American Religion

Beginning in January 1692, Salem Village in colonial Massachusetts witnessed the largest and most lethal outbreak of witchcraft in early America. Villagers - mainly young women - suffered from unseen torments that caused them to writhe, shriek, and contort their bodies, complaining of pins stuck into their flesh and of being haunted by specters. Believing that they suffered from assaults by an invisible spirit, the community began a hunt to track down those responsible for the demonic work.

The purpose of this series of texts is to compile the best of the better-known and the least-known of the ancient sacred texts from world religions from throughout the world and throughout time.

Islam is often associated with and limited to the worst of the world—extremism, obscurantism, misogyny, bigotry. So why would so many people associate with such a fundamentalist faith? Two Billion Caliphs advocates for a way of being Muslim in the world, ready for today and prepared for tomorrow.

In 1955, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was lynched. That remains an undisputed fact of the case that ignited a flame within the Civil Rights Movement that has yet to be extinguished. Yet the rest of the details surrounding the event remain distorted by time and too many tellings. What does justice mean in the resolution of a cold case spanning nearly seven decades?

Volume 6, Part 1, includes the books of Joshua, Judges,and Ruth in the Old Testament, from the Unabridged Contemporary English Version Translation of the Holy Bible.

No industry has been as influential at shaping the popular notion of what it means to be a witch quite as much as Hollywood. This book traces the fascinating history of witchcraft and witches in American film and television. From Joan the Woman and The Wizard of Oz to Carrie and Charmed, author and film scholar Heather Greene explores how these films helped influence the public image of the witch and profoundly influenced how women negotiate their power in a patriarchal society.

From zeniths of ecstasy and through valleys of darkness, one man’s journey leads him across a colorful landscape of strange adventures, and into the depths of truth that we all eventually seek. After attempts to escape the troubles of his mysterious past through sex, drugs, and violence; things end up in ruin. But then, a series of profound mystical experiences compels him along the path of self-knowledge. An unfoldment of the spiritual sciences opens up before him and leads the way to realization and lasting happiness.

American Brujeria is about the fascinating blend of American and Mexican folk magic currently used by those living in the US but whose roots are steeped in Mexican culture. This type of Mexican American folk magic, which the author calls “American brujeria”, features its own unique saints and spirits as well as familiar ones, such as the infamous Santa Muerte.

Meb Keflezighi is all about hope and second chances—starting with his very survival. The child of a small African country ravaged by a brutal war, Meb arrived in America with nothing but the clothes on his back, speaking no English and never having raced a mile. So how did he end up an A student, one of the most celebrated and respected athletes of his generation, and winner of the 2009 New York City Marathon?

Leviticus is Volume 3 from The Pentateuch, the Old Testament, from the Unabridged Contemporary English Version Translation of the Holy Bible.

The Gospel According to Mark is Volume 23 from Gospel & Acts, the New Testament, from the Unabridged Contemporary English Version Translation of the Holy Bible.

Exodus is Volume 2 of The Pentateuch in the Old Testament, from the Unabridged Contemporary English Version Translation of the Holy Bible.

The Gospel According to John is Volume 25 from Gospel and Acts, the New Testament, from the unabridged Contemporary English Version Translation of the Holy Bible.

Acts is Volume 26 from Gospel & Acts, the New Testament, from the Unabridged Contemporary English Version Translation of the Holy Bible.

“An indispensible study” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) drawing on history, public opinion surveys, and personal experience that presents a provocative examination of the unholy relationship between American Christianity and white supremacy, and issues an urgent call for White Christians to reckon with this legacy for the sake of themselves and the nation.

In the middle of the Ozzie and Harriet 1950s, the birth control pill became available and a maverick psychoanalytic institute, the Sullivan Institute for Research in Psychoanalysis, opened its doors in New York City. Its founders wanted to start a revolution, one grounded in ideals of creative expression, sexual liberation, and freedom from societal norms, and the revolution needed to begin at home.

Shamanism’s ancient spirituality is as relevant today as it was 100,000 years ago. We focus here on the traditions of a spirituality that has existed for as long as 100,000 years.

Pastor David Platt believes we’ve gotten really good at following a really bad gospel—one that worships American ideas over biblical truth. It’s time for disillusioned, discouraged, and divided Christians, and the next generation, to follow Jesus into a different future.

American Grace takes its findings from two of the largest, most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on religion and public life in America, plus in-depth studies of diverse congregations---among them a megachurch, a Mormon congregation, a Catholic parish, a reform Jewish synagogue, and an African American congregation.

Forged during the tumultuous but triumphant postwar years when America came of age as a world power, The Irony of American History is more relevant now than ever before. Cited by politicians as diverse as Hillary Clinton and John McCain, Niebuhr's masterpiece on the incongruity between personal ideals and political reality is both an indictment of American moral complacency and a warning against the arrogance of virtue.