Spiritual Biography

Growing up in a family where everyone was just fine, Don Follis learned early on to keep his arms crossed and his emotions at bay. While his spiritual life groaned for development, the land of numb held him back. He didn’t think about the connection between his emotional and spiritual lives.

He Called Me Tin is a story of triumph and perseverance. From childhood distress to an attempt at suicide to being scarred by religion to being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis to the strife of racism and discrimination as a government employee to being assaulted and nearly kidnapped abroad, she has overcome in peace....

Do you feel like you are barely holding on? Let the golden thread of God's presence be the calm on the other side of chaos. It could be that he is weaving a brilliant new beginning in the middle of your mess. Join beloved worship leader Darlene Zschech as she traces God’s goodness through her recent transitions. No matter what we're going through, Darlene urges us to maintain joy in the middle of it all.

Do we have anything in common with the bad guys of the Bible? The sins of wrath, idolatry, and abuse of power are closer to us than we think. How do we guard against them? We learn not only by following moral exemplars; we also need to look at the warnings of lives gone wrong. In this fictionalized narrative, JR. Forasteros reintroduces us to some of the most villainous characters of Scripture. He shows us what we can learn from their negative examples, with figures such as Cain, Jezebel, and even Satan serving as cautionary tales of sin and temptation.

At the age of 15, Jennifer Rothschild confronted two unshakable realities: Blindness is inevitable...and God is enough. Now this popular author, speaker, and recording artist offers poignant lessons that illuminate a path to freedom and fulfillment. With warmth, humor, and insight, Jennifer shares the guiding principles she walks by - and shows you how to walk forward by faith into God's marvelous light.

If you want to appreciate life to the fullest, this unabridged audio download of A Positive Life reveals nine basic yet powerful lessons for living with passionate faith and joy. Through his story of living with HIV, Shane Stanford will help you find contentment in your own life, no matter the circumstances.

Can you find faith in an episode of "Friends"? Can Adam Sandler teach us about the love of God? Can Kermit the Frog and Alanis Morissette teach us about prayer? Can Harry Potter help save us? Jesuit Father Mark Mossa says yes! Fr. Mossa has served as a minister for young adults in various parts of the northeast and southern U.S. He currently teaches theology at Fordham University in New York City.

Learning My Name is the harrowing chronicle of a fearful prodigal putting family relationships on the line as he learns to trust the love of both his dad and his heavenly Father for the sake of putting neurotic, addictive thinking to rest. This book is more than the author's story; it is the story of humanitys interaction with God.

At age 21, Andrea Palpant Dilley stripped the Christian fish decal off her car bumper in a symbolic act of departure from her religious childhood. At 23, she left the church and went searching for refuge in the company of men who left her lonely and friends who pushed the boundaries of what she once held sacred. In this deeply personal memoir, Andrea navigates the doubts that plague believers and skeptics alike: Why does a good God allow suffering? Why is God so silent, distant, and uninvolved? And why does the church seem so dysfunctional?

The author of My Beautiful Idol is on a quest to be successful - in a lucrative job at an advertising agency, in ministry work, even in his relationships. And in a futile attempt to control the sources of love and security, he has turned these things into idols he can keep in his soul's back pocket. He pulls the idols out when he feels vulnerable and defenseless, and hides them again when things are going well. But the idols keep failing - even when he turns to his own Christian faith.

Renee Altson's powerful, personal narrative details the evil done to her throughout her life---almost exclusively at the hands of the church---and how she struggles and stumbles toward faith despite her ordeal.

At the age of eight, Chad Gibbs attended his first Southeastern Conference football game. Since then he has been in a constant battle to not let his love of all things pigskin consume him. As a Christian, Gibbs knows he cannot serve two masters, but at times his faith is overwhelmed by his fanaticism. He is not alone. In 2008 over six million people attended an SEC football game.

This is the true story of Ora-Jay and Irene Eash, Amish farmers from northwest Montana whose lives changed in an instant when a semi-truck struck the family buggy, killing their two young daughters. After the accident, the couple turned to their Amish community for comfort, but they remained haunted by the thought that they might not see their girls again in heaven. Would their deeds be good enough?

Author Paul Richardson draws on stories from his life as a change specialist in the world’s largest Muslim country to explore what causes us to be deactivated—pinned down under life’s fluctuating circumstances, personal apathy, and disappointment. In A Certain Risk, Richardson will inspire you to engage the complexities of your world with creative solutions—creativity that comes straight from the heart of the Creator.

Stumbling on Open Ground steps away from the pattern of other cancer books, Christian or secular, and attempts to tackle the question of how you can doubt a God that you do not doubt. It's about having trouble believing what is going on when you believe God knows what he is doing at all times. It is about questioning what is happening when you know where all the questions are answered.

It's not what I lost. It's what I've found. I was only 17, just a girl, when God asked me for everything I had...my health, my hopes, my independence, my dreams, my freedom, and my mobility. He took it all. I was so angry with him that I tried to push him away. God relentlessly held me more closely. Looking back, 40 years later, I understand that God has changed and healed me - my heart and my mind - in the most unexpected ways, giving me rubies of his wisdom about an unbending faith and an experience of his mercy I can now tell you about.

In this provocative spiritual autobiography, Diarmuid O'Murchu explores the many paschal journeys in his personal life as well as in the life of the church and the world. He shows how the paschal paradox—the movement through death and resurrection—is at the heart of God's creation and gives meaning to all life.

On March, 13, 2013, 115 cardinals elected for the first time a pope from outside of Europe. Pope Francis, a native of Argentina, is not just the first pope from the Southern Hemisphere; he is also the first Jesuit to ever hold the Chair of Peter. Now, a leading expert on the papacy provides the ultimate introduction to this new pope, including biographical information and an absorbing collection of Jorge Mario Bergoglio's most persuasive words.

More and more people - especially millennials - are turning to religion as a source of comfort and solace in our increasingly chaotic world. But rather than live a cloistered life of seclusion, the Daughters of Saint Paul actively embrace social media, using platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook to evangelize, collectively calling themselves the #MediaNuns. In this collective memoir, eight of these Sisters share their own discernment journeys, struggles and crises of faith that they’ve overcome, and episodes from their daily lives.

Theodore Roosevelt is well-known as a rancher, hunter, naturalist, soldier, historian, explorer, and statesman. While Roosevelt's life has been written about from many angles, no modern book probes deeply into his engagement with religious beliefs, practices, and controversies despite his lifelong church attendance and commentary on religious issues. Theodore Roosevelt: Preaching from the Bully Pulpit traces Roosevelt's personal religious odyssey from youthful faith and pious devotion to a sincere but more detached adult faith.