Learning Religion

We all need inspiration to lead lives that honor God. When our faith is weak or the pressures of the world seem overwhelming, remembering the great men and women of the past can inspire us to renewed strength and purpose. Our spiritual struggles are not new, and the stories of those who have gone before can help lead the way to our own victories.

Throughout history, countless women have boldly stepped out in faith and courage, leaving their indelible mark on those around them and on the kingdom of God. In lively prose, Michelle DeRusha tells their stories, bringing into focus 50 incredible heroines of the faith. From Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila, and Anne Hutchison, to Susanna Wesley, Harriet Tubman, and Corrie ten Boom, women both famous and admirable live again under DeRusha's expert pen.

From the New York Times best-selling author of An Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor’s Learning to Walk in the Dark provides a way to find spirituality in those times when we don’t have all the answers. Taylor has become increasingly uncomfortable with our tendency to associate all that is good with lightness and all that is evil and dangerous with darkness. Taylor asks us to put aside our fears and anxieties and to explore all that God has to teach us “in the dark.”

As a parent, you want to send your children into the world with healthy minds and vibrant faith. You want to develop a strong foundation for them. But in our fast-paced, outcome-based, technologically driven society, it's easy to lose sight of the innocence, potential, and uniqueness of each child. Childlike wonder can become lost in the fog of formulas that view children through the distorting lens of social expectations. Gain confidence in your role as a God-designed guide and teacher for your children....

To the Christian's in Rome, the Apostle Paul says "I am eager to preach the gospel to you who are at Rome." (Romans 1:15). Evidently, Christians need to hear the gospel even after conversion: and A Gospel Primer for Christians is designed to help you do just that. By showing how you can preach the gospel to yourself each day, this book will help you savor the glories of God's love and experience the life-transforming power of the gospel in all areas of life.

Tara Brach is an in-the-trenches teacher whose work counters today's ever-increasing onslaught of news, conflict, demands, and anxieties - stresses that leave us rushing around on auto-pilot and cut off from the presence and creativity that give our lives meaning. In this heartfelt and deeply practical audiobook, she offers an antidote: an easy-to-learn four-step meditation that quickly loosens the grip of difficult emotions and limiting beliefs.

Learning to Pray explains what prayer is, what to expect from praying, how to do it, and how it can transform us when we make it a regular practice in our lives. A trusted guide walking beside us as we navigate our unique spiritual paths, Martin lays out the different styles and traditions of prayer throughout Christian history and invites us to experiment and discover which works best to feed our soul and build intimacy with our creator.

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, published in 34 languages and one of the most far-reaching artist-psychoanalyists of our time, teaches that in archetypal imagination, "Mother Night is the quintessential medial woman, the woman who can walk in two worlds... 'the one who knows' and who can reveal solid ways of living and unleashing creative life in both worlds."

We tend to think being "stressed out" is a normal state of affairs, and that contentment means sitting back and just bottling things up. For the Christian, however, contentment is something we must apply, work at, and make our own in every circumstance, because anxiety and frustration are not neutral behaviors.

In her classic book, Elisabeth Elliot candidly shares her love story with Jim Elliot through letters, diary entries, and memories. She is honest about the temptations, difficulties, victories, and sacrifices of two young people whose commitment to Christ took priority over their love for each other. These revealing personal glimpses, combined with relevant biblical teaching, will remind listners that only by putting their human passion and desire through His fire can God purify their love.

Ask and It Is Given is certainly a book about our ''asking'' being answered by all-that-is. But it's primarily about how whatever we're asking for is being given to us - and it's also the first book to ever, in such clear terminology, give us the simple practical formula for how to ask for, and then how to receive, whatever we want to be, do, or have. Decades ago, while searching for plausible answers to my never-ending quest to know what ''it'' is all about, I discovered the word ineffable (meaning ''incapable of being expressed in words'').

Pico Iyer has made more than one hundred retreats over the past three decades to a small Benedictine hermitage high above the sea in Big Sur, California. He’s not a Christian—or a member of any religious group—but his life has been transformed by these periods of time spent in silence. That silence reminds him of what is essential and awakens a joy that nothing can efface. It’s not just freedom from distraction and noise and rush: it’s a reminder of some deeper truths he misplaced along the way. In Aflame, Iyer connects with inner stillness and joy in his many seasons at the monastery.

In a society where raging narcissism dominates the moral landscape, the virtue of humility is often dismissed as irrelevant. Not only is humility vanishing from contemporary culture, but we are also witnessing how destructive a lack of humility has become among our churches and ministry leaders. And yet, Richard Foster, the founder of Renovare, insists that humility is central to the journey toward character formation and spiritual transformation. For this reason he decided to spend a year studying the virtue of humility.

Still Learning is India Oxenberg’s intimate, first-person account of how she was lured into and, seven years later, escaped from the NXIVM cult, DOS. As the secret sorority within NXIVM's vast Ponzi network, DOS was created by Keith Raniere and his acolytes to serve as a source of "slaves" to Keith and the other “masters”. Despite the fantastical headlines, the focus of Still Learning reflects what many parents and age peers of India’s will recognize as a far more familiar 20-something conundrum - a new adult trying to discover who she is.

The Workbook for Students includes 365 lessons, one for each day of the year. It is not necessary, however, to do the lessons at that tempo, and one might want to remain with a particularly appealing lesson for more than one day. The practical nature of the Workbook is underscored by the introduction to its lessons, which emphasizes experience through application rather than a prior commitment to a spiritual goal.

John Eldredge calls men back to a simple and reassuring truth: God is our father. In life's trials and triumphs, God is initiating boys and men through the stages of manhood from beloved son to cowboy to warrior to lover to king to sage. Fathered by God maps out the path of manhood - not more rules, not another list of principles, not formulas, but a sure path men have followed for centuries before us.

What if intimacy with God doesn't begin with us knocking at God's door but with God knocking down ours? In Learning to Be Loved, author and Spoken Gospel CEO David Bowden and Hobby Lobby's Mart Green remind us that spiritual growth starts not with our giving but with our receiving. Learning to Be Loved unites biblical rigor and personal experience to show that intimacy with God isn't based on our ability to connect with him—but on all the ways he is constantly connecting with us.

In this groundbreaking book, one of America's premier religion writers revives ancient expressions through cultural commentary, vulnerable personal narratives, and surprising biblical insights. Both provocative and liberating, Learning to Speak God from Scratch will breathe new life into your spiritual conversations and lure you into the embrace of the God who inhabits them.

Du’a ‘Arafah of Imam Husayn is among the deepest texts on spirituality. It is an inexhaustible ocean of spirituality and knowledge. The deeper a person can dive, the more gems they will find. This book is a humble attempt to bring out some of these gems and share them with you.

In a rare look inside America’s favorite mega-sized family, the four eldest girls talk about their faith, their dreams for the future, and what it’s like growing up a Duggar. Airing weekly throughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, 19 Kids and Counting has made the huge Duggar family into a media phenomenon. Now, the four eldest Duggar girls—Jana, Jill, Jessa, and Jinger—open up about the blessings and advantages of living the Duggar lifestyle.