Our spiritual life can be a huge source of comfort and encouragement, guiding us in both good times and bad. Even more, our faith can help us connect deeply with the world around us and guide us to build a world that cares for all, humans and nature alike. These books are overflowing with wisdom and guidance for your spiritual journey, offering enrichment regardless of where you are or may be going.
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Spiritual Formation
Prince is beloved by millions worldwide, and a true legend of the pop genre. Yet most of his fans don't recognize the spiritual messages coded within his work, nor understand the connections between Prince's own religious devotion—which evolved over time—and the sexualized messages of his music. In Dearly Beloved, Pamela Ayo Yetunde decodes the spiritual and sexual messages behind Prince's work. For anyone who loves Prince, is inspired by him, is confused by his lyrics, or is curious about what his music means, Dearly Beloved is an essential spiritual guide.
Discovering the Spiritual Wisdom of Trees
There is great wisdom to learn from trees, and when we connect intimately with them, we can deepen our spiritual lives and grow in the understanding that all beings are part of the fabric of the holy. Trees have much to offer as soul friends, and their millennia of growth and loss provide deep wisdom, if we know how to pay attention. The Spiritual Wisdom of Trees encourages us to revel in the beauty and wonder of trees as they increase our capacity to bear witness to loss and grief. Integrating science and spirituality, coauthors Beth Norcross and Leah Rampy explore the knowledge held within the living world of trees and planted within each of us.
Field Guide to Church of the Wild
Victoria Loorz, Valerie Luna Serrels
Church of the Wild is more than a novel way to do church outside or declare nature your church. Expanding beyond religious and institutional boundaries, it invites you to rewild your spirituality no matter your spiritual heritage. Field Guide to Church of the Wild invites us into landscapes and wild church communities to meet the movement's leaders and participants, both human and more-than-human. Take this field guide with you into the fields and wildish edge lands of your home place. Join an emerging yet ancient spiritual practice: remembering our place in an alive and holy web of interconnection.
Also available is Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred.
Too many of us are stuck on the treadmill of consumer spirituality, clinging to the illusion that we are in charge of our own spiritual growth and development. But the path of true transformation isn't in doing more, but in doing less—in letting go of control and adopting a contemplative posture that will naturally lead us to our true self. Letting Go, Finding You will show how a contemplative spiritual path, informed by the Enneagram, will allow you to finally stop striving after false promises and start surrendering to the truest version of yourself.
Throughout millennia and across the monotheistic religions, the natural was often revered as a sacred text. As we grapple to make sense of today's tumultuous world, one where nature is at once a damaged and damaging source of disaster, as well as a place of refuge and retreat, we are called again to examine how generously it awaits our attention and devotion, standing ready to be read by all. Weaving together the astonishments of science; the profound wisdom and literary gems of thinkers, poets, and observers who have come before us; and her own spiritual practice and gentle observation, Barbara Mahany reintroduces us to The Book of Nature. We needn't look farther for the divine.
The pursuit of happiness, as defined by settlers and enshrined in the American Dream, has brought us to the brink: emotionally, spiritually, socially, and as a species. But Indigenous people carry forward the values that humans need to survive and thrive. Rooted in ten Indigenous values, Journey to Eloheh helps us learn lifeways that lead to true wholeness, well-being, justice, and harmony.
Our joy has a geometry, a shape. We must learn to look outside ourselves to find it. Drawing from positive psychology, Richard Beck explores concepts like gratitude, mindfulness, ego volume, and the small self to provide readers with a road map toward a healthier, happier, and more fulfilling life.
Also available from Richard Beck is Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age.
Becoming Spiritually Intelligent
What is spiritual intelligence? How do you gain it? And what if it looks a lot like love? In Becoming Spiritually Intelligent, Paul M. Burns helps us cultivate spiritual intelligence—the capacity to love God, ourselves, and others—by way of nine paths rooted in attachment theory, Christian formation, and the science of spirituality. Each chapter offers a practice, reflection questions, and a prayer.
Born into a family legacy of Buddhist spirituality in Việt Nam, Nhi Yến Đỗ Trần immigrated to the US at age ten. Budding Lotus in the West follows her journey and unveils the complexities of how Buddhist teachings are used in America. With her unique Vietnamese American feminist perspective, debut author Trần critically addresses gender equality, ethical dilemmas, and modern interpretations of Buddhist teachings.
Prayer, Contemplation, and Mindfulness
Pray and meditate along with saints through this luminous collection of one hundred block prints by artist Kreg Yingst, curator of the Instagram account @psalmprayers. Mystics like Teresa of Avila, Howard Thurman, Black Elk, and Fannie Lou Hamer come alive. Everything Could Be a Prayer is a rich resource for private prayer and communal reflection.
Can the Bible be saved? More and more Christians are troubled by how difficult passages in the Bible can be used to promote sexism, homophobia, hostility to other faiths, and other problems—but a sterile, "academic" reading of the sacred text seems spiritually unfulfilling. Carl McColman reminds us that there is an ancient "third way" of approaching the Bible: reading scripture like a mystic. Read the Bible like a Mystic will help Christians find an expanded relationship with their sacred textbook, and it will also invite all people to bring together the wisdom of the written word with the wisdom of the contemplative life and the call to foster peace, justice, and equality in our world.
Also available from Carl McColman is The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism: An Essential Guide to Contemplative Spirituality.
Sometimes we imagine prayer as a magical incantation—a way to change our circumstances. We try to pray our way toward success, safety, health, or love. But what if true prayer is more about undoing our desires for power and profit than indulging them? Prayed through millennia by believers in groups and alone, the Lord's Prayer speaks precisely to our age. With stories from scripture, whimsical anecdotes, and pastoral wisdom, The Prayer of Unwanting guides us into profound interaction with each line of the Lord's Prayer.
Mindfulness can help you live more joyfully and wholeheartedly in the world God created. The Mindful Christian provides readers with an overview of mindfulness practice through the lens of faith, showing how the ancient healing practice of mindfulness can help them live more joyfully and wholeheartedly. Complete with easy-to-do mindfulness practices that will impact daily activities and relationships, this book empowers readers with the benefits of mindfulness for their emotional, spiritual, and relational health within the Christian life.
Everything Good about God Is True
You know what you don't believe: about the Bible, the church, and God. But what if someone asked: "What do you believe?" In Everything Good about God Is True, Bruce Reyes-Chow helps us consider what it means to choose faith and how to create one's own "faith montage." What if we could articulate the gospel of love, humility, and justice? What if everything good about God is true?
When the Spirit speaks to him in his daily prayers, Choctaw elder and spiritual explorer Steven Charleston takes a pen and writes down the messages. This stunning collection of more than two hundred meditations introduces us to the Spirit Wheel and the four directions that ground Native spirituality: tradition, kinship, vision, and balance. We are all searching for belonging and a vision of the world that makes sense. Together we can turn toward the wisdom of our ancestors, kinship with all of Mother Earth's creatures, the vision of the Spirit, and mindful balance of life.
Also available from Steven Charleston is Ladder to the Light: An Indigenous Elder's Meditations on Hope and Courage.
Searching for faith and spirituality resources for kids? Click here to view resources from our sister imprint, Beaming Books.
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