A Pulitzer Prize winner’s intimate portrait of a church, its radical mission, and its riveting crisis. “The revolution I wanted to be part of was in the church.” Americans have been leaving their churches. Some drift away. Some stay home. And some have been searching for—and finding—more authentic ways to find and follow Jesus. This is the story of one such “radical outpost of Jesus followers” dedicated to service, the Sermon on the Mount, and working toward justice for all in this life, not just salvation for some in the next. Part of a little-known yet influential movement at the edge of American evangelicalism, Philadelphia’s Circle of Hope grew for forty years, planted four congregations, and then found itself in crisis. The story that follows is an American allegory full of questions with urgent relevance for so many of us, not just the faithful: How do we commit to one another and our better selves in a fracturing world? Where does power live? Can it be shared? How do we make “the least of these” welcome? Building on years of deep reporting, the Pulitzer Prize winner Eliza Griswold has crafted an intimate, immersive, tenderhearted portrait of a community, as well as a riveting chronicle of its transformation, bearing witness to the ways a deeply committed membership and their team of devoted pastors are striving toward change that might help their church survive. Through generational rifts, an increasingly politicized religious landscape, a pandemic that prevented gathering to worship, and a rise in foundation-shaking activism, Circle of Hope tells a propulsive, layered story of what we do to stay true to our beliefs. It is a soaring, searing examination of what it means for us to love, to grow, and to disagree.

Circle of Hope is the remarkable true story of one family that gathered around a dying child to save her from a medical death sentence. Originally published in 1981, the medical landscape has changed in the intervening years, but this story of hope and perseverance in the face of a medical death sentence endures. Jobi Halper was eight years old when she came home from school one autumn day with an aching knee. Three weeks later, a rare, lethal form of bone cancer was diagnosed, and Jobi’s leg was amputated. The Halpers were told that the chances were 99 to 1 that the cancer would kill the child they called “Sunshine.” They were advised to do nothing and above all to save themselves the agony of running fruitlessly for other advice. But the Halpers did everything the doctors told them not to do. The story Jobi’s mother tells of the year they spent fighting for their daughter’s life is filled with rage and joy. They researched new drugs and treatments, consulted countless doctors, and finally sent Jobi with her mother to an experimental cancer clinic in California where a unique combination of chemotherapy and caring defeated her disease. The Halpers’ agonizing ordeal and ultimate victory over death offers glowing proof that medical miracles do happen to those who seek them.

The first real glimmerings of awareness started with Katrina, a lovely feminine name, but a crippling storm. Not the nibbling, nagging kind of awareness that the scientific community had been trying for years to raise, but a gut wrenching, "this can kill you", kind of awareness that gets quick attention. Suddenly, all the past warnings made sense and there was a sense of urgency in the CNN re-runs of previously ignored interviews. The story of three generations of the McFarland family and their epic struggle to build a lifeboat for mankind and save the earth from senseless self destruction.

The Pulitzer Prize winner's extraordinary portrait of one religious community - and what it means for us all "Lyrical, probing, and deeply reported, this is an extraordinary account ." ― Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Empire of Pain "Eliza Griswold is a dazzling reporter: ever observant, wise, sympathetic, and honest. And in this spellbinding book." ― David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon and The Wager "A sharply contemporary book, painfully honest, stubbornly hopeful." ― Archbishop Rowan Williams, author of Passions of the Soul "That rarest of books: an examination of the sacred and spiritual realm captured with humor, humanity, and style."― Susan Orlean, author of On Animals Although most evangelicals have their sights firmly set on salvation in the afterlife, one extraordinary church in Philadelphia is designed to fight for progress and dedicated to social justice in this life. Over forty years, Circle of Hope grew from one family to four congregations battling for equality among the sexes, an end to racial discrimination, and offering hope to believers of all kinds - from outcasts to addicts - in its radical mission to improve the world. Then, rocked by many of the same issues facing society at large, from MeToo to Black Lives Matter, Circle of Hope is forced to confront its own mistakes, plunging the community into existential crisis. Building on years of deep reporting, Pulitzer Prize-winner Eliza Griswold paints an intimate portrait of pastors and church members' desperate wrestling to find a way to remain together despite their dividing truths. Through generational rifts, an increasingly politicised religious landscape, a pandemic and a rise in foundation-shaking activism, Circle of Hope tells a propulsive, layered story of what we do to stay true to our beliefs. It is a soaring, searing examination of what it means for a community to love, to grow, and crucially to disagree.

This book was written by C. Hammond and first published in 1852. The author claims that the book is the result of automatic writing, and that it was not he who was responsible for the work but a channelled spirit. Hammond also claims that spirits went as far as to arrange the paragraphs and sentences themselves. Highly recommended for those with an interest in the supernatural. Contents include: "Conversation with his Physician, and his Indifference about Death", "The Minister Sent For", "Prayer", "Meditation on Life", "Age of Reason", "A Swoon", "Sees a Spirit", "The Effort of the Spirit to Identify Herself", "His Death", "Funeral Services", "Doubting Minister", "Conversation with his Spirit Companion", etc. Many vintage books such as this are becoming increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, high-quality edition designed for a modern audience.

This book explores the nature, significance and consequences of the religious activism surrounding AIDS in Africa. While African religion was relatively marginal in inspiring or contributing to AIDS activism during the early days of the epidemic, this situation has changed dramatically. In order to account for these changes, contributors provide answers to pressing questions. How does the entrance of religion into public debates about AIDS affect policymaking and implementation, church-state relations, and religion itself? How do religious actors draw on and reconfigure forms of transnational connectivity? How do resource flows from development and humanitarian aid that religious actors may access then affect relationships of power and authority in African societies? How does religious mobilization on AIDS reflect contestation over identity, cultural membership, theology, political participation, and citizenship? Addressing these questions, the authors draw on social movement theories to explore the role of religious identities, action frames, political opportunity structures, and resource mobilization in African religions’ reaction to the AIDS epidemic. The book’s findings are rooted in fieldwork conducted in Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Ghana, and Mozambique, among a variety of religious organizations. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Canadian Journal of African Studies.