Civil Religion

Discover the Church That Changed History Dive into the extraordinary story of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church—a cornerstone of faith, freedom, and social justice. This beginner’s guide is your key to understanding a denomination that shaped history, empowered communities, and inspired generations. Experience a Remarkable Journey: Follow the AME Zion Church from its humble beginnings to its pivotal role in abolition, civil rights, and education. Learn how faith and resilience transformed a people and a nation. Uncover the Heroes of the Freedom Church: Meet the towering ...

Although Syria, since the 1960s, has been dominated by a decidedly secular-nationalist regime, the 2011 uprising has demonstrated that the role of Islam in the country’s social and religious scene cannot be underestimated.The uprising, which turned into a revolution and a civil war, created a deep schism among Sunni Muslim ulema who played an influential role in encouraging/discouraging protests.This book explores the views of M.S.R. al-Buti, one of the most outstanding Muslim Sunni scholars of contemporary Syria (d. 2013). Al-Buti opposed initial protests and considered the revolution as...

Everyone in Richmond has secrets. Especially the spies. Meg Brooks, widow, didn't stop spying for the Union when her job at the Pinkerton National Detective Agency ended, especially now that she lives in the Confederate capital. Her job at the Yancey bakery provides many opportunities to discover vital information about the Confederacy to pass on to her Union contact. She prefers to work alone, yet the strong, silent baker earns her respect and tugs at her heart. Cade Yancey knows the beautiful widow is a spy when he hires her only because his fellow Unionist spies know of her activities. ...

The wisdom acquired during C. T. Vivian's lifetime is generously shared in It's In the Action, the civil rights legend's memoir of his early life and time in the civil rights movement. Vivian worked hand in hand with the movement's most famous figures, including Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, and his contributions were no less vital to the successes of nonviolent resistance. Bearing a foreword from Andrew Young, It's in the Action is an important addition to civil rights history from Vivian and coauthor Steve Fiffer.

Fifteen-year-old Carolyn Maull McKinstry was just a few feet away when the Klan - planted bomb that killed four of her friends exploded in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. It was one of the seminal moments in the Civil Rights movement, a sad day in American history…and the turning point in a young girl's life.

The world’s discrimination and violence against women and girls is the most serious, pervasive, and ignored violation of basic human rights: This is President Jimmy Carter’s call to action. A Call to Action addresses the suffering inflicted upon women by a false interpretation of carefully selected religious texts and a growing tolerance of violence and warfare. Key verses are often omitted or quoted out of context by male religious leaders to exalt the status of men and exclude women.

Anticipating the arguments of modern libertarian political philosophers, Lipscomb presents a biblical view of a voluntary society. He questions the idea that governments are created for the public good and argues that peaceful civilization is not dependent on the state. Christians should not participate in politics but should attempt to persuade people to follow the laws of God rather than using force.

The hour is critical. The American republic is suffering its gravest crisis since the Civil War. Conflicts, hostility, and incivility now threaten to tear the country apart. Competing visions have led to a dangerous moment of cultural self-destruction. This is no longer politics as usual, but an era of political warfare where our enemies are not foreign adversaries, but our fellow citizens. Yet the roots of the crisis are deeper than many realize. Os Guinness argues that we face a fundamental crisis of freedom, as America's genius for freedom has become her Achilles' heel.

Written by Leonard Wibberley—author of over 100 novels, including The Mouse That Roared. A cynical, American journalist is tasked with interviewing an elderly priest named Father Felix who refuses to leave his mission, which is caught in the path of opposing armies during the Blemi Civil War in Africa. As Weathers makes his way to the mission, he learns more and more about this stubborn priest. When he finally arrives at the mission, his lack of faith in humanity is challenged. “This is a book guaranteed to make the reader feel good… suspenseful, provocative… uplifting.”—The ...

His army destroyed her livelihood. She represents the people he scorns. How can they reconcile their differences when the whole country is at war? When the Union Army marches into Roswell, Georgia, and burns down the cotton mill where Rose Carrigan worked, not only is her livelihood destroyed but she’s also taken prisoner and shipped northward with the other workers. Only the unlikely kindness of one of her guards makes the trip bearable. Union Captain Noah Griffin hates the part of his job that requires him to destroy the lives of innocent civilians, but at least he’s able to protect ...

"Hart serves up a dramatic romance with a side of intrigue. Fans of Civil War romance will enjoy this." — Publisher's Weekly In times of war, is anything as it seems? Her aunt’s invitation to Richmond is just the change Beatrice Swanson needs after her brother’s release from a Union prison. Bea’s father agrees to the trip with a condition—one that tosses her emotions into swirling confusion. Though Jay Nickson wants to serve his country as a Confederate soldier, his work is too important to the government. Bea’s interest in his job, which includes secrets that would benefit the ...

Adam Russell Taylor reimagines a contemporary version of the beloved community that will inspire and unite Americans across generations, geographic and class divides, racial and gender differences, faith traditions, and ideological leanings. In the beloved community, neither privilege nor punishment is tied to race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or economic status, and everyone is able to realize their full potential and thrive.

In his groundbreaking new book, Counterpunch, Floyd G. Brown issues both the battle cry and a strategic action plan for a populist movement in America that goes beyond any president or political party. Issue by issue, the Left chooses new markers in the sand and waits to see who will embrace their agenda. Those who don't are canceled and silenced. This leads to alienation and the feeling that violence is the only option left. Brown wants listeners to know there is another way, a civil disobedience of the state that allows us to be peaceful—and potentially more successful.

Amnesia stole his memory, and now he’s fighting for the wrong side. Orphaned and alone at sixteen, Felicity has found solace in serving others as a volunteer nurse. When she discovers her Confederate soldier beau, Luke Shea, among the wounded in her ward, her worst nightmares come true. Luke's shrapnel wound has stolen his memory, leaving him with no recollection of their love or his past. As Felicity struggles with the loss of the man she once knew, she turns her attention to the service of her broken country. But the more she learns about the brutal war, the more she realizes she can no...

What will we do with our lives, and with whom will we do it? In this story of flying and catching, Nouwen invites us all to let go and fly, even when we are afraid of falling. During the last five years of his life, best-selling spiritual author Henri J. M. Nouwen became close to The Flying Rodleighs, a trapeze troupe in a traveling circus. Like Nouwen’s own life, a trapeze act is full of artistry, exhilarating successes, crushing failures and continual forgiveness. He wrote about his experience in a genre new to him: creative non-fiction.

Two Southerners thrown together by the Union army. He’s on a quest for vengeance. She’s determined to preserve her family. Lydia Gibson’s life is overturned when the Union Army invades her hometown and burns down the cotton mill where she and her stepdaughter worked. Even worse, she and the other workers are arrested and sent to Marietta, where they wait for the army to send them north. Confederate Sergeant Seth Morgan finally reaches Marietta to check on his family, but the last thing he expects is to meet a woman who sparks attraction he thought he’d never feel again. ...

In 1765, 11 years before composing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson bought a Qur'an. This marked only the beginning of his lifelong interest in Islam, and he would go on to acquire numerous books on Middle Eastern languages, history, and travel, taking extensive notes on Islam as it relates to English common law. Jefferson sought to understand Islam notwithstanding his personal disdain for the faith, a sentiment prevalent among his Protestant contemporaries in England and America.

White privilege. Black Lives Matter. George Floyd. When it comes to racism in America, many of us feel confused, overwhelmed, angry - and eager to know how to engage in meaningful conversations and actions surrounding such a difficult topic. In Not So Black and White, public school communicator and internationally acclaimed speaker Reggie Dabbs and pastor John Driver team up to offer a hope-filled, convicting, inspiring look at how to be anti-racist in America today.

Few events have sparked more legends and stories of the supernatural than America's Civil War. The accounts of gallantry and heroism have spread far and wide. Nancy Roberts grew up listening to her father's stories of the War Between the States, and she trekked over many battle sites with him during her childhood. After reading about General Joshua Chamberlain's supernatural experience at the Battle of Gettysburg, Roberts began to collect tales of the blue and gray and write them down.

Among the pressing concerns of Americans in the first century of nationhood were day-to-day survival, political harmony, exploration of the continent, foreign policy, and - fixed deeply in the collective consciousness - hell and eternal damnation. The fear of fire and brimstone and the worm that never dies exerted a profound and lasting influence on Americans' ideas about themselves, their neighbors, and the rest of the world.