In God and Man in Tehran, Hossein Kamaly explores the historical processes that have made and unmade contending visions of God in Iran’s capital throughout the past two hundred years. Kamaly examines how ideas of God have been mobilized, contested, and transformed, emphasizing how notions of the divine have given shape to and in turn have been shaped by divergent conceptualizations of nature, reason, law, morality, and authority. The book analyzes official government policies, modern textbooks, and university curricula; popular beliefs and ritual practices; and philosophical and juridical attitudes toward theological questions in traditional institutions. Kamaly considers continuity and change in religiosity under the Qajar and Pahlavi dynasties; the significance of outbreaks of messianic expectations; why a modernizing nation took a sudden turn toward state religiosity; and how the Islamic Republic deploys visions of God against foreign enemies and domestic critics. Beyond the majority Shia Muslim population, the book includes minority and suppressed voices. With a focus on the diversity of ideas of the divine, God and Man in Tehran offers a novel perspective on the intellectual movements that have shaped Iranian modernity.

If any apology be needed for adding another to the various lives of Christ already before the public, it may be well to state how far this little book occupies any independent ground of its own. The object of the writer has been to make some small contribution to the moral and spiritual history of the Life of lives, and this in some especial relation to missionary work and the contact of Christianity with non-Christian religions... From the Preface

Is our Christianity that of the New Testament? "God and men and their relation to each other—this I believe to be all that really matters in the world, and that is what I have written about here." —A. W. Tozer Like a physician running a biopsy on lifeless faith, here A. W. Tozer offers one of the most compelling critiques of feigned spirituality you may ever read. In Of God and Men, Tozer exposes false religious notions and lifts up true New-Testament Christianity. A loving and gentle critique of culture and even the church, it reveals lies we unknowingly believe, godless practices we unknowingly do, and treasures of Christ we unknowingly ignore. A manifesto of true religion, Of God and Men will set your foot on the narrow path and lift your heart in soaring worship.

What if you were to discover that you were only one half of a whole—that you had a divine double? In the second and third centuries CE, Charles Stang shows, this idea gripped the religious imagination of the Eastern Mediterranean, offering a distinctive understanding of the self that has survived in various forms down to the present.

Infanticide. Holy war. Divine wrath. Violence in the Old Testament has long been a stumbling block for Christians and skeptics alike. Yet conventional efforts to understand this violence-whether by downplaying it as allegory or a relic of primitive cultures, or by dismissing the authority of Scripture altogether-tend to raise more questions than they answer. God Is a Man of War offers a fresh interpretation of Old Testament accounts of violence by exploring them through the twofold lens of Orthodox tradition and historical context. Father Stephen De Young examines what these difficult passages reveal about the nature of Christ and His creation, bearing witness to a world filled not only with pain and suffering-often of human making-but also with the love of God.

What happens when the meaning of life based on a divine revelation no longer makes sense? Does the quest for transcendence end in the pursuit of material success and self-absorption? Luc Ferry argues that modernity and the emergence of secular humanism in Europe since the eighteenth century have not killed the search for meaning and the sacred, or even the idea of God, but rather have transformed both through a dual process: the humanization of the divine and the divinization of the human. Ferry sees evidence for the first of these in the Catholic Church's attempts to counter the growing rejection of dogmatism and to translate the religious tradition into contemporary language. The second he traces to the birth of modern love and humanitarianism, both of which demand a concern for others and even self-sacrifice in defense of values that transcend life itself. Ferry concludes with a powerful statement in favor of what he calls "transcendental humanism"—a concept that for the first time in human history gives us access to a genuine spirituality rooted in human beings instead of the divine.

Revised version of the author's thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Chicago, 2009.

A Breakthrough in Healing, Forgiveness and Reconciliation Between Men and Women I have been looking a long time to find a way to bring healing and reconciliation between women and men here in South Africa. This work is the answer. We need much more of this work in South Africa. – Nozizwe Madlala Routledge, Deputy Minister of Health and Member of Parliament, South Africa Will Keepin’s pioneering, passionate, deeply thoughtful work has been on the cutting edge for years. Now his book gives us all access to his profound insights and effective methods. This is crucial work. – Andrew Harvey, author of twenty books, including Son of Man and The Direct Path This is the first workshop I have experienced that fully integrates educational and spiritual components in a balanced manner. – Ela Gandhi, founding director of Satyagraha Center, Durban, South Africa; granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi That rarest of books – it challenges and changes your mind, but only after it penetrates your heart. – Peter Rutter, M.D., Jungian psychiatrist, author of Sex in the Forbidden Zone and Understanding and Preventing Sexual Harassment An extraordinary contribution to fostering gender reconciliation ... practical and empowering. – Angeles Arrien, Ph.D., cultural anthropologist, author of The Four-Fold Way and The Second Half of Life [The] profound crisis in relations between men and women in today’s world causes enormous suffering ... Divine Duality is an extraordinary and groundbreaking book ... that holds great promise as a way to its alleviation. – Stanislav Grof, M.D., author of Psychology of the Future and The Ultimate Journey