Christian Education

Using music, movement, games and art, Dorothy Furnish helps new and veteran teachers deepen their own relationship with the Bible. Furnish provides a teacher-training resource that features individual or group study options, flexible training schedules, tips for leading a successful training event, a guide for choosing age-appropriate Bible material, and instructions for tailoring stories to children ages 4-12.

Adventures with the Bible offers five unique training sessions: Explore the Territory: the Bible; Travelers on a Journey: the Children; Choosing the Road: Teaching Methods; Marking the Way: Guideposts; and Packing for the Trip: Preparation.

In the first book to uniquely focus on the Beatitudes and fatherhood, Greg Popcak helps you stop focusing on yourself and instead focus on God, learning how to be the father God wants you to be by becoming a servant leader in your home.

As a father of three children, Popcak realized that Jesus' call to be humble in the first Beatitude--Blessed are the poor in spirit--stands in direct opposition to what modern men learn growing up. Instead, they are taught they should live a life of unbroken success, defined by promotions at work and beautiful wives and honor students at home.

The Catholic author, speaker, counselor, and radio host will show that when you practice meekness, you will connect with your family by asking them questions and listening closely to their responses. By practicing mercy, you come to know your own sins, the difficulties that lie on the path to sainthood, and how your family needs to hear about God's grace in their lives.

In BeDADitudes, you discover the profound love of God found in the Beatitudes and understand how that love can transform you into being an awesome dad.

Chapters include:
-- What is the death penalty?
-- What does the Bible say?

What do we learn from the history of Christianity?

What guidance do our theological and ethical traditions provide?

College in Prison chronicles how, since 2001, Bard College has provided hundreds of incarcerated men and women across the country access to a high-quality liberal arts education. Earning degrees in subjects ranging from Mandarin to advanced mathematics, graduates have, upon release, gone on to rewarding careers and elite graduate and professional programs. Yet this is more than just a story of exceptional individuals triumphing against the odds. It is a study in how the liberal arts can alter the landscape of some of our most important public institutions giving people from all walks of life a chance to enrich their minds and expand their opportunities.

Drawing on fifteen years of experience as a director of and teacher within the Bard Prison Initiative, Daniel Karpowitz tells the story of BPI's development from a small pilot project to a nationwide network. At the same time, he recounts dramatic scenes from in and around college-in-prison classrooms pinpointing the contested meanings that emerge in moments of highly-charged reading, writing, and public speaking. Through examining the transformative encounter between two characteristically American institutions--the undergraduate college and the modern penitentiary--College in Prison makes a powerful case for why liberal arts education is still vital to the future of democracy in the United States.

As a response to the increasing violence in our culture, the widening ideological divides, and the growing gap in economic well-being, there is greater awareness that a deeper sense of community is desperately needed. But even as we acknowledge the need to build community, the dominant on-the-ground practices about how to engage people, civically and organizationally, remain essentially unchanged. We still believe community is built with better messaging, more persuasion, and social events for people to get to know each other better. All of which is naïve.

In this new edition, Block draws on a decade of putting these ideas into practice to emphasize what has worked and extract those thoughts that were nice but had no durability. He explores how technology, instead of bringing us together, has driven us into more isolation. New examples show that community building can be a more powerful way to address social problems than more traditional policies and programs. And encouragingly, Block insists this is really simple, once we decide it is essential. He offers a way of thinking that creates an opening for authentic communities to exist and details what each of us can do to make that happen.

The New York Times and Washington Post bestseller that changed the way millions communicate

"[Crucial Conversations] draws our attention to those defining moments that literally shape our lives, our relationships, and our world. . . . This book deserves to take its place as one of the key thought leadership contributions of our time."
--from the Foreword by Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

"The quality of your life comes out of the quality of your dialogues and conversations. Here's how to instantly uplift your crucial conversations."
--Mark Victor Hansen, cocreator of the #1 New York Times bestselling series Chicken Soup for the Soul(R)

The first edition of Crucial Conversations exploded onto the scene and revolutionized the way millions of people communicate when stakes are high. This new edition gives you the tools to:

The Muldoons draw from their professional experience working with teens and their parents in high schools and colleges--Sue as a counselor and religious educator, Tim as a theologian and professor--to explain how the Ignatian practice of discernment is an excellent tool for the healthy parenting of teens and pre-teens. They share their hard-won wisdom as parents of three to offer you encouragement and practical guidance to:

This thoughtful approach shows you how to talk with your children openly about freedom vs. limits, friendships, family time, sexuality, the use and abuse of technology, faith and Catholic practice, recognizing the needs of others, and getting through hard times together. You'll discover when to be tough and when to be forgiving, when to control and when to give freedom, when to give feedback and when to wait. You will learn the importance of praying for your teens, and the important of praying together as a family.

Daily and weekly prayers, devotions, and meditations will guide you as the Muldoons show how this is a time of discernment for you as well as your teens--and create a way for you to move through these challenging years together. The Discerning Parent offers you an opportunity to pause and consider your life and your teen's in the light of faith.