Showing results by narrator "Neil Gardner" in All Categories

With his characteristic clarity and elegance A. C. Grayling takes the listener from the worldviews and moralities before the age of the Buddha, Confucius and Socrates, through Christianity's dominance of the European mind, to the Renaissance and Enlightenment, and on to Mill, Nietzsche, Sartre and philosophy today. And, since the story of philosophy is incomplete without mention of the great philosophical traditions of India, China and the Persian-Arabic world, he gives a comparative survey of them, too.  

What do Christians hope for? To leave this wicked world and go to 'heaven'? For the 'kingdom of God' to grow gradually on earth? What do we mean by the 'resurrection of the body', and how does that fit with the popular image of sitting on clouds playing harps? And how does all this affect the way we live in the here and now? Tom Wright, one of our leading theologians, addresses these questions in this provocative and wide-ranging new book. 

There is no real evidence that humans ever 'domesticated' cats. Rather, it seems that at some point cats saw the potential value to themselves of humans. John Gray's wonderful new book is an attempt to get to grips with the philosophical and moral issues around the uniquely strange relationship between ourselves and these remarkable animals. Feline Philosophy draws on centuries of philosophy, from Montaigne to Schopenhauer, to explore the complex and intimate links that have defined how we react to and behave with this most unlikely 'pet'.

Jerry White's London in the Nineteenth Century is the richest and most absorbing account of the city's greatest century by its leading expert. London in the nineteenth century was the greatest city mankind had ever seen. Its growth was stupendous. Its wealth was dazzling. Its horrors shocked the world. This was the London of Blake, Thackeray and Mayhew, of Nash, Faraday and Disraeli. Most of all it was the London of Dickens. As William Blake put it, London was 'a Human awful wonder of God'. 

'If Jesus was not God in human flesh, Christianity is exploded,' writes John Stott. 'We are left with just another religion with some beautiful ideas and noble ethics; its unique distinction has gone.' Who is Jesus Christ? If he is not who he said he was, and if he did not do what he said he had come to do, the whole superstructure of Christianity crumbles in ruin. Is it plausible that Jesus was truly divine? And what would that mean for us?

When Arthur and Rose were little, they were heroes in the Land of Roar, an imaginary world that they found by climbing through the folding bed in their grandad’s attic. Roar was filled with things they loved - dragons, mermaids, ninja wizards and adventure - as well as things that scared them (including a very creepy scarecrow).... Now the twins are 11, Roar is just a memory. But when they help Grandad clean out the attic, Arthur is horrified as Grandad is pulled into the folding bed and vanishes. Is he playing a joke? Or is Roar...real?

Twins Arthur and Rose can’t wait to go back to Roar, the fantasy world they get to through their grandad’s attic. Roar is a land of dragons, mermaids, unicorns, ninja wizards and where anything they can imagine can be real. But when they return there’s no time for exploring, because a message arrives from their scarecrow enemy, Crowky. What’s in the box? The box would always contain the things that scared the twins most - and if Crowky gets hold of it, Roar could be in more danger than ever.

The BBC is a central part of British life, shared culture and international standing. But the BBC is in peril as never before in its long history. It faces ever-increasing competition and threats from new technology and consumption trends. It suffers relentless attacks from a range of hostile players motivated by their own political and commercial interests. And it faces deep funding cuts. These pressures may even destroy it within a generation. We must not end up recognising what its value was only when it's gone. 

What is the authentic gospel? How do we answer the sceptics? Christianity is not a religion but God's good news for the world. This implies that it has both a divine origin and a human relevance: it comes from God, and it speaks to our condition. So, before we ask, 'What is the gospel?', we need to ask, 'What is a human being?'

We have a God-given responsibility to infiltrate the world, listening to the world's challenges, but also to bring our own challenge to the world by sharing the good news by word and deed. We look at four aspects of mission: The uniqueness of Jesus, the chief foundation of Christian mission, the nature of God himself and mission, coming from his heart, mission in word, but also in works, a clear and fresh vision of Christ. We look at the model, the costliness, the mandate, the motivation and the urgency of the mission to which we are called. 

John Stott's best-selling volume, The Contemporary Christian: An Urgent Plea for Double Listening, updated and presented for today's audience. Scripture has brought us light in darkness, strength in weakness, comfort in sadness. It isn't difficult to endorse the Psalmist's experience that the words of God are 'more precious than gold...sweeter than honey'. So it's distressing to watch the Bible being dislodged from its position of authority, not only in our nation but also in the church. 

John Stott's best-selling volume, The Contemporary Christian: An Urgent Plea for Double Listening, updated and presented for today's audience. The church lies at the centre of God's purpose. Christ gave himself 'to purify for himself a people that are his own'. But when we think about church, there's the tension between the ideal and the reality. The former is beautiful: God's special treasure, the covenant community, a haven of love and peace. The latter? A motley rabble needing constant rebuke and exhortation. 

If Christ is our Lord, then we are his servants, and if he is our teacher, then we are his pupils. Following Christ is a multi-faceted responsibility. We should remember: Every true disciple is a listener, we are both rational and emotional, we can discern God's call and will. Love is the first fruit of the Spirit, a core ingredient of discipleship. 

We spend more time working than doing almost anything else, yet work is often difficult, unsatisfying and frustrating. Sometimes our efforts feel never-ending, and the idea that we should be working for the Lord is often squeezed out. This book, based on a series of sermons by William Taylor, will help you to see that being a Christian can make a difference to how we experience work. William argues that ‘the Bible’s teaching on work is not only liberating but also exhilarating and refreshingly realistic’. 

Never before has the biblical stance on marriage, sex and sexuality been under such scrutiny. It’s been undermined, criticised and ignored and yet the message of the Bible is liberating and practical - and sex the way God intended is not only the best sex, but also the safest! Revolutionary Sex, based on talks by William Taylor, is a no-nonsense look at one of the biggest issues of our day.

It's all very well to say that the Bible is clear when it talks about homosexuality. But is it realistic? Isn't it unrealistic and unfair to those who struggle with this issue? Doesn't it condemn them to loneliness, a lack of fulfilment and the loss of basic human satisfactions like sex and marriage? Is what the church teaches a plausible way of life? Ed Shaw experiences same-sex attraction, and yet he is committed to what the Bible says and what the church has always taught about marriage and sex.

In 1901 no other city matched London in size, wealth and grandeur. Yet it was also a city where poverty and disease were rife. For its inhabitants, such contradictions and diversity were the defining experience of the next century of dazzling change. In the worlds of work and popular culture, politics and crime, through war, immigration and sexual revolution, Jerry White’s richly detailed and captivating history shows how the city shaped their lives and how it in turn was shaped by them.

London in the eighteenth century had risen from the ashes. The city and its people had been brought to the brink by the Great Fire of 1666. But the century that followed was a period of vigorous expansion, of scientific and artistic genius, of blossoming reason, civility, elegance and manners. It was also an age of extremes: of starving poverty and exquisite fashion, of joy and despair, of sentiment and cruelty.  

What is consciousness? Is the mind a machine? What makes us persons? How can we find the path to human maturity? These are among the fundamental questions that Rowan Williams helps us to think about in this deeply engaging exploration of what it means to be human. The book ends with a brief but profound meditation on the person of Christ, inviting us to consider how, through him, 'our humanity in all its variety, in all its vulnerability, has been taken into the heart of the divine life'.  

Sometimes you end up living the life you never expected. When Andrew and Rachel found out that one, and then both, of their children had severe autism, their world was turned on its head. This is an audiobook about surviving, and thriving, when something goes horribly wrong. It is a mixture of their story and God's story, and the way in which his has shaped theirs. With clarity and biblical insight, they share their experience of grief and worship, struggle and hope.