Christianity

The Allegory of Love is a study in medieval tradition—the rise of both the sentiment called “Courtly Love” and of the allegorical method—from eleventh-century Languedoc through sixteenth-century England. C. S. Lewis devotes considerable attention to The Romance of the Rose and The Faerie Queene, and to such poets as Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, and Thomas Usk.

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MAY 2014. The Irish public woke to the horrific discovery of a mass grave containing the remains of most 800 babies in the ‘Angels’ Plot’ of Tuam’s Mother and Baby Home. What followed would rock the last vestiges of Catholic Ireland, enrage an increasingly secularised nation, and lead to a Commission of Inquiry.

In The Adoption Machine, Paul Jude Redmond, Chairperson of the Coalition of Mother and Baby Homes Survivors, who himself was born in the Castlepollard Home, candidly reveals the shocking history of one of the worst abuses of Church power since the foundation of the Irish State. From Bessboro, Castlepollard, and Sean Ross Abbey to St. Patrick’s and Tuam, a dark shadow was cast by the collusion between Church and State in the systematic repression of women and the wilful neglect of illegitimate babies, resulting in the deaths of thousands.

It was Paul’s exhaustive research that widened the global media’s attention to all the homes and revealed Tuam as just the tip of the iceberg of the horrors that lay beneath. He further reveals the vast profits generated by selling babies to wealthy adoptive parents, and details how infants were volunteered to a pharmaceutical company for drug trials without the consent of their natural mothers. Interwoven throughout is Paul’s poignant and deeply personal journey of discovery as he attempts to find his own natural mother.

The Adoption Machine exposes this dark history of Ireland’s shameful and secret past, and the efforts to bring it into the light. It is a history from which there is no turning away.

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More in the Surviving the Valley Series:
Just a few months after Rachelle D. Alspaugh finished writing “Unexpected Tears,” it became apparent that her story wasn’t over. In “Painful Waiting,” follow Rachelle as God takes her on yet another trek of faith through the valley on her journey toward international adoption. “Painful Waiting” picks up where “Unexpected Tears” leaves off.

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WINNER OF THE 2019 DUFF COOPER PRIZE
THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘With emotional and psychological insight, Barton unlocks this sleeping giant of our culture. In the process, he has produced a masterpiece.’ Sunday Times

The Bible is the central book of Western culture. For the two faiths which hold it sacred, it is the bedrock of their religion, a singular authority on what to believe and how to live. For non-believers too, it has a commanding status: it is one of the great works of world literature, woven to an unparalleled degree into our language and thought.

This book tells the story of the Bible, explaining how it came to be constructed and how it has been understood, from its remote beginnings down to the present. John Barton describes how the narratives, laws, proverbs, prophecies, poems and letters which comprise the Bible were written and when, what we know – and what we cannot know – about their authors and what they might have meant, as well as how these extraordinarily disparate writings relate to each other. His incisive readings shed new light on even the most familiar passages, exposing not only the sources and traditions behind them, but also the busy hands of the scribes and editors who assembled and reshaped them. Untangling the process by which some texts which were regarded as holy, became canonical and were included, and others didn’t, Barton demonstrates that the Bible is not the fixed text it is often perceived to be, but the result of a long and intriguing evolution.

Tracing its dissemination, translation and interpretation in Judaism and Christianity from Antiquity to the rise of modern biblical scholarship, Barton elucidates how meaning has both been drawn from the Bible and imposed upon it. Part of the book’s originality is to illuminate the gap between religion and scripture, the ways in which neither maps exactly onto the other, and how religious thinkers from Augustine to Luther and Spinoza have reckoned with this. Barton shows that if we are to regard the Bible as ‘authoritative’, it cannot be as believers have so often done in the past.

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Discover What Adoption and Foster Care Really Look Like

If you are considering adoption or foster care or are already somewhere in this difficult and complicated process, you need trusted information from people who have been where you are.

Mike and Kristin Berry have adopted eight children and cared for another 23 kids in their nine-year stint as foster parents. They aren’t just experts. They have experienced every emotional high and low and encountered virtually every situation imaginable as parents. Now, they want to share what they’ve learned with you.

Get the answers you need to the following questions, and many more:

Should I foster parent or adopt? How do I know?

What is the first step in becoming an adoptive or foster parent?

What are the benefits of an open versus closed adoption?

How and when do I tell my child that he or she is adopted?

How do I help my child embrace his or her cultural and racial identity?

Honestly Adoption will provide you with practical, down-to-earth advice to make good decisions in your own adoption and foster parenting journey and give you the help and hope you need.

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Author Hillary Froning opens her heart and shares the story of how she and her husband, Rich Froning, adopted three precious children. Like talking to a close friend, Blessed by Adoption features short essays, Bible verses, and prayers that will move you and comfort you on your path to adoption. The book also features reflections to help you process your thoughts and feelings, as well as writing space for journaling about your adoption journey.

Blessed by Adoption includes:

• 30 essays by Hillary Froning about her adoption process, including finding a birth mom, completing home studies, hospital stays, telling friends and family, and all the blessings and challenges along the way
• Bible verses and prayers to comfort you at every stage of adoption
• Writing prompts and lined journaling pages to help you reflect on your adoption journey

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