Religious life & practice – The Bell Bookshop

Britain’s Jews

Emma — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

‘?detailed and fair.’ – The Spectator‘An exhaustive, impressive achievement.’ – The TabletAs a minority, Jews in Britain are confident, their institutions competent and mature. And yet within Jewish life in Britain there is a pervading sense of anxiety.Jews in Britain have risen to the top of nearly every profession, they run major companies, sit at the top tables in politics, make their voices heard in the media, are prominent in science and the arts. Of course there is serious poverty and gross disadvantage, just as there is in any community. But on any objective measure, British Jews have done well. Particularly when we consider where they came from, the impoverished, often oppressed lives that many Jews lived in Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire less than 200 years ago.Jews have lived in Britain longer than any other minority. They’ve been here so long, and are so ingrained into the national fabric, that they are often not considered to be a minority at all. Until a periodic outburst of antisemitism or a flare up in the Middle East, or both, turns the spotlight on them once again.British Jews have another distinction too. They have lived safely and securely, continuously, in Britain longer than any other modern Jewish community has lived anywhere else in the world. They have organised themselves in a way that serves as a model both to more recent immigrant communities in Britain and to Jewish communities elsewhere. Being British, they wear their distinctions lightly, they don’t trumpet their achievements, in fact they rarely make a noise at all. But they give back quietly: established Jewish organisations help more recently arrived minorities to create their own structures, charities draw on the Jewish experience of dislocation and persecution to help oppressed people in the developing world, philanthropists support causes far beyond the boundaries of their own communities.Britain’s Jews is a challenging look at Jewish life in the UK today. Based on conversations with Jews from all walks of life, it depicts, in ways that are at times disturbing, at other times inspiring, what it is like to be Jewish in 21st century Britain. And why Jewish life is still a subject of fascination.

The Laws of the Sun

Emma — Thu, 20 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

'The Laws of the Sun' is a book on the Truth taught by Master Ryuho Okawa of Happy Science that is put together in the most systematic way and is the most important of his more than 2,300 books. Ever since he wrote it by automatic writing in 1986, the book has been translated into 19 languages and has sold 10 million copies around the world.

Surprised By Joy

Emma — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

For many years an atheist, C. S. Lewis vividly describes the spiritual quest that convinced him of the truth and reality of Christianity, in his famous autobiography.

“In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God ? perhaps the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.” Thus Lewis describes memorably the crisis of his conversion.

‘Surprised by Joy’ reveals both that crisis and its momentous conclusion that would determine the shape of Lewis’s entire life.

By The River Piedra I Sat Down & Wept

Emma — Mon, 06 Sep 1999 00:00:00 +0000

The story of an independent young woman whose life is changed forever by a chance encounter with a childhood friend. A magical blend of compelling action, exotic locations and intriguing characters, told with Paulo’s characteristic power and insight.

Pilar is an independent and practical young woman who is feeling bored and frustrated by the daily grind of her university life. Looking for a deeper meaning to her existence, she happens to meet an old childhood friend, now a handsome, mesmerizing spiritual teacher – and a rumoured miracle worker. As he leads her on a magical journey through the Fench Pyrenees, Pilar begins to realize that this chance encounter is going to transform her life forever.

With Paulo’s trademark blend of mysticism, magical realism and folklore, Pilar’s story is a poignant and deeply inspiring tale