How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture


Francis A. Schaeffer - 1975
    Schaeffer contemplates the reasons for modern society's sorry state of affairs and argues for total affirmation of the Bible's morals, values, and meaning.

Self-Reliance and Other Essays


Ralph Waldo Emerson - 1844
    The six essays and one address included in this volume, selected from Essays, First Series (1841) and Essays, Second Series (1844), offer a representative sampling of his views outlining that moral idealism as well as a hint of the later skepticism that colored his thought. In addition to the celebrated title essay, the others included here are "History," "Friendship," "The Over-Soul," "The Poet," and "Experience," plus the well-known and frequently read Harvard Divinity School Address.

Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources


Martin Lings - 1983
    Based on the sira, the eighth- and ninth-century Arabic biographies that recount numerous events in the prophet’s life, it contains original English translations of many important passages that reveal the words of men and women who heard Muhammad speak and witnessed the events of his life.Scrupulous and exhaustive in its fidelity to its sources, Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources is presented in a narrative style that is easily comprehensible, yet authentic and inspiring in its use of language, reflecting both the simplicity and grandeur of the story it tells. This revised edition includes new sections detailing the prophet’s expanding influence and his spreading of the message of Islam into Syria and its neighboring states. It represents the final updates made to the text before the author’s death in 2005. The book has been published in 12 languages and has received numerous awards, including acknowledgment as best biography of the prophet in English at the National Seerate Conference in Islamabad.

Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart


Imam al-Mawlud - 2004
    Diseases examined include miserliness, envy, hatred, treachery, rancour, malice, ostentation, arrogance, covetousness, lust, and other afflictions that assail people and often control them. The causes and practical cures of these diseases are discussed, offering a penetrating glimpse into how Islam deals with spiritual and psychological problems and demonstrating how all people can benefit from these teachings.

A Confession and Other Religious Writings


Leo Tolstoy - 1987
    An account of a spiritual crisis, marking a shift of Tolstoy's central focus from the aesthetic to the religious and philosophical.A confession --What is religion and of what does its essence consist? --Religion and morality --The law of love and the law of violence.

Catechism of the Catholic Church


The Catholic Church - 1992
    This book is the catechism (the word means "instruction") that will serve as the standarad for all future catechisms.The Catechism draws on the Bible, the Mass, the Sacraments, Church tradition and teaching, and the lives of saints. It comes with a complete index, footnotes and cross-references for a fuller understanding of every subject. Using the tradition of explaining what the Church believes (the Creed), what she celebrates (the Sacraments), what she lives (the Commandments), and what she prays (the Lord's Prayer), the Catechism of the Catholic Church offers challenges for believers and answers for all those interested in learning about the mystery of the Catholic faith. Here is a positive, coherent and contemporary map for our spiritual journey toward transformation.The Catechism of the Catholic Church is, as Pope John Paul II calls it, "a special gift."

Freedom of the Will


Jonathan Edwards - 1754
    What is the nature of morality? Can God be evil? What constitutes sin? How does God s foreknowledge of all events impact concepts of morality? How does intent inform our acts of vice and virtue? Still controversial and hotly debated in the 21st century, this demanding evangelistic work some call it the best argument for the sovereignty of God is among the essential reading of the thinker whose philosophies inspired the 18th-century religious of the Great Awakening, which continues to hugely influence American Protestantism to this day. Freedom of the Will will enthrall and challenge serious readers of the Bible as well as students of theology s impact on American history.

When Less Becomes More: Making Space for Slow, Simple, and Good


Emily Ley - 2019
    You may feel like your life is frantic––that you're running on empty. In When Less Becomes More, you'll learn how to live a life of more in a world that often overwhelms to the point of burnout. Smartphones constantly ping and alert and demand your attention. And social media can eat up hours of your days with mindless scrolling and tapping while leaving you feeling empty and lonely. Add to that family commitments, work that is accessible around the clock, and overscheduling, and you have a life that can feel out of control.In When Less Becomes More, Emily Ley, author of the bestselling Grace, Not Perfection and Growing Boldly, takes you on a journey out of that empty place and shows you how to fill your wells with the nourishment that only true connection can provide. She also presents some radical concepts that push against the tethers of modern life, with the promise that more of the good stuff comes when we say yes to less of what keeps us empty:Less Noise, More CalmLess Fake, More RealLess Rush, More RhythmLess Liking, More LovingLess Distraction, More ConnectionLess Chasing, More CherishingLess Stuff, More TreasuresGetting to more might require some outside-the-box changes, some unraveling of the patterns you have adopted, and some reworking of the day to day. Build a life based on your core values instead of slipping into a life dictated by society or what's "normal." Because you weren't made for normal. You were made for more––for a life of fullness, dreaming, and lasting joy.

The World's Religions


Huston Smith - 1958
    He convincingly conveys the unique appeal and gifts of each of the traditions and reveals their hold on the human heart and imagination.

Works of Love


Søren Kierkegaard - 1847
    Works of Love, the midpoint in the series, is also the monumental high point, because of its penetrating, illuminating analysis of the forms and sources of love. Love as feeling and mood is distinguished from works of love, love of the lovable from love of the unlovely, preferential love from love as the royal law, love as mutual egotism from triangular love, and erotic love from self-giving love.This work is marked by Kierkegaard's Socratic awareness of the reader, both as the center of awakened understanding and as the initiator of action. Written to be read aloud, the book conveys a keenness of thought and an insightful, poetic imagination that make such an attentive approach richly rewarding. Works of Love not only serves as an excellent place to begin exploring the writings of Kierkegaard, but also rewards many rereadings.

Once a Runner


John L. Parker Jr. - 1978
    It has become one of the most beloved sports novels ever written. Originally self-published in 1978 and sold at road races out of the trunk of the author’s car, reading the book became a rite of passage for many runners, and tattered copies were handed down like sacred texts from generation to generation.Once a Runner is the story of Quenton Cassidy, a collegiate runner at fictional Southeastern University whose lifelong dream is to run a four-minute mile. He is less than a second away when the political and cultural turmoil of the Vietnam War era intrudes into the staid recesses of his school’s athletic department. After he becomes involved in an athletes’ protest, Cassidy is suspended from his track team.Under the tutelage of his friend and mentor, Bruce Denton, a graduate student and former Olympic gold medalist, Cassidy gives up his scholarship, his girlfriend, and possibly his future to withdraw to a monastic retreat in the countryside and begin training for the race of his life: a head-to-head match with the greatest miler in history.This audiobook is a rare insider’s account of the incredibly intense lives of elite distance runners; an inspiring, funny, and spot-on tale of one man’s quest to become a champion.

Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices from the East and West


Daniel Ladinsky - 2002
    Once again Ladinsky reveals his talent for creating profound and playful renditions of classic poems for a modern audience. Rumi's joyous, ecstatic love poems; St. Francis's loving observations of nature through the eyes of Catholicism; Kabir's wild, freeing humor that synthesizes Hindu, Muslim, and Christian beliefs; St. Teresa's sensual verse; and the mystical, healing words of Sufi poet Hafiz—these along with inspiring works by Rabia, Meister Eckhart, St. Thomas Aquinas, Mira, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and Tukaram are all “love poems by God,” from writers considered to be "conduits of the divine." A spiritual treasure to cherish always.

Hi God (It's Me Again): What to Pray When You Don't Know What to Say


Nicole Crank - 2017
    Sometimes we have so many things pulling for our attention that nothing actually gets our attention. We’re distracted, not present. Meanwhile, pressures mount, and all the things deep down rise to the surface... • Can I manage all this? • Will my life ever get any better? • How can I be truly happy? • God, where are you? Hi God (It’s Me Again) is for those moments when we need to stop, be still, and remember who God is. We know we should go to God amidst the craziness, but how can we find the time? And once we get with him, what do we even say? In this 60-day devotional, Pastor Nicole Crank empowers readers with biblical affirmation, reminding them that God is in control of their chaos and has purpose in their pain. Sharing short and simple words of encouragement, she meets readers in the everyday and reminds them of the importance of spending quality time with God.

Kybalion: A Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece


Three Initiates - 1912
    This concise guide offers a modern interpretation of the doctrine, distilling its teachings with seven compelling principles that can be applied to self-development in daily life.

The Unfettered Mind: Writings of the Zen Master to the Sword Master


Takuan Soho - 1645
    So succinct are the author's insights that these writings have outlasted the dissolution of the samurai class to come down to the present and be read for guidance and inspiration by the captains of business and industry, as well as those devoted to the practice of the martial arts in their modern form.