For many people, faith is based on creeds, doctrine, and head knowledge. It's about mastering the "facts" and having the "right" answers. But best-selling author Margaret Silf believes that faith is not about mastery but about mystery, and that living in that mystery allows us to properly shift our focus from religion to relationship - a relationship with the Divine. In Simple Faith, Silf encourages us to rethink many of the teachings on faith that may be holding us back from the joy and freedom that can be found only in a meaningful experience of God. Through her thought-provoking, even surprising, answers to common questions about faith—Is it true that God is love? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why did Jesus have to die?&mash;she advocates radically simple yet profound beliefs that are based in a new, liberating understanding of faith itself. Ultimately, Simple Faith, moves us beyond the complexities of conventional religion and clears the path for us to grow in a life-changing relationship with God.

As Christians, how do we know what we know? This simple question challenges the nature of information, how we learn, decision making, who we are, and who this God is that we worship. If this challenge appears optional; it is not—our post-Christian culture questions every faith assumption. Simple Faithexamines these questions and discusses implications for faith and life. An important implication of this study is that faith plays a critical role into how we think, learn, and make decisions in the context of limited resources and an uncertain future. Even scientific inquiry requires faith, which normally gets hidden in untested assumptions and presumptions about what is interesting to investigate. Often the critical arguments driving our decisions are not cold hard facts, but the stories that we tell in the midst of complex decision environments. The timing of this inquiry is critical. The movement from modern to postmodern thinking has upended most institutions, but especially the Christian church. The separation of heart and mind, which characterizes modern thinking, eroded faith leaving the church in a weak position to adapt to the rapid changes accompanying postmodernism. Ironically, postmodern thinking that values storytelling favors Christian faith because the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the best story around.

Before converting to Christianity, Augustine was at one time a member of a group called the Manichaeans and this collection of works are his attempt to combat the growing threat that this religion caused to the rise and growth of the Christian church. The Manichaeans were a dualistic society that focused on the goodness of the spirit and the evil of the material. While basing their belief structure of Mesopotamian Gnosticism it is hard to say for certain that they were Gnostic themselves. Augustine shows sound arguments to counter the beliefs he reveals in this collection of writings even going so far as to have a verbal parley back and forth with a leading member of the religious movement Fortunatus. Now in larger print!

Why do you believe in God? Whether you desire healing, professional success, or inner peace, The Blueprint of Faith demonstrates how God makes promises to his children and provides explicit directions on how to ensure they are fulfilled in your life. In this introspective, life-affirming book, author Ken Primus reveals the seven principles he used to receive his own promises from God-grace, hope, faith, persistence, patience, persuasion, and praise-and then clearly shows you how to apply each principle to your daily life. Primus interjects many of his own spiritual experiences into the chapters and also fully explores the enemies of faith-lack of knowledge, unbelief, doubt, and fear. In the final chapter, Primus shows you how to "put it all together": how to live by faith and how to apply the truths to your everyday life. The Blueprint of Faith is a spiritual resource for those who are ready to trust in the power of God and live a more faithful life.

Atheism and the Christian Faith is an anthology of the proceedings from a conference of the same name which convened at Concordia University of Edmonton in May 2016. The book represents a wide diversity of subtopics—primarily from a philosophical perspective—including submissions from atheists, agnostics and theists. This combination of topics and perspectives makes the book totally unique. There are arguments for and against theism. The foreword to the book is by Professor Richard Swinburne, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Oxford University, who contributes two chapters to the book: “Why Believe That There is a God?” and “Why God Allows Suffering”. The book includes a chapter from renowned astrophysicist, and former student of Stephen Hawkins, Professor Dr. Don Page from the University of Alberta “On the Optimal Argument for the Existence of God”. Atheism and the Christian Faith advances arguments around serious philosophical issues of direct relevance to contemporary society. It will be of interest to a broad range of scholars in philosophy, theology and epistemology.

In Cycles of Faith, noted historian of religion Robert Ellwood makes the case that the five largest world religions all move through the stages of Apostolic, Imperial, Devotional, Reformation, and Folk Religion. A completely revised edition of his 1988 book, The History and Future of Faith, Ellwood's readable text can provide a useful, theoretical framework to many classes in religious studies.