Collective Ink presents...

Essential Christian Reading with Collective Ink

Collective Ink explores a wide range of disciplines within the field of Christian faith and practice. It also draws on personal testimony and new ways of finding and expressing God's presence in the world today.

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Christianity Expanding – Into Universal Spirituality

Christianity Expanding - Into Universal Spirituality takes us on a whistle-stop tour of the areas that need updating if Christianity is to flourish in the 21st Century.

Christianity Expanding - Into Universal Spirituality takes us on a whistle-stop tour of the areas that need updating if Christianity is to flourish in the 21st Century.

New science, ecological concern and the need for new theology are all converging into a maelstrom of change. With broad brushstrokes on a big canvas, a path of personal transformation is charted, drawing on the mysterious Perennial Wisdom teachings that have survived down the ages. Pulling no punches, Don MacGregor delves into typically taboo subjects such as reincarnation, drawing a distinction between Jesus and the Christ. This dynamic first volume of The Wisdom Series is an initial outline of areas that demand ongoing exploration.

I Am With You

These words of divine encouragement were given to John Woolley in his work as a hospital chaplain, and have since inspired and uplifted tens of thousands, even changed their lives.

This title is been the best-selling devotional in the UK. During his work as a hospital chaplain, John Woolley received many words of divine encouragement from the Lord during prayer. He has passed on these words in a series of titles which have inspired and uplifted tens of thousands, even changed their lives. First published in 1985 as a hardback, but since 2005 published in paperback.

This is the first in the series of devotional books of "heart whispers" which John Woolley received. Companion volumes published by O Books are "Abide in My Love", "I Am With You for Young People and the Young At Heart", "Many Mansions" and "My Burden is Light".

Lifetime sales of Father Woolley's devotionals exceed 100,000, nearly 10,000 have been sold in the past year.

"I Am With You" will bring peace and consolation to all who read it. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-OConnor, Archbishop of Westminster.

'I commend I Am With You to all persons who are seeking to deepen their spiritual lives' Cardinal George Basil Hume, former Archbishop of Westminster

Not for Nothing

There may be no way of knowing for certain that the world has some ultimate meaning and purpose, but finding reasons to believe changes everything.

The early twenty-first century doesn’t feel like a promising time for an optimistic book when we are faced with the challenges of climate change, the rise of fascism and the emptiness at the heart of our consumer society. But now looking back at his life and inspired by the struggle of so many women and men for a better world, Peter cannot believe that it has all been for nothing. There may be no way of knowing for certain that the world has some ultimate meaning and purpose, but finding reasons to believe changes everything.

Peter identifies as a Christian agnostic. “I don’t know there is God but I believe in God.” In Not for Nothing Peter reveals an exultation in the meaningfulness of life, a trusting belief in the mystery behind the world to which we can give the different names of God, a celebration of the wonder of life in art and music, a trust that everything we love is not lost in death, a commitment to moral and political action, a sense of community in church worship stripped of stifling dogma, and the mysterious vocation for each of us to become sons and daughters of God. If that’s what it means to be a Christian agnostic, it’s certainly not for nothing. It means everything.

Quaker Quicks - Quakers Do What! Why?

Quakers Do What! Why? is an introduction to Quaker oddities. Based on a question and answer format, it is for anyone who has learned a fact about Quakers - perhaps only that Quakers exist - and wants to know more.

Structured around questions which non-Quakers often ask, this book explores Quaker practices, explaining them in the context of Quaker theology and present-day diversity. It describes how Quakers make decisions and why they have preferred this method, as well as looking at the Quaker rejection of common Christian practices like baptism. Each short chapter gives an answer, considers why that is so, describes some of the diversity within Quaker groups, and points to other resources which could be used to find out more.

A Secret History of Christianity

The forgotten story of Christianity, inward sight and life in all its fullness today.

Christianity is in crisis in the West. The Inkling friend of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, Owen Barfield, analysed why. He developed an account of our spiritual predicament that is radical and illuminating.

Barfield realized that the human experience of life shifts fundamentally over periods of cultural time. Our perception of nature, the cosmos and the divine changes dramatically across history.

Mark Vernon uses this startling insight to tell the inner story of 3000 years of Christianity, beginning from the earliest Biblical times. Drawing, too, on the latest scholarship and spiritual questions of our day, he presents a gripping account of how Christianity constellated a new perception of what it is to be human. For 1500 years, this sense of things informed many lives, though it fell into crisis with the Reformation, scientific revolution and Enlightenment.

But the story does not stop there. Barfield realised that there is meaning in the disenchantment and alienation experienced by many people today. It is part of a process that is remaking our sense of participation in the life of nature, the cosmos and the divine. It's a new stage in the evolution of human consciousness.

Taking Heart

Searching for meaning, truth or just to understand yourself better - then this is for you!

The meaning and mystery of life is ultimately found in personal relationship, sometimes with another and, for those who search, sometimes with God. In Taking Heart the experiences of four people who are spiritually searching and looking for a direct experience of God are explored, and their different journeys through self-doubt to self-acceptance and to the heart of faith are discussed. These four people are neither especially religious nor spiritual, and nor are they famous. They are ordinary people on an extraordinary search for meaning.

As with all journeys there is discovery but also an uncovering and a recovering. All heart journeys are an exodus that takes us out of captivity and are also the passion story which is at the heart of the mystery of faith, a journey through the very worst and towards the very best. And, throughout the spiritual journey, God is shaping and forming our inner life in the unknown depths of our heart.

Who on EARTH was JESUS?

The only book on the market summarising the work of 40 international historical Jesus scholars - conservative, liberal and sceptical.

A century after Albert Schweitzer s Quest of the Historical Jesus, modern historians with new techniques are back on the trail. In the most comprehensive survey yet published, David Boulton presents an engrossing account of the debate between contemporary scholars on what we can know about the human Jesus of history before he became the divine Christ of faith. The best and most thorough account of the breadth and variety of historical Jesus scholarship. Lively, informed, fair, and highly recommended. Marcus Borg Brilliant and timely... Everyone ought to read it, especially those with no sympathy for religion and its crazier adherents... David Boulton is an investigative journalist and the book is an enormous achievement, with its vivid descriptions of what scholars have uncovered... Apart from the excitement of the story of the historical quest, here is the perfect resource for people who want a one-volume guide to a multi-volume industry. It is all here, and it is as up-to-date as you are likely to get. Richard Holloway, former Bishop of Edinburgh, Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church A great place to start the search for the Jesus of the past and his relevance for the present. Robert Funk, Director, Westar Institute and the Jesus Seminar If you know anything about David Boulton you will know how lightly he wears his erudition and with what wit. Anne Ashworth, editor The Universalist A unique treasure. A fair, objective and exhaustive summary of historical Jesus discoveries... Scholarly, yet lucidly written for non-academic readers... A masterly achievement. Lloyd Geering, International bible scholar

Friday's Child

Writing that connects those who have suffered, questioned meaning and struggled with pain, but found an ultimate hope.

Brian Mountford has chosen thirty five poems which explore the human experience of suffering and redemption, accompanied by his own thoughtful and witty commentary.

The collection contains secular and sacred pieces in equal measure and came into being as part of a programme to bring a sense of seriousness, in a non prescriptive, open-ended way to the Easter holiday crowds in the University Church, Oxford, where the poems were read on Good Friday with dignity and panache by senior school children. The selection has not been augmented in any kind of attempt to provide a fully representative anthology, but kept exactly as it evolved in response to this specific need.