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Author: Gary Scott Smith Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199830703 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 356
Book Description
Does heaven exist? If so, what is it like? And how does one get in? Throughout history, painters, poets, philosophers, pastors, and many ordinary people have pondered these questions. Perhaps no other topic captures the popular imagination quite like heaven. Gary Scott Smith examines how Americans from the Puritans to the present have imagined heaven. He argues that whether Americans have perceived heaven as reality or fantasy, as God's home or a human invention, as a source of inspiration and comfort or an opiate that distracts from earthly life, or as a place of worship or a perpetual playground has varied largely according to the spirit of the age. In the colonial era, conceptions of heaven focused primarily on the glory of God. For the Victorians, heaven was a warm, comfortable home where people would live forever with their family and friends. Today, heaven is often less distinctively Christian and more of a celestial entertainment center or a paradise where everyone can reach his full potential. Drawing on an astounding array of sources, including works of art, music, sociology, psychology, folklore, liturgy, sermons, poetry, fiction, jokes, and devotional books, Smith paints a sweeping, provocative portrait of what Americans-from Jonathan Edwards to Mitch Albom-have thought about heaven.
Author: T. M. Allen Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers ISBN: 1498243142 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 249
Book Description
Popular culture continues to search the depths of the poetic imagination concerning heaven. It seems to be a constant theme in literature, film, and music, spanning genres throughout the Western world. Yet, some contemporary scholars suggest that all of these narratives are somewhat misguided and remain, at best, only partial constructions of a proper eschatology. The creative imagination in popular culture, especially in relation to the arts has often carried a less-than-trustworthy role in theology and philosophy. Heaven and the Popular Imagination analyzes a number of approaches within the theology of culture conversation to suggest that a hermeneutic of popular imagery can open up new horizons for understanding and challenging the role heaven plays in Christian theology. From ancient literature to popular music and films, heaven is part of the framework of our ecumenical imagining about beginnings and endings. Such a hermeneutic must encompass an interdisciplinary approach to theology.
Author: Jacques E. LaFrance Publisher: Readersmagnet LLC ISBN: Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Have you wondered what a loved one is like in Heaven? Have you wondered whether you will actually enjoy life there? Do you wonder if your favorite pet will be there? There are many books telling what the Bible tells us about heaven and some books where the author claims to have been there. This book is a composite overview of details of heaven from fifty published eyewitness testimonies of heaven. All of these testimonies are combined with regard to many facets of heaven and are presented side by side to give a more complete picture of each detail of heaven than any single eyewitness account gives. As a result, this book's description of heaven is more direct, detailed, and extensive than that of any other book. Because so many testimonies are considered, the consistencies in these accounts give support for their authenticity. Since different people see things differently, this book gives a more accurate picture than any one person's experience can give. Prepare to be abundantly blessed and given a new perspective on this life in view of what is coming.
Author: Michael Ward Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199740933 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 655
Book Description
For over half a century, scholars have laboured to show that C. S. Lewis's famed but apparently disorganised Chronicles of Narnia have an underlying symbolic coherence, pointing to such possible unifying themes as the seven sacraments, the seven deadly sins, and the seven books of Spenser's Faerie Queene. None of these explanations has won general acceptance and the structure of Narnia's symbolism has remained a mystery. Michael Ward has finally solved the enigma. In Planet Narnia he demonstrates that medieval cosmology, a subject which fascinated Lewis throughout his life, provides the imaginative key to the seven novels. Drawing on the whole range of Lewis's writings (including previously unpublished drafts of the Chronicles), Ward reveals how the Narnia stories were designed to express the characteristics of the seven medieval planets - - Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Luna, Mercury, Venus, and Saturn - - planets which Lewis described as "spiritual symbols of permanent value" and "especially worthwhile in our own generation". Using these seven symbols, Lewis secretly constructed the Chronicles so that in each book the plot-line, the ornamental details, and, most important, the portrayal of the Christ-figure of Aslan, all serve to communicate the governing planetary personality. The cosmological theme of each Chronicle is what Lewis called 'the kappa element in romance', the atmospheric essence of a story, everywhere present but nowhere explicit. The reader inhabits this atmosphere and thus imaginatively gains connaître knowledge of the spiritual character which the tale was created to embody. Planet Narnia is a ground-breaking study that will provoke a major revaluation not only of the Chronicles, but of Lewis's whole literary and theological outlook. Ward uncovers a much subtler writer and thinker than has previously been recognized, whose central interests were hiddenness, immanence, and knowledge by acquaintance.
Author: Paul B. Sturtevant Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1786733579 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 320
Book Description
It is often assumed that those outside of academia know very little about the Middle Ages. But the truth is not so simple. Non-specialists in fact learn a great deal from the myriad medievalisms - post-medieval imaginings of the medieval world - that pervade our everyday culture. These, like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones, offer compelling, if not necessarily accurate, visions of the medieval world. And more, they have an impact on the popular imagination, particularly since there are new medievalisms constantly being developed, synthesised and remade. But what does the public really know? How do the conflicting medievalisms they consume contribute to their knowledge? And why is this important? In this book, the first evidence-based exploration of the wider public's understanding of the Middle Ages, Paul B. Sturtevant adapts sociological methods to answer these important questions. Based on extensive focus groups, the book details the ways - both formal and informal - that people learn about the medieval past and the many other ways that this informs, and even distorts, our present. In the process, Sturtevant also sheds light, in more general terms, onto the ways non-specialists learn about the past, and why understanding this is so important. The Middle Ages in Popular Imagination will be of interest to anyone working on medieval studies, medievalism, memory studies, medieval film studies, informal learning or public history.
Author: Randy Alcorn Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. ISBN: 1414345674 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 548
Book Description
Over 1 Million Copies Sold! Have you ever wondered . . . ? What is Heaven really going to be like? What will we look like? What will we do every day? Won’t Heaven get boring after a while? We all have questions about what Heaven will be like, and after twenty-five years of extensive research, Dr. Randy Alcorn has the answers. In the most comprehensive and definitive book on Heaven to date, Randy invites you to picture Heaven the way Scripture describes it—a bright, vibrant, and physical New Earth, free from sin, suffering, and death, and brimming with Christ’s presence, wondrous natural beauty, and the richness of human culture as God intended it. This is a book about real people with real bodies enjoying close relationships with God and each other, eating, drinking, working, playing, traveling, worshiping, and discovering on a New Earth. Earth as God created it. Earth as he intended it to be. The next time you hear someone say, “We can’t begin to image what Heaven will be like,” you’ll be able to tell them, “I can.” “Other than the Bible itself, this may well be the single most life-changing book you’ll ever read.” —Stu Weber “This is the best book on Heaven I’ve ever read.” —Rick Warren “Randy Alcorn’s thorough mind and careful pen have produced a treasury about Heaven that will inform my own writing for years to come.” —Jerry B. Jenkins “Randy does an awesome job of answering people’s toughest questions about what lies on the other side of death.” —Joni Eareckson Tada About the Author Randy Alcorn is an author and the founder and director of Eternal Perspective Ministries, a nonprofit ministry dedicated to teaching principles of God’s Word and assisting the church in ministering to unreached, unfed, unborn, uneducated, unreconciled, and unsupported people around the world. A New York Times bestselling author of over 50 books, including Heaven, The Treasure Principle, If God Is Good, Happiness, and the award-winning novel Safely Home, his books sold exceed eleven million copies and have been translated into over seventy languages.
Author: James Paul Publisher: Inter-Varsity Press ISBN: 1789742226 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 179
Book Description
What happens to us when we die? Will heaven be a place of fluffy clouds, angels and cherubs playing harps? Is the Christian faith just about securing a place in heaven when we die? In What on Earth is Heaven? James Paul explores the radical truth of what the Bible says about heaven and the afterlife, and its relevance for your life here and now on earth. Unpacking the biblical story of the separation and reunion of heaven and earth, he shows that heaven isn't a place somewhere 'out there' but a dimension of reality - the dimension where God's will is done. The Good News isn't that we get to escape to heaven, but that God invites us to be a part of his plan to bring the kingdom of heaven to our square inch of the earth. Insightful and accessible, What on Earth is Heaven? is a book for anyone wanting a deeper understanding of the Bible's teaching on heaven, or anyone who has wondered about the true meaning of finding heaven on earth. Life-affirming and uplifting, this book will fire your imagination as to how you can be a part of bringing heaven to the world around you.
Author: Chip Ingram Publisher: Baker Books ISBN: 1493401548 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 159
Book Description
Heaven has received a lot of attention in recent years as bestselling books and movies have told the stories of people who claim to have been there. But what does the Bible actually say about heaven? What difference does it make? What happens the moment after we die? What will our relationships be like in heaven? Chip Ingram sets aside the hype and myths and digs into the Scriptures to discover what God actually wants us to know about the hereafter. Most importantly, Ingram shows why our understanding of heaven matters now, in this life. Because what we believe about heaven actually affects us today in ways we may not have imagined.
Author: Timothy Radcliffe Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1472970225 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 433
Book Description
How can Christianity touch the imagination of our contemporaries when ever fewer people in the West identify as religious? Timothy Radcliffe argues we must show how everything we believe is an invitation to live fully. God says: 'I put before you life and death: choose life'. Anyone who understands the beauty and messiness of human life – novelists, poets, filmmakers and so on – can be our allies, whether they believe or not. The challenge is not today's secularism but its banality. We accompany the disciples as they struggle to understand this strange man who heals, casts out demons and offers endless forgiveness. In the face of death, he teaches them what it means to be alive in God. Then he embraces all that afflicts and crushes humanity. Finally, Radcliffe explores what it means for us to be alive spiritually, physically, sacramentally, justly and prayerfully. The result is a compelling new understanding of the words of Jesus: 'I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.'
Author: Malcolm Guite Publisher: Canterbury Press ISBN: 1786222647 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 116
Book Description
Poet's Corner is Malcolm Guite's delectable column that appears on the back page of the Church Times each week. This second collection brings together more than seventy columns created from little glimpses and reflections from all corners of the country, the musings of a poet's mind, and the corners and alleyways of our literary heritage. Malcolm's lucid, perceptive and imaginative columns follow a similar pattern to the sonnets for which he is so renowned, with a sense of development, of a turn or volta part way through, and a sense that the end revisits and re-reads the opening.
Author: Gary Scott Smith
Author: T. M. Allen
Author: Jacques E. LaFrance
Author: Michael Ward
Author: Paul B. Sturtevant
Author: Randy Alcorn
Author: James Paul
Author: Chip Ingram
Author: Randy Alcorn
Author: Timothy Radcliffe
Author: Malcolm Guite