The Religious Studies category has 710 audiobooks on Listento.it, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 3,555 ratings. The most-rated is Mere Christianity.
The Lost History of Christianity
Summary
The Lost History of Christianity will change how we understand Christian and world history. Leading religion scholar Philip Jenkins reveals a vast Christian world to the east of the Roman Empire and how the earliest, most influential churches of the East---those that had the closest link to Jesus and the early church---died. In this paradigm-shifting book, Jenkins recovers a lost history, showing how the center of Christianity for centuries used to be the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, extending as far as China. Without this lost history, we can't understand Islam or the Middle East, especially Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Complete with maps, statistics, and fascinating stories and characters that no one in the media or the general public has ever heard of, The Lost History of Christianity will immerse the listener in a lost world that was once the heart of Christianity.
©2008 Philip Jenkins (P)2008 Tantor
Why Religion?
Summary
New York Times best seller One of PW’s Best Books of the Year One of Amazon’s Best Books of the Month Why is religion still around in the 21st century? Why do so many still believe? And how do various traditions still shape the way people experience everything from sexuality to politics, whether they are religious or not? In Why Religion? Elaine Pagels looks to her own life to help address these questions. These questions took on a new urgency for Pagels when dealing with unimaginable loss - the death of her young son, followed a year later by the shocking loss of her husband. Here she interweaves a personal story with the work that she loves, illuminating how, for better and worse, religious traditions have shaped how we understand ourselves; how we relate to one another; and, most importantly, how to get through the most difficult challenges we face. Drawing upon the perspectives of neurologists, anthropologists, and historians, as well as her own research, Pagels opens unexpected ways of understanding persistent religious aspects of our culture. A provocative and deeply moving account from one of the most compelling religious thinkers at work today, Why Religion? explores the spiritual dimension of human experience.
©2019 Elaine Pagels (P)2019 HarperAudio
Undeniable
Summary
Throughout his distinguished and unconventional career, engineer-turned-molecular-biologist Douglas Axe has been asking the questions that much of the scientific community would rather silence. Now he presents his conclusions in this brave and pioneering book. Axe argues that the key to understanding our origin is the "design intuition" - the innate belief held by all humans that tasks we would need knowledge to accomplish can be accomplished only by someone who has that knowledge. For the ingenious task of inventing life, this knower can only be God. Starting with the hallowed halls of academic science, Axe dismantles the widespread belief that Darwin's theory of evolution is indisputably true, showing instead that a gaping hole has been at its center from the beginning. He then explains in plain English the science that proves our design intuition scientifically valid. Lastly, he uses everyday experience to empower ordinary people to defend their design intuition, giving them the confidence and courage to explain why it has to be true and the vision to imagine what biology will become when people stand up for this truth.
©2016 Douglas Axe (P)2016 Tantor
God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?
Summary
If we are to believe many modern commentators, science has squeezed God into a corner, killed and then buried him with its all-embracing explanations. Atheism, we are told, is the only intellectually tenable position, and any attempt to reintroduce God is likely to impede the progress of science. In this stimulating and thought-provoking audiobook, John Lennox invites us to consider such claims very carefully. Is it really true, he asks, that everything in science points towards atheism? Could it be possible that theism sits more comfortably with science than atheism? Has science buried God or not? Now updated and expanded, God's Undertaker is an invaluable contribution to the debate about science's relationship to religion.
©2009 John Lennox (P)2018 Lion Pub
Improbable Planet
Summary
The latest scientific discoveries point to an intentional creator. Most of us remember the basics from science classes about how Earth came to be the only known planet that sustains complex life. But what most people don't know is that the more thoroughly researchers investigate the history of our planet, the more astonishing the story of our existence becomes. The number and complexity of the astronomical, geological, chemical, and biological features recognized as essential to human existence have expanded explosively within the past decade. An understanding of what is required to make possible a large human population and advanced civilizations has raised profound questions about life, our purpose, and our destiny. Are we really just the result of innumerable coincidences? Or is there a more reasonable explanation? This fascinating book helps nonscientists understand the countless miracles that undergird the exquisitely fine-tuned planet we call home - as if someone had us in mind all along.
©2017 eChristian (P)2017 eChristian
How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor
Summary
How (Not) to Be Secular is what Jamie Smith calls "your hitchhiker's guide to the present" - it is both a reading guide to Charles Taylor's monumental work, A Secular Age, and philosophical guidance on how we might learn to live in our times.
Taylor's landmark book, A Secular Age (2007), provides a monumental, incisive analysis of what it means to live in the post-Christian present - a pluralist world of competing beliefs and growing unbelief. Jamie Smith's book is a compact field guide to Taylor's insightful study of the secular, making that very significant but daunting work accessible to a wide array of readers.
Even more, though, Smith's How (Not) to Be Secular is a practical philosophical guidebook, a kind of how-to manual on how to live in our secular age. It ultimately offers us an adventure in self-understanding and maps out a way to get our bearings in today's secular culture, no matter who "we" are - whether believers or skeptics, devout or doubting, self-assured or puzzled and confused. This is a book for any thinking person to chew on.
©2014 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (P)2018 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
Lost Boy
Summary
In the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (FLDS), girls can become valuable property as plural wives, but boys are expendable, even a liability. In this powerful and heartbreaking account, former FLDS member Brent Jeffs reveals both the terror and the love he experienced growing up on his prophet's compound and the harsh exile existence that so many boys face once they have been expelled by the sect. Brent Jeffs is the nephew of Warren Jeffs, the imprisoned leader of the FLDS. The son of a prominent family in the church, Brent could have grown up to have multiple wives of his own and significant power in the 10,000-strong community. But he knew that behind the group's pious public image - women in chaste dresses carrying babies on their hips - lay a much darker reality. So he walked away, and was the first to file a sexual-abuse lawsuit against his uncle. Now Brent shares his courageous story and that of many other young men who have become "lost boys" when they leave the FLDS, either by choice or by expulsion. Brent experienced firsthand the absolute power that church leaders wield, the kind of power that corrupts and perverts those who will do anything to maintain it. Once young men no longer belong to the church, they are cast out into a world for which they are utterly unprepared. More often than not, they succumb to the temptations of alcohol and other drugs. Tragically, Brent lost two of his brothers in this struggle, one to suicide, the other to overdose. In this book he shows that lost boys can triumph and that abuse and trauma can be overcome, and he hopes that readers will be inspired to help former FLDS members find their way in the world.
©2009 Maia Szalavitz (P)2009 Random House
Waco
Summary
Waco: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience! The basis of the celebrated Paramount Network miniseries starring Michael Shannon and Taylor Kitsch - Waco is the critically-acclaimed, first person account of the siege by Branch Davidian survivor David Thibodeau. Twenty-five years ago, the FBI staged a deadly raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. David Thibodeau survived to tell the story. When he first met the man who called himself David Koresh, David Thibodeau was a drummer in a local a rock band. Though he had never been religious in the slightest, Thibodeau gradually became a follower and moved to the Branch Davidian compound in Waco. He remained there until April 19, 1993, when the compound was stormed and burned to the ground after a 51-day standoff with government authorities. In this compelling account - now with an updated epilogue that revisits remaining survivors - Thibodeau explores why so many people came to believe that Koresh was divinely inspired. We meet the men, women, and children of Mt. Carmel. We get inside the day-to-day life of the community. We also understand Thibodeau's brutally honest assessment of the United States government's actions. The result is a memoir that reads like a thriller, with each chapter taking us closer to the eventual inferno. Originally published as A Place Called Waco. Booktrack is an immersive format that pairs traditional audiobook narration to complementary music. The tempo and rhythm of the score are in perfect harmony with the action and characters throughout the audiobook. Gently playing in the background, the music never overpowers or distracts from the narration, so listeners can enjoy every minute. When you purchase this Booktrack edition, you receive the exact narration as the traditional audiobook available, with the addition of music throughout.
©2019 David Thibodeau, Leon Whiteson, Aviva Layton (P)2019 Hachette Books
The Insanity of Obedience
Summary
All Christian disciples have one thing in common: As they carry the Gospel across the ocean and across the street, persecution will become the norm for those who choose to follow Jesus. How believers respond in the face of persecution reveals everything about their level of faith and obedience. The Insanity of Obedience is a bold challenge to global discipleship. Nik Ripken exposes the danger of safe Christianity and calls listeners to something greater. The Insanity of Obedience challenges Christians in the same provocative way that Jesus did. This book dares you - and prepares you - to cross the street and the oceans with the good news of Jesus Christ. Some of Jesus' instructions sound uncomfortable and are potentially dangerous. We may be initially encouraged by his declaration, "I am sending you out." But how are we to respond when he then tells us that he is sending us out "like sheep among wolves"? In light of the words of Jesus, how can modern-day believers rest comfortably in the status quo? How can we embrace casual faith in light of the radical commands of Jesus, which are anything but casual? Ripken brings decades of ministry experience in some of the most persecuted areas of the world to bear on our understanding of faith in Jesus. The Insanity of Obedience is a call to roll up your sleeves...and to follow and partner with Jesus in the toughest places on this planet. "We have the high privilege of answering Jesus' call to go," Ripken says. "But let us be clear about this: We go on his terms, not ours. If we go at all, we go as sheep among wolves." Jesus gives us himself. And he gives us the tools necessary for those who dare to journey with him.
©2015 eChristian (P)2015 eChristian
Out of the Ashes
Summary
It's not your imagination: civilized human society is collapsing. Communities no longer work toward a common good; children are no longer our first priority; businesses no longer value hard work; arts and skills have been lost; and gender is decided by the individual, not biology. We cannot reverse national and global trends, says professor Anthony Esolen, but we can build communities that live up to humanity's promise and responsibility. In Out of the Ashes, Esolen identifies the gaping problems in our society and lays out a blueprint for reconstruction that puts our future in the hands of individuals focused on the good of the local community.
©2017 eChristian (P)2017 eChristian
Faith Versus Fact
Summary
In his provocative new book, evolutionary biologist Jerry A. Coyne lays out in clear, dispassionate detail why the toolkit of science, based on reason and empirical study, is reliable, while that of religion - including faith, dogma, and revelation - leads to incorrect, untestable, or conflicting conclusions. Coyne is responding to a national climate in which over half of Americans don't believe in evolution (and congressmen deny global warming), and warns that religious prejudices and strictures in politics, education, medicine, and social policy are on the rise. Extending the best-selling works of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens, he demolishes the claims of religion to provide verifiable "truth" by subjecting those claims to the same tests we use to establish truth in science. Coyne irrefutably demonstrates the grave harm - to individuals and to our planet - in mistaking faith for fact in making the most important decisions about the world we live in.
©2015 Jerry A. Coyne (P)2015 Tantor
The Fisherman's Tomb
Summary
A Texas oilman. A brilliant female archaeologist. An unknown world underneath the Vatican. In 1939, a team of workers beneath the Vatican unearthed an early Christian grave. This surprising discovery launched a secret quest that would last decades a quest to discover the long-lost burial place of the Apostle Peter. From earliest times, Christian tradition held that Peter, a lowly fisherman from Galilee, whom Christ made leader of his church was executed in Rome by Emperor Nero and buried on Vatican Hill. But his tomb had been lost to history. Now, funded anonymously by a wealthy American, a small army of workers embarked on the dig of a lifetime. The incredible, sometimes shocking, story of the 75-year search and its key players has never been fully told until now. The quest would pit one of the 20th century's most talented archaeologists - a woman - against top Vatican insiders. The Fisherman's Tomb is a story of the triumph of faith and genius against all odds. About the Author: John O'Neill is a lawyer and a number one New York Times best-selling author. He has spent much of his life visiting and researching early Christian sites. He is a 1967 graduate of the Naval Academy, a former law clerk to Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and senior partner at a large international law firm.
©2018 John O’Neill (P)2018 John O’Neill
The Varieties of Scientific Experience
Summary
Carl Sagan's prophetic vision of the tragic resurgence of fundamentalism and the hope-filled potential of the next great development in human spirituality The late great astronomer and astrophysicist describes his personal search to understand the nature of the sacred in the vastness of the cosmos. Exhibiting a breadth of intellect nothing short of astounding, Sagan presents his views on a wide range of topics, including the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets, creationism and so-called intelligent design, and a new concept of science as "informed worship". Originally presented at the centennial celebration of the famous Gifford Lectures in Scotland in 1985 but never published, this book offers a unique encounter with one of the most remarkable minds of the twentieth century. PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.
©2006 Democritus Properties, LLC. (P)2017 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.
Awakened Imagination
Summary
Awakened Imagination includes the bonus works "The Search" and "Prayer: The Art of Believing". Neville Goddard (1905-1972) was one of the most extraordinary and ardently practical spiritual thinkers of the past century. Writing and lecturing under the solitary name Neville, this modern mystic enthralled audiences with one simple, radical principle: the human imagination is God. Whatever you think and feel, Neville taught, you literally out-picture in your world. Here are three of Neville's most concise and persuasive statements on the creative powers of your mind: Awakened Imagination (1954); "The Search" (1946); and "Prayer: The Art of Believing" (1945). Each written at the peak of Neville's career, these works offer bracingly original ideas and easy-to-use methods, designed to produce immediate results in your life. Narrated by historian Mitch Horowitz (Occult America; One Simple Idea), this collection will leave you with a vastly expanded sense of your self-potential, and what it means to be human.
Public Domain (P)2014 Gildan Media LLC
The Case for the Real Jesus
Summary
Has modern scholarship debunked the traditional Christ? Has the church suppressed the truth about Jesus to advance its own agenda? What if the real Jesus is far different from the atoning Savior worshipped through the centuries? In The Case for the Real Jesus, former award-winning legal editor Lee Strobel explores such hot-button questions as: Did the church suppress ancient nonbiblical documents that paint a more accurate picture of Jesus than the four Gospels? Did the church distort the truth about Jesus by tampering with early New Testament texts? Do new insights and explanations finally disprove the resurrection? Have fresh arguments disqualified Jesus from being the Messiah? Did Christianity steal its core ideas from earlier mythology? Evaluate the arguments and evidence being advanced by prominent atheists, liberal theologians, Muslim scholars, and others. Sift through expert testimony. Then, reach your own verdict in The Case for the Real Jesus.
©2007 Lee Strobel (P)2007 Zondervan
Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: Audio Lectures
Summary
The Zondervan Biblical and Theological Lectures series provides a unique audio learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook's direct narration of a book's text, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: Audio Lectures includes high-quality live recordings of college-level lectures that cover the important points from each subject as well as relevant material from other sources. Building on the powerful story and arguments he shared in Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, author Nabeel Qureshi takes viewers deeper into apologetics and evangelism among Muslims with this complete audio lecture course. In eight sessions of about 30 minutes each, he explores Muslim culture, the most common Muslim objections to Christianity, and the core doctrines upon which Islam stands or falls. Compassionate and clear, Nabeel's lectures will be a useful training tool for pastors, outreach leaders, and any believers wanting to winsomely engage Muslims in spiritual conversations. Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: Audio Lectures develops in further detail the objections to Islam and case for Christianity that Qureshi introduced in Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus. This accessible course is perfect for adult classes, small groups, segments in college or seminary courses, and motivated independent learners alike.
©2017 Nabeel Qureshi (P)2017 Zondervan
A Politics of Love
Summary
In this stirring call to arms, the activist, spiritual leader, and New York Times best-selling author of the classic Return to Love confronts the cancerous politics of fear and divisiveness threatening the US today, urging all spiritually aware Americans to return to - and act out of - our deepest value: love. America’s story is one of great social achievement. From the abolitionists who fought to outlaw slavery, to the suffragettes who championed women’s right to vote, to the civil rights proponents who battled segregation and institutionalized white supremacy, to the proponents of the women’s movement and gay rights seeking equality for all, citizens for generations have risen up to fulfill the promise of our nation. Over the course of America’s history, these activists have both embodied and enacted the nation’s deepest values. Today, America is once again is in turmoil. A spiritual cancer of fear threatens to undo the progress we have achieved. Discord and hatred are dissolving our communal bonds and undermining the spirit of social responsibility - the duty we feel toward one another. In this powerful spiritual manifesto, Marianne Williamson offers a tonic for this cultural malignancy. She urges us to imitate the heroes of our past and live out our deepest spiritual commitment: where some have sown hatred, let us now sow love. Williamson argues that we must do more than respond to external political issues. We must address the deeper, internal causes that have led to this current dysfunction. We need a new, whole-person politics of love that stems not just from the head but from the heart, not just from intellectual understanding but from a genuine affection for one another. By committing to love, we will make a meaningful contribution to the joyful, fierce, and disruptive energies that are rising at this critical point in time. In the words of Abraham Lincoln, "we must think anew, and act anew...and then we shall save our country".
©2019 Marianne Williamson (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers
The Map of Heaven
Summary
The author of the number-one New York Times best seller Proof of Heaven teams up with the sages of times past, modern scientists, and with ordinary people who have had profound spiritual experiences to show the reality of heaven and our true identities as spiritual beings. WhenProof of Heaven was published, some people contacted Dr. Eben Alexander to argue that his near death experience was impossible. But many more have written to say his story resonated with them in profound ways. Because of what these people have told him, Dr. Alexander has come to realize that sharing his story has allowed people to believe what so many in ancient times knew: there is more to life, and to the universe, than this single earthly life. Dr. Alexander met and heard from thousands of individuals whom his story has affected. He also studied what the world’s religious traditions, and its philosophers, have had to say about the soul’s survival of death, and he has been deeply surprised at how often those voices from the past synch up with what he heard from people today. In The Map of Heaven, he shares some of the stories that the people have told him and links them up with what the world’s spiritual traditions have to say about the journey of the soul. Part metaphysical detective story, part manual for living, The Map of Heaven explores humankind’s spiritual history and the birth of modern science in the 17th century, showing how we forgot, and are now at last remembering, who we really are and what our true destiny really is.
©2014 Eben Alexander (P)2014 Simon & Schuster Audio
Jesus Untangled
Summary
What if the greatest threat to Christianity in America was American Christianity? As the Church has become increasingly entangled in the pursuit of politics, the Gospel has become tarnished and often abandoned as the primary focus of the Body of Christ. Jesus Untangled is a prophetic call for the Church to awaken from the "American Dream" and to return to her first love. Because, as the author powerfully demonstrates, you can't convert a culture that has already converted you.
©2017 Keith Giles (P)2017 Keith Giles
Agnostic
Summary
A widely admired writer on religion celebrates agnosticism as the most vibrant and engaging - and, ultimately, the most honest - stance toward the mysteries of existence. One in four Americans rejects any affiliation with organized religion, and nearly half of those under 30 describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious". But as the airwaves resound with the haranguing of preachers and pundits, who speaks for the millions who find no joy in whittling the wonder of existence to a simple yes/no choice? Lesley Hazleton does. In this provocative, brilliant book, she gives voice to the case for agnosticism, breaks it free of its stereotypes as watered-down atheism or amorphous "seeking", and celebrates it as a reasoned, revealing, and sustaining stance toward life. Stepping over the lines imposed by rigid conviction, she draws on philosophy, theology, psychology, science, and more to explore, with curiosity and passion, the vital role of mystery in a deceptively information-rich world; to ask what we mean by the search for meaning; to invoke the humbling yet elating perspective of infinity; to challenge received ideas about death; and to reconsider what "the soul" might be. Inspired and inspiring, Agnostic recasts the question of belief not as a problem to be solved but as an invitation to an ongoing, open-ended adventure of the mind.
©2016 Lesley Hazelton (P)2016 Penguin Audio