Rudolf Steiner -- educator, architect, artist, philosopher and agriculturalist -- ranks amongst the most creative and prolific figures of the early twentieth century. Yet he remains a mystery to most people. This is the first truly popular biography of the man behind the ideas, written by a sympathetic but critical outsider. Steiner is widely known for what he left behind: a network of Waldorf schools, biodynamic farming, Camphill schools and villages and pioneering work in holistic health and environmental research. Although his achievements are felt all over the world, few people understand this unusual figure. Steiner's own writings fill several bookcases, but are often dense and 'insider' in tone. Gary Lachman tells Steiner's story lucidly and with great insight. He presents Steiner's key ideas in a readable, accessible way, tracing his beginning as a young intellectual in the ferment of fin de siecle culture to the founding of his own metaphysical teaching, called anthroposophy. This book is a full-bodied portrait of one of the most original philosophical and spiritual luminaries of the last two centuries.

"This is a beautifully written autobiography of a remarkable life. Farifteh Robb brilliantly tells her journey of faith and love across two cultures. I found it captivating and could not put it down." John Clark, Chairman of the Friends of the Diocese of Iran Have you ever wondered what it is like to survive a revolution? To be a religious convert, adopting a different nationality and starting afresh in a new discipline? To fall deeply in love, despite the obstacles to a burgeoning relationship? All of these things, and more, happened to Farifteh Robb. This is the fascinating and moving story of a woman's journey between two cultures - her Persian Muslim heritage and her Christian life in Scotland. It describes the challenges she faced in an Iran torn apart by political turmoil, and in her new life in the UK. Written with passion, candid reflection, and a gentle wit, this is the story of a life lived in faith in a multicultural world.

"Whoever Saves a Life, It Is Considered as If He Saved an Entire World"

Dr. Rick Hodes arrived in Africa more than two decades ago to help the victims of a famine, but he never expected to call this extremely poor continent his home. Twenty-eight years later, he is still there.

This Is a Soul tells the remarkable story of Rick Hodes's journey from suburban America to Mother Teresa's clinic in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. As a boy, Rick was devoted to helping those in need, and eventually he determined that becoming a doctor would allow him to do the most good. When he heard about famine in Africa, that's where he went, and when genocide convulsed Rwanda, he went into the refugee camps to minister to the victims. When he was told that Ethiopia was allowing its Jews to emigrate to Israel, he went to help. While there, he was drawn to Mother Teresa's mission in Addis Ababa. It was there that Rick found his calling when he began caring for the sickest children in one of the world's poorest countries. But he did more than that--he began taking them into his home and officially adopted five of them.

This Is a Soul is also a book filled with great joy and triumph. When Rick's kids return from surgery or life-saving treatments, he is exultant. "Seeing these people after surgery is like going to heaven," he says.

Marilyn Berger went to Africa to write about Dr. Hodes, but while there, she became involved with the story. When she came upon a small, deformed, and malnourished boy begging on the street, she recognized immediately that he had the exact disease Rick could cure. She took him to Rick, who eventually arranged for the boy to have a complicated and risky surgery, which turned out to be incredibly successful. The boy's story--intertwined with Rick's, and Marilyn's as well--is unforgettable in its pathos and subtle humor.

This Is a Soul is not just a story of the savior and the saved, it is a celebration of love and wisdom, and an exploration of how charity and devotion can actually change lives in an overcrowded, unjust, and often harsh world.

Two people love each other deeply but are kept apart. Will their love last? It s 1966 in Southern California. Shy but strong twenty-something Norm Supancheck is headed toward the priesthood when a chance meeting with a young teacher named Shayla Strohmeyer changes his life forever. Norm and Shayla discover common passions, become friends, and grow to love each other. Yet because of this love they re faced with an enormous choice. To marry means giving up a calling. To break up means losing a lifetime of love. Or does it? This is a book for anyone who s ever sensed that the call to love extends beyond anticipatable boundaries. It s a story about being pulled between two worlds, about loving deeply and truly, but about expressing that love in ways not first imagined. What will happen to true love when it s bombarded by time, distance, accidents, family rearing, sickness, and finally mortality? Father Norm Supancheck s poignant and monumental memoir will comfort you and challenge you. Ultimately, like true love itself, it will never let you go. A true story "

This is the story of Mary Dyer whose indomitable efforts to seek and find freedom to worship lead eventually to her death. Her quest began when she and her husband sailed from old to new England in 1635. Landing in Boston, they were soon disillusioned by the intolerant practices and beliefs of the Puritans, who considered that all truth could be found in the Old Testament and only there. Variations, from Puritan interpretations of the Ten Commandments, were punished by cruel torture and/or death. Banished from Boston for protesting such rigidity in belief and in practice, Mary was among the group who founded Rhode Island, where freedom in belief and in practice of worship was established. Mary Dyer did not cease from exploring every available form of worship until she discovered the one which spoke the truth to her. On a trip back to England, Mary met George Fox, who gave her the confidence that women had special intellectual and spiritual gifts. Fox encouraged her to become a Quaker and a missionary. She was alarmed by Boston Puritan laws designed to repress and eliminate Quakers. Undaunted, Mary challenged the Puritan intolerance. "My life not availaeth me in comparison with the liberty of the truth."

Captured by a Russian army during World War II and convicted of being a "Vatican spy," Jesuit Father Walter J. Ciszek spent 23 agonizing years in Soviet prisons and the labor camps of Siberia. Only through an utter reliance on God's will did he manage to endure the extreme hardship. He tells of the courage he found in prayer--a courage that eased the loneliness, the pain, the frustration, the anguish, the fears, the despair. For, as Ciszek relates, the solace of spiritual contemplation gave him an inner serenity upon which he was able to draw amidst the "arrogance of evil" that surrounded him. Ciszek learns to accept the inhuman work in the infamous Siberian salt mines as a labor pleasing to God. And through that experice, he was able to turn the adverse forces of circumstance into a source of positive value and a means of drawing closer to the compassionate and never-forsaking Divine Spirit.
"He Leadeth Me" is a book to inspire all Christians to greater faith and trust in God--even in their darkest hour. As the author asks, "What can ultimately trouble the soul that accepts every moment of every day as a gift from the hands of God and strives always to do his will?"

'I am very grateful for Carolyn Whitney-Brown's accurate account of my brother Henri's inner feelings, hopes, wishes and despair. You brought Henri very close to me again.' LAURENT NOUWEN, FOUNDER OF THE HENRI NOUWEN FOUNDATION 'Anyone who knew Henri, either through his writing or in person, will immediately recognise how beautifully he's been brought to life in this book.' GARY DONOHOE, PROFESSOR & CHAIR OF PSYCHOLOGY, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND 'A beacon of hope.' MARINA NEMAT, AUTHOR OF INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER PRISONER OF TEHRAN During the last five years of his life, spiritual leader and teacher Henri Nouwen became close to a travelling circus trapeze troupe, The Flying Rodleighs. The lessons he discovered through his relationship with the troupe stimulated Nouwen to write in a genre new to him, creative non-fiction, and these writings are presented for the first time in Flying, Falling, Catching. With care and insight, Nouwen's colleague and friend Carolyn Whitney-Brown weaves Henri's material into a dramatic narrative that imagines his life flashing before him during his first heart attack. We learn how Nouwen saw his own experiences reflected in the artistry, exhilarating successes, crushing failures and continual forgiveness that were integral to the act of The Flying Rodleighs. A fascinating blend of autobiography and spiritual writing, Flying, Falling Catching offers an extraordinary new angle on a man who has inspired thousands. Through his own writings and Whitney-Brown's narrative, we see him as a spiritual adventurer, someone who was transformed by diversity as he learned to view the world through many perspectives. Nouwen's story - including his participation in the Civil Rights movement, the friendships he made during the 1990s AIDS pandemic, and many other unexpected encounters - encourages us to embrace our vulnerabilities, and vividly reminds us that one of the greatest challenges we face is to avoid despair by reflecting on the meaning and significance of the lives we have lived, and are living. Part inspirational Christian autobiography, part thought-provoking narrative, Flying, Falling Catching will surprise and delight long-term fans of Nouwen's ministry and new readers keen to learn more about him. In offering a deeper understanding of an extraordinary yet very human spirit, it provides us with the motivation to search out our own spiritual adventure; like Nouwen, we too can learn to let go and fly - and not be afraid to fall.

The True Story of an Uncharted Journey Through the Afterlife As a world war raged around him, a young soldier named George Ritchie barely comprehended his own death as he left the physical world--only to return minutes later. Yet in the space between death and coming back to life, he experienced eternity. In this riveting true story, Dr. George Ritchie shares some of the most stunning and detailed descriptions of life after death. You'll encounter other non-physical beings, travel through different dimensions of time and space, and discover a series of worlds--some hellish in their separation from life, some glorious in their heavenly brilliance. But most amazingly, you'll witness his transformational meeting with the Light of the world, the Son of God. Hailed as one of the most amazing visions of the afterlife ever recorded, Ritchie's experience forever changed the course of his life and his understanding of the realm beyond our own--and it can do the same for you.

According to recent surveys and studies, race relations in the United States are the worst they've been since the 1990s, and many would argue that life for most minorities has not significantly improved since the civil rights era of the 1960s. For so many, the dream of true equality has dissolved into a reality of prejudice, fear, and violence as a way of life. John M. Perkins has been there from the beginning. Raised by his sharecropping grandparents, Perkins fled Mississippi in 1947 after his brother was fatally shot by a police officer. He led voter registration efforts in 1964, worked for school desegregation in 1967, and was imprisoned and tortured in 1970. Through it all, he has remained determined to seek justice and reconciliation based in Christ's redemptive work. "Justice is something that every generation has to strive for," he says. And despite the setbacks of recent years, Perkins finds hope in the young people he has met all across the nation who are hard at work, bringing about reconciliation in God's name and offering acceptance to all. Dream with Me is his look back at a life devoted to seeking justice for all God's people, as well as a look forward to what he sees as a potentially historic breakthrough for people of every race.

The Good Doctor is the inspiring story of Dr. Park's struggle to survive through his childhood during the era of war torn Korea. With true grit, he achieves his way to the pinnacle of success as a medical doctor in the U.S., only to walk away from it all to return to the wretched ditches of life to save the sick and forgotten people dying in North Korea. He has worked in medical missions in that country for the last twenty years. This book will infuse the reader with renewed hope in the strength of the human spirit. It will remind us all that only in relinquishing the things of this world which we hold so dear do we truly find meaning for our lives and gain treasure beyond all value: eternal life ensconced in the loving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

'Balances detailed research with powerful storytelling to create a well-written and heart-wrenching account' - Nicole Gemine, Press and Journal Jane Haining was undoubtedly one of Scotland's heroines. A farmer's daughter from Galloway in south-west Scotland, Jane went to work at the Scottish Jewish Mission School in Budapest in 1932, where she was a boarding school matron in charge of around 50 orphan girls. The school had 400 pupils, most of them Jewish. Jane was back in the UK on holiday when war broke out in 1939, but she immediately went back to Hungary to do all she could to protect the children at the school. She refused to leave in 1940, and again ignored orders to flee the country in March 1944 when Hungary was invaded by the Nazis. She remained with her pupils, writing 'if these children need me in days of sunshine, how much more do they need me in days of darkness'. Her brave persistence led to her arrest in by the Gestapo in April 1944, for "offences" that included spying, working with Jews and listening to the BBC. She died in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz just a few months later, at the age of 47. Her courage and self-sacrifice, her choice to stay and to protect the children in her care, have made her an inspiration to many.

Thriving stand-up comic and actress Yvonne Orji—best known as Issa Rae's BFF on the HBO series, Insecure—shares the secrets to living the life of your dreams.

Yvonne Orji has never shied away from being unapologetically herself, and that includes being outspoken about her faith. Known for interpreting Biblical stories and metaphors to fit current times, her humorous and accessible approach to faith leaves even non-believers inspired and wanting more.

The way Yvonne sees it, God is a Sovereign Prankster, punking folks long before Ashton Kutcher made it cool. When she meditates on her own life—complete with unforeseen blessings and unanticipated roadblocks—she realizes it’s one big testimony to how God tricked her into living out her wildest dreams. And she wants us to join in on getting bamboozled. This is not a Self-Help book—it’s a Get Yours book!

In Bamboozled by Jesus, a frank and fresh advice book, Orji takes readers on a journey through twenty-five life lessons, gleaned from her own experiences and her favorite source of inspiration: the Bible. But this ain’t your mama’s Bible study. Yvonne infuses wit and heart in sharing pointers like why the way up is sometimes down, and how fear is synonymous to food poisoning. Her joyful, confident approach to God will inspire everyone to catapult themselves out of the mundane and into the magnificent.

With bold authenticity and practical relatability, Orji is exactly the kind of cultural leader we need in these chaotic times. And her journey through being Bamboozled by Jesus paints a powerful picture of what it means to say “yes” to a life you never could’ve imagined—if it wasn’t your own.

Hinduism is one of the world's oldest and greatest religious traditions. In captivating prose, Shashi Tharoor untangles its origins, its key philosophical concepts and texts. He explores everyday Hindu beliefs and practices, from worship to pilgrimage to caste, and touchingly reflects on his personal beliefs and relationship with the religion. Not one to shy from controversy, Tharoor is unsparing in his criticism of 'Hindutva', an extremist, nationalist Hinduism endorsed by India's current government. He argues urgently and persuasively that it is precisely because of Hinduism's rich diversity that India has survived and thrived as a plural, secular nation. If narrow fundamentalism wins out, Indian democracy itself is in peril.

In this riveting novel, beloved international bestselling author Deepak Chopra captures the spellbinding life story of the great and often misunderstood Prophet.

Islam was born in a cradle of tribal turmoil, and the arrival of one God who vanquished hundreds of ancient Arabian gods changed the world forever. God reached down into the life of Muhammad, a settled husband and father, and spoke through him. Muhammad's divine and dangerous task was to convince his people to renounce their ancestral idols and superstitious veneration of multiple gods. From the first encounter, God did not leave Muhammad alone, his life was no longer his own, and with each revelation the creation of a new way of life formed and a religion was born.

Muhammad didn't see himself as the son of God or as one who achieved cosmic enlightenment. His relatives and neighbors didn't part the way when he walked down the parched dirt streets of Mecca. There was no mark of divinity. Orphaned by age six, Muhammad grew up surrounded by dozens of cousins and extended family to become a trusted merchant. Muhammad saw himself as an ordinary man and that is why what happened to him is so extraordinary.

Rooted in historical detail, Muhammad brings the Prophet to life through the eyes of those around him. A Christian hermit mystic foretells a special destiny, a pugnacious Bedouin wet nurse raises him in the desert, and a religious rebel in Mecca secretly takes the young orphan under his spiritual wing. Each voice, each chapter brings Muhammad and the creation of Islam into a new light. The angel Gabriel demands Muhammad to recite, the first convert risks his life to protect his newfound faith, and Muhammad's life is not a myth but an incredible true and surprisingly unknown story of a man and a moment that sparked a worldwide transformation.