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Paul James Toscano embraces his doubts--doubts that spring from an awareness intimately connected to faith. His doubts extend beyond the incidental aspects of Christianity and Mormonism to the fundamentals of faith. "I fear that Jesus, whom I love so much, may be a fiction," he writes. Even so, he explains that he cherishes the idea of Jesus "as a king in disguise among his people, eating of their limitations and drinking of their disappointments, yet able to descend into the abyss and rise again, pulling out of meaninglessness both soul and cosmos. If Jesus was not the Christ," he declares, "he should have been. If he is not God, he should be." At the same time, "if Jesus is real, where is he? Certainly he is neither clear nor accessible. And his gospel, as compelling as it is inscrutable, seems to sanctify least those who make it their career." Toscano also celebrates LDS founder Joseph Smith's awe-inspired view of the universe. In Smith's writings, the Old Testament patriarch Enoch "saw in vision the vast expanse of eternity" and "it shattered his belief. He was undone. He couldn't believe its creator could care about the microbial humans that inhabit this small speck of earth." Thus we see Toscano's encompassing view of a God who is so far beyond our ultimately petty concerns, he could not care about such things as pedigree--a God who loves everyone equally. However, according to some modern LDS commentators, "the full weight of salvation is upon us"; God's love is "conditional." If we err, we are lost. "This is not good news," Toscano asserts. "It is not the gospel. It is legalism." It is not the gospel of a God who cleanses us from corruption--something far and away beyond our own ability--and asks us only that we forgive our neighbors' trespasses. This God "does not require certainty or purity as conditions of his deliverance, merely that we recognize our lack and long to be filled." Such divine love transcends even Toscano's doubts.
From the author of A New Kind of Christianity comes a bold proposal: only doubt can save the world and your faith. ONE of the Best Spiritual Books of 2021—Spirituality & Practice "Will help you live fuller and breathe easier..” —Glennon Doyle Sixty-five million adults in the U.S. have dropped out of active church attendance and about 2.7 million more are leaving every year. Faith After Doubt is for the millions of people around the world who feel that their faith is falling apart. Using his own story and the stories of a diverse group of struggling believers, Brian D. McLaren, a former pastor and now an author, speaker, and activist shows how old assumptions are being challenged in nearly every area of human life, not just theology and spirituality. He proposes a four-stage model of faith development in which questions and doubt are not the enemy of faith, but rather a portal to a more mature and fruitful kind of faith. The four stages—Simplicity, Complexity, Perplexity, and Harmony—offer a path forward that can help sincere and thoughtful people leave behind unnecessary baggage and intensify their commitment to what matters most.
The haunting, vivid story of a nun whose past returns to her in unexpected ways, all while investigating a mysterious death and a series of harrowing abuse claims A young nun is sent by the Vatican to investigate allegations of misconduct at a Catholic school in Iceland. During her time there, on a gray winter’s day, a young student at the school watches the school’s headmaster, Father August Franz, fall to his death from the church tower. Two decades later, the child—now a grown man, haunted by the past—calls the nun back to the scene of the crime. Seeking peace and calm in her twilight years at a convent in France, she has no choice to make a trip to Iceland again, a trip that brings her former visit, as well as her years as a young woman in Paris, powerfully and sometimes painfully to life. In Paris, she met an Icelandic girl who she has not seen since, but whose acquaintance changed her life, a relationship she relives all while reckoning with the mystery of August Franz’s death and the abuses of power that may have brought it on. In The Sacrament, critically acclaimed novelist Olaf Olafsson looks deeply at the complexity of our past lives and selves; the faulty nature of memory; and the indelible mark left by the joys and traumas of youth. Affecting and beautifully observed, The Sacrament is both propulsively told and poignantly written—tinged with the tragedy of life’s regrets but also moved by the possibilities of redemption, a new work from a novelist who consistently surprises and challenges.
This insightful book offers a careful, intelligent look at doubt--at some of its common sources, the challenges it presents, and the opportunities it may open up in a person's quest for faith.
Can one man be the salvation of two nations? Gabriel is a thinker, a healer, a dreamer. His past haunts him, and his future is intertwined with ancient prophecies. He is a son of the Navoran Empire, yet his soul can only find peace with the wild Shinali people on the outshirts of the city. He can interpret the dreams of the Empress and heal the wounded of her city, but as sinister forces take control fo the empire, Gabriel's destiny may be far greater than he can possibly imagine. Sherryl Jordan has crafted a powerful fantasy novel about a young man destined to become the link between two warring cultures.