Bøger af Rod Bennett

He's been divinized, demonized, demythologized, and decoded. He's been spoken for and spoken against, the best loved, least understood, most controversial figure in human history. All of which makes Jesus of Nazareth the single most tempting target for haunted Georgia billionaire Anson MacDonald and his pricy team of time-traveling scientists and historians. What if you could capture Christ?-bring him to our own time, make him sit for modern questions and get his answers on tape? Would he do miracles? Start a revolution? Would he disappoint his followers-or disappoint the skeptics? These questions become a good deal more than academic for three unsuspecting outsiders brought to MacDonald's secret compound for close encounters with his mysterious guest. Sylvie Fortune, the beautiful but wheelchair-bound police psychic, has longstanding issues with the failed Messiah of her childhood and insists on hanging these around the neck of MacDonald's visitor. Security analyst Carter Nichols, brought in to investigate the leaks that threaten Jesus' safe return to his own time, grapples with the threat of attack by fanatics and the social unrest that could erupt when the truth about the Christus Experiment is revealed. And most frightening of all, Rabbi Jakob Silverberg, assigned as the Nazarene's Jewish chaplain during his 21st century stay, begins to uncover a sinister plot to change history, slowly realizing that someone (or something) could very well be using MacDonald's time machine to enslave the future forever... Early readers of The Christus Experiment have had nothing but raves: Author and historian Mike Aquilina declared it "a piece of out-and-out genius...I couldn't put it down. Haunted me for days afterward." Micah Harris, author of Heaven's War, the acclaimed graphic novel from Image Comics, says The Christus Experiment is "mind-blowing...and hugely entertaining. This is what C.S. Lewis would be doing in the age of Iron Man. Bravo!" Popular internet pundit Mark Shea called the book, "a lulu of a sci-fi story that I stayed up later than I should have reading...I so want to see a movie made of this. It would rock the house...Rod Bennett is one of the most original minds going right now."

Essays at the junction of film, faith, and fantasy. Titles include: The Gospel According to Frank Capra, The Disturbing Faith of George Lucas, Going to Bat for "Song of the South", and Jurassic Park and the Death of Stop-Motion Animation.

About a century after Jesus died, a battle began for the Old Testament. Large numbers of faithful Christians fought about its contents and even about its right to be called a Christian book! On one side, many Jewish converts charged Paul and most of the other Apostles with a "Great Apostasy," a pulling away from the deep roots of their Jewish tradition. This, they argued, endangered the souls of believers everywhere. They sought to retain intact the strict practices and teachings of the Old Testament and to integrate more of them into the still new and developing Christian Faith. On the other side, Marcionite Christians held such antipathy toward the Old Testament that they advocated leaving it behind entirely. They even sought to purge from the New Testament practices and notions they judged too friendly to Jewish ideas. The outcome of this conflict would affect nearly every aspect of the new Christian Faith -- and the daily lives of believers everywhere, for centuries to come. Who won these crucial, climactic Scripture Wars? God did, of course -- but not without raising up a great saint whose keen mind and deep faith expelled from Christianity both false understandings of how the gentle, loving God of the New Testament relates to the often-stern God of the Old. That saint was Justin of Neapolis, known today as St. Justin Martyr. These pages tell the surprisingly exciting tale of Justin's encounters with these vigorous early heresies that threatened to paralyze the young Church just as she was struggling to her feet. Scripture Wars is an inspiring, true-life testimony to our Father's providence, a tale that has the power to strengthen the faith of Catholics even today, eighteen centuries later.

Shocked to find corruption widespread in the ranks of their shepherds today, too many good Catholics are tempted to leave the Church, unaware that ever since the days when Jesus' own treasurer, Judas Iscariot, had his hand in the till, the Good Shepherd and His faithful followers have regularly been betrayed by bad shepherds.In these eye-opening pages, Church historian Rod Bennett introduces a number of those bad shepherds, including Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, who regularly sold out the Church to the Roman emperor; Pope Stephen VII, who so hated his late predecessor that he had him dug up, put on trial, and flung into the Tiber; Benedict IX, who bought and sold the papacy (twice!); and Pope John XII, whose debauchery rivaled that of the corrupt emperor Caligula.Those were very bad shepherds indeed, but while they did the Devil's work, good Catholics not only survived "¬‚¬" they thrived.They outlasted their bad shepherds, preserved in their ranks the Faith of our fathers, and served in each instance as the foundation for a cleansing of the House of God and a vigorous renewal of the Faith.These enlightening pages demonstrate that it can happen again!

What was the early Church like? Contrary to popular belief, Rod Bennett shows there is a reliable way to know. Four ancient Christian writers--four witnesses to early Christianity --left us an extensive body of documentation on this vital subject, and this book brings their fascinating testimony to life for modern believers. With all the power and drama of a gripping novel, this book is a journey of discovery of ancient and beautiful truths through the lives of four great saints of the early Church--Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus of Lyons.