James W. Sire – författare

An exploration of the meaning and significance of transcendental experiences, the responses they have evoked, and their importance in Christian apologetics.This book deals with profound experiences - emotional, intellectual, highly charged, usually sudden, unannounced, often odd, some weird, others glorious. Do these experiences mean anything? Are we puzzling over questions we can't answer no matter how long we try? Is that puzzling itself meaningful? If so, is that meaning significant? Are these experiences actually signals that there is something more than to human life - our human life, my life - perhaps something transcendent?The book ends with a discussion of the need for an apologetic that includes a wide range of biblical revelation - not just religious experience, but historical and scientific evidence and rational arguments involving both a positive case and a negative refutation of objections.

"Look carefully. Listen closely. Do you see? Do you hear? There are a million signposts pointing toward the specific truth of God in Christ. I''ve seen many of them. But God is speaking to you too. Look and see. Listen and hear."In this accessible and engaging work, veteran apologist Jim Sire gives us eyes to see the myriad "signals of transcendence" all around us that point to the specific truth of God in Christ. Focusing on the power of good literature—even from those who deny the existence of God—enables us to perceive and testify to God''s reality in ways that rational argument alone cannot."While reason can be very helpful in pointing us to God and helping us in our apologetics, what compels and convinces people is more multidimensional," says Sire. "What is needed is a more holistic apologetic that not only includes truth but also goodness and beauty."All inspiration is rooted in God the Creator, and some of God?s truth lies buried until an artist exposes it. Good literature, written from a Christian standpoint or not, displays multiple examples of our human understandings of God, the universe and ourselves. It testifies to the existence of a transcendent realm and often, in fact, to the truth of the Christian faith.

Early evening, a young boy alone on his pony on the rim of the Nebraska Sandhills. Three darkening thunderclouds rising higher and higher on the horizon. An electric atmosphere, a quickening, light cooling breeze. A slight shiver and the boy wonders, Am I being pursued by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost?These sudden, unbidden, unexpected, strange experiences. We all have them. What are they? Mere plucking on the emotional strings of our material selves? Or do they have a deeper meaning? Do they signal the Presence of something other, maybe some Other, maybe some one Other, some thing or some one, above, below, beyond our normal waking consciousness? James W. Sire has studied a massive number of these accounts. He pairs them with his own experiences and turns to scientists, philosophers, and theologians for explanation. These experiences, he concludes, are signals of transcendence or what N. T. Wright calls echoes of a voice--the voice of Jesus, calling us to follow him into God''s new world. This book is an account of the author''s journey to this conclusion.