Religious Thought

In Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith, the author of the bestsellers Traveling Mercies and Plan B delivers a poignant, funny, and bittersweet primer of faith, as we come to discover what it means to be fully alive.

Bridging the gap between the world of science and the realm of the spiritual, Wallace, a pioneer of modern consciousness research, offers a practical and revolutionary method for exploring the mind that combines the keenest insights of contemporary physics and philosophers with the time-honored meditative traditions of Buddhism.

"In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message" is a classic work that offers clear and perceptive answers to questions which challenge every human being. Written between the years 1923-1937, it is a collection of 168 essays addressing all spheres of life ranging from God and the Universe to the Laws in Creation, the meaning of life, responsibility, free will, intuition and the intellect, the ethereal world and the beyond, justice and love. It answers eternal questions such as what does it mean to be human, what is the purpose of life on Earth, and what happens to "me" when I die.

In many ways, we seem to be living in wintry times at present in the Western world. In this new book, Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury and a noted scholar of Eastern Christianity, introduces us to some aspects and personalities of the Orthodox Christian world, from the desert contemplatives of the fourth century to philosophers, novelists and activists of the modern era, that suggest where we might look for fresh light and warmth.

In Grace (Eventually), Anne Lamott examines the ways we're caught in life's most daunting predicaments: love, mothering, work, politics and maybe toughest of all, evolving from who we are to who we were meant to be. This is a complicated process for most of us, and Lamott turns her wit and honesty inward to describe her own intimate, bumpy and unconventional road to grace and faith.

Deepak Chopra's passionate new book, Peace Is the Way, was inspired by a saying from Mahatma Gandhi: "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way." In a world where every path to peace has proved futile, the one strategy that hasn’t been tried is the way of peace itself. "We must not bring one war to an end, or thirty," Chopra tells us, "but the idea of war itself." How can this be done?

Right after college, Amy Peterson boarded a plane for Southeast Asia. She was hungry for adventure, eager to change the world, hoping to please God, and wondering if what she’d grown up believing would remain true on the other side of the world. As Amy immerses herself in the local culture and forges friendships across boundaries, her worldview expands. Then crisis hits.

"In the Light of Truth: The Grail Message" is a classic work that offers clear and perceptive answers to questions which challenge every human being. Written between the years 1923-1937, it is a collection of 168 essays addressing all spheres of life ranging from God and the Universe to the Laws in Creation, the meaning of life, responsibility, free will, intuition and the intellect, the ethereal world and the beyond, justice and love. It answers eternal questions such as what does it mean to be human, what is the purpose of life on Earth, and what happens to "me" when I die.

The universe speaks to us through numbers. Each number carries a different vibration and every one of us has a unique set of numbers that are etched into our destiny. Your numerology is calculated using your name and birthday, two elements that are inseparable from your identity. These numbers grant you personal power so that you can achieve your goals with ease and grace. By comprehending the deeper meaning of your numbers, you can use them to your advantage and make progress in your life. find your numbers, use them and stick with them in time to live your best life.

Increasing numbers of conservative evangelicals are denying basic tenets of classical Christian teaching about God, with departures occurring even among those of the Calvinistic persuasion. James Dolezal's All That Is in God provides an exposition of the historic Christian position while engaging with these contemporary deviations. His convincing critique of the newer position he styles "theistic mutualism" is philosophically robust, systematically nuanced, and biblically based.

As Anne Lamott knows, the world is a dangerous place. Terrorism and war have become the new normal. Environmental devastation looms even closer. And there are personal demands on her faith as well – getting older; her mother's Alzheimer's; her son's adolescence and the passing of friends and time. Fortunately for those of us who are anxious about the state of the world, whose parents are also aging and dying, whose children are growing harder to recognise as they become teenagers, Plan B offers hope that we're not alone in the midst of despair.

What does Plato have to do with the Christian faith? Quite a bit, it turns out. In ways that might surprise us, Christians throughout the history of the church and even today have inherited aspects of the ancient Greek philosophy of Plato, who was both Socrates's student and Aristotle's teacher. To help us understand the influence of Platonic thought on the Christian faith, Louis Markos offers careful readings of some of Plato's best-known texts and then traces the ways that his work shaped the faith of some of Christianity's most beloved theologians.

Centuries ago, sound theology and good fiction were friends and not strangers. Decades ago, authors strove not for self-expression and self-disclosure but for a mastery of craft and language and books that transformed the reader with wisdom and love. In more recent years, the old ideals have been exchanged for lesser ones. Few guides to writing, which tend to focus on mechanics, point of view, and plot, address the more important matters of meaning, depth, and heart. But it is the latter qualities that make a book a blessing and gift to both writer and reader.

A Poetry Gift is a collection of poems about life, nature, and the human condition. It’s intended to make people smile, and bring a little bit of inspiration and happiness to all. The world has been through a lot in the last couple of years, and these poems have been written in the hope that they will touch the hearts of those who might need a comforting moment, or even just a chuckle.

Einstein’s revolutionary scientific ideas have transformed our world, ushering in the nuclear age. The current pace of scientific and technological progress is simply astounding. So is there any place for faith in such a world? Einstein himself gave careful thought to the deepest questions of life. His towering intellectual status means he is someone worth listening to when we think through the big questions of life.

A provocative, challenging, and irreverent expose' of the obnoxious arrogance inherent in all religious thinking: condemning one another to eternal torment, relegating women and gays to second class citizenship, dividing humanity into arbitrary factions, sexual repression, denial of knowledge, promoting delusions of god and the afterlife, upholding phony patriarchal authority, claiming eternal truth without evidence, and child indoctrination. Religion is not good for the human race.

With the trademark wisdom, humor, and honesty that made Anne Lamott's book on faith, Traveling Mercies, a runaway best seller, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith is a spiritual antidote to anxiety and despair in increasingly fraught times.

The Dhammapada is a collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form and one of the most widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures. Each saying was made on a different occasion in response to a unique situation that had arisen in the life of the Buddha and his monastic community. It is a good introductory primer on Buddhist thought.

Osho responds here to a question relating to meditation, a space of "no-mind": "...meditation covers a very long pilgrimage. When I say 'meditation is witnessing', it is the beginning of meditation. And when I say 'meditation is no-mind', it is the completion of the pilgrimage. Witnessing is the beginning, and no-mind is the fulfillment. Witnessing is the method to reach the no-mind. Naturally you will feel witnessing is easier. It is close to you. But witnessing is only like seeds, and then is the long waiting period."

Sometimes it happens in a flash: a text, a blowup, a breakup. Other times, relationships simply fade: you and your spouse rarely make eye contact, you learn the friend you trusted is gossiping about you, the child who once held your hand is now an angry teenager. You go over and over conflicts in your mind and wonder How can I fix this? Or Is fixing this even possible? Or Why did I handle it that way?