Religion Books

I'm sure I am like many others, brought up as an evangelical Christian, and also having a strong interest in science. At some point the two are difficult to reconcile, particularly with regard to evolution. This book provides a path to understanding and hope for future reduction in conflict as the world more fully accepts scientific truth and recognizes the sacred in science.

Michael Dowd claims himself as a Darwinian, but he barely know Darwin's theories. Nowhere in Darwin's work does he say humans evolved from monkeys, but rather that apes and humans had a common ancestor. By the way, the science never found a single sample of a missing link between apes and humans. He doesn't even skim on Darwin's theories. I wonder if he knows the differences between micro- and macroevolution, and what evidences were already presented by the scientific community about each one. On the other hand, he claims himself a Christian, but he mentions Christ with a new-age view which is far beyond what Jesus were. He proposes a Gospel according to himself and his delusions.
Even though I'm a Christian (not a "flat-earth Christian", but one who welcomes scientific discoveries, including those of Darwin's), this book was a complete disappointment, because, contrary to what the author proposes, he doesn't have really scientific nor theological support/arguments for his ideas. It was a waste of money and time.

This book is inspiring and life changing. It helps to pull together everything I have learned through my life, science and religion are not incompatable! Michael Dowd challenges each of us to write our own stories within this new paradigm that we, as humans, are co-creating. Check it out! It's a wonderful book.

This book does not deliver on its promise to somehow 'marry' science and religion. Traditional Christian theology and history such as the Fall and the Resurrection are twisted to such extreme degrees in order to fit into an evolutionary framework that the Christian who holds to his or her faith would not recognize these 'versions' as being, well, versions of their biblical contents! The 'science' of evolution is clearly the dominant theme in this book, with 'religion' taking a far removed second place and being significantly twisted to fit. The author even states that God does not hate death! Whose God is this? He states that God loves death because evolutionary processes will turn this death into something better for the future (his version of the resurrection)! The author states that The Fall and Original Sin are nothing more than, basically, our dissatisfaction with the present and what we have, and that there is always something more we want, etc. Of course, this is a very vague statement, and is so because many of the concepts he twists to make them fit into his real religion (evolutionary theory) are nothing more than mystical, fantastical, and really quite strange adaptations of traditional beliefs. You are, of course, welcome and free to read this book, but anybody who is able to reason for himself/herself or who holds a solid faith in the traditional biblical stories and themes will quickly be able to 'separate the chaff from the wheat' as the saying goes. Of course, the vast majority of this book consists of chaff, and the God the author believes in is nothing more than what he calls "reality" or the 'creative' part of the universe. So, your guess is as good as mine as to who or what the author's god actually is. My guess is he doesn't know, either. Why? - because he says his god is all of reality, so that a huge variety of beliefs are valid - except of course for the traditional view. This book is not worth the time or the cost.

Having heard Rev. Dowd engage an audience of ministers with his analysis of the 13.7 Billion year history of all things, I decided to read his book.

I found his approach to be life affirming, a remarkable balance between science and religion.

The discussion of Night Language and Day Language is worth the cost of the book.

I am so impressed that I have now purchased 15 copies of the book to give to the leaders of my church and community that can benefit most from his work.

All Christians will benefit from the message that Dr. Peterson so clearly and compellingly presents. The Way begins earlier than I thought, is narrower than I thought, is more clearly marked than I thought, and is certainly more full of life and adventure than I thought.
I'm pushing this book. It is very, very good.

I am not going to go into what this book is about because others have done it very well. I have to tell you, this book is so incredibly delightful to me that I have read it like I have never read another book. I will read a paragraph and be so moved by it, that I will read that paragraph over and over and sometimes it has taken me days to get past that one paragraph. I have done this with several pages as well. The book just comes off so honest to me. This book is just so practical and honest, I don't really know how else to describe it. I highly recommend it.

This is a wonderful book, flowing from one of the greatest Christian writers of our time. I clung to every word.

Eugene H. Peterson, The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways that Jesus Is the Way (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2007).

There are two kinds of spiritual writers: mechanics and artists.

Mechanics focus on how spirituality works, on tightening the nuts and bolts of prayer, meditation, fasting, and the like. By showing us how these means of grace work, they help us draw closer to God and godliness. Richard J. Foster is a mechanic of the spiritual life. His Celebration of Discipline is a masterful user manual of spiritual practices.

Artists, by contrast, show us what spirituality looks like. They don't write user manuals; they paint portraits. Not landscapes, mind you - portraits. For spiritual artists, spirituality is personal, biographical, narrative. They show God in human form, and godliness in human form - warts and all. Eugene H. Peterson is a spiritual artist, and The Jesus Way is an exhibit of masterfully drawn portraits.

It is also a frustrating book for our mechanically inclined, North American souls. Unlike The Celebration of Discipline, The Jesus Way includes no three- or four-step guidelines for prayer and fasting. If you're looking for that kind of guidance, don't bother reading this book. It will not give you The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Christians or The Secret of Becoming Like Jesus. It is not about How to Win Souls and Disciple People. It is, instead, "a conversation on the spirituality of the ways we go about following Jesus." It is a gallery of portraits in which the artist's perspective paints his subject in a new light.

The portraits in Peterson's gallery are biblical and historical figures: Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Herod the Great, the Pharisees, Caiaphas, the Essenes, Josephus, the Zealots. And, the centerpiece of the exhibit, Jesus. But Peterson's perspective on these subjects, his unique angle of vision, forces us to see through them the various ways in which North American Christians should but do not follow the God-Man who is the Way (John 14:6).

Indeed, what Peterson's portraits show is that North American Christians have adapted a variety of spiritual ways and means that have nothing to do with Jesus, indeed, that contradict and subvert the way of Jesus. We are a consumer-oriented, mass produced culture; and our spiritual ways reflect our cultural predilections. We are felt-need driven, without considering that a consumer's felt needs might be artificially manipulated or authentically mistaken. We are mass produced, without considering that Jesus' ministry is concrete, not abstract; personal, not impersonal; individual, not cookie cutter.

Peterson's portraits of Jesus' Old Testament predecessors show a spirituality that revolves around "faith and word, imperfection and marginality, the holy and the beautiful." His portraits of Jesus' New Testament contemporaries are diptychs, Herod and the Pharisees, Caiaphas and the Essenes, Josephus and the Zealots. Or rather, perhaps we should say that they are contradictory diptychs: Herod versus the Pharisees, and so on. Jesus aligns with neither side of the diptych; rather, his way subverts both. He neither builds a kingdom of political power (Herod) or legal precision (Pharisees). He neither uses institutional religion for selfish ends (Caiaphas) nor rejects it entirely (Essenes). He neither lacks principle (Josephus) nor embraces principled violence (Zealots). His way is different.

It is irreducibly personal. God is a Trinity of Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in eternal, indivisible union. Their way with one another is personal. And consequently, their way with us is personal as well. God relates to us a Person to persons. His way is personal. His way is Jesus.

Contemporary North American spirituality, by contrast, is impersonal. It focuses on abstract, mass produced principles that do not know what to make of humanity's warts and all condition. They don't know what to make of King David, for example, whose imperfections Scripture draws in such meticulous details (violence, adultery, murder, polygamy). Call this the Way of Imperfection. David's seven penitential psalms (Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, 143) contain no three-step program for personal holiness. They simple call upon God for forgiveness. "In dealing with God we don't do it on our own," Peterson writes; "we deal with God as he deals with sin."

The Way of Jesus, you see, is the personal way of dealing with God, of relating to him not as consumers seeking personal benefit but as servants seeking divine direction. The consumer mentality warps North American spirituality; if we are to follow the Jesus Way, we must submit to a necessary "purification of means." If the end of spirituality is personal - communion with the Triune God - then the means to that end must be personal as well. Peterson's portraits show us what that personal way looks like.

I mentioned that The Jesus Way is a frustrating book. I should say that it is a frustrating book for me personally. I have a mechanical soul. I favor the user manual approach to spirituality. And anyone who has read anything by Richard J. Foster knows how spiritually fruitful that form of writing can be. The mechanics of the spiritual life are as necessary as the artists, but in a different way and for a different reason. The mechanics think for us. The artists force us to think for ourselves. The mechanics show us how to do things differently. The artists show us how to see things differently.

At any number of points in The Jesus Way, I disagreed with something Peterson wrote. Is Christian spirituality always a spirituality of people on the margins, as the chapter on Elijah suggests? Peterson seems to agree with historical criticism's reconstructions of the multiple authorship of the Pentateuch and Isaiah. Is he right? Perfectionism is without a doubt a spiritually deforming doctrine, but does David's example mean that no spiritual and moral progress is possible?

The Jesus Way raised many questions in my mind for which it did not provide definitive answers. But the questions forced me to look differently at my own ways, to look at my life and spirituality, and the spirituality of my church. That is what spiritual artists are supposed to do, to help us see differently. And Eugene H. Peterson is nothing if not a master artist.

Once again, Peterson delivers an insightful book. Eugene Peterson is one of the best contemporary Christian writers and his work provides timely and powerful theology that drives for application in the life of the individual Christian.

It is my opinion that everyone should read anything by Eugene Peterson and I would rank much of his work to be just as high on the reading list as C.S. Lewis's work.

This is an excellent read and incredibly valuable for those who are concerned about improving the way they live their life out daily for Christ, or want to know what that looks like.

This book, although not written in a very flowery or flowy style, gave me real insights... it wasn't even what he wrote, but how he wrote it maybe...

I was familiar with the 4 noble and the 8 fold path, but this book spoke to the heart...and not to the head...that's why the head has a hard time following...I will have to re-read it again. The wording is simple, but the meaning deep. It is one of those books that you can randomly pick a page and read a paragraph, and there is no need to keep going.

Written by a man who walked away from his position as CEO & Editor in Chief of Esquire Magazine, this treatise is the real thing! Given his command of knowledge in all matters literary, what could have been another cerebral exercise is in fact a work of heart.

Two days ago, I encountered Phillip walking down a rural road at sunset. In silence, we passed one another. Although, I don't really know this man, there existed in that moment an implicit recognition of mutual presence and purpose. When our gaze met and held, I found there... joy, a radiance, peace. No kidding.

Having just finished my read of "Dancing with Life", I thought, "here is an author, a teacher... who literally 'walks his talk' ".

The book is like that--filled with easily understood and accessible content, literary references, stories, metaphor, and allegory. He skillfully integrates case examples from the lives of his students, and wisdom gleaned from years of study in the original Buddhist texts. Backed by his very real practice and lived experience, the content comes alive in one's heart, and is not easily forgotten.

A central theme encourages the reader not to rely on conceptual teachings of the Four Noble Truths; rather, to intentionally pursue a 'lived" or "felt experience" of the insights through the practice of mindful meditation. Ultimately, the possibilities are limitless.... to fully embrace all of life at T.S. Eliot's dynamic "still point" is readily available... that place where suffering and joy passionately tango together in the dance of life. A highly recommended read!

Most of the Dharma books that I've read fall into two categories: lightweight new-age fluff or heavily-footnoted scholarship. This book avoids both extremes. It's very compactly written, with no apparent filler. (If anything, I think he is too brief in touching on some important points.) I find the title of the book to be a bit unfortunate, but it's actually appropriate to the subject matter.

The book is structured around the Four Noble Truths, and as a long-time Buddhist (with a strong predilection for scholarly detail) I thought that it couldn't teach me anything new. It did, though, and on a number of levels. You might think you know all about the 4NT, but this version from the Samyutta Nikaya really adds a new dimension, and is directly applicable to one's practice.

In short, I give this book a pretty-much unqualified rave. A few stylistic weaknesses and an overuse of italics, but in content it's deeply inspiring and immediately useful.

Moffitt's book is a gem: it is a handbook to help us develop and hone our skills so that we respond to our suffering in a way whereby we are not defined by it. The book--an explication of the Four Noble Truths, which is the Buddha's primary teaching--is well organized, full of examples from Moffitt's life and the lives of his students, and is eminently readable, His style is lucid and alive, and his book is a treasure to savor. I highly recommend this book to anyone whether or not they are familiar with the Buddha's teachings.

Why do you suffer? Is there a purpose to your pain? These questions come up for all of us at some time, as they did for the Buddha 2,500 years ago. In his wisdom, he developed a way through suffering, which he called the Four Noble Truths, and he left us the Twelve Insights to guide us through them.

Using examples from his own life and those of his students, and the step-by-step process of the Twelve Insights, Phillip Moffitt shows us how we can walk through our suffering to a path of joy. First we learn to embrace suffering through the First Noble Truth. In the Second Noble Truth, we learn there is a way to stop clinging. The Third Noble Truth shows us cessation of suffering is possible. And the Fourth Noble Truth offers us the Noble Eightfold Path to happiness.

Pain and suffering come to all of us, and at times can feel overwhelming. But Moffitt gives us clear and compelling reasons to believe that these Twelve Insights are the way to handle suffering and create a life filled with joy. Though at times the path won't be easy, there is hope that we can learn to live with our pain and still enjoy our dance with life.

A profoundly spiritual book, Dancing With Life is a must-read for all those who want to find deeper meaning in life.

Reviewer: Alice Berger, Bergers Book Reviews

If it can go wrong in a marriage, this workbook brings it out. I have used it a number of times, over 10, in pre-marital counseling and it is the best program I've seen. Everything that needs to be discussed is at some point. Well organized and easy to follow. Strong Christian doctrine.

My husband used this pre-marriage book 22 years ago when we got married so it must work (LOL)!! As a Marriage and Family Therapist, I use this book with my Christian Couples for pre-marriage counseling. This workbook discusses all the potential trouble areas that contribute to most divorces. I highly recommend this workbook.

It"s a great book...but remember...only if you mean what you say and only if you answer in truth, and only if you mean to stick with what you say. EAsy it is to answer the way you suppose you should, then drop it all after the "I do" has become an "I did"

This is an essential resource for anyone assisting couples as they prepare for marriage. Covers topics on expectations, love, communication and conflict resolution. I would also recommend his related resources: After You Say I Do and his book for re-marrieds.

I have liked this overall, but sometimes it feels like there are sooooo many questions!!! I would definitely suggest breaking up the chapters, some of the questions are a little more involved then I expected

I liked this book very much. Its written from Christian perspective but it applies to the lives of everyone. Margin is something that every Christian should read and any person who can take the good points from a book.

Dr. swenson diagnoses of the effects of technology and busy lifstyles that mark our culture today.His presciption for a better life through
margin in key areas of living was practical and very doable.
If our culture would respond to his advise, this would be a better world and certainly happier families and children.
JUST DO IT!
ps I preferred the book to the tapes.
The voice was too low of energy to inspire change.

This product was wonderful. I could not stop the cd's once I started them. I finished the set and a couple weeks later I heard the speaker over the radio, live. It was the same stuff. Great material. Life changing... A must have.

This is a great book that really helps shed a different light on how to put margin in your life. This book really help me personally and I would recommend it to anyone. I also recommend the workbook, It makes things practical and help you to apply what you have learned in the book

Richard Swenson serves as a "prophetic physician" with the insights he provides in this title and its follow-up book "Overcoming Overload." Although he is a medical practitioner, his thoughts here transcend medicine and offer Divine refreshment for the exhausted spirit of individuals in the 21st century. As the title suggests, the key idea presented is "margin." The author defines margin, then describes its vital nature for various areas of human life.

I strongly and highly recommend this book to all busy Christians, which means just about every believer. Even non-Christians will find a great deal of helpful information. For me, this one is a keeper!

This is an essential book/tool in working effectively in the will of God in ministering to young people.

Anyone going into the Youth ministry needs to read and own this book. If you are just going to work with youth you still need to read and own this book. It's very helpful giving you a guideline. I will warn you though that each youth ministry is different so Field's method may not work totally for you but you do need a purpose. Field's really should emphasis the fact that not all ministries are the same in fact no ministry is the same but he doesn't.

Awesome book for any youth worker. Packed with tools, insight, and wonderful advice for youth ministry!

Great book...a must read. I also found The Minister's Crucible by Fred C. Rochester a great book for those in ministry.

Doug Fields' "Purpose Driven Youth Ministry" is simply the best handbook ever written on youth ministry. You may not agree with everything that Fields' says, but it's hard to argue with the fact that this system works. Even after 15 years of full-time youth ministry, I find myself going back to this book over and over again. It's a "must have" for youth pastors, volunteer staff, and your student leadership team.

The book was not what I expected as far as graphs etc. It came apart also and I had to re-glue the binding.

This book is a great resource for the Bible scholar, or just someone interested in studying the Old Testament.

The book is filled with charts and graphs that help to put the timeline and other events and prophecies of the Old Testament in perspective.

A very helpful tool!

Were all biased anyway. The question is which bias is the best bias. Catholics or anyone who "may not benefit as much" from this tool should wonder why not? I don't think God wrote a book hard to be understood. If you are a Catholic, Charismatic, or of the "Orthodox" persuasion, and you cannot "benifit as much" from this chart due to "bias", then perhaps you need to explore the differences between what makes a Christian different from a Catholic. These are not merely terms. A "Christian" is not an umbrella that encompasses a vast majority of mainline denominations or cults or movements or sects, as many people would have others to believe. God in His word tells us who are His. It would be best for folks to check it out. (Jn.1:12; 3:16; Eph.2:8 etc.)----anyway. As the Charts are a great series I personally own three of the set or series, and they are outstanding.

This book of charts is part of a series covering the Old Testament, the New Testament, Church History, Christian Doctrine, Philosophy, etc.

Of the several that I have, I would rate this as not quite as good as its New TEstament counterpart.

There are easily just as many points of difference in doctrine and theology in the Old Testament as in the New; and there is no consensus in the Christian Church on the actual contents of the Old Testament Canon. As such, the obvious Protestant bias limits the ultimate value of this book for Catholic or Orthodox.

Nevertheless, this would still be a good book for the "informed layman" or for a church library.

But it is not without its flaws, and that needs to be realized in advance by clergy of differing backgrounds.

I first purchased this chart book back in my college days (several years ago). Loved it then, and even more so now. Thank you Lord for tools like this. I've used it many times in bible study (either personal study or facilitating classes). You just can't beat the charts, brief explainations, clear format. The New Testament companion is great, as well as the Church History version, Theology version and Philosophy version. Definitely essentials in every person's library. And if not for you, get it for your kids. They really need to see things visually to understand anything anyway!

Jerry Bridges is insightful and penetrating in his writing. He is easy to understand and gets to the heart of the matter. I used this in conjunction with the companion study book. This really helped me put into action the principles he discusses. It's well worth your time.

Should we "let go and let God", trusting Him to bring us victory in the battle for holiness? Jerry Bridges would answer this question with a firm "no." Instead, he would lead us to "grab hold and let God." In other words, Bridges charges us to take hold of the resources Christ offers us to kill sin's power and cultivate the fruit of the Spirit. In Bridges' view, holiness is not a matter of victory or defeat, but of obedience or disobedience. He teaches that victory is the byproduct of obedience, not the aim of the pursuit of holiness. Holiness is still the work of God, but we must actively lay hold of the work of God in our lives to see the fullest possible work of the Holy Spirit in us. As I consider all of the personal commands to action in the Bible regarding holiness, I am convinced that Bridges is right. Commands like, "put off your old self, mortify the deeds of the flesh, put on the new self, pursue righteousness, think about whatever is good and pure, walk in the Spirit" and many more show me that my part in holiness is to throw off everything that hinders and fix my eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. This excellent book is best in its final half, as Bridges deals with some of the details of this walk of faith and the specifics of how to fight sin and cultivate good in your life. Highly recommended.

When I started reading this book I had the "fear" that true "holiness" was something I could never achieve. Yet scripture calls us to be holy (1 Peter 1:13-25) so it must be possible. As I went through this book and examined my heart, I realized the obstacles that stood in the way of holiness and came away from the book with a whole new understanding and sense of hope and purpose. I now encourage other men to step up and TRULY pursue a life of holiness.

Don't read this book unless you are ready to be convicted and own up to your responsibility as a Christian! I have read this book twice and am reading it again (along with the Study Guide) with my church's women's Bible Study. It is a provocative book to study alone or with a group. It lends itself to wonderful group discussions. Jerry Bridge's book, very practically written, is an aid to Christians in our understanding of God's grace on one hand and our obligation to live a life worthy of His calling on the other.

I highly recommend this book and the study guide as essential to every serious christian's library. Jerry Bridges gave me an entirely new perspective on living life as a christian that has led to a lot of positive changes in my attitude and actions. I also recommend the companion to this book, "The Practice of Godliness".

How casual sex is permanently damaging teens brain development and increasing the spread of STDs from a medical view.

This is probably well written, but I don't really believe in many of the concepte she is proposing therefore I cannot consider it a good book. For those who are searching for something it would be a good read.

Butler Bass provides a book worth reading. This book is for moderate to liberal mainline church leaders who are confident that the church does not have to be conservative and evangelical in order to grow. Her book is a survey of numerous mainline congregations across the denominational spectrum. Much of the book is an examination of key practices in these congregations. Butler Bass also casts vision for the future of the mainline, painting a hopeful picture of the future of moderate and liberal mainline Christianity. Her work, at times, implements caracitures of conservative Christianity that I do not believe are accurate, but are appropriate for her intended audience. I read this book in tandem with a friend and discussed the content. I would suggest a similiar reading plan for interested mainline Christians.

Diana Butler Bass continues presenting her helpful (and hopeful) data and analysis for mainline congregations. This is an excellent book to study in clergy groups, or with parish lay leaders as part of a strategic planning process. On many counts the information is time-tested; but there are fresh insights about new directions for "God-provided-signs" (GPS)to guide us toward the Kingdom.

Diana Butler Bass has visited numerous mainline Protestant churches all over the continental U.S. This is her "report": mainliners are NOT on the way out; as a matter of fact, they have the best hope of re-introducing to our tired-of-secluded-suburban country a much-needed sense of true community through the neighborhood church. When glittering technology gets old, when surface religion becomes a drag, there is genuine depth (imagine that) and substance to the mainliners' faith. Diana Butler Bass describes the Church's focus on a handful of very important areas that provide that sense of community. She offers a wonderfully hopeful perspective for those people who have felt devalued by the more vociferous "evangelical" circles.

First off, I must say that I loved this book. I actually checked it out of the library but half-way through I knew I needed to own it.

"Christianity for the Rest of Us" is the result of a three year study of emerging mainline churches in the United States. If you are like me, then you probably need "mainline" defined for you. Mainline churches are the "brand-name" churches you see across the country - Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Congregationalists, and Episcopalians. These churches are often more liberal and progressive than their evangelical counterparts (although they may not like these labels). These churches have also been perceived (with some reality behind the perception) to be declining while more conservative and evangelical churches have been growing. The purpose of Bass' study was to visit and explore growing and vital moderate-to-liberal mainline churches. The study included 50 participating congregations but focused on ten.

These churches are filled with people who do not fit into the new evangelical Christian majority in the United States. They are desiring to know God and follow Jesus in our world but are not interested in embracing the evangelical culture of political and religious conservatism and/or fundamentalism. On the other hand, these churches are also not interested in the largely secular religion indicative of many declining mainline churches. For the most part, these churches include a diverse group of people from all ideologies and backgrounds - including some conservatives.

In some ways, this was actually a strange book for me to read. I am not part of a mainline church (or any institutional church for that matter). I have never even attended a mainline church. I know very few people who attend mainline churches. And I grew up in very conservative evangelical churches, in which mainline churches were largely discredited. Yet it is because of all of these statements that I felt the need and desire to read this book. I wanted to see what God is doing in an area I am very unfamiliar with. And in short, I was very excited about what I read - God is certainly doing a lot.

Throughout reading this book, I was struck by how well it complements Gibbs' and Bolger's "Emerging Churches." Whereas "Emerging Churches" focuses on a new breed of churches that have largely come out of the evangelical movement, "Christianity for the Rest of Us" looks at a new type of church coming from the old mainline of Christianity. What is so interesting is that these stories overlap in so many ways! "Emerging Churches" deals with a reaction against the sometimes dead religion that results from fundamental evangelicalism and "Christianity for the Rest of Us" looks at how churches are emerging from the liberal secularism found in some mainline religion. However, both of these "emerging churches" are heading in the same direction. They are both looking to follow Jesus without the trappings of the liberal/conservative divide, apart from the modern focus on reasoned certainty or skepticism, and in a way that is relevant to a new post-Christian culture. Many of the findings of these books are very similar. They even identify some very similar traits in the churches they studied. Is this really one movement of Christians that is being observed? Just in different environments and from different backgrounds? At least in some ways, I think so.

In short, I find all of this very intriguing and encouraging. God is working in a lot of different places. This is good news. God is not confined to any particular "movement" or perspective. He is busy using people to transform others and to influence the world. All are welcome to play a part.