{"title":"Happiness Suffering And Transcendence","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"soul-s-upward-yearning-book-robert-j-spitzer-9781586179557","title":"The Soul's Upward Yearning","description":"\u003cp\u003eSince the early twentieth century, scientific materialism has so undermined our belief in the human capacity for transcendence that many people find it difficult to believe in God and the human soul. The materialist perspective has not only cast its spell on the natural sciences, psychology, philosophy, and literature, it has also enthralled popular culture, which offers very little to encourage the soul's upward yearning.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere are many signs of the widespread loss of confidence in our ability to soar upward, and these have been noted by thinkers as diverse as Carl Jung (psychiatrist), Mircea Eliade (historian of religion), Gabriel Marcel (philosopher), and authors C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Their observations were validated by a 2004 study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry that linked the absence of religion with a marked increase in suicide, meaninglessness, substance abuse, separation from family members, and other psychological problems.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThus, the loss of transcendence is negatively affecting an entire society. It is stealing from countless individuals their sense of happiness, dignity, ideals, virtues, and destiny.Ironically, the evidence for transcendence is greater today than in any other period in history. The problem is, this evidence has not been compiled and made widely available--a challenge Father Spitzer aspires to meet with this book.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFather Spitzer's work provides a bright light in the midst of the darkness by presenting traditional and contemporary evidence for God and a transphysical soul from several major sources. It shows that we are transcendent beings with souls capable of surviving bodily death; that we are self-reflective beings aware of and able to strive toward perfect truth, love, goodness, and beauty; that we have the dignity of being created in the very image of God. If we underestimate these truths, we undervalue one another, underlive our lives, and underachieve our destiny.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49579875893521,"sku":"GOR011227643","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49999319367953,"sku":"CIN1586179551VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51271889879313,"sku":"NIN9781586179557","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51683811787025,"sku":"GOR012815861","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52107056972049,"sku":"CIN1586179551G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53547666047249,"sku":"CIN1586179551A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1586179551.jpg?v=1750926308"},{"product_id":"god-so-loved-the-world-book-robert-j-spitzer-9781621640363","title":"God So Loved the World","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn this volume the brilliant Fr. Spitzer probes in detail the major question that if an intelligent Creator God - manifest in logical proofs, scientific evidence, and near death experiences - who is the source of our desire for the sacred, and the transcendental desires for truth, love, goodness, and beauty, would want to reveal himself to us personally and ultimately.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHe then shows this is reasonable not only in light of our interior experience of a transcendent Reality, but also that a completely intelligent Reality is completely positive--implying its possession of a completely positive virtue - namely love, defined as agape.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis leads to the question whether God might be unconditionally loving, and if he is, whether he would want to make a personal appearance to us in a perfect act of empathy - face to face. After examining the rational evidence for this, he reviews all world religions to see if there is one that reveals such a God - an unconditionally loving God who would want to be with us in perfect empathy. This leads us to the extraordinary claim of Jesus Christ who taught that God is Abba, the unconditionally loving Father.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eJesus' claims go further, saying that He is also unconditional love, and that his mission is to give us that love through an act of complete self-sacrifice. He also claims to be the exclusive Son of the Father, sent by God to save the world, and the one who possesses divine power and authority. The rest of the book does an in-depth examination of the evidence for Jesus' unconditional love of sinners, his teachings, his miracles, and his rising from the dead. As well as the evidence for Jesus' gift of the Holy Spirit that enabled his disciples to perform miracles in his name, and evidence for the presence of the Holy Spirit today.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIf this strong evidence convinces us to believe that Jesus is our ultimate meaning and destiny, and desire His saving presence in our lives, that evidence should galvanize the Holy Spirit within us to show that Jesus is Lord and Savior, the way, the truth, and the life. And our faith in him will transform everything we think about our nature, dignity, and destiny- and how we live, endure suffering, contend with evil, and treat our neighbor.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50133147091217,"sku":"CIN1621640361VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50970363396369,"sku":"CIN1621640361G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51111297319185,"sku":"GOR014177971","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51354609811729,"sku":"GOR009278595","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1621640361.jpg?v=1758966690"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/happiness-suffering-and-transcendence-book-series.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}