Religious Biographies

The first monotheistic religion was born in ancient Persia, more than 2000 years before any other under the leadership of Zoroaster. As a lone philosopher and wanderer, Zoroaster traveled Persia to spread his teachings facing persecution, assassination attempts, and more. Dive into both Zoroaster's life and the beliefs of the faith practice Zoroastrianism, which is still alive today. Just as in ancient times, many practitioners are forced to survive persecution and violence in order to keep their cultural heritage alive.

In 2013, just two years after the popular overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian military ousted the country's first democratically elected president - Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood - and subsequently led a brutal repression of the Islamist group. These bloody events echoed an older political rift: the splitting of nationalists and Islamists during the rule of Egyptian president and Arab nationalist leader Gamal Abdel Nasser. Fawaz Gerges, one of the world's leading authorities on the Middle East, tells how the clash between pan-Arab nationalism and pan-Islamism has shaped the history of the region.

Not So Shiny Not So Happy People is Clint Heacock's brutally honest and poignant story of growing up in a family living under the teachings of Bill Gothard. Clint spent years pursuing the victorious Christian life he had been taught to expect. He watched helplessly as the rigid interpretation of Christianity taught by Gothard inflicted severe damage on his family. He graduated from Bible college, served in pastoral roles, and earned two master's degrees and a Ph.D. in theology while still searching for that supernatural level of living promised in the New Testament.

Dans ce livre unique, qui propose des réflexions personnelles, spirituelles et historiques – dont certaines n'ont jamais été partagées auparavant –, Sa Sainteté le dalaï-lama raconte l'histoire de sa lutte contre la Chine pour sauver le Tibet et son peuple pendant plus de soixante-quinze ans. Le dalaï-lama a dû lutter contre la République populaire de Chine toute sa vie.

Chasing Slow models HGTV star Erin Loechner's journey to help you break out of the faster-better-stronger trap and make small changes to refresh your perspective, renew your priorities, and shift your focus to what matters most. You're here, but you want to be there. So you spend your life...

Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints is a children's book about people of diverse faiths working for more love and justice in their corners of the world, even when that means rocking the religious boat. This audiobook is read by the author, Daneen Akers, and includes the stories of women, LGBTQ, Black, Indigenous, and other people of color who are too often written out of religious narratives. Hear the engaging profiles of people from different faiths and different eras whose stories inspire, educate, challenge, and encourage us all.

This 40-day devotional from Brian "Head" Welch, former lead guitarist of Korn and the New York Times best-selling author of Save Me From Myself, is an intimate tour through the Bible passages that have meant the most to him on his trying journey from substance abuse to salvation. Save Me From Myself, Welch's self-effacing story his against addiction and his reawakening to divine love, has made the metal band icon into a hero of Christian rock.

Abdus-Salam Harun’s abridgment makes this classical text accessible without compromising authenticity. Listeners will appreciate its continuity, clarity, and reverence for the original. Whether you're exploring the early days in Makkah, the struggles of Madinah, or the final moments of the Prophet’s life, this edition guides the listener through a transformative journey grounded in authentic narration and spiritual depth.

Educated is a memoir by Tara Westover. It tells the story of her experiences growing up in and subsequently leaving a radical, survivalist Mormon home. Abused by a loved and trusted older brother, Westover struggles for years to escape the cycles of abuse and finally finds her escape through her education. It's a story of struggles and triumphs and the conflict in the mind of a woman torn between family loyalty and her survival instincts.

Kristen LaValley grew up a church kid through and through. She said “the sinner’s prayer” before she could write her name―and spent the next few decades trying to prove she meant it; in a body that couldn’t rest, with a mind she didn’t yet understand, under a God she was afraid to disappoint. She learned to perform the kind of faith that got praised: one that hid pain and swallowed questions. In Growing Up Saved, Kristen maps the slow undoing of a faith formed in certainty and what it took to find God in the middle of her unraveling.

Seven years ago, Christian Wiman, a well-known poet and the editor of Poetry magazine, wrote a now-famous essay about having faith in the face of death. My Bright Abyss, composed in the difficult years since and completed in the wake of a bone marrow transplant, is a moving meditation on what a viable contemporary faith - responsive not only to modern thought and science but also to religious tradition - might look like.

Over the last few decades, many dark secrets have been pouring out of Christian communities around the world. Most of them focus on some form of misuse of trust or abuse at the hands of church leaders. For centuries religious leaders have “circled the wagons” in an attempt to preserve the money-making institutions they lead. The result has been a continual cycle of abuse and the disillusioned leaving the institutional church world in droves. From 1982-1989, author Bob Scott founded and pastored the Kansas City Fellowship with his friend and then brother-in-law Mike Bickle.

In 1971, at age 20, Visakha had just published her first book and was beginning her ascent to fame and fortune through a career in photojournalism. Then, at the invitation of her college boyfriend, Visakha traveled east, where she first learned about bhakti yoga - the yoga of devotion - from a simple Indian sage. The bhakti tradition seemed irrelevant to Visakha. Five Years, Eleven Months and a Lifetime of Unexpected Love is Visakha’s deeply personal account of the emotional upheaval caused by her doubting her own cherished convictions....

In 1993, Andrew Brunson was asked to travel to Turkey, the largest unevangelized country in the world, to serve as a missionary. Though hesitant because of the daunting and dangerous task that lay ahead, Andrew and his wife, Norine, believed this was God's plan for them. What followed was a string of threats and attacks, but also successes in starting new churches in a place where many people had never met a Christian. As their work with refugees from Syria, gained attention and suspicion, Andrew and Norine acknowledged the threat but accepted the risk.

In his sixth God's Generals volume, Roberts Liardon chronicles some of the great martyrs for the faith - and some of the lesser-known ones. Their inspirational testimony, acts of courage, and even seasons of doubt both encourage and point awareness toward the persecuted church of the 21st century. The audiobook includes profiles on Apostle Paul and Stephen the Faithful (c. 100 AD), martyrs from the 18th, 19th, and 21st centuries, and so many more!

Marion Blumenthal Lazan's unforgettable memoir recalls the devastating years that shaped her childhood. Following Hitler's rise to power, the Blumenthal family - father, mother, Marion, and her brother, Albert - were trapped in Nazi Germany. They managed eventually to get to Holland, but soon thereafter it was occupied by the Nazis. For the next six and a half years the Blumenthals were forced to live in refugee, transit, and prison camps that included Westerbork in Holland and the notorious Bergen-Belsen in Germany.

Throughout history, women have been crucial to the growth and flourishing of the church. Historian Michael A. G. Haykin highlights the lives of eight of these women who changed the course of history, showing how they lived out their unique callings despite challenges and opposition - inspiring modern men and women to imitate their godly examples today.

Why Religion? has descriptive copy which is not yet available from the Publisher...

When Fr. Gabriele Amorth passed away on September 16, 2016 at the age of 90, he had given everything to Christ and his church. He performed as many as 12 exorcisms in a day. He faithfully served 69 years in the Pauline religious order, 62 as a priest, and 30 years as the pope’s exorcist.

In the wake of the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of France, and Pope Pius VII shared a common goal: to reconcile the church with the state. But while they were able to work together initially, formalizing an agreement in 1801, relations between them rapidly deteriorated. In 1809, Napoleon ordered the Pope's arrest. Ambrogio Caiani provides a pioneering account of the tempestuous relationship between the emperor and his most unyielding opponent.