Religious Biographies

In the final year before his death in 1996, Henri Nouwen wrote an account of the death of his friend Adam, a severely handicapped young man from L'Arche. In the story of Adam he found a way to describe his own understanding of the Gospel message. Adam could not speak or even move without assistance. Gripped by frequent seizures, he spent his life in obscurity. And yet, for Nouwen, he became his friend, teacher, and guide. It was Adam who led Nouwen to a new understanding of his faith and what it means to be Beloved of God.

In Part One, Yamuna Devi meets her spiritual preceptor, Srila Prabhupada, at her sister's wedding in 1966 and begins her first tentative steps in Bhakti. In San Francisco she and a group of friends establish a vibrant temple and celebrate Rathayatra. Yamuna is initiated, married, and begins cooking for Srila Prabhupada. She, her husband, and two other couples then travel to London and ignite the fire of Sankirtan in England.

This raw, untold memoir reveals the real story not covered in Netflix's Orgasm Inc. The story shows how intelligent people get trapped in high-control groups. How the same methods used to help people can be weaponized to control them. How trauma and transformation can be impossible to separate.

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.

Saint Patrick was, by his own admission, a controversial figure. Convicted in a trial by his elders in Britain and hounded by rumors that he settled in Ireland for financial gain, the man who was to become Ireland’s patron saint battled against great odds before succeeding as a missionary. Saint Patrick Retold draws on recent research to offer a fresh assessment of Patrick’s travails and achievements. This is the first biography in nearly 50 years to explore Patrick’s career against the background of historical events in late antique Britain and Ireland.

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.

Raised as an atheist, Sara Miles lived an enthusiastically secular life as a restaurant cook and a writer. Then early one winter morning, for no earthly reason, she wandered into a church. "I was certainly not interested in becoming a Christian," she writes, "or, as I thought of it rather less politely, a religious nut." But she ate a piece of bread, took a sip of wine, and found herself radically transformed.

35 Wives opens with 37-year-old Mormon prophet Joseph Smith marrying 14-year-old Helen Mar Kimball. Was it a sacred ceremony? Or was it the rape of a vulnerable girl by a predatory prophet under cover of religious sponsorship? For 120 years, Mormon apologists have argued it was holy matrimony. Telling Helen and her sisters’ stories, 35 Wives is the counter thrust to the Church’s sacred mendacity. Was Joseph a saint or a sinner? Written from an energetic outsider’s POV, 35 Wives is a naturalistic dissection of Joseph and the Church’s truth claims for a skeptical general audience.

The winners of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting tell the astonishing story of Mary Clarke. At the age of 50, Clarke left her comfortable life in suburban Los Angeles to follow a spiritual calling to care for the prisoners in one of Mexico's most notorious jails. She actually moved into a cell to live among drug kingpins and petty thieves. She has led many of them through profound spiritual transformations in which they turned away from their lives of crime, and she has deeply touched the lives of all who have witnessed the depth of her compassion.

As America's first foreign missionary, Adoniram Judson thirsted to see the Good News brought to the shrouded land of Burma. His thirst would be quenched, but at an unimaginable price. Adoniram survived starvation, imprisonment, and torture both on land and at sea only to watch his family, coworkers, and friends succumb to death. In spite of heartache and depression, Adoniram Judson translated the entire Bible into Burmese. To this day his work remains the only Burmese translation of the Bible available.

Thirty-five years of following in the footsteps of Charles de Foucauld color little sister Kathleen’s portrayal of the man and his message. Rather than relying too heavily on Charles de Foucauld's spiritual writings, little sister Kathleen draws on fresh material taken from his correspondence and diaries to set out his legacy for those who live in the deserts of the modern world, reminding us that at the heart of the Christian adventure is friendship with Jesus of Nazareth.

The Reformation did not happen instantaneously; it was something God patiently arranged over a number of years. As you listen to this book, you will learn how the Lord used some people to plant the seeds of church reform long before October 31, 1517, when Martin Luther published his 95 theses. Luther's story is well-known; we trust you will find it interesting and instructive to hear about him and many others (John Knox, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Zacharias Ursinus, Willem Teellinck, et al.) who contributed to the Reformation.

In 1957, at 27 years old, Father Aloysius Schwartz of Washington, D.C. asked to be sent to one of the saddest places in the world: South Korea in the wake of the Korean War. Just a few months into his priesthood, he stepped off the train in Seoul into a dystopian film. Squatters with blank stares picked through hills of garbage. Paper-fleshed orphans lay on the streets like leftover war shrapnel. These scenes pierced him.

In The Life of Sr. Mary Wilhelmina, you will become acquainted with this most humble sister, who, after 50 years of religious life, was called to establish the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, to remain faithful to the traditional religious life and the Latin Mass.

In 1974, Jim and Tammy Bakker launched their television show, The PTL Club, from a former furniture store in Charlotte, North Carolina, with half a dozen friends. By 1987, they stood at the center of a ministry empire that included their own satellite network, a 2300-acre theme park visited by six million people a year, and millions of adoring fans.

Histoire d'une âme a fait de la petite Thérèse, experte en sciencia amoris, l'une des plus grandes saintes du xxº siècle tant la nouveauté de sa spiritualité, appelée la « petite voie », a inspiré nombre de croyants: elle propose de rechercher la sainteté non pas dans les grandes actions, mais dans les actes du quotidien même les plus insignifiants, à condition de les accomplir pour l'Amour de Dieu. En 1997, le pape Jean-Paul II fait d'elle le 33º docteur de l'église reconnaissant par-là même l'exemplarité de sa vie et de ses écrits.

In this honest appraisal of his journey from believer to atheist, the author carefully explains the experiences and the reasoning process that led him to reject religious belief. The original edition of this book was published in 2006 and reissued in 2008. Since that time, Loftus has received a good deal of critical feedback from Christians and skeptics alike. In this revised and expanded edition, the author addresses criticisms of the original, adds new argumentation and references, and refines his presentation.

Joni Eareckson Tada, une femme qui vit dans un fauteuil roulant depuis plus de cinquante ans, et Steven Estes, un pasteur et un des plus proches amis de Joni, explorent les réponses aux questions concernant la souffrance. Quand Dieu pleure n'est pas tant un livre sur la souffrance que sur Dieu. À travers un survol de ce que la Bible dit au sujet de la souffrance, les auteurs expliquent clairement qui est Dieu, pourquoi il permet tant de chagrin et de douleur, et comment nous pouvons lui faire confiance.

In honor of the 50th anniversary of C. S. Lewis' death, celebrated Oxford don Dr. Alister McGrath presents us with a compelling and definitive portrait of the life of C. S. Lewis, the author of the well-known Narnia series. For more than half a century, C. S. Lewis’ Narnia series has captured the imaginations of millions. In C. S. Lewis - A Life, Dr. Alister McGrath recounts the unlikely path of this Oxford don, who spent his days teaching English literature to the brightest students in the world and his spare time writing.

This is an ideal introduction to the ideas of a man whom many regard as the greatest thinker of our time. Here we encounter the stages in the development of his unique philosophy of consciousness, his key intellectual breakthroughs, his theory of history, and his diagnosis of the political ills of the modern age. The book provides a veritable catalog of the thinkers who created the intellectual foundation of the twentieth century.