A Brief Memoir of Elizabeth Fry by Goff, David N.
Synopsis The leader of the prison reform movement, Elizabeth Fry was a spiritually grounded woman. She spoke in worship, helped the needy and was a champion for women and children in prison. Read her remarkable story. Includes questions for eight lessons for group or individual study. Your price $16.00 New Trade Paperback
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Fit For Freedom Not For Friendship Quake by Donna McDaniel
Synopsis The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) has been reputed to have opposed enslavement and later racial injustices. Many members, however, enslaved people of African descent, and Quaker attitudes toward African Americans since have generally reflected the culture at large. To some extent, then, the Quaker story has lessons for us all. Most Quakers did not become involved in the process of banning enslavement until 1760, after thirty years of taking only minimal steps to end Quaker participation in it. The process ultimately took another twenty years to complete. The Quaker stance against enslavement, however, was singular. No other Christian denomination of notable size at the time required its members to end the practice. Donna McDaniel and Vanessa Julye document three centuries of Quakers who were committed to ending racial injustices yet, with few exceptions, hesitated to invite African Americans into their Society. Addressing the insidious and complex racism among Quakers of yesterday and today, the authors believe, is the path toward a racially inclusive community. Your price $33.95 New Trade Paperback
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Plan C Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil & Climate Change by Pat Murphy
Publisher Comments Library Journal This book goes further than any of the other titles considered here, both in terms of the deep societal ills it examines and the radical solutions it proposes. It is not just peak oil, but peak AmericaMurphy takes as his subject. His plan is based on "curtailment" - we must not only make drastic cuts in our use of fossil fuels, but also cut our rates of consumption, buy less, use less, want less, waste less, watch less televsion, eat better foods, give up driving private cars, and become, in short, "a nation with new values." Murphy's work is perhaps easy to dismiss - i.e. fringe, hairshirted- but if, as the best scientific evidence suggests, the world is already in a dangerous state of overshoot, then its message may not be that far out after all. Reviewed by Robert EaganCanadian Moneysaver Plan C is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in living a lower energy, saner, more sustainable lifestyle. If you accept the plethora of research supporting energy depletion (oil, gas and coal) and climate change globally, you must read this book. Written without big business or a political bias, this objective author provides the framework for future development. Shrewd investors beware. Reviewed by Dale Ennis Concerns over climate change and energy depletion are increasing exponentially. Mainstream solutions still assume a panacea that will cure our climate ills without requiring any serious modification to our way of life. Plan Cexplores the risks inherent in trying to continue our energy-intensive lifestyle. Using dirtier fossil fuels (Plan A) or switching to renewable energy sources (Plan B) allows people to remain complacent in the face of potential global catastrophe. Dramatic lifestyle change is the only way to begin to create a sustainable, equitable world. The converging crises of Peak Oil, climate change, and increasing inequity are presented in a clear, concise manner, as are the twin solutions of community (where cooperation replaces competition) and curtailment (deliberately reducing consumption of consumer goods). Plan Cshows how each person’s individual choices can dramatically reduce CO2 emissions. It offers specific strategies in the areas of food, transportation, and housing. One chapter analyzes the decimation of the Cuban economy when the USSR stopped oil exports in 1990 and provides an inspiring vision for a low-energy way of living. Plan Cis an indispensable resource for anyone interested in living a lower-energy, saner, and more sustainable lifestyle. Pat Murphyis the executive director of The Community Solution. He co-wrote and co-produced the award-winning documentary The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, has initiated four major Peak Oil conferences, and has given numerous presentations and workshops on the subject. He has extensive construction experience and developed low-energy buildings during the nation’s first oil crisis. Trade Paperback
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Beautiful Soul of John Woolman Apostle of Abolition by Thomas P Slaughter
Publisher Comments JohnWoolman was one of the most significant Americans of the eighteenth century, though he was not a famous politician, general, scientist, or man of letters, and he never held public office. This superb book makes it clear why he mattered so much. A humble tailor known at first only to the other Quakers who encountered him at meetings in New Jersey, Philadelphia, and New England, Woolman became a prophetic voice for the entire Anglo-American world when he spoke out against the evils of slavery.Thomas P. Slaughters deft, dramatic narrative reveals how it was that the mysticWoolman became an unforgettable public figure, his gospel infused with a benign confidence that ordinary people could achieve spiritual perfection. Placing Woolman in the full context of his times, Slaughter paints the portrait of a hero—and not just for the Quakers, social reformers, labor organizers, socialists, and peace advocates who have long admired him. Hardcover
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Jesus for President Politics for Ordinary Radicals by Claiborne, Shane and Haw, Chris
Publisher Comments Jesus for President is a radical manifesto to awaken the Christian political imagination, reminding us that our ultimate hope lies not in partisan political options but in Jesus and the incarnation of the peculiar politic of the church as a people "set apart" from this world. In what can be termed lyrical theology, Jesus for President poetically weaves together words and images to sing (rather than dictate) its message. It is a collaboration of Shane Claiborne's writing and stories, Chris Haw's reflections and research, and art and design. Drawing upon the work of biblical theologians, the lessons of church history, and the examples of modern-day saints and ordinary radicals, Jesus for President stirs the imagination of what the Church could look like if it placed its faith in Jesus instead of Caesar.
A fresh look at Christianity and empire, Jesus for President transcends questions of "Should I vote or not?" and "Which candidate?" by thinking creatively about the fundamental issues of faith and allegiance. It's written for those who seek to follow Jesus, rediscover the spirit of the early church, and incarnate the kingdom of God. Your price $5.95 Used Trade Paperback
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Quakerism: A Theology for Our Time by Patricia A. Williams
Synopsis Quakerism: A Theology for Our Time elucidates the original Quaker theology of the seventeenth century and demonstrates how it is complemented by modern science and biblical criticism for fruition faith. Trade Paperback
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American in Gandhis India The Biography of Satyanand Stokes by Asha Sharma
Publisher Comments Samuel Evans Stokes, Jr., a son of a prominent Philadelphia family, was a 21-year-old Quaker missionary when he arrived in India in 1904 to work in a home for lepers. He soon became disillusioned with the foreign missionary community and began a new spiritual quest, adopting Indian dress, forgoing the privileges of a Westerner in colonial India, and founding a mendicant religious brotherhood. Later in life he married a Rajput Christian girl, converted to Hinduism, and adopted a new name. Stokes became a leader in Gandhi's independence movement in the 1920s, and was the only American jailed by the British for this cause. He is most often remembered in India, however, as the man who introduced American Delicious apples to the Himalayas. An American in Gandhi's India draws on oral history and interviews as well as Stokes's books, journals, and letters. Sharma's fascinating account offers a rare glimpse into a century of interaction between India and the United States. Trade Paperback
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Through Flaming Sword by Arthur O. Roberts
Synopsis Arthur O. Roberts illuminates the passion, struggles, and legacy of a man committed to authentic Christian living at a critical time in history. George Fox, desiring a kingdom of truth and love on this side of the flaming sword of Eden, led a seventeenth-century spiritual awakening that attracted thousands of peoplepeople who became known as the Society of Friends (Quakers). Through Flaming Sword is both a spiritual biography of Fox and a closer look at Foxs legacy, particularly his thoughts on Christian holiness and the nature of the church. Todays restless pilgrims, troubled by the world and diligently trying to follow Jesus, will find in Fox a spirited companion for the journey. Your price $16.00 New Trade Paperback
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Love of Impermanent Things A Threshold Ecology by Mary Rose Oreilley
Publisher Comments Reflecting on the past and a hard-won sense of self, Mary OReilley is determined not to sacrifice or waste herself. At midlife, she writes, she is finally learning to withhold after years of struggle on paths set by her suburban childhood, her Catholic upbringing, and a failed marriage. With a new perspective, O'Reilley discovers the pleasure in overlapping worlds and the intersections where rules break down, and she cultivates this border ecology. An animal rehabilitator, she feels the nearness yet difference of the universe the animals know. An apprentice potter, she sees in a Japanese teabowl the ultimate balance of action and contemplation. A woman who lives alone but has a life partner, she knows the joys of both solitude and companionship. And as a Quaker, she can both sit still and sing. This thoughtful book brings readers into a demo” life that conveys new ways of seeing and a fresh vocabulary for exploring issues of the spirit. Trade Paperback
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Standing in the Light My Life as a Pantheist by Sharman Apt Russell
Publisher Comments Everything is connected, and the web is holy.” So wrote Marcus Aurelius, the starting point of Sharman Apt Russells wise and haunting new memoir about her life as a pantheist. Perhaps no other religious philosophy is as simple and inclusive as pantheism. What is, right now, is divine; there is no god apart from the universe itself. In Standing in the Light, Russell explores the history of this tradition from the Stoic philosophers to the Transcendentalists while reflecting on her own life during a year spent in the mountains and desert of southwestern New Mexico. A season of banding birds, the migration of sandhill cranes, the panicked charge of a young javelina-nature provides the inspiration for meditations on subjects ranging from Buddhist thought to the death of her father, from the Quaker tradition to the sadness of children leaving home, from global warming to the ineffable loneliness of human experience. With a humane heart, an inquisitive mind, and luminescent prose, Sharman Apt Russell invites skeptics, scientists, and seekers everywhere to join her in her exploration of the soul of pantheism. Hardcover
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