Gifts of the Visitation: A Q&A with Catholic Convert Denise Bossert

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 4:34 pm By Deborah Arca

“As Evangelical Protestants, we rarely spoke of Mary, and we avoided the story of the Visitation completely. And yet, Mary is the perfect model of evangelization. She shared Jesus Christ first, and she shared Him fully. Everything we need to know about sharing Christ is embedded in Mary’s story.” — Denise Bossert, Catholic author and convert The daughter and former wife of Protestant ministers, Denise Bossert converted to Catholicism in 2005 after being inspired by the books of St. John... Read more

Stump a Scholar: John H. Walton on Adam and Eve

Last updated on: March 26, 2015 at 1:44 pm By Guest Contributor

A new book on Adam and Eve and the human origins debate by Old Testament scholar John H. Walton has created significant buzz this week at Patheos. We invited our Facebook followers to try and stump our scholar, by asking Dr. Walton any question related to the book they wanted. We received some 45 comments and questions– from the serious (“Assuming the Genesis stories are allegorical, what are the lessons we should take away from them?”) to the silly (“Did they have bellybuttons?”). Today,... Read more

Maybe It’s Less About What We Do and More About How We Go About Doing It: A Review of ‘The Grand Paradox’

Last updated on: March 5, 2015 at 3:55 pm By Guest Contributor

If you enjoy pretentious, feel-good Christian non-sense written by men who claim to have a secret understanding of God's will for mankind, this is not the book for you. If you crave a voice who is willing to acknowledge the seemingly limitless ironies, and frustrations of our daily attempt to live out faith in a spiritual reality in the midst of a physical, skeptical world and the challenges we all face in the process, bon appetite. Read more

Are Adam and Eve For Real? A Q&A with Author John Walton

Last updated on: March 3, 2015 at 4:19 pm By Guest Contributor

“We too easily believe that the world of biblical interpretation is a black and white world—that whatever view we have adopted is right and everyone else is wrong. Such a view is too facile. In many cases we do our best to be faithful interpreters, but the Bible just doesn’t offer enough information to give irreproachable confidence.” — John H. Walton, author, The Lost World of Adam and Eve Following his groundbreaking The Lost World of Genesis One, which examined propositions... Read more

St. Patrick, AA, and Vulnerable Faith: A Q&A with Jamie Arpin-Ricci

Last updated on: March 2, 2015 at 10:24 pm By Deborah Arca

“Who willingly exposes their weaknesses? Yet that is exactly that path Jesus calls us to tread, and for good reason: There is more hope in honest brokenness than in the pretense of false wholeness. — Jamie Arpin-Ricci, author, Vulnerable Faith This month at the Patheos Book Club, we’re featuring a new book by inner city pastor Jamie Arpin-Ricci called Vulnerable Faith: Missional Living in the Radical Way of St. Patrick. In this exclusive interview, Arpin-Ricci shares the story behind the book, how his... Read more

Tongue Pierced: A Review

Last updated on: March 2, 2015 at 3:04 pm By Amber Stamper

Nelson Searcy and Jennifer Dykes Henson’s Tongue Pierced: How the Words You Speak Transform the Life You Live is an accessible and timely book. The rise of social media has made it possible for our words to be broadcast much further and with greater ease than ever before. The ability to speak “anonymously” from behind a computer screen and the ease with which we can drop in and out of online conversations create additional challenges when attempting to be accountable... Read more

Frank Rogers’ Practicing Compassion: A Book Review

Last updated on: February 27, 2015 at 1:04 pm By Amber Stamper

This is a text that is, at the very least, a reminder of the value of love towards others and a source of encouragement for expressing this love with more intention and focus. And certainly there is room for one more text promoting such a noble ideal on our shelves. Read more

What is the Holy Spirit? A 40 Day Journey with Jack Levison

Last updated on: February 23, 2015 at 4:58 pm By Guest Contributor

We seem to know much about God, the Father of the Trinity. We know even more about Jesus, the Son of the Trinity. But that about the third aspect? We often believe the Holy Spirit is a mystery, a vague being about which we don’t know much about. Frequently, we don’t care to learn more about this part of God, because it either seems scary or can come across as bordering on crazy. This, of course, is a bit disconcerting,... Read more

Watch Your Tongue: A Q&A with Author Nelson Searcy

Last updated on: February 12, 2015 at 4:53 pm By Deborah Arca

“Words are never neutral. None of us has ever spoken a neutral word in our entire life. Every word that comes out of your mouth and mine has a consequence attached to it, and that consequence will either be positive or negative.” — Nelson Searcy, author, Tongue Pierced This month in the Patheos Book Club, we’re talking about the new book Tongue Pierced: How the Words You Speak Transform the Life You Live, by popular pastor Nelson Searcy. Here, Searcy talks... Read more

On Stealing from God: Why Atheists Need God to Make Their Case

Last updated on: February 9, 2015 at 5:06 pm By Guest Contributor

Author Interview with Frank Turek Your new book has the provocative title, Stealing from God: Why Atheists Need God to Make Their Case. The back cover says: “What if your best arguments against God prove that He really exists?” How are atheists stealing from God and proving He exists? Atheists are using aspects of reality to argue against God that wouldn’t exist if atheism were true. In other words, when atheists give arguments for their atheistic worldview, they are... Read more