Augsburg Fortress

Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age

Five hundred years ago, the world was enchanted with angels and demons--God existed, and the devil was real. Today, we live in a post-Christian world characterized by doubt and skepticism. Richard Beck argues this is not evidence of a crisis of belief but a crisis of attention. Hunting Magic Eels reveals how we can cultivate an enchanted faith in a skeptical age and recover our ability to experience God as a living, vital presence.

9781506464657

Brave: Women of the Bible and Their Stories of Grief, Mercy, Folly, Joy, Sex, and Redemption

Following the success of Fierce, Alice Connor returns to introduce a new group of women from the Bible, some whose names we know, others who go unnamed. Connor invites us to see them not as players in a man's story, but as foremothers of the faith.

Skillfully drawn by the author, these women's stories are challenging and beautiful. When we read their stories, we see not only their particular, formidable lives but also our own.

9781506463964

Seculosity: How Career, Parenting, Technology, Food, Politics, and Romance Became Our New Religion and What to Do about It (New and Revised)

New updated and expanded paperback reveals the universal yearning writer David Zahl identifies, not to be happy or respected so much as enough--what religions call "righteous." Today, we look to various passions--from eating to parenting to voting--for the meaning once provided on Sunday morning. Seculosity takes a thoughtful yet entertaining tour of American "performancism." Ultimately, Zahl brings us to a fresh appreciation for the grace of God in all its countercultural wonder.

9781506467641

Breath Prayer: An Ancient Practice for the Everyday Sacred

Christine Valters Paintner, abbess of Abbey of the Arts, introduces us to the spiritual practice of breath prayer and offers beautiful poem-prayers for walking, working, dressing, cleaning, sitting in silence, doing the dishes, living in community--breathing the divine into our daily lives. Over time these recitations become as natural as breathing. We don't so much recite the prayers as the prayers recite us, guide us, and open our hearts to the everyday sacred.

9781506470672

Church of the Wild: How Nature Invites Us into the Sacred

Like many who feel unfulfilled by traditional faith expressions, Victoria Loorz went in search of a spirituality strong enough to reckon with the unraveling of her vocation, identity, and planet, and found herself in the wilderness. As cofounder of the Wild Church Network and Seminary of the Wild, Loorz invites us to reimagine our relationship with and deepen our commitment to a suffering planet by falling in love with it--and calling it church.

9781506469645

Jesus for Farmers and Fishers: Justice for All Those Marginalized by Our Food System

Food producers in America are in the midst of one of the most severe farm crises of the last half-century. Yet we are largely unaware of the plight of those whose hands and hearts toil to sustain us. In Jesus for Farmers and Fishers, Gary Nabhan offers a fresh look at the parables of Jesus to bring us into a heart of compassion for those in the food economy hit by this crisis.

9781506465067

Ladder to the Light: An Indigenous Elder's Meditations on Hope and Courage

Native America knows something about cultivating resilience and resisting darkness. Choctaw elder and Episcopal priest Steven Charleston offers words of hard-won hope, rooted in daily conversations with the Spirit and steeped in Indigenous wisdom. For all who yearn for hope, Ladder to the Light is a book of comfort, truth, and challenge in a time of anguish and fear. Night will not last forever. Together we can climb toward the light.

9781506465739

The Peacemaker's Path: Multifaith Reflections to Deepen Your Spirituality

Now more than ever, people are painfully divided politically, religiously, and culturally. And yet, there is a commonality in our faith traditions that can help us create a greater sense of community in which our differences are honored. Through daily readings that explore the tenets, teachings, writings, and prayers of the world's major religions, The Peacemaker's Path shows us that we have much more in common than what divides us.

9781506469126

Thy Queendom Come: Breaking Free from the Patriarchy to Save Your Soul

Telling the stories of some of the strongest women in all of Scripture, Thy Queendom Come offers Christian women a new path forward - a revolutionary new spirituality, and a revolutionary word to describe it: queendom. We can leave the narrow kingdom behind and embrace a more vibrant and just spiritual life.

9781506469140

A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community 

America is at a spiritual and political crossroads. A new narrative is needed to counter the discord in her politics and culture, a new way forward rooted in Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision of community. A More Perfect Union calls for a shared vision that transcends partisanship to live out America's best ideals and realize a more perfect union.

9781506464534

Dear Doctor: What Doctors Don't Ask, What Patients Need to Say

In the form of an open letter from patients to their doctors, spiritual writer and professor of medical humanities Marilyn McEntyre brings to light the hidden fears, desperate needs, deepest hopes, and heartfelt truths that many feel doctors overlook in their approach to health care. Ultimately, Dear Doctor is an important first step to begin a dialogue between two communities that often have a very large disconnect.

9781506460475

Subversive: Christ, Culture, and the Shocking Dorothy L. Sayers

Known for her bestselling detective novels, Dorothy L. Sayers lived a fascinating, groundbreaking life as a novelist, feminist, Oxford scholar, and important influence on the spiritual life of C.S. Lewis. Subversive shows how Sayers ignites new ways to think about Christianity, shocking people into seeing the truth of ancient doctrine; inspiring believers to evaluate how and why their language perpetuates divisive certitude rather than the hopeful faith; and showing us all a better way forward.

9781506462752

Feed the Wolf: Befriending Our Fears in the Way of Saint Francis

Turn from fear and find peace. In Feed the Wolf, author and Saint Francis scholar Jon M. Sweeney explores fifteen spiritual practices from the essential wisdom of Saint Francis for us to apply to our twenty-first-century lives.

9781506470733

Portraits of Peace: Searching for Hope in a Divided America

Frustrated with an increasingly polarized society, award-winning photographer John Noltner set out on a road trip across the US to rediscover the common humanity that connects us by asking people the simple question "What does peace mean to you?"

9781506471211

Steeped in Stories: Timeless Children's Novels to Refresh Our Tired Souls

Can you love a classic novel from childhood and also name its flaws? Mitali Perkins helps us do both as she explores seven timeless children's novels. Through works by Louisa May Alcott, C.S. Lewis, L.M. Montgomery, Francis Hodgson Burnett, and other literary "uncles" and "aunts," Perkins unpacks wisdom to help adults thrive in uncertain times.

9781506469102

#ChurchToo: How Purity Culture Upholds Abuse and How to Find Healing

Sexual abuse is utterly rampant in Christian churches in America. And the reasons are somewhat different than those you might find in the #MeToo stories coming out of Hollywood or Washington. #ChurchToo turns over the rocks of the church's sexual dysfunction, revealing just what makes sexualized violence in religious contexts both ubiquitous and uniquely traumatizing, and lays the groundwork for survivors of abuse to live full, free, healthy lives.

9781506464817

In My Grandmother's House: Black Women, Faith, and the Stories We Inherit

A grandmother's theology carries wisdom strong enough for future generations. In the pages of In My Grandmother's House, public theologian Yolanda Pierce builds an everyday womanist theology rooted in liberating scriptures, stories from the Black church, and truths from Black women's lives. The Divine has been showing up at the kitchen tables of Black women for a long time. It's time to get to know that God.

9781506464718

IRL: Finding Realness, Meaning, and Belonging in Our Digital Lives

It's easy to view our online presence as fake, to see the internet as a space we enter when we aren't living our real, offline lives. IRL, Chris Stedman's insightful exploration of authenticity in the digital age, shines a light on how age-old notions of realness can be freshly understood in our online lives. Stedman invites readers to consider how they use the internet to fulfill the essential need to feel real, online and off.

9781506463513

Just Faith: Reclaiming Progressive Christianity

In Just Faith, activist and writer Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons explains how a strong religious left has accompanied every major progressive advance in our society, and he resurrects the long but forgotten history of progressive Christianity in the United States. This book is a rallying cry for a bold progressive Christianity that unapologetically fights for its values to impact the biggest political battles of our time--from immigration and economic fairness to LGBTQ+ and abortion rights.

9781506462523

Waging Peace: One Soldier's Story of Putting Love First

Diana Oestreich served 407 days as a combat medic in Iraq. But when she was commanded to run over an Iraqi child to keep her battle buddies safe, she became a peacemaker instead. This beautiful and gut-wrenching memoir exposes the false divide between loving our country and living out our faith's call to love our enemies. By showing that us-versus-them is a false choice, this book will inspire us all to choose love over fear.

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