Cultivating Stillness

Title: Cultivating Stillness
Author: Eva Wong
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 9780877736875

From the publisher: Equanimity, good health, peace of mind, and long life are the goals of the ancient Taoist tradition known as "internal alchemy," of which Cultivating Stillness is a key text. Written between the second and fifth centuries, the book is attributed to T'ai Shang Lao-chun—the legendary figure more widely known as Lao-Tzu, author of the Tao-te Ching . The accompanying commentary, written in the nineteenth century by Shui-ch'ing Tzu, explains the alchemical symbolism of the text and the methods for cultivating internal stillness of body and mind. A principal part of the Taoist canon for many centuries, Cultivating Stillness is still the first book studied by Taoist initiates today.

The Fragility of Goodness

Title: The Fragility of Goodness
Author: Martha C. Nussbaum
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780521794725

From the publisher: This book is a study of ancient views about 'moral luck'. It examines the fundamental ethical problem that many of the valued constituents of a well-lived life are vulnerable to factors outside a person's control, and asks how this affects our appraisal of persons and their lives. The Greeks made a profound contribution to these questions, yet neither the problems nor the Greek views of them have received the attention they deserve. This book thus recovers a central dimension of Greek thought and addresses major issues in contemporary ethical theory.

Being Good

Title: Being Good: A Short Introduction to Ethics
Author: Simon Blackburn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 978-0-19-285377-6

From the publisher: It is not only in our dark hours that scepticism, relativism, hypocrisy, and nihilism dog ethics. Whether it is a matter of giving to charity, or sticking to duty, or insisting on our rights, we can be confused, or be paralysed by the fear that our principles are groundless. Many are afraid that in a Godless world science has unmasked us as creatures fated by our genes to be selfish and tribalistic, or competitive and aggressive. Simon Blackburn structures this short introduction around these and other threats to ethics. Confronting seven different objections to our self-image as moral, well-behaved creatures, he charts a course through the philosophical quicksands that often engulf us. Then, turning to problems of life and death, he shows how we should think about the meaning of life, and how we should mistrust the sound-bite sized absolutes that often dominate moral debates. Finally he offers a critical tour of the ways the philosophical tradition has tried to provide foundations for ethics, from Plato and Aristotle through to contemporary debates.

Christian Beginnings

Title: Christian Beginnings: From Nazareth to Nicaea, AD 30-325
Author: Geza Vermes
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9781846141508

From the publisher: The creation of the Christian Church is one of the most important stories in the development of the world's history, but also one of the most poorly understood.

With a forensic, brilliant re-examination of all the key surviving texts, Geza Vermes traces the evolution of the figure of Jesus from the man he was - a prophet fully recognisable as the successor to other Jewish holy men of the Old Testament - to what he came to represent: a mysterious, otherworldly being at the heart of a major new religion. As his teachings spread across the eastern Mediterranean, hammered into place by Paul, John and their successors, they were transformed in the space of three centuries into a centralised, state-backed creed worlds away from its humble origins. This is the captivating story of how a man came to be hailed as the Son consubstantial with God, and of how a revolutionary, anti-conformist Jewish sub-sect became the official state religion of the Roman Empire.

Simplified Life

Title: Simplified Life: A Contemporary Hermit's Experience of Solitude and Silence
Author: Verena Schiller
Publisher: Canterbury Press
ISBN: 9781848250253

From the publisher: Today, as increasing numbers of people try to make sense of their lives in the face of unexpected or unlooked for change, this direct and compelling memoir by someone who has voluntarily embraced a life of radical simplicity and solitude is a real message for our times. What makes a young, Cambridge educated woman first join a religious order and then, if that were not demanding enough, seek a hermit vocation, literally on the edge of the world with only a simple hut as protection against Atlantic winds and storms? Here the author tells her story. For more than forty years Sr Verena lived a solitary life at the tip of the Lleyn Peninsula, looking out across the sea to Bardsey, Wales' island of saints, and has only recently - with increasing age - moved nearer human habitation in the parish where R.S. Thomas was priest. For her, this narrow straitened place became a mirror of the whole of creation and the material poverty of her life became a means to 'having nothing yet possessing all things' in the words of St Paul. Over the decades, countless people have beaten a path to her door seeking spiritual counsel and direction for their own busy lives and her account speaks directly to those who may be facing an enforced simplicity leading them into something profoundly positive and life giving.

Dostoevsky

Title: Dostoevsky: Language, Faith & Fiction
Author: Rowan Williams
Publisher: Baylor University Press
ISBN: 9781602583733

From the publisher: Rowan Williams explores the intricacies of speech, fiction, metaphor, and iconography in the works of one of literature's most complex, and most complexly misunderstood, authors. Williams' investigation focuses on the four major novels of Dostoevsky's maturity (Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, Devils, and The Brothers Karamozov). He argues that understanding Dostoevsky's style and goals as a writer of fiction is inseparable from understanding his religious commitments. Any reader who enters the rich and insightful world of Williams' Dostoevsky will emerge a more thoughtful and appreciative reader for it.

Running with the Mind of Meditation

Title: Running With The Mind Of Meditation
Author: Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 978-0-307-88816-7

From the publisher: As a Tibetan lama and leader of Shambhala (an international community of 165 meditation centers), Sakyong Mipham has found physical activity to be essential for spiritual well-being. He's been trained in horsemanship and martial arts but has a special love for running. Here he incorporates his spiritual practice with running, presenting basic meditation instruction and fundamental principles he has developed. Even though both activities can be complicated, the lessons here are simple and designed to show how the melding of internal practice with physical movement can be used by anyone - regardless of age, spiritual background, or ability - to benefit body and soul.

Silence & Witness

Title: Silence & Witness
Author: Michael L. Birkel
Publisher: Darton Longman & Todd
ISBN: 9780232524482

From the publisher: Tells the story of the movement’s origins and describes how the distinctive Quaker practice of group worship in silence develop. The Quaker tradition integrates mystical insight with prophetic witness. Birkel tells the story of the movement’s origins, describes how the distinctive Quaker practice of group worship in silence developed and explains how ‘collective discernment’ is used in decision-making. He explores the ethical stands taken by Quakers for peace, justice, equality, integrity and simplicity, and reflects on the contemporary relevance and meaning of a Christian tradition with a strong contemplative and activist dimension.

Grandad's Prayers Of The Earth

Title: Grandad's Prayers Of The Earth
Author: Douglas Wood
Illustrator: P.J. Lynch
Publisher: Candlewick Press
ISBN: 9780763646752

From the publisher: Grandad is the boy’s best friend. Being with him always makes the world seem right. And how vast that world is: a world of tall trees that reach for the clouds and sun and moon and stars - and what else is reaching for heaven but a prayer? Each time he and Grandad walk in the woods, the boy listens for the prayers of the earth. And finally the boy asks: "Are our prayers answered?" One day, long after Grandad is gone, long after the boy is grown, he understands Grandad’s reply: "If we listen very closely, a prayer is often its own answer."

Lectio Divina

Title: Lectio Divina: Renewing the Ancient Practice of Praying the Scriptures
Author: M. Basil Pennington
Publisher: Crossroad Publishing
ISBN: 9780824517366

From the publisher: Lectio divina is "letting our Divine Friend speak to us through his inspired and inspiring Word," according to M. Basil Pennington, the late priest, retreat master, and prominent lecturer in the Centering Prayer movement. This ancient Christian practice requires faith, humility, openness, and fidelity. Father Pennington sets the process of praying the Scriptures in the context of meditation, contemplation, compassion, and action. He calls it "a way of friendship" wherein we pay attention to "the love letters from the Lord."

Speaking Christian

Title: Speaking Christian
Author: Marcus J. Borg
Publisher: SPCK Publishing
ISBN: 9780281065080

From the publisher: As with French, German or Spanish, learning the basic vocabulary of Christianity is a vital first step in understanding what it means and how it works. We think of words like ‘faith’, ‘forgiveness’, ‘salvation’, ‘sin’ and ‘heaven’. But how can we be sure that we understand them correctly? Over the centuries all sorts of different meanings have grown up around these words, and sometimes those meanings can obscure or distort the way the words were originally used in the Bible.

In Speaking Christian, Marcus Borg takes some of the key words in the Christian dictionary and exposes the negative and unhelpful connotations they still carry today. At the same time, he goes back to the Bible and unpacks their meaning in a way that is both more faithful to the teaching of Jesus and more relevant to his followers today.

The Moral Imagination

Title: The Moral Imagination
Author: John Paul Lederach
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 978-0-19-517454-0

From the publisher: John Paul Lederach's work in the field of conciliation and mediation is internationally recognized. As founding Director of the Conflict Transformation Program and Institute of Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, he has provided consultation and direct mediation in a range of situations from the Miskito/Sandinista conflict in Nicaragua to Somalia, Northern Ireland, the Basque Country, and the Philippines. His influential 1997 book Building Peace has become a classic in the discipline. This new book represents his thinking and learning over the past several years. He explores the evolution of his understanding of peacebuilding by reflecting on his own experiences in the field. Peacebuilding, in his view, is both a learned skill and an art. Finding this art, he says, requires a worldview shift. Conflict professionals must envision their work as a creative act - an exercise of what Lederach terms the 'moral imagination'.

A Century of Wisdom

Title: A Century of Wisdom
Author: Alice Herz-Sommer
Publisher: Two Roads Books
ISBN: 9781444737608

From the publisher: At 108 years old, Alice Herz-Sommer is the world’s oldest living Holocaust survivor. She is also the world’s oldest concert pianist.

Born in 1903 Prague to a family of Jewish intellectuals and musicians, Alice Herz-Sommer socialised with the likes of Kafka and Brod.

But in 1943, Alice, a prominent concert pianist, her husband and young son, were deported to Theresienstadt concentration camp.

Alice’s mother and husband perished, but Alice and her young son survived. Alice played more than 100 concerts for her fellow prisoners in the camp, giving them and herself comfort and hope. Her son was one of only 93 children (out of 15,000) to survive that camp.

A Century of Wisdom is a collection of Alice Herz-Sommer’s life stories and the lessons she has taken from them. Despite living through terrible experiences, her outlook is one of understanding, optimism and joy.

Despite all she has suffered and witnessed, Alice Herz-Sommer harbours no bitterness, which she believes only eats away at the hater.

Alice says, ‘only when we are old, do we realise the beauty of life – life is a present’.

How The World Works

Title: How The World Works
Author: Noam Chomsky
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780241145388

From the publisher: With exceptional clarity and power of argument, Noam Chomsky lays bare as no one else can the realities of contemporary geopolitics. Divided into four sections and originally published in the US as individual short books which have collectively sold over half a million copies, How the World Works is a collection of speeches and interviews with Chomsky by David Barsamian, edited by Arthur Naiman. It includes What Uncle Sam Really Wants, about US foreign policy; The Prosperous Few and the Restless Many, about the new global economy, food, Third World 'economic miracles' and the roots of racism; Secrets, Lies and Democracy, about the US, the CIA, religious fundamentalism, global inequality and the coming eco-catastrophe; and The Common Good, about equality, freedom, the media, the myth of Third World debt and manufacturing dissent.