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Hiding in the Light: Why I Risked Everything to Leave Islam and Follow Jesus
By Rifqa Bary. 2015
"After four years of hiding my faith from my family, I knew that it was time. I wrote with shaky…
hands, 'Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I refuse to deny him....' There was no turning back now. I had to get out of that house if I wanted to live. Was this worth risking everything for? Yes." 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. Leaving Islam for Christianity cost her more than she imagined but gave more than she could have dreamed. Hiding in the Light is the story of Rifqa's remarkable spiritual journey from Islam to Christianity. It is also the untold story of how she ran from her father's threats to find refuge with strangers in Florida, only to face a controversial court case that reached national headlines. Most of all, it is the story of a young girl who made life-changing sacrifices to follow Jesus--and who inspires us to do the same.Choosing to See: A Journey of Struggle and Hope
By Mary Beth Chapman, Ellen Vaughn. 2010
From the beginning, Mary Beth Chapman's life was not how she planned. All she wanted was a calm, peaceful life…
of stability and control. Instead, God gave her an award-winning singer/songwriter husband, crazy schedules, and a houseful of creatively rambunctious children. Most difficult of all, God's plans for her also included tragedy. In Choosing to See, Mary Beth unveils her struggle to allow God to write the story of her life, both the happy chapters and the tragic ones. And as the story unfolds, she's been forced to wrestle with some of life's biggest questions: Where is God when things fall apart? Why does God allow terrible things to happen? How can I survive hard times? No matter where you find yourself in your own life story, you will treasure the way Mary Beth shows that even in the hard times, there is hope if you choose to SEE.Sky Dharma: The Foundations of the Namchö Treasure Teaching
By Karma Chagme, Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab. 2022
The inspiring life story of Tertön Migyur Dorje, who revealed a new cycle of Tibetan Buddhist teachings, together with a…
commentary on the preliminary practices written by his main student. Tertön Migyur Dorje revealed the Namchö treasure teachings while in a three-year retreat that began when he was only thirteen. The Great Compassionate One (Avalokiteshvara) and Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) appeared to him in pure visionary experience and gave him these teachings. Migyur Dorje then dictated them to his teacher Karma Chagme. The Namchö treasures later became the main teachings and practices of the Palyul lineage, and these teachings continue to be presented in Palyul monasteries and retreat centers throughout Asia, North America, and Europe. This book brings together two texts that have inspired countless practitioners in this lineage. The first text tells the life story of Migyur Dorje. It was composed by Karma Chagme, the master who first recognized the seven-year-old Migyur Dorje as an exceptional tulku and tertön and who was responsible for preparing him to be a major treasure revealer. The second text is a commentary on the Namchö preliminary practices. Written by Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab, Migyur Dorje&’s main student and the first throne holder of the Palyul lineage, it explains the foundational practices that should be completed before pursuing more advanced ones: the four contemplations that turn the mind to dharma and the fivefold practice of taking refuge, arousing bodhichitta, mandala offering, Vajrasattva purification, and Guru Yoga.A Man Called Norman
By Mike Adkins. 1988
This is the moving story of two men, an eccentric old man and a Christian musician, whose lives intertwine in…
a way that neither would have expected and only God could have planned.Strength for the Fight: The Life and Faith of Jackie Robinson (Library of Religious Biography (LRB))
By Gary Scott Smith. 2022
How faith sustained Jackie Robinson—both as an athlete and as an activist. The integration of Major League Baseball in 1947 was…
a triumph. But it was also a fight. As the first Black major leaguer since the 1880s, Jackie Robinson knew he was not going to be welcomed into America&’s pastime with open arms. Anticipating hostility, he promised Brooklyn Dodgers general manager Branch Rickey that he would &“turn the other cheek&” during his first years in the league, despite his fiercely competitive disposition. Robinson later said that his faith in God had sustained him—giving him the strength he needed to play the game he loved at the highest level without retaliating against the abuse inflicted upon him by opposing players and fans. Faith was a key component of Robinson&’s life, but not in the way we see it with many prominent Christian athletes today. Whereas the Tim Tebows and Clayton Kershaws of the sports world emphasize personal spirituality, Robinson found inspiration in the Bible&’s teachings on human dignity and social justice. He grew up a devout Methodist (a heritage he shared with Branch Rickey) and identified with the theological convictions and social concerns of many of his fellow mainline Protestants—especially those of the Black church. While he humbly stated that he could not claim to be a deeply religious man, he spoke frequently in African American congregations and described a special affinity he and other Black Christians felt for the biblical character Job, who had also kept faith despite suffering and injustice. In his eulogy for Robinson, Jesse Jackson described Robinson as a &“co-partner of God,&” who lived out his faith in his civil rights activism, both during and after his baseball career. Robinson&’s faith will resonate with many Christians who believe, as he did, that &“a person can be quite religious and at the same time militant in the defense of his ideals.&” This religious biography of Robinson chronicles the important role of faith in his life, from his childhood to his groundbreaking baseball career through his transformative civil rights work, and, in the process, helps to humanize the man who has become a mythic figure in both sports history and American culture.Miriam Hearing Sister: A Memoir
By Miriam Zadek. 2022
Miriam Zadek shares her story in this memoir that documents her experiences growing up in a New York Jewish family…
with both deaf and hearing members from the 1930s through World War II and beyond. Her story is personal and reflective, revealing the sometimes complex and heart-rending dynamics within her family and her community. Through brief and evocative vignettes, Zadek relates her memories of family life, capturing the innocence of childhood, the confusion of adolescence, and then progressing through adulthood. Her recollections evolve from a childlike observance to awareness, pain, and understanding as she matures. Throughout this journey, the author presents a narrative of historical and cultural importance centered on her personal account of the lives of deaf and hearing Jewish people in the mid-twentieth century. The prevailing ideological movements of the time permeate her family life. Zadek reveals the traumatic impact of eugenics and the fears surrounding the genetic transmission of deafness. She considers the effects of adhering to the oral method of communication in her home when sign language could have given her family the ability to interact with each other more fully. In this environment, Zadek became an astute communicator and learned to adapt to both the hearing and the deaf world, where she was known as “Miriam Hearing Sister.” Her memoir is an elegant literary work that offers an understanding of how biases and stigmas resonate and evolve, and it showcases her loving family of strong women who pushed against stereotypes and have thrived across generations.London: Immigrant City
By Nazneen Khan-Østrem. 2019
TRANSLATED BY ALISON McCULLOUGH'One of the best books on the many diverse migrations to London . . . revealing the…
extent to which the diversity of immigrant origins has had transformative effects - through food, music, diverse types of knowledge and so much more. The book is difficult to put it down'Saskia Sassen, The Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University, New York'The ultimate book about Great Britain's capital'Dagbladet'One of the best books of the year! . . . This is a book about what a city is and can be'AftenpostenIs there a street in London which does not contain a story from the Empire? Immigrants made London; and they keep remaking it in a thousand different ways. Nazneen Khan-Østrem has drawn a wonderful new map of a city that everyone thought they already knew. She travels around the city, meeting the very people who have created a truly unique metropolis, and shows how London's incredible development is directly attributable to the many different groups of immigrants who arrived after the Second World War, in part due to the Nationality Act of 1948. Her book reveals the historical, cultural and political changes within those communities which have fundamentally transformed the city, and which have rarely been considered alongside each other.Nazneen Khan-Østrem has a cosmopolitan background herself, being a British, Muslim, Asian woman, born in Nairobi and raised in the UK and Norway, which has helped her in unravelling the city's rich immigrant history and its constant ongoing evolution.Drawing on London's rich literature and its musical heritage, she has created an intricate portrait of a strikingly multi-faceted metropolis. Based on extensive research, particularly into aspects not generally covered in the wide array of existing books on the city, London manages to capture the city's enticing complexity and its ruthless vitality.This celebration of London's diverse immigrant communities is timely in the light of the societal fault lines exposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit. It is a sensitive and insightful book that has a great deal to say to Londoners as well as to Britain as a whole.Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author
By Herman Wouk. 2016
In an unprecedented literary accomplishment, Herman Wouk, one of America's most beloved and enduring authors, reflects on his life and…
times from the remarkable vantage point of 100 years old.Many years ago, the great British philosopher Sir Isaiah Berlin urged Herman Wouk to write his autobiography. Wouk responded, "Why me? I'm nobody." Berlin answered, "No, no. You've traveled. You've known many people. You have interesting ideas. It would do a lot of good." Now, in the same year he has celebrated his hundredth birthday, Herman Wouk finally reflects on the life experiences that inspired his most beloved novels. Among those experiences are his days writing for comedian Fred Allen's radio show, one of the most popular shows in the history of the medium; enlisting in the US Navy during World War II; falling in love with Betty Sarah Brown, the woman who would become his wife (and literary agent) for sixty-six years; writing his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Caine Mutiny; as well as a big hit Broadway play The Caine Mutiny Court Martial; and the surprising inspirations and people behind such masterpieces as The Winds of War, War and Remembrance, Marjorie Morningstar, and Youngblood Hawke. Written with the wisdom of a man who has lived through two centuries and the wit of someone who began his career as professional comedy writer, the first part of Wouk's memoir ("Sailor") refers to his Navy experience and writing career, the second ("Fiddler") to what he's learned from living a life of faith. Ultimately, Sailor and Fiddler is an unprecedented reflection from a vantage point few people have lived to experience.Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence
By Erik H Erikson. 1969
In this study of Mahatma Gandhi, psychoanalyst Erik H. Erikson explores how Gandhi succeeded in mobilizing the Indian people both…
spiritually and politically as he became the revolutionary innovator of militant non-violence and India became the motherland of large-scale civil disobedience. Winner of the National Book Award Pulitzer Prize WinnerMy Adventures with God: A Personal Pentateuch
By Stephen Tobolowsky. 2017
From legendary character actor Stephen Tobolowsky—who currently appears on The Goldbergs, HBO’s Silicon Valley, and Norman Lear’s new One Day…
at a Time, author of The Dangerous Animals Club and The Tobolowsky Files podcast—My Adventures with God is a funny, introspective collection about love, catastrophe, and triumph, all told through the lens of his evolving relationship with the mystery that is “God.”As Tobolowsky explains, “It’s hard to believe in nothing. Even cats believe in suppertime. As much as we love certainty, we are often shaped by the invisible, the unexplainable—something we call faith. We are inclined to acknowledge the holy. Even if it is only a paper heart we find in an old suitcase.” My Adventures with God is a series of short stories exploring the idea that most people’s lives seem to fit into the template of the Old Testament. We all have powerful creation myths: tales of our childhood and family, our first battles won and lost. It is our Genesis. Then, like in the Book of Exodus, we go into slavery. Rather than building pyramids, we lose ourselves in fear and ambition—in first loves, first jobs, too many dreams mixed with too much beer. We eventually become free, only to wander in the wilderness. At some point we stop and proclaim to the universe who we are. This is our Leviticus moment. We reconcile what we thought we would be with what we have become. We often attempt a mid-course correction. Then, as in the Book of Numbers, we are shaped by mortality as we bear the loss of family and friends. Finally, we retell our stories to our children hoping to make sense of the journey, as Moses did in Deuteronomy. Tobolowsky’s stories tell of a boy growing up in the wilds of Texas, finding and losing love, losing and finding himself—all told through the prism of the Torah and Talmud, mixed with insights from science, and refined through a child’s sense of wonder. My Adventures with God not only shines a light into the life of one of America’s most beloved actors, but also provides a structure to evaluate our own lives and relationship with God.Swedenborg: An Introduction to His Life and Ideas
By Gary Lachman. 2009
A clear and concise overview of the life and work of the immensely influential but little understood eighteenth-century mystic-scientist Emanuel…
Swedenborg. “Lachman identifies all the roles Swedenborg inhabited (spiritual thinker, psychic, scientist, inventor, statesman, traveler, and possibly even spy) and does an exceptionally good job of suggesting why this little-known polymath deserves more substantial critical attention. ” – The Independent on Sunday (UK) It is difficult to imagine modern Western alternative spirituality without the influence of Swedish scientist and mystic Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772). Every movement in alternative spirituality – from mental-healing and Spiritualism to New Age mysticism and the twelve-step recovery movement – owes an immeasurable debt to the ideas he exploded upon the Western world. Yet Swedenborg’s work can be challenging for modern readers. His influence, everywhere at once, is difficult to get a handle on. Now, however, Gary Lachman provides an accessible, lively, and masterful introduction to the life and ideas of this spiritual giant. Lachman takes us to Swedenborg’s roots as brilliant rationalist and scientist who, well into mid-life, began to experience visions of other realms. From this point Swedenborg produced an extraordinary range of writings based on his out-of-body experiences, in which he related encounters with angels, other-planetary beings, and “the world of spirits. ”As Lachman explores, Swedenborg’s work opened up a radically liberal and refreshing ideal of religion. The great mystic saw humanity, and all of nature, as phenomena emerging from the “spiritual world,” and man as a vessel for divine influences. This vision inspired Western seekers to see man as a product of spiritual phenomena, and thus a being intimately connected with the cosmos. From this perspective grew bold new ideas about channeling, spiritual healing, mystical experience, mediumship – a litany of concepts that prefigured the revolutions in alternative and therapeutic spirituality. .The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis
By Michael Ward, Robert Macswain. 2010
A distinguished academic, influential Christian apologist, and best-selling author of children's literature, C. S. Lewis is a controversial and enigmatic…
figure who continues to fascinate, fifty years after his death. This 2010 Companion is a comprehensive single-volume study written by an international team of scholars to survey Lewis's career as a literary historian, popular theologian, and creative writer. Twenty-one expert voices from Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton, and Wheaton, among many other places of learning, analyze Lewis's work from theological, philosophical, and literary perspectives. Some chapters consider his professional contribution to fields such as critical theory and intellectual history, while others assess his views on issues including moral knowledge, gender, prayer, war, love, suffering, and Scripture. The final chapters investigate his work as a writer of fiction and poetry. Original in its approach and unique in its scope, this Companion shows that C. S. Lewis was much more than merely the man behind Narnia.Becoming Dallas Willard: The Formation of a Philosopher, Teacher, and Christ Follower
By Richard J. Foster, Gary Moon. 2018
Dallas Willard was a personal mentor and inspiration to hundreds of pastors, philosophers, and average churchgoers. His presence and ideas…
rippled through the lives of many prominent leaders and authors, such as John Ortberg, Richard Foster, James Bryan Smith, Paula Huston, and J. P. Moreland. As a result of these relationships and the books he wrote, he fundamentally altered the way tens of thousands of Christians have understood and experienced the spiritual life. Whether great or small, everyone who met Dallas was impressed by his personal attention, his calm confidence, his wisdom, and his profound sense of the spiritual. But he was not always the man who lived on a different plane of reality than so many of the rest of us. He was someone who had to learn to be a husband, a parent, a teacher, a Christ follower. The journey was not an easy one. He absorbed some of the harshest and most unfair blows life can land. His mother died when he was two, and after his father remarried he was exiled from his stepmother’s home. Growing up in Depression-era, rural Missouri and educated in a one-room schoolhouse, he knew poverty, deprivation, anxiety, self-doubt, and depression. Though the pews he sat in during his early years were not offering much by way of love and mercy, Dallas, instead of turning away, kept looking for the company of a living, present, and personal God. In Gary W. Moon’s candid and inspiring biography, we read how Willard became the person who mentored and partnered with his young pastor, Richard Foster, to inspire some of the most influential books on spirituality of the last generation. We see how his love of learning took him on to Baylor, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Southern California, where he became a beloved professor and one of the most versatile members of the philosophy department. The life of Dallas Willard deserves attention because he became a person who himself experienced authentic transformation of life and character. Dallas Willard not only taught about spiritual disciplines, he became a different person because of them. He became a grounded person, a spiritually alive person as he put them into practice, finding God, as he often said, "at the end of his rope." Here is a life that gives us all hope.Prosecuting Jesus: Finding Christ By Putting Him On Trial
By Mark Osler. 2016
Who is Jesus Christians have been arguing about the answer to that question since there have been Christians …
and it seems unlikely that they re going to agree on an answer anytime soon Mark Osler always a bit uncomfortable in church was never able to find a Jesus that seemed real to him--until he put Jesus on trial P P Drawing on his training as a federal prosecutor and professor of law he and a group of friends staged the trial of Jesus for their church as though it were happening in the modern American criminal justice system The event was so powerful that before long Osler received invitations to take it on the road Each time he served as Christ s prosecutor the story of Jesus opened up to him a bit more P P Prosecuting Jesus follows Osler in this extraordinary journey of discovering himself by discovering Jesus Juxtaposing things we rarely put together like the passion of Christ and our ideas about capital punishment Osler explores an active engagement between Jesus and our contemporary law and cultureGift from the Sea
By Anne Morrow Lindbergh. 2003
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
By John Bunyan.
To Change the Church: Pope Francis and the Future of Catholicism
By Ross Douthat. 2018
A New York Times columnist and one of America’s leading conservative thinkers considers Pope Francis’s efforts to change the church…
he governs.Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in 1936, today Pope Francis is the 266th pope of the Roman Catholic Church. Pope Francis’s stewardship of the Church, while perceived as a revelation by many, has provoked division throughout the world. “If a conclave were to be held today,” one Roman source told The New Yorker, “Francis would be lucky to get ten votes.” In To Change the Church, Douthat explains why the particular debate Francis has opened—over communion for the divorced and the remarried—is so dangerous: How it cuts to the heart of the larger argument over how Christianity should respond to the sexual revolution and modernity itself, how it promises or threatens to separate the church from its own deep past, and how it divides Catholicism along geographical and cultural lines. Douthat argues that the Francis era is a crucial experiment for all of Western civilization, which is facing resurgent external enemies (from ISIS to Putin) even as it struggles with its own internal divisions, its decadence, and self-doubt. Whether Francis or his critics are right won’t just determine whether he ends up as a hero or a tragic figure for Catholics. It will determine whether he’s a hero, or a gambler who’s betraying both his church and his civilization into the hands of its enemies.The Pope Who Would Be King: The Exile of Pius IX and the Emergence of Modern Europe
By David Kertzer. 2018
The Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Pope and Mussolini takes on a pivotal untold story …
the bloody revolution that stripped the pope of political power and signaled the birth of modern Europe Days after his prime minister was assassinated in the middle of Rome in November 1848 Pope Pius IX found himself a virtual prisoner in his own palace The wave of revolution that had swept through Europe now seemed poised to end the popes thousand-year reign over the Papal States if not to the papacy itself Disguising himself as a simple parish priest Pius escaped through a back door Climbing inside the Bavarian ambassador s carriage he embarked on a journey into a fateful exile Only two years earlier Pius s election had triggered a wave of optimism across Italy After the repressive reign of the dour Pope Gregory XVI Italians saw the youthful benevolent new pope as the man who would at last bring the Papal States into modern times and help create a new unified Italian nation But Pius was caught between a desire to please his subjects and a fear stoked by the conservative cardinals that heeding the people s pleas would destroy the church The resulting drama with a colorful cast of characters from Louis Napoleon and his rabble-rousing cousin Charles Bonaparte to Garibaldi Tocqueville and Metternich was rife with treachery tragedy and international power politics David Kertzer is one of the world s foremost experts on the history of Italy and the Vatican and has a rare ability to bring that history vividly to life With a combination of gripping cinematic storytelling and keen historical analysis rooted in an unprecedented richness of archival sources The Pope Who Would Be King sheds fascinating new light on the end of rule by divine right in the West and the emergence of modern Europe Advance praise for The Pope Who Would Be King In this original and even thrilling book David Kertzer gives us a brilliant and surprising portrait of the role of Pius IX in the making of a new democratic reality in the West Engaging intelligent and revealing The Pope Who Would Be King is essential reading for those seeking to understand the perennial human forces that shape both power and faith Jon Meacham author of Thomas Jefferson The Art of Power In this riveting tour de force Kertzer shows how and why Pope Pius IX turned Roman Catholicism into the nemesis of modernity with drastic consequences not only for the church but for the West James Carroll author of The CloisterChasing Grace: What the Quarter Mile Has Taught Me about God and Life
By Sanya Richards-Ross. 2017
“For as long as I can remember, life has been measured in seconds. The fewer, the better.”Most people equate success…
with having more, but Sanya’s quest was always for less. She started running track as a little girl in Jamaica and began competing when she was only seven. At 31 she’s had a career’s worth of conditioning to run a 400-meter race in 50 seconds, hopefully 49, or even better, 48.When she started training with her coach, Clyde Hart, they divided her race into four phases: push, pace, position, poise, and with the inherent prayer. For years Sanya worked to hone every phase in practice so that when it came time to race, her body would respond as her mind instinctively transitioned from one phase to the next. As she got older and embraced a life that measures more than just a number on the time clock, she has realized the genius of this strategy for not just racing the 400 meters, but for living her best life.Sanya shares triumphant as well as heartbreaking stories as she reveals her journey to becoming a world-class runner. From her childhood in Jamaica to Athens, Beijing and London Olympics, readers will find themselves inspired by the unique insights she’s gained through her victories and losses, including her devastating injury during the 2016 Olympic Trials forcing career retirement just weeks before Rio. Sanya demonstrates how even this devastating loss brought her closer to the ultimate goal of becoming all God created her to be.”Sometimes you think you are chasing a gold medal, but that’s not what you are chasing. You’re racing to become the best version of yourself.”Coming Clean: A Story of Faith
By Shauna Niequist, Seth Haines. 2015
“I suppose we’re all drunk on something.”Seth Haines was in the hospital with his wife, planning funeral songs for their…
not-yet two-year-old, when he made a very conscious decision: this was the last day he ever wanted to feel. So he asked his sister to smuggle in some gin, and his addiction began.But whether or not you’ve ever had a drop to drink in your life, we’re all looking for ways to stop the pain. Like Seth, we’re all seeking balms for the anxiety of what we believe is an absent God—whether it’s through people-pleasing, shopping, the internet, food, career highs, or even good works and elite theology. We attempt to anesthetize our anxiety through addiction—any old addiction. But it often leaves us feeling even more empty than before.In Coming Clean, Seth Haines writes rawly through the first 90 days of a work of sobriety, illuminating how to face the pain we’d rather run from, and even more importantly, how Jesus meets us there. Because it is only when we face our anxieties with the tenacity and tenderness of Christ’s passion that we truly discover that we are indeed clean, surrendered, and whole.