Eros is the passionate energy that makes us one with the beautiful other, with a leper, with the world of nature waiting to be embraced and cared for, with our neighbor, the stranger, with God. The Whiteheads explore this vital energy of love as the gift of a Creator madly in love with his creation a God who would bring us to life in abundance if we only say "Yes." They discuss Eros in the movements of our sexuality, as well as in our arousals of compassion and care. They examine the Eros of pleasure and of generosity. They honor the Eros of hope, of anger, of suffering. They reveal that Eros has a Source far deeper than lust, and is a pathway to a passionate God. Holy Eros recovers this fundamental energy of love as a powerful resource in the revitalization of Christian spirituality. Unlike most books on the topic it eschews easy clichs. Its reader benefit is to understand and appreciate an energy that can heal as well as hinder and to tap into its positive force.

Two innovative spiritual teachers show how to use desire and passion—eros—as a gateway to realizing our fullest potential What do desire and passion have to do with our spiritual journey? According to A. H. Almaas and Karen Johnson, they are an essential part of it. Conventional wisdom cautions that desire and passion are opposed to the spiritual path—that engaging in desire will take you more into the world, into egoic life. And for most people, that is exactly what happens. We naturally tend to experience wanting in a self-centered way. The Power of Divine Eros challenges the view that the divine and the erotic are separate. When we open to the energy, aliveness, spontaneity, and zest of erotic love, we will find it inseparable from the realm of the holy and sacred. When this is understood, desire and passion become a gateway to wholeness and to realizing our full potential. Through guided exercises, the authors reveal how our relationships become opportunities on the spiritual journey to express ourselves authentically, to relate with openness, and to discover dynamic inner realms with another person. Through embodying the energy of eros, each of us can learn to be fully real and alive in all of our interactions.

In John Paul II's Theology of the Body, the sexed human body speaks a language revealing God's creative design and heralding humanity's ultimate goal in the nuptial union of Christ and the Church. In a similar way, the Church, the body of Christ, anticipates her future nuptial union with Christ here and now through the "body language" of her public worship. Holy Eros combines insights from the great Pope's theology of the body with traditional and contemporary liturgical studies, allowing each to shed light on the other. It shows how the various rituals of the Church, and the "shape" proper to the liturgical gathering, engage us as performative, physical enactments which actuate the spiritual and divine realities they signify, making heavenly marriage real on earth. "Inspired by the work of St. John Paul II, Adam Cooper succeeds in uncovering new and profound meanings in both liturgy and theology of the body." -- David L. Schindler, author of Ordering Love "Drawing together metaphysical, semiotic, and theological reflection, Adam Cooper's eloquent book shows us what the best of the new generation of Ressourcement theology looks like." -- Matthew Levering, author of The Theology of Augustine "This little book is brimming with profound insights, which carry one gracefully into the heart of the Church's liturgy." -- D.C. Schindler, author of The Catholicity of Reason "Those with an interest in liturgy and the theology of St. John Paul II will find Holy Eros to be an exciting contribution to both fields." -- Tracey Rowland, author of Culture and the Thomist Tradition

An enquiry into the sacramental theology of Chauvet, Heidegger and Benedict XVI.

We live in a wired world where 24/7 digital connectivity is increasingly the norm. Christian megachurch communities often embrace this reality wholeheartedly while more traditional churches often seem hesitant and overwhelmed by the need for an interactive website, a Facebook page and a twitter feed. This book accepts digital connectivity as our reality, but presents a vision of how faith communities can utilize technology to better be the body of Christ to those who are hurting while also helping followers of Christ think critically about the limits of our digital attachments. This book begins with a conversion story of a non-cell phone owning, non-Facebook using religion professor judgmental of the ability of digital tools to enhance relationships. A stage IV cancer diagnosis later, in the midst of being held up by virtual communities of support, a conversion occurs: this religion professor benefits in embodied ways from virtual sources and wants to convert others to the reality that the body of Christ can and does exist virtually and makes embodied difference in the lives of those who are hurting. The book neither uncritically embraces nor rejects the constant digital connectivity present in our lives. Rather it calls on the church to a) recognize ways in which digital social networks already enact the virtual body of Christ; b) tap into and expand how Christ is being experienced virtually; c) embrace thoughtfully the material effects of our new augmented reality, and c) influence utilization of technology that minimizes distraction and maximizes attentiveness toward God and the world God loves.

Ronald Rolheiser makes sense of what is frequently a misunderstood word: spirituality. In posing the question "What is spirituality?" Father Rolheiser gets quickly to the heart of common difficulties with the subject, and shows through compelling anecdotes and personal examples how to channel that restlessness, that deep desire, into a healthy spirituality. This book is for those searching to understand what Christian spirituality means and how to apply it to their own lives. Rolheiser explains the nonnegotiables--the importance of community worship, the imperatives surrounding social action, the centrality of the Incarnation, the sustenance of the spiritual life--and how spirituality necessarily impacts every aspect of human experience. At the core of this readable, deeply revealing book is an explanation of God and the Church in a world that more often than not doubts the credibility of both.

Within the past twenty years, contemporary Pagan leaders, progressive Christian and Goddess theologians, advocates for queer and BDSM communities, and therapeutic bodyworkers have all begun to speak forcefully about the sacredness of the body and of touch. Many assert that the erotic is a divinely transformative force, both for personal development and for social change. Although "the erotic" includes sexuality, it is not limited to it; access to connected nonsexual touch is as profound a need as that for sexual freedom and health. In this book, Christine Hoff Kraemer brings together an academic background in religious studies and theology with lived experience as a professional bodyworker and contemporary Pagan practitioner. Arguing that the erotic is a powerful moral force that can ground a system of ethics, Kraemer integrates approaches from queer theology, therapeutic bodywork, and sexual minority advocacy into a contemporary Pagan religious framework. Addressing itself to liberal religious people of many faiths, Eros and Touch from a Pagan Perspective approaches the right to pleasure as a social justice issue and proposes a sacramental practice of mindful, consensual touch.

NOT ALL WOMEN ARE SUBMISSIVE… Ava Archer had everything a woman could ever desire. She was beautiful, rich, sociable, and free to do whatever she wanted between the sheets. Her job was easier than breathing when she worked as an assistant for her old man. Ava got everything she wanted and was used to getting her own way… Until she met Nathaniel Brooks. Order and control were all that Nate knew when he was a managing partner of the prestigious law firm Archer and Brooks. When his business partner takes ill, he must leave his comfortable Manhattan branch and tend to the firm in London. He didn’t foresee this change being problematic but then again… He hadn’t yet met his fiery and tenacious assistant, Ava Archer. In a battle for dominance, Ms. Archer would need to fall in line if she were to work under Mr. Brooks but there was just one problem: not all women are submissive. When the clock strikes five, both would soon realise the difficulty in keeping things business as usual behind office doors… Will Nate be able to maintain control over his heart? Will Ava lose everything when she learns that for a lawyer, deception is their art? ​​​​​​​ ____________________ BY DEBUT ROMANCE AUTHOR HOLLY DIXON ★★★★★ "You'll gasp, you'll moan, you may even shed a tear or two like I did!" ★★★★★ “If you're looking for a spicy romance with hilarity for pages and pages, this is the book for you!” ★★★★★ "Read at your own caution it will start an obsession. You have been warned!" ★★★★★ "Illicit Affairs is fabulous! This is not an exaggeration. This book is SO good!" ★★★★★ "You'll laugh from chapter one, bite your lip by chapter thirty and cry when it's all over!" ★★★★★ "Sexy, sultry, heart-racing, unique and exciting!"

Bringing contemporary philosophers, theologians, and psychoanalysts into dialogue with works of art and literature, this work provides a fresh perspective on how humans can make sense of suffering and finitude and how our existence as sexual beings shapes our relations to one another and the divine. It attempts to establish a connection between carnal, bodily love and humanity’s relation to the divine. Relying on the works of philosophers such as Manoussakis, Kearney, and Marion and psychoanalysts such as Freud and Lacan, this book provides a possible answer to these fundamental questions and fosters further dialogue between thinkers and scholars of these different fields. The author analyzes why human sexuality implies both perversion and perfection and why it brings together humanity’s baseness and beatitude. Through it, the author taps once more into the dark mystery of Eros and Thanatos who, to paraphrase Dostoevsky, forever struggle with God on the battlefield of the human heart. This book is written primarily for scholars interested in the fields of philosophical psychology, existential philosophy, and philosophy of religion