Sailing into New York Harbor, Sigmund Freud stood on the deck and gazed upon a statue that was meant to symbolize someone else's vague notion of freedom. The embryonic field of psychology--so very interested to hear this theory, which excavated the depths of the psyche--anticipated his arrival in America with lamentably eager fanfare. Whether out of hubris or prescience Freud could only whisper, "They don't realize we are bringing them the plague." It was a theory that undercut our creativ...

In contrast to the usual answers concerning what the Good News might be, incendiary philosopher-theologian Peter Rollins suggests an alternative, radical definition: you can't be satisfied, life is difficult, and you don't know the secret. Arguing that God has traditionally been thought of as a type of product that will make you whole, remove your suffering and give you the truth, Rollins contrasts this with an approach to faith that invites us to embrace suffering, face up to our unknowin...

In this incendiary new work, philosopher-theologian Peter Rollins proclaims that the Christian faith is not primarily concerned with questions regarding life after death but with the possibility of life before death.In order to unearth this truth, Rollins prescribes a radical and wholesale critique of contemporary Christianity that he calls pyro-theology. It is only as we submit our spiritual practices, religious rituals, and dogmatic affirmations to the flames of fearless interro...

Peter Rollins knows one magic trick - now, make sure you watch closely. It has three parts: the Pledge, the Turn, and the Prestige. In The Divine Magician, each part comes into play as Rollins describes the way God works in our world today, and how this connection helps us understand the truly radical message of Christianity.The Divine Magician interrogates traditional religious notions from a refreshingly original perspective, undermining the commonplace debates ...

American history has always been an irresistible source of inspiration for filmmakers, and today, for good or ill, most Americans'sense of the past likely comes more from Hollywood than from the works of historians. In important films such as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Roots (1977), Apocalypse Now (1979), and Saving Private Ryan (1998), how much is entertainment and how much is rooted in historical fact? In The Columbia Companion to American Histo...

An Insurrectionist Manifesto contains four insurrectionary gospels based on Martin Heidegger's philosophical model of the fourfold: earth and sky, gods and mortals. Challenging religious dogma and dominant philosophical theories, they offer a cooperative, world-affirming political theology that promotes new life through not resurrection but insurrection. The insurrection in these gospels unfolds as a series of miraculous yet worldly practices of vital affirmation. Since these rout...

Much has been written by practitioners advocating the emerging church phenomenon, but confusion about the nature and beliefs of those who identify with the emerging church still exists. Now that the movement has aged a bit, the time has come for a more rigorous, scholarly analysis. Here four influential authors, each an expert in his field, discuss important cultural, theological, philosophical, and biblical underpinnings and implications of the emerging church movement. Their sympathetic ...

In this perceptive and provocative new look at the Gospels, John Dominic Crossan begins by observing that the parabolic stories told by Jesus seem remarkably similar to the resurrection stories about Jesus. 'Were the latter intended as parables just as much as the former?' he asks. Could it be that we have been reading parables, presuming them to be history, and misunderstanding both? In other words, could Jesus' use of parables have inspired the Gospel writers to create meaningful, metaph...

Diana Butler Bass, one of contemporary Christianity’s leading trend-spotters, exposes how the failings of the church today are giving rise to a new “spiritual but not religious” movement. Using evidence from the latest national polls and from her own cutting-edge research, Bass, the visionary author of A People’s History of Christianity, continues the conversation began in books like Brian D. McLaren’s A New Kind of Christianity and Harvey Cox’s The Future of Faith, examining the connectio...

Experience a deeper prayer life through this fresh take on ancient liturgy for believers today.Designed to help individuals, families, and congregations pray together across denominations, this book of common prayer will help you and your community join together each day with the same songs, scriptures, and prayers. Composed under an advisory team of liturgy experts, these three influential and inspiring authors have created *Common Prayer--*a tapestry of prayer th...

Every Sunday, the Lord’s Prayer echoes in churches around the world.It is an indisputable principle of Christian faith. It is the way Jesus taught his followers to pray and distills the most essential beliefs required of every one of the world’s 2.5 billion Christians. In The Greatest Prayer, our foremost Jesus scholar explores this foundational prayer line by line for the richest and fullest understanding of a prayer every Christian knows by heart.An expert on the historic...

'Seek and ye shall find.'With these words echoing in his head, eminent Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon awakes in a hospital bed with no recollection of where he is or how he got there. Nor can he explain the origin of the macabre object that is found hidden in his belongings.A threat to his life will propel him and a young doctor, Sienna Brooks, into a breakneck chase across the city of Florence. Only Langdon's knowledge of hidden passageways and ancient secrets...