Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible's View of Women


Sarah Bessey - 2013
    Sarah Bessey didn’t ask for Jesus to come in and mess up all her ideas about a woman’s place in the world and in the church. But patriarchy, she came to learn, was not God’s dream for humanity. Bessey engages critically with Scripture in this gentle and provocative love letter to the Church. Written with poetic rhythm, a prophetic voice, and a deeply biblical foundation, this loving yet fearless book urges today’s church to move beyond man-made restrictions and fully welcome women’s diverse voices and experiences. It’s at once a call to find freedom in the fullness, hope, glory, and work of Christ, and a very personal and moving story of how Jesus made a feminist out of her.

Why Because You Are Anointed


T.D. Jakes - 1995
    And yet, like the tide, God brings the answers and washes our questions away.-- Why do the righteous, who have committed their entire lives to obeying God, seem to endure so much pain and conflict?-- Why do Christians often suffer while unbelievers seem to reap the blessings of life?-- Why are the anointed persecuted?In this anointed and inspirational book, Bishop T. D. Jakes, the preacher with the velvet touch, provocatively and skillfully answers these questions and many more.

The Saffron Road: A Journey with Buddha's Daughters


Christine Toomey - 2015
    Author Christine Toomey, a veteran foreign correspondent, takes the reader from Kathmandu to the Cascades to meet these very diverse daughters of Buddha. Some left happy marriages, others dynamic careers, each looking for fulfillment through mindfulness and a deepened consciousness.

A Year of Biblical Womanhood


Rachel Held Evans - 2012
    Intrigued by the traditionalist resurgence that led many of her friends to abandon their careers to assume traditional gender roles in the home, Evans decides to try it for herself, vowing to take all of the Bible's instructions for women as literally as possible for a year.Pursuing a different virtue each month, Evans learns the hard way that her quest for biblical womanhood requires more than a "gentle and quiet spirit" (1 Peter 3:4). It means growing out her hair, making her own clothes, covering her head, obeying her husband, rising before dawn, abstaining from gossip, remaining silent in church, and even camping out in the front yard during her period. See what happens when a thoroughly modern woman starts referring to her husband as "master" and "praises him at the city gate" with a homemade sign. Learn the insights she receives from an ongoing correspondence with an Orthodox Jewish woman, and find out what she discovers from her exchanges with a polygamist wife. Join her as she wrestles with difficult passages of scripture that portray misogyny and violence against women. With just the right mixture of humor and insight, compassion and incredulity, A Year of Biblical Womanhood is an exercise in scriptural exploration and spiritual contemplation. What does God truly expect of women, and is there really a prescription for biblical womanhood? Come along with Evans as she looks for answers in the rich heritage of biblical heroines, models of grace, and all-around women of valor.

Illuminations


Mary Sharratt - 2012
    Offered by her noble family to the Church at the age of eight, she lived for years in forced silence. But through the study of books and herbs, through music and the kinship of her church sisters, Hildegard found her way from a life of submission to a calling that celebrated the divine mother and the glories all around us. In this brilliantly researched and insightful novel, Mary Sharratt offers a deeply moving portrait of a woman willing to risk everything for what she believed, a triumphant exploration of the life she might well have lived.

The Story of Ruth: Twelve Moments in Every Woman's Life


Joan D. Chittister - 2000
    In this beautiful book best-selling author Joan Chittister and celebrated artist John August Swanson together reclaim the ancient story of Ruth as a model for contemporary women seeking a fully spiritual life.In concert with Swanson's rich and evocative art, Chittister's graceful prose explores, through this powerful biblical story, a series of twelve defining moments in every woman's life — moments of loss, change, transformation, aging, independence, respect, recognition, insight, empowerment, selfdefinition, invisibility, and fulfillment.A lovely blend of art and text, The Story of Ruth offers inspiration for women seeking wholeness and presents compelling devotional images for eyes and mind alike.

The Twelve Powers


Charles Fillmore - 1999
    All books in the Unity Classic Library series feature hardcover binding with gold engraving, colorful endpapers, library nameplate page, author photograph, and biography. The series makes a beautiful display on a library shelf, and each book is a respected addition to any metaphysical collection.This book offers two Unity favorites in one volume: Charles Fillmore's The Twelve Powers of Man is a metaphysical look at twelve expressions of the divine inherent in each of us. Expressions such as love, faith, strength, zeal, imagination, and others are discussed. In Christ Enthroned in Man, Cora Fillmore helps the reader put the twelve powers to practical use by outlining exercises to develop faith and willpower, recognize and use intuition, and let go of unwanted conditions in the body and in life situations.

Experience the Now: How to Increase Your Level of Consciousness


Sullins Stuart - 2012
    “Experience the Now” is a lecture delivered by spiritual teacher Sullins Stuart, author of the Amazon Top 100 spiritual best seller "Living in Conscious Harmony: A Spiritual Guide to Being in the Now."Stuart begins by briefly sharing how he met his spiritual teacher, and then addresses two key elements to experiencing the Now: understanding the different levels of consciousness andexplaining tools and techniques you can utilize to raise your level of consciousness and awareness."Experience the Now" is an invaluable resource for anyone desiring to live in the Now.

Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype


Clarissa Pinkola Estés - 1992
    Her name is Wild Woman, but she is an endangered species. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., Jungian analyst and cantadora storyteller shows how women's vitality can be restored through what she calls "psychic archeological digs" into the ruins of the female unconsious. Using multicultural myths, fairy tales, folk tales, and stories, Dr. Estes helps women reconnect with the healthy, instinctual, visionary attributes of the Wild Woman archetype.Dr. Estes has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile and life-giving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul.

I Thought It Was Just Me: Women Reclaiming Power and Courage in a Culture of Shame


Brené Brown - 2007
    Addiction, perfectionism, fear and blame are just a few of the outward signs that Dr. Brené Brown discovered in her 6-year study of shame’s effects on women. While shame is generally thought of as an emotion sequestered in the shadows of our psyches, I Thought It Was Just Me demonstrates the ways in which it is actually present in the most mundane and visible aspects of our lives—from our mental and physical health and body image to our relationships with our partners, our kids, our friends, our money, and our work. After talking to hundreds of women and therapists, Dr. Brown is able to illuminate the myriad shaming influences that dominate our culture and explain why we are all vulnerable to shame. We live in a culture that tells us we must reject our bodies, reject our authentic stories, and ultimately reject our true selves in order to fit in and be accepted.Outlining an empowering new approach that dispels judgment and awakens us to the genuine acceptance of ourselves and others, I Thought It Was Just Me begins a crucial new dialogue of hope. Through potent personal narratives and examples from real women, Brown identifies and explains four key elements that allow women to transform their shame into courage, compassion and connection. Shame is a dark and sad place in which to live a life, keeping us from connecting fully to our loved ones and being the women we were meant to be. But learning how to understand shame’s influence and move through it toward full acceptance of ourselves and others takes away much of shame’s power to harm.It’s not just you, you’re not alone, and if you fight the daily battle of feeling like you are—somehow—just not "enough," you owe it to yourself to read this book and discover your infinite possibilities as a human being.

The Dreams Book: Technology for the Soul--Finding Your Way in the Dark: Kabbalah


Yehuda Berg - 2004
    In Kabbalah: The Dreams Book, Berg examines the meanings of dreams by using Kabbalistic principles. Dreams, he says, offer valuable messages and wisdom, and to ignore them is the same as leaving a potentially life-changing letter unopened. Berg shows readers how to interpret the directions in their dreams, from how to find a soul mate to ways to deflect negative energy and judgments.

When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice


Terry Tempest Williams - 2012
    It was a shock to Williams to discover that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as what she found when the time came to read them.  “They were exactly where she said they would be: three shelves of beautiful cloth-bound books . . . I opened the first journal. It was empty. I opened the second journal. It was empty. I opened the third. It too was empty . . . Shelf after shelf after shelf, all of my mother’s journals were blank.” What did Williams’s mother mean by that? In fifty-four chapters that unfold like a series of yoga poses, each with its own logic and beauty, Williams creates a lyrical and caring meditation of the mystery of her mother's journals. When Women Were Birds is a kaleidoscope that keeps turning around the question “What does it mean to have a voice?”

The Book of Kindness: How to Make Others Happy and Be Happy Yourself


Om Swami - 2019
    Even a word of encouragement, a compliment, a helping hand can be equally, if not more, profound. Make such acts a habit and Nature will reciprocate in kind.' In his latest book, bestselling author Om Swami suggests a definitive means to achieving true happiness: through kindness. In his signature candid style, he clarifies that the only way one can be successful in the quest to achieve happiness for oneself is to first spread happiness and show kindness to others. With real, inspiring, life-changing anecdotes, Om Swami goes on to illustrate how compassion and gentleness are intrinsically connected with humanity. The Book of Kindness will help you understand, practice and master kindness, the key to inner bliss and fulfilment, and the only means to attain the happiness that you seek.

Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner Saint


Nadia Bolz-Weber - 2013
    Nadia Bolz-Weber takes no prisoners as she reclaims the term pastrix (a negative term used by some Christians who refuse to recognize women as pastors) in this wildly entertaining and deeply resonant memoir about an outrageous, unlikely life of faith. From a commune of haggard-but-hopeful slackers to the wobbly chairs and war stories of Alcoholic Anonymous, from a funeral in a smoky downtown comedy club to an unexpected revelation during the Haitian stations of the cross, PASTRIX is a journey of cranky spirituality that intersects religion with real life, weaving incredible narrative, hilarious rants, and poignant honesty to portray a life deeply flawed and deeply faithful-giving hope to the rest of us.

The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth


Beth Allison Barr - 2021
    From choices about careers to roles in local churches to relationship dynamics, this belief shapes the everyday lives of evangelical women. Yet biblical womanhood isn't biblical, says Baylor University historian Beth Allison Barr. It arose from a series of clearly definable historical moments.This book moves the conversation about biblical womanhood beyond Greek grammar and into the realm of church history--ancient, medieval, and modern--to show that this belief is not divinely ordained but a product of human civilization that continues to creep into the church. Barr's historical insights provide context for contemporary teachings about women's roles in the church and help move the conversation forward.Interweaving her story as a Baptist pastor's wife, Barr sheds light on the #ChurchToo movement and abuse scandals in Southern Baptist circles and the broader evangelical world, helping readers understand why biblical womanhood is more about human power structures than the message of Christ.