Showing results for "English Spirituality" in Classics

During a train trip from Chicago to Texas in the late 1940s, A.W. Tozer began to write The Pursuit of God. He wrote all night, and when the train arrived at his destination, the rough draft was done. The depth of this book has made it an enduring favorite.

The publication of The Woman's Bible in 1895 and 1898 represented the feminist pioneer's last strike at the roots of the ideology behind her gender's subordinate role in society. In keeping with her characteristic radical individualism, Stanton attacks religious orthodoxy on a political rather than scholarly basis.

Using affirmations to focus on improving your health, wealth, and happiness has shown to be a successful strategy in living mindfully. Florence Scovel Shinn's work has been praised and referenced by self-improvement experts as diverse as Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Louise Hay, and Norman Vincent Peale. Shinn uses affirmations and success stories of her students to illustrate the power of the spoken word to attract prosperity, love, and good health.

Scott's discourses on the psychological, religious, physical, and preternatural explanations for contemporary beliefs in ghosts, witches, warlocks, fairies, elves, diabolism, the occult, and even werewolvesare are essential for acolytes of the dark and macabre. The letters dealing with witch hunts, trials, and torture are morbidly compelling. Scott was neither fully pro-rational modernity nor totally anti-superstitious past.

Al-Ghazālī's writings were meant to help man to live a life in accordance with the sacred law, and by doing so gain a deeper understanding of its meaning. Al-Ghazali believed in practical-ethical perfection and that by exercising his capacity for reason, man would be drawn to the spiritual alchemy that transforms the soul from worldliness to complete devotion to God. This alone, he believed, could produce ultimate happiness.

From the perspective of an unbeliever, Fear and Trembling explores the paradox of faith, the nature of Christianity, and the complexity of human emotion. Kierkegaard examines the biblical story of Abraham, who was instructed to sacrifice his son Isaac, and forces us to consider Abraham's state of mind. What drove Abraham, and what made him carry out such an absurd and extreme request from God? Kierkegaard argues that Abraham's agreement to sacrifice Isaac, and his suspension of reason, elevated him to the highest level of faith.

One of the best-known collections of W. B. Yeats' prose, The Celtic Twilight explores the old connection between the Irish people and the magical world of fairies. Yeats, by traveling the land in the early 20th century and talking to the common people about their experiences with the creatures, yielded a colorful overview of Celtic fairy folklore.

The Varieties of Religious Experience is considered to be the classic work in the field. To quote Wikipedia, "James was most interested in understanding personal religious experience. The importance of James to the psychology of religion - and to psychology more generally - is difficult to overstate. He discussed many essential issues that remain of vital concern today. What makes James writing so special is that he could take a very complex subject and, without watering it down, make it understandable to 'the rest of us.'"

"A change of feeling is a change of destiny." Neville Goddard may be the most quoted New Thought leader in recent history. As a foundation for works by Dr. Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, Joe Vitale, and countless authorities on spirituality and the law of attraction, Feeling Is the Secret is a short but powerful instruction on how to realize your dreams and have your wishes fulfilled.

This universalist spiritual treatise is the best known work by the Lebanese-born poet and artist Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931). The central figure of the narrative is a fictional prophet, Al Mustafa, who is about to set off on a journey back to his homeland. His departure is delayed when he encounters a group of people who urgently seek his advice on a wide range of topics ranging from the mundane to the highest flights of spiritual introspection.

The Conferences summarizes important conversations that Cassian had with elders from the monastery at Scetis (Wadi en Natrun in the western Nile delta) about spiritual and ascetic principles. Cassian shares the wisdom and insights of the venerable abbots Abraham, Chaeremon, Moses, Paphnutios, Serapion, Daniel, Theodor, Serenus, and Piamon, among others. The topics of these conversations ranged from divine gifts, perfection, prayer, and promises to mortification, lust, penitence, friendship, and renunciation.

Ostensibly written by an English knight, The Book of Marvels and Travels claim to recount his experiences in Egypt, the Levant, India, and China. It describes a journey from Europe to Jerusalem and further into Asia, and the many weird and wonderful peoples and practices of the East. The author claims to have traveled in land populated by Amazons, dog-headed people, cannibals, one-footed tribes, and Pygmies.

Intended to be a defense of the Christian religion, Pensées is a penetrating collection of thoughts on faith, reason, and theology. Unfinished at the time of Pascal's death, the book consists of philosophical fragments on the "wretchedness" of man and the controversial schisms of the church at the time. It includes the philosopher's infamous wager encouraging belief over agnosticism, as well as his thoughts on numerous other topics. Endlessly quotable, Pensées overflows with pearls of wisdom, each elusive sentence pregnant with a universe of thought.

Declaring the church corrupt and urging rationality over revelation, Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason directly opposed the existing political and religious order of his time. Initially printed in pamphlet form, his work audaciously employed “vulgar” everyday language, as Paine sought to bring his message, and the appeal of deism, to the masses.

In the final volume of The Divine Comedy, Dante completes his tour of the afterlife and rises to the highest sphere of heaven. His guide is Beatrice, who acts as both an object of devotion and also a source of instruction. In verse of the most sublime order, Dante not only describes the sights, sounds, and inhabitants of this celestial region, but also presents, with astonishing clarity, a comprehensive view of Catholic theology.

Although we typically first encounter them in childhood, fables teem with lessons that are relevant throughout our lives. As this retreat shows, they also illuminate the message of the Gospel. You will join one of the leading experts on fables, Rev. Gregory Carlson, on a 12-part retreat that uses the fables of Aesop, Fontaine, and others to help you deepen and enjoy your Christian spiritual life.

Almustafa, the chosen and beloved, must leave the port of Orphalese upon the ship he has waited upon for 12 years. As he descends to the waterfront, the people of Orphalese gather to question him and hear his wisdom on important topics of their daily lives. Kahlil Gibran's masterpiece is a series of enlightening, philosophical answers to those questions. The inspirational and spiritual words of The Prophet, written in an almost Biblical, poetic style, reveal deep insights into each of the subjects in question.

The Greater Key of Solomon is a compilation of Solomonic magic drawn from various manuscripts of the 15th to 17th centuries. Book I provides conjurations, invocations, and curses to summon and constrain spirits and demons in order to compel them to do the conjuror's will. It also describes how to find lost items, become invisible, or gain favor with someone. Book II describes purification rituals which the occultist should undergo, how to dress for magical practices, and how to construct the necessary implements used in these rituals.

Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, or a Brief Relation of the Exceeding Mercy of God in Christ to his Poor Servant John Bunyan, is a Puritan spiritual autobiography written by John Bunyan. It was composed while Bunyan was serving a 12-year prison sentence in Bedford prison for preaching without a license, and was first published in 1666.

While many of us are familiar with such famous words as, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here. . ." or "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," we may not know that they originated with The Book of Common Prayer, which first appeared in 1549. Like the words of the King James Bible and Shakespeare, the language of this prayer book has saturated English culture and letters.