Scholar, philosopher and political sage, Confucius lived at a turbulent time in his country's history, the so-called 'Spring and Autumn Period' of the sixth century BC, during which China was wracked by warfare between rival feudal states. Against this backdrop he developed a system of social and political behaviour that he hoped could be used to create harmony and peace throughout the land. The teachings of Confucius attracted a large number of pupils, but were largely ignored by the rulers of China's various kingdoms. As a result, he did not see his philosophical teachings applied during his lifetime. After his death, however, his teachings were kept alive by his followers, and within a few centuries, his philosophy (as outlined in The Analects, which record the words and acts of Confucius and his disciples) was adopted by China's rulers and became the foundation for Chinese government, education and social structure. Beyond its profound influence on the culture and history of East Asia, Confucianism has also exerted a powerful fascination for western thinkers and philosophers. Meher McArthur's accessible and thoughtful biography not only traces the outline of her subject's life, but also examines why Confucius and his teachings are still relevant today.

Keshab Chandra Sen (1838-84) was one of the most powerful and controversial figures in nineteenth-century Bengal. A religious leader and social reformer, his universalist interpretation of Hinduism found mass appeal in India, and generated considerable interest in Britain. His ideas on British imperial rule, religion and spirituality, global history, universalism and modernity were all influential, and his visit to England made him a celebrity. Many Britons regarded him as a prophet of world-historical significance. Keshab was the subject of extreme adulation and vehement criticism. Accounts tell of large crowds prostrating themselves before him, believing him to be an avatar. Yet he died with relatively few followers, his reputation in both India and Britain largely ruined. As a representative of India, Keshab became emblematic of broad concerns regarding Hinduism and Christianity, science and faith, India and the British Empire. This innovative study explores the transnational historical forces that shaped Keshab's life and work. It offers an alternative religious history of empire, characterised by intercultural dialogue and religious syncretism. A fascinating and often tragic portrait of Keshab's experience of the imperial world, and the ways in which he carried meaning for his contemporaries.

When Dr. Reggie Anderson is present at the bedside of a dying patient, something miraculous happens. Sometimes as he sits vigil and holds the patient's hand . . . he can experience what they feel and see as they cross over. Because of these God-given glimpses of the afterlife--his "appointments with heaven"--Reggie knows beyond a doubt that we are closer to the next world than we think. Join him as he shares remarkable stories from his life and practice, including the tragedy that nearly drove him away from faith forever. He reveals how what he's seen, heard, and experienced has shaped what he believes about living and dying; how we can face the passing of our loved ones with the courage and confidence that we will see them again; and how we can each prepare for our own "appointment with heaven." Soul-stirring and hope-filled, "Appointments with Heaven" is a powerful journey into the questions at the very core of your being: "Is there more to life than this? What is heaven like?" And, most important: "Do I believe it enough to let it change me?"

2005 ECPA Retailer's Choice Award winner for best biography/autobiography Steve Saint was five years old when his father, missionary pilot Nate Saint, was speared to death by a primitive Ecuadorian tribe. In adulthood, Steve, having left Ecuador for a successful business career in the United States, never imagined making the jungle his home again. But when that same tribe asks him to help them, Steve, his wife, and their teenage children move back to the jungle. There, Steve learns long-buried secrets about his father's murder, confronts difficult choices, and finds himself caught between two worlds. Soon to be a major motion picture (January 2006), "End of the Spear" brilliantly chronicles the continuing story that first captured the world's attention in the bestselling book, "Through Gates of Splendor."

Complete edition of the Story of a Soul by Saint Therese of Lisieux, translated by Thomas Taylor.

This edition includes over 288 footnotes, and many additional letters, counsels, and prayers, creating a study edition for readers to better understand St. Therese’s ‘little way’ to deepening a relationship with God. Read with an open heart, this book is helpful to read again and again at various stages of life.

No student of thought should be without this historic book.

Therese of Lisieux died on 30 September 1897. Nine months later, the now classic Story of a Soul appeared and proved an immediate success. However, when historians had access fifty years later to manuscripts written by Therese they were surprised to discover enormous differences between these texts and the published version of Story of a Soul. Jean-Francois Six has written this new book with two purposes. First, he recalls the history of how Mother Agnes, Prioress of the Carmelite convent and sister of Therese altered and completed Therese's text so that it became a travesty of the original. Secondly he re-establishes the truth of the last months of Therese's life, her authentic spiritual message, and her contribution to the history of mysticism. Here is a key study and a crucial work of rehabilitation.

After leading a very conventional life, a middle-aged Val told God she was available to be used by him. Moving to an inner-city church, God opened her eyes and heart to what was happening in Bristol, and so began a remarkable rollercoaster ride of love, compassion, burnout, determination, honesty, victories and defeats. Founding the charity One25, Val worked with the female sex workers of Bristol, offering a listening ear, acceptance, support and a safe place to stay that has changed many lives. Val's incredible story shows that it is never too late for God to work in your life and will encourage you to have the faith to step out and do what God has called you to do. Content Benefits: This inspiring biography encourages you not to be pigeon holed by your life so far - God can break into your life and do great things through you too! * Demonstrates how God takes ordinary people and does extraordinary things through them * Reveals how God loves those that society ignores * Shows sex workers not as fallen women but women of dignity and strength * Helps you understand issues around sex working, addiction and homelessness * Includes a photo insert * Perfect for anyone who loves to hear stories of God at work * Suitable for readers who love testimonies and faith-inspiring stories * Ideal for anyone interested in social action * An inspirational gift idea for any occasion

This book illuminates important issues faced by Orthodox Judaism in the modern era by relating the life and times of Rabbi Yudel Rosenberg (1859-1935). In presenting Yudel Rosenberg's rabbinic activities, this book aims to show that Jewish Orthodoxy could serve as an agent of modernity no less than its opponents. Yudel Rosenberg's considerable literary output will demonstrate that the line between "secular" and "traditional" literature was not always sharp and distinct. Rabbi Rosenberg's kabbalistic works will shed light on the revival of kabbala study in the twentieth century. Yudel Rosenberg's career in Canada will serve as a counter-example to the often-expressed idea that Hasidism exercised no significant influence on the development of American Judaism at the turn of the twentieth century.

This unique biography reveals how C. S. Lewis's adolescent years shaped his later writing-tracing themes such as his delight in literature, his key relationships, his suffering and struggles, and his intense pursuit of joy. Volume 1 of a new trilogy.

With sound historical scholarship and penetrating insight, Roland Bainton examines Luther's widespread influence. He re-creates the spiritual setting of the sixteenth century, showing Luther's place within it and influence upon it. Richly illustrated with more than 100 woodcuts and engravings from Luther's own time, Here I Stand dramatically brings to life Martin Luther, the great Reformer. A specialist in Reformation history, Roland H. Bainton was for forty-two years Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale, and he continued his writing well into his twenty years of retirement. Bainton wore his scholarship lightly and had a lively, readable style. His most popular book was Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (1950), which sold more than a million copies.

George Whitefield proclaimed the Christian message to more people in history than anyone else, before or since, who spoke with an unaided voice. A preacher of revival almost from his childhood, when he prophesied his own destiny, he had a profound impact on the social, religious and political life of both Britain and America. He crossed the Atlantic thirteen times, and merged as a celebrity figure, whose message captivated both rich and poor alike. Whitefield heralded a new kind of revival that was both spiritually powerful and entertaining at the same time. He was also a man of contradictions. He loved the Anglican liturgy but would happily break canon law. He was a devoted Puritan yet he was also able to befriend those with more liberal morals, Above all, Whitefield was a driven man, and his overwhelming passion was to preach New Birth in Christ - the theme he was to speak on over a thousand times. He valued education, opposed slavery, cared for orphan children and changed the course of both British and American history.

First full-length study of the life and career of John Henry Williams, one of the most fascinating figures of the eighteenth-century church. John Henry Williams was the vicar of Wellesbourne in south Warwickshire from 1778 until his death some fifty years later. A dedicated pastor, displaying an `enlightened and liberal' outlook, his career illuminates the Church of England's condition in the period, and also a clergyman's place in local society. However, he was not merely a country parson. A `political clergyman', Williams engaged fervently in both provincial and national political debate, denouncing the war with revolutionary France between 1793 and 1802, and published a series of forceful sermons condemning the struggle on Christian principles. To opponents, he appeared insidious and blinkered, but to admirers he was 'a sound divine, and not a less sound politician'. This book, the first to examine Williams' career in full, is a detailed, vivid, and sometimes moving, study of a man who occupies an honorable and significant position in the Church of England's history and in the history of British peace campaigning. Dr COLIN HAYDON teaches in the Department of History at the University of Winchester.

In Confessions of a Convert, Robert Hugh Benson shares his spiritual journey from being an Anglican and son of the archbishop of Canterbury to becoming a Roman Catholic priest. Through his humble, honest, and memorable story, Benson invites us -- in this republished classic -- to think about what it means to wrestle with the deep questions of our Catholic faith while rejoicing in the power of their universal truths. Benson weaves the challenges of his conversion into the narrative as he examines his own life for the signs and wonders that illuminated his way. He was astonished at how the remote God of his Anglican upbringing drew close to him, igniting a fire in his to heart and a desire to know God on a deeper level. This transformation led him to the doorstep of the Catholic Church. Reluctant to venture further because he was known as an important figure in the Anglican world, Benson grappled with the sacrifices he would make, including the loss of his vocation, family, and friends. After the death of his father, Benson finally embraced the nearness of God found in the Eucharist.

For more than twenty years, John Milton Bernhisel negotiated with the federal government on behalf of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Bruce W. Worthen illuminates the life and work of the man whose diplomacy steered the Church's relationship with Washington, D.C. from its early period of dangerous conflict to a peaceful and pragmatic coexistence. Having risen from a Pennsylvania backcountry upbringing to become a respected member of the upper class, Bernhisel possessed a personal history that allowed him to reach common ground with politicians and other outsiders. He negotiated for Joseph Smith's life and, after the Church's relocation to the Utah Territory, took on the task of rehabilitating the public image of the Latter-day Saints. Brigham Young's defiance of the government undermined Bernhisel's work, but their close if sometimes turbulent relationship ultimately allowed Bernhisel to make peace with Washington, secure a presidential pardon for Young, and put Utah and the Latter-day Saints on the road to formally joining the United States.

Popular podcaster and self-proclaimed control freak Tara Sun shows how "having everything under control" is overrated--not to mention downright dangerous--and reveals the surprising, lifegiving alternative: only radical surrender to God brings the peace and fulfillment we yearn for. Today's culture is peddling a seductive promise, a message that bombards social media feeds and dominates bestseller lists: you can control your circumstances and achieve any goal through positive thinking, organization, and sheer force of will. But anyone who's tried to white-knuckle their way to self-fulfillment has discovered what lies on the other side of this supposedly empowering message: frustration, disappointment, and exhaustion. Tara knows what it's like to be obsessed with control--all under the guise of the supposed virtues of being self-sufficient, organized, and high achieving. When a battle with severe chronic illness demolished her illusions of control, Tara embarked on a journey of discovering the antidote to the burdensome and ultimately empty myth of control: surrender to the God who cares for us and has an infinitely better blueprint for a life filled with joy, peace, and meaning. Readers will identify how the false promises of control and self-sufficiency have warped their view of themselves, their hopes, and their purpose; learn to trust God--in the big events and the small details of their lives; discover practical steps and strategies for letting go of control and moving forward in faith, even in the face of setbacks and disappointments; and be inspired by examples from Tara's life and from the Bible of the strength and purpose that comes through a lifestyle of surrender. For all those who are exhausted from trying to control their lives and disappointed by their unreached plans, Surrender Your Story is a welcome lifeline that opens readers' eyes to the beauty of a life surrendered to the Master Planner.