In America's Holy Ground: 61 Faithful Reflections on Our National Parks, dive deeper into a unique aspect of each park, from Acadia to Zion, and reframe how you think about the parks and your faith. Connections, sabbath, reflection, perspective, beginnings, art, restoration - these are just a few of the themes you'll encounter on your national park journey. A trio of questions with each entry will help you see the bigger picture of your life and new ways to approach your relationship with God, your community, and your faith. Whether you're on the road or at home in your reading nook, think about your favorite national park in a whole new way!

From the authors of America’s Holy Ground: 61 Faithful Reflections on Our National Parks. The National Park Service oversees more than the 61 national parks; monuments and historic sites mark where important events in America’s story occurred, protect unique natural landmarks, and remember those who changed history. Brad Lyons and Bruce Barkhauer help you consider how your faith and values are reflected in those treasured places. America’s Holy Sites: 50 Faithful Reflections on Our National Monuments and Historic Landmarks visits an NPS site in each state, considering a unique trait of each place and connecting it to your own life. Courage, mercy, leadership, liberty – these are just a few of the themes you’ll explore on this unique journey. A scripture verse and a trio of questions take your experience deeper.

The second half of life--which we can enter at any age--is that time when we begin the process essential to a mature faith: discovering who we are, exploring our relationship with God, and beginning to let go. This part of life has a depth and spirituality all its own--a need for structure and rule, a tolerance of ambiguity, an exploration of limitation and mortality, and the deep work of discipline and detachment. Margaret Guenther brings her insights as a spiritual director to the gifts and opportunities of those of us who are on this journey to "holy ground." In each chapter, Toward Holy Ground explores the practical aspects of spirituality in midlife: intercessory prayer, a sense of community, a rule of life, lightheartedness, detachment, and stripping down, preparing for "a good death." A final chapter discusses practical aspects of ministry to the frail aged.

Since the 1950s, millions of American Christians have traveled to the Holy Land to visit places in Israel and the Palestinian territories associated with JesusOCOs life and death. Why do these pilgrims choose to journey halfway around the world? How do they react to what they encounter, and how do they understand the trip upon return? This book places the answers to these questions into the context of broad historical trends, analyzing how the growth of mass-market evangelical and Catholic pilgrimage relates to changes in American Christian theology and culture over the last sixty years, including shifts in Jewish-Christian relations, the growth of small group spirituality, and the development of a Christian leisure industry. Drawing on five years of research with pilgrims before, during and after their trips, a Walking Where Jesus Walked aoffers a lived religion approach that explores the tripOCOs hybrid nature for pilgrims themselves: both ordinaryOCotied to their everyday role as the familyOCOs ritual specialists, and extraordinaryOCosince they leave home in a dramatic way, often for the first time. Their experiences illuminate key tensions in contemporary US Christianity between material evidence and transcendent divinity, commoditization and religious authority, domestic relationships and global experience. Hillary Kaell crafts the first in-depth study of the cultural and religious significance of American Holy Land pilgrimage after 1948. The result sheds light on how Christian pilgrims, especially women, make sense of their experience in Israel-Palestine, offering an important complement to top-down approaches in studies of Christian Zionism and foreign policy."

Provides meditative reflections and photos from our 61 national parks, from Acadia to Zion, showing a unique aspect of each park and how it connects to your own life. The authors feature nearly 200 color photos, spiritual quotes and reflections, and guiding questions to take your park experience deeper. --Adapted from publisher description.

This book examines the relationship between American Protestants and Palestine from 1842-1917. The eastward views of Palestine drew the ancient biblical past into the present for Protestants, thus bringing a sharper focus to a new frontier and inventing the idea of a Christian Holy Land.