Isaac Morris has been a leader of protests against the LGBTQ+ community with his family and church. At one protest a man comes up to him and challenges him to choose to be gay then go back to straight. He declines but, upon thinking about it and with his twin sister's nudging, he decides to make a documentary about choosing to become gay then choosing to go back to the straight lifestyle. His brother John thinks he should do to help John's son who John is afraid is going to choose the gay lifestyle. Isaac and Ruth, his twin, move to Seattle to set up the filming and the experiment. Isaac gets into trouble at a gay bar. He meets Colton there and asks Colton to help him navigate the gay lifestyle. While Colton helps him, both are attracted to each other but don't act on it. Colton has secrets in his past. Isaac has secrets in his present. Colton also invites Isaac to his gay-friendly church. Isaac goes and meets Pastor Mike, Colton's mentor and friend. Isaac hears a different interpretation of the scriptures he has used in the past to condemn the LGBTQ+ lifestyle. He stops and thinks about it. What will Isaac discover? Will the documentary come out? Will Isaac's ideas on the gay community change?

This was an intense read but so good! I liked how the scriptures are used and the different interpretations given within the book. Some good points are made. Both sides of the debate are represented.

I liked Isaac and Colton. They are good together. They move slowly into a relationship. When the documentary blows up everything, I could feel the pain of both men. I liked that Isaac decided to go ahead with the documentary. I also liked he had the support of Ruth. I liked that they also reached out to siblings who left their church and family. I liked Abby, his older sister. She had wise words for him. I was glad he listened.

I highly recommend this book. It is worth your while to read it.

99¢ BOOK OF THE WEEK

The TRIUMVIRATE - Love for Power, Love of Power, the Power of Love.

A story about love and loyalty, politics and power, sacrifice and survival

taken from tomorrow’s headlines.

Till Oct. 6 at https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

When terrorists kill Shyloh’s mother, he dedicates his life to making a better world. He recruits his childhood friends Aiya and Judith. With their intimate bond, exceptional talents and singular determination they become a formidable team.

He chose them, nurtured them, advised them, and, in no small way, is responsible for who and what they've become.

Judith, the warrior and pragmatist who believes in law and order, is the commander of the new country's military.

Aiya, the theologian and advocate for justice and morality, is leader of the Cascadia's largest faith-based organization.

In the past, when dissension, disagreement, and at times hostility threatened to destroy their triumvirate, Shyloh, the idealist and politician, was able to harness the heat and energy generated from this polarity and craft a consensus, identify a goal, and create a process to get there. Together they’ve been responsible for Cascadia’s survival amid the chaos and carnage that accompanied the collapse of civilization.

But now, negotiating this dichotomy of will and passion is like being between two powerful magnets, crushed when as opposite poles they collide, and at risk of disintegrating when as similar ones they repulse each other.

The unraveling of civilization caused by climate change has brought unique challenges. For  each of them the goal has begun to take on different meaning. In the end, there can only be one better world, but whose will be best?

    ...a GREAT choice for a bookclub to read and discuss.

"This book traces Shyloh's efforts to make a better world of our present social, economic, and environmental crisis through creating a team of three unbiased leaders (The Triumvirate). The problems they address are real and will be known to the reader. They are today's headlines and, being unbiased, these three are revolutionaries in their own time. It is fast paced, a good story, and an easy read.
    - Clark Wilkins, Author of A Compelling Unknown Force

If you enjoy fiction/sci-fi, climate change and politics this could be a book for you.

I enjoyed the futuristic portrayals of Canada because of the connection with the many pressing social issues in our country's politics.

Touches on many divisive social issues of today (immigration, virus, climatechange, federal/provincial strain) and provides a unique perspective. The take on the Canadian confederation was particularly interesting to me because of the current issues in Alberta.

- Tom Urac, Author of Spartan Revolt

    "...unflinchingly stares down some of today's most contentious issues, whether they are of a socioeconomic, environmental, racial, or political nature.

"...sure to spark discussion amongst intellectuals and casual readers alike, ... highly recommend it as a selection for a reading group.
-- Jonathan Walter, Contributing author to THE DEVIL'S DOORBELL, GHOSTLIGHT, and DARK DOSSIER anthologies; and columnist for UXmatters Web magazine

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO TRAILER

https://animoto.com/play/i6nvYHpYQl6oukfFzCfryg

Leah Warner has been in a serious car accident and is in a coma on life-support. Her multiple injuries include broken bones, brain trauma and face lacerations. When the cardiac arrest alarm sounds in the critical care unit two nurses rush to Leah’s room expecting the worst. Instead, they find her sitting on the side of the bed, “illuminated by the harsh shaft of light”. She is conscious, coherent and not experiencing any pain. It appears the patient has had a spontaneous recovery of all her injuries including the deep cuts on her face, but for Leah, a thirty-eight-year-old widow with two young sons what is even more amazing is “Of all the people in the world, God chose me to be a messenger”.

Leah declares she has been with God and the message he wants her to convey to mankind is “… a message of love. God loves us and wants us to love each other in the same way. God wants us to embrace humility and selflessness instead of acquisition and achievement.”

Subsequent medical examinations confirm Leah’s miraculous recovery and though Leah doesn’t believe she has been instilled with any kind of holiness or divinity she is committed to spreading God’s message.

Very quickly sides are drawn up between those who accept and embrace Leah’s message from God as new hope and direction for a troubled world and those who reject her and the message concerned it will spawn religious bigotry and undermine the status quo.

These opposing positions are represented by two powerful and competing organizations. Americans for Social Progress want “an end to discrimination of all kinds; economic parity; religious freedom; cultural freedom; and the protection of personal privacy.” Their concerned Leah’s message “…will be politicized. It will be abused by those who wish to make God, or their perception of God, the supreme leader of the land.” They’ll pay big bucks for her to muzzle God’s message.

Then there are Americans for the Advancement of Faith, an organization devoted to the promotion of faith who “…only wish to promote a faith-based society.” They’ll pay big bucks to help Leah deliver God’s message.

As the stakes increase and the country becomes more divided violence is inevitable.

The Message? A Thinking Thriller About Change and Choice by Avam Hale is a trope on the theme of how someone espousing fundamental tenets of Christianity would be received in modern society but despite being unoriginal it’s well researched, structured, realistically portrayed, and entertaining.

Hale cleverly has the main narrative supported by a parallel plotline of a twice-weekly class on the philosophical arguments for the existence of a monotheistic God and Creator delivered by a Professor of Philosophy. As Leah’s story advances so do the lectures converging with the question of the authenticity of Leah’s message from God.

The biggest problem I had with this book was a growing suspension of disbelief as the story unfolded. I couldn’t believe that God’s generic, unoriginal message, similar to lessons taught in Sunday school would get the push back Hale builds the tension in his story on. I kept waiting for some validation. A reason to believe. It never came.

Aristotle 380 BC and Christianity St Albert 1270 AC

https://www.artof4elements.com/entry/286/aristotle-380-bc-and-christianity-st-albert-1270-ac

Learning from Compendium Theologicae Veritatis 1250 AC and Neoplatonism Education, Symbols and Signs, Power of Mind, default

Christianity and Neo-Platonism

by Nataša Pantović

Just got hold of an eBook from the Maltese collection of antiques, Theology, from Albertus, Magnus, Saint, 11930-1280, Dominicans, Venice (Italy), Ripelin, Hugh, ca.1205 - ca.1270, Landino, Cristoforo, 1424-1504.

Compendium Theologicae Veritatis Manuscript 1 Malta Public Library Albertus Magnus Saint

In the Middle Ages, this book was considered to be the most widespread manual of Christian theology.

It was distributed, studied, researched, passed from a convent to the other as a Christian thought. Let me tell you why! The work is divided into seven parts treating different theological aspects of the Catholic faith from the Aristotle perspective! I am not joking! It was the famous Aristotle 380 BC, that Saint Albert paraphrased. So it was a real treat to see how deep Aristotle philosophy is engraved in the Christian thought!

Within the scientific observations of different types of atoms at similar energy levels, the states with the similar behaviour patterns are called: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma. The Ancient Greek system of Aristotle, a student of Plato attending the Plato’s Academy found in 387 BC in Athens, better known as the teacher, advisor, consultant of Alexander the Great who was the first one to travel to Egypt.

Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of Macedon Kingdom. During Aristotle's time (384–322 BC) in the Macedonian court, he gave lessons not only to Alexander, but also to two other future kings: Ptolemy and Cassander. During the reign of the Argead king Philip II (359–336 BC), for a moment in history Macedonia subdued mainland Greece and Thrace. His son Alexander the Great travelled to North Africa and far East and has died in Babylon  in 323 BC in the city he planned to establish as his capital. Alexander's legacy includes the Greco-Buddhism, and the presence of Greek speakers in Persian lands. 

Plato's own most profound philosophical influences are Socrates and Pythagoras.

Plato and Pythagoras shared a mystical approach to the soul probably influenced by Orphism.

Albertus Magnus, Saint Albert the Great

Albertus Magnus, also known as Saint Albert the Great or Albert of Cologne, was a German Catholic Dominican friar that during the 13th Century studied Aristotle and Plato and has written philosophical studies synthesising the work of the philosophers of Ancient Greek into the Christian doctrine.

Life of Albert the Great

Albert studded at the Italian University of Padua and was a lector at Cologne. Was sent to the University of Paris to complete his theological education and that was the time when he completed his major work. One of his students was believe it or not, St. Thomas Aquinas.

He died in 1280 and was buried in Cologne. In 1931 Pope Pius XI declared Albert a saint.

He paraphrased most of the works of Aristotle. He adopted the Aristotelian philosophical scientific program to prepare a unified theory of medieval Christian intellectual culture. Albert had a strong bias in favor of what we call today “Neo-Platonism”.

Together with his student Thomas Aquinas he supported this “natural philosophy” as a Christian philosophical vision.

He wrote commentaries on the Bible, commentaries on all the known works of Aristotle, Albertus undertook as he states “to make intelligible to the Latins” all the branches of natural science, ethics, metaphysics.

FREE E-BOOK

The TRIUMVIRATE 

Love for Power, Love of Power, the Power of Love

June 17-21

Download your copy now at

https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003DS6LEU

When terrorists kill Shyloh’s mother, he dedicates his life to making a better world. He recruits his childhood friends Aiya and Judith. With their intimate bond, exceptional talents and singular determination they become a formidable team as they grow to be leaders in their chosen fields of politics, religion and the military.

The unraveling of civilization caused by climate change brings unique challenges, and for each of them the goal begins to take on different meaning.

Whose better world will be best?

"This book traces Shyloh's efforts to make a better world of our present social, economic, and environmental crisis through creating a team of three unbiased leaders (The Triumvirate). The problems they address are real and will be known to the reader. They are today's headlines and, being unbiased, these three are revolutionaries in their own time. It is fast paced, a good story, and an easy read.

    This would be a GREAT choice for a bookclub to read and discuss. How can Shyloh relate to the world but not to his own neighbors? Why is Shyloh so helpless without women? Do the two women love him and, if so, why? Would not the two women have gone on to do the same things without him? And what about their politics? Are they right or wrong?"
    - Clark Wilkins, Author of A Compelling Unknown Force

"If you enjoy fiction/sci-fi, climate change and politics this could be a book for you.

I enjoyed the futuristic portrayals of Canada because of the connection with the many pressingsocial issues in our country's politics.

Touches on many divisive social issues of today (immigration, virus, climatechange, federal/provincial strain) and provides a unique perspective. The take on the Canadian confederation was particularly interesting to me because of the current issues in Alberta."

- Tom Urac, Author of Spartan Revolt

    "...unflinchingly stares down some of today's most contentious issues, whether they are of a socioeconomic, environmental, racial, or political nature.

"...sure to spark discussion amongst intellectuals and casual readers alike, ... highly recommend it as a selection for a reading group."
-- Jonathan Walter, Contributing author to THE DEVIL'S DOORBELL, GHOSTLIGHT, and DARK DOSSIER anthologies; and columnist for UXmatters Web magazine

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE PROMO VIDEO

https://animoto.com/play/i6nvYHpYQl6oukfFzCfryg

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