MARS HILL AUDIO Reports

Best-Selling Spirituality: American Cultural Change and the New Shape of Faith

As Americans grow increasingly weary with the emptiness and aridity of materialistic culture, they have shown a growing interest in books on spirituality. Best-Selling Spirituality examines the new style of American religious belief through the stories of three best-selling books: The Celestine Prophecy, Embraced by the Light, and Conversations with God.

This two-hour program includes interviews with various critics of the books interwoven with perspectives of people who have been guided by such books. The guests featured include Betty Eadie, Robert Wuthnow, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Gene Edward Veith, and Peter Jones, among many others.

HRA-1  $15.00  $7.50  [Add to cart]

Tacit Knowing, Truthful Knowing: The Life and Thought of Michael Polanyi

Though largely ignored, the work of research chemist-turned-philosopher Michael Polanyi (1891-1976) offers rich insight into the methods of science, the role of belief in all human knowing, and the important connections between knowledge and responsibility. Tacit Knowing, Truthful Knowing explores Michael Polanyi's criticisms of both objectivism and subjectivism, and his attempts to develop a more truthful understanding of how we know the world. His ideas are based on the belief that all knowledge is either tacit (silent and unspoken) or rooted in tacit knowledge.

This two and one-half hour program features interviews with leading interpreters of Polanyi's thought, including Marjorie Grene, Richard Gelwick, Thomas Torrance, and Martin Moleski. Interviews with Nobel Prize-winning chemist Dudley Herschbach, educator Steven Garber, and master violin makers Peter and Wendy Moes, along with readings from Michael Polanyi's books and correspondence, further illuminate his ideas.

HRA-2-T  $15.00  $7.50  [Add to cart]

Uncharted Waters: Dockside Gambling in Tunica, Mississippi

When casinos first arrived in dirt-poor Tunica, Mississippi in the early 1990s, no one imagined that the county would quickly become one of the largest and most lucrative gambling markets in the United States.

Uncharted Waters explores the benefits as well as the social, economic and moral costs of Tunica's remarkable transformation, offering a revealing glimpse into the world of casino gambling and the changing fabric of life in the Mississippi River Delta. In considering Tunica's experience with legalized gambling, the report raises questions relevant for communities across the country.

This two-hour program includes a special reading of "The Numbers Game," a critical look at state lotteries previously published in The New Republic.

HRA-3  $9.00  $4.50  [Add to cart]

MARS HILL AUDIO Audio Books

Letters to Ellen

What do you tell a young college student about school and life?

In this collection of twenty-four imaginary and imaginative letters from a parent to a daughter in college, Gilbert Meilaender imparts sound yet gentle moral instruction to today’s young adults. Highly reminiscent of C. S. Lewis, these letters are a rich mine of sage advice on the Christian moral life woven within the kind, honest, and often humorous language of a loving parent.

Meilaender touches on topics ranging from miracles, prayer, faith, and death to the many facets of virtuous living: contentment, fidelity, love, trust, authenticity, humility, hope -- and even studiousness! An ideal resource for personal reflection and group discussion. Read by Laurie McCauley.

Gilbert Meilaender is professor of theological ethics at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana.

AUBK-3  $15.00  $7.50  [Add to cart]

Inheriting Paradise: Meditations on Gardening

The garden is a personal place of retreat and delight and labor for many people. Gardening helps us collect ourselves, much as praying does. For rich and poor -- it makes no difference -- a garden is a place where body and soul are in harmony.

In Inheriting Paradise, Vigen Guroian offers an abundant vision of the spiritual life found in the cultivation of God's good creation. Capturing the earthiness and sacramental character of the Christian faith, these uplifting meditations bring together the experience of space and time through the cycle of the seasons in the garden and relate this fundamental experience to the cycle of the church year and the Christian seasons of grace.

The tilling of the fresh earth; the sowing of seeds; the harvesting of rhubarb and roses, dillweed and daffodils -- Guroian finds in the garden our most concrete connection with life and God's gracious giving. His personal reflections on this connection offer a compelling entry into Christian spirituality. Read by the author.

Vigen Guroian teaches theology and ethics at Loyola College in Baltimore, Maryland.

AUBK-2  $15.00  $7.50  [Add to cart]

A Visit to Vanity Fair

Alan Jacobs, professor of English at Wheaton College, has been a regular guest on the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal since 1993, discussing subjects ranging from the problem of literary sentimentalism (as in The Bridges of Madison County), and the delights of historical fiction (as in seafaring narratives of Patrick O'Brian) to the repulsive attraction of the vampire novels of Anne Rice.

In his most recent book, A Visit to Vanity Fair: Moral Essays on the Present Age, Jacobs displays a similar range of breadth and depth, as well as significant portions of wit and grace. Included are essays on the mystery of true friendship (Friendship and Its Discontents), the severing of theology and literature (Preachers without Poetry), and the desire to know the future (Dowsing in Scripture).

Alan Jacobs is a professor of English at Wheaton College in Illinois, and a regular guest on the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal.

AUBK-5  $23.00  $11.50  [Add to cart]