Try free for 30 days
-
Life's Too Short to Pretend You're Not Religious
- Reframed and Expanded
- Narrated by: David Dark
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $24.37
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
The Sacredness of Questioning Everything
- By: David Dark
- Narrated by: John Patrick Walsh
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a wide-ranging, insightful, and often entertaining discussion that draws on a variety of sources, including religious texts and popular culture, David Dark talks about the sacred obligation we have to question our tightly held opinions and beliefs about such subjects as God, governments, religion, advertisements, history, news channels, and our often tragically misguided interpretations of Scripture.
-
How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor
- By: James K.A. Smith
- Narrated by: Trevor Thompson
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How (Not) to Be Secular is what Jamie Smith calls "your hitchhiker's guide to the present" - it is both a reading guide to Charles Taylor's monumental work, A Secular Age, and philosophical guidance on how we might learn to live in our times. Taylor's landmark book, A Secular Age (2007), provides a monumental, incisive analysis of what it means to live in the post-Christian present - a pluralist world of competing beliefs and growing unbelief. Jamie Smith's book is a compact field guide to Taylor's insightful study of the secular.
-
-
Rich analysis
- By Daniel on 11-03-2019
-
Jesus and the Powers
- Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies
- By: N. T. Wright, Michael F. Bird
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Should Christians be politically withdrawn, avoiding participation in politics to maintain their prophetic voice and to keep from being used as political pawns? Or should Christians be actively involved, seeking to utilize political systems to control the levers of power? In Jesus and the Powers, N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird call Christians everywhere to discern the nature of Christian witness in fractured political environments.
-
Learning to Disagree
- The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect
- By: John Inazu, Tish Harrison Warren
- Narrated by: John Inazu, Sarah Zimmerman
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a tense cultural climate, is it possible to disagree productively and respectfully without compromising our convictions? Spanning a range of challenging issues--including critical race theory, sexual assault, campus protests, and clashes over religious freedom--highly regarded thought leader and law professor John Inazu helps us engage honestly and empathetically with people whose viewpoints we find strange, wrong, or even dangerous.
-
Low Anthropology
- The Unlikely Key to a Gracious View of Others (and Yourself)
- By: David Zahl
- Narrated by: David Zahl
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many of us spend our days feeling like we're the only one with problems, while everyone else has their act together. But the sooner we realize that everyone struggles like we do, the sooner we can show grace to ourselves and others. In Low Anthropology, popular author and theologian David Zahl explores how our ideas about human nature influence our expectations in friendship, work, marriage, and politics.
-
-
Excellent
- By Julian Smith on 14-01-2023
-
Curveball
- When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming (or How I Stumbled and Tripped My Way to Finding a Bigger God)
- By: Peter Enns
- Narrated by: Peter Enns
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Life throws us “curve balls”—from devastating personal losses to world tragedies. These events often leave us doubting God, the Bible, and our faith. But instead of pushing away our reservations, we should embrace them, Peter Enns argues. A leading biblical scholar and Christian mentor, Enns has never been afraid to question the Bible or Christian beliefs. Such thoughtful inquisitiveness, he argues, is part of God’s plan. He wants us to question, because doing so actually leads to a stronger, lasting faith.
-
-
A relatable summary and synthesis of Christian experience
- By Anonymous User on 06-12-2023
-
The Sacredness of Questioning Everything
- By: David Dark
- Narrated by: John Patrick Walsh
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a wide-ranging, insightful, and often entertaining discussion that draws on a variety of sources, including religious texts and popular culture, David Dark talks about the sacred obligation we have to question our tightly held opinions and beliefs about such subjects as God, governments, religion, advertisements, history, news channels, and our often tragically misguided interpretations of Scripture.
-
How (Not) to Be Secular: Reading Charles Taylor
- By: James K.A. Smith
- Narrated by: Trevor Thompson
- Length: 5 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How (Not) to Be Secular is what Jamie Smith calls "your hitchhiker's guide to the present" - it is both a reading guide to Charles Taylor's monumental work, A Secular Age, and philosophical guidance on how we might learn to live in our times. Taylor's landmark book, A Secular Age (2007), provides a monumental, incisive analysis of what it means to live in the post-Christian present - a pluralist world of competing beliefs and growing unbelief. Jamie Smith's book is a compact field guide to Taylor's insightful study of the secular.
-
-
Rich analysis
- By Daniel on 11-03-2019
-
Jesus and the Powers
- Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies
- By: N. T. Wright, Michael F. Bird
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Should Christians be politically withdrawn, avoiding participation in politics to maintain their prophetic voice and to keep from being used as political pawns? Or should Christians be actively involved, seeking to utilize political systems to control the levers of power? In Jesus and the Powers, N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird call Christians everywhere to discern the nature of Christian witness in fractured political environments.
-
Learning to Disagree
- The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect
- By: John Inazu, Tish Harrison Warren
- Narrated by: John Inazu, Sarah Zimmerman
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a tense cultural climate, is it possible to disagree productively and respectfully without compromising our convictions? Spanning a range of challenging issues--including critical race theory, sexual assault, campus protests, and clashes over religious freedom--highly regarded thought leader and law professor John Inazu helps us engage honestly and empathetically with people whose viewpoints we find strange, wrong, or even dangerous.
-
Low Anthropology
- The Unlikely Key to a Gracious View of Others (and Yourself)
- By: David Zahl
- Narrated by: David Zahl
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Many of us spend our days feeling like we're the only one with problems, while everyone else has their act together. But the sooner we realize that everyone struggles like we do, the sooner we can show grace to ourselves and others. In Low Anthropology, popular author and theologian David Zahl explores how our ideas about human nature influence our expectations in friendship, work, marriage, and politics.
-
-
Excellent
- By Julian Smith on 14-01-2023
-
Curveball
- When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming (or How I Stumbled and Tripped My Way to Finding a Bigger God)
- By: Peter Enns
- Narrated by: Peter Enns
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Life throws us “curve balls”—from devastating personal losses to world tragedies. These events often leave us doubting God, the Bible, and our faith. But instead of pushing away our reservations, we should embrace them, Peter Enns argues. A leading biblical scholar and Christian mentor, Enns has never been afraid to question the Bible or Christian beliefs. Such thoughtful inquisitiveness, he argues, is part of God’s plan. He wants us to question, because doing so actually leads to a stronger, lasting faith.
-
-
A relatable summary and synthesis of Christian experience
- By Anonymous User on 06-12-2023
-
Out of the Embers
- Faith After the Great Deconstruction
- By: Bradley Jersak
- Narrated by: Boyd Barrett
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Out of the Embers, Bradley Jersak explores the necessity, perils, and possibilities of the Great Deconstruction—how it has the potential to either sabotage our communion with God or infuse it with the breath of life, the light and life of Christ himself.
-
A Rhythm of Prayer
- A Collection of Meditations for Renewal
- By: Sarah Bessey - editor, Amena Brown - contributor, Barbara Brown Taylor - contributor, and others
- Narrated by: Chanté McCormick, Gisela Chípe, Rachel Perry, and others
- Length: 2 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s no secret that we are overworked, overpressured, and edging burnout. Unsurprisingly, this fact is as old as time - and that’s why we see so many prayer circles within a multitude of church traditions. These gatherings are a trusted space where people seek help, hope, and peace, energized by God and one another. This book, curated by acclaimed author Sarah Bessey, celebrates and honors that prayerful tradition in a literary form.
-
Returning to Eden
- A Field Guide for the Spiritual Journey
- By: Heather Hamilton
- Narrated by: Heather Hamilton
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Returning to Eden is a field guide for the journey that every true spiritual seeker ultimately takes. The highest truths that set us free are hidden in places that most people are not looking.
-
How Not to Be Afraid
- Seven Ways to Live When Everything Seems Terrifying
- By: Gareth Higgins, Kathleen Norris - foreword
- Narrated by: Gareth Higgins
- Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fear feeds on the stories we tell ourselves, Higgins claims, and in How Not to Be Afraid, he delves into the mechanisms of fear, as well as the quiet, immense strength of individuals and communities that refuse to let it reign.
-
Into the Heart of Romans
- A Deep Dive into Paul's Greatest Letter
- By: N. T. Wright
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
N. T. Wright—widely regarded as the most influential commentator and interpreter of Paul—deftly unpacks this dense and sometimes elusive letter, detailing Paul's arguments and showing how it illuminates the Gospel from the promises to Abraham through the visions of Revelation. Wright takes a deep dive into Romans 8, showing how it illuminates so much else that God reveals in Scripture: God the Father, Christology, and the Spirit; Jesus' Messiahship, cross, resurrection, and ascension; salvation, redemption, and adoption; suffering and glory; holiness and hope.
-
The Lost World of the Prophets
- Old Testament Prophecy and Apocalyptic Literature in Ancient Context
- By: John H. Walton
- Narrated by: Tyler Boss
- Length: 5 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A fresh reading of the Old Testament text in light of the ancient Near Eastern context can open new avenues of awareness. Walton provides a clear, helpful guide to the nature of biblical prophecy and apocalyptic literature that will help listeners avoid potential misuse and reclaim the message of the prophets for their lives.
-
Cultural Christians in the Early Church
- A Historical and Practical Introduction to Christians in the Greco-Roman World
- By: Nadya Williams
- Narrated by: Marni Penning
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cultural Christians in the Early Church, which aims to be both historical and practical, argues that cultural Christians were the rule, rather than the exception, in the early church. Using different categories of sins as its organizing principle, the book considers the challenge of culture to the earliest converts to Christianity, as they struggled to live on mission in the Greco-Roman cultural milieu of the Roman Empire.
-
Why the Gospel?
- Living the Good News of King Jesus with Purpose
- By: Matthew W. Bates
- Narrated by: Trevor Thompson
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As Christians, we often ask what the gospel is, when we should be asking why it is. Matthew W. Bates has previously demonstrated that the “good news” of the gospel is that Jesus is King. But in his latest book, he explores God’s intentions: why has God issued this royal proclamation? And what role can it play in our everyday lives? As Bates observes, we find the answer in a simple but challenging realization: “I am a horrible king of my own life."
-
The Exvangelicals
- Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church
- By: Sarah McCammon
- Narrated by: Sarah McCammon
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growing up in a deeply evangelical family in the Midwest in the ‘80s and ‘90s, Sarah McCammon was strictly taught to fear God, obey him, and not question the faith. Persistently worried that her gay grandfather would go to hell unless she could reach him, or that her Muslim friend would need to be converted, and that she, too, would go to hell if she did not believe fervently enough, McCammon was a rule-follower. But through it all, she was plagued by fears and deep questions as the belief system she'd been carefully taught clashed with her expanding understanding of the outside world.
-
Camping with Kierkegaard
- Faithfulness as a Way of Life
- By: J. Aaron Simmons
- Narrated by: J. Aaron Simmons
- Length: 6 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this book, Aaron Simmons takes us on a trip to the mountains to reflect on the meaning of life. In a world too often defined by a quest for “success” that leaves us empty, alone, and anxious, Simmons seeks “faithfulness“ outdoors with thinkers and artists from Aristotle to Kierkegaard, Sartre to Anne Lamott, and Kendrick Lamar to Donovan Woods. Simmons invites us to rethink what it means to make choices, take risks, be alone and silent while cultivating friendships, and to find our calling by facing our vulnerability.
-
Meditations of the Heart
- By: Howard Thurman, Yolanda Pierce
- Narrated by: Susan Dalian
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Howard Thurman’s Meditations of the Heart is a beautiful collection of over 150 prayers, poems, and meditations on prayer, community, and the joys and rituals of life by one of our greatest spiritual leaders. Thurman, a spiritualist and mystic, was renowned for the quiet beauty of his reflections on humanity and our relationship with God.
-
The Gift of Thorns
- Jesus, the Flesh, and the War for Our Wants
- By: A. J. Swoboda
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 8 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Today’s follower of Jesus exists at a moment when our desires, longings, and wants are being weaponized against us by cultural, spiritual, and relational forces. “Follow your heart” and “You do you” have become our moment's mantras. The Gift of Thorns, by A. J. Swoboda, addresses the core human problem: What in the world do I do with my desire?
Publisher's Summary
We can't just be done with religion, argues David Dark. The fact of religion is the fact of us. Religion is the witness of everything we're up to—for better or worse.
David Dark is one of today's most respected thinkers, public intellectuals, and cultural critics at the intersection of faith and culture. Since its original release, Dark's Life's Too Short to Pretend You're Not Religious has become essential for those engaged in the conversation on religion in contemporary American society. Now, Dark returns to his classic text and offers us a revised, expanded, and reframed edition that reflects a more expansive understanding, employs inclusive language, and tackles the most pressing issues of the day.
With the same keen powers of cultural observation, candor, and wit audiences have come to know and love, Dark weaves in current themes around the pandemic and vaccine responses, Black Lives Matter, the #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements, critical race theory, and more. By looking intentionally at our weird religious background (we all have one), he helps us acknowledge the content of our everyday existence—the good, the bad, and the glaringly inconsistent. When we make peace with the idea of being religious, we can more practically envision an undivided life.