Religious Books > B Religious Books

Advantages: Useful for more than just Anglican services
Disadvantages: -

This Book of Common Prayer (1662) is the 'primary' BCP, used by the Church of England proper, the original branch of the Anglicans. There have been many books that have had the title 'Book of Common Prayer' since the first one appeared in 1549; it has been used continuously in one edition or another in the Anglican tradition since 1559; the 'main' edition remains this 1662 edition. Churches in other nations (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the United ...
...and the strength of the Book of Common Prayer. To be an Anglican, one does not have to subscribe to any particular systematic theological framework. One does not have to practice a particular brand of liturgical style. One does not have to have an approved politico-theological viewpoint. One can be a conservative, liberal or moderate; one can be high church, low church, or broad; one can be charismatic, evangelical, or mainline traditional -- one ... Read review

Advantages: compeling re-write of history
Disadvantages: a lot of information to take on board

...mythical vessel that sybolizes the bloodline of Jesus. If the vessel is seen not as a cup of symbolic blood, but a person who has the familys blood in his veins, then the grail seems to make more sense. If the Grail represents the son of Jesus, who later came to Europe, then we have a whole different take on history. We then briefly travel back in time to examine the ancestors of Jesus family, the likes of David and the early patriarchs, before examining ...
...Gardners pedigree he follows the bloodline through the Frankish kings and Dark Age Britain, through Jacobite nobility and the Holy Roman Empire of the middle ages to the modern age. Along side the geneaology, there are some fascinating histories revealed.The research into Dark Age royal families and their interactions make more sense against the background of the preservation of an important bloodline. The Knights Templars and the whole chivalric ... Read review

Advantages: Good suggestions and observations
Disadvantages: Limited audience

'Believing in Preaching: What Listeners Hear in Sermons' is the latest book in a four-part series on developing an understanding about how people listen to and respond to sermons and homilies. Supported by the Lilly Endowment, this project has involved many scholars at my seminary and elsewhere. 'Hearing the Sermon: Relationship/Content/Feeling', the second volume by Ronald J. Allen, professor of preaching and New Testament at my seminary, was published ...
...many authors, was published in summer 2004. This series is of homiletical (preaching) resources designed to aid those who preach understand more about the way their sermons are heard and understood. The scholar team brought together a diverse group of people from 28 area congregations to be part of the study. The purpose of this study, this volume and the others forthcoming, could be formed out of the statement in the preface to the first volume, ... Read review

Advantages: Great style, interesting topic
Disadvantages: -

Elaine Pagels is perhaps best known for her text, ‘The Gnostic Gospels’ first published in 1979, in which she explores the different alternative gospel and scriptural writings used by (or at least known to) the Gnostic sects of Christians and proto-Christians in the early years of the common era. In this book, ‘Beyond Belief’, she returns to this subject by focusing more intensely upon the Secret Gospel of Thomas, one of the many gospel texts floating ...
...canon of scripture was more-or-less solidified. She begins with a remarkably personal tale, her idea of faith and the power of God in the face of her own son’s problem – he had been diagnosed with a fatal disease, one that is required painful and risky procedures with little hope of success. Where does faith come from in a time like this? Where does faith go? Her first chapter talks about the power of the community, and she traces a history of early ... Read review

Advantages: A good read for all on a Christian Journey.
Disadvantages: A little over "wordy" at times.

This is a book of practical help and encouragement for anybody who is having difficulty with their Christian faith or those who are just starting on the journey of spiritual discovery. The book is not an easy read and does at times over concentrate, to me, on theological arguments, which detract from its practical contents. It does contain some excellent ideas and exercises to do which help you to examine yourself and where you are on your Christian ... Read review