'It is easier to tell you I used to be in a religious cult. My declaration is most likely to surprise you, even leave you confused. You might ask for more details. I’d tell you it was one of those evangelical churches, and you'd fill in the gaps for yourself because there are endless possibilities of what a cult-like evangelical church can look like in South Africa. Did I eat grass? Or maybe a snake? Was I sprayed with doom?'

Unlike more traditional denominational churches Pentecostal or evangelical churches are more of a movement and much less regulated. Journalist Pontsho Pilane's experience at a powerful evangelical church changed the trajectory of her life and began her journey of deconstruction. Her aim is to be a responsible believer contributing to a more just society.

In this memoir and analysis, Pontsho investigates the dangers of uninterrogated belief in Pentecostal churches and how these beliefs affect our everyday lives.

Khamr: The Makings Of A Waterslams is a true story that maps the author’s experience of living with an alcoholic father and the direct conflict of having to perform a Muslim life that taught him that nearly everything he called home was forbidden.

A detailed account from his childhood to early adulthood, Jamil F. Khan lays bare the experience of living in a so-called middle-class Coloured home in a neighbourhood called Bernadino Heights in Kraaifontein, a suburb to the north of Cape Town. His memories are overwhelmed by the constant discord that was created by the chaos and dysfunction of his alcoholic home and a co-dependent relationship with his mother, while trying to manage the daily routine of his parents keeping up appearances and him maintaining scholastic excellence.

Khan’s memories are clear and detailed, which in turn is complemented by his scholarly thinking and analysis of those memories. He interrogates the intersections of Islam, Colouredness and the hypocrisy of respectability as well as the effect perceived class status has on these social realities in simple yet incisive language, giving the reader more than just a memoir of pain and suffering.

Khan says about his debut book: "This is not a story for the romanticisation of pain and perseverance, although it tells of overcoming many difficulties. It is a critique of secret violence in faith communities and families, and the hypocrisy that has damaged so many people still looking for a place and way to voice their trauma. This is a critique of the value placed on ritual and culture at the expense of human life and well-being, and the far-reaching consequences of systems of oppression dressed up as tradition."

A historical tour de force that demolishes the myths and taboos that have surrounded Jewish and Israeli history, The Invention of the Jewish People offers a new account of both that demands to be read and reckoned with. Was there really a forced exile in the first century, at the hands of the Romans? Should we regard the Jewish people, throughout two millennia, as both a distinct ethnic group and a putative nation—returned at last to its Biblical homeland?

Shlomo Sand argues that most Jews actually descend from converts, whose native lands were scattered far across the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The formation of a Jewish people and then a Jewish nation out of these disparate groups could only take place under the sway of a new historiography, developing in response to the rise of nationalism throughout Europe. Beneath the biblical back fill of the nineteenth-century historians, and the twentieth-century intellectuals who replaced rabbis as the architects of Jewish identity, The Invention of the Jewish People uncovers a new narrative of Israel’s formation, and proposes a bold analysis of nationalism that accounts for the old myths.

After a long stay on Israel’s bestseller list, and winning the coveted Aujourd’hui Award in France, The Invention of the Jewish People is finally available in English. The central importance of the conflict in the Middle East ensures that Sand’s arguments will reverberate well beyond the historians and politicians that he takes to task. Without an adequate understanding of Israel’s past, capable of superseding today’s opposing views, diplomatic solutions are likely to remain elusive. In this iconoclastic work of history, Shlomo Sand provides the intellectual foundations for a new vision of Israel’s future.

Marriage has not always meant just one man and one woman. For much of human history, over much of the globe, the most common alternative was polygamy: marriage involving more than one spouse. Polygamy, or plural marriage, has long been an accepted form of union in human societies, involving people living on every continent. However, polygamy has come to symbolize a problematic, even "barbaric," form of marriage that is often labeled as "backwards," less modern and progressive, embodying the oppression of women by men. In Polygamy: A Very Short Introduction, Sarah M. S. Pearsall explores what plural marriages reveal about the inner workings of marriage and describes the controversies surrounding it. The book emphasizes the diversity of historical polygamist societies, from the Shi'ite Muslims and Wendat men who practiced short-term marriages to the Mixteca, Maori, Inca, Algonquin, and Marta indigenous people of North America and the Pacific Islands, as well as medieval Irish kings, rulers of the Kingdom of Buganda in east Africa, and residents of the Ottoman Empire. Pearsall also explains the Old Testament origins of polygamy in the book of Genesis, making note of vocal Protestant defenders of the practice such as Martin Luther and John Milton, and the divides within Christianity that led to Joseph Smith's establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism) and the Mormons' fight throughout the 19th-century under his successor Brigham Young's leadership to freely practice plural marriage. Polygamy: A Very Short Introduction looks at how polygamous domestic and sexual relationships have influenced larger dynamics of power, gender, rank, race, and religion in societies all over the world, while also attempting to untangle the paradox of female constraint and liberty for women who advocated for polygamy, arguing that plural marriage offered security and stability rather than restraint for women. In balancing an explanation of the many complexities and misunderstandings of plural marriage, the book reveals how polygamy continues to have an influence on society today.

“Whenever I see a Manyano woman, I see a woman who has the world in her hands and has the power to make things change because of the power that is prayer”. - Stella Shumbe

“As a Manyano, you listen to painful journeys and experiences of people … They talk about abuse at home, unemployment, children who are reckless and all the sensitive things you can think of … We come together to share our pain and struggles.’ - Nobuntu Madwe

Lihle Ngcobozi, herself the progeny of three generations of Manyano women, takes an original, fresh look at the meaning of the Manyano. Between male-dominated struggle narratives and Western feminist misreadings, this church-based women's organisation has become a mere footnote to history.

Long overlooked as the juggernaut of black women’s organising that it has been and continues to be, the Manyano has immense historical and cultural meaning in black communities across the country. To this day, it is still evolving to meet the changing needs of black South Africans. Here, the Manyano women speak for themselves, in an African feminist meditation rendered by one of their own.

The "New York Times"-bestselling author of "God's Politics" reinvigorates America's hope for the future, offering a roadmap to rediscover the nation's moral center and providing the inspiration and a concrete plan to change today's politics.

Forces are rapidly reshaping America's morals, social policies, and culture-but how do we stop it? Learn how to make your voice heard and reclaim America's faith and values by reshaping our country's current trajectory. Cultural elites in the media, academia, and politics are daily deceiving millions of Americans into passively supporting policies that are harmful to the nation and their own best interest. Although some Americans can see through the smokescreen, they feel powerless to stop the forces inside and outside government that radically threaten their values and principles. Drawing on her training in political science and law, Dr. Swain thoughtfully examines the religious significance of the founding of our nation and the deceptions that have crept into our daily lives and now threaten traditional families, unborn children, and members of various racial and ethnic groups-as well as national sovereignty itself. Dr. Swain provides encouraging action items for the people of our country to make the political system more responsive. The book is divided into two sections: forsaking what we once knew and re-embracing truth and justice in policy choices. Be the People covers key topics including: The damage caused political correctness and its censoring of traditional Christian expression of thought America's shift to moral relativism and its religious roots Erosion of rule of law, national security, and immigration Abortion's fragile facade and the true toll it takes Racial and ethnic challenges How we can reclaim the future In Be the People, Carol takes a candid look at the problems our country faces but that we're often uncomfortable speaking honestly about, providing hope and actionable solutions to change the direction of America while we still can. "Be the People is a courageous analysis of today's most pressing issues, exposing the deceptions by the cultural elite and urging 'We the People' to restore America's faith and values." -Sean Hannity

What happens when authority is abused?Imagine our nation without police officersImagine our lives without the protection of the badge.Imagine traveling without stop signs, traffic signals, and roadside warnings.Imagine no violations, no punishments--a grade school playground without rules, a government without leaders...You might as well imagine the earth without gravity, because without authority, there would be chaos.But what happens when authority is misused? Or worse, what happens when spiritual abuse is written off as "authority"?As surely as the absence of authority produces chaos, the abuse of authority produces destruction. Countless people have fallen victim to the manipulation of power and authority. Lives have been warped forever, marriages have been destroyed, women and children have been abused, and husbands and fathers undermined within the boundaries of their home. Also, tragically, it's inside the church--where salvation, healing, freedom, and love should abound--that some of the worst authority abuse takes place. God's design for authority has been misunderstood, twisted, and manipulated, leaving innocent people as victims and prisoners of controlling, abusive situations. The wounded and weak have been preyed upon, and the guilty have been frightened into submission by leaders who use people to improve their own self-esteem or advance their careers.Wake up!!! This is not God's design for the church--or authority.In this book, Bishop George Bloomer discusses: Gods true design for authorityWhy people abuse authorityThe effects of authority abuse in the homeHow to recognize an authority abuserGod's restoration plan for the abused and the abuserAndThe key to breaking freefrom the bondage of spiritual abuse.

Jacob Hochstetler is a peace-loving Amish settler on the Pennsylvania frontier when Native American warriors, goaded on by the hostilities of the French and Indian War, attack his family one September night in 1757. Taken captive by the warriors and grieving for the family members just killed, Jacob finds his beliefs about love and nonresistance severely tested.

Jacob endures a hard winter as a prisoner in an Indian longhouse. Meanwhile, some members of his congregation the first Amish settlement in America move away for fear of further attacks.

Based on actual events, Jacob's Choice describes how one man's commitment to pacifism leads to a season of captivity, a complicated romance, an unrelenting search for missing family members, and an astounding act of forgiveness and reconciliation.

*With a foreword from Tim Keller* A bold vision for Christians who want to engage the world in a way that is biblically faithful and culturally sensitive. In Biblical Critical Theory, Christopher Watkin shows how the Bible and its unfolding story help us make sense of modern life and culture. Critical theories exist to critique what we think we know about reality and the social, political, and cultural structures in which we live. In doing so, they make visible the values and beliefs of a culture in order to scrutinize and change them. Biblical Critical Theory exposes and evaluates the often-hidden assumptions and concepts that shape late-modern society, examining them through the lens of the biblical story running from Genesis to Revelation, and asking urgent questions like: How does the Bible's storyline help us understand our society, our culture, and ourselves? How do specific doctrines help us engage thoughtfully in the philosophical, political, and social questions of our day? How can we analyze and critique culture and its alternative critical theories through Scripture? Informed by the biblical-theological structure of Saint Augustine's magisterial work The City of God (and with extensive diagrams and practical tools), Biblical Critical Theory shows how the patterns of the Bible's storyline can provide incisive, fresh, and nuanced ways of intervening in today's debates on everything from science, the arts, and politics to dignity, multiculturalism, and equality. You'll learn the moves to make and the tools to use in analyzing and engaging with all sorts of cultural artifacts and events in a way that is both biblically faithful and culturally relevant. It is not enough for Christians to explain the Bible to the culture or cultures in which we live. We must also explain the culture in which we live within the framework and categories of the Bible, revealing how the whole of the Bible sheds light on the whole of life. If Christians want to speak with a fresh, engaging, and dynamic voice in the marketplace of ideas today, we need to mine the unique treasures of the distinctive biblical storyline.

Eastern Europe is disappearing. Not off the map of course, but as an idea. Today it calls to mind a jumble of post-Soviet states paved over with C&A and McDonald's. We could describe Eastern Europe as a group of twenty nations - but why? For most of their history, they weren't nations at all. The region is more than the sum total of its annexations, invasions and independence declarations. Eastern Europe abounds with peoples tied together by tragicomic twists of fate. Lives could be turned upside down by distant decrees from Vienna or Istanbul, or just as easily by a stubborn bureaucrat in your village. In twentieth-century Khust, you could live in six different countries without ever leaving your house. You could get married any day, but buying a teakettle was a singular event. Goodbye Eastern Europe is a eulogy for a world we are losing, a vanishing culture of polytheism, vampires, sacred groves, and movable borders.

Unique among nations, America is deeply religious, religiously diverse, and remarkably tolerant. In recent decades, however, the nation's religious landscape has undergone several seismic shocks. "American Grace "is an authoritative, fascinating examination of what precipitated these changes and the role that religion plays in contemporary American society.
Although there is growing polarization between religious conservatives and secular liberals today, at the same time personal interfaith ties are strengthening. Interfaith marriage has increased, and religious identities have become more fluid. More people than ever are friendly with someone of a different faith or no faith at all. Putnam and Campbell show how this denser web of personal ties brings greater interfaith tolerance, despite the so-called culture wars.
Based on two of the most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on religion and public life in America (and with a new epilogue based on a third survey), "American Grace "is an indispensable book about American religious life, essential for understanding our nation today.

James Leatt was nine when the Nationalist Party came to power, and eleven when he saw a documentary of the Allied forces liberating Nazi death camps. For most of his life the shadows of apartheid and the Holocaust have dogged his beliefs about faith, the meaning of life and the moral challenges humankind faces.

Conjectures is a philosophical reflection on his life and times as he grapples with the realities of parish work in black communities, teaching ethics in a business school under apartheid, managing a university in the dying days of the Nationalist regime, and eventually working in higher education in post-apartheid South Africa.

Weaving strands of his personal life with the questions of theodicy and modernity as well as drawing upon the Western philosophical tradition and the wisdom of East Asian traditions such as Taoism and Buddhism, he comes to terms with a disenchanted reality which has no need for supernatural or magical thought and practice.

He has learned to live with questions. If you no longer believe in God and a sacred text, what are your sources of meaning? What kind of moral GPS allows you to find your way? Is what might be called a secular spirituality even possible?

Conjectures traces the author’s search for a secular way of being that is meaningful, mindful and reverent.

In "Have a Nice Doomsday," Nicholas Guyatt searches for the truth behind a startling statistic: 50 million Americans have come to believe that the apocalypse will take place in their lifetime. They're convinced that, any day now, Jesus will snatch up his followers and spirit them to heaven. The rest of us will be left behind to endure massive earthquakes, devastating wars, and the terrifying rise of the Antichrist. But true believers aren't sitting around waiting for the Rapture. They're getting involved in debates over abortion, gay rights, and even foreign policy. Are they devout or deranged? Does their influence stretch beyond America's religious heartland--perhaps even to the White House?

Journeying from Texas megachurches to the southern California deserts--and stopping off for a chat with prophecy superstar Tim LaHaye--Guyatt looks for answers to some burning questions: When will Russia attack Israel and ignite the Tribulation? Does the president of Iran appear in Bible prophecy? And is the Antichrist a homosexual?

Bizarre, funny, and unsettling in equal measure, "Have a Nice Doomsday" uncovers the apocalyptic obsessions at the heart of the world's only superpower.

After years as a Hollywood writer and filmmaker, Kristin Hahn felt a crisis of faith: she had no spiritual group she could call her own. Setting out on a three-year journey, she began an investigation of America's religious traditions, practices, and beliefs.

Crisscrossing the nation, Hahn spent a week cloistered in prayer with convent nuns and a month of Ramadan fasting with Muslims. She went door-to-door with young Mormon missionaries and head-to-head with turbaned Sikh yogis. She sat through marathon meditations with Buddhist masters and spent days in conversation and ceremony with an 0jibwe medicine man. Her explorations exposed her to the rich, ancient culture of the Jews and brought her into the enclaves of Christian Scientists and Amish farmers, as well as the less traditional realms of Scientology, neopagan witchcraft, and the congregations of new-age gurus.

And this was only the beginning.

Openhearted, humorous, and always thoughtful, In Search of Grace offers nourishment for our spiritual hunger -- and a myriad of ways to find a religious home.

The Sunday Times top 10 bestseller The incredibly moving and powerful memoir of an Auschwitz survivor who made headlines around the world. With a foreword by King Charles III. 'Unforgettable' - Daily Mail When Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert was liberated in 1945, a Jewish-American soldier gave her a banknote on which he'd written 'Good luck and happiness'. And when her great-grandson, Dov, decided to use social media to track down the family of the GI, 96-year-old Lily found herself making headlines round the world. Lily had promised herself that if she survived Auschwitz she would tell everyone the truth about the camp. Now was her chance. In Lily's Promise she writes movingly about her happy childhood in Hungary, the death of her mother and two youngest siblings on their arrival at Auschwitz in 1944 and her determination to keep her two other sisters safe. She describes the inhumanity of the camp and the small acts of defiance that gave her strength. From there she and her sisters became slave labour in a munitions factory, and then faced a death march that they barely survived. Lily lost so much, but she built a new life for herself and her family, first in Israel and then in London. It wasn't easy; the pain of her past was always with her, but this extraordinary woman found the strength to speak out in the hope that such evil would never happen again. 'Utterly compelling, heartbreaking, truthful and yet redemptive, a memoir of the Holocaust, a testimony of irrepressible spirit and an unforgettable family chronicle, written in lucid prose by a truly remarkable woman . . . I couldn't stop reading it.' - Simon Sebag Montefiore

A riveting, inspiring memoir of one woman’s escape from an extremist religious sect and an extraordinary rise from housewife to shoe designer, to CEO and co-owner of the modeling agency Elite World Group.

Ever since she was a child, every aspect of Julia Haart’s life—what she wore, what she ate, what she thought—was controlled by the dictates of ultra-Orthodox Judaism. At nineteen, after a lifetime spent caring for her seven younger siblings, she was married off to a man she barely knew. For the next twenty-three years, her marriage would rule her life. Eventually, when Haart’s younger daughter, Miriam, started to innocently question why she wasn’t allowed to sing in public, run in shorts, or ride a bike without being covered from neck to knee, Haart reached a breaking point. She knew that if she didn’t find a way to leave, her daughters would be forced into the same unending servitude that had imprisoned her.

So Haart created a double life. In the ultra-Orthodox world, clothing has one purpose—to cover the body, head to toe—and giving any thought to one’s appearance beyond that is considered sinful, an affront to God. But when no one was looking, Haart would pore over fashion magazines and sketch designs for the clothes she dreamed about wearing in the world beyond her Orthodox suburb. She started preparing for her escape by educating herself and creating a “freedom” fund. At the age of forty-two, she finally mustered the courage to flee the fundamentalist life that was strangling her soul.

Within a week of her escape, Haart founded a shoe brand, and within nine months, she was at Paris Fashion Week. Just a few years later, she was named creative director of La Perla. Soon she would become co-owner and CEO of Elite World Group, and one of the most powerful people in the fashion industry. Along the way, her four children—Batsheva, Shlomo, Miriam, and Aron—have not only accepted but embraced her transformation.

Propulsive and unforgettable, Haart’s story is the journey from a world of no to a world of yes, and an inspiration for women everywhere to find their freedom, their purpose, and their voice.

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2022 FELIX DENNIS PRIZE FOR BEST FIRST COLLECTION* ** AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4** 'Warsan Shire is an extraordinarily gifted poet whose profoundly moving poems so powerfully give voice to the unspoken' Bernardine Evaristo 'Vital, moving and courageous, this is a debut not to be missed' Guardian __________ Poems of migration, womanhood, trauma and resilience from the award-winning Somali British poet Warsan Shire, celebrated collaborator on Beyonce's Lemonade and Black Is King. With her first full-length poetry collection, Warsan Shire introduces us to a girl who, in the absence of a nurturing guide, makes her own stumbling way toward womanhood. Drawing from her own life and the lives of loved ones, as well as pop culture and news headlines, Shire finds vivid, unique details in the experiences of refugees and immigrants, mothers and daughters, Black women and teenage girls. These are noisy lives, full of music and weeping and surahs. These are fragrant lives, full of blood and perfume and jasmine. These are polychrome lives, full of moonlight and turmeric and kohl. The long-awaited collection from one of our most exciting contemporary poets is a blessing, an incantatory celebration of survival. Each reader will come away changed. 'Warsan Shire electrifies... The beautifully crafted poems in this collection are fiercely tender gifts' Roxane Gay 'Absolutely beautiful... So relevant' Elizabeth Day, *Day's Delights*