It was the atheist, Jean Paul Sartre, who once said that, "Hell is other people." Rowland Stenrud's Yeshua, the Crucified Serpent is about how mankind's savior, Jesus of Nazareth, has saved men and women from this hell by making it possible, and indeed inevitable, for human beings to love one another and their Creator-Father, Yahweh God. This book is about the concept and practice of human and divine love. The words of Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, the Bible as a whole, and the reader's life experience will help in defining this. The author reviews what he knows about the concept and its related precepts and brings them to bear in this book. God himself is love, which should tell us how mysterious a thing love is. To acquire this ability to love, one must suffer in union with the suffering Christ. Salvation, pure and simple, is God delivering each one from the inability to love other human beings and the Creator Himself. The obstacle to this perfect love is the serpent of human wisdom and pride that existed even in Jesus. In his loving obedience to the Father, Jesus nailed this serpent to the cross. Yeshua, the Crucified Serpent attempts to show that the question of evil and suffering in the world is answered by Yahweh's eventual success in saving all of mankind. The majority of Christians believe in a number of key doctrines that the biblical authors do not unequivocally teach. A few verses may support these unbiblical doctrines but a greater number of verses, whose meaning is clearer, contradict the standard interpretation of these few verses. Other doctrines that Christians mistakenly believe in find support in this or that section of the Bible but are denied by the general thrust of the Bible as a whole. These unbiblical doctrines followed by the correct biblical teaching are: 1. Sometime in the distant past a large number of God's angels rebelled against Him becoming what are called devils or demons whose leader is known as Satan or Lucifer. The Bible teaches that the only agent of evil in the universe is man's heart. 2. Adam and Eve possessed the perfection of Jesus Christ before they sinned. If they had not sinned they would not have needed to be healed of any weakness. The Bible teaches that Adam and Eve could not have had eternal life even before they sinned without the work of Jesus of Nazareth. 3. Faith is an act of the free will of man. The Bible teaches that faith does involve man putting his trust in God's promises and revelation, but it is primarily a power given to man by God in order to enable him to see spiritual truth the natural man cannot see. Without this gift of the Holy Spirit, no human being can know God and be saved. 4. Ultimately speaking, we are saved by our faith. On the contrary, it is through Jesus's faith in and love for the Father that is the instrument of our salvation. 5. Jesus saved us by paying the penalty due our sins and therefore saving us from the just wrath of God. This is false. No one had to pay any penalty for God to forgive the sins of the human race. God relates to sinners on the basis of mercy and mercy is not mercy if the penalty for sin is paid. By going to the cross, Jesus healed our brokenness which forgiveness alone could not accomplish. 6. Satan and the sins of men are ultimately responsible for human suffering. False. God is ultimately responsible for human suffering as it is a necessary part of God's work of saving human beings. God Himself shares in all of our suffering: physical, emotional and spiritual even though He does not have a body or nervous system. 7. Salvation is about our eternal destiny. This is not correct. Salvation is about being saved from the idolatries, addictions, corruption, hatreds, evil deeds that afflict the unsav

Becoming fully human is a lifelong journey. It can also be an incredible adventure. Here internationally respected depth psychologist, spiritual guide, and personal transformation coach David Benner explores the mysteries of human being and becoming. Drawing on insights from science, philosophy, and forty years of experience integrating psychology and spirituality, he presents concrete steps for living in ways that move us toward wholeness. He also draws on mysticism, the perennial wisdom tradition, interfaith dialogue, and the contemplative Christian tradition, developing a robust spirituality that reveals how we can align ourselves with God's presence in the world.

In this major collection, Rudolf Steiner affirms the reality of esoteric Christianity and unveils many of its secret teachings. His lectures are on the significance of the Mystery of Golgotha and of the Blood that flowed on the Cross; the relationship of Christ and Lucifer (or Love and Knowledge); the various paths of initiation, including the Christian-Gnostic and Rosicrucian Paths; and Steiner's early interpretations of St. John's gospel and the sermon on the mount. All of Steiner's lectures on the Lord's Prayer are also included, as well as the version of the prayer that Steiner himself prayed throughout his life. This is an excellent book for all those who want to deepen their understanding of the Western stream of Christian esotericism and Rudolf Steiner's approach to Christianity as a spiritual practice.

This book draws the philosophical contribution of Martin Heidegger together with theological-spiritual insights from the East, especially that of Nikolai Berdyaev. Thus, it brings into dialogue the West with the East, and philosophy with theology. By doing so, it offers Christian theology an existential-spiritual language that is relevant and meaningful for the contemporary reader. In particular, the work explores Heidegger’s ‘being towards death’ (Sein zum Tode) as the basis for theological-philosophical thinking. Only the one who embraces ‘being towards death’ has the courage to think and poetize. This thinking, in turn, makes ‘being towards death’ possible, and in this circular movement of thinking and being, the mystery of being reveals itself and yet remains hidden. Since the work aims at demonstrating ‘being towards death’ through language, it transitions away from the common formulations and traditionally accepted ways of writing (dogmatic) theology towards an original, philosophical reflection on faith and spirituality. At different points, however, the work also retrieves the profound thoughts and theologies of the past, the insightful creativity of which cannot be denied.

The book addresses the intriguing problem of human self-realization precisely because of the diverse uses of the term, which ranges from abstract philosophical-theological theories to practical psychological-spiritual applications. Jennifer Slater draws the concept from Karl Rahner, the twentieth German theologian, who uses the term self-realization in his theology on freedom and symbolism, relating it to the basic free choice, which the human person makes to be for or against God/Divine. Jennifer Slater explores this fundamental free choice, which is at the same time a basic choice about oneself. She writes from the understanding that the human person is radically free to become the choices she or he makes and freedom is the capacity for definitive self-realization. In the book, she shows that in the exercising of freedom, humans, precisely as historical beings, are also transcendent beings. Jennifer grapples with the perception that since human self-realization involves the power to make decisions, which in reality actualizes a persons own reality, how then does this self-realization come about and where does the Divine fit into the process? If self-realization is related to the human self and to the Divine Self, she then questions what constitutes the self and self-realization? This struggle practically employs the woman in general and in particular the woman consecrated to a vowed life. The pervasive question throughout is: What constitutes the self-realization of a human/woman being?

Buttrick presents a complete homiletic that focuses on how sermons form in consciousness and how the language of preaching functions in the communal consciousness of a congregation. His "phenomenological" approach marks a sharp departure from older homiletics.

'There will be a resurrection – a resurrection that should not be imagined politically... but it will be a resurrection. Goetheanism still rests in the grave as far as external culture is concerned. But Goetheanism must rise again.' In the first winter following the Great War, Rudolf Steiner appealed to the spirit of Central Europe – which he characterized as Goetheanism – that had been languishing for decades. Only such a spiritual force could provide answers to the pressing social, national and international questions of the time. A new constellation of polar, hostile opposition had emerged after the war, with the East and Bolshevism on one side, and the victorious West and Americanism on the other. In the middle, with no apparent role or hope for the future, was the defeated Central Europe. But this 'centre', beseeched Steiner, should not become a vacuum. Rather, it needs to discover its true, world-historical task.In this context, with deep seriousness and urgency, Rudolf Steiner speaks of the work of Goetheanism, which begins with understanding the threefold human being and leads to threefolding the social organism. Steiner goes on to describe the decisive role of the consciousness soul in the present epoch, and how Schiller's Aesthetic Letters and Goethe's Fairy Tale relate to contemporary challenges. He discusses a multitude of seemingly diverse but interrelated themes, such as the migration of peoples in the past and present, the thinking of John of the Cross, and the modern path of spirit cognition. The first English publication of these lectures features an introduction by Christian von Arnim, notes and an index. Twelve lectures, Dornach, Jan.–Feb. 1919, GA 188

One of the world's best known liberation theologians provides an inspiring summary of the Christian message. For over fifty years and in over sixty books, Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff has explored the mysteries of the Christian message. In this brief work he sets out to describe the essence of Christianity in language that is accessible and meaningful in terms of our awareness of the evolution of the universe and an expanding cosmos.

Padriac Conway is Director of the UCD International Centre for Newman Studies and a Vice-President of University College Dublin. --Book Jacket.