Religious Writings

The co-editors of Gnosis magazine explore the many esoteric traditions that Western culture has to offer. While terms from Eastern spiritual practices such as Zen, mantra, and karma have become part of our daily lexicon, the traditions of Western spirituality have been largely unexplored by people searching for non-mainstream routes to spiritual experience. But for those who identify with Western culture, Western religious traditions have their own wisdom teachings that are more suitable to their needs and expectations.

Daniel's story is one of extraordinary faith in God lived out at the pinnacle of executive power. It tells of four teenage friends, born in the tiny state of Judah about 26 centuries ago, but captured by Nebuchadnezzar, emperor of Babylon. Daniel describes how they eventually rose to the top echelons of administration. Daniel and his friends did not simply maintain their private devotion to God; they maintained a high-profile witness in a pluralistic society antagonistic to their faith.

The Bhagavad Gita is one of the most influential spiritual texts of ancient India. In Perennial Psychology of the Bhagavad Gita, Swami Rama makes this classic scripture accessible to all students by vividly drawing out the psychological concepts found within. The teachings in this book are based on the understanding that the outside world can be mastered only when one’s inner potentials are systematically explored and realized.

The first person ever to complete the perilous 10,000 mile journey across the inscrutable desert landscape of the Middle East, Bruce Feiler, a fifth generation Southern Jew, embarks upon a quest to reconnect with the stories of the Bible, and uncover fresh answers to profound questions.

Andrew Sullivan, “one of the most influential journalists of the last three decades” (The New York Times) and founding editor of The Daily Dish presents a collection of 60 his most iconic and powerful essays of social and political commentary from The New Republic, The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, New York magazine, and more.

This audiobook explains why Gentiles have never been bound by kosher food laws, Jewish temple rituals, or the Saturday Sabbath.

When American writer Stephanie Saldana finds herself in an empty house at the beginning of Nablus Road, the dividing line between East and West Jerusalem, she is a new wife trying to navigate a fragile terrain, both within her marriage and throughout the country in which she has chosen to live. Pregnant with her first child, Stephanie struggles to protect her family, their faith, and herself from the cracks of Middle Eastern conflict that threaten to shatter the world around her.

Franz Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer, a devoted husband and father, and a devout Catholic, was executed in 1943 as a result of his refusal to serve in the Nazi army. Before taking this stand Jägerstätter consulted both his pastor and his local bishop, who instructed him to do his duty to the fatherland and to obey the law, an instruction that violated his conscience.

For numerous centuries, the Talmud—an extraordinary work of Jewish ethics, law, and tradition—has compelled readers to grapple with how to live a good life. Full of folk legends, bawdy tales, and rabbinical repartee, it is inspiring, demanding, confounding, and thousands of pages long. As Liel Leibovitz enthusiastically explores the Talmud, what has sometimes been misunderstood as a dusty and arcane volume becomes humanity's first self-help book. How the Talmud Can Change Your Life contains sage advice on an unparalleled scope of topics.

Is it really possible to love one's enemies? That's the question that sparked a fascinating and, at times, terrifying journey into the heart of the Middle East during the summer of 2008. It was a trip that began in Egypt, passed beneath the steel-and-glass high-rises of Saudi Arabia, then wound through the bullet-pocked alleyways of Beirut and dusty streets of Damascus, before ending at the cradle of the world's three major religions: Jerusalem.

After Paul Stutzman finished hiking the Appalachian Trail, he found himself longing for another challenge, another adventure. Trading his hiking boots for a bicycle, Paul set off to discover more of America. Starting at Neah Bay, Washington, and ending at Key West, Florida, Paul traversed the 5,000 mile distance between the two farthest points in the contiguous United States.

A satisfying compendium of profound subjects carefully and clearly elucidated by a master writer and teacher. These 47 discourses on the Jewish festivals give an overview of the primary concepts of Chabad Chasidus and address the dynamics of a Jew's relationship with G-d, community, and himself.

There are many editions of the writings of St. Francis, and many biographies about him, but here in one volume are both, plus the complete text of the late medieval work The Little Flowers, which did more to establish the legend of the man than any other work. This edition includes the complete Road to Assisi, Paul Sabatier's groundbreaking and foundational biography of the saint, first published in French in 1894; the complete Francis in His Own Words: The Essential Writings; and The Little Flowers, thus offering the best introduction to St. Francis yet available between two covers.

Dr. Murray Stein’s prolific career has produced a substantial body of writings, lectures, and interviews. His writings, captured in these volumes, span a wide domain of topics, including Christianity, individuation, midlife, the practice of analytical psychology, and topics in contemporary society. His deep understanding of analytical psychology is much more than an academic discourse, but rather a deeply personal study of Jung that spans nearly half a century.

Following the success of several recent inspirational and practical books for would-be writers, Poemcrazy is a perfect guide for everyone who ever wanted to write a poem but was afraid to try. Writing workshop leader Susan Wooldridge shows how to think, use one's senses, and practice exercises that will make poems more likely to happen.

As an English-speaking denomination, Baptists originated within 17th-century Puritanism as an offshoot of Congregationalism. English Baptists migrated to the American colonies during the 17th century. During the 18th century, the Great Awakening resulted in the expansion of the denomination, and the conversion of many slaves to Baptist churches. Baptist congregations formed their first national organization the Triennial Convention in the early 1800.

Indiana Jones meets The Da Vinci Code in an old Egyptian synagogue - the amazing story of one of the most important discoveries in modern religious scholarship. In 1897, Rabbi Solomon Schechter of Cambridge University stepped into the attic of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt, and there found the largest treasure trove of medieval and early manuscripts ever discovered.

Former bookseller, longtime publisher, and author Jon M. Sweeney shows—with history and anecdotes centering around books such as Thoreau's Journal, Tagore's Gitanjali, Martin Buber's Hasidic Tales, and Tolstoy's Twenty-three Tales—what it means to be carried by a book. He explores the discovery that once accompanied finding books, and books finding us. He ponders the smell of an old volume, its heft, and why bibliophiles carry them around even without reading them. He demonstrates how and why there is magic and enchantment that takes place between people and books.

Straight out of Joshua Tree, California, Desert Oracle is “The Voice of the Desert”: a field guide to the strange tales, singing sand dunes, sagebrush trails, artists and aliens, authors and oddballs, ghost towns and modern legends, musicians and mystics, scorpions and saguaros, out there in the sand. Desert Oracle is your companion at a roadside diner, around a campfire, in your tent or cabin (or high-rise apartment or suburban living room) as the wind and the coyotes howl outside at night.

There has been a void where this audiobook should have been. Plenty has been written on the mechanics of writing effective fiction, but story is more than its structure. Christian writers need not appeal to culture. Rather, they can guide listeners through stories that encourage them to become the heroes and heroines that we need. People need to be inspired, convicted, and encouraged, and The Soul of Story does that fearlessly.