Confession of a Buddhist Atheist

Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists

Dan Barker

After 19 years as an evangelical preacher, missionary, and Christian songwriter, Dan Barker 'threw out the bathwater and discovered there is no baby there.' Barker, who is now co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (America's largest organization of atheists and agnostics), describes the intellectual and psychological path he followed in moving from fundamentalism to freethought. The

Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions

Rachel Held Evans · 232 pages

Confessions

Augustine of Hippo · 345 pages

Garry Wills’s complete translation of Saint Augustine’s spiritual masterpiece—available now for the first time Garry Wills is an exceptionally gifted translator and one of our best writers on religion today. His bestselling translations of individual chapters of Saint Augustine’s Confessions have received widespread and glowing reviews. Now for the first time, Wills’s translation of the entire wor

The Road to Mecca

Muhammad Asad · 380 pages

This autobiographical work by one of Europe's best known convert to Islam gives us a rounded portrait of a man in search of adventure and truth. It is part spiritual autobiography, part summary of the author's intuitive insights into Islam and the Arabs, part an impressive travelogue. Punctuated with abundant adventure, moments of contemplation, colorful narrative, brilliant description and lively

Girl Meets God

Lauren F. Winner · 316 pages

"Like most of us, Lauren Winner wants something to believe in. The child of a Reform Jewish father and a lapsed Southern Baptist mother, she chose to become an Orthodox Jew. But as she faithfully observes the Sabbath rituals and studies Jewish laws, she finds herself increasingly drawn to Christianity. So, taking a courageous step, she leaves behind what she loves, and converts. Now the even harde

Unveiling Grace: The Story of How We Found Our Way out of the Mormon Church

Lynn K. Wilder · 368 pages

Narrates the story of how a Mormon family left the religion after questioning many of its teachings and describes what it was like to grow up as a Mormon, comparing many Mormon beliefs and practices with those of more traditional Christian religions.

My Spiritual Journey

Dalai Lama XIV · 304 pages

"Tenzin Gyatso, the fourteenth Dalai Lama, was born in 1935 to a peasant family in a remote part of Tibet. Although living in exile, he is the beloved traditional and religious leader of millions of Tibetans and has become a global icon of peace, compassion, spiritual living, and nonviolent struggle for justice. The Dalai Lama's My Spiritual Journey brings the world a message: one of suffering, su

Through the Narrow Gate

Karen Armstrong · 285 pages

Recounts the seven years that the author spent in a convent beginning at the age of seventeen, describing her religous doubts and spiritual struggles which led to her final recognition that she was not suited for life as a nun.

Foreskin's Lament

Shalom Auslander · 310 pages

Shalom Auslander was raised with a terrified respect for God. Even as he grew up and was estranged from his community, his religion and its traditions, he could not find his way to a life where he didn't struggle against God daily.Foreskin's Lament reveals Auslander's youth in a strict, socially isolated Orthodox community, and recounts his rebellion and efforts to make a new life apart from it. A

Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear

Jinger Duggar Vuolo · 221 pages

Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality

Donald Miller · 256 pages

Secret Ceremonies: A Mormon Woman's Intimate Diary of Marriage and Beyond

Deborah Laake · 240 pages

In this book, Deborah Laake, a former member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, chronicles her experiences with Mormonism and the various rituals performed in their temples. Laake recounts her studies at the Brigham Young University, her loveless first marriage at nineteen, her subsequent divorce and the problems she encountered with the Mormon authorities and her relatives due to

The Book of Margery Kempe

Margery Kempe · 343 pages

"Margery Kempe's autobiography engages the modern reader with its richly textured images of late-medieval England - its town life, customs, means of travel, dress, food, and, most notably, its observations of the religious rituals that prevailed in the author's lifetime (ca. 1373-ca. 1440). Lynn Staley's new translation does not modernize; rather, it stays as close to the original Middle English a

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Malcolm X, Alex Haley · 484 pages

All Who Go Do Not Return: A Memoir

Shulem Deen · 299 pages

Shulem Deen was raised to believe that questions are dangerous. As a member of the Skverers, one of the most insular Hasidic sects in the US, he knows little about the outside world--only that it is to be shunned. His marriage at eighteen is arranged and several children soon follow. Deen's first transgression--turning on the radio--is small, but his curiosity leads him to the library, and later t

Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust

Immaculee Ilibagiza · 215 pages

Immaculee Ilibagiza grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in 1994 her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee's family was brutally murdered during a killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million Rwandans. Incredibly, Immaculee survived the slaughter. For 91 days, she and seven other

The Book of Mormon Girl: Stories from an American Faith

Joanna Brooks · 209 pages

Story about leaving behind the innocence of childhood belief and embracing the complications and heartbreaks that come to every adult life of faith. Explores the author's journey through her faith, and the experience of being a Mormon.

The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ

Andrew Klavan · 286 pages

Autobiography of a Yogi

Paramahansa Yogananda · 502 pages

The autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda (1893 - 1952) details his search for a guru, during which he encountered many spiritual leaders and world-renowned scientists. When it was published in 1946 it was the first introduction of many westerners to yoga and meditation.The famous opera singer Amelita Galli-Curci said about the book:"Amazing, true stories of saints and masters of India, blended w

Siddhartha

Hermann Hesse · 130 pages

Hermann Hesse wrote Siddhartha after he traveled to India in the 1910s. It tells the story of a young boy who travels the country in a quest for spiritual enlightenment in the time of Guatama Buddha. It is a compact, lyrical work, which reads like an allegory about the finding of wisdom.

Letters & Papers from Prison

Dietrich Bonhoeffer · 437 pages

This new, greatly expanded version, while omitting nothing found in the earlier edition, shifts the emphasis of earlier editions on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theological reflections to the private sphere of his life. His letters now appear in far greater detail, and show his daily concerns and the enormous warmth and humanity of the young German pastor who was executed by the Nazis in 1945 for his par

Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter

Simone de Beauvoir · 368 pages

A superb autobiography by one of the great literary figures of the twentieth century, Simone de Beauvoir's Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter offers an intimate picture of growing up in a bourgeois French family, rebelling as an adolescent against the conventional expectations of her class, and striking out on her own with an intellectual and existential ambition exceedingly rare in a young woman in th

The Story of My Experiments With Truth

Mahatma Gandhi · 420 pages

Gandhi's non-violent struggles against racism, violence, and colonialism in South Africa and India had brought him to such a level of notoriety, adulation that when asked to write an autobiography midway through his career, he took it as an opportunity to explain himself. He feared the enthusiasm for his ideas tended to exceed a deeper understanding of his quest for truth rooted in devotion to God

Infidel

Ayaan Hirsi Ali · 353 pages

"Ultimately a celebration of triumph over adversity, Hirsi Ali's story tells how a bright little girl evolved out of dutiful obedience to become an outspoken, pioneering freedom fighter. As Western governments struggle to balance democratic ideals with religious pressures, no story could be timelier or more significant.--From publisher description."--From source other than the Library of Congress