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This text explores the central role of prayer in the history and psychology of religion through the ages, from ancient indigenous prayer rituals to large-scale public worship. It includes coverage of prayer in philosophy, mysticism, in prophetic religion and in public worship.

GROWING STRONGER flows from the hearts of a Christian Therapist and a Christian Psychiatrist to pour out compassionate perspectives and healing guidelines for women going through a crisis of any type. Mary Beth Woll is a therapist at the Meier Clinic Seattle, and Paul Meier MD is the founder of the internationally renowned chain of non-profit Christian Counseling Clinics that have ministered to millions since 1976. Dr. Meier is the author of over 90 books that have sold over seven million copies...

Scholars of the social sciences have devoted more and more attention of late to the concept of human happiness, mainly from sociological and psychological perspectives. This volume, which includes essays from scholars of the New Testament, the Old Testament, systematic theology, practical theology, and counseling psychology, poses a new and exciting question: what is happiness according to the Bible? Informed by developments in positive psychology, The Bible and the Pursuit of Happiness explor...

This groundbreaking study uncovers fascinating new data on sudden shifts in religious and nonreligious belief. Amazing Conversions explores, for the first time ever, the reasons why converts join, and apostates go. The focus of this absorbing study is on some amazing people, with unique stories to tell those who join a religious group in spite of being raised in nonreligious (or even antireligious) families, and those who, at great personal cost, choose to leave religion in spite of having a dee...

Is religion inherently violent? If not, what provokes violence in the name of religion? Do we mischaracterize religion by focusing too much on its violent side? In this intriguing, original study of religious violence, Professor Hector Avalos offers a new theory for the role of religion in violent conflicts. Starting with the premise that most violence is the result of real or perceived scarce resources, Avalos persuasively argues that religion creates new scarcities on the basis of unverifiable...

While forgiveness has historically been regarded as a religious concern, it has also become a popular topic in contemporary psychology. Unfortunately, there has been little effort to combine a Christian understanding of forgiveness with psychology. The Faces of Forgiveness, winner of the Narramore Award from the Christian Association for Psychological Studies, steps in to fill this void. The authors fuse Christian forgiveness and psychology with the unifying motif of the face; thereby building...

This book presents a novel explanation for the emergence of the God-concept and human religiosity. In doing so, it makes creative use of the most recent findings in anthropology, neurology and psychology. At the center of this explanation is the fact that early childhood experiences predispose people to 'magical thinking', a tendency that is reinforced by the human ability to dream and the over-excitability of the cerebral cortex. The interaction of these three elements, both on the phylogenetic...

Since the first African American denomination was established in Philadelphia in 1818, churches have gone beyond their role as spiritual guides in African American communities and have served as civic institutions, spaces for education, and sites for the cultivation of individuality and identities in the face of limited or non-existent freedom. In this Very Short Introduction, Eddie S. Glaude Jr. explores the history and circumstances of African American religion through three examples: conjur...

An enlarged edition of a book first published in English by Doubleday in 1979. Kung offers a theological and psychoanalytic assessment of Freud's atheism and of its implications for current psychoanalytic practice, contending that Freud's arguments against the existence of God are theologically unsound.

Sacred Matters explores the multi-disciplinary literature about the role of religion in family life and provides new research and a new theory about ways various aspects of the sacred are helpful and harmful. The authors hope that their new conceptual framework will stimulate new research and encourage the creation of new intervention programs designed to help families. Sacred Matters features:a new conceptual framework and theory about how, when, and why sacred matters influence family process...

'A revelatory classic' Maria Popova 'A spiritual polymath, the first and possibly greatest' Deepak ChopraWhat we have forgotten is that thoughts and words are conventions, and that it is fatal to take conventions too seriouslyToo often we fall into the trap of anticipating the future while lamenting the past and in the midst of this negative loop we forget how to live in the now. In this iconic and prescient text, pioneering Zen scholar Alan Watts shows us how, in an age of unprecedented anxiety...