Amid all the controversy, criticism, and celebration of Terrence Malick's award-winning film The Tree of Life, what do we really understand of it? The Way of Nature and the Way of Grace thoughtfully engages the philosophical riches of life, culture, time, and the sacred through Malick's film. This innovative collection traverses the relationships among ontological, moral, scientific, and spiritual perspectives on the world, demonstrating how phenomenological work can be done in and through the cinematic medium, and attempting to bridge the gap between narrow "theoretical" works on film and their broader cultural and philosophical significance. Exploring Malick's film as a philosophical engagement, this readable and insightful collection presents an excellent resource for film specialists, philosophers of film, and film lovers alike.

Are you soul-weary? Do you struggle to make time for God in the midst of a packed schedule? Or do you sometimes stay so busy doing things for God that you can't relax and just "be"? Jesus faced amazing pressure and overwhelming demands throughout his ministry, but he did not experience the burnout so common today among Christian ministers and laypersons. You can learn the rhythm of living that Jesus demonstrates — the Cycle of Grace — throughout the Gospels. Use this workbook and accompanying video about the Cycle of Grace either individually or in a small group. The Cycle of Grace examines 4 components of a grace-filled life: Acceptance Sustenance Significance Fruitfulness Trevor Hudson, a dynamic pastor, author, and speaker, introduces each part of the Cycle of Grace in a short video segment (available on YouTube). The video segments are titled as follows: Cycle of Grace 1: Acceptance Cycle of Grace 2: Sustenance Cycle of Grace 3: Significance Cycle of Grace 4: Fruitfulness Cycle of Grace 5: A Grace-filled Way to Live In the workbook Jerry Haas provides practical exercises for individuals and groups, complete with suggestions for journaling and preparing for group sessions. This 6-week study will help you know that God loves you nurture your spiritual life understand who you are called to be in the world learn how to restore balance to your life The workbook includes a Leader's Guide and several useful appendixes. A must-have resource for clergy and lay leaders, The Cycle of Grace is also an excellent text for seminary and college classes preparing students for ministry.

“Perhaps you hunger to finally end the struggle of living from a consciousness of fear and separation. Perhaps you yearn for a saner, wiser, more spiritually elegant way to move through our world. Perhaps you are weary of the dizzying pace of a culture that drives us ever further from our true nature. There is another way: a way of Grace. This book is a hand of friendship to help you come to abide in the living presence that you are and always were.”—Miranda Macpherson, The Way of Grace Many of us struggle to truly live what we believe spiritually. What if closing that gap wasn’t about trying harder, but something quite the opposite? The Way of Grace is a guide to spiritual surrender and nondual realization based on the practice of ego relaxation—a holistic, feminine approach to welcoming all of your experience and responding with compassion and wisdom in a world in need of your unique gifts. “Grace has four primary dimensions, or ways that it comes alive,” explains Macpherson. “Ego relaxation gives us access to these dimensions, so we can stop trying to beat ourselves into spiritual shape and yield instead to an unshakable presence within.” In The Way of Grace, she shares reflections, inquiries, and meditation practices for each phase of your journey: • Relaxing into the Ground of Grace—move beyond identification with your personality and return to the felt sense of your connection to Grace as your natural and ever-present foundation • Receiving the Blessings of Grace—move beyond “the spiritual poverty of lack” and rediscover the gift of life in every moment through the portals of trust, humility, patience, and joy • The Transforming Power of Grace—move beyond that which limits your full freedom through forgiveness, compassion, unwinding ego identity, and abiding in your boundless nature • Living the Embodiment of Grace—continue to surrender anything that binds you into self-centered patterns and behaviors and become a “Grace-delivery device,” the presence of love here on Earth “Grace will always deepen, season, and bring out the very best in you,” writes Macpherson. “You are its embodiment, always and forever.” The Way of Grace will be your steady companion to “live as the fountain we were made to be, letting the living waters flow to quench our parched and tired Earth.” Foreword by Russ Hudson.

Meilander examines the relation between forming families through adoption and natural descent, explained through New Testament ideas of becoming a follower of Jesus through adoption.

Jesus' first recorded sermon in the Bible is a blueprint for being happy here on earth. And though His definition contains no prescriptions for acquiring cars, homes, or savings, it does require transformation and obedience. MacArthur examines Jesus' timeless definition of happiness, and explains that our reward for following Jesus' plan is citizenship in the kingdom of God- and an abiding joy that can never be taken away. Study guide and review included for individual or group study.

Extract from Augustine's Retractions (Book II, Chapter 42): At that time also there came into my hands a certain book of Pelagius', in which he defends, with all the argumentative skill he could muster, the nature of man, in opposition to the grace of God whereby the unrighteous is justified and we become Christians. The treatise which contains my reply to him, and in which I defend grace, not indeed as in opposition to nature, but as that which liberates and controls nature, I have entitled On Nature and Grace. In this work sundry short passages, which were quoted by Pelagius as the words of the Roman bishop and martyr, Xystus, were vindicated by myself as if they really were the words of this Sixtus. For this I thought them at the time; but I afterwards discovered, that Sextus the heathen philosopher, and not Xystus the Christian bishop, was their author. This treatise of mine begins with the words: 'The book which you sent me.'"

Conventional wisdom has it that thinking on nature and grace among Catholic intellectuals was severely clouded by the work of Cajetan and his fellow Thomistic commentators from about the sixteenth century to the eve of Vatican II. Henri de Lubac has rightly been given credit for pointing this out; and to all appearances, de Lubac's influence won the day, as can be seen by the imprint of his thought upon not just the Second Vatican Council, but also the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. However, in recent years, a new crop of Thomistic scholars has arisen who question whether de Lubac's word on nature and grace should be the last; hence, the debate over the nature-grace relation, so heated at mid-twentieth century, has been stirred once again. Dr. Swafford here offers a "third way" by way of the nineteenth-century German theologian Matthias J. Scheeben--who, for some reason, has never really been considered especially relevant to this debate. Swafford shows that Scheeben can capture the very best of both sides, while at the same time avoiding the characteristic pitfalls so often alleged against each.