Our Unlikely Journey to End the Tears of Hunger
A Dream So Big is the story of Steve Peifer, a corporate manager who once oversaw 9,000 computer software consultants, who today helps provid...[More]

Our Unlikely Journey to End the Tears of Hunger
A Dream So Big is the story of Steve Peifer, a corporate manager who once oversaw 9,000 computer software consultants, who today helps provide daily lunches for over 20,000 Kenyan school children in thirty-five national public schools, and maintains solar-powered computer labs at twenty rural African schools. Steve and his wife, Nancy, were enjoying a successful management career with one of America's high tech corporate giants during the dot-com boom of the 1990's when, in 1997, he and his wife Nancy discovered they were pregnant with their third child. Tragically, doctors said a chromosomal condition left their baby 'incompatible with life.' The Peifers only spent 8 days with baby Stephen before he died. Seeking to flee the pain, Steve and Nancy began a pilgrimage that thrust them into a third-world setting where daily life was often defined by tragedy---drought, disease, poverty, hunger, and death. They didn't arrive in the service of any divine calling, but the truth of their surroundings spoke to their troubled hearts. A short-term, 12-month mission assignment as dorm parents for a Kenyan boarding school turned this ordinary man into the most unlikely internationally recognized hero, and his story will inspire you to pursue similar lives of service.

Contributor Bio: Peifer, Steve
Steve Peifer serves as Director of College Guidance for Rift Valley Academy in Kijabe, Kenya. He established a rural food program in 2002 that provides lunches for 20,000 Kenyan schoolchildren a day. He has also built the first solar-powered computer-training center in Kenya, and is now developing twenty computer classroom labs for rural schools. For his work on behalf of Kenyan children, he was awarded the CNN Heroes Award for Championing Children in 2007, the 2007 Yale Counseling Award and the 2010 NACAC Excellence in Education Award. Steve and Nancy have four children.

Contributor Bio: Lewis, Gregg
Gregg Lewis is an award-winning author and coauthor of more than fifty books, including Gifted Hands, The Ben Carson Story, Take the Risk and The Big Picture.[Less]

Sustainable Freedom and the American Future. How can a free republic maintain its freedom? "If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we m...[More]

Sustainable Freedom and the American Future. How can a free republic maintain its freedom? "If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." -- Abraham Lincoln

In this highly polarized age, political leaders on all sides debate what it means to be a free people. People confuse freedom with mere consumer choices. Popular movements contend against how government or corporate entities infringe upon individual and collective freedom. Economic crises and social inequities call into question whether our American notion of freedom is real or merely illusory. Cultural observer Os Guinness argues that the American experiment in freedom is at risk. While freedom is perhaps the most defining trait of American society, it is not enough for freedom to be won. It must also be sustained. Unrestrained freedom is unsustainable because it undermines the very conditions necessary for freedom to exist.

Guinness's careful study of history reminds us that it is not enough to have negative freedom from constraint. He calls us to cultivate the essential civic character needed for ordered liberty and sustainable freedom. True freedom requires virtue, which in turn requires faith. Only within the framework of what is true, right and good can freedom be found. "In the end," Guinness writes, "the ultimate threat to the American republic will be Americans. The problem is not wolves at the door but termites in the floor." The future of the republic depends on whether Americans will rise to the challenge of living up to America's unfulfilled potential for freedom, both for itself and for the world.

"Sometimes a book is so important and so timely that not to have read it is to embarrass oneself. This is such a book. Its message is so crucial and so clear that all Americans are obligated to read it and have a national conversation on its themes. No cultural commentator or politician who has not read this book should ever be taken seriously again. Let this book be the new litmus test. If you are serious about America, be familiar with its themes and expect to discuss them and to be tested on them. Rest assured that you will be, because America is now herself being tested on them. Alas, we will not be graded on a curve. This book's clarion call is both piercing and full of hope. May God help us to hear it and to take action." --Eric Metaxas, author of "Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy" and "Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery"

"In a passionate work that blends historical-cultural analysis with moral exhortation, Os Guinness finds at the heart of America's culture wars something different than what many observers have seen. He identifies a 'freedom war, ' a struggle over the very concept of freedom itself. As the Founders well understood, it is not enough for Americans to invoke endlessly the name of 'freedom' when they no longer agree as to what it means or what ends freedom is meant to serve. Guinness warns that freedom cannot long endure unless it is consecrated to purposes beyond itself. It is a warning worth heeding." --Wilfred M. McClay, SunTrust Chair of Excellence in Humanities, University of Tennessee[Less]

America's Entitlement Epidemic. In "A Nation of Takers: America's Entitlement Epidemic," one of our country's foremost demographers, Nicholas Eberstadt, details the exponential growth in entitl...[More]

America's Entitlement Epidemic. In "A Nation of Takers: America's Entitlement Epidemic," one of our country's foremost demographers, Nicholas Eberstadt, details the exponential growth in entitlement spending over the past fifty years. As he notes, in 1960, entitlement payments accounted for well under a third of the federal government's total outlays. Today, entitlement spending accounts for a full two-thirds of the federal budget.

Drawing on an impressive array of data and employing a range of easy-to-read, four color charts, Eberstadt shows the unchecked spiral of spending on a range of entitlements, everything from medicare to disability payments. But Eberstadt does not just chart the astonishing growth of entitlement spending, he also details the enormous economic and cultural costs of this epidemic. He powerfully argues that while this spending certainly drains our federal coffers, it also has a very real, long-lasting, negative impact on the character of our citizens.

Also included in the book is a response from one of our leading political theorists, William Galston. In his incisive response, he questions Eberstadt's conclusions about the corrosive effect of entitlements on character and offers his own analysis of the impact of American entitlement growth.

Contributor Bio:
Nicholas Eberstadt holds the Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also a senior adviser to the National Board of Asian Research, a member of the visiting committee at the Harvard School of Public Health, and a member of the Global Leadership Council at the World Economic Forum. His previous works on Korean affairs include The Population of North Korea(co-author), Korea Approaches Reunification, A New International Engagement Framework for North Korea?, Korea's Future and the Great Powers (co-editor), and The End of North Korea.[Less]

Conservative spokesman, author and pastor Dr. Joel C. Hunter forges a new path with 'A New Kind of Conservative.' Hunter takes a provocative look at how faith and politics have interacted in America, ...[More]

Conservative spokesman, author and pastor Dr. Joel C. Hunter forges a new path with 'A New Kind of Conservative.' Hunter takes a provocative look at how faith and politics have interacted in America, giving civic-minded people a balanced and biblically-based approach to political involvement. The author speaks as a conservative Christian with traditional biblical stands regarding abortion and homosexuality, but expands it to include other biblical concerns, such as the environment, poverty, justice issues, AIDS, etc. This is not the ideology and rhetoric associated with the extreme religious right, but rather a broader look at politics that the Bible would have us address. Hunter shows how religion and politics do not have to be at odds with one another, and offers the information and motivation needed to take responsible action. Can a Christian/biblical worldview effectively mesh with postmodern society and secular government? Should Christians be involved in political action and, if so, how? How can Christians more effectively relate and present their faith in the context of contemporary and political society? Readers, regardless of their beliefs, will find this thoughtful, helpful and compelling reading; it represents an emerging centrist evangelical movement.[Less]

A conversation about postmodernism from a current method of idea sharing-blogging. In the midst of the cultural and intellectual upheavals of post modernity in Western society, evangelicalism finds it...[More]

A conversation about postmodernism from a current method of idea sharing-blogging. In the midst of the cultural and intellectual upheavals of post modernity in Western society, evangelicalism finds itself in the middle of conversation about its own identity and future.

Whereas other books addressing postmodernism treat the topic in a traditional book form-an edited volume with essays-the format of this book seeks to place the discussion in a form that is consistent with its content. Using the motif of the weblog , A New Kind of Conversation is an experimental book that enters into this conversation with five evangelical leaders and academics (Brian McLaren, Bruce Ellis Benson, Ellen Harourunian, Mabiala Kenzon, and Myron Bradley Penner), who are the primary bloggers.[Less]

How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good. Debates rage today about the role of religions in public life. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, various religions come to ...[More]

How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good. Debates rage today about the role of religions in public life. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, various religions come to inhabit the same space. But how do they live together, especially when each wants to shape the public realm according to the dictates of its own sacred texts and traditions? How does the Christian faith relate in the religious pluralism of contemporary public life?

While Volf argues that there is no single way Christian faith relates to culture as a whole, he explores major issues on the frontlines of faith today: 1) In what way does the Christian faith come to malfunction in the contemporary world, and how should we counter these malfunctions? 2) What should a Christian's main concern be when it comes to living well in the world today? and 3) How should we go about realizing a vision for human flourishing in relation to other faiths and under the roof of a single state?

Covering such timely issues as witness in a multifaith society and political engagement in a pluralistic world, this compelling book highlights things Christians can do to serve the common good.

"Our efforts as people of faith to bring our religious convictions into the public arena have clearly malfunctioned in recent years, but Miroslav Volf does not want us to retreat to a 'private faith' mentality. Instead he offers profound counsel about how faith-based public advocacy can promote the common good in our increasingly pluralistic world. This important book is packed with wisdom!" --Richard J. Mouw, president and professor of Christian philosophy, Fuller Theological Seminary[Less]

How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good. Debates rage today about the role of religions in public life. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, various religions come to ...[More]

How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good. Debates rage today about the role of religions in public life. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, various religions come to inhabit the same space. But how do they live together, especially when each wants to shape the public realm according to the dictates of its own sacred texts and traditions? How does the Christian faith relate in the religious pluralism of contemporary public life?

While Volf argues that there is no single way Christian faith relates to culture as a whole, he explores major issues on the frontlines of faith today: 1) In what way does the Christian faith come to malfunction in the contemporary world, and how should we counter these malfunctions? 2) What should a Christian's main concern be when it comes to living well in the world today? and 3) How should we go about realizing a vision for human flourishing in relation to other faiths and under the roof of a single state?

Covering such timely issues as witness in a multifaith society and political engagement in a pluralistic world, this compelling book highlights things Christians can do to serve the common good.

"Our efforts as people of faith to bring our religious convictions into the public arena have clearly malfunctioned in recent years, but Miroslav Volf does not want us to retreat to a 'private faith' mentality. Instead he offers profound counsel about how faith-based public advocacy can promote the common good in our increasingly pluralistic world. This important book is packed with wisdom!" --Richard J. Mouw, president and professor of Christian philosophy, Fuller Theological Seminary[Less]

Review Quotes: "Taylor's masterful integration of history, sociology, philosophy, and theology demands much of the reader. In return you will be convinced that Charles Taylor is one of the s...[More]

Review Quotes: "Taylor's masterful integration of history, sociology, philosophy, and theology demands much of the reader. In return you will be convinced that Charles Taylor is one of the smartest and deepest social thinkers of our time." -- Tyler Cowen ("Slate" 10/31/2007)

"Taylor's gargantuan philosophical history of modernity, which complicates the flattering and simplified story we like to tell ourselves about secularization, is a major intellectual event." -- Jonathan Derbyshire ("Prospect" 01/01/2008)

"Taylor reminds us that we remain spiritual creatures in our most essential natures, and that what we take for granted--our age's lack of religious faith--is, in fact, an anomaly of history. Our forefathers did not live this way and our grandchildren might not either. Considering the doubts about extreme secularism, it is possible we are entering a new Age of Spirit. If so, Taylor's latest 'magnum opus' serves as a comprehensive guide to the reemergence of religious sensibility." -- Robert Sibley ("Ottawa Citizen" 01/20/2008)

"A singular achievement...Taylor is somehow uniquely able to combine chutzpah and good manners, making bold and imaginative claims, yet always attending respectfully to the whole range of disciplines that touch on the philosophical trajectory being drawn, whether that be history, sociology, theology, art theory, cultural studies, anthropology or social theory..."A Secular Age" succeeds in the same way as his previous work: in illuminating through complicating. At the same time, this book seems to step up the ambition somewhat: by attempting to provide a final definitive account of all the narratives and complications that make up our contemporary age, as they implode on themselves." Christopher J. Insole ("Times Literary Supplement" 02/01/2008)

"Taylor is arguably the most interesting and important philosopher writing in English today... What makes Taylor so important? Over more than 40 years, four large books, four or five slimmer essays and several volumes of articles, he has worked out a distinctive network of arguments and an exceptionally rich analysis of the modern self and its values--an analysis that reveals us to be altogether deeper and more interesting, but also less self-aware, than we tend to suppose..."A Secular Age" sets out to offer a richer characterization of secularization and the nature of contemporary belief, both religious and skeptical...Taylor writes brilliantly about the new social forms--the nation state, the market economy, the charitable enterprise--and the ideals of altruism and public service that have emerged with them..."A Secular Age" is effectively a polemic against dogmatic atheism... It is full of insights, and many of its component parts--notably Taylor's discussion of the "pressures" that make a settled view on the big ontological questions hard to sustain--are as good as anything by this magnificent philosopher." -- (Ben Rogers "Prospect" 02/01/2008)

2008 Christianity Today Book Award: Best History book of 2007 and 2007 Templeton Prize[Less]

A Short and Personal Introduction. Richard Mouw (president of Fuller Seminary) was first drawn to Abraham Kuyper's writings about public life in the turbulent 1960s. As he struggled to find the...[More]

A Short and Personal Introduction. Richard Mouw (president of Fuller Seminary) was first drawn to Abraham Kuyper's writings about public life in the turbulent 1960s. As he struggled to find the right Christian stance toward big social issues such as the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, Mouw discovered Kuyper's Lectures on Calvinism and, with it, a robust vision of active Christian involvement in public life that has guided him ever since.

In this short and personal introduction Mouw sets forth Kuyper's main ideas on Christian cultural discipleship, including his views on sphere sovereignty, the antithesis, common grace, and more. Mouw looks at ways to update and, in some places, even correct Kuyper's thought as he applies it to such twenty-first-century issues as religious and cultural pluralism, technology, and the challenge of Islam.[Less]

The Future Is Better Than You Think. We will soon be able to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp. This bold, contr...[More]

The Future Is Better Than You Think. We will soon be able to meet and exceed the basic needs of every man, woman and child on the planet. Abundance for all is within our grasp. This bold, contrarian view, backed up by exhaustive research, introduces our near-term future, where exponentially growing technologies and three other powerful forces are conspiring to better the lives of billions. An antidote to pessimism by tech entrepreneur turned philanthropist, Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler.

Since the dawn of humanity, a privileged few have lived in stark contrast to the hardscrabble majority. Conventional wisdom says this gap cannot be closed. But it is closing--fast. The authors document how four forces--exponential technologies, the DIY innovator, the Technophilanthropist, and the Rising Billion--are conspiring to solve our biggest problems. 'Abundance' establishes hard targets for change and lays out a strategic roadmap for governments, industry and entrepreneurs, giving us plenty of reason for optimism.

Examining human need by category--water, food, energy, healthcare, education, freedom--Diamandis and Kotler introduce dozens of innovators making great strides in each area: Larry Page, Steven Hawking, Dean Kamen, Daniel Kahneman, Elon Musk, Bill Joy, Stewart Brand, Jeff Skoll, Ray Kurzweil, Ratan Tata, Craig Venter, among many, many others.

"We live in an age of incredible innovation in technology, medicine, and food science, under living conditions our ancestors would have killed for. Yet in poll after poll, the vast majority of people bemoan that things are getting worse, not better. This tendency for people to regret a loss much more than celebrate success may have helped us survive in the early days of our evolution, but in this age of abundance, clinging to bad news does more harm than good. This message is the springboard for Diamandis and Kotler to explore what the future holds for a species used to linear and local thinking in an age of exponential and global growth." --Booklist 03/01/12

"This engaging book is a needed corrective, a whirlwind tour of the latest developments in health care, agriculture, energy, and other fields ...The authors make a compelling case for optimism over dread as we face the exhilarating unknown." --Publisher's Weekly

"This brilliant must-read book provides the key to the coming era of abundance replacing eons of scarcity, a powerful antidote to today's malaise and pessimism." --Ray Kurzweil, inventor, author and futurist, author of "The Singularity is Near"

About
Peter H. Diamandis is the Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation, co-founder and Chairman of Singularity University and the founder of more than a dozen high tech companies. Diamandis has degrees in molecular genetics and aerospace engineering from MIT, and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School.

Steven Kotler is an author and journalist. His books include A Small Furry Prayer, West of Jesus, and The Angle Quickest for Flight. His articles have appeared in more than sixty publications, including The New York Times Magazine, Wired, Discover, GQ, and National Geographic. He also writes a regular blog for PsychologyToday.com.[Less]

Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great. What is America becoming? Or, more importantly, what can she be if we reclaim a vision for the things that made her great in the first place? In Ameri...[More]

Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great. What is America becoming? Or, more importantly, what can she be if we reclaim a vision for the things that made her great in the first place? In America the Beautiful, Dr. Ben Carson helps us learn from our past in order to chart a better course for our future. From his personal ascent from inner-city poverty to international medical and humanitarian acclaim, Carson shares experiential insights that help us understand ... what is good about America ... where we have gone astray ... which fundamental beliefs have guided America from her founding into preeminence among nations

Written by a man who has experienced America's best and worst firsthand, America the Beautiful is at once alarming, convicting, and inspiring. You'll gain new perspectives on our nation's origins, our Judeo-Christian heritage, our educational system, capitalism versus socialism, our moral fabric, healthcare, and much more. An incisive manifesto of the values that shaped America's past and must shape her future, America the Beautiful calls us all to use our God-given talents to improve our lives, our communities, our nation, and our world.[Less]

God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation The American Gospel-literally, the good news about America-is that religion shapes our public life without controlling it. In this vivid bo...[More]

God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation The American Gospel-literally, the good news about America-is that religion shapes our public life without controlling it. In this vivid book, New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham tells the human story of how the Founding Fathers viewed faith, and how they ultimately created a nation in which belief in God is a matter of choice.

At a time when our country seems divided by extremism, American Gospel draws on the past to offer a new perspective. Meacham re-creates the fascinating history of a nation grappling with religion and politics-from John Winthrop's "city on a hill" sermon to Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence; from the Revolution to the Civil War; from a proposed nineteenth-century Christian Amendment to the Constitution to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s call for civil rights; from George Washington to Ronald Reagan.

Debates about religion and politics are often more divisive than illuminating. Secularists point to a "wall of separation between church and state," while many conservatives act as though the Founding Fathers were apostles in knee britches. As Meacham shows in this brisk narrative, neither extreme has it right. At the heart of the American experiment lies the God of what Benjamin Franklin called "public religion," a God who invests all human beings with inalienable rights while protecting private religion from government interference. It is a great American balancing act, and it has served us well.

Meacham has written and spoken extensively about religion and politics, and he brings historical authority and a sense of hope to the issue. American Gospel makes it compellingly clear that the nation's best chance of summoning what Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature" lies in recovering the spirit and sense of the Founding. In looking back, we may find the light to lead us forward.

"In his American Gospel, Jon Meacham provides a refreshingly clear, balanced, and wise historical portrait of religion and American politics at exactly the moment when such fairness and understanding are much needed. Anyone who doubts the relevance of history to our own time has only to read this exceptional book."-David McCullough, author of 1776.

see also The Myth of a Christian Nation[Less]

How Religion Divides and Unites Us. A groundbreaking examination of religion in America. Unique among nations, America is deeply religious, religiously diverse, and remarkably tolerant. But in ...[More]

How Religion Divides and Unites Us. A groundbreaking examination of religion in America. Unique among nations, America is deeply religious, religiously diverse, and remarkably tolerant. But in recent decades the nation's religious landscape has been reshaped.

America has experienced three seismic shocks, say Robert Putnam and David Campbell. In the 1960s, religious observance plummeted. Then in the 1970s and 1980s, a conservative reaction produced the rise of evangelicalism and the Religious Right. Since the 1990s, however, young people, turned off by that linkage between faith and conservative politics, have abandoned organized religion. The result has been a growing polarization--the ranks of religious conservatives and secular liberals have swelled, leaving a dwindling group of religious moderates in between. At the same time, personal interfaith ties are strengthening. Interfaith marriage has increased while religious identities have become more fluid. Putnam and Campbell show how this denser web of personal ties brings surprising interfaith tolerance, notwithstanding the so-called culture wars.

"American Grace "is based on two of the most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on religion and public life in America. It includes a dozen in-depth profiles of diverse congregations across the country, which illuminate how the trends described by Putnam and Campbell affect the lives of real Americans. Nearly every chapter of "American Grace "contains a surprise about American religious life. Among them:

- Between one-third and one-half of all American marriages are interfaith;
- Roughly one-third of Americans have switched religions at some point in their lives;
- Young people are more opposed to abortion than their parents but more accepting of gay marriage;
- Even fervently religious Americans believe that people of other faiths can go to heaven;
- Religious Americans are better neighbors than secular Americans: more generous with their time and treasure even for secular causes--but the explanation has less to do with faith than with their communities of faith;
- Jews are the most broadly popular religious group in America today.[Less]

The Unmaking Of America. IN THIS INTELLECTUALLY BRACING #1 "NEW YORK TIMES "BESTSELLER, leading conservative thinker Mark R. Levin draws relevant parallels to the Obama era's utopian ideals fro...[More]

The Unmaking Of America. IN THIS INTELLECTUALLY BRACING #1 "NEW YORK TIMES "BESTSELLER, leading conservative thinker Mark R. Levin draws relevant parallels to the Obama era's utopian ideals from "Plato's Republic, "Thomas More's "Utopia, "Thomas Hobbes's "Leviathan, "Karl Marx's "Communist Manifesto, "and from the critical works of John Locke, Charles Montesquieu, Alexis de Tocqueville, and other philosophical pioneers who brilliantly diagnosed the nature of man and government.

The man of system . . . is apt to be very wise in his own conceit; and is often so enamoured with the supposed beauty of his own ideal plan of government, that he cannot suffer the smallest deviation from any part of it. He goes on to establish it completely and in all its parts, without any regard either to the great interests or to the strong prejudices which may oppose it. He seems to imagine that he can arrange the different members of a great society with as much ease as the hand arranges the different pieces upon a chess-board. . . . --Adam Smith, "The Theory of Moral Sentiments, "1759

About the Author
Mark R. Levin is a nationally syndicated talk radio host and president of Landmark Legal Foundation. He has also worked as an attorney in the private sector and as a top adviser and administrator to several members of President Reagan's cabinet. He is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling book Liberty and Tyranny[Less]

From 'An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land': "America is a fallen nation. Americans exist in time, in the era biblically called the Fall. America is a demonic principality, or co...[More]

From 'An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens in a Strange Land': "America is a fallen nation. Americans exist in time, in the era biblically called the Fall. America is a demonic principality, or conglomeration of principalities and powers in which death furnishes the meaning, in which death is the reigning idol. Enshrined in multifarious forms and guises, it enslaves human beings, exacts human sacrifices, captures and captivates Presidents as well as intimidating and dehumanizing ordinary citizens."

Strong statements, yes, but timely in the biblical context which forms William Stringfellow's perspective of our contemporary situation. Identifying America as a fallen nation with the parable of Babylon in the Book of Revelation - not with Jerusalem the holy nation, as Americans are naively and vainly wont to do - Dr. Stringfellow issues as trenchant an indictment of our society as has been made since Philip Wylie's 'Generation of Vipers'.

William Stringfellow was a practicing attorney and a prominent Episcopalian layman who frequently contributed to legal and theological journals.[Less]

The Spiritual Journey of an Evangelical Catholic. Timmis, a prominent leader in both the evangelical and Catholic communities, shares his story that unites two very different expressions of fai...[More]

The Spiritual Journey of an Evangelical Catholic. Timmis, a prominent leader in both the evangelical and Catholic communities, shares his story that unites two very different expressions of faith. With an honest and open-minded approach, he seeks to answer a crucial question: can evangelical faith and Catholicism be reconciled? (Timmis is chairman of the Prison Fellowship)[Less]

Globalization, African Migration and the Transformation of the West. In part one the author (a Fuller Seminary professor) synthesizes studies on the impact of globalization, revealing that its ...[More]

Globalization, African Migration and the Transformation of the West. In part one the author (a Fuller Seminary professor) synthesizes studies on the impact of globalization, revealing that its outcomes will likely not be determined by the Euro-American heartlands that sparked this movement. Instead, in part two he shows that migration in general is having an enormous effect on shaping a new world order, and in part three, "Mobile Faith," he advances the case for the migration of Christians as carrying within it the seeds of renewal for the whole church, and also the potential to reshape church-state and religion and culture relations globally.[Less]

Is America a Mission Field or Battlefield? Examines the impact of the Christian Right's political battle mentality in America, and offers practical ways to re-focus. Shows that the church, not ...[More]

Is America a Mission Field or Battlefield? Examines the impact of the Christian Right's political battle mentality in America, and offers practical ways to re-focus. Shows that the church, not the world, must become our primary target for reformation.[Less]

How the Nonprofit Community Can Stand Up for Itself and Really Change the World. Virtually everything our society teaches about charity is backwards. The donating public is told to measure the ...[More]

How the Nonprofit Community Can Stand Up for Itself and Really Change the World. Virtually everything our society teaches about charity is backwards. The donating public is told to measure the effectiveness and moral character of charities by how little they spend on "overhead," never being taught that overhead is really investment without which the nonprofit sector can never hope to solve massive social problems. The media and government unwittingly perpetuate these views, condemning charities that invest in behind-the-scenes infrastructure or attempt to lure talent away from the for-profit sector. Counterarguments--for instance, that visionary leaders are worth competitive compensation precisely because their expertise generates exponential value for worthy causes--get no air time. In the face of this dysfunctional indoctrination, the nonprofit sector has been silent, sometimes complicit, without a strategy for organizing and defending itself.

Dan Pallotta's groundbreaking first book, "Uncharitable," exposed the unjust and discriminatory rules society imposes on charities. Now, in "Charity Case," Pallotta presents a visionary blueprint for a leadership movement that will fight back against these double standards. The goals of this movement are historic: to transform the way the public thinks about giving and solving problems, to educate the public about how charities really work, to rehabilitate public perception of the nonprofit sector, and to help us overcome our obsession with overhead so that we can truly change the world. Pallotta calls for the launch of a "Charity Defense Council," which would build an anti-defamation league and legal defense fund for the sector, enact a national civil rights act for charity and social enterprise, and launch a bold and ongoing national ad campaign to upgrade public literacy about giving.

Grounded in Pallotta's unorthodox vision and deep humanitarian sector experience, "Charity Case" is a passionate wake-up call for all of us--whether we work in the philanthropic sector, contribute time or money to critical causes, or believe in the need for quantum progress on social challenges--to transcend the culture that undermines our charities' ability to make change happen.

"An Apollo program for American philanthropy and the nonprofit sector." --Robert F. Kennedy Jr.[Less]

How the Neighborhood Church Is Transforming the Faith. Named one of "Publishers Weeklys" Best Religion Books of 2006, this firsthand account explores the grassroots phenomenon of church life to...[More]

How the Neighborhood Church Is Transforming the Faith. Named one of "Publishers Weeklys" Best Religion Books of 2006, this firsthand account explores the grassroots phenomenon of church life today, showing how neighborhood churches are not only surviving but thriving.

For decades the accepted wisdom has been that America's mainline Protestant churches are in decline, eclipsed by evangelical mega-churches. Church and religion expert Diana Butler Bass wondered if this was true, and this book is the result of her extensive, three-year study of centrist and progressive churches across the country. Her surprising findings reveal just the opposite--that many of the churches are flourishing, and they are doing so without resorting to mimicking the mega-church, evangelical style.

"Christianity for the Rest of Us" describes this phenomenon and offers a how-to approach for Protestants eager to remain faithful to their tradition while becoming a vital spiritual community. As Butler Bass delved into the rich spiritual life of various Episcopal, United Methodist, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, and Lutheran churches, certain consistent practices--such as hospitality, contemplation, diversity, justice, discernment, and worship--emerged as core expressions of congregations seeking to rediscover authentic Christian faith and witness today.

This hopeful book, which includes a study guide for groups and individuals, reveals the practical steps that leaders and laypeople alike are taking to proclaim an alternative message about an emerging Christianity that strives for greater spiritual depth and proactively engages the needs of the world.[Less]