In Saints vs. Scoundrels Dr. Benjamin Wiker invites you to interact not just with the ideas that have shaped history, but with the people who created and spread those ideas. In this collection of lively and imaginative conversations between the great truth-tellers and the great error-peddlers of history, you will come to appreciate the personalities behind the “Great Conversation” that has shaped western civilization. Jean-Jacques Rousseau vs. St. Augustine. Machiavelli vs. St. Francis. Ayn Rand vs. Flannery O’Connor. These people may have never met in real life, but the ideas they represent and the movements they started have interacted throughout history and shaped our present. And so how fascinating would it be if they had ever shared a living room? This is the question Dr. Wiker answers with deep research and dynamic storytelling. Enjoy this unique opportunity to join the conversation!

Swamiji, a Hindu holy man, is the central character of Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels. He reclines in a deck chair in his modern apartment in western India, telling subtle and entertaining folk narratives to his assorted gatherings. Among the listeners is Kirin Narayan, who knew Swamiji when she was a child in India and who has returned from America as an anthropologist. In her book Narayan builds on Swamiji's tales and his audiences' interpretations to ask why religious teachings the world over are so often couched in stories. For centuries, religious teachers from many traditions have used stories to instruct their followers. When Swamiji tells a story, the local barber rocks in helpless laughter, and a sari-wearing French nurse looks on enrapt. Farmers make decisions based on the tales, and American psychotherapists take notes that link the storytelling to their own practices. Narayan herself is a key character in this ethnography. As both a local woman and a foreign academic, she is somewhere between participant and observer, reacting to the nuances of fieldwork with a sensitivity that only such a position can bring. Each story s reproduced in its evocative performance setting. Narayan supplements eight folk narratives with discussions of audience participation and response as well as relevant Hindu themes. All these stories focus on the complex figure of the Hindu ascetic and so sharpen our understanding of renunciation and gurus in South Asia. While Storytellers, Saints, and Scoundrels raises provocative theoretical issues, it is also a moving human document. Swamiji, with his droll characterizations, inventive mind, and generous spirit, is a memorable character. The book contributes to a growing interdisciplinary literature on narrative. It will be particularly valuable to students and scholars of anthropology, folklore, performance studies, religions, and South Asian studies.

Have you ever asked yourself what Gods plan is for your life? Brian Gingles explores the extraordinary claims the Bible makes, about the wonderful poem God wants to fashion out of your life, if you are willing to cooperate with Him. Transformed encourages you to discover how this can happen. It also seeks biblical answers to questions such as: What was Gods original intention for humanity? Did the fall of mankind destroy that plan? How can God heal our emotions and renew our minds? What are some of the key big, dangerous ideas that currently oppose biblical teaching? What part do tests, trials, and suffering play in our lives? What about the mystery of death? What is Gods ultimate plan for you? Becoming a better, more purposeful, and focused individual is possible, with the help of the Holy Spirit. God has a much more exciting ambition for you than you might have fully realised. He wants to make you like Christ. Learn what the Bible has to say about Gods extraordinary love for mankind and His wonderful grace in taking the unpromising chrysalises of our lives, to transform them into something free, clean, and beautiful in His eyes. Is it possible that God can change you from one degree of glory to another? Discussion questions at the end of Transformed offer the opportunity for further study. We will also see that Gods plans for us do not end with the death of our mortal bodies. See how we will be changed forever when Christ returns!

The notorious “Devil Duke” of Huntington needs a woman—and not just any woman. His fortune depends on him wooing one of the most eccentric bluestockings of the ton within the month, or else he can kiss his hard-earned wealth goodbye. Which is a challenge for any gentleman, let alone one who believes that love is a wasted emotion and marriage (at best) an inconvenience. So it’s hardly a surprise that Lady Sophie Wolcott seems unmoved by his charms and attention... Sophie’s beloved orphanage is in imminent danger, and she will do anything to save it. Even if it means marrying a ruthless rake who takes what he wants in business and in pleasure. But while the Devil Duke is everything Sophie’s always feared, she can’t quite resist just how much she yearns for the scoundrel’s very touch... But the duke has enemies. And as a malevolent shadow from the duke’s past emerges, Sophie’s life—and heart—may depend on the devil she knows. Each book in the Saints & Scoundrels series is STANDALONE: * The Devilish Duke * The Elusive Earl * The Sinful Scot

If the word trinity isn’t in Scripture, why is it such an important part of our faith? And if the Bible can be interpreted in many ways, how do we know what to make of it? And who decided what should be in the Bible anyway? The Church Fathers provide the answers. These brilliant, embattled, and sometimes eccentric men defined the biblical canon, hammered out the Creed, and gave us our understanding of sacraments and salvation. It is they who preserved for us the rich legacy of the early Church. D’Ambrosio dusts off the dry theology and brings you the exciting stories and great heroes such as Ambrose, Augustine, Basil, Athanasius, Chrysostom, and Jerome. This page-turner will inspire and challenge you with the lives and insights of these seminal teachers from when the Church was young.

The story of Jesus includes all kinds of characters. Some see these people as mere examples to follow or to avoid, and some have only heard about them in Sunday school stories. But their interactions with Jesus reveal much more about the person of Jesus himself and the message he has for us. Saints and Scoundrels in the Story of Jesus tells the story of 10 people or groups of people who are integral to the story of Jesus told in the Gospels. Each chapter takes a character off the Sunday school felt board and reveals them as a three-dimensional person with desires, motivations, flaws, and limitations. They are more than examples—they show us a unique angle on the grace available through Jesus for sinners. Each chapter also offers challenging applications to the lives of readers.

Corpus Christi When the mortal remains of Christ are found in a disused Irish monastery, the Universal Catholic Church will stop at nothing to prevent their discovery from the public eye while an equally determined former Irish Republican Volunteer and his first love will allow no barrier to stand in the way of the truth even while being pursued by the deadly ruthless Miles Dei. Weaving through the beautiful Irish countryside, the great European cities of London, Belfast, Dublin, Rome, and Geneva as well as some of the most breathtaking scenery in Europe, Corpus Christi is a buckle-up ride from start to finish, moving seamlessly from the time of Christ through the formative years of Northern Ireland's Troubles to contemporary times. Beginning with a shocking discovery, it continues with a pulsating middle and finishes with an end that satisfies.

"Muneera Haeri recounts the lives of six early Sufis of the Chishti order. She writes for readers who are interested in sufism, leading them to the heart of the matter via a picturesque route which traverses a landscape of ardour and devotion studded with historical facts and folk lore. This book can prove to be a feast for the trusting reader who is not blocked by cynicism in his quest for spirituality."--BOOK JACKET.