Religious Biographies

Elisabeth Elliot was a young missionary in Ecuador when members of a violent Amazonian tribe savagely speared her husband, Jim, and his four colleagues. Incredibly, prayerfully, Elisabeth took her toddler daughter, snakebite kit, Bible, and journal...and lived in the jungle with the stone-age people who killed her husband. In this authorized biography, Ellen Vaughn uses Elisabeth’s private, unpublished journals, and candid interviews with her family and friends, to paint the adventures and misadventures God used to shape one of the most influential women in modern church history.

He was a husband, a father, a preacher - and the preeminent leader of a movement that continues to transform America and the world.

The collection of quotes, stories, and prayers in this book are all her own words and experiences. They were compiled from various sources. Her undying faith and concern of the human spirit is reflected in these passages. In her years of work, Mother Teresa has brought God to millions in places of darkness. Let her share her hope, faith, and love with you.

American pianist, singer, and contemporary Christian songwriter Keith Green was only 28 when he died in a plane crash with two of his small children, but he had already created a legacy of music and inspiration that would outlive him. Keith touched people through vibrant lyrics in songs like "Your Love Broke Through", "You Put This Love in My Heart", and "Asleep in the Light". In No Compromise, Melody has updated her husband's biography.

Newlywed American missionary Darlene Deibler Rose survived four years in a notorious Japanese prison camp set deep in the jungles of New Guinea. Thinking she was never to see her husband again, Darlene Rose was forced to sign a false confession and face the executioner's sword, only to be miraculously spared.

On February 14, 1989, Valentine's Day, Salman Rushdie was telephoned by a BBC journalist and told that he had been "sentenced to death" by the Ayatollah Khomeini. For the first time he heard the word fatwa. His crime? To have written a novel called The Satanic Verses, which was accused of being "against Islam, the Prophet and the Quran". So begins the extraordinary story of how a writer was forced underground, moving from house to house, with the constant presence of a police protection team.

Padmasambhava, the Lotus-Born Indian mystic and tantric master, is second only to Skakyamuni as the most famous figure in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. In the ninth century, he journeyed across the Himalayan Mountains to establish Buddhism for the people of Tibet. This legendary tale interweaves narration with timeless advice to all spiritual practitioners. Here, in English for the first time, is the complete story of how Buddhism was planted in Tibet.

This book is part memoir, history, exploration, and critique of the Jehovah's Witness religion. I was born and raised as a Jehovah's Witness. Eventually, I found myself shunned due to actions considered unacceptable by the leaders of the religion at the time. I lost everything except the shirt on my back and the shoes on my feet. I faced a series of personal setbacks as a result of being cut off from childhood friends and family.

What if Mother Teresa or Billy Graham lived and worked — and nobody knew their names? What if one of the church’s most influential missionaries went almost unnoticed? Meet Katharine (Katy) Barnwell. Within Bible translation, she’s a legend. Outside of Bible translation, few have heard of her. But not even Billy Graham holds a candle to what God did through Katy.

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.

The world's most famous demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren, were called in to help an average American family who were assaulted by forces too awesome, too powerful, and too dark to be stopped. It's a true story, supported by dozens of eyewitnesses - neighbors, priests, police, journalists, and researchers.

From his modest headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, the Rebbe advised some of the world's greatest leaders and shaped matters of state and society. Statesmen and artists as diverse as Ronald Reagan, Robert F. Kennedy, Yitzchak Rabin, Menachem Begin, Elie Wiesel, and Bob Dylan span the spectrum of those who sought his counsel.

When Hitler's Pope, the shocking story of Pope Pius XII that "redefined the history of the twentieth century" (The Washington Post) was originally published, it sparked a firestorm of controversy both inside and outside the Catholic Church. Now, award-winning journalist John Cornwell has revisited this seminal work of history with a new introduction that both answers his critics and reaffirms his overall thesis that Pius XII, now scheduled to be canonized by the Vatican, weakened the Catholic Church with his endorsement of Hitler—and sealed the fate of the Jews in Europe.

A gifted storyteller and spiritual director, Father James Martin, SJ, invites listeners to experience the stories of the Gospels in a completely new, vivid, and exciting way to gain a deeper understanding of Jesus. Moving sequentially through the Gospels, considering not only familiar passages but also the "hidden life" of Jesus, the book offers a bold retelling of the life of Christ, faithful to the Christian tradition, while meditating on parts of the narrative that have often escaped notice.

In the 1990s, a “purity industry” emerged out of the white evangelical Christian culture. Purity rings, purity pledges, and purity balls came with a dangerous message: girls are potential sexual “stumbling blocks” for boys and men, and any expression of a girl’s sexuality could reflect the corruption of her character. This message traumatized many girls - resulting in anxiety, fear, and experiences that mimicked the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder - and trapped them in a cycle of shame.

This deeply textured dual biography and fascinating intellectual history examines two of the greatest minds of European history - Desiderius Erasmus and Martin Luther - whose heated rivalry gave rise to two enduring, fundamental, and often colliding traditions of philosophical and religious thought.

Cloistered takes the listener deep into the hidden world of a traditional Carmelite monastery as it approaches the third Millennium and tells the story of an intense personal journey into and out of an enclosed life of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Finding an apparently perfect world at Akenside Priory, in Northumberland, Catherine trusts herself to a group of twenty silent women, believing she is trusting herself to God. As the beauty and mystery of an ancient way of life enfold her, she surrenders herself wholly to its power, quite unaware of the complexity and dangers that lie ahead.

Twenty-four of the Buddha's most distinguished disciples are brought to life in ten chapters of rich narration. They include monks who were very close to him throughout his life, including Sariputta and Mahamoggallana; his cousin and companion Ananda; his principal women disciples, including the nun Isidasi and his lay disciple, the courtesan Ambapali; and the serial killer Angulimala, whose character was transformed after meeting the Buddha.

In this definitive and long-awaited biography, Jonathan Edwards emerges as both a great American and a brilliant Christian. George Marsden evokes the world of colonial New England in which Edwards was reared - a frontier civilization at the center of a conflict between Native Americans, French Catholics, and English Protestants. Drawing on newly available sources, Marsden demonstrates how these cultural and religious battles shaped Edwards' life and thought.

Rifqa Bary grew up in a devout Muslim home, obediently following her parents' orders to practice the rituals of Islam. But God was calling her to freedom and love. He was calling her to true faith. He was calling her to give up everything.