Does the Bible really condemn same-sex relationships? Many Christians wrestle with this question. Here, in his compassionate, cogent book, David Runcorn outlines how someone can support same-sex relationships on the basis of the Bible, not in spite of it. The Church, in every time and place, finds itself working out the shock and surprise of God’s unfolding ways – often scandalized by where holiness, goodness and the life of God are to be found. Runcorn’s insightful and moving reflections show how speaking in gospel friendship will help to dispel the anxiety and division that have tended to mark the Church’s response to homosexuality. Covering sexual abstinence and celibacy, sexuality and the sacred, he leads us to one powerful conclusion: love means love. ‘Brim-full of gentle and clear wisdom. Highly recommended!’ PAUL BAYES, Bishop of Liverpool ‘Joyful, truthful, scandalously inclusive . . . This book will literally save lives. It opens the door of grace and beckons you in.’ NICK BUNDOCK, Rector of St James and Emmanuel, Didsbury ‘Liberates us to read our beloved Bible with faithfulness, both to the text and to the fruit of Christ we often see in LGBT+ lives. For a good number of us, it will be met with a cry of “at last!”’. JODY STOWELL, Vicar of St Michael’s Harrow and Chair of London Clergy

A memoir of a friendship with Michel Foucault that changed the author's life. “I loved Michel as Michel, not as a father. Never did I feel the slightest jealousy or the slightest embitterment or exasperation when it came to him. … I was intensely close to Michel for a full six years, until his death, and I lived in his apartment for close to a year. Today I see that time as the period that changed my life, my cut-off from a fate leading to the precipice. In no specific way I'm grateful to Michel, without knowing for exactly what, for a better life." —from Learning What Love Means In 1978, Mathieu Lindon met Michel Foucault. Lindon was twenty-three years old, part of a small group of jaded but innocent, brilliant, and sexually ambivalent friends who came to know Foucault. At first the nominal caretakers of Foucault's apartment on rue de Vaugirard when he was away, these young friends eventually shared their time, drugs, ambitions, and writings with the older Foucault. Lindon's friend, the late Herve Guibert, was a key figure within this group. The son of the renowned founder of Editions de Minuit, Lindon grew up with Marguerite Duras, Alain Robbe-Grillet, and Samuel Beckett as family friends. Much was expected of him. But, as he writes in this remarkable spiritual autobiography, it was through his friendship with Foucault—who was neither lover nor father but an older friend—that he found the direction that would influence the rest of his life. As Bruce Benderson writes in his introduction, “The book is a collage of free-associated episodes and interpretatons that together compose for the reader a kind of manual about how to love. … As he runs from apartment to apartment, job to job, or lover to lover, the book becomes a story of conversion testifying to an author's radical change of viewpoint, which leads to his invitation into the social world through lessons about love.” A brilliant meditation on friendship, Learning What Loves Means provides an insight into a part of Foucault's life and work that until now, remained unkown. The book won the prestigious Prix Médicis in 2011 when it was published in French.

A powerful debut about a young man whose denial of his past nearly destroys the new life he seeks Shaking off his hellish adolescence in a nowhere Nebraska town (and leaving a beloved younger sister to fend for herself in the same hostile environment), Seth McKenna escapes to make a new reality for himself as a struggling artist in Manhattan. When he falls hard for Jim Glaser, an alluring older man who is astonished to find in Seth the second love of his life, it seems simpler to gloss over his old life in Drinkwater and the history he used to have. Jim, who expected to remain alone forever, is happy to start over, too, and theirs becomes a tender, sexy romance. Although Seth seems to have successfully put his past behind him to become the man he wants to be---the kind of man Jim can cherish---his childhood rushes back unexpectedly and with a vengeance. When Seth's sister, Cassie, arrives in the city with significant secrets and plans of her own, Drinkwater's intractable demands force Seth to revisit his hidden past. What Jim learns about Seth's concealments threatens to destroy their new life together. An engrossing contemporary drama of family ties both imposed and chosen, What Love Means to You People presents an indelible, illuminating look at the survival of the human spirit through willful reinvention and the power of love. Advance Praise for What Love Means to You People "A powerful debut novel--smart, sexy, and highly readable. NancyKay Shapiro's characters are subtly observed and movingly human."--Regina McBride, author of The Marriage Bed "Profound and moving. Shapiro dares to reimagine suffering and takes us on a journey to love and back. Seth McKenna will get under your skin. I am touched."--Abha Dawesar, author of Babyji "NancyKay Shapiro's debut is a powerful and knowing look at what can happen to love when the past bubbles up into the present. Elegantly written, this is a moving and surprising novel that doesn't let you go."--Katharine Weber, author of The Little Women, The Music Lesson, and Objects in Mirror Are Closer Than They Appear

Explore the many facets of our most valued emotion Cardiologist and professor Armin Zadeh revisits psychologist Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving, a book that has fascinated him for decades. The Forgotten Art of Love examines love in its complex entirety — through the lenses of biology, philosophy, history, religion, sociology, and economics — to fill in critical voids in Fromm’s classic work and to provide a contemporary understanding of love. This unique and wide-ranging book looks at love’s crucial role in every aspect of human existence, exploring what love has to do with sex, spirituality, society, and the meaning of life; different kinds of love (for our children, for our neighbors); and whether love is a matter of luck or an art that can be mastered. Dr. Zadeh provides a fascinating, empowering guide to enhancing relationships and happiness — concluding with a provocative vision for firmly anchoring love in our society.

A Love Means... Story Geoff is in the city, living the gay life to the hilt, when his father's death convinces him to return to the family farm. Discovering a young Amish man asleep in his barn, Geoff learns that Eli is spending a year away from the community before accepting baptism into the church. Despite their mutual attraction, Geoff is determined not to become involved with him, but Eli has discovered that Geoff shares his feelings and begins to court him, neatly capturing first Geoff's attention and then his heart. Their budding relationship is threatened by closed-minded, gossipy relatives and the society at large, a whole new world to Eli, and he must decide whether to return to the community, his family, and the world and future he knows or to stay with Geoff and have faith in the power of love.

A New York Times bestseller and enduring classic, All About Love is the acclaimed first volume in feminist icon bell hooks' "Love Song to the Nation" trilogy. All About Love reveals what causes a polarized society, and how to heal the divisions that cause suffering. Here is the truth about love, and inspiration to help us instill caring, compassion, and strength in our homes, schools, and workplaces. “The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet we would all love better if we used it as a verb,” writes bell hooks as she comes out fighting and on fire in All About Love. Here, at her most provocative and intensely personal, renowned scholar, cultural critic and feminist bell hooks offers a proactive new ethic for a society bereft with lovelessness--not the lack of romance, but the lack of care, compassion, and unity. People are divided, she declares, by society’s failure to provide a model for learning to love. As bell hooks uses her incisive mind to explore the question “What is love?” her answers strike at both the mind and heart. Razing the cultural paradigm that the ideal love is infused with sex and desire, she provides a new path to love that is sacred, redemptive, and healing for individuals and for a nation. The Utne Reader declared bell hooks one of the “100 Visionaries Who Can Change Your Life.” All About Love is a powerful, timely affirmation of just how profoundly her revelations can change hearts and minds for the better.

Adoption Means Love: Triumph of the Heart is a powerful compilation of stories from people across the country and around the world, who have been personally touched by the miracle of adoption. The timely importance of this book cannot be overstated. Roughly 500,000 children are in U.S. Foster Care today. Millions more wait in orphanages around the world for their forever families. Each story, found within the pages of Adoption Means Love:Triumph of the Heart, reaches deep into the soul and compassionately uncovers the ribbons of truth that connect us all. Honestly and poignantly, the book celebrates the transformation and triumph that is adoption.

Charity Means Love lives up to every word of its title, a remarkable call to action for anyone who cares deeply about a cause. It was written with everyone who gives a damn in mind. Each paragraph takes you on a journey that leads to a solution. The pages will cause you to feel the pain described and smell the dust on the floor. When you are done, you'll be ready to pick up a broom and get to work!No matter whether you are just beginning in the world of nonprofit work or you are a veteran service provider, this book will sing to your heart and help you not feel so alone. Masterfully written to highlight every corner of the nonprofit world, Charity Means Love looks to be a unique call to action as our world faces new and unique challenges in the face of the postmodern age.Nathan Monk brings a fresh perspective for how to care in a way that is compassionate, loving, and wise. His first book, Chasing the Mouse, was designed to shine a light on the harsh realities of the daily struggles for those experiencing homelessness and poverty. This bold new book seeks to answer the question of how we can make an impactful difference in how we respond and give in crisis situations.Set within the framework of evaluating all charity work in the confines of the "Love Verse" First Corinthians 13, it poses the challenge to our outreach, asking us to self-examine if we are truly being patient, kind, slow to anger, and keeping no records of wrongs in how we reach out to others in their time of need.This is a manifesto that tells a unifying story: love is the answer to all the questions.

What could tear apart three generations of women in a Catholic family in 1991 Brooklyn, New York? Abortion. After becoming pregnant unexpectedly, Christy, a Juilliard student with plans to become an opera singer, decides to keep her abortion a secret. "Love Means Second Chances" provocatively explores themes of love and loss, yearning and abandonment, forgiveness and acceptance as mothers and daughters emerge from this crisis to find new beginnings.

If you've ever desired to more deeply connect with the Bible, or the God of the Bible, this book is for you! Sometimes we forget that the Bible is actually one cohesive Story. Instead, we use it as a manual for morality, view it as a string of disconnected stories, or consult it as a compilation of theological doctrines. But in Always Love, you'll rediscover the Bible's overarching narrative as themes are woven together revealing a seamless story from beginning to end. After following these themes through each major twist and turn, through difficult passages normally glossed over, through narrative, poetry, and ancient history, you won't read the Bible the same way again! And more than that, you'll be inspired to respond to God's Always Love for you and find your place in His Story. Always Love is accessible, engaging, illuminating. Sara takes the reader on a captivating journey through the Bible by employing a beautiful combination of creative prose and theological wisdom. And, whether you are new to the Scriptures or very familiar with them, a single chapter has the power to transform you. Jason Thomas - Executive Vice President, InterVarsity. Sara Lubbers has done a magnificent job of choosing key stories of the Bible and weaving them together with the thread of Always Love, resulting in a powerful and creative presentation of God's truth wrapped in refreshingly alive language. This is a gem not only for young readers of God's truth, but for those all of generations who retain an adventurous spirit and a love for God's Biblical narrative. Dr. Kate R. Pocklington - Serving in Leadership Development & Missional Formation. This is a fun and creative book! Sara tackles some both well-known and more obscure sections of the Bible and weaves them into the main storyline. It would be great for reading with children, but I think every adult Christian would benefit from it, too.Dusty Thompson - Lead Pastor at Redeemer Church in Lubbock, Texas. Sara Lubbers has written an extraordinary book about the story of salvation. Her unique and creative retelling of the old stories captures the imagination and refreshes the soul. I was challenged and encouraged by reading it and trust it will be a blessing to many of all ages and stages in their faith journey.T.J. MacLeslie - Author of Designed for Relationship (and other titles). In a time when people are asking hard questions about the character of God and how the Bible connects, Old to New, this is the book I will hand to my friends and seekers alike, with complete confidence. The timeless truth of the Gospel and the unwavering love of the Father weaves from story to story highlighting the reality that God is both just and love, and I believe readers will walk away with a greater understanding that from beginning to end, His love is always true, and that is Good News. Paige Allen - Executive Pastor of Outreach at Church on the Rock; Founder of Pursue Missions; Author of Road Signs. For the young reader, for anyone taking up the Bible for the first time, or for anyone familiar with a trove of Bible stories but unsure how they all connect to its central message, I highly commend Sara Lubbers' Always Love as a companion volume to Holy Writ. With skill and insight she weaves together key biblical moments into a coherent and seamless whole. She handles large portions of Biblical literature with remarkable concision, distilling each to the essential components necessary to drive the narrative forward. It's both imaginative and faithful to the biblical texts. In my view, it's greatest strength lies in its Christocentric focus, illustrating from the outset how Jesus, prefigured in every Old Testament story, is the fulfillment of God's plan to redeem the world, and highlighting how Christ's ministry in the New Testament is the attainment of every divine promise and the realization of every human longing... Leon Fillyaw-Associate Regional Director, I