Recommendations based on "Earthly Powers"

From bestselling author and provocateur Christopher Hitchens, the classic guide to the art of principled dissent and disagreementIn Letters to a Young Contrarian, bestselling author and world-class provocateur Christopher Hitchens inspires the radicals, gadflies, mavericks, rebels, and angry young (wo)men of tomorrow. Exploring the entire range of "contrary positions"—from noble dissident to gratuitous nag—Hitchens introduces the next generation to the minds and the misfits who influenced him, invoking such mentors as Emile Zola, Rosa Parks, and George Orwell. As is his trademark, Hitchens pointedly pitches himself in contrast to stagnant attitudes across the ideological spectrum. No other writer has matched Hitchens's understanding of the importance of disagreement—to personal integrity, to informed discussion, to true progress, to democracy itself.

Walking is one of the simplest things we do as humans. It’s how most of us experience life.In The Way Under Our Feet, Graham Usher conveys how exhilarating it is to walk into the depths of our humanity. We become more ready to recognize the needs as well as the joys of others; we sift our thoughts; we seek to heal our battered world, even as we glory in the beauty of nature; we find ourselves companying with our three mile an hour God.‘This is a lovely book, full of light, grace and meaning. Usher celebrates his passion for walking by exploring religious texts and stories, but this by no means confines his thoughts. We are drawn by secular texts, too: Macfarlane sits alongside Kierkegaard; Thoreau and Walden alongside T. S. Eliot. Through them all, we learn why walking is so unspeakably good for heart, soul and body.’DAME FIONA REYNOLDS, MASTER OF EMMANUEL COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AUTHOR OF THE FIGHT FOR BEAUTY‘Wonderful. Offers highly original and striking observations combined with apposite, moving and often humorous personal anecdotes. A classic, catching a genuine and humble holiness.’BISHOP DAVID WILBOURNE

G.K. Chesterton's brilliant sketch of the life and thought of Thomas Aquinas is as relevant today as when it was published in 1933. Then it earned the praise of such distinguished writers as Etienne Gilson, Jacques Martain, and Anton Pegis as the best book ever written on the great thirteenth-century Dominican. Today Chesterton's classic stands poised to reveal Thomas to a new generation.Chesterton's Aquinas is a man of mystery. Born into a noble Neapolitan family, Thomas chose the life of a mendicant friar. Lumbering and shy -- his classmates dubbed him "the Dumb Ox" -- he led a revolution in Christian thought. Possessed of the rarest brilliance, he found the highest truth in the humblest object. Having spent his life amid the vast intricacies of reason, he asked on his deathbed to have read aloud the Song of Songs, the most passionate book in the Bible.As Albert the Great, Thomas's teacher, predicted, the Dumb Ox has bellowed down the ages to our own day. Chesterton's book will enlighten those who would consign Thomas to the obscurity of medieval times. It will confound those who would use Thomas to bolster arid schemes of Christian rationalism. Rather, it will introduce the wondrous mystery of the man who, after a life of unparalleled genius, was seized by a vision of the Unknown and said, "I can write no more. I have seen things which make all my writings like straw."

“Mine is a personal story of an unexpected and terribly inconvenient Christian conversion, told by a very unlikely convert.”–Sara MilesRaised as an atheist, Sara Miles lived an enthusiastically secular life as a restaurant cook and a writer. Then early one winter morning, for no earthly reason, she wandered into a church. “I was certainly not interested in becoming a Christian,” she writes, “or, as I thought of it rather less politely, a religious nut.” But she ate a piece of bread, took a sip of wine, and found herself radically transformed.The mysterious sacrament of communion has sustained Miles ever since, in a faith she’d scorned, in work she’d never imagined. In this astonishing story, she tells how the seeds of her conversion were sown, and what her life has been like since she took that bread.A lesbian left-wing journalist who covered revolutions around the world, Miles was not the woman her friends expected to see suddenly praising Jesus. She was certainly not the kind of person the government had in mind to run a “faith-based charity.” Religion for her was not about angels or good behavior or piety; it was about real hunger, real food, and real bodies. Before long, she turned the bread she ate at communion into tons of groceries, piled on the church’s altar to be given away. The first food pantry she established provided hundreds of poor, elderly, sick, deranged, and marginalized people with lifesaving food and a sense of belonging. Within a few years, the loaves had multiplied, and she and the people she served had started nearly a dozen more pantries.Take This Bread is rich with real-life Dickensian characters–church ladies, child abusers, millionaires, schizophrenics, bishops, and thieves–all blown into Miles’s life by the relentless force of her newfound calling. She recounts stories about trudging through the rain in housing projects, wiping the runny nose of a psychotic man, storing a battered woman’s .375 Magnum in a cookie tin. She writes about the economy of hunger and the ugly politics of food; the meaning of prayer and the physicality of faith. Here, in this achingly beautiful, passionate book, is the living communion of Christ.“The most amazing book.” – Anne Lamott

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was only thirty-nine when he was executed by the Nazis in 1945, yet his influence on Christian life has been enormous. His passionate, theology-based opposition to Nazism made him a leader, along with Karl Barth, in Germany's Confessing Church. Bonhoeffer is embraced by both liberal and conservative Christians, and the integrity of his faith and life have led believers everywhere to recognize him as the one theologian of his time to lead future generations of Christians into the new millennium. His writings are a treasure of spiritual wisdom, social con-science, pastoral care, and theological insights that are an inspiration to us all, no matter what challenges we face.A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer showcases his writings, letters, and sermons in a daily devotional format, encouraging and deepening readers' reflections and meditations. With a foreword by Jim Wallis, author of God's Politics, A Year with Dietrich Bonhoeffer will take readers on a 365-day journey of understanding with this deeply spiritual man.

The Rule of Taize was written by Brother Roger, its founder, during the winter of 1952-3. His intention was to express for the young men who had committed themselves to the group 'for their whole life in celibacy and to a life together in great simplicity', 'the essential that makes the common life possible'. The community has since become one of the world's most important sites of Christian pilgrimage. Over 100,000 young people from around the world travel there each year for prayer, Bible study, sharing, and communal work. Through the community's ecumenical outlook, they are encouraged to live in the spirit of kindness, simplicity and reconciliation. This is an updated version of the English-French edition first published in 1968.

Manyhave called her a saint. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and India'shighest civilian honor, the Jewel of India, in 1980. Pope John Paul II declaredher “Blessed,” beatifying her in 2003. For nearly fifty years at the head ofCalcutta’s Missionaries of Charity, the Albanian-born Agnes GonxhaBojaxhiu, better known as Mother Teresa, advocatedfor the poor and homeless, ministered to the sick, provided hospice for theafflicted, and embodied the very essence of humanitarianism. Now, revised andupdated, Kathryn Spink’s definitive, authorized biography is “simply the best . . . around,” according to James Martin, SJ, author of The Jesuit Guide to(Almost) Everything. “Thoroughly researched, sensitively written andunfailingly inspiring, Kathryn Spink's book should be, after Mother Teresa'sown writings, your first resource for understanding one of the greatest saintsin Christian history."

The Basis for the HBO Documentary. A National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist.   Scientology presents itself as a scientific approach to spiritual enlightenment, but its practices have long been shrouded in mystery. Now Lawrence Wright—armed with his investigative talents, years of archival research, and more than two hundred personal interviews with current and former Scientologists—uncovers the inner workings of the church. We meet founder L. Ron Hubbard, the highly imaginative but mentally troubled science-fiction writer, and his tough, driven successor, David Miscavige. We go inside their specialized cosmology and language. We learn about the church’s legal attacks on the IRS, its vindictive treatment of critics, and its phenomenal wealth. We see the church court celebrities such as Tom Cruise while consigning its clergy to hard labor under billion-year contracts. Through it all, Wright asks what fundamentally comprises a religion, and if Scientology in fact merits this Constitutionally-protected label. Brilliantly researched, compellingly written, Going Clear pulls back the curtain on one of the most secretive organizations at work today. A New York Times Notable Book A Best Book of the Year: The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, New York magazine,Slate, Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, Newsday, Entertainment Weekly, People, The Week, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews A GoodReads Reader's Choice

Mississippi, 1963. Essie Lee Lane is a small-town girl from a humble background who doesn't take "stuff" from nobody. Yet even she isn't ready for the Reverend Theophilus Simmons, one of the South's most fiery, respected young preachers during an era of vast social change. Down-to-earth, caring, and oh-so-fine, he's everything Essie never thought she'd find in a man, and he realizes she is everything a pastor needs in a wife-a First Lady to share the joys and challenges of his ministry. But Essie and Theophilus soon discover that dealing with the contentious members of Theophilus's church will be no honeymoon. With their parishioners in turmoil and their denomination facing a major scandal, Essie and Theophilus must put their faith and love to the ultimate test as they struggle to lead their congregation to God's sweetest rewards.

Adrian Plass lovers got their initial baptism of laughter through his bestseller, The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass (aged 37 3⁄4). The author's account of 'serious spiritual experiences' naturally made him in demand as a public speaker - so of course another diary was inevitable.The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, Christian Speaker (aged 45 3⁄4) continues the misadventures of Adrian's fictional alter-ego. As Plass gathers regularly with his support group, we meet old friends, including his longsuffering wife, Anne; son Gerald, now grown but no less irrepressible; loony and loveable Leonard Thynn; Edwin, the wise church elder; and Richard and Doreen Cook, who are just as religious as ever. We also meet some new characters, such as Stephanie Widgeon, who only seems to have one thing to say, ever. . . and who knows, we might even find out why Leonard Thynn borrowed Adrian's cat all those years ago.And finally - what is a banner ripping seminar