Religious Writings

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

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.

The Thomas Keating Reader gathers for the first time 30 articles (some never published elsewhere) to offer a valuable overview of some of the main strands of Fr. Thomas’ thinking and practice on centering prayer, lectio divina, and interreligious dialogue. Rich with insight and humanity, The Thomas Keating Reader offers a broad introduction to the concepts that have animated Contemplative Outreach and reveals the gifts and challenges of the practice of the spiritual life.

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.

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.

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.

By the time he was 30, Syd Kessler was a millionaire many times over, the epitome of the poor kid making good. But inside him, a hollowness was taking hold, and later, in middle age, he fell seriously ill. In the dark days of a long recovery, Kessler explored the Kabbalah and the discoveries of quantum physics, developing a system of moral principles from the truths of how the universe began and operates. His set of principles - from Big Bang to Moral Cause and Effect to Selfless Selfishness to Closure and Energy - are revolutionary.

"Un jour, ils sont là. Un jour, sans aucun souci de l'heure. On ne sait pas d'où ils viennent, ni pourquoi ni comment ils sont entrés. Ils entrent toujours ainsi, à l'improviste et par effraction. Et cela sans faire de bruit, sans dégâts apparents. Ils ont une stupéfiante discrétion de passe-muraille. Ils : les personnages. On ignore tout d'eux, mais d'emblée on sent qu'ils vont durablement imposer leur présence." S. G. D'où viennent les personnages des romans et quel chemin suivent-ils dans l'esprit de l'écrivaine ?

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.

In this volume, we see how Krishna saves his devotee from degradation. Beginning with the famous story of Ajamila, the brahmin who fell from an exalted position to become a ruthless robber and cheat, only to be miraculously redeemed at the very moment of death. Then we hear how Indra, king of the gods, insulted his guru and as a result was overpowered by the demonic races, led by Vritra, a supernatural colossus who had been conjured for the god’s destruction.

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.

“I didn’t think he’d do it. I really didn’t think he would. I thought he’d say, whoa, hold on, wait a minute. We made a deal, remember, the land, the blessing, the nation, the descendants as numerous as the sands on the shore and the stars in the sky.” So begins James Goodman’s original and urgent encounter with one of the most compelling and resonant stories ever told - God’s command to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.

In Reading the Old Testament Through Jewish Eyes, Rabbi Moffic explores the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, and highlights points of interest to Christians. He describes the role of the Torah in Jewish worship and practice and explores the key themes of each book guided by the wisdom of Jewish interpreters through the centuries. Join Rabbi Moffic in this study of the Torah and find rich new insights into the biblical story. Discover how the Torah can be a source of wisdom, truth, and transformation in your life.

Jesus was a man of few words, simple words, and a deeply challenging message. However, through the years his words and message have been clouded with additions and retractions. How can we possibly know the words he spoke? What were his original teachings? Where did his message stop and the many changes begin? Hidden in the gospels themselves are the source materials containing the original message preached by Jesus. Before the gospels were written, there were proto-gospels, notes, lists, and collections of sayings used to construct the gospels we have today.

During its 2,500-year life, the book of Genesis has been the keystone to almost every important claim about reality, humanity, and God in Judaism and Christianity. And it continues to play a central role in debates about science, politics, and human rights. With clarity and skill, acclaimed biblical scholar Ronald Hendel provides a panoramic history of this iconic book, exploring its impact on Western religion, philosophy, science, politics, literature, and more.

This book is about my assignment, which I was disobedient to the calling. Eventually, I got back on track and focused on what God had instilled in me to do. It's a soft voice that speaks to you and it may not make sense, but just do what it says because that is God sending you on a journey.

El Ramayana es uno de los textos literarios más importantes de la India. El libro nos narra la vida de Rama, quien es un muchacho con características humanas y divinas perteneciente a una familia real. Durante su recorrido, será instruido en el arte de la guerra, encontrará el amor, vivirá el exilio, y deberá enfrentarse contra demonios, gigantes y héroes para cumplir con su misión divina. En la figura de Rama, las cualidades de un buen gobernante y guerrero, y los valores de la sabiduría, bondad y justicia encuentran un importante lugar de reunión.

Renowned Masonic scholar and author W. W. Westcott discusses the formula of masonic rituals and why secrets are an important part of that. He discusses the inclusion of the concept of legends in our rituals and why it is important to separate those legends from historical events. He discusses where some of our symbols came from and what part the Jewish Kabbalah played in the formation of freemasonry. He discussed the Tree of Life and the Hebrew letters as they relate to masonry.

Some people believe questioning the Bible, the direction God is going, or even God himself, is blasphemy. Some think it’s a sign of disbelief. Daniel Thornton is one such man. He believes his son, Rusty Thornton, is lost without God and takes him to a faraway place in the early 1950s near Spicewood, Texas, where he would never come in contact with people. He has an old King James Version of the Bible and began to try and cure his son’s affliction of skepticism.

Always with Me is more than a memoir about my teacher. It is both an exposition of a spiritual path and an intimate account of a great kabbalist; it details the formation and evolution of the relationship and joint study of a teacher and his devoted disciple. Through a profound bond, conflicts, assistance, and rejections, devotion, protests, ascents, and descents, the teacher imbued in me the wisdom of Kabbalah. Rabash was the standard-bearer, the last in a line of spiritual giants dedicated to conveying the secret wisdom to humankind.