Books about Faith against from Amazon.com

For several decades a brutal army of rebels has been raiding villages in northern Uganda, kidnapping children and turning them into soldiers or wives of commanders. More than 30,000 children have been abducted over the last twenty years and forced to commit unspeakable crimes. Grace Akallo was one of these. Her story, which is the story of many Ugandan children, recounts her terrifying experience. This unforgettable book--with historical background and insights from Faith McDonnell, one of the clearest voices in the church today calling for freedom and justice--will inspire readers around the world to take notice, pray, and work to end this tragedy..
Price: $3.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A provocative, insightful explanation for why it is that belief—not religion—keeps us in a perilous state of willful ignorance

In The Religious Case Against Belief, James Carse identifies the twenty-first century’s most forbidding villain: belief. In distinguishing religions from belief systems, Carse works to reveal how belief—with its restriction on thought and encouragement of hostility—has corrupted religion and spawned violence the world over.

Galileo, Martin Luther, Abraham Lincoln, and Jesus Christ—using their stories Carse creates his own brand of parable and establishes a new vocabulary with which to study conflict in the modern world. The Religious Case Against Belief introduces three kinds of ignorance: ordinary ignorance (a mundane lack of knowledge, such as ignorance of tomorrow’s weather or the reason why your stove is malfunctioning), willful ignorance (an intentional avoidance of accessible knowledge), and finally higher ignorance (a learned understanding that no matter how many truths we may accumulate, our knowledge falls infinitely short of the truth).

While ordinary ignorance is common to all people, Carse associates the strongest manifestation of willful ignorance with the most fervent (and dangerous) of believers. He points to the historic conflict between Martin Luther and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V both to reveal this seemingly religious collision as a clash of belief and to identify belief ’s inherently destructive characteristics. From Luther to the contemporary Christian right, we learn that believers construct identity by erecting boundaries and by fostering aggression between the believer and the other. This is why belief systems choose—at great cost—to remain locked in bloody conflict rather than to engage in dialogue, recognizing the great deal they have in common. This is willful ignorance.

In fierce contrast to willful ignorance, higher ignorance is an acquired state enhanced by religion. Those traveling the path to higher ignorance recognize faith teachings (such as the Bible) as poetry intended to promote contemplation, interpretation, and a sense of wonder. For evidence of religion’s deeply embedded rejection of singular truth and its acceptance of diverse dialogue, Carse looks to the many faces of Jesus presented in the books of the Bible and elsewhere. Uncontaminated by belief systems, religion rejects the imagined boundaries that falsely divide people and ideas, working to expand horizons.

The Religious Case Against Belief exposes a world in which religion and belief have become erroneously (and terrifyingly) conflated. In strengthening their association with powerful belief systems, religions have departed from their essential purpose as agencies of higher ignorance. Carse uses his wideranging understanding of religion to find a viable and vital path away from what he calls the Age of Faith II and toward open-ended global dialogue. Far from abstract philosophical musing, The Religious Case Against Belief is required reading for our age..
Price: $1.24 [Notify me when price goes down.]

“History must be made to march in the direction of genuine human progress; world affairs have no intrinsic momentum that necessarily results in the victory of decency. Maintaining the morale necessary to achieving progress in history requires us to live our lives, today, against a moral horizon of responsibility that is wider and deeper than the quest for personal satisfactions. The future of our civilization does not rest merely on the advance of material wealth and technological prowess; the future of the West turns on the question of whether our spiritual aspirations are noble or base.”
—from Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism

More than half a decade after 9/11, safe passage through a moment of history fraught with both peril and possibility requires Americans across the political spectrum to see things as they are.

In this incisive, engaging study of the present danger and what we must do to prevail against it, George Weigel, one of America’s foremost public intellectuals, does precisely that: he sees, and describes, things as they are—and as they might be. Drawing on a quarter century of experience at the intersection of moral argument and public policy, he describes rigorously and clearly the threat posed by global jihadism: the religiously inspired ideology which teaches that it is the moral obligation of all Muslims to employ whatever means are necessary to compel the world’s submission to Islam. Exploring that ideology’s theological, social, cultural, and political roots, Weigel points a new direction for both public policy and interreligious dialogue, one that meets the challenge of jihadism forthrightly while creating the conditions for a less threatening, more mutually enriching encounter between Islam and the West.

Essential reading in a time of momentous political decisions, Faith, Reason, and the War Against Jihadism is a clarion call for a new seriousness of debate and a new clarity of purpose in American public life.

.
Price: $6.67 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This is the story no one should have to tell, about the nightmare no one wants to live, told by the parent no one wants to be.

In May of 2005, Beth Holloway received the worst phone call a parent can imagine Her beautiful daughter, Natalee, had disappeared without a trace in Aruba during her high school senior class trip. Two years later, for the first time, Beth Holloway steps forward in this astonishingly candid and inspirational memoir to tell of her harrowing ordeal and her never-ending belief in the power of faith that gave her hope against all odds.

Natalee's senior class picture was splashed across the front pages of the country's newspapers and on television. Desperate for a clue as to her daughter's whereabouts, Beth and an army of faithful volunteers searched tirelessly for the missing eighteen-year-old. In their pursuit of Natalee, they encountered many roadblocks. As the horror stretched out, Beth stood on her foundation of faith, which at times was all she had to give her strength against a barrage of unbearable questions with no answers.

Natalee's disappearance remains unsolved and her location unknown to this day. Beth's search continues.

.
Price: $4.79 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"One father's mission to find his daughter" "I am a father who has no idea what has happened to his child. The questions run through my mind all day long. They keep me awake at night. Is she dead? Is she alive? Is she being held captive somewhere? Are they hurting her? Is she crying out for me??" These are the impassioned words of Dave Holloway, father of Natalee Holloway, whose disappearance in Aruba sparked a media frenzy and an international scandal. This book is the heart-wrenching story of his search, the most complete account of Natalee Holloway's disappearance in Aruba. Continuing his investigation to this very day, Holloway discloses: behind-the-scenes details of the investigation new revelations about the corruption of the Aruban law enforcement and the countless trails leading to possible rape, murder, and even sexual slavery This book is the first insider's account of one of the decade's most disturbing and mysterious stories. Using never-before-seen photographs from their family album and stories of Natalee's childhood, Holloway relates the horror of personally searching through crack houses and trash dumps for Natalee-working alone, with authorities, even with psychics-while enduring the stonewalling of Aruban officials. Learn what really went on behind the headlines of the tragic disappearance of Natalee Holloway..
Price: $3.73 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In this vivid and deeply felt collection of essays, Ron Hansen talks about his novels, childhood, family, and mentors such as John Gardner He explores prayer, stigmata, twentieth-century martyrs, and the Eucharist A profile of his grandfather, a "tough-as-nails, brook-no-guff Colorado rancher," finds a place alongside a wonderfully informative portrait of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. A brilliant reading of a story by Leo Tolstoy follows an appreciation of the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Surprisingly intimate, A Stay Against Confusion brings together the literary and religious impulses that inform the life of one of our most gifted fiction writers.

.
Price: $1.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The struggle between vampires and humans continues In the east, the Rosenkreuz Orden's New Vatican plots to abduct young Pope Alessandro XVIII and instigate war between the Vatican and the New Human Empire. To save everyone, Abel and the AX agents must foil their plans. But now Abel faces a new enemy: Know Faith..
Price: $5.11 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Shant Kenderian's visit to Baghdad in 1980, at age seventeen, was supposed to be a short one -- just enough time to make peace with his estranged father before returning to his home in the United States. But then Saddam Hussein invaded Iran and sealed off Iraq's borders to every man of military age -- including Shant. Suddenly forced onto the front lines, his two-week visit turned into a nightmare that lasted for ten years.

1001 Nights in Iraq presents a human story that provides unique insight into a country and culture that we only get a hint of in the headlines. After surviving the horrors of the Iran-Iraq War, Shant was then forced to fight on the front lines of Desert Storm without being given the proper equipment, including a gun, but miraculously survived to be captured by the Americans and become a POW. He underwent starvation, heavy interrogations, and solitary confinement, but what broke him in the end was his love affair with a female American soldier. Yet throughout this whole ordeal, Shant never lost his respect for people, his faith in God, or his sense of humor..
Price: $2.07 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In this inspiring narrative, one of this country’s most important Muslim leaders reveals the story of his life and his faith, and why Islam is good for America As the religious leader of the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan, Imam Hassan Qazwini serves the largest Muslim congregation in the United States. His dramatic journey to these shores began in 1971, when his father’s anti-Baathist views forced his family to flee from Saddam’s Iraq to Kuwait and then to war-torn Iran. Then, in 1992, with his father’s blessing, he left for the United States, a place where young Muslims were seeking spiritual guidance and where his children could grow up in the peace Qazwini had been denied.

First in California and then in Michigan, Qazwini saw a shocking new world in which leaders were openly mocked, women’s bodies were on display in public, and Christian symbols were disparaged without consequence. He also saw a land in which the lack of a common faith necessitated a great effort to create a shared community. By counseling American Muslims–and sharing his religion with those of other beliefs–he came to feel at home in the country he already loved, and he became a trusted advisor to local and national politicians.

Then, after 9/11, Osama bin Laden gave him “a new full-time job.”
American Crescent vividly describes Qazwini’s efforts to show Americans how those who destroyed the World Trade Center had hijacked Islam as well, and that most Muslims were appalled by their actions. Yet he also takes the Bush administration to task for championing the prejudicial Patriot Act (after Muslims supported George W. Bush in the 2000 election) and deplores its conduct in the Iraq War.

Throughout American Crescent, Qazwini offers a revelatory look at the tenets and history of Islam, defending it as a faith of peace and diversity, and challenging stereotypes and misconceptions promulgated by the media. Iran, he points out, has a higher percentage of women in its parliament than the United States does in both houses of Congress. “If you want to learn about Islam,” he writes, “turn off the TV.”

At once a fascinating personal story and a heartfelt plea to integrate Islamic teachings into the tolerant traditions of America, this book is an important contribution to our understanding of all those who live among us, at a time when it matters most..
Price: $9.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]