Humanist Manifestos I and II


Paul Kurtz - 1973
    Signed by Andrei Sakharov, B.F. Skinner, Corliss Lamont, Betty Friedan, Sir Julian Huxley, Sidney Hook, Jacques Monod, Gunnar Myrdal, and 275 other distinguished leaders of thought and action, it has been hailed as a classic.

The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power


Jeff Sharlet - 2007
    They consider themselves the new chosen—congressmen, generals, and foreign dictators who meet in confidential cells, to pray and plan for a "leadership led by God," to be won not by force but through "quiet diplomacy." Their base is a leafy estate overlooking the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia, and Jeff Sharlet is the only journalist to have reported from inside its walls.The Family is about the other half of American fundamentalist power—not its angry masses, but its sophisticated elites. Sharlet follows the story back to Abraham Vereide, an immigrant preacher who in 1935 organized a small group of businessmen sympathetic to European fascism, fusing the far right with his own polite but authoritarian faith. From that core, Vereide built an international network of fundamentalists who spoke the language of establishment power, a "family" that thrives to this day. In public, they host Prayer Breakfasts; in private, they preach a gospel of "biblical capitalism," military might, and American empire. Citing Hitler, Lenin, and Mao as leadership models, the Family's current leader, Doug Coe, declares, "We work with power where we can, build new power where we can't."Sharlet's discoveries dramatically challenge conventional wisdom about American fundamentalism, revealing its crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the cold war, and the no-holds-barred economics of globalization. The question Sharlet believes we must ask is not "What do fundamentalists want?" but "What have they already done?"Part history, part investigative journalism, The Family is a compelling account of how fundamentalism came to be interwoven with American power, a story that stretches from the religious revivals that have shaken this nation from its beginning to fundamentalism's new frontiers. No other book about the right has exposed the Family or revealed its far-reaching impact on democracy, and no future reckoning of American fundamentalism will be able to ignore it.

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality: Unleash a Revolution in Your Life In Christ


Peter Scazzero - 2006
    Even though he was pastor of a growing church, he did what most people do:Avoid conflict in the name of ChristianityIgnore his anger, sadness, and fearUse God to run from GodLive without boundariesEventually God awakened him to a biblical integration of emotional health, a relationship with Jesus, and the classic practices of contemplative spirituality. It created nothing short of a spiritual revolution, utterly transforming him and his church.In this book Scazzero outlines his journey and the signs of emotionally unhealthy spirituality. Then he provides seven biblical, reality-tested ways to break through to the revolutionary life Christ meant for you.“The combination of emotional health and contemplative spirituality,” he says, “unleashes the Holy Spirit inside us so that we might experientially know the power of an authentic life in Christ.”

The Me I Want to Be: Becoming God's Best Version of You


John Ortberg - 2009
    Join bestselling author and pastor John Ortberg as he guides you through the sometimes difficult but ultimately fulfilling journey towards a uniquely created spirituality. One designed just for you … one that will enable you to experience God more fully each day. Available in four unique colors, customers purchasing at retail will select the cover they prefer.

You're a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass): Embracing the Emotions, Habits, and Mystery That Make You You


Mike McHargue - 2020
    Everyone wants to be a good person, but few of us, twenty years into the new millennium, have any idea how to do that.In You’re a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass), McHargue addresses these issues. We like to think we’re in control of our thoughts and decisions, he writes, but science has shown that a host of competing impulses, emotions, and environmental factors are at play in every action we undertake. Touching on his podcast listeners’ most pressing questions, from relationships and ethics to stress and mental health, and sharing some of the biggest triumphs and hardships from his own life, McHargue shows us how some of our qualities that seem most frustrating—including “negative” emotions like sadness, anger, and anxiety—are actually key to helping humans survive and thrive. In doing so, he invites us on a path of self-understanding and, ultimately, self-acceptance.You’re a Miracle (and a Pain in the Ass) is a guided tour through the mystery of human consciousness, showing readers how to live more at peace with themselves in a complex world.

Faith Versus Fact: Why Science and Religion are Incompatible


Jerry A. Coyne - 2015
    The sheer fact that over half of Americans don't believe in evolution (to say nothing of the number of Congressmen who don't believe in climate change) and the resurgence of religious prejudices and strictures as factors in politics, education, medicine, and social policy make the need for this book urgent.Religion and science compete in many ways to describe reality - they both make "existence claims" about what is real - but they use different tools to meet this goal. In his elegant, provocative, and direct argument, leading evolutionary biologist and bestselling author Jerry Coyne lays out in clear, patient, dispassionate details why the toolkit of science, based on reason and empirical study, is reliable, while that of religion - including faith, dogma and revelation - is unreliable and leads to incorrect, untestable, or conflicting conclusions. Indeed, by relying on faith, religion renders itself incapable of finding truth.

The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist


Dorothy Day - 1952
    This inspiring and fascinating memoir, subtitled, “The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social Activist,” The Long Loneliness is the late Dorothy Day’s compelling autobiographical testament to her life of social activism and her spiritual pilgrimage.A founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and longtime associate of Peter Maurin, Dorothy Day was eulogized in the New York Times as, “a nonviolent social radical of luminous personality.” The Long Loneliness recounts her remarkable journey from the Greenwich Village political and literary scene of the 1920s through her conversion to Catholicism and her lifelong struggle to help bring about “the kind of society where it is easier to be good.” (Description from Amazon.)

A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life


Parker J. Palmer - 2004
    Here he speaks to our yearning to live undivided lives--lives that are congruent with our inner truth--in a world filled with the forces of fragmentation. Mapping an inner journey that we take in solitude and in the company of others, Palmer describes a form of community that fits the limits of our active lives. Defining a "circle of trust" as "a space between us that honors the soul," he shows how people in settings ranging from friendship to organizational life can support each other on the journey toward living "divided no more."This paperback edition includes two new and useful features. Circles of Trust is a DVD containing interviews with Parker J. Palmer and footage from retreats he facilitated for the Center for Courage & Renewal (www.CourageRenewal.org). Bringing the Book to Life, by Caryl Hurtig Casbon and Sally Z. Hare, is a reader's and leader's guide to exploring the themes in A Hidden Wholeness. The DVD illuminates and illustrates the principles and practices behind circles of trust. The guide includes questions that connect the DVD to the book, offering "a conversation with the author" as well as an engagement with the text. Together, these features give readers new ways to internalize the themes of A Hidden Wholeness and share with others this approach to sustaining identity and integrity in all the venues of our lives.Inspired by Palmer's writing and speaking--and challenged by the conditions of twenty-first century life--people across the country, from many walks of life, have been coming together in circles of trust to reclaim their integrity and help foster wholeness in their workplaces and their world.For over a decade, the principles and practices in this book have been proven on the ground--by parents and educators, clergy and politicians, community organizers and corporate executives, physicians and attorneys, and many others who seek to rejoin soul and role in their private and public lives.A Hidden Wholeness weaves together four themes that its author has pursued for forty years: the shape of an integral life, the meaning of community, teaching and learning for transformation, and nonviolent social change. The hundreds of thousands of people who know Parker Palmer's books will be glad to find the journey continued

Honest to God


John A.T. Robinson - 1963
    It is an important position, and Robinson has performed a long overdue task in presenting the position in a form which can be easily read and understood.'--Kenneth D. Freeman, The North American Review

Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community


Andrew Marin - 2009
    Love Is an Orientation is the result of years of wrestling with this issue. In the book, Marin speaks out with compassion and conviction, elevating the conversation between Christianity and the GLBT community so that the focus is moved from genetics to gospel, where it really belongs.

What I Believe


Bertrand Russell - 1925
    It is also one of the most notorious. Used as evidence in a 1940 court case in which Russell was declared unfit to teach college-level philosophy, What I Believe was to become one of his most defining works. The ideas contained within were and are controversial, contentious and - to the religious - downright blasphemous. A remarkable work, it remains the best concise introduction to Russell's thought.

Ragman: And Other Cries of Faith


Walter Wangerin Jr. - 1984
    The opening chapter, "Ragman," remains one of Walter Wangerin Jr.'s most beloved works and leads the reader to thirty–three other writings, all bearing the author's trademark poignancy and lyricism. Ranging from gentle reflections to heart–rending invocations, these selections are powerful, thought–provoking explorations of the meaning of faith, the person of Christ, and the communion of believers. Again and again, Wangerin's cries of faith touch our deepest pains with rays of joyful healing.

In Search of Belief: Revised Edition


Joan D. Chittister - 1999
    Yet, we live in a world where religion has become a tool people can use to their advantage rather than a means of growing closer to God. In this revised edition of In Search of Belief, Sister Joan Chittister challenges readers to reflect upon whether they truly live what they say they believe or whether they have created their own images of God to suit whatever is convenient for their personal and/or social situations.With a new foreword by Tom Roberts (National Catholic Reporter) and a new Introduction by the author, this fresh edition examines the Apostles' Creed phrase-by-phrase, offering challenging interpretations of its familiar themes and a provocative way of understanding--and expressing--its tenets.232-page paperback

Don't Forgive Too Soon: Extending the Two Hands That Heal


Dennis Linn - 1997
    Shows how to forgive in an active, healthy way by moving through a five-step process that renounces vengeance and retaliation but is not passive or self-abusive in any way.

Surviving in an Angry World: Finding Your Way to Personal Peace


Charles F. Stanley - 2010
    Stanley defines anger as "a strong feeling of intense displeasure, hostility, or indignation as a result of a real or an imagined threat or insult, frustration, or injustice toward yourself or towards someone who’s very important to you." Building on this defintion, Stanley...1. Helps readers identify the signs of anger, so they can identify anger in themselves. 2. Reveals the far-reaching consequences of anger, which encompass the spiritual, emotional, and physical. 3. Teaches readers how to handle anger through thirteen concrete steps.4. Walks readers through the steps to true forgiveness and the healing power it brings.With compassion and a wealth of biblical understanding, Stanley explains that the measure of a person is "the size of thing that makes them angry." He goes on to distinguish between healthy and harmful anger and reminds us that "righteous indignation" is a divine emotion. However, he skillfully explains that misguided anger eats away at ourselves, our relationships with others, and our relationship with God. By helping readers look honestly at the source of their anger, he gently leads them to the ability to truly forgive and find the peace they seek.