Introduction What happens after we stop asking why suffering happened and begin asking what to do with the life that remains?That is the central movement of these five modern stories inspired by Kaveh Akbar's Martyr!.Parts 1 and 2 explored grief, martyrdom, addiction, faith, identity, art, forgiveness, sacrifice, and the human desire to make suffering … [Read more...] about Martyr Kaveh Akbar Inspired Stories: 5 Emotional Tales
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Martyr Kaveh Akbar Analysis: Meaning, Death & Suffering
Introduction What if the hardest question in Martyr! is not whether death can have meaning, but why human beings feel such a powerful need to make suffering mean something?Cyrus Shams has spent much of his life searching for an answer.His mother was supposedly killed when Iran Air Flight 655 was shot down. His father lived a difficult immigrant life raising … [Read more...] about Martyr Kaveh Akbar Analysis: Meaning, Death & Suffering
Abraham Lincoln Leadership Lessons: 5 Modern Stories
Introduction Abraham Lincoln lived in a world very different from ours.The United States was divided by civil war. Slavery remained embedded in law and society. The survival of the Union was uncertain. Decisions made in Washington could determine whether millions remained enslaved, whether armies continued fighting, and whether the constitutional system … [Read more...] about Abraham Lincoln Leadership Lessons: 5 Modern Stories
Stand With Jesus: What If People Tried to Stop the Crucifixion?
Introduction What would you have done if you had been standing on that road?It is easy to answer from two thousand years away.We know the name Jesus Christ. We know what happened at Golgotha. We know that the crucifixion became one of the defining events in human history.But the people standing along the streets of Jerusalem did not possess our view of … [Read more...] about Stand With Jesus: What If People Tried to Stop the Crucifixion?
Forty-One Could Live. Nine Had to Die.
Introduction Daniel Rosen is an ordinary hospital maintenance worker in New York City. He fixes broken cooling systems, faulty doors, and whatever else stops working during one of the worst heat emergencies the city has faced.Then Daniel discovers something he cannot repair with tools.Covenant Health has developed a system for deciding where scarce medical … [Read more...] about Forty-One Could Live. Nine Had to Die.
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ Explained Through Its Characters
Introduction What if Jesus knew how much suffering would later occur in his name? José Saramago’s The Gospel According to Jesus Christ is not a conventional retelling of the life of Jesus.It is a moral confrontation.Saramago takes figures familiar to billions of people—Jesus, Joseph, Mary Magdalene, God, and the Devil—and places them inside questions … [Read more...] about The Gospel According to Jesus Christ Explained Through Its Characters
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ Explained by Top Scholars
Introduction by José Saramago Did Saramago reject Christianity, or challenge Christianity to examine its relationship with authority and suffering? I wrote a book about Jesus, and many people assumed that meant I intended to write a book against Jesus.I did not.The Jesus who interested me was precisely the opposite: a human being caught between what he … [Read more...] about The Gospel According to Jesus Christ Explained by Top Scholars
The Crown of Ashes: A Modern Shakespearean Tragedy
Introduction By William ShakespeareThere are seasons when kingdoms fall not because their enemies are strong, but because their own hearts forget why crowns were first imagined.Men have long believed that power is won by sharper swords, louder voices, or cleverer schemes. Yet I have lived long enough among kings, fools, lovers, and murderers to know another … [Read more...] about The Crown of Ashes: A Modern Shakespearean Tragedy
We Who Wrestle with God Meaning: Sacrifice, Cain-Abel, Peace
What if Jesus challenged Jordan Peterson to stop “wrestling” and come home to the Father?Introduction by Desmond TutuMy dear friends, when human beings speak about God, we often do it as though we are describing a distant mountain—beautiful perhaps, but far away, and mostly unchanged by our small lives. Yet the great shock of faith—especially the faith of … [Read more...] about We Who Wrestle with God Meaning: Sacrifice, Cain-Abel, Peace