Religion & Spirituality Audiobooks

Surviving God: A New Vision of God through the Eyes of Sexual Abuse Survivors

Many books have dealt with sexual abuse scandals in the church and the role of pastoral care for survivors. Others have provided liberatory readings of biblical texts to support survivors of sexual violence. Surviving God takes a new approach, centering the voices of sexual abuse survivors while rethinking key Christian beliefs. Starting from experiences of oppression, beliefs that contribute to oppression are challenged, and new, hopeful, and healing beliefs take their place. Groundbreaking theologians Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Susan M. Shaw, each a survivor herself, demonstrate how traditional ways of thinking about God are highly problematic, contribute to the problems of sexual abuse, and are not reflective of the God of love and justice at the heart of the gospel. These long-held theologies often perpetuate the problem of sexual abuse and fail to promote healing for survivors. Drawing from their own experiences and the experiences of other survivors, and centering the ways gender intersects with race, sexuality, class, and religion, Kim and Shaw lead us to deep healing and a transformed church that no longer contributes to the devastation of sexual abuse. In this inspiring book, you will discover new ways of thinking about God that are surprising, challenging, and empowering.

Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Susan M. Shaw (Author), Hannah Choi (Narrator)

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Nearing a Far God: Praying the Psalms with Our Whole Selves

Experience Transformation When You Pray the Psalms with Your Whole Self Feeling hopeless? Lonely? Anxious? Do you want to experience the presence and love of God through every joy and struggle of life? Do you long to enrich your prayer life and grow your relationship with God? The Psalms will guide you into fresh encounters and a lasting deeper attachment to God. You may have read or studied the Psalms. In Nearing a Far God: Praying the Psalms with Our Whole Selves, you'll experience the Psalms in fresh, personal, and life-changing ways: - Discover how the Psalms can draw you into dialogue with God no matter your pain, struggle, or doubt - Practice transformative writing and prayer exercises that engage and impact the whole brain and the whole self - Reclaim ancient practices of movement and bodily postures to heighten your worship and deepen attachment to God Masterful teacher and award-winning author Leslie Leyland Fields has helped thousands of God-seekers around the world experience spiritual breakthroughs by expressing their life stories through the lens of Scripture. Whether you read and practice Nearing a Far God on your own, with a local group, or with a cohort organized by Fields, you too can experience profound change, hope, and the always near presence of a loving God.

Leslie Leyland Fields (Author), Leslie Leyland Fields (Narrator)

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Celtic Goddess Grimoire: Invoke the Enduring Power of the Celtic Feminine Divine

Celtic Goddess Grimoire celebrates feminine divinities from across Celtic Europe, a wide territory that historically once included what is now Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, and Brittany. In this book, you will meet great goddesses such as Brigid, the Morrigan, Sulis, Rosmerta, Elen of the Ways, and Rhiannon, as well as faery women like Melusine and Morgan Le Fae. The book explores the identity of King Arthur's Lady of the Lake, as well as other Lake Ladies. The book shines a spotlight on the most prominent Celtic female divinities but also includes a section devoted to lesser-known goddesses of the Celtic world, such as the mysterious Nehalennia, who was nearly lost before her shrine was recovered from the depths of the North Sea. A practical guide to working with these sacred beings, the book includes exercises for celebrating, honoring, invoking, and serving them. Author Annwyn Avalon provides chants, rituals, spells, and meditations. The listener will learn how to build altars, craft charms, and actively invoke these Celtic goddesses so that they become a living, vital presence in one's own spiritual life. In addition, Annwyn Avalon provides listeners with information about the meanings of their names, associated sacred symbols and creatures, as well as their personal powers, realms of strongest influence, and historical context.

Annwyn Avalon (Author), Anne Flosnik (Narrator)

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The Healing Tree: Botanicals, Remedies, and Rituals from African Folk Traditions

The Healing Tree celebrates the forest: its powers, spirits, magic, medicine, and mysteries. Author Stephanie Rose Bird shares how trees have provided her with personal healing, then allows us to share in that process for our own benefit and, by extension, provide healing for Earth's beleaguered forests. Reclaiming traditional botanical and herbal practices has never been more important than it is today. So much of our future depends on our ability to use ancient Earth knowledge. Although many botanicals and herbals have been published, they tend to focus on Europe and the Americas. For many, the word 'rainforest' is synonymous with the endangered Amazon Basin, as if that were Earth's only endangered patch of healing green. Africa, the Mother Continent and reputedly the birthplace of the entire human race, remains largely ignored. Yet African wild lands are as endangered as the Amazon. Equally endangered are the traditional indigenous cultures of Africa, caretakers of sophisticated botanical medicinal systems whose roots stretch back to the proverbial dawn of time. The book offers functional, accessible recipes, remedies, and rituals derived from a variety of African and African American traditions to serve mind, body, soul, and spirit.

Stephanie Rose Bird (Author), Deanna Anthony (Narrator)

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Messianic Prophecy Revealed: Seeing Messiah in the Pages of the Hebrew Bible

After listening to this book, you will have no doubts that Jesus is the Messiah, and you will be able to read the Old Testament with the newfound revelation that God has been pointing to His Son as the Savior of the world for thousands of years. Many times, when inquisitive listeners look to see how the New Testament authors applied the Old Testament to show that Jesus is the Messiah, they become confused. When the Gospel writers quote Old Testament scriptures and say, 'This is how Jesus fulfilled it,' the passage quoted doesn't appear to be a prophecy at all. This is because understanding Messianic prophecy is often more of an art than a science. In the Hebrew tradition, prophecy is not one-dimensional; it is not simply foretelling the future. In reality, the whole of Scripture is prophetic, pointing us to Christ. In Messianic Prophecy Revealed, Rabbi Kirt A. Schneider takes listeners through the Word of God, showing them how the New Testament writers took passages out of the Old Testament to prove that Jesus is indeed the Messiah. This book will show followers of Jesus why they can have absolute confidence that Jesus is who He claimed to be-the Messiah.

Rabbi Kirt A. Schneider (Author), Barry Abrams (Narrator)

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You Never Stop Being a Parent: Thriving in Relationship with Your Adult Children

Elyse Fitzpatrick, Jim Newheiser (Author), Susan Hanfield (Narrator)

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Not All Roads Lead to Heaven Devotional: 100 Daily Readings about Our Only Hope for Eternal Life

Jesus said no one comes to the Father except through him. But in our inclusive world, such an exclusive claim isn't popular. Believers today face persistent pressure to abandon this belief, which the world sees as antiquated at best and hateful at worst. What we need is godly encouragement to stay the course and courage to share the gospel compassionately with those around us. Based on his popular book Not All Roads Lead to Heaven, this new devotional from Dr. Robert Jeffress offers 100 daily readings to bolster your faith in Jesus and boost your passion for sharing the Good News. These readings delve into what both the Old and New Testaments say about salvation, answer popular objections to the gospel, and equip you with the wisdom and reasoning you need to share your faith with boldness and love. God has appointed us to be his representatives on earth to proclaim the truth that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. It's the most loving thing we can do for the people around us. Let this devotional encourage and equip you to live joyfully in the knowledge of our one-of-a-kind Savior.

Dr. Robert Jeffress (Author), Stephen Bowlby (Narrator)

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The Lady with the Dark Hair

A charismatic man with a legacy that long outlives him. A forgotten woman whose fate is forever tied to his. And the family whose history is still being written. Toulouse, France—1879 Catalan orphan-turned-fugitive Viviana Torrens has found sanctuary serving in the home of an aging artist in Southern France. It is in his studio that she meets Francisco Vella, a Gibraltarian merchant who sells pigments to artists. When her past catches up to her, she is compelled to pose as Vella’s sister and join him on his travels or be deported back to Spain to stand trial. Along the way she will discover that the many parts she has been playing in order to hide her identity have far-reaching implications she never could have foreseen. East Lansing, Michigan—Present Day Esther Markstrom and her artist mother have always been proud of their ancestor, painter Francisco Vella. They even run a small museum and gallery dedicated to raising awareness of his scandalously underappreciated work. But when Esther reconnects with her former art history professor, she finds her once solid family history on shaky ground as questions arise about Vella’s greatest work—a portrait entitled The Lady with the Dark Hair. This dual-timeline story from award-winning author Erin Bartels takes you on a captivating journey across time and continents, where past and present converge in a relentless search for truth, identity, and the freedom to follow one’s dreams.

Erin Bartels (Author), Frankie Corzo (Narrator)

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A Faith of Many Rooms: Inhabiting a More Spacious Christianity

Disillusioned by narrow theologies, church dysfunction, and constricted readings of Scripture, people are leaving Christianity in droves. But Jesus describes the reign of God as a house with many rooms, writes Debie Thomas, one of the most auspicious voices in religious writing today. In this work of sprawling spiritual and literary imagination, Thomas claims that wherever God dwells, there is expansiveness and belonging. Thomas knows what a cramped faith feels like, what it's like to wrestle your way out of fundamentalism and toward a more capacious faith. From the diasporic church in which she grew up, to the disorientations of a deconstructing faith, to an ample yet orthodox Christianity that makes room for all her identities, Thomas takes listeners on a deeply personal and profoundly theological odyssey. In A Faith of Many Rooms, she talks back to jaundiced versions of faith and finds evidence that the gospel insists on its own roominess. The kind of God who decided to experience the world as a guest likely feels constrained by our pinched theologies too. What sorts of ruptures and revisions would it take to find a more spacious faith-and then to inhabit it with authenticity and joy? Fans of Christian Wiman, Cole Arthur Riley, and Barbara Brown Taylor will find in this book an ardent, lyrical take on a faith transfigured.

Debie Thomas (Author), Jeed Saddy (Narrator)

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Awakening to Justice: Faithful Voices from the Abolitionist Past

In 2015, the historian Chris Momany helped discover a manuscript that had been forgotten in a storage closet at Adrian College in Michigan. He identified it as the journal of a nineteenth-century Christian abolitionist and missionary, David Ingraham. As Momany and a fellow historian Doug Strong pored over the diary, they realized that studying this document could open new conversations for twenty-first-century Christians to address the reality of racism today. They invited a multiracial team of fourteen scholars to join in, thus launching the Dialogue on Race and Faith Project. Awakening to Justice presents the groundbreaking work of these scholars. In addition to reflecting on Ingraham's journal, chapters also explore the life and writings of two of Ingraham's Black colleagues, James Bradley and Nancy Prince. Through considering connections between the revivalist, holiness, and abolitionist movements; the experiences of enslaved and freed people; abolitionists' spiritual practices; various tactics used by abolitionists; and other themes, the authors offer insight and hope for Christians concerned about racial justice. They highlight how Christians associated with Charles Finney's style of revivalism formed intentional, countercultural communities such as Oberlin College to be exemplars of interracial cooperation and equality.

Albert G. Miller, Christopher P. Momany, David D. Daniels Iii, Diane Leclerc, Douglas M. Strong, Esther Chung-Kim, Estrelda Y. Alexander, Jemar Tisby, R. Matthew Sigler, Sègbégnon Mathieu Gnonhossou, The Dialogue On Race And Faith Project (Author), Diana Blue (Narrator)

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Dr. Josef's Little Beauty

A Holocaust story as fascinating and compelling as it is terrifying and puzzling-a book about aging and war crimes, pain and pride. In the middle of summer, omnipresent heat radiates as a group of elderly people are remembering their youth. The story focuses on two sisters, Leokadia and Helena, who live together in a retirement home not far from Warsaw. These are not ordinary stories they are sharing because both of them were imprisoned as children in Auschwitz during World War II. At the center is Helena, who at the age of twelve was saved from extermination by the notorious doctor Josef Mengele, the real-life Nazi officer and physician who was known as the 'angel of death' for the experiments he conducted on prisoners, including twins and siblings. This is a story both provocative and disturbing about the fear that lingers in victims. Was the sisters' relationship with the executioner a desperate attempt to save their lives, or perhaps they harbor a hideous pride and sense of superiority over other prisoners? Rudzka's extraordinary writing turns unsettling questions about memory and survival into art.

Zyta Rudzka (Author), Dina Pearlman (Narrator)

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St. Paul's Eight Steps to Happiness

Here is the book that will help you climb St. Paul's 'eight steps,' to attain happiness, holiness, and Heaven. Bestselling author Kevin Vost breaks open St. Paul's life and spirituality through the lens of St. Thomas Aquinas as well as other saintly and noble men and women. Dr. Kevin Vost reveals hidden treasures such as: why St. Paul is a 'four-in-one special'; three intellectual virtues that help us discover important truths; two fundamental senses of truth, and three vices opposed to truth; eight aspects of the nature of truth according to Aquinas; eight types of justice and how you can exercise them in your life; the link between modesty and latria, dulia, and hyperdulia. Each chapter unpacks one of these outstanding virtues and contains an invaluable 'Summing Up' section. Further highlighted are exemplary individuals to imitate in their exercise of the heroic virtue, from St. Dominic to Our Lady and St. Joseph to St. Agnes of Rome and St. Brigid to Aristotle and Cicero. You will find the six types of grace and their effects that God is waiting to pour into your life. You will find our practical ways to develop each virtue, the fruits that result, and how to reap them in your life.

Kevin Vost (Author), Daniel Thomas May (Narrator)

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