Religious Life

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 Joseph was a baby, his grandfather made him a wonderful blanket. But as Joseph grows older, the blanket becomes tattered and worn. Throw it out! cries Joseph's mother. Luckily, Grandpa is an extraordinary tailor. He can fix anything! And so with a snip! snip! here, and a few stiches there, Grandpa transforms the treasured blanket into a jacket, a vest, a Sabbath tie, a handkerchief, and finally, a beautiful button. But when the button is lost, even Grandpa can't help. After all, how can you make something from nothing?

John Tesh has achieved more in life than he ever dreamed possible. But the road to success has been anything but easy - and those challenges have become the secret to his success. Through his story, we can learn how to be relentless, how to achieve what we didn't think was possible, and how to handle our inevitable discouragements.

In Habits of the Mind, James Sire challenges you to avoid one of the greatest pitfalls of intellectual life by resisting the temptation to separate being from knowing. He shows you how to cultivate intellectual virtues and disciplines—habits of mind—that will strengthen you in pursuit of your calling. And he offers assurance that intellectual life can be a true calling for Christians: because Jesus was the smartest man who ever lived, Sire argues, you can and should accept the challenge to think as well as you are able.

lso known as Saint Jude Thaddeous, Saint Jude is known as the most powerful Patron Saint of Desperate Cases. Christians turn to Saint Jude for hope in what often seem like hopeless circumstances. Whether it an illness in the family, a dissolving marriage, or financial struggles, Saint Jude answers our calls when we are at our darkest hour. God rewarded Saint Jude with the incredible power to help the desperate. Saint Jude is a true friend, who we can look to when feeling hopeless and alone.

Thirteen-year-old Kyra has grown up in an isolated polygamous community without questioning her father's three wives and her twenty brothers and sisters. Or at least without questioning them much—if you don't count her secret visits to the Mobile Library on Wheels to read forbidden books, or her meetings with the boy she hopes to choose for herself instead of having a man chosen for her. But when the Prophet decrees that Kyra must marry her 60-year-old uncle—who already has six wives—Kyra must make a desperate choice in the face of violence and her own fears of losing her family.

Theologian and reformer John Wycliffe never had the opportunity to take his doctrines outside of his native England, but he could never have imagined that his teachings would one day travel as far as 920 miles east to Bohemia. One curious mind, however, was supposedly so inspired by Wycliffe that he was at once galvanized into action. Instead of simply parroting Wycliffe's seditious ideas, he launched an entire movement and remained fervidly true to his cause, even when his own life was at stake.

ON A DARK WINTER NIGHT with little to do, Rivvy Neshama took a "Find Your Highest Purpose" quiz. And the funny thing was, she found it: to live a sacred life. Problem was, she didn't know how.

In this student edition of Gods at War, Kyle Idleman helps us recognize there are false gods at war within each of us, and they battle for the place of glory and control in our lives. What keeps us from truly following Jesus Christ is that our hearts are pursuing something or someone else like money or popularity.

Christy is going to Europe! It’s a three-week outreach trip with Doug, Katie, and Tracy. First stop is London for some sightseeing, and then on to a castle in the English countryside for group training. Christy is so excited to be headed for Belfast with her friends. Their roommate, Sierra Jensen, adds lots of energy to their late night conversations along with Katie. Why is it that Tracy seems to be avoiding the merriment? If Christy can go the distance and trust God more than ever before, Christy will discover that a promise really can last forever.

The drumbeat of horses’ hooves and clatter of chariot wheels echo through the rolling green hills of what will be known much later as the Emerald Isle. The driver is a lone woman whose long hair and homespun cloak whip through the wind behind her. Headstrong, confident, and intelligent, she blazes a trail that will change her nation forevermore, yet not in her own name or for her own sake, but for that of the God who sent her. This is a woman who will love the poor, feed the hungry, house the homeless, teach the ignorant, and defy the odds doing it all. This is Brigid of Kildare.

Included in this three-in-one collection are the titles Candy Bombers, Beetle Bunker, and Smuggler’s Treasure, which together follow a family from the end of World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall, with each entertaining story highlighting what kids experienced at key moments in history.

In this provocative new contribution to public theology, world-renowned theologian Miroslav Volf (named "America's New Public Intellectual" by Scot McKnight on his Jesus Creed blog) and Matthew Croasmun explain that the intellectual tools needed to rescue us from our present malaise and meet our new cultural challenge are the tools of theology. A renewal of theology is crucial to help us articulate compelling visions of the good life, find our way through the maze of contested questions of value, and answer the fundamental question of what makes life worth living.

Peoples are strange! The things they are doing and saying - sometimes they make no sense. Did their brains fall out of their heads? And why so much saying, so much talking all the time day and night, all those words spilling out of those mouths? Why so much? Why don't they be quiet? In the ancient stone tower of the Casa Rosa, in a tiny village high in the Swiss Alps, life for one angel has been the same, well, for as long as she (or he?) can remember.

Our book “Life After Death: An Interpretive Tool to Understanding Different Lived Expressions in Today's World,” is not only a masterpiece of how Life After Death can become an interpretive tool to the correct understanding of our present living, but it also equips you with the necessary tools for journeying with those who have lost a loved one.

Moses Ben Maimon, frequently called Maimonides, was a medieval philosopher who revolutionized thinking about ethics, reason, and the Jewish Torah through his emphasis on reason and evidence. His works were broadly accepted by the Sephardi Jewish community and spread across the medieval world. St. Thomas Aquinas is known as one of the most important medieval philosophers and in many respects a harbinger of the Renaissance that began to flourish across Europe in the centuries that followed his life.

The Life of Thomas More went straight to #1 on the London Times best seller list when published in the United Kingdom. It remained in that position for over a month, garnering the kind of praise that is rarely given. Thomas More was not only a great man of the church, he was also arguably the most brilliant lawyer the English-speaking world has ever known.

Here is a revolutionary perspective on the relationship between religion and science that builds a bridge between people of all beliefs.

When political division shows up not only on the campaign trail but also at our dinner tables, we wonder: Can we be part of a better way? The Spirit of Our Politics says "yes," offering a distinctly Christian approach to politics that results in healing rather than division, kindness rather than hatred, and hope rather than despair.

If you think science can explain everything, then think again. Charlie Gardner, a construction engineer whose whole life and career was based upon measurable and observable facts, is not the person you would expect to have such an extraordinary experience and certainly not the person you would expect to tell the whole world. This is a book of miracles. Some are so subtle you make not see them the first time through. It’s also a book about love.