Life can seemingly be fine on the surface. But for any of us who scratch that surface, we recognize anxiety, shame, disappointment, and regret. And yet, in the depths of these feelings, in the things we hate about ourselves, others, and this world, we can invite Gods presence. This is the essence of holy vulnerability. To enter into holy vulnerability is to intentionally expose our raw wounds so that God can heal and mend and transform us. What happens when we refuse this depth of healing? Something that author Kellye Fabian calls unholy leakagethat thing that happens when we are afraid, ashamed, or anxious, and instead of facing the reality of what were experiencing, we just spill it on everyone around us. Where is anxiety occupying our hearts and minds? Where is fear hindering our relationships and limiting our faith and joy? Where is shame causing us to question our self-worth? Is there another way? Yes. Holy Vulnerability unpacks six atypical, unexpected spiritual practices intended to open us to Gods healing and transformation. Through practices like laughter, community, and tangible engagement with creation, Kellye guides us to notice where brokenness is breaking into our lives. And as we intentionally seek God in the midst of these practicesas we step out in holy vulnerabilityGod will meet us there.

Lively essays of spiritual guidance tell the story of a woman's journey into solitude. With an earthy spirituality grounded in everyday family life, the author explores what it means to live a devout and holy life in our time. This is an engaging testimony to the compelling presence of God by a genuine Christian mystic. Reading Letters from the Holy Ground is learning to see God in all things. Building on the insight that "we are all platforms for the dancing God," this book invites us to be liberated by beauty and holiness. It is that presence of God which makes every place holy. Letters from the Holy Ground surprises and delights, encourages and uplifts, leading us to see with new eyes that holiness is all around.

Barry Harvey provides a doctrine of the church that combines Baptist distinctives and origins with an unbending commitment to the visible church as the social body of Christ. Speaking to the broader Christian community, Harvey updates, streamlines, and recontextualizes the arguments he made in an earlier edition of this book (Can These Bones Live?). This new edition offers a style of ecclesial witness that can help Christian churches engage culture. The author suggests new ways Baptists can engage ecumenically with Catholics and other Protestants, offers insights for Christian worship and practice, and shows how the fragmented body of Christ can be re-membered after Christendom.

One of the most persistent slogans of Reformed theology is that it is "reformed and always being reformed." But what does this slogan mean? This volume gathers thirteen essays written by a younger generation of Reformed theologians who teach and write on five different continents, who together offer this work in Christian systematic theology. Unlike many other works of Reformed theology, however, this book is framed by pressing contextual issues and questions (instead of traditional loci). Each chapter engages classical doctrine, but does so through the lens of contemporary, lived experience in particular contexts. The result is not a theology where doctrines are "applied" to contexts, but an approach where doctrine and context mutually shape one another. The contributors take seriously the notion that theology is "always being reformed" and is always partial, ever on the way--hence it requires conversation partners beyond the Reformed family of faith. The result is a study in Reformed theology that is thoroughly ecumenical.

The Enshrouded Lands ' an earth-like world where magic bubbles away beneath the surface, beyond the ken of the common folk ' may take so many forms that they really are a thousand worlds in one. This is the second rulebook for the Omnifray RPG. It continues on from the Basic Handbook, delving deeper into the mysterious fabric of the Enshrouded Lands, with detailed information on possible backgrounds for player characters and masses of material on an array of secretive cults. It presents the standard advanced rules for fantasy Omnifray in full. The complete Omnifray system awaits you. This book gives your PCs greater access to feats of physical energy and concentration as well as full access to feats of elder magic, unholy magic, holy magic, mystical power and destiny, downtime feats such as divination and herbalism and feats of combined physical energy and concentration. You must be familiar with the Basic Handbook to use this book. Omnifray is intended for a mature audience.

Joseph Sverker explores the division between social constructivism and a biologist essentialism by means of Christian theology. For this, Sverker uses a fascinating approach: He lets critical theorist Judith Butler, psycholinguist Steven Pinker, and systematic theologian Colin Gunton interact. While theology plays a central part to make the interaction possible, the context is also that of the school and the effect of institutions on the pupil as a human being and learner. In order to understand what underlies the division between nature and nurture, or biology and the social in school, Sverker develops new central concepts such as a kenotic personalism, a weak ontology of relationality, and a relational and performative reading of evolution. He argues that most fundamental for what it is to be human is the person, vulnerability, bodiliness, openness to the other, and dependence. Sverker concludes that the division between constructivism and essentialism discloses a deeper divide, namely that between fundamentally vulnerable persons on the one hand and constructed independent individuals on the other.

A Baptist theologian shows how all churches--including the free churches--will benefit from deeper roots in the broad, catholic Christian tradition.

The need for spiritual direction—or the accompaniment of a spiritual guide—is becoming more prominent in a world where so many are suffering from so many wounds. With a harmonious integration of both timeless spiritual wisdom from the Catholic Church’s tradition of prayer and direction, and the insight of the psychological sciences, Fathers Thomas Acklin and Boniface Hicks offer a comprehensive guide for all who provide or seek spiritual direction. Spiritual Direction: A Guide for Sharing the Father’s Love fortifies priests, religious, and lay faithful who embrace the ministry of spiritual direction and accompany the wounded, assist men and women in hearing the voice of God, and model the love and mercy of the Father for the many who are seeking Him but do not know Him or have false images of Him. This book also shows how various aspects of the spiritual life can emerge from and be fostered by a one-on-one relationship with a spiritual director. Together with concrete guidelines and numerous examples from personal experience, this book refers extensively to Sacred Scripture as the foundation for spiritual direction. Furthermore, since the practice of spiritual direction goes back to the first centuries of the Church, the authors turn for guidance to the Doctors of the Church, the writings of the saints, and the papal magisterium in developing and supporting their insights. Spiritual Direction will call spiritual directors to deeper holiness even as they assist others in growing closer to the Father through His loving gaze of mercy.

'Wisdom Songs' is a collection of five Centuries on the Holy Name, the Song of Songs, Holy Wisdom, the Mysteries of Glory and the Wisdom of Stillness.This ancient monastic wisdom genre was much loved by the desert fathers and hermits of old, nourishing saints and seers for hundreds of years. The crises of the environment, informational technology, interfaith and gender issues all call for wisdom. So it is no surprise to find orthodox wisdom offering ancient remedies to renew the living tradition in order to address the most urgent needs of our time. Priest-monk Silouan lives in the Monastery of St Antony and St Cuthbert, a hermitage within the Romanian jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church. He lives a life of prayer, silence, liturgy and work in the ancient tradition of Orthodox monasticism.