commonly referred to as the politics of respectability, and its rein on black sexual politics.In Erotic Revolutionaries: Black Women, Sexuality, and Popular Culture, sociologist Shayne Lee steers black sexual politics to...

"Church is boring." "It's irrelevant." "It's full of hypocrites." You've heard the excuses—now learn the real reasons men and boys are fleeing churches of every kind, all over the world, and what we can do about it.Women comprise more than 60% of the adults in a typical worship service in America. Some overseas congregations report ten women for every man in attendance. Men are less likely to lead, volunteer, and give in the church. They pray less, share t...

This book presents the case for loving the local church. It paints a picture of the local church in all its biblical and real life guts, gaffes, and glory in an effort to edify local congregations and entice the disaffected back to the fold. It also provides a solid biblical mandate to love and be part of the body of Christ and counteract the "leave church" books that trumpet rebellion and individual felt needs.Why We Love the Church is written for four kinds of people - t...

Without careful attention, faith-based organizations drift from their founding mission. It's that simple. It will happen.Why do so many organizations wander from their mission, while others remain Mission True? Can drift be prevented?In Mission Drift, HOPE International executives Peter Greer and Chris Horst share the results of their research into Mission True and Mission Untrue organizations and show you how to:● determine whether your or...

How have millions of American Christians come to measure spiritual progress in terms of their financial status and physical well-being? How has the movement variously called Word of Faith, Health and Wealth, Name It and Claim It, or simply prosperity gospel come to dominate much of our contemporary religious landscape? Kate Bowler's Blessed is the first book to fully explore the origins, unifying themes, and major figures of a burgeoning movement that now claims millions of followers in Am...

The single fastest growing religious group of our time is those who check the box next to the word none on national surveys. In America, this is 20 percent of the population. Exactly who are the unaffiliated? What caused this seismic shift in our culture? Are our churches poised to reach these people?James Emery White lends his prophetic voice to one of the most important conversations the church needs to be having today. He calls churches to examine their current methods ...