Memoir Religion

Marcantonio Colonna's The Dictator Pope has rocked Rome and the entire Catholic Church with its portrait of an authoritarian, manipulative, and politically partisan pontiff. Occupying a privileged perch in Rome during the tumultuous first years of Francis' pontificate, Colonna was privy to the shock, dismay, and even panic that the reckless new pope engendered in the Church's most loyal and judicious leaders.

When he was elected pope in the fall of 1978, few people had ever heard of the charismatic Karol Wojty³a. But in a very short time he would ignite a revolution of conscience in his native Poland that would ultimately lead to the collapse of European communism and death of the Soviet Union. What even fewer people knew was that the KGB, the Polish Secret Police, and the East German Stasi had been waging a dangerous, decades-long war against Wojty³a and the Vatican itself.

In Broken Roads, Ira Wagler uses his singular voice to unapologetically, but compassionately, illuminate the inner world of the Amish community through his story of life after leaving, what feels like his inevitable return to his Amish father, and how they might mend the relationship between them before it's too late.

One in four Americans rejects any affiliation with organized religion, and nearly half of those under 30 describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious". But as the airwaves resound with the haranguing of preachers and pundits, who speaks for the millions who find no joy in whittling the wonder of existence to a simple yes/no choice? Lesley Hazleton does.

King David was a complicated, conflicted man of flesh. But too often he is viewed as an Americanized shepherd boy on a Sunday school felt board or a New Testament saint alongside the Virgin Mary. Not only does this neglect one of the Bible’s most complex stories of sin and redemption, it also bypasses the gritty, life lessons inherent in the amazing true story of David. Mark Rutland shreds the felt-board character, breaks down the sculpted marble statue, and unearths the real David of the Bible.

While on a three-month-long tour, Jeremy met and built a friendship with the lead singer of another band. In a beautiful and inspiring story, their love unfolded taking them both by surprise. After 16 years of marriage, Jeremy and Adrienne have experienced devastating losses and incredible joy and have grown alongside each other. They continue to strengthen their friendship as they juggle life and frequent separations, due to tour schedules, with the demands and stressors of parenting their three kids.

For three months in the spring of 1994, the African nation of Rwanda descended into one of the most vicious and bloody genocides the world has ever seen. Immaculée Ilibagiza, a young university student, miraculously survived the savage killing spree that left most of her family, friends, and a million of her fellow citizens dead. Immaculée's remarkable story of survival was documented in her first book, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.

In Love, At Ease is a heartfelt, intimate reflection on the life of Pramukh Swami Maharaj who personified the eternal spiritual values of selfless love and service, humility, inclusiveness and stability. The book presents a roadmap to inner happiness and success based on the interactions of a spiritual master who guided people from different faiths and backgrounds through the journey of life

What is the word for craving a relationship with the earth, plants, rocks, and stars? What do you call someone who finds their spirit sparked by these relationships; whose concept of the sacred is altered by the scent of jasmine in bloom or the deep indigo of a sky awaiting nightfall? We’re taught that doctors know our bodies and priests know our souls. But what if you’re a person seeking to understand both for yourself without an intermediary? What is the word for these feelings and the person we become when we honor them?

John Perkins, founder of Voice of Calvary ministries, was born in New Hebron, Mississippi, in 1930. His family was made up of sharecroppers, and he grew up in grinding poverty, part of a system that preserved prejudice and racism. After his brother was killed, Perkins left Mississippi for California, where he found job opportunities, racism of another kind, and faith in Jesus Christ. He returned to Mississippi to share the gospel and help his own people find equality, justice, and economic independence.

Women have been shamans since time immemorial, not only because women have innate intuitive gifts, but also because the female body is wired to more easily experience altered states, such as during the process of birth. Whether female or male, the altered states produced by psychedelics and ecstatic trance expand our minds to tap into and enhance our feminine states of consciousness as well as reconnect us to the web of life.

In 1654, 23 Jewish families arrived in New Amsterdam (now New York) aboard a French privateer. They were the Sephardim, members of a proud orthodox sect that had served as royal advisors and honored professionals under Moorish rule in Spain and Portugal but were then exiled by intolerant monarchs. A small, closed, and intensely private community, the Sephardim soon established themselves as businessmen and financiers. They became powerful forces in society, with some, like banker Haym Salomon, even providing financial support to George Washington's army during the American Revolution.

Living in-between the physical world and the spirit realm, yet feeling a stranger in both, Sherrie Dillard criss-crossed the country by bus, train, and hitchhiking in a search for answers. Along the way, she was led to help the poor and homeless on skid row, install water systems in Mayan Indian villages, live alone in a tent in the mountains, and make art with juvenile offenders.

Lamorna Ash was raised with about as much Christianity as most people in Britain these days: a basic knowledge of hymns and prayers received via a Church of England primary school education; occasional brushes with religious services. But once she started writing about her two friends’ unexpected conversions, she began encountering a recurring phenomenon: in an age of disconnection and apathy, a new generation was discovering religion for itself.

Rebecca never felt safe as a child. In 1969, her father, Robert Nichols, moved to Sellerstown, North Carolina, to serve as a pastor. There he found a small community eager to welcome him - with one exception. Glaring at him from pew number seven was a man obsessed with controlling the church. Determined to get rid of anyone who stood in his way, he unleashed a plan of terror that was more devastating and violent than the Nichols family could have ever imagined.

In Finding God in the Waves, "Science Mike" draws on his personal experience to tell the unlikely story of how science led him back to faith. Among other revelations, we learn what brain scans reveal about what happens when we pray; how fundamentalism affects the psyche; and how God is revealed not only in scripture but in the night sky, in subatomic particles, and in us.

What if I told you the paranormal has been studied by some of the greatest minds of all time? Are you tired of people denying the paranormal exists? With refreshing candor, this "easy-to-digest" spiritual memoir weaves in how groundbreaking studies of parapsychology have shattered society's beliefs.

These ten boys grew up in hard times throughout history to become men who didn’t give in to the pressure against their faith. Living as a Christian was difficult, but they chose to do the right thing instead of the easy thing. In a world where we give in too easily, be inspired by the true stories of those who didn’t! Includes the stories of Nate Saint, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Thomas Cranmer, Polycarp, with the biographies of other great heroes of the faith.

When a health scare puts him in the hospital, Eric Weiner-an agnostic by default-finds himself tangling with an unexpected question, posed to him by a well-meaning nurse. "Have you found your God yet?" The thought of it nags him, and prods him-and ultimately launches him on a far-flung journey to do just that.

Voici l'histoire époustouflante d'un jeune séminariste plongé, à l'aube de la seconde guerre mondiale, dans la sinistre légion de Hitler.