Religious Biographies

A spiritual aspirant’s journey is sprinkled with many battles overcoming mind over matter through different sadhanas (spiritual practices). One such sadhana is going on a pilgrimage, which provides challenges for the body, mind, and intellect.

How did a 19th Century farm girl from New England start a worldwide healing movement, open a college, build a church, write a book on healing which has remained a best seller for over 100 years, begin three magazines, open a publishing house, and start a daily newspaper which, by the second decade of the 21st century, has won seven Pulitzer Prizes and more than a dozen Overseas Press Club awards? Sibyl Wilbur’s contemporary account of this stunning life is written with all the verve and romance of the period and brings its subject to life.

Born Julius Marx in 1890, the brilliant comic actor who would later be known as Groucho was the most verbal of the famed comedy team the Marx Brothers, his broad slapstick portrayals elevated by ingenious wordplay and double entendre. In his spirited biography of this beloved American iconoclast, Lee Siegel views the life of Groucho through the lens of his work on stage, screen, and television.

Copyright 2008, Marilynn Hughes. Out-of-Body Travel Magazine: Comte St. Germain - Forgotten Immortal Mystic of the Mystery Schools (For more info - www.outofbodytravel.org)

Abi Millar is looking for something. She grew up in an evangelical church, but after she lost her faith, she found herself searching for spiritualty in other places. Torn between the logical part of her brain and the part that secretly believes in magic, and in the wake of a great loss, she wondered whether her crisis of faith was part of a larger story: at a time when more and more people in the Western world are moving away from organised religion, what does spirituality look like?

Jesuit priest John Gerard hid from English authorities for eight years before his eventual capture and torture in the Tower of London. Risking everything to preserve Catholicism in Tudor England, Gerard moved from house to house, converting many people and evading capture by mere seconds. Following a hair's-breadth escape from the Tower to the continent, he survived to tell his tale and pass on his experience to future missionaries and martyrs in The Autobiography of a Hunted Priest, a fascinating tale of espionage, disguise, priest hunters, and brilliantly designed hideouts.

"I came late to Christianity", writes Sara Miles, "knocked upside down by a mid-life conversion centered around eating a literal chunk of bread. I hadn't decided to profess an article of doctrine, but discovered a force blowing uncontrollably through the world." In this book, Sara Miles tells what happened when she decided to follow the flesh and blood Jesus by doing something real. For everyone afraid to feed hungry strangers, love the unlovable, or go to dark places to bless and heal, she offers hope.

"The same energy that created stars and galaxies lies dormant within your belly." So begins Master Yan Ming Li's spell­binding memoir recounting the challenges of growing up as a spiritually-gifted child in a land where exploration of the unseen realms was forbidden. Like a Chinese Harry Potter, Li found solace in a mysterious and power­ful force he called the Light.

Slowly the boat pushed us forward, away from certain shipwreck, and gained the upper hand in its struggle against the surging current. The victory did not spark spontaneous celebration; rather, we spent the next moments in a trembling recovery. Kent, an American, and Josephine, an Australian, journeyed to an unfamiliar continent and set out to live on a riverboat deep in the jungle. With their four young children and ministry team, they served on the Purus River in the Amazon, bringing education, health care, and the love of God to remote communities

When Joni was paralyzed in a diving accident at the age of seventeen, she quickly understood her life would never be the same. But what she didn't know was how God would use her story to affect the lives of millions of people from across the globe. This little book is full of biblical truths and important lessons Joni has learned along the way. No matter your situation, you'll be encouraged as you discover Jesus' faithfulness in the midst of life's challenges.

Ian Buruma explores the life and death of Baruch Spinoza, the Enlightenment thinker whose belief in freedom of thought and speech resonates in our own time

Sands Hall chronicles her slow yet willing absorption into the Church of Scientology. Her time in the Church, the 1980s, includes the secretive illness and death of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and the ascension of David Miscavige. Hall compellingly reveals what drew her into the religion - what she found intriguing and useful - and how she came to confront its darker sides.

Greg Stier was raised in a family of bodybuilding, tobacco-chewing, fist-fighting thugs. He never knew his biological father because his mom had met his dad at a party; she got pregnant, and he left town. Though his mom almost aborted him, in a last minute twist, Greg’s life was spared for so much more. Unlikely Fighter is the incredible story of how God showed up in Greg’s life - and how he can show up in yours as well. This is a memoir of violence and mayhem - and how God can transform everything.

Brad Warner was initially interested in Buddhism because he wanted to find God, but Buddhism is usually thought of as godless. In the three decades since Warner began studying Zen, he has grappled with paradoxical questions about God and managed to come up with some answers. In this fascinating search for a way beyond the usual arguments between fundamentalists and skeptics, Warner offers a profoundly engaging and idiosyncratic take on the ineffable power of the "ground of all being."

It is the greatest work of English prose ever written, and it is no coincidence that the translation was made at the moment “Englishness” and the English language had come into its first passionate maturity. Boisterous, elegant, subtle, majestic, finely nuanced, sonorous, and musical, the English of Jacobean England has a more encompassing idea of its own reach and scope than any before or since. It is a form of the language that drips with potency and sensitivity. The age, with all its conflicts, explains the book.

As a nun, mystic, prophet, and finally a saint, Saint Faustina Kowalska lived an extraordinary life. From poor a humble Polish nun to a Christian role model, she has inspired millions. During her beatification in 1993, Pope John Paul II even declared that she was one of the greatest apostles of the 20th century.

Five years after his brilliantly successful, Pulitzer Prize-winning book about God as portrayed in the Old Testament, Jack Miles gives us his striking consideration of Christ. He presents Christ as a hero of literature based only in part on the historical Jesus, asking us to take the idea of Christ as God Incarnate not as a dogma of religion but as the premise of a work of art, the New Testament.

William Branham is a paradox in modern history. Beginning in 1946, his ministry leaped from obscurity to gain national attention in less than six months, and in the process it sparked a worldwide faith-healing revival. He accomplished this feat with he help of a unique gift – a supernatural sign that startled people into taking notice. Soon Christians around the world were noticing.

Quel était donc le secret de Marthe Robin, cette petite paysanne qui, malade, paralysée, vivant loin de la célébrité dans une discrétion absolue pendant 60 ans, a reçu plus de 100 000 personnes...

The first definitive biography of Moses Maimonides, one of the most influential intellects in all of human history, illuminates his life as a philosopher, physician, and lawgiver. Recalling such bestsellers as David McCullough's John Adams and Walter Isaacson's Einstein, Maimonides is a biography on a grand scale, brilliantly explicating one man's life against the background of his time.