Religious Life

Any work about the mercurial Aleister Crowley is better off being labeled a “story” than a “biography” thanks to the impossibility of being sure that anything one reads about him is true. The basic recorded facts, including birth date, educational records, and published works, are reliable indicators that can be likened to stars guiding a lost desert traveler if the sky is clear. For the rest, one is wandering in the wilderness.

Since they were first discovered in the caves at Qumran, in 1947, the Dead Sea Scrolls have aroused more fascination - and more controversy - than perhaps any other archaeological find. They appear to have been hidden in the Judean desert by the Essenes, a Jewish sect that existed around the time of Jesus, and they continue to inspire veneration and conspiracy theories to this day. John Collins tells the story of the bitter conflicts that have swirled around the scrolls since their startling discovery, and sheds light on their true significance for Jewish and Christian history.

When little Zanna's oldest brother died just before Christmas, she was left with the gift she had made for him - a picture that only he would have understood. Every Christmas, Zanna's gift is brought out and displayed as a way of including their lost brother in the celebration. This is the story of the life of that family, and of the many gifts they gave each other that could only be understood with love.

Jesus lived in a time of great tension and upheaval. It is estimated there were approximately 700,000 Jews then living in Israel under the Roman occupation. Discover the complexities of life in a tiny Nazereth village. Compelling narrative brings to light the rapidily developing cultures throughout the world. The World Jesus Knew immerses the modern listener in the worldwide drama of the first century and depicts an era of global conquest and domination.

Empowered by the Brand New Congress initiative in 2018, evangelical pastor and progressive Republican Robb Ryerse embarked on a long-shot, grassroots congressional campaign. After he ultimately lost his race, Ryerse worked with the Vote Common Good campaign, traveling across the United States to help turn Congress blue. Throughout his political journey, Ryerse gained new insights on the relationship between religion and politics in America today, the dynamics of our deep partisan divide, and the power of faithful people working for the common good.

This text presents the life of Fr. Roman Braga, while also exploring the broader historical context in which he lived. Most fundamentally, it reveals the transfigured life of a man who is close to us in time, but who passed far beyond us in his spiritual life, who was not broken but rather transformed by Gods grace, even in the midst of the horrors of torture and imprisonment. He continues to shine as a beacon of God's love, and a witness to His power to overcome even the greatest of evils.

With the discovery of her birth father, 12-year-old River has definite thoughts about how her life should turn out - and that certainly does not include any of the challenges that keep popping up! It's not easy to decide if she should live with Gram, who has been her family for the past 10 years, or with her father, who she's over-the-moon to have just met but knows little about. When River gets diagnosed with scoliosis, she fears it will impact her hopes and dreams. River decides to ask God for help.

Summer means beach time to Christy. But her best friend, Katie, has a different idea - let's be camp counselors! Christy warms to the plan until Katie announces at the last minute that she has to back out. Christy takes on the challenge and soon finds she is bewildered and overwhelmed by her fifth-grade girls, who have boundless energy for anything except what Christy wants them to do.

In 1963 America's most famous atheist, Madalyn Murray O'Hair, won the landmark lawsuit filed on behalf of her son, William, that effectively banned prayer in public schools. Bill shares in vivid detail his upbringing - the raging battles, his activity in his mother's atheistic empire, his dependence on drugs, and his years as a fugitive. Nearly two decades after the court's decision, Bill came to the end of his personal strength. In desperation he called out to God, and God answered.

Through the New Life movement, pastor and author Jack Miller became the pioneering captain of an expansive network of gospel-centered, Reformed leaders who taught in seminaries, planted new churches, revitalized existing churches, and recruited and trained missionaries who were sent around the world. His influence is felt today through their work, his writings, and ministries such as Serge (previously World Harvest Mission) and the Sonship curriculum.

Eugene England (1933–2001) — one of the most influential and controversial intellectuals in modern Mormonism — lived in the crossfire between religious tradition and reform. This first serious biography, by leading historian Terryl L. Givens, shimmers with the personal tensions felt deeply by England during the turmoil of the late 20th century.

Based on the writings of The XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet, A Sacred Life traces the journey of this humble leader from the time he left his home as a child through his escape from Tibet to the winning of the Nobel Prize in 1989. This Charkha audiobook, with its divine soundtrack and narrative, reveals the compassion and optimism of this great emissary of peace. Through the compelling voices of Rajiv Mehrotra and Shernaz Patel, the listener accompanies the Dalai Lama on his quest for peace and achieving universal responsibility.

Will Wilder is a mischievous, headstrong 12-year-old with an otherworldly gift - he alone can see the nefarious creatures encroaching on Perilous Falls. For nearly a century, a sacred relic has protected his hometown from the raging waters surrounding it. But when Will "borrows" the relic for his own purposes, he accidentally unleashes an ancient evil. As boats sink and hideous creatures crawl from the rising waters, Will must set things right before it is too late.

In the fourth book of the Peabody series, the meek and well behaved Jean asks the Lord to help her be brave and send her on an adventure. Over the next several weeks Jean learns to stand up for herself, say the truth even when it's hard, and say what she wants to do. But on a trip to her aunt and uncle's farm in Alabama, Jean has an abandoned hunting lodge, a cave, a missing will, and a stolen jewel to contend with. Proud that she has conquered her fear well enough to learn to ride a horse, Jean has enormous tasks.

An unforgettable spiritual autobiography about a search for meaning that begins alongside one of the great religious icons of our time and ends with a return to the secular world. At seventeen, Mary Johnson saw Mother Teresa’s face on the cover of Time and experienced her calling. Eighteen months later, she entered a convent in the South Bronx to begin her religious training. Not without difficulty, this bright, independent-minded Texas teenager eventually adapted to the sisters’ austere life of poverty and devotion, and in time became close to Mother Teresa herself.

Come to know Jesus as you have never known him before: as a revolutionary prophet with an exciting new moral vision. Top biblical scholar Marcus J. Borg, after a lifetime of work and study, presents a historically accurate Jesus unlike any we have previously seen. This Christ is a charismatic sage and healer who courageously and surprisingly confronts the societal crises of his day, a man living in the power of the spirit and dedicated to radical social change.

Among the most beloved saints in the Catholic tradition, Francis of Assisi (c. 1181-1226) is popularly remembered for his dedication to poverty, his love of animals and nature, and his desire to follow perfectly the teachings and example of Christ. During his lifetime and after his death, followers collected, for their own purposes, numerous stories, anecdotes, and reports about Francis. As a result, the man himself and his own concerns became lost in legend.

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.

And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again takes its title from the last line of Dante's Inferno, when the poet and his guide emerge from hell to once again behold the beauty of the heavens. In that spirit, the stories, essays, and poems in this collection - from beloved authors including Jhumpa Lahiri, Mario Vargas Llosa, Eavan Boland, Daniel Alarcón, Jon Lee Anderson, Claire Messud, Ariel Dorfman, and many more - detail the harrowing experiences of life in the pandemic, while pointing toward a less isolated future.

This audiobook is an invaluable guide to intentionality, and it offers simple, essential tools for uncovering the most authentic version of you. An Intentional Life approaches the question of how to live most authentically in ways both pragmatic and deep.