Religious Life

A preeminent physicist unveils a field-defining theory of the origins and purpose of life.

Running Toward Mystery is the Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi's profound account of his lifelong journey as a seeker. At its heart is a story of striving for enlightenment, the vital importance of mentors in that search, and of the many remarkable teachers he met along the way, among them the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Mother Teresa.

In Lessons in Hope, George Weigel tells the story of his unique friendship with St. John Paul II. As Weigel learns the pope "from inside", he also offers a firsthand account of the tumult of post-Vatican II Catholicism and the Cold War's endgame, introducing listeners to the heroes who brought down European communism. Later, he shows us the aging pope grappling with the post-9/11 world order and teaching new lessons in dignity through his own suffering.

As a student of Woodrow Wilson at Princeton, Howard Baskerville was aflame not only with the gospel of Jesus, but with the Wilsonian gospel that constitutional democracy is the birthright of all nations. Rather than become a small-town minister like his father in South Dakota, he volunteered for missionary service in Persia. Tabriz in 1907 was a hotbed of democratic revolution. Brilliant young firebrands were among Baskerville’s students at the Presbyterian school—and became his devoted friends. He lectured on freedom; they dedicated their lives to it.

In this memoir, Luke Timothy Johnson draws on his rich experience to invite listeners into the scholar’s life—its aims, commitments, and habits. In addition to sharing his own story from childhood to retirement, Johnson reflects on the nature of scholarship more generally, showing how this vocation has changed over the past half century and where it might be going in the future. He is as candid and unsparing about negative trends in academia as he is hopeful about the possibilities of steadfast, disciplined scholarship.

In Habits of the Mind, James Sire challenges you to avoid one of the greatest pitfalls of intellectual life by resisting the temptation to separate being from knowing. He shows you how to cultivate intellectual virtues and disciplines—habits of mind—that will strengthen you in pursuit of your calling. And he offers assurance that intellectual life can be a true calling for Christians: because Jesus was the smartest man who ever lived, Sire argues, you can and should accept the challenge to think as well as you are able.

What can you do when your well-laid plans fall apart and life takes an unexpected turn? Brenda Warner is best known as the outspoken wife of NFL superstar and Dancing with the Stars alum Kurt Warner. But years earlier, she found herself living through any woman’s nightmare: a healthy baby tragically injured in the bathtub; a sudden end to a career she loved; betrayal and divorce; poverty; public humiliation; a deadly natural disaster that destroyed her foundation and shook her to her core. One shattering phone call at a time, Brenda Warner’s life came to resemble little of her dream.

One of the most brilliant minds of the 20th century, C. S. Lewis bridged literature, philosophy, and religion. He taught at Oxford and Cambridge, all the while communicating in a clear, winsome manner that ordinary men and women could comprehend. He gave us masterpieces like The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity, The Problem of Pain, and still more.

Join Merry Hanson, a very modern 16-year-old living in Pennsylvania's Amish country, as she faces the true-to-life struggles and heartfelt triumphs of growing up to be the best she can be in God's eyes. Can Merry count on her friends to understand as she at last attempts to come to grips with a years-old tragedy?

Except for a short poem by St. Mark of Monte Cassino, the only ancient written account of St. Benedict (480 - 547) is this one, which is found in Pope Gregory I's Dialogues which is thought to have been written in 593. Gregory's account of this saint's life provides a spiritual portrait of the gentle, disciplined abbot. In a letter to a Bishop of Syracuse, Gregory states that his aim in writing his Dialogues was to provide a kind of an anthology, or literally, "flowers", of the most striking miracles of the Italian saint.

St. Dominic Savio (1842-1857) was an Italian adolescent student of St. John Bosco. He was studying to become a priest when, at 14, he became ill and died. He was noted for his piety and devotion to the Catholic faith. St. John regarded Savio very highly and wrote this biography of his young student. This book, along with other accounts of him, assess the critical factors into his cause for sainthood.

When a thunderstorm grounds all flights following a huge Muslim convention, four unlikely kids are thrown together. Feek is stuck babysitting his younger sister, but he'd rather be writing a poem that's good enough for his dad, a famous poet and rapper. Hanna is intent on finding a lost cat in the airport—and also on avoiding a conversation with her dad about him possibly remarrying. Sami is struggling with his anxiety and worried that he'll miss the karate tournament that he's trained so hard for.

In this practical spiritual guide, Lisa Marie Rankin shows how to apply ancient goddess wisdom to modern-day scenarios like dating, sex, careers, divorce, conflict, and more. She’ll teach you how to reconnect with your goddess nature, so you can do less, receive more, live authentically, and love passionately.

In spontaneous, intimate terms, Archbishop Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, covers topics as wide-ranging as his childhood, family life, and the importance of his first job, to discovering his calling and his early days in the seminary. Through his own words, we come to know a man whose actions and words reflect his deeply-rooted humility. The audiobook concludes with the Pope’s own writings and reflections, full of wisdom and inspiration.

This Christian wisdom literature contains more than 400 thoughtful quotes of wisdom across over 30 topics (spanning from education and friendship to humility and happiness) from King Solomon's Old Testament Biblical book of Proverbs that can be great for anyone interested in living wisely.

As singular as Corporal York’s heroism and resourcefulness on the battlefield were, they were all the more remarkable in light of his former opposition to war on religious grounds. His was the unshakable conviction and resolve of a convert, having traded, on his knees, a wild, remorseless life for one of sincere Christian piety in the peaceful stillness of a New Year’s dawn nearly four years before. And yet, he was persuaded that spiritual victories must sometimes be gained through wars of the flesh.

The Mystic Heart chronicled Brother Wayne Teasdale's journey into a multifaceted spirituality blending his traditional Catholic training and the Eastern way of sannyasa (Indian monkhood). A Monk in the World tells what the journey has meant for him - living as a monk outside the monastery, integrating teachings from the world's religions with his own Catholic training, combining his vigorous spiritual practice with the necessities of making a living, and pursuing a course of social justice in a major American city.

In What It Means to Be Moral: Why Religion Is Not Necessary for Living an Ethical Life, Phil Zuckerman argues that morality does not come from God. Rather, it comes from us: our brains, our evolutionary past, our ongoing cultural development, our social experiences, and our ability to reason, reflect, and be sensitive to the suffering of others.

In this provocative new contribution to public theology, world-renowned theologian Miroslav Volf (named "America's New Public Intellectual" by Scot McKnight on his Jesus Creed blog) and Matthew Croasmun explain that the intellectual tools needed to rescue us from our present malaise and meet our new cultural challenge are the tools of theology. A renewal of theology is crucial to help us articulate compelling visions of the good life, find our way through the maze of contested questions of value, and answer the fundamental question of what makes life worth living.

This is the story of a Canadian woman who was in the Advanced Training Institute, run by Bill Gothard, for fourteen years. The amazing thing is that she never knew she was in a cult until several years after she was out. That's what happened to Christine in 2014. She has spent the past nine years trying to deprogram and change the way she sees the world. Join her as she navigates the cult, goes through a divorce, finds out she was in a cult and subsequently has to unlearn all she believed to be true.