Religion and Spirituality Books

The Power of Creative Prayer has helped me in a number of different facets of my life. This book has aided me personally and professionally, and many dreams that I never deemed possible became reality.
The Power of Creative Prayer is way past due in its' ideology,
and is a relevant and fun way to seek answers through prayer.
From a writer's perspective, it has given me a newfound freedom in the creative process, and there are very few days that go by that I don't implement much of the author's exercises into my daily life.

This author writes from a unique level of spirit that few others can match.I have been on a path to manifesting my dreams for 10 years, but, have not been able to get to the issues that have kept me from real abundance.I immediately had real results upon discovering this book while looking for the blocks to my abundance & manifesting power. I was stuck while following many steps in the "laws of attraction, etc" that did not fully work & were producing the opposite results for me. Upon reading a few passages from this book, I began connecting dots to my failures in a way I could deeply understand. Mary Anne is a rare teacher that truly knows & shares the secret to many of our deepest blocks & dissapointents. I know the "Secret" is getting more publicity, but, they leave out all the "secrets" that Mary Anne teaches & shares to manifesting & living our greater possibilities & dreams! I highly recommend this book & tool. There is no other who offers these solutions & phenomenol guidance. I am still utilizing & benefiting by her method & wisdom!

The Power of Creative Prayer is an interesting story of a person finding happiness and success in spite of heartbreaking life experiences; but it is much more. Mary Ann Thomas has found a way for anyone to improve their life. Creative prayer gets answers, and the process you learn is actually fun. If everyone adopted this method of bringing dreams and desires into reality, our world would be an ideal place.

Mary Anne Thomas is a very insightful author. Her information, as usual, is well researched and explained. The dictionary words provided in the back of her book have made it convenient and easy to use the recommened dictionary game. This book is a must read and her personal coaching and correspondence has certainly helped in receiving answered prayers. Her new web-school is a good source of immediate information as well.
I look forward to any new books in the future written by Mary Anne. - D. Coley

As I expected, another enjoyable book written by Mary Anne Thomas! I'm always looking for a new ways to enlighten my life and to see things from a different perspective and this book helped me do that. The simple act of sitting down with your dictionary can transform your outlook and open your mind as you pray. Despite your level of religous beliefs or practice, I highly recommend this book to anyone who believes in the power of prayer and is looking for a creative way to approach it!

I wish Nora Gallagher lived next door to me. I'd like to hear more about her courageous faith. I wanted more about practicing resurrection. She left me hungry. What a great title! Gallagher writes so wonderfully about matters unspeakable, ineffable, silent and deep. She puts words to hidden yearnings. The glimpse into the clerical side of the Ep[iscopal Church was fascinating too, and her critique enlightening. It's so gratifying to read a book about God that is real, touching, and grounded.

In Practicing Resurrection, Nora Gallagher writes movingly and spiritually about the various crises facing her and the world around her. Her book has a lot to say about living in community and finding spiritual direction; unfortunately, the structure of her tale does not contain a similar direction. It is riveting in the middle, but suffers from a muddled, boring beginning and a rambling, uncertain ending. It contains a lot of good thoughts hidden in the midst of irrelevant chatter. Perhaps the problem is more than structure, for Gallagher seems to travel from uncertainty to uncertainty and, though this is a journey, in the end, doesn't change all that much. Maybe she just wanted to write another book.

In this sequel to her bestseller Things Seen and Unseen (1998), Nora Gallagher continues to explore what a life of Christian faith marked by authenticity and integrity might look like in our contemporary world. She compares her journey of faith to the swimming lessons she took as a child: "The life of faith [is] amorphous, ephemeral, a glimpse, a moment. Trusting it [is] like my early swimming lessons learning to float." In particular, her brother Kit's diagnosis of bladder cancer, a prognosis for a "zero percent" chance of recovery, the horrors of surgery and chemotherapy, and eventual death all forced her to ask life-altering questions about God's call upon her own life.

The themes of vocation and call loom large in Practicing Resurrection. Through her many involvements at Trinity Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, Gallagher began to wonder what might God have for her. To what could she devote her passion and considerable skills? Where did her joy and gladness intersect with the world's needs, as Buechner once put it? Sensing a possible call to the priesthood, her church formed a "discernment committee" of four saints. They met once a month for three hours across the year, plying Gallagher with questions, telling their own stories about vocation, reading the Scriptures, praying, and, perhaps most important of all, "honoring listening." What voices should she listen to? Which ones should she tune out? What about her husband's deep ambivalence? Was the priesthood any more sacred than her identity as a writer that she had nurtured for over thirty years? After negotiating the labyrinth of the Episcopal bureaucracy and its application process, Gallagher was "exiled" to a very different parish with a very different priest for a year as a ministry-study student. At first she felt like she and the priest were on a "bad blind date," but across the year she gained a deep appreciation for her mentor's faithfulness.

While Gallagher was trying to discern how she might hear God's call, Trinity Episcopal grappled with how as a church they might extend a call. Their interim pastor had informed the vestry that he was gay. Should that impact whether they called him as their regular priest? How did they guard issues of confidentiality once the vestry knew but the congregation did not? How to tell the congregation? What about feelings of distrust and betrayal? Should the church wrap the different but related matter of gay marriages in with the possible call of the pastor? How might the denominational officials respond, if at all?

You'll have to read this fine memoir to learn about Gallagher's call to church and the church's call to their pastor. In the end she likens herself to a friend who was listening to an unctuous priest ask, "what do you really want for Christmas this year?" Her friend responded, "What I wanted to do was to stand up and call out, 'I would like to really believe in the resurrection.'" Her remark reminded me of the words of the eminent church historian Jaroslav Pelikan, who near the end of his life said, "If Jesus rose from the dead, nothing else matters. If Jesus did not raise from the dead, nothing else matters." In practicing resurrection we thus inaugurate a tiny bit of God's eschatological future into our lives today.

Gallagher's fans, and their numbers are considerable, will want to note the release of her first novel, Changing Light, in early 2007.

I bought this book totally on the recommendations of all the previous Amazon reviewers. Nora G. is a very gifted and insightful author. I love the way that she is master weaver with her insights and honesty.

I am at the other end of her theological spectrum and disagree with all most all of her conclusions and positions. I find it amazing that in her spiritual "Christian" journey she rarely refers to scripture. So many of her insights bring clarity to the scripture and other points they disagree.

I will not keep this book and have no people I know interested in reading the copy I just read and will send it to anyone free" no postage fees.

tim@twright.co.uk

Nora Gallagher tells a wonderful story about the everyday as well as the "big" events of life. Through a year of searching for answers and asking the needed questions, she goes beyond the usual metaphors to look at how to deal with the death of her brother, how to reconnect to her husband and most significantly, how to make an decision about which road to take next in her life. Readers - don't be put off by the religious words and subtext of this powerful book! It is not a book about going to church, but rather about the value of people, prayer, introspection, respect and bravery in all our lives. Relish its beautiful language and poetic flow. It is well worth your time to live in the world created by Ms. Gallagher!

I highly recommend this book to all who are searching for a peaceful and praying life and forthe holy spirit's gudance.

This book is okay, but not great. She spends so much time quoting Jack Hayford he should get a cowriting credit.

I was looking for more meat. This one is pretty light weight.

"Worship is a choice we make. Whether we worship God or not, is always an act of our own will. Our will determines whether we make it our first reaction to things that happen to us - or don't happen to us - or a last resort. If we do not make it our first reaction, then we cannot possibly make it a way of life. And if we do not make praise a way of life, we will never experience all God has for us."


This book was a Christmas gift which I thoroughly enjoyed as I have never read any of the author's works. Stormie Omartian writting is incredible and she is bent on showing us how practical praising God and worshiping Him can affect all our lives. Because God dwells and inhabits the praises of His people we are sure that He is near, and as we send our praises up He sends His blessings down to us. There is no Praise that God the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit are unaware of. He empowers us and draws us closer to Him. When we are closer to Him we yearn to be just like Him and we get the very sense of the Kingdom. Stormie Omartian walks us through the many reasons why we should praise God, and she allows us to know when praise is crucial.
Another thing I loved about this book was after each chapter there was a nice long prayer of Praise, then a study to make sure we understood what we had just read, and bible verses to dwell on. This book was well laid out and well written, and can be used as a devotional if you care to. Very well done. I look forward to reading more of Stormie Omartian's work. May God continue to bless her and use her towards the honour and glory of His Kingdom. For surely we can be made better and brighter christians by following her teaching.
Reviewed by Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 29/01/07)

This book has a different approach to prayers. It mainly concentrates in praising GOD under all circumstances. It is a very good book.

This book is a "must have" for every Christian. This book teaches you how to worship and praise God no matter what is happening around you.

Truly an amazing book! I love this author and have read a couple of her books. As I read the book, it is like she is thinking the same things as I am. I use this book as my devotion time and love how I feel after reading it! I also recommend Prayers For New Mothers.

This is a precious collection of prayers that hit the heart. Every word will encourage you to "hang in there" and enjoy these months. You better get a box of kleenex though before you start reading!

Bless you Angela for letting the Lord use you to write this book. It is a blessing. Thank you.

Thank you for writing this book. I feel like you wrote it just for me! I'm having my fifth child and this book is making this the most special pregnancy ever.

I am just about to have my first child and this book has been a God send to me. Angela was able to put the thoughts and emotions that I was having into words of praise for the Lord. Many times I would open the book when I was feeling down or discouraged and she would have written about exactly what I was feeling. I am now buying a copy for a friend that is expecting.

This book is an excellent reference for prayers/scripture verses on a variety topics that plague all of us as human beings. There is an ongoing battle for the souls of all mankind being waged by the forces of darkness against the forces of light, and this gives true "prayer warriors" some additional weaponry to be used in that fight on the side of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and against a defeated Satan and all of his fallen "angels" (i.e. demons, evil spirits, etc.). A "must have" reference for those who want to free themselves (and others) of demonic spirits!

Great warfare tool!!! I have seen immediate results and once you continue to pray these prayers, they become apart of who you are.

WARNING...they make the enemy a little "upset"....recognize that it's him and keep on praying!

I purchased this book a few weeks ago. It has already been a blessing to me and my family. My husband glanced through the book and took it for his own. I was so excited to see him catch on fire, He said "this is what I've been needing". Since then we have purchased and given others the prayer book and have seen many people blessed. If you need healing and deliverance,or want to know how to get rid of the generational curses over your lives this book is a key! I highly reccomend "Prayers that Rout Demons" to anyone oppressed, depressed or just spiritually drained from dead religion and man made traditions. If you just open the book to any page you will get "ignited" again for Jesus! I Thank Mr. Eckhardt for hearing the voice of God and being obedient to write this book. I recommend the book to anyone ready to do spiritual warfare! Yall Alabama is about to break out in REVIVAL!!!

God Bless,
Marilyn
Mobile, AL

this book will expose the works of the enemy of your soul, especially the section on revelation. these prayers are the word of GOD. enjoy and watch THE LORD move on your behalf.

Are you a serious Christian who wants total freedom in your life? Do you want to see others set free from affliction, generational curses etc..., This book is a must for those wanting to get to the next level. It is not for babies Christians, although they most certainly could benefit as well, this is for mature Christians who are tired of the enemies tactics! I hope this review helps, this is one book I will keep forever, it is vital in the world we live in today!!

Dr. Jakes,
This book has really Blessed and inspired my life as a single woman. It has encouraged me to use what God has Blessed me with and share with all single women to keep their eyes on the prize and because you are single does not mean God cannot use you to encourage,strengthen and Minister to other single women. In a lot of churches we donot hear the truth nor is it taught the way it should be. May God continue to bless you and yours as you continue to brake strongholds. Thank You for being obedient to the Spirit.

Betsy, SC

Written in a devotional-type format, this book provides encouraging Scriptures on issues such as healing, happiness, overcoming loneliness, and forgiveness.

This a single woman's must have book. I am a big fan of T.D.Jakes and I am more impressed as I read and study his materials. This book reminds me of the promises that God has made for single women that wait patiently for a spirit filled partner. Thanks T.D. Jakes.

I bought this book for myself, three cousins and a wonderful friend so that it would inspire us as single women to keep pressing on. Thank you T.D. Jakes for having a way with words. God has definitely given you the gift of gab and it shows in all of the inspirational words in this book.

Excellent reading and appropriate for the single woman seeking deeper knowledge and understanding from a spirtual perspective.

This book was interesting and certainly kept one's attention and raised some interesting issues. The only objections I have are that the logic was inconsistent, the picture of university politics not realistic, and a very, very minor one - its "Columbia" not "Colombia" University.

I really didn't expect to like this book much based on the cover flap synopsis, but I could not have been more wrong. It grabbed me very quickly and kept me glued throughout to the last page. Even though the author was bold enough to set up overt clues early in the book about what would happen, I couldn't predict any of the twists and turns in the story. It was like being in the ring with a professional boxer, with blows landing at will from every angle. Unbelievable effort for a first novel. I am definitely looking forward to T.K. Kenyon's future work.

Rabid, by T.K. Kenyon, was released by Kunati, Inc. in Spring, 2007. It is an amazing book!
One word for this book: riveting. No, two words: riveting, compelling...actually, Rabid would take more words than I even know to use, and I'm a wordsmyth myself. I could not put it down.
T.K. Kenyon's Rabid is an amazing story. Masterfully woven plotlines and an absolute commitment to truth and utter refusal to play the complacency game left me feeling as if I had gone on an "explore" with the author. Kenyon has the gift of pulling the reader in to the world of her characters. She manages to make an untouchable character like Leila a sympathetic one.
I look forward to Kenyon's next novel. Can't wait.

I bought this book on a recommendation from a well-read friend, and after recently reading "Special Topics in Calamity Physics," "Saturday," and "Never Let Me Go," this book was exactly what I needed. At first blush, with its delightfully raunchy characters and turbo-charged pace, "Rabid" seems like a here-today, forgotten-tomorrow mass-market thriller you'd pick up in the front of an airport bookstore. However, this intelligent book has some intriguing, unusual themes stuck inside its highly digestible prose. The dialogue is, in my opinion, some of the best I've seen in any novel. The conversations amongst the characters are illuminating and entertaining without being unrealistic. Furthermore, as someone who has degrees in Biotechnology and Biomedical Engineering, I relished Kenyon's many references to laboratory culture.

Kenyon does an impressive job of juggling the four intertwined characters, and I was happy with three of the four endings. One of the character's endings just seemed abrupt and unfinished based on everything that had happened, but this didn't make me enjoy the book any less. This is an amazing and inspiring first effort. Kenyon skillfully teeters on the edge of absurdity with several of the elements in her plot; one almost expects her to take this plunge that many first-time novelists would indulge in, but she keeps the story firmly on the rails despite navigating amongst disparate settings.

If you're weary of a lot of the overwrought and unnecessarily obscure fiction that's been on the market lately and want a read that is unashamedly enjoyable yet thought-provoking, you won't go wrong picking up "Rabid."

A very good read from the first page. I liked this tremendously. Characters are well-defined and have depth and the action is unpredictable; this book is all it should be - absorbing and fascinating. Five stars.

Radiant Mind is a fantastic book! Having read many books on Zen, Buddhism and meditation, along with personal training and meditation retreats, I have to say Fenner nails it! It is difficult to say exactly what it was in the book that was most meaningful, but what Fenner says and how he says it definately gave me several Ah-Ha moments. Similar to Adyashanti's teachings, if you have moved beyond dogma and liturgy in Buddhism, and are truely looking for the essense of Buddha's awakening, then this work is where you want to spend time. It is a book I will return to many times.

Whether you are an experienced meditator and long-time scholar or a complete beginner, Peter's teaching on these CDs will lead you to a direct experience of unconditioned mind, which is ineffable, i.e. your mind in its natural state, beyond words, ideas and concepts.

If you have read the book, you should still order the audio CDs. The richness of Peter's verbal expression, with its emphasis and significant spaces communicates this experience in a way the book cannot. You can actually participte with him in this experience. He is an extraordinary teacher.
Radiant Mind: Teachings & Practices to Awaken Unconditioned Awareness (Sounds True Audio Learning Course)

This book is exceptionally clear and lucid, while covering material that is deep and too often difficult.

If you pay close attention, you'll be able to notice that the author gives us readers a *process*, somethings to do...that help us get results.

This isn't theory-only, it's very practical.

If you want good background and foundation, processes and methods that work, if you want to come away with clarity and be able to make progress -- then this is one of those rare books that will give you all that.

The purpose of Radiant Mind is to turn the reader's attention toward cultivating unconditioned awareness in the midst of everyday experience. Peter Fenner is a well known teacher, writer, scholar, and counselor. In the world of nonduality, Radiant Mind is one of the few all-encompassing, structured nondual teachings for students of the early 2000s. If your current involvement with nondual teachings is unsatisfactory, you may be very pleased with the breadth and depth of Radiant Mind. I recommend investigating it.

Fenner anticipates and confronts the reader's avoidance and dishonesty. He points out the difference between disconnecting from and deconstructing our problems. He's honest: "We don't necessarily want to examine our patterns. In fact, the patterns are constructed with a dual purpose. They are designed to sabotage our life and the lives of others, but in such a way that we don't recognize them."

Following each chapter are exercises. Their initial objective is to connect you with your fixations or conditioned existence. Then the exercises are designed to cultivate unconditioned awareness through sitting, pure listening, and various ways of deconstruction, especially conversations: "These conversations dismantle the structures of our conditioning and introduce us to the experience of contentless awareness."

For those who think they are beyond meditation, or contemplative practice, Fenner points out that practice is necessary in order to reveal to us that practice is not necessary. More honesty: "This constant denial saps our energy and demoralizes us, because we're engaged in a losing battle with a reality that simply isn't interested in our existence."

Peter Fenner does not allow you hide anywhere. He knows all your tricks and spells them out. At the same time, he is open about the paradox of functioning out of the nondual space. He says, "You're so complete it doesn't mean anything to say you're complete. This book is a paradox. ... I'm sure you also know that it has nothing to do with unconditioned awareness."

Counselors, psychotherapists, coaches, spiritual teachers, and self-realized gurus looking for ways to explain things better, and anyone functioning within, or with, or as the paradox, will benefit from reading Radiant Mind.

Radiant Mind may also be engaged as an 8-month course. Fenner mentions the course in passing at the very end of the book. He gives all he's got within the limitations of a book. The course is not necessary, however the serious reader/student will know soon enough.

Finally, I want to briefly talk about the index. The index is excellent and professional. The only thing that puzzles me is why the material in the exercises at the end of each chapter was not indexed.

For example, under the entry "pure listening," all the appropriate page numbers in the book are noted except for pages 123-124, which are exercises in pure listening. Perhaps the indexer or publisher could explain to me the justification. Aside from that, it is one of the best indexes in the nonduality genre today. That the Appendix on Radiant Communication was indexed is commendable.

Jerry Katz
One: Essential Writings on Nonduality

For those seeking some form of Enlightenment, Fenner shines a bright, if not harsh, light on just what enlightment is - and is not. His writing is actually very positive and helps one to experience the non-dual in everyday life (hence: Radiant Mind), instead of merely seeking to "be" non-dual, which of course is an impossibility. This is the CD version - it is clear but Fenner does speak a bit slowly, perhaps attempting to induce a calm aura into his ideas. Very straight forward and down to earth, a welcome change to the Ken Wilber style. A valuable addition to a seeker's library.

Fantastic book that gives you 30-second thoughts that help you view the world and your christianity different.

I first started reading Manning about three years ago and found that he presents a very practical, life changing "Christianity" that leads one to really think about what and why you believe what you do. You will not read another author like him! He wants us to live victoriously, loving God passionately and not being afraid to show it, and loving others with a boldness. It has changed my life for the better!

This devotional book written as only Brennan Manning can write, is excellent! I read it every single day and go back to many of the daily writings for more inspiration any time of the day or night. Get this book for yourself, your friends and even your enemies. It's a "keeper!" And while you're at it, buy anything Brennan Manning has ever written. You won't be sorry.

I bought this book mostly for my geeky husband who doesn't do "recreational" reading. We both recently saw Brennan Manning in person and were blessed and encouraged. I didn't think my husband would read a full text as readily as this devotional. He is reading this book daily! My only complaint is that on occasion the comments contain deep theologial verbage without a whole lot of explanation (would've been in the longer texts?). My husband wouldn't keep reading, however, if it happened too often. A good little text if you want to get a taste of Manning's work. I prefer the regular whole texts to delve deeper, but this works for my hubby! Yay!

Brennan Manning "cuts to the chase", lifting us into the deep, merciful, tender, truthful, absolute reality of the Grace of God
freely given to all who will believe, through Jesus Christ His
only Son. WHAT A HEALING, LOVING, VERY REAL BOOK...one that
leads us "from playing church, to being the Church"

This book is kindling for an epiphany! I had to put this book down more than 5 times and wrap my mind around what I'd just read and how profound it was for me. I found this book fresh and very insightful ( your mileage may vary ).

Everytime I read this book, it helps me deal with stress and setbacks that I am going through. I am buying several copies as gifts, it is helpful to most people to help them learn how to deal with everyday life disappointments and to learn to grow, to heal and evolve into the best we can be.

Do you believe in coincidences? Recently, at Harbin Hot Springs, a fabulous retreat center in Northern California, I was handed a book by an author who said, "I was planning to give this away to someone else, but it looks like you are the right person to hand it to." The attractive dark-haired woman who gave me the book was named Estelle Frankel, and is it turns out, I *was* the right person, at least in the sense that the book has made a deep impression on me.

A practicing psychotherapist and a "seasoned teacher of Jewish mysticism, Frankel studied and practiced Jewish mysticism in Israel for 8 years, and has been personally tutored by both Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach. For someone like myself, who has been in and out of Jewish mysticism and Kabbalah as a dilettante, I have found parts of this book absolutely fascinating, especially Biblical-era stories and musings of what it was, exactly, that happened with Moses and the People of Israel out there in the desert... (When was the last time you were part of a group illumination, what my Pennsylvanian friends would call an "egregrore"?)

The book consists of modern-stay healing stories, Midrashic-level musings, Hasidic wisdom and tales, and practical rituals and strategies for self-transformation and spiritual upliftment. The Kabbalah is, of course, returned to time and time again, and many themes that I would call (perhaps anachronistically) gnostic permeate the text. Here is one of my favorite passages:

"At every transition point in the life cycle, when one stage of life ends and another begins, we inevitably pass through this death-rebirth cycle of creation, dissolutoin, and re-creation. The shattering of the vessels is, in a sense, the Kabbalah's unique idiom for talking about what the Buddhists refer to as life's essential impermanence. As soona s something is created, its dissolution is already at hand. The vessels of creation, the finite forms created to house the infinite, are always imperfect and impermanent. They must inevitably shatter to make room for the next manifestation of divine unfolding. The light of the infinite simply cannot be contained and limited by any finite form, and so by shattering, the vessels of creation continually allow more light to be revealed. And just when things seem most broken and shattered, that is when healing or tikkun begins."

I have found this to be a rich and evocative book, one that ties together modern psychotherapy with Jewish mysticism, from the perspective of someone who uses both these tools to help individuals in their day-to-day lives. Especially for those interested in the Western esoteric traditions generally or Jewish mysticism specifically, or anyone with a Jewish background, I highly recommend this book.

This book shifted my view of my life. My Jewish background is very rich in knowledge, learning and practice. Yet this book changed me in very meaningful ways. Estelle Frankel discusses her own life, her struggles and insights in such a generous and giving manner that it's as though she's giving the reader a gift, the gift of inviting you to gently examine your own life, your own belief system, your own relationships. By relationships, I mean with other people, with yourself and with God. Yes, the operative word is "gently". There is no hard challenge, no daring, just a gentle invitation to look inside, make discoveries and consider new ways. I love this book and I highly recommend it, no matter where you are on your personal or spiritual path.

This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the union between Jewish philosophy and psychology. The author bases her psychological discussion on kabalistic thought and beautifully weaved in stories from the Torah through which our personal stories and experience emerge and become meaningful. She also includes meditations and exercises that help to integrate the material. This is an excellent book for anyone interested in the relationship between spirituality and the psyche.