A Fresh Cup of Tolerance pioneers a coherent, practical theology of the burgeoning universalism movement. It builds on broad spiritual foundations from Native American, Asian, Neopagan, Judeo-Christian, and Islamic traditions. Pragmatic and straightforward, it addresses the most pressing global dilemmas of our time: environment, globalization, feminism and gender issues, religious strife, oppression, poverty, war, and prejudice. Theologically, it systematically explores our many views of God; good, evil, sin, and suffering; revelation; spirituality in the digital age; the spirit of love and community; and so on. However, it is not a pleasant treatise on love. It is a living, faith-in-action, theology free of rigid words (Scriptures), beliefs (dogma), or practices (rituals). With seven billion people on the planet, many more to come, cooperating and living (loving) together is a survival essential. In a crisis, our best nature surfaces—but we seem unable to sustain a sense of true community and compassion for more than a few CNN weeks at a time. It is a spiritual priority to seek a means to sustain a loving community for longer periods—whether within the family, the community, the larger society, or the world. A theology of universalism offers a pathway of hope.

Today’s counseling clients want more than traditional therapy. They want something new, bold, and effective, and A Fresh Cup of Counseling serves just that. While the power of clinical applications in spiritual counseling has long been discussed by field experts, little has been written about the subject—until now. Packed with theoretical and practical knowledge about this power, the book offers a breakthrough guide to spiritual counseling with ideas, training, and real-life case studies for students and professionals alike. Written by Rev. Dr. Tom Norris—a spiritual counselor and Universalist minister with fifty years of experience in social work, psychotherapy, group therapy, marriage and family therapy, and hypnotherapy—this book is a treasure trove of contemporary clinical and scientific knowledge, starting from a purely psychosocial and psychological perspective and diving into the evolution of the spiritual therapeutic discipline. In the process, it pulls from Buddhist, Judeo-Christian, Native American, Islamic, Yin Yang, Neopagan, Shamanic, Hindu, and other religions, using their practices and ideals (from past lives and chakra balancing to meditation and Ultraterrestrials) to demonstrate the power of spirituality in the holistic healing process. The result? A dynamic psycho-spiritual expedition that helps counselors and their clients unleash positive, lasting transformation.

How can people of diverse religious, historical, ethnic, and linguistic allegiances and identities live together without committing violence, inflicting suffering, or oppressing each other? Western civilization has long understood this dilemma as a question of toleration, yet the logic of toleration and the logic of multicultural rights entrenchment are two very different things. In this volume, contributors suggest we also think beyond toleration to mutual respect, practiced before the creation of modern multiculturalism in the West. Salman Rushdie reflects on the once mutually tolerant Sufi-Hindu culture of Kashmir. Ira Katznelson follows with an intellectual history of toleration as a layered institution in the West and councils against assuming we have transcended the need for such tolerance. Charles Taylor advances a new approach to secularism in our multicultural world, and Akeel Bilgrami responds by urging caution against making it difficult to condemn or make illegal dangerous forms of intolerance. The political theorist Nadia Urbanati explores why the West did not pursue Cicero’s humanist ideal of concord as a response to religious discord. The volume concludes with a refutation of the claim that toleration was invented in the West and is alien to non-Western cultures.

Rev. Canon Dr. Barclay Steadmore can’t help but put pen to paper in retirement. His new job with the Tangleville Mirror allows him to stir up controversy by posing thought-provoking theological questions to secular and religious audiences in his new series, “The Tangleville Chronicles.” With the encouragement of his wife, Faith, and the camaraderie of his friends—two retired priests and Tangleville’s newest town council member, Harry Sting—Dr. Steadmore works to push traditional Christian values into direct opposition with the twenty-first century’s fluctuating values. But where God leads us is not what anyone can ultimately predict. This dynamite conclusion to the Tangleville series will leave you challenged, spiritually renewed, and longing for more.

This book examines the potential statehood status of Black Americans in a post Obama period. It presents the condition that Black Americans find themselves from an engineering scientist perspective. Plausible alternative solutions for Black Americans are carefully critiqued with a rational narrowing process. A new option is put on the table that has to do with founding of a new organization known as International African American Workforce. This initiative, IAAW, represents an American workforce made up largely of Black Americans that have nation building skills conducive to engaging in large industrial projects. The IAAW Administration translates need of select African countries into an Industrial upgrade-for-Land project. Types of Industrial upgrades the company would administer in host African countries include: 1. Vocational Institutes 2. Manufacturing and assembly plant upgrades 3. Advanced Irrigation Systems 4. Process Plant Upgrades 5. Middle school to High school Upgrades 6. Electrical Power grid Upgrades African countries motivated to be a global competitor in the world economies of tomorrow stand to benefit from projects led by IAAW organization in Africa. These Black Americans, part of a group of 144,000, would bring a host of technical skills and know how to the country. Black Americans and a mix of other races in America are encouraged to join IAAW as the effects of Covid 19 and social racism cause further tension almost to the brinks of war.