Religion

Mania surrounding messianic prophets has defined the national consciousness since the American Revolution. From Civil War veteran and virulent anticapitalist Cyrus Teed, to the dapper and overlooked civil rights pioneer Father Divine, to even the megalomaniacal Jim Jones, these figures have routinely been dismissed as dangerous and hysterical outliers.

After years of studying these emblematic figures, Adam Morris demonstrates that messiahs are not just a classic trope of our national culture; their visions are essential for understanding American history. As Morris demonstrates, these charismatic, if flawed, would-be prophets sought to expose and ameliorate deep social ills--such as income inequality, gender conformity, and racial injustice. Provocative and long overdue, this is the story of those who tried to point the way toward an impossible "American Dream" men and women who momentarily captured the imagination of a nation always searching for salvation.

The first volume in a multivolume collection presenting the Dalai Lama's comprehensive explanation of the Buddhist path--now in paperback!

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been publicly teaching Buddhism for decades. This series collects his presentations of every step of the path to enlightenment, compiled and coauthored by one of his chief Western disciples, the American nun Thubten Chodron.

The Buddha wanted his students to investigate, to see for themselves whether what he said was true. As a student of the Buddha, the Dalai Lama promotes the same spirit of investigation, and as the rich tradition of the Buddha makes its way into new lands and cultures, His Holiness has recognized that new approaches are needed to allow seekers in the West to experience the relevance of the liberating message in their own lives. Such an approach cannot assume listeners are free from doubt and already have faith in Buddhism's basic tenets. The Library of Wisdom and Compassion series, therefore, starts from the universal human wish for happiness and presents the dynamic nature of the mind. This first volume, now in paperback, also provides a wealth of reflections on Buddhist history and fundamentals, contemporary issues, and the Dalai Lama's own personal experiences. It stands alone as an introduction to Buddhism but also provides a foundation for the systematic illumination of the path in the volumes to come.

The Bhagavad Gita: The Song of God Retold in Simplified English is the latest title in the Essential Wisdom Library. This unique edition of the timeless epic is designed to be accessible for readers without any prior experience of Hinduism. Not simply a translation of the original, Viljoen has simplified and restated the Gita's complex ideas, so that a first-time reader can fully appreciate the scope and beauty of this magnificent Indian classic. Written in concise, modern language the retelling vividly captures the power and depth of the original work.

Part of the Mahabharata, the Gita is a dialogue between Prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna. Its verses contain some of the key ideas of Hindu philosophy--Dharma, Moksha, and various yogic practices. Originally written well over a thousand years ago, the Gita has proven to be a timeless source of wisdom, inspiring philosophers and revolutionaries alike in the millennia since it was written.

In addition to the retelling of the text, this edition includes a character list, a glossary of important terms, and chapters exploring the back-story from the Mahabharata and the impact and meaning of the Bhagavad Gita itself. The Bhagavad Gita is an approachable way for today's readers to engage with one of history's richest spiritual epics.

Following The People and the Books, which "covers more than 2,500 years of highly variegated Jewish cultural expression" (Robert Alter, New York Times Book Review), poet and literary critic Adam Kirsch now turns to the story of modern Jewish literature. From the vast emigration of Jews out of Eastern Europe to the Holocaust to the creation of Israel, the twentieth century transformed Jewish life. The same was true of Jewish writing: the novels, plays, poems, and memoirs of Jewish writers provided intimate access to new worlds of experience.

Kirsch surveys four themes that shaped the twentieth century in Jewish literature and culture: Europe, America, Israel, and the endeavor to reimagine Judaism as a modern faith. With discussions of major books by over thirty writers--ranging from Franz Kafka to Philip Roth, Elie Wiesel to Tony Kushner, Hannah Arendt to Judith Plaskow--he argues that literature offers a new way to think about what it means to be Jewish in the modern world. With a wide scope and diverse, original observations, Kirsch draws fascinating parallels between familiar writers and their less familiar counterparts. While everyone knows the diary of Anne Frank, for example, few outside of Israel have read the diary of Hannah Senesh. Kirsch sheds new light on the literature of the Holocaust through the work of Primo Levi, explores the emergence of America as a Jewish home through the stories of Bernard Malamud, and shows how Yehuda Amichai captured the paradoxes of Israeli identity.

An insightful and engaging work from "one of America's finest literary critics" (Wall Street Journal), The Blessing and the Curse brings the Jewish experience vividly to life.

From the author of Praying for Strangers and four Southern gothic novels comes a chronicle of faith and spirituality that is personal, raw, wise, revelatory - and very funny.
With a unique mix of passionate revelation and quirky humor, River Jordan takes us on a journey through her Southern childhood to her present-day life as a novelist. Her stories run the gamut from dancing disco nights and midnight desert rides to surprise visitations with the Divine. Included are comforting letters to personal friends and loved ones about faith, death, heartbreaks and their futures. Confessions of a Christian Mystic is a highly original work about an extraordinary faith that never loses touch with current culture or everyday realities. Jordan invites us to join in on her wild ride searching for the holy mysteries of God. This haunting work will leave you deeply comforted and full of hope. Hailed as "a book for our times," Confessions gently leads us closer to that Divine mystery that shapes us and gives us life.

Challenging the central place that "practices" have recently held in Christian theology, Lauren Winner explores the damages these practices have inflicted over the centuries

Sometimes, beloved and treasured Christian practices go horrifyingly wrong, extending violence rather than promoting its healing. In this bracing book, Lauren Winner provocatively challenges the assumption that the church possesses a set of immaculate practices that will definitionally train Christians in virtue and that can't be answerable to their histories. Is there, for instance, an account of prayer that has anything useful to say about a slave-owning woman's praying for her slaves' obedience? Is there a robustly theological account of the Eucharist that connects the Eucharist's goods to the sacrament's central role in medieval Christian murder of Jews?

Arguing that practices are deformed in ways that are characteristic of and intrinsic to the practices themselves, Winner proposes that the register in which Christians might best think about the Eucharist, prayer, and baptism is that of "damaged gift." Christians go on with these practices because, though blighted by sin, they remain gifts from God.

'A masterpiece' - Vanity Fair (Italy)

After the best-seller The End is My Beginning, co-authored with his father Tixiano Terzani, the long-awaited Folco Terzani's comeback with an extraordinary harmony of words and images, a simple and profound story about nature, friendship and the sense of the divine.

The Dog, was always used to the comforts and safety of domestic life, suddenly finds himself abandoned on the street, convinced that without his beloved master he will not be able to survive. Then a mysterious Wolf appears that will lead him to the discovery of the wild nature that the city hides and forbids. Thus, begins a long pilgrimage, a journey of initiation to the north, in the company of a pack of wolves, through caves, waterfalls, forests, mountains and lightning storms. In order to survive, the Dog will learn to hunt and will be forced to face many dangers, until he arrives at Moon Mountain where, immersed in the blinding glacier light, he will finally have to face the biggest question of all.

"Listen and attend with the ear of your heart." - Saint Benedict.

Dolores Hart stunned Hollywood in 1963, when after ten highly successful feature films, she chose to enter a contemplative monastery. Now, fifty years later, Mother Dolores gives this fascinating account of her life, with co-author and life-long friend, Richard DeNeut.

Dolores was a bright and beautiful college student when she made her film debut with Elvis Presley in Paramount's 1957 Loving You. She acted in nine more movies with other big stars such as Montgomery Clift, Anthony Quinn and Myrna Loy. She also gave a Tony-nominated performance in the Broadway play The Pleasure of His Company and appeared in television shows, including The Virginian and Playhouse 90. An important chapter in her life occurred while playing Saint Clare in the movie Francis of Assisi, which was filmed on location in Italy.

Born Dolores Hicks to a complicated and colorful Chicago family, Mother Dolores has travelled a charmed yet challenging road in her journey toward God, serenity and, yes, love. She entered the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut, at the peak of her career, not in order to leave the glamorous world of acting she had dreamed of since childhood, but in order to answer a mysterious call she heard with the "ear of the heart." While contracted for another film and engaged to be married, she abandoned everything to become a bride of Christ.

In this dazzling reconsideration of the language of the Old and New Testaments, acclaimed scholar and translator of classical literature Sarah Ruden argues that the Bible's modern translations often lack the clarity and vitality of the originals. Singling out the most famous passages, such as the Genesis creation story, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Beatitudes, Ruden reexamines and retranslates from the Hebrew and Greek, illuminating what has been misunderstood and obscured in standard English translations. By showing how the original texts more clearly reveal our cherished values, Ruden gives us an unprecedented understanding of what this extraordinary document was for its earliest readers and what it can still be for us today.

From Christendom to Americanism and Beyond describes the momentous changes that occurred in the European cultural orbit from the end of the Middle Ages until the mid 20th century. During this period the Catholic unity of the West--what rightly was called Christendom--was lost, and the social order came to be organized on an entirely new basis. Instead of a society that attempted to arrange all its activity and institutions in a hierarchy directed toward God, now politics could become merely a series of power grabs, economic activity an aimless and unabashed striving for riches, and the work of artists simply a means of self-expression. Not only were the institutions and customs that had previously sought to guide human activity to the glory of God and the common good destroyed, but this destruction was justified--even celebrated--in the new theories and philosophies that arose during this time. Readers who want to understand the broad trends and movements that underlie historical events will find this book an excellent guide to the rise of modernity.

"Thomas Storck has quite possibly contributed more than any other living writer to the articulation, defense, and contemporary application of Catholic Social Teaching. But his incisive work on broader philosophical, cultural, and historical subjects is not known nearly as well as it should be, a misfortune this book will help remedy. Christendom, Modernity, and Americanism--among the most elusive quarry in the world of ideas--are fatally attractive, yet rarely captured in a convincing analysis. In these essays Storck shows that he has the wide-ranging thoughtfulness, command of detail, and synthetic vision to pull this off. Storck's cultural and philosophical examination of the trajectory of recent centuries is invaluable for all who would understand more deeply the complicated and contradictory Western world we live in."--PETER KWASNIEWSKI, Wyoming Catholic College, author of Resurgent in the Midst of Crisis

"I am stretched and challenged whenever I read anything by Thomas Storck. In this fine collection of essays, he examines the many streams of thought and convictions that have led our contemporary world away from its philosophical and religious roots into post-modernity. Particularly in the final chapter he brings this all together to describe the plight we, our children, and our grand-children now face. As Joseph Pearce states in his excellent foreword, 'He must be heard and heeded.'"--MARCUS GRODI, founder and president of the Coming Home Network International, author of What Must I do to be Saved?

"Drawing upon the tradition of Belloc, Chesterton, and Dawson, Thomas Storck offers a compelling re-interpretation of developments within the Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council. Moving beyond the stale, false alternatives of liberal and conservative, Democrat and Republican, Storck argues for the necessity of a distinctly Catholic social vision predicated upon the organic unity of family, faith, economy, and culture. These essays are a true breath of fresh air offering new possibilities for an authentic public Catholicism open to the world yet committed to the first principles of the faith."--CHRISTOPHER SHANNON, Christendom College, co-author of The Past as Pilgrimage

THOMAS STORCK, a convert to the Catholic faith, is a social and cultural philosopher and historian who has written widely concerning the intersection of Catholic faith and culture. He is the author of three previous books, The Catholic Milieu, Foundations of a Catholic Political Order, and Christendom and the West, as well as numerous essays and articles; and is a member of the editorial boards of The Chesterton Review and Ethika Politika.

A noted biblical scholar explores how the claim of divine choice has been used from ancient times to the present to justify territorial expansion and prejudice.

The Bible describes many individuals and groups as specially chosen by God. But does God choose at all? Michael Coogan explains the temporally layered and allusive storytelling of biblical texts and describes the world of the ancient Near East from which it emerged, laying bare the power struggles, the acts of vengeance, and persecutions made sacred by claims of chosenness.

Jumping forward to more modern contexts, Coogan reminds us how the self-designation of the Puritan colonizers of New England as God's new Israel eventually morphed, in the United States, into the self-justifying doctrines of manifest destiny and American exceptionalism. In contemporary Israel, both fundamentalist Zionists and their evangelical American partners cite the Jews' status as God's chosen people as justification for taking land--for very different ends. Appropriated uncritically, the Bible has thus been used to reinforce exclusivity and superiority, with new myths based on old myths.

Finally, in place of the pernicious idea of chosenness, Coogan suggests we might instead focus on another key biblical concept: taking care of the immigrant and the refugee, reminding the reader of the unusual focus on the vulnerable in both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament.

New York Times eBook bestseller!
One fateful starless night, 17-year-old Ira Wagler got up at 2 AM, left a scribbled note under his pillow, packed all of his earthly belongings into in a little black duffel bag, and walked away from his home in the Amish settlement of Bloomfield, Iowa. Now, in this heartwarming memoir, Ira paints a vivid portrait of Amish life--from his childhood days on the family farm, his Rumspringa rite of passage at age 16, to his ultimate decision to leave the Amish Church for good at age 26. Growing Up Amish is the true story of one man's quest to discover who he is and where he belongs. Readers will laugh, cry, and be inspired by this charming yet poignant coming of age story set amidst the backdrop of one of the most enigmatic cultures in America today--the Old Order Amish.

A moving meditation on memory, oblivion, and eternity by one of our most celebrated poets

What is it we want when we can't stop wanting? And how do we make that hunger productive and vital rather than corrosive and destructive? These are the questions that animate Christian Wiman as he explores the relationships between art and faith, death and fame, heaven and oblivion. Above all, He Held Radical Light is a love letter to poetry, filled with moving, surprising, and sometimes funny encounters with the poets Wiman has known. Seamus Heaney opens a suddenly intimate conversation about faith; Mary Oliver puts half of a dead pigeon in her pocket; A. R. Ammons stands up in front of an audience and refuses to read. He Held Radical Light is as urgent and intense as it is lively and entertaining--a sharp sequel to Wiman's earlier memoir, My Bright Abyss.