The faith of our childhood does not always survive into adulthood. What seemed obvious and convincing at an early age looks askew after encounters with suffering, illness, different religions, modern science, or dozens of other challenges contemporary life throws in our path. Despite setbacks and the obvious failures of the church itself, many people still long to be part of their faith family.
Using the Catholic Church's Baltimore Catechism to structure his exploration, Father Stella candidly and systematically questions various doctrines of the faith -- from God, Jesus, and the Trinity, to faith, charity, heaven and hell -- using personal reflections on his religious journey to come to new and more meaningful understandings of the Christian life of faith. Each chapter concludes with personal meditations that embolden the reader to deepen and reflect upon their faith. Stella invites us to accompany him as we move from a faith based on what we are told to one that our souls know to be true.
Stella calls us back to the roots of the Christian faith -- to a faith that is thoughtful, all-pervasive, and based on the recognition that God is mystery.

A Faith Worth Believing: Finding New Life Beyond the Rules of Religion

Religion & Spirituality

Stella, Tom

Christian Books & Bibles

HarperOne

How can we have an authentic faith when we no longer have well-defined, codified beliefs? Where do we turn to better understand our relationship with God when the messages of the Church seem simplistic? This book is for all those who are asking the tough questions and are not satisfied with the answers they are receiving.

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Take Your Understanding of Church Teachings from Limiting to Life-Giving―and Free Your Faith to Flourish
"No longer sustained by easy answers, we may find ourselves standing before a three-pronged fork in the road: we can wander in the direction of conventional beliefs and practices, we can reject God and turn away from religion altogether, or we can embrace our uncertainty as an invitation to a more vital understanding of both God and religion." ―from the Introduction
Do you describe yourself as "spiritual but not religious"? Whether young or old, church connected or not, are you spiritually restless for an authentic faith life but do not find conventional religious teachings pertinent to you?
This accessible guide to a meaningful spiritual life is a salve for your soul. It reinterprets traditional religious teachings central to the Christian faith―God, Jesus, faith, prayer, morality and more―in ways that connect with people who have outgrown the beliefs and devotional practices that once made sense to them. It helps you find new ways to understand and relate to traditional, narrowly defined Christian "truths" that honor their full spiritual power and scope, and opens your mind and heart to the full impact of Christian teachings.

Finding God Beyond Religion: A Guide for Skeptics, Agnostics & Unorthodox Believers Inside & Outside the Church (Walking Together, Finding the Way)

SkyLight Paths

Finding God Beyond Religion: A Guide for Skeptics, Agnostics & Unorthodox Believers Inside & Outside the Church

What does it mean live "in sync with the sacred"? For Tom Stella it means living an authentic life. It means "stepping to the cadence of the sacred, " which usually requires courage: "the courage to be different, to stand out, to be considered odd and perhaps even a threat by those who find their identity, comfort, and security in the status quoâ¦ The good news is that we can do this within our daily lives. Unlike Thoreau, who felt he had to retreat to Walden Pond "to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach," we don't have to retreat to the woods. According to Stella, "authenticity is first and foremost a matter of being attuned and responsive to the sacred within â to an instinct, an intuition, a sixth sense, a deep, voiceless voice that can be âheard' even in a crowd. This inner guide may at times call us to live apart from others, but it surely summons us to follow a road less travelled; that is, to turn away from the conventional wisdom of society, those ways of thinking, believing, and behaving that go unquestioned â busy is good, more is better, success equals wealthâ¦"

In Sync with the Sacred, Out of Step with the World: Embracing and Unconventional Life in a Culture of Conformity

Woodlake Publishing

Stella shows what can happen when we move from certitude to doubt, from stability to searching. When life experiences seem to tell us that the "right" answers no longer seem so "right:" such a time is an enriching time, a time when life is no longer a matter of going from "question to answer, but from question to question." Stella concludes that "life in all its messiness is a sacred affair."

The God Instinct: Heeding Your Heart's Unrest

Self-Help

Sorin Books

The God Instinct

Wipf & Stock Publishers

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Stella, Tom. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Stella, Tom

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Stella, Tom. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Faith Worth Believing: Finding New Life Beyond the Rules of Religion

A Faith Worth Believing: Finding New Life Beyond the Rules of Religion

Finding God Beyond Religion: A Guide for Skeptics, Agnostics & Unorthodox Believers Inside & Outside the Church (Walking Together, Finding the Way)

Finding God Beyond Religion: A Guide for Skeptics, Agnostics & Unorthodox Believers Inside & Outside the Church

In Sync with the Sacred, Out of Step with the World: Embracing and Unconventional Life in a Culture of Conformity

The God Instinct: Heeding Your Heart's Unrest

The God Instinct: Heeding Your Heart's Unrest

The God Instinct