We all encounter times of physical illness as well as of emotional, psychological, and spiritual distress and pain. We are all in need of healing-in every aspect of life. In this important new book, a physician specializing in preventive medicine integrates learnings from both science and religion to present a holistic approach to well being that is rooted in a new understanding of Christian principles-an approach that has already proven effective in countless lives. Using examples of people who have been healed, Dr. Bakken shows how stress (fear, anxiety, anger, guilt, depression, loneliness, and unforgiveness) contributes to disease, and how spiritual growth (perfect love casts out fear) promotes health, healing, and wholeness. Both practical and inspiring, The Call to Wholeness is at once a convincing synthesis of several disciplines and an authentic witness to the healing power of Jesus Christ. It demonstrates that God is the author, renewer, and sustainer of all life, and the ultimate source of all healing. It challenges individuals, the Church, and the medical establishment to expand their view of reality in the context of a Christ-centered spirituality that can bring true and lasting wholeness to each and all of us.

Vocation is most often linked with a specific calling for those in professional ministry. Doing More with Life explores the way higher education can expand this limited understanding of vocation. Specifically, this volume shows that higher education can clarify how God calls all people, allow mentoring across specific vocations, and inspire future generations to think of their lives as vocations.

Rather than reading the Catholic Epistles in isolation from each other--understanding their individual historical situations as the single, determinative context for their interpretation--this study argues that a proper understanding of these seven letters must equally attend to their collection and placement within the New Testament canon. Resisting the judgment of much of historical-critical analysis of the New Testament, namely, that the concept of canon actually obscures the meaning of these texts, it is the canonical process by which the texts were composed, redacted, collected, arranged, and fixed in a final canonical form that constitutes a necessary interpretive context for these seven letters. This study argues that through reception history and paratextual and compositional evidence one can discern a collection consciousness within the Catholic Epistles such that they should be read and interpreted as an intentional, discrete canonical sub-collection set within the New Testament. Furthermore, the work argues that such collection consciousness, though not necessarily in the preview of the original authors (being perhaps unforeseen, yet not unintended), is neither anachronistic to the meaning of the letters nor antagonistic to their composition.

“You people are angels!” This is how many respond to those who work in palliative care. How hospice care professionals manage the emotional tension of being surrounded by sick, dying, and grief-stricken people is unfathomable. Over her 20 years of work as a hospice counsellor, author Dr. Breiddal, has collected stories of how ordinary people face death and dying. In this living body of work she reveals the skills needed, along with the struggles and rewards of providing hospice care. Bridging memoir and creative nonfiction, she weaves together theory and practice in the service of the dying and their families. Breiddal aims to make the often-strange reality of death accessible through an intimate, raw, and realistic portrayal of the art of providing loving end-of-life care. Admittedly, being called to this work is to be pulled out of everyday life which requires a willingness to have one’s sense of safety and familiarity challenged: to be off-balance, to surrender to uncertainty, change, discomfort and growth. Encouraging a relational way to encounter mortality, she offers hope that caring for the dying and bereaved is a paradoxical opportunity to open up to life. By entwining her personal and professional experiences, the author presents a timely primer for readers who are facing the death of their loved ones, their own death, or are bereaved. Additionally, both those currently working in the field or considering a career in palliative care will find In the shadow of angels: Intimate stories from a hospice counsellor a fascinating read.

This book investigates the lived experience of CEOs in their quest for wholeness and presents a model of spiritual intelligence for contemporary leadership. The experience of ethical and spiritual crisis in the post-modern society especially in organizational leadership, calls for deeper quest and spiritual intelligence. Four essential themes emerged from the analysis of the in-depth interviews with top leaders of different organizations across the globe: (1) Sensing Crisis, (2) Embracing Crisis (3) Awakening Hidden Wholeness, (4) and Serving Greater Good. From the analysis of the themes, a model of spiritual intelligence and leadership wholeness is constructed. This Spiritual Intelligence Model portrays the intra-dynamics of leaders’ ongoing quest for wholeness penetrating through their existential, learning, spiritual, and moral dimensions of being and the five ethical dimensions of wholeness permeating through the personal, organizational, social, global, and environmental spheres of life. This book gives a fresh perspective on spiritual intelligence and leadership practice today.

The Sermon on the Mount, one of the most influential portions of the Bible, is the most studied and commented upon portion of the Christian Scriptures. Every Christian generation turns to it for insight and guidance. In this volume, a recognized expert on the Gospels shows that the Sermon on the Mount offers a clear window into understanding God's work in Christ. Jonathan Pennington provides a historical, theological, and literary commentary on the Sermon and explains how this text offers insight into God's plan for human flourishing. As Pennington explores the literary dimensions and theological themes of this famous passage, he situates the Sermon in dialogue with the Jewish and Greek virtue traditions and the philosophical-theological question of human flourishing. He also relates the Sermon's theological themes to contemporary issues such as ethics, philosophy, and economics.

Kabbalistic Healing shows how the Kabbalah--the Jewish mystical path--can kindle the central fire in our being so that we can unite with the divine. As we deepen our understanding of ourselves and enhance our ability to hold new states of consciousness, we become able to live in God as a fish lives in water.

I’m being pulled in a thousand different directions. As a therapist, Chuck DeGroat hears that line all the time. “I hear it from students and software developers,” he says. “I hear it from spiritual leaders and coffee baristas. And I hear it from my own inner self.” We all feel that nasty pull to and fro, the frantic busyness that exhausts us and threatens to undo us. And we all think we know the solution — more downtime, more relaxation, more rest. And we’re all wrong. As DeGroat himself has discovered, the real solution to what pulls us apart is wholeheartedness, a way of living and being that can transform us from the inside out. And that’s what readers of this book will discover too.