Traditions of Christian Spirituality Series. Traces the spiritual legacy of Saint Augustine and of his wide-ranging legacy in the Augustinian order.

Christianity Today Book Award of Merit-Popular Theology The Gospel Coaltion Award of Distinction-Popular Theology Every generation faces the temptation to wander from orthodoxy-to seek out the jolt that comes with false teaching, and to drift with cultural currents. And so every generation must be awakened again to the thrill of orthodoxy, and experience the astonishment that comes from stumbling afresh upon the electrifying paradoxes at the heart of the Christian faith. In The Thrill of Orthodoxy, Trevin Wax turns the tables on those who believe Christian teaching is narrow and outdated. Returning to the church's creeds, he explains what orthodoxy is and why we can have proper confidence in it, and lays out common ways we can stray from it. By showing how heresies are always actually narrower than orthodoxy-taking one aspect of the truth and wielding it as a weapon against others-Wax beckons us away from the broad road that ultimately proves bland and boring, and toward the straight and narrow path, where true adventure can be found.

God created us to be curious. We innately wonder about the world, one another, ourselves, and our Creator. But fear of the unknown, cultural taboos, technology, or even church leaders can smother our curiosity. Popular writer Lore Ferguson Wilbert has belonged to Christian communities that discouraged curiosity. The point of the Christian life was to have the right answers, and asking questions reflected a wavering faith. But Wilbert came to discover that the Bible is a permission slip to anyone who wants to ask questions. Reflecting her own theological trajectory toward a more contemplative, expansive faith, Wilbert invites readers to foster curiosity as a spiritual habit. This book explores questions God asks us, questions we ask God, and questions we ask each other. Christianity is not about knowing good answers, says Wilbert, but about asking good questions--ones that foster deeper intimacy with God and others. A Curious Faith invites readers to go beyond pat answers and embrace curiosity, rather than certainty, as a hallmark of authentic faith. Foreword by Seth Haines.

From Yehuda Amichai and W. H. Auden to Phyllis Wheatley and Walt Whitman, Hearing God in Poetry invites you to take a closer look at fifty great poems by some of the finest poets in the English language. Some are well known, some deserve to be better known, but all say something distinctive that will lift your spirit. This beautiful Lent book for 2022 offers six poems for every week from Ash Wednesday, leading up to Holy Week, with ten poems specially chosen for Easter. A short reflection from Richard Harries accompanies each poet and the poem, drawing out their spiritual insights and how they communicate God's presence. Hearing God in Poetry is an ideal Lent book for 2022 for poetry lovers and anyone interested in how some of the world's finest poets have expressed faith in their work. This book of daily readings will introduce you to some wonderful poetry for Lent and Easter, and give you a deeper understanding and appreciation of these brilliant works of literature. It will also help expand your spirituality to see God's presence in the world around you as you prepare for Easter. Full of riches, Hearing God in Poetry is a book that you will want to turn to time and time again - whether during Lent or in any other season of the year.

How to Love is part of a charming series of books from Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh, exploring the essential foundations of mindful meditation and practise. How to Love shows that when we feel closer to our loved ones, we are also more connected to the world as a whole. Nhat Hanh brings his signature clarity, compassion and humour to the thorny question of how to love and distils one of our strongest emotions down to four essentials: you can only love another when you feel true love for yourself; love is understanding; understanding brings compassion; and deep listening and loving speech are key ways of showing our love.

Following Alan Watts' acclaimed book on Zen Buddhism The Way of Zen, he tackles the Chinese philosophy of Tao. The Tao is the way of man's cooperation with the natural course of the natural world. Alan Watts takes the reader through the history of Tao and its interpretations by key thinkers such as Lao-Tzu, author of the Tao Te Ching. Watts goes on to demonstrate how the ancient and timeless Chinese wisdom of Tao promotes the idea of following a life lived according to the natural world and goes against our goal-oriented ideas by allowing time to quiet our minds and observe the world rather than imposing ourselves on it. By taking in some of the lessons of Tao, we can change our attitude to the way we live. Drawing on ancient and modern sources, Watts treats the Chinese philosophy of Tao in much the same way as he did Zen Buddhism in his classic The Way of Zen. Including an introduction to the Chinese culture that is the foundation of the Tao, this is one of Alan Watts' best-loved works.

In March 2020, Are Thoresen contracted Covid-19. Whilst convalescing from the disease and suffering great exhaustion, he experienced a breakthrough in his daily meditation. Although he has always been able to 'see' into the spiritual world, now deeper, unknown realms appeared to his inner vision. In the soapstone surround of the fireplace in his Norwegian home, he perceived the elemental beings and forces that make up the mineral at an atomic level. A few days later, an even deeper dimension revealed itself, in the form of a void or vacuum. Here, astonishingly, was an open portal to the entire cosmos... In Travels on the Northern Path of Initiation, Thoresen shares the results of his latest spiritual investigations, including a moving, life-changing encounter with 'the Light of the World'. He details the teachings he receives from the beings Vidar and Balder - who stand as guardians to the threshold of the outer etheric world - and characterizes the Northern way of initiation, which is based on merging, or 'fading', into nature. Thoresen documents Rudolf Steiner's descriptions of this path and shows how it is reflected in the Old Norse Poetic Edda, the Kalevala and von Eschenbach's Parzival. Based on painstaking research, he describes the individual qualities of the three elemental realms, and how the adversarial forces - seeking to corrupt human senses - hinder spiritual observation of them. Thoresen's book is a powerful personal testimony to the human potential for spiritual knowledge and experience in our time.

With potent, lyrical language and a profound knowledge of storytelling, Shaw encourages and illuminates the mythic in our own lives. He is a modern-day bard. Madeline Miller, author of Circe and The Song of Achilles Through feral tales and poetic exegesis, Martin Shaw makes you re-see the world, as a place of adventure and of initiation, as perfect home and as perfectly other. What a gift. David Keenan, author of Xstabeth At a time when we are all confronted by not one, but many crossroads in our modern lives - identity, technology, trust, love, politics and a global pandemic - celebrated mythologist and wilderness guide Martin Shaw delivers Smoke Hole: three metaphors to help us understand our world, one that is assailed by the seductive promises of social media and shadowed by a health crisis that has brought loneliness and isolation to an all-time high. We are losing our sense of direction, our sense of self. We have "networks", not communities. Smoke Hole is a passionate call to arms and an invitation to use these stories to face the complexities of contemporary life, from fake news, parenthood, climate crises, addictive technology and more. Martin asks that we journey together, and let these stories be our allies, that we breathe deeper, feel steadier and become acquainted with rapture. He writes, 'It is not good to be walking through these times without a story or three by your side.' Available now as a podcast! Subscribe to Smoke Hole Sessions to hear amazing conversations between Martin Shaw and some of our most admired writers, actors, comedians, musicians and more, including: Sir Mark Rylance, Tommy Tiernan (Derry Girls), David Keenan (For the Good Times, This is Memorial Device), Jay Griffiths (Wild, Why Rebel), John Densmore (The Doors), Natasha Khan (Bat for Lashes), John Mitchinson (QI, Backlisted podcast) and others. Subscribe to Smoke Hole Sessions * On Apple here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/smoke-hole-sessions/id1566369928 * On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ISKkqLlP1EzAOni9f9gGt?si=lnq8jApxRlGZ2qpLlQaOSg

C. S. Lewis is one of the most influential Christian writers of our time. The Chronicles of Narnia has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide and all Lewis's works are estimated to sell 6 million copies annually. At the fiftieth anniversary of his death, Lewis expert Devin Brown brings the beloved author's story to life in a fresh, accessible, and moving biography through focusing on Lewis's spiritual journey.
Although it was clear from the start that Lewis would be a writer, it was not always clear he would become a Christian. Drawing on Lewis's autobiographical works, books by those who knew him personally, and his apologetic and fictional writing, this book tells the inspiring story of Lewis's journey from cynical atheist to joyous Christian and challenges readers to follow their own calling. The book allows Lewis to tell his own life story in a uniquely powerful manner while shedding light on his best-known works.

This little volume (the result of meditation and experience) is not intended as an exhaustive treatise on the much written upon subject of the power of thought. It is suggestiive rather athan explanatory, its object being to stimulate men and women to the discovery and perception of the truth that...'they themselves are makers of themselves' by virtue of the thoughts which they choose and encourage; that mind is the master weaver, both of the inner garment of character and the outer garment of circumstance, and that, as they may have hitherto woven in ignorance and pain they may now weave in enlightenment and happiness.

Weaving together Jewish lore, the voices of Jewish foremothers, Yiddish fable, midrash and stories of her own imagining, Ellen Frankel has created in this book a breathtakingly vivid exploration into what the Torah means to women. Here are Miriam, Esther, Dinah, Lilith and many other women of the Torah in dialogue with Jewish daughters, mothers and grandmothers, past and present. Together these voices examine and debate every aspect of a Jewish woman's life -- work, sex, marriage, her connection to God and her place in the Jewish community and in the world. The Five Books of Miriam makes an invaluable contribution to Torah study and adds rich dimension to the ongoing conversation between Jewish women and Jewish tradition.

The foundational work on shamanism now available as a Princeton Classics paperback Shamanism is an essential work on the study of this mysterious and fascinating phenomenon. The founder of the modern study of the history of religion, Mircea Eliade surveys the tradition through two and a half millennia of human history, moving from the shamanic traditions of Siberia and Central Asia-where shamanism was first observed-to North and South America, Indonesia, Tibet, China, and beyond. In this authoritative survey, Eliade illuminates the magico-religious life of societies that give primacy of place to the figure of the shaman-at once magician and medicine man, healer and miracle-doer, priest, mystic, and poet. Synthesizing the approaches of psychology, sociology, and ethnology, Shamanism remains the reference book of choice for those interested in this practice.

Vaccination is a topic that has long divided opinion. Today, in view of Covid-19, that debate has become ever more polarized. Illustrated throughout with full-colour images, Covid Vaccines from a Spiritual Perspective deals with scientific facts, but also with research that requires spiritual-scientific methods. Led by main author and activist Thomas Mayer, the volume features reports, experiences and commentary from more than fifty contributors with clairvoyant and psychic abilities. From their observations, it is argued that Covid vaccines are not 'harmless jabs', but potentially violent interventions in the subtle structures of the human body, soul and spirit. The vaccines even have implications for an individual's life beyond death. Instead of the soul evolving in the afterlife, it could remain bound to the earth, suffering deeply. --- Although this book's conclusions may appear alarming, it is not the author's intention to create fear. He seeks only to provide useful information and enlightenment, demonstrating how vaccinated and unvaccinated people can deal with this subject consciously, courageously and with hope for the future.

When he was only nine years old, Satish Kumar renounced the world and joined the wandering brotherhood of Jain monks. Dissuaded from this path by an inner voice at the age of eighteen, he became a campaigner for land reform, working to turn Gandhi's vision of a renewed India into reality. Fired by the example of Bertrand Russell, he undertook a peace pilgrimage, walking from India to America without any money, through mountains, deserts, storms and snow. It was an adventure during which he was thrown into jail in France, faced a loaded gun in America, and delivered packets of 'peace tea' to the leaders of the four nuclear powers. He settled in England, taking on the editorship of Resurgence magazine, and becoming the guiding light behind a number of ecological, spiritual and educational ventures, including Schumacher College.This edition of Satish Kumar's inspirational autobiography commemorates the foundation of Schumacher College, with new chapters about the college and bringing Satish's story up-to-date. Following Indian tradition, in his fiftieth year he undertook another pilgrimage: again without any money, he walked to the holy places of Britain - Glastonbury, Lindisfarne, and Iona. Written with a penetrating simplicity, No Destination is an exhilarating account of an extraordinary life.

Is God a delusion? Barrister Charles Taylor examines the evidence in this very readable book. His findings will be controversial to some but offer hope and insight to others. We are the only species unable to live in harmony with our environment and each other. The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs is nothing compared with our impact on the Earth. We are currently responsible for "The Sixth Great Extinction" of wildlife. Religious terrorism is widespread, though current atrocities are dwarfed by the bloody record of Christianity. The Middle East is destabilised and to East and West we have Presidents Putin and Trump. So called 'rational' thinking and the dominance of our left brains have brought us to the brink of disaster. We need a spiritual revolution allowing individuals to reconnect with their right brain, intuition and spirit. Religions have had their day. They contain key truths, but these truths are usually obscured by manmade rules constructed to gain wealth and power. At the other extreme, materialism denies God, the spirit, free will, consciousness and love. Happily, the facts contradict this dispiriting left brained faith that we are deluded robots stumbling through life.

Exploring the diverse factors that persuaded Christopher Columbus that he could reach the fabled "East" by sailing west, Dante, Columbus and the Prophetic Tradition considers, first, the impact of Dante's Divine Comedy and the apocalyptic prophetic tradition that it reflects, on Columbus's perception both of the cosmos and the eschatological meaning of his journey to what he called an 'other world.' In so doing, the book considers how affinities between himself and the exiled poet might have led Columbus to see himself as a divinely appointed agent of the apocalypse and his enterprise as the realization of the spiritual journey chronicled in the Comedy. As part of this study, the book necessarily examines the cultural space that Dante's poem, its geography, cosmography and eschatology, enjoyed in late fifteenth century Spain as well as Columbus's own exposure to it. As it considers how Italian writers and artists of the late Renaissance and Counter Reformation received the news of Columbus' 'discovery' and appropriated the figure of Dante and the pseudo-prophecy of the Comedy to interpret its significance, the book examines how Tasso, Ariosto, Stradano and Stigliani, in particular, forge a link between Dante and Columbus to present the latter as an inheritor of an apostolic tradition that traces back to the Aeneid. It further highlights the extent to which Italian writers working in the context of the Counter Reformation, use a Dantean filter to propagate the notion of Columbus as a new Paul, that is, a divinely appointed apostle to the New World, and the Roman Church as the rightful emperor of the souls encountered there.