Art Religion

After nine years serving on the staff of a big urban church in Atlanta, Barbara Brown Taylor arrives in rural Clarkesville, Georgia (population 1,500), following her dream to become the pastor of her own small congregation. The adjustment from city life to country dweller is something of a shock - but small-town life offers many of its own unique joys. Taylor has five successful years that see significant growth in the church she serves, but ultimately she finds herself experiencing "compassion fatigue".

Deanna Lorea, author of Unraveled, offers listeners more God-inspired guidance in the second spiritual work of The Undoing series, Undignified. What does it mean to be undignified? To be undignified is to be fully foolish and undone. It is the antithesis of appearing composed, well-learned, and societally correct. When our culture suggests we tidy up before absorbing all God is, Undignified invites the mess, the chaos, and the crazy; it welcomes the dark, the dingy, and the dysfunction.

The experience of meaningful coincidences is universal. They are reported by people of every culture, every belief system, and every time period. Synchronicity examines the evidence for the human influence on the meaningfulness of events, and the way the modern computational model of the mind predicts how we create meaning. It demonstrates that these events, based on the activity of the mind, are caused by the person who perceives them.

Most all tarot books present card-by-card interpretations as well as an instruction on how to read spreads. This book takes the next logical step inward by presenting the art of reading in a workbook format and helps you learn to interpret the cards intuitively. The book falls into two parts. The first part concerns learning about the cards and includes exercises for each card that teaches you to trust your interpretation of the card. The second part helps you develop that ability, a skill that Reed calls “intuition”.

We are living in a time when behavioral change is necessary for our health and survival. Yet we find it exceedingly difficult to transform our own habits, let alone those of other people. Enter Naohiro Matsumura, whose powerful new design method is as astonishingly simple in its logic as it is sophisticated in its psychology. It allows any of us to address challenges in our homes, our public spaces, and our social interactions.

Meet Denver, raised under plantation-style slavery in Louisiana until he escaped the “Man” in the 1960’s by hopping a train. Untrusting, uneducated, and violent, he spends 18 years on the streets of Dallas and Fort Worth. Meet Ron Hall, a self-made millionaire in the world of high-priced deals—an international arts dealer who moves between upscale New York galleries and celebrities. It seems unlikely that these two men would meet under normal circumstances, but when Deborah Hall, Ron's wife, meets Denver, she sees him through God's eyes of compassion.

The second part of Peterson's momentous five-volume work on spiritual theology, Eat This Book challenges us to read the Scriptures on their own terms, as God's revelation, and to live them as we read them. With warmth and wisdom Peterson offers greatly needed, down-to-earth counsel on spiritual reading. In these pages he draws readers into a fascinating conversation on the nature of language, the ancient practice of lectio divina, and the role of Scripture translations.

For centuries Christians have been tormented by one question above all, "If God is good and all-powerful, why does he allow his creatures to suffer pain?"

In The Artisan Soul, Erwin Raphael McManus, author, thought leader, and founder of MOSAIC in Los Angeles, pens a manifesto for human creativity and the beginning of a new renaissance. McManus not only calls us to reclaim our creative essence but reveals how we can craft our lives into works of art. There are no shortcuts to quality, and McManus celebrates the spiritual process that can help us discover our true selves.

In our age of seemingly irreconcilable differences, argument is increasingly seen as a plague to be avoided or a contest to be won. Daniel Taub, an experienced peace negotiator and diplomat, argues that ancient Jewish wisdom offers a third way. Drawing from this tradition, and from his own experience at the heart of some of the world's toughest negotiations, in Beyond Dispute he makes the case for a radically different approach to help us come closer to truth and to each other.

Could your past disappointment be the source of your present trouble? Many people are living aimless lives, suffering from depression, anxiety, doubt, cynicism, and fear because of disappointments they have experienced in the past. You may even be affected without realizing it - completely unaware that events that happened long ago are still simmering in the background. But you can find the strength to change the course.

For listeners who dream of travel, yearn to get back out on the road, or want to enrich a journey they’re currently on, The Vagabond’s Way explores and celebrates the life-altering essence of travel all year long. Each day of the year features a meditation on an aspect of the journey, anchored by words of wisdom from a variety of thinkers—from Stoic philosopher Seneca and poet Maya Angelou to Trappist monk Thomas Merton and Grover from Sesame Street.

The cacophony of modern life can be deafening, leaving us feeling frazzled and uneasy. In this warm, wise book, Prem Rawat teaches us how to turn down the noise to “hear ourselves” - to listen to the subtle song of peace that sings inside each of us. Once we learn to truly “hear ourselves” and the voice of peace within, then we can hold on to that as we face all the noise of the world. The culmination of a lifetime of study, Hear Yourself lays out the crucial steps we can use to focus on the voice within.

Fire shall be kept burning continually on the altar; it is not to go out. (Leviticus 6:13) Two hundred years ago, this verse was burned into the hearts of a community of Moravian refugees in tiny Hernnhut in eastern Germany under Count von Zinzendorf. They committed themselves to restore this "Watch of the Lord" through 24 hours of unbroken prayer and intercession that continued for more than 100 years!

Free Play is directed toward people in any field who want to contact, honor, and strengthen their own creative powers. It integrates material from a wide variety of sources among the arts, sciences, and spiritual traditions of humanity. Filled with unusual quotes, amusing and illuminating anecdotes, and original metaphors, it reveals how inspiration arises within us; how that inspiration may be blocked, derailed, or obscured by certain unavoidable facts of life; and how it can finally be liberated - how we can be liberated - to speak or sing, write or paint, dance or play.

Relying on wits, intelligence, integrity, and strength, the hedge witch walks a simple and solitary path that requires few tools or complex rituals. This path teaches you how to create a more beneficial life for all beings through traditional folkloric knowledge, a relationship with nature, and the art of hedge riding (trance work). Joanna van der Hoeven shows you how to work with the elements, harmonize with the cycles of the moon, walk between worlds, and establish an ever-growing relationship with the Fair Folk.

Do you long to deepen your intimacy with the Lord? To find a sense of soul-steadying peace? To develop emotional strength? Then you will need to pause long enough to be still and know he is God. Trusted Pastor Robert Morgan leads us through a journey into biblical meditation, which, he says, is thinking Scripture—not just reading Scripture or studying Scripture or even thinking about Scripture—but thinking Scripture, contemplating, visualizing, and personifying the precious truths God has given us.

When two humans come together as lovers, they mirror the divine union - the most sacred act of creation - and connect directly with the energy of all life. Thus the energy of your sexuality is the source of the greatest "magic" of all, namely the creation of life itself. In The Art of Sexual Magic, you will discover the sacred roots of sexuality not only as an erotic art but as a meditative tradition.

Reiki is an ancient and profoundly simple system of "laying on of hands" healing derived from Tibetan Buddhism. In the West, Reiki has been kept highly secret for many years. Essential Reiki presents full information on all three degrees of this healing system, most of it in audio for the first time. Teaching from the perspective that Reiki healing belongs to all people, Diane Stein breaks new ground in her classic guide to this ancient practice.

The Dīghanikāya or Long Discourses of the Buddha is one of the four major collections of teachings from the early period of Buddhism. Its 34 suttas (in Sanskrit, sutras) demonstrate remarkable breadth in both content and style, forming a comprehensive collection. The Art of Listening gives an introduction to the Dīghanikāya and demonstrates the historical, cultural, and spiritual insights that emerge when we view the Buddhist suttas as oral literature.