A new collection of poetry and prayer. Vosper once again gives expression to the beauty and complexity of life in ways that can touch and move us on many levels. Identifying our interconnectedness as a core principle of our common, human journey, Vosper plays with imagery and symbol, weaving us into a whole that lifts and ennobles us all.

WHY WEREN’T WE TOLD? A Handbook on ‘progressive’ Christianity — edited by Rex Hunt and John Smith — (Polebridge Press (Westar Institute)) Progressive Christianity is not new. It has been around for two hundred years or more. But …

Somewhere between zen and folktales, somewhere between child’s play and wisdom, somewhere between dreaming the world and healing it. Read these stories aloud – to your child, to your love, or to yourself beneath a sacred tree.

Kelley believes that there are far more people like himself outside of the Church than in it: men and women who find modern urban life a “sterile, isolating experience,” but who have a questioning approach to all religious issues, and a struggle with how to maintain intellectual integrity in the face of dogma.

Hungers of the Heart is written especially for persons who tend to be “turned off” by organized religion, but want to develop a deeper personal spiritual life.

The Phoenix Affirmations, named for the town in which the principles were created and the mythological bird adopted by ancient Christians as a symbol of resurrection, offers disillusioned and spiritually homeless Christians and others a sense of hope and a more tolerant, joyful, and compassionate message than those we often hear from the media and some Christian leaders.

In Darwin and Divinity…, Sanguin has provided a new and exciting paradigm for thinking Christians and spiritual seekers alike. He has provided a basis for a deep theological shift, a fresh cosmology and a new way of perceiving our reality based on excellent scholarship, both scientific and biblical. And he has done that in a very readable way that is open to anyone who yearns to learn. It is on top of our recommended reading list. ~Fred C. Plumer President

The conflict between an academic and a popular version of Christianity is the divide which exists between the clergy and the laity. It is his conviction that this divide threatens the “core of the church’s mission” and is a major cause of the loss of membership among the mainline Protestant churches.

Faith, Hope and Love: The Pillars of Progressive Christianity reaches out to those who have been uncomfortable with the Christianity of their God, and to those who have been searching for a new kind of spirituality based on progressive Christian principles.

In this invigorating, poetic and imaginative paperback, Morwood shares prayers that can be used in small groups that reflect a fresh and bold reframing of Christian views of God, the universe, Jesus, the Spirit, and holidays such as Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and Pentecost. Here you will read about an everywhere God instead of an elsewhere God, who is present and active in every corner of the universe and in every dimension of our everyday life.

In a slender book rich with large and profound ideas, Hedrick collects 13 essays solicited from scholars in religion (including himself) that answer the broad question of how faith is understood when it conflicts with reason, science, or scholarship.

For those who believe that books for children should teach a lesson, have a moral, be upbeat and inclusive, this is the book for them.

The light, like many things in life, is something to be treasured but not contained, appreciated but always free. Here is a story to light ones evenings any time of year.

Ellis provides readers with a step-by-step depiction of a food chain that exists in a pond.

“The Dandelion Seed” is a story about a seed that is scared to let go, but the wind blows it away. It sees a lot of different things in the world and eventually lands, turns into a dandelion flower, and then casts its own seeds.This popular, simple book is beautiful and touching.

“Inside all / Is a universe / Energy flowing.” So begins a journey at the outermost edge of everything. Inside the universe is a galaxy, milky and glowing, and inside the galaxy is a planet, blue and hopeful. The text moves from space to earth, from valley to village, and finally to a home where a child sleeps.

A delightful tail of how an acorn grows into a mighty oak tree, helps sustain other life, and eventually dies and continues to give life to others. The images are wonderfully detailed and beautifully colored.

This beautiful liturgy book includes prayers and reflections for general nurture as well as prayers directed to special liturgical events like Baptism, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

These are new prayers for a new age. They spark the spiritual imagination back to life and reorient us to a mystical unity with the universe, Spirit, and all of creation.

This collection offers a theologically rich and musically flexible resource for those who lead young children in music experiences in the church or at home.

Seeking Wisdom includes more than two hundred inclusive, interfaith blessings and prayers for public occasions. These blessings and prayers can be adapted or combined to fit specific occasions, providing a valuable resource for clergy and laypersons.

Kissing Fish presents a postmodern systematic theology of Progressive Christianity, a growing movement that reclaims the radical message of the Gospel.

Rev.Tom Thresher draws on his years of experience in leading his chruch to lay out some innovative approaches to comprehending Christian worship and worshipers. He shares details about Christian Fellowship activities on behalf of worshipers and the church.

The term “resurrection” has come to stand for what Christianity is all about. But a close look reveals that it should not be understood monolithically, but rather as a pluralistic and diverse phenomenon.

Religion is being bombarded from every quarter—by scientists, spiritualists, agnostics, ex-believers, non-believers and even those who had never bothered with it in the first place.

Gregory C. Jenks latest book, The Once and Future Bible, offers lessons on making the bible relevant for today’s progressive believers.

This is a masterful and engaging account of how humans through centuries and cultures have engaged and experienced the divine. Webb includes her own experiences, both personal and observed from travel in fifty countries, as well as centuries of theology, literature and travel writing. She meanders along winding trails, talk over the fence and drink wine with a stranger, literally and figuratively. To engage the larger-than-description Sacred, we need all the stories we can find, even if only to remind us the distance still to go and the limitless (sometimes unsuccessful) journey. As a teacher of world religions and art, and an artist, this will not be a string of anecdotes, but a woven together, reader-friendly, vividly painted, theologically reflective whole.

Author Schaeffer (Keeping Faith) adopts a feisty tone in this essay about evangelical Christianity and aggressive atheism. In the first half of the book, he rebuts justifications from both sides, taking aim at the ideas of such celebrity atheists as Richard Dawkins as well as religious leaders like Rick Warren. Schaeffer asks each side to allow for an evolving religion in which allegory takes precedence over literalism. In the second half, he gives space for his own memories, recalling moments that led him to a middle path of “hopeful uncertainty.”

In Coming Back to Earth, Geering concludes that the most credible scenario for Christianity s future depends on accepting the Gaia concept as a powerful modern myth that will sustain individual humans spiritually, and our planetary home ecologically.

Sometimes the universe seems so big, so scary. All over the world, children want the same thing ; the comfort of knowing that they belong…

“The science vs. religion debate is over! A path forward emerges! Michael Dowd masterfully unites rationality and spirituality in a world view that celebrates the mysteries of existence and inspires each human being to achieve a higher purpose in life. A powerful book! A must read for all, including scientists.” – Craig Mello, 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine

In Brenda Peterson’s unusual memoir, fundamentalism meets deep ecology. The author’s childhood in the high Sierra with her forest ranger father led her to embrace the entire natural world, while her Southern Baptist relatives prepared eagerly and busily to leave this world. Peterson survived fierce “sword drill” competitions demanding total recall of the Scriptures and awkward dinner table questions (“Will Rapture take the cat, too?”) only to find that environmentalists with prophecies of doom can also be Endtimers. Peterson paints such a hilarious, loving portrait of each world that the reader, too, may want to be Left Behind. Her clever take on the “Left Behind” phenomenon in the book’s title isn’t just a gentle refutation of an escapist religious prophecy. It’s an appeal for something more inclusive than the idea that true believers will one day be swept up midair and whisked off to an eternal paradise, leaving the rest of us to fend for ourselves.

Morwood’s books have been especially insightful and helpful to adults struggling with prayer and ritual while radically reconstructing their Christian faith.  This book is for adult Christians engaged in this shift, now asking the vital questions: How do we educate children into this new faith perspective?  How do we pray with them if prayer is not about addressing an external, listening Deity?

This book presents the biological principle of emergence and applies it to culture shifting in congregations. The universe knows how to do life from the inside-out. By moving away from cultures of command and control to a more natural organic model, congregations discover the key to their power and the secret to sustained vitality.

In Jesus Reconsidered, readers will hear the diverse voices of pioneering scholars, some of whom put their reputations and careers on the line when, in 1985, they chose to go public with scholarship that had been common knowledge in scholarly circles for more than a hundred years.

This concise, well-edited book brings together insights from world-renowned scholars into the interpretation of parables.