Books about Contemplative from Amazon.com

“Lord, Whatever It Takes, Make Me Like You!”

You long to serve God with grace and strength, to reflect Christ in every word and action. Yet you find yourself continually struggling to bring that vision to life in your daily walk.

At our very core, every one of us is a “twisted sister” within whom the flesh and spirit battle constantly for control We are afflicted with spiritual schizophrenia, the disconnect between our “good girl” desire to put Jesus first and our “bad girl” realities that crowd our thoughts and push him out of the way.

In this life-changing book, Joanna Weaver, author of the perennial bestseller, Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World, directs your gaze past your own shortcomings to the God who stands ready, willing, and able to make a new woman out of you. She equips you with biblical insights and practical tools to partner with Christ, inviting him into the hidden places of your soul and giving him full permission to redeem and renovate.

Drawing on the stories of biblical Marys and others whose experience with God transformed their lives, Joanna shows how you can find the hope, healing, wholeness, and joy your heart longs for. Having a Mary Spirit will launch you toward lasting personal transformation–soul-deep change that results in a complete makeover, from the inside out.

**Includes a 12-week Bible study for both individual reflection and group discussion**.
Price: $4.20 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A book that can be used in group study or individually as a resource to prayer..
Price: $9.93 [Notify me when price goes down.]

By celebrating strengths of many traditions in the church (and beyond), this book will seek to communicate a “generous orthodoxy ”.
Price: $3.07 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Youth ministry isn’t about what to say, what to do, or how to be; it’s about serving the needs of the students God has put in your life. This book is an attitude overhaul that creates a more organic approach to youth ministry that helps you create meaningful silence, covenant communities, and contemplative activities that allow your students recognize the presence of Jesus in their everyday lives..
Price: $12.22 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The renowned Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote Thoughts in Solitude in 1953 and 1954, when his superiors allowed him extended periods of seclusion and meditation This elegant gift book, with clean, spare type and graphics, does justice to a 20th-classic (this is its 25th printing). What has made this book such an enduring and popular work is that it recognizes how important solitude is to our morality, integrity, and ability to love. One does not have to be a monk to find solitude, notes Merton; solitude can be found in the act of contemplation and silent reflection in everyday life. Also, this is not a pious book that assumes that a relationship with the divine can be obtained only by denying our humanity and striving for saintliness. Instead, Merton asserts that connection with God can most easily be made through "respect for temperament, character, and emotion and for everything that makes us human." --Gail Hudson.
Price: $7.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Science has long treated religion as a set of personal beliefs that have little to do with a rational understanding of the mind and the universe However, B. Alan Wallace, a respected Buddhist scholar, proposes that the contemplative methodologies of Buddhism and of Western science are capable of being integrated into a single discipline: contemplative science.

The science of consciousness introduces first-person methods of investigating the mind through Buddhist contemplative techniques, such as samatha, an organized, detailed system of training the attention. Just as scientists make observations and conduct experiments with the aid of technology, contemplatives have long tested their own theories with the help of highly developed meditative skills of observation and experimentation. Contemplative science allows for a deeper knowledge of mental phenomena, including a wide range of states of consciousness, and its emphasis on strict mental discipline counteracts the effects of conative (intention and desire), attentional, cognitive, and affective imbalances.

Just as behaviorism, psychology, and neuroscience have all shed light on the cognitive processes that enable us to survive and flourish, contemplative science offers a groundbreaking perspective for expanding our capacity to realize genuine well-being. It also forges a link between the material world and the realm of the subconscious that transcends the traditional science-based understanding of the self.

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Price: $23.56 [Notify me when price goes down.]

By celebrating strengths of many traditions in the church (and beyond), this book will seek to communicate a “generous orthodoxy.”.
Price: $10.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]