Little Books of Guidance Series

A straightforward treatment of the only existential issue that matters from the Christian perspective. In What Happens When We Die? Tom Long provides information about the promises and convictions of the Christian gospel concerning death and life after death. He surveys in simple terms the major themes surrounding death, dying, and hope for an afterlife.

Distills a life-time of biblical research into an easy-to-understand survey of Jesus’ life, his mission, and his self-understanding. Renowned New Testament scholar James Dunn investigates what is known about the historical Jesus and the reasons for his enormous impact—then and now.

Many people assume that science ‘disproves’ the idea of God, and that we no longer need faith in order to understand the world or why we are in it. Roger Trigg examines these assumptions and considers whether recent developments in science may in fact support religious faith. He goes on to consider the increasing scientific evidence for the inherent orderliness and comprehensibility of the universe, which leads him to ask an even more radical question: Might there be aspects of religious belief that can help to support our science? Contents 1. Does science disprove God? 2. Are science and religion just different? 3. Could science support Christianity? 4. Does science need Christianity?

Why do we exist? Is there a God? What’s the point of it all? These are some of the questions that all thinking people ask at some point in their lives. John Cottingham explores the whys and wherefores that lead people to become believers. Contents 1.The starting point 2.Why want to believe in the first place? 3.The human quest 4.Reaching for the unknown 5.The still small voice 6.Intimations of the sacred 7.Evil and waste 8. Belief and observance

Explores how we can use our bodies sexually and holistically in contemporary culture. What About Sex? provides a moral compass to navigate the changing landscape of sex and sexuality. Dealing with the Bible, evolving traditions and customs, and the findings of science and psychology, Haller endeavors to inform and guide rather than lay down the law. This book is not about what goes where or who does what to whom, but about what it means to be an embodied person with responsibilities both to oneself and others.

Easy to read; short book on a key topic for seekers. In an age where people increasingly spend their weekends anywhere but in a place of worship, it is important to ask why anyone should go to church. In Why Go to Church? Robertson addresses the top reasons for not attending and goes further to explore how church participation can enhance one’s life on so many levels. Essential reading for those who have thought about going to church, are thinking about going back to church, and even those who go to church regularly but want to attain a deeper worship experience.

Why Suffering? attempts to provide a gentle exploration of how we can respond to a complex issue that has baffled and bothered humanity throughout the ages: Why does a good, all-powerful, and loving God permit evil and suffering? The opening chapter examines the challenge in some depth, while the two additional chapters set forth a Christian response that is grounded in the disclosure of God in Christ on the cross.

Social media has become a virtual world in which all manner of human communities are being formed, including many centered on prayer, faith, and spirituality. But with the benefits also come liabilities in terms of attentiveness vs. distraction, self-assertion, consumption, and anonymity—all enemies of healthy community. How to Be a Disciple and Digital provides a framework for an ethic of social media community to help foster the growth and stability of prayerful spiritual communities online.

Offers basic information to make the Bible less formidable to beginning readers. In How Can Anyone Read the Bible? preeminent biblical scholar Bill Countryman provides a basic introduction for those with little knowledge about the Bible that aims to provide an easy point of entry into engagement with Scripture.

Language about God is something like the language of poetry—intended not to increase our information about the world—we know facts about the world already—but to evoke in us a certain attitude or way of looking at things or feeling about things. What sort of view of the world, then, is language about God trying to convey? Keith Ward suggests it is that the world is an expression of a reality beyond it. In this book, he unpacks the meaning of the word God and explains why we need to get rid of the crude and unhelpful assumptions that still abound. This is a book for all who are curious about how God, and God’s actions, can be understood today.

We think of holy people as spiritual seekers, but holiness is more than being in touch with the holy. What is holiness all about? What is wholeness of life? What are practices of love? What is spirituality all about? What is worship all about? Life, according to Timothy Sedgwick, is not a series of experiences or a search for increasing novelty. Rather, there is a more fundamental desire to be whole which characterizes our human experience. This is what Christian faith is all about. It takes practice. It takes community. It takes time. It is a life of loss and love, lament and joy. And, in short, this is what holiness is about: It is a way of life Christians call grace and salvation.

Our lives are increasingly overscheduled, multi-tasking, and hectic. For everyone who could use more than 24 hours in a day (that is, most of us), John Pritchard explores the art and power of prayer and explains how to slow down enough to hear what God wants to say to us. A book for all who are curious about how to become more in tune with the Spirit.

A brief guide that shows how this spiritual practice can enrich your life. Jesus called his disciples to give, forgive, teach, and heal in his name. We are empowered by the Spirit to bless everyone we meet, practicing generosity and compassion, and “proclaiming the Good News of God in Christ” with hopeful words and selfless actions. We can share our stories of blessing and invite others to the Way of Love. We share our faith and unselfishly give and serve others with our time, talents, and treasure. This series of seven Little Books of Guidance are designed for you to discover how following certain practices can help you follow Jesus more fully in your daily life.

A brief guide that shows how this spiritual practice can enrich your life. From the beginning of creation, God has established the sacred pattern of going and returning, labor and rest. Especially today, God invites us to dedicate time for restoration and wholeness––within our bodies, minds, and souls, and within our communities and institutions. By resting, we place our trust in God, the primary actor who brings all things to their fullness. When we set aside time to rest we receive the gift of God’s grace, peace, and restoration. This series of seven Little Books of Guidance are designed for you to discover how following certain practices can help you follow Jesus more fully in your daily life.

A brief guide on how this spiritual practice can enrich your life. Jesus teaches us to come before God with humble hearts, boldly offering our thanksgivings and concerns to God or simply listening for God's voice in our lives and in the world. Whether in thought, word or deed, individually or corporately, when we pray we invite and dwell in God's loving presence. Jesus often removed himself from the crowds to quiet himself and commune with God. He gave us examples of how to pray, including the Lord’s Prayer. “Will you continue in the prayers?” “I will with God’s help.” This series of seven Little Books of Guidance are designed for you to discover how following certain practices can help you follow Jesus more fully in your daily life.

A brief guide on how this spiritual practice can enrich your life. By reading and reflecting on scripture, especially the life and teachings of Jesus, we draw near to God and God's word dwells in us. When we open our minds and hearts to scripture, we learn to see God's story and God's activity in everyday life. There is a prayer in the Book of Common Prayer (Proper 38, page 236) that asks, “Grant us so to hear, read, mark, learn and inwardly digest” the Holy Scriptures. Again we state, “I will with God’s help” when asked in our Baptismal Covenant, “Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching?” This is what it means to learn about God: read, study, discuss, and engage in the story of God and God’s people, including the life of Christ. This series of seven Little Books of Guidance are designed for you to discover how following certain practices can help you follow Jesus more fully in your daily life.

We live amidst the largest mass migration in human history. God has chosen to use the Church, the Body of Christ, to be the instrument of Christ’s healing and restorative love in the world. The restorative and healing work of Christ can be accomplished when each Christian is moved by compassion to see and love the neighbor. Who is My Neighbor? puts a human face on a politically charged issue: refugees. It tells stories about refugees to challenge us all to reconsider our definition of “neighbor.” Little Books of Guidance are designed for you to discover how following certain practices can help you follow Jesus more fully in your daily life.

A brief guide on how this spiritual practice can enrich your life. When we worship, we gather with others before God. We hear the Good News of Jesus Christ, give thanks, confess, and offer the brokenness of the world to God. As we break bread, our eyes are opened to the presence of Christ. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are made one body, the body of Christ sent to live the Way of Love. After Jesus’ crucifixion, his friends’ eyes were opened and they recognized him as the Risen Christ when they broke bread and blessed it together. By gathering in community weekly to thank, praise, and dwell with God we, with God’s help, “continue in the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.” This series of seven Little Books of Guidance are designed for you to discover how following certain practices can help you follow Jesus more fully in your daily life.

A brief guide on how this spiritual practice can enrich your life. As Jesus went to the highways and byways, he sends us beyond our circles and comfort, to witness to the love, justice, and truth of God with our lips and with our lives. We go to listen with humility and to join God in healing a hurting world. We go to become Beloved Community, a people reconciled in love with God and one another. We seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves. We strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being. With God’s help we cross boundaries, listen deeply, and live like Jesus. This series of seven Little Books of Guidance are designed for you to discover how following certain practices can help you follow Jesus more fully in your daily life.

Readers will find in this book a strong and uplifting argument that the Episcopal Church’s theology, sacramental ministry, and commitment to social justice have an essential role to play in mainline Christianity and in the public square. This book will help readers to understand that what it means to be an Episcopalian and how evangelism is a fruit of that identity, not a mere marketing strategy or an end in itself. This book is an approachable and inspiring presentation of the theological rationale and resource for sharing the faith as well as an argument that sharing the faith increases our own. It addresses basic questions that are buzzing in the church today and lays out a series of stories from faith communities across the Episcopal Church, both physical and digital ministries. Proceeds from this book will go to Sandy Hook Promise, the non-profit organization doing the brave work of the Newtown Families Against Gun Violence.

A brief guide on how this spiritual practice can enrich your life. Jesus teaches us to come before God with humble hearts, boldly offering our thanksgivings and concerns to God or simply listening for God's voice in our lives and in the world. Whether in thought, word or deed, individually or corporately, when we pray we invite and dwell in God's loving presence. Jesus often removed himself from the crowds to quiet himself and commune with God. He gave us examples of how to pray, including the Lord's Prayer. "Will you continue in the prayers?" "I will with God's help." This series of seven Little Books of Guidance are designed for you to discover how following certain practices can help you follow Jesus more fully in your daily life.

Explores way Christian individuals and communities can cultivate peace both locally and on a global scale. Peace can seem so very far away, whether we are watching news of atrocities committed in other countries or we encounter the violence in our own neighborhoods. Mike Angell engages peace as more than an absence of conflict. Peace, following the Christian tradition, is more concrete. It must be planted, tended, and grown in our own hearts and in the world. This book explores ways individuals and Christian communities can cultivate peace personally, locally, and on a global scale. Non-violence is a core value of The Episcopal Church and integral the Jesus Movement’s focus on reconciliation. As part of our baptismal covenant to strive for justice and peace among all people, we are called to be models of reconciliation and peace towards our neighbors. This book is a simple guide for building peace when the streets around us are filled with anger and violence.

Be inspired and empowered to make care of God's earth central to your life. From Earth Day in the 1970s to the present day, the Church has been a moral and ethical voice in encouraging a deep relationship between love of God and love of the earth. As climate change becomes an even more pressing issue and localized environmental injustices increase, the Church stands at the forefront of this conversation. Stephanie Johnson provides readers with tools to be inspired and empowered to make care of God’s earth central to their lives.

A challenge to live out our faith through the way we spend and share our financial resources. Money has edged out sex as the forbidden topic of conversation in both secular and religious circles. Why do we think of money as shameful, whether we have lots or none at all? How can we in the church engage the topic of money in ways that are liberating and life-giving? How might we choose to deal with money in a way that is grounded in love? How do we understand money as holy? How do we recognize “enough?” Demi Prentiss shares why she believes, "we can come to understand the highest use of money as a tool for sharing God’s grace and for shaping the manifestations of God’s reign here on earth.” This book is a guide to looking at money honestly and practicing conscientious stewardship.