English Religious

In Shepherds for Sale, Basham documents how progressive powerbrokers—from George Soros, to the founder of eBay, to former members of the Obama administration—set out to change the American church. Secular foundations and think tanks have deliberately targeted Christian media, universities, megachurches, nonprofits, and even entire denominations, not to mention many high-profile pastors and influencers, with infiltration and astroturf campaigns. Their goal: to co-opt the church for political purposes.

First published in 1905, The Varieties of Religious Experience is a collection of lectures given at the University of Edinburgh in 1901 and 1902. William James was a psychologist and, as such, his interest in religion was not that of a theologian but of a scientist. In these 20 lectures, he discusses the nature and origin of religious belief. The average believer is one who has inherited his religion, but this will not do for James's inquiry.

Quite possibly, one of the most important books ever written by the greatest American theologian. Some of the questions asked are "What is the nature of true religion? What are the signs of a true revival? How is the heart changed? Edwards used his pulpit and his leadership of the Great Awakening to pen one of the most challenging and inquisitive books written.

At one time, Corrie ten Boom would have laughed at the idea that she had a story to tell. For the first 50 years of her life, nothing out of the ordinary ever happened to her. She was a spinster watchmaker living contentedly with her sister and their elderly father in the tiny house over their shop in Haarlem. Their uneventful days, as regulated as their own watches, revolved around their abiding love for one another. But with the Nazi invasion and occupation of Holland, everything changed....

Many looked on Gladys Aylward's expedition to mainland China as foolhardy and dangerous. It was. On her own, as a single female, she carried her passport and other documents, along with the only money and belongings that she had, in a small briefcase with a teapot and a saucepan tied to the handle. After having purchased her one-way ticket to China, she left the UK with a single-minded determination to do what God had commanded her. She knew she was meant to go to China - even if no mission was prepared to support her.

An inspiring exploration of the goddesses of the West African spiritual traditions and their role in shaping Yoruba (Ifa), Santeria, Haitian vodoun, and New Orleans voodoo.

A worship disorder: This is how Edward T. Welch views addictions. "Will we worship our own desires or will we worship the true God?" With this lens the author discovers far more in Scripture on addictions than passages on drunkenness.

Mere Christianity is C.S. Lewis' forceful and accessible doctrine of Christian belief. First heard as informal radio broadcasts and then published as three separate books, The Case for Christianity, Christian Behavior, and Beyond Personality, Mere Christianity brings together what Lewis sees as the fundamental truths of the religion.

The foundation of Hebrew and Jewish religion, thought, law, and society is the Torah - the parchment scroll containing the text of the Five Books of Moses that is located in every synagogue. This accessible guide explains the Torah in clear language, even to those who were not raised in the Jewish religious tradition. Christians who want to know more about the Jewish roots of Christianity need to understand the Torah, as do followers of Islamic tradition and those interested in the roots of Abrahamic faiths.

Paul was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, steeped in the learning of his people. But he was also a Roman citizen who widely traveled the Mediterranean basin, and was very knowledgeable of the dominant Greek and Roman culture of his day. These two mighty rivers of influence converge in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. With razor-sharp attention to the text, Kenneth Bailey examines the cultural milieu and rhetorical strategies that shaped this pivotal epistle. Familiar passages take on a new hue as they are stripped of Western interpretations and rendered back into their ancient setting.

Caroline Hostetler arrived in Oklahoma determined to forge a new life for herself and her daughter, Emma. As a single mother, she values the warmth and safety she's found in close-knit Wells Landing. She's even caught the eye of a handsome newcomer, a man who just may be the partner she longs for and the father Emma deserves. But the arrival of an Englischer threatens to lay bare the secrets she's worked so hard to leave behind....

It is the late 15th century and a village healer in Russia called Laurus is powerless to help his beloved as she dies in childbirth, unwed and without having received communion. Devastated and desperate, he sets out on a journey in search of redemption. But this is no ordinary journey: it is one that spans ages and countries, and which brings him face-to-face with a host of unforgettable, eccentric characters and legendary creatures from the strangest medieval bestiaries.

Compared to the Puritans, Mormons have rarely gotten their due, often treated as fringe cultists or marginalized polygamists unworthy of serious examination. In Kingdom of Nauvoo, Benjamin E. Park excavates the brief, tragic life of a lost Mormon city, demonstrating that the Mormons are essential to understanding American history writ large. Using newly accessible sources, Park re-creates the Mormons' 1839 flight from Missouri to Illinois.

The dramatic autobiography of one of China's dedicated, courageous, and intensely persecuted house church leaders. This is the gripping story of how God took a young, half-starved boy from a poor village in Henan province and placed him on the front line for Jesus, in the face of impossible odds. Instead of focusing on the many miracles or experiences of suffering, however, Yun prefers to focus on the character and beauty of Jesus.

Kasia grew up in a poor Jewish home with more siblings than luxuries. But when a chance encounter forces her to the palace of Xerxes, she becomes a concubine to the richest man in the world. She alone, of all Xerxes's wives, loves the man beneath the crown. She alone, of all his wives, holds the heart of the king of kings. Traveling with Xerxes through Europe as he mounts a war against Greece, Kasia knows enemies surround her, but they're not the Spartans or Athenians. The threat lies with those close to the king who hate her people.

Begin your journey toward spiritual exploration and deepen your connection with the earth. Taoism for Beginners is your easy-to-understand guide to a rich, spiritual Chinese religion and a new holistic perspective.

Discover magazine recently called Richard Dawkins "Darwin's Rottweiler" for his fierce and effective defense of evolution. Prospect magazine voted him among the top three public intellectuals in the world (along with Umberto Eco and Noam Chomsky). Now Dawkins turns his considerable intellect on religion, denouncing its faulty logic and the suffering it causes.

One of the original founders of the Christian fiction genre, Janette Oke has authored more than 75 books and has recieved such accolades as the Christy and Gold Medallion Awards. This story of a frontier family begins where Love Comes Softly left off, telling the heart-warming tale of a marriage that began in tragedy but has flourished due to Marty and Clark's devotion to one another and to God.

For centuries Christians have been tormented by one question above all, "If God is good and all-powerful, why does he allow his creatures to suffer pain?"

What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the aristocrat? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between "cheap grace" and "costly grace."