In a breakthrough book first published in 1991, the authors address the dynamics in churches that can ensnare people in legalism, guilt, and begrudging service, keeping them from the grace and joy of God's kingdom.Written for both those who feel abused and those who may be causing it, The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse shows how people get hooked into abusive systems, the impact of controlling leadership on a congregation, and how the abused believer...

In a time before technology asserted its domination of society, two high school classmates have decided to make a go of it. A simple life, a pure love, and an unexpected event give the couple more than they ever thought two American teenagers could handle, but they go for it, nonetheless. Certain about their educational goals and content in their faith, Merle and Susan open a pathway to a fulfilling future by sticking together and doing the best they...

Followers of the Brexit saga will recognize the following as the establishment's way of blocking something that it does not want and does not agree with, stifling stories, hiding its mistakes through methods ranging from leaked stories to the press, prevarication, using procedures to delay and stifle initiatives, utilizing precedents established hundreds of years ago, making things seem more difficult than they really are, embargoes on documents and...

Quaker spirituality is at its core a contemplative practice which is based on the path taught and lived by Jesus. The traditional Quaker experience is that the Spirit of God communicates directly to each and every person, especially when we spend time in silence, and is experienced mainly as an Inward Light in the conscience. Further, as this Inward Light is followed, we are granted more light and greater purity of heart or holiness, and we become...

After the funeral, as Jack Brown stood by the grave of his father, Bill, his eyes displayed different feelings, true feelings, of anger and disgust towards his father as he muttered, "Rot in hell you old bastard." Jack couldn't forgive his father for the misery he had caused him and his friend, Harold, for their arrest as deserters during World War One, when he would have known full well the penalty for desertion was the firing squad. The same went...

This is the tale of two men. The first is Henry Tandey, an ordinary man later deemed to be 'a hero of the old berserk type', born and brought up in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, who displayed extraordinary courage to emerge from the First World War as the most decorated British private to survive. The second is Adolf Hitler, who was highly decorated in his service to Germany in the First World War and went on to become one of the most infamous...

Ninguna persona debería marcharse de la iglesia por sentirse manipulada, controlada, humillada o condenada. Pero el abuso puede ocurrir en los lugares de refugio y ánimo si los líderes espirituales empiezan a abusar de su autoridad para satisfacer sus necesidades de importancia, poder, o gratificación espiritual. En esta obra descubrirás como identificar a la iglesia abusiva y también como liberarte de su legalismo destructivo. Entre los temas...

The next three lectures address the big question: What is the nature of the mind? Start with the celebrated "hard problem" of consciousness: How does the brain produce the mind? Investigate two possible answers and explore why many philosophers consider both to be problematic.

Wickedness has its rewards, which raises the question: Why bother being good? Explore this issue with Plato, whose dialogue The Republic is a detailed description of a highly regulated, virtuous society. Plato contends that the individual achieves virtue in an analogous way.

Could the happiness or absence of pain that results from an action define whether it is good? The Greek philosopher Epicurus held this view, which was fine-tuned by utilitarian philosophers Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill. Study objections to this outlook.