Religious Life

In 1957, at 27 years old, Father Aloysius Schwartz of Washington, D.C. asked to be sent to one of the saddest places in the world: South Korea in the wake of the Korean War. Just a few months into his priesthood, he stepped off the train in Seoul into a dystopian film. Squatters with blank stares picked through hills of garbage. Paper-fleshed orphans lay on the streets like leftover war shrapnel. These scenes pierced him.

The best-selling author of The Road Less Traveled and In Search of Stones presents a novel of the afterlife that teaches important spiritual lessons for his life. The soul of Daniel—the author-psychiatrist who narrates this story—awakens in the afterlife infused with fear and excitement. Two spiritual "greeters" guide him as he begins to negotiate the "corridors" of this new environment, encountering welcome and unwelcome spirits.

Katherine’s story begins with tragedies, but God touched her heart at a crusade and led her to Uganda as a missionary to the children. Leaving her prestigious job and home, she went to a land of mud huts and polluted water. In the midst of sickness and poverty, she loved and cared for the orphans of the war-torn country as she faced witch doctors and Muslim agitators. Katherine shares her life story to help us know we can all make a difference - if only we let God....

Each of us struggles with the existential questions of meaning, purpose, and responsibility. In The Meaning of Life, the Dalai Lama examines these questions from the Buddhist perspective, skillfully guiding us to a clearer understanding which can liberate us from the prison of selfishness and suffering. Also from the Dalai Lama:
The Art of Happiness.

Monastic life and its counter-cultural wisdom come alive in the stories and lessons of Br. Paul Quenon, OCSO, during his more than five decades as a Trappist at the Abbey of Gethsemani. He served as a novice under Thomas Merton, and he also welcomed some of the monastery's more well-known visitors to Merton's hermitage. In Praise of the Useless Life includes Quenon's quiet reflections on what it means to live each day with careful attentiveness. The humble peace and simplicity of the monastery and of Quenon's daily life are beautifully portrayed in this memoir.

Tim Chester invites a new generation to experience the Christian life as John Stott envisioned it - not simply a theological puzzle to be solved, but the daily practice of humble service and compassion found in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In this in-depth biblical biography, Beth Moore takes you on an intimate, exciting journey through virtually every astonishing episode of David's remarkable life. From shepherd, to refugee, to king of Israel, David exhibited the purest virtues and the most heinous sinfulness. But through it all, his relationship with the Lord continued to grow.

It's not what I lost. It's what I've found. I was only 17, just a girl, when God asked me for everything I had...my health, my hopes, my independence, my dreams, my freedom, and my mobility. He took it all. I was so angry with him that I tried to push him away. God relentlessly held me more closely. Looking back, 40 years later, I understand that God has changed and healed me - my heart and my mind - in the most unexpected ways, giving me rubies of his wisdom about an unbending faith and an experience of his mercy I can now tell you about.

A third-generation Jehovah's Witness, Amber Scorah had devoted her life to sounding God's warning of impending Armageddon. She volunteered to take the message to China, where the preaching she did was illegal and could result in her expulsion or worse. Here, she had some distance from her community for the first time. Immersion in a foreign language and culture - and a whole new way of thinking - turned her world upside down, and eventually led her to lose all that she had been sure was true.

In the early 1970s, Swami Kriyananda asked Asha to start taking notes for the book he knew she would someday write. He explained himself to her in a way he did to only a few others. Since then, she has stayed in constant contact with him, as a devotee, friend, personal assistant, and eventually, a spiritual teacher in her own right. It's a rare gift to live with a true teacher. Experience it for yourself, as Asha brings you into meetings, conversations, personal counseling, living rooms, classrooms, long walks, meetings, and meditations.

He's a comedian. He's a YouTube sensation. And now he becomes an author. Best known for his song parodies and riffs on yoga pants and homeschooling, Tim Hawkins now shares his perspective on life in the 21st century in his long-awaited debut book. Tim's topics are as wide-ranging as his stand-up comedy, including marital communications ("Marriage needs a challenge flag, like in pro football"), worship music ("Pick the right key, because I'm not Barry White and I'm not a Bee Gee"), and food ("Eating a Krispy Kreme donut is like eating a baby angel").

Named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most important innovators of the century, Tariq Ramadan is a leading Muslim scholar, with a large following especially among young European and American Muslims. Now, in his first book written for a wide audience, he offers a marvelous biography of the Prophet Muhammad, one that highlights the spiritual and ethical teachings of one of the most influential figures in human history.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer died a martyr’s death at the age of 39 but remains one of the most influential and challenging theologians of our time. His writings teach us the value of cross-centered theology, and his courageous actions against the Nazi regime compel us to consider the cost of discipleship. From Bonhoeffer, we learn that the Christian life is lived both alone and together, and that there is a stark difference between cheap and costly grace.

When Anton LaVey burst onto the San Francisco scene right before the Summer of Love, he parlayed his eerie obsessions into a philosophy and lifestyle that capitalized on a New Age rage. With his signature cape, horn-studded hood, and Ming the Merciless beard, LaVey was a media-savvy provocateur who took what he did seriously, but was always in on the joke. From a spooky old Victorian house, he founded the Church of Satan, where young women squirmed nude on the mantel of his ritual chamber as he delivered a doctrine of self-deification and indulgence.

Come to the movies with two celebrated spirituality writers—American poet and author Kathleen Norris and Irish storyteller and peace activist Gareth Higgins. In A Whole Life in Twelve Movies, Norris and Higgins invite listeners along as they discuss acclaimed movies that can help us better understand our lives—from before birth to death and beyond. Featuring twelve films, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Malcolm X, and Babette's Feast, this book is perfect for individuals or groups to watch and discuss movies over the course of a year.

Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians provides access into an underrepresented and misunderstood community and will change the way listeners think about transgender people, faith, and the future of Christianity. By introducing transgender issues and language and providing stories of both biblical characters and real-life narratives from transgender Christians living today, Hartke helps listeners visualize a more inclusive Christianity, equipping them with the confidence and tools to change both the church and the world.

Easwaran's classic manual is a unique source of practical spiritual support for new and experienced meditators and gives all the instruction needed to establish a vibrant meditation practice and keep it going. In passage meditation you focus attention on passages, or texts, drawn from all the world's sacred traditions. You choose the passages that appeal to you, so this universal method stays fresh and inspiring, prompting you to live out your highest ideals.

You’ve felt the feeling before - the one where you feel lost in the world, where you believe that everyone else has a place but yourself. The truth is we all experience moments when we feel uncertain about the future, and uncertain about ourselves. To cope with this, ancient civilizations used specialized tools that are still present today. One of them is numerology, which has been around since the sixth century BC and has been used throughout the ages to reveal the secrets of your personality, purpose, and relationships.

From classics such as the Odyssey and the Aeneid to fifth-century Christian apocrypha, narratives that described guided tours of the afterlife played a major role in shaping ancient notions of morality and ethics. In this new account, acclaimed author Bart Ehrman contextualizes early Christian narratives of heaven and hell within the broader intellectual and cultural worlds from which they emerged.

In Acedia & Me, the acclaimed author Kathleen Norris explicates and demystifies the forgotten but utterly relevant concept of acedia, a term that has often been understood as spiritual sloth, but really signifies the serious malady of being unable to care. With great insight and candor, Norris explores acedia through the geography of her life as a writer; her marriage and the challenges of commitment in the midst of grave illness; and her keen interest in the monastic tradition.