Religion & Spirituality
In this collection we've gathered fiction and nonfiction texts that address humanity's age-old search for meaning and purpose within a higher power.
Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim in the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation is a book by Eboo Patel. Part memoir, part treatise on the vulnerability of youth who are preyed upon and radicalized by religious zealots, the book examines Patel’s search for his identity, following him from childhood to his time as the founder of the Interfaith Youth Core group. Themes of faith, family, religious doubt, pluralism, and the... Read Acts Of Faith Summary
A Game of Thrones is a 1996 epic fantasy novel by George R. R. Martin and is the first in his long-running A Song of Ice and Fire series. The novel introduces the audience to the fictional world of Westeros, where characters become embroiled in a complicated web of plots, conspiracies, and betrayals as they pursue power. A Game of Thrones won numerous awards on publication and was adapted for television in 2011. This guide... Read A Game of Thrones Summary
Clive Staples Lewis (1888-1963) C.S. Lewis was a British writer and academic, renowned for his works on Christianity, and best remembered today as the author of the children’s book series The Chronicles of Narnia. He graduated from Oxford University and taught there until 1954 when he became Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University. A Grief Observed was originally publishedunder the pseudonym N.W. Clerk and attributed to Lewis only after his death. A Grief... Read A Grief Observed Summary
“A Modell of Christian Charity” is a sermon written by John Winthrop, a Puritan lawyer who served as the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, an English colonial settlement around present-day Boston, and the second settlement in New England. A sermon is a speech on a religious subject, usually used for those delivered by clergy in Christian church services. The sermon’s epigraph (a short, introductory quotation or informational text) tells us Winthrop wrote on... Read A Model of Christian Charity Summary
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke is a study of how humans think, learn, and retain knowledge. Scholars often focus first on Locke’s philosophical treatises, but his work on epistemology complements and shapes his political thought. Born in 1632, the English philosopher ushered in the Age of Enlightenment and is considered one of the greatest Western philosophers in history. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, first published in 1690, explores the origin and nature... Read An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Summary
A New Earth: Create a Better Life by Eckart Tolle was originally published in 2005 with the title A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. The book followed in the wake of Tolle’s seminal 1997 work The Power of Now, which discusses the potential inherent in the present moment and suggests that the destructive voice in our heads, which causes us to be constantly dissatisfied and compare ourselves to others, is the ego and... Read A New Earth Summary
April Morning is a historical fiction work by Howard Fast, a prolific author whose writings spanned the bulk of the 20th century. Published in 1961, midway through Fast’s career, the novel is one of many he wrote on the Revolutionary War and the birth of America. Originally intended for a general audience, it came to be regarded as a young adult novel as many middle and high school English programs included it in their curriculum... Read April Morning Summary
Sheldon Vanauken’s celebrated memoir A Severe Mercy is a moving portrait of deep love confronted with suffering and death. Published in 1977, A Severe Mercy was written by Vanauken from the compilation of many years’ worth of journal entries, hand-written letters, and firsthand accounts of the people and events that the narrative relates. As a Yale- and Oxford-trained scholar and professor of English and an accomplished poet and author, Vanauken brings his literary expertise to... Read A Severe Mercy Summary
Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) was first published in 1946 and has since become a much-loved and admired book around the world. It is regarded as one of the classics of 20th-century spiritual literature. In 1999, it was named by a HarperCollins panel of authors and scholars as one of the “100 Best Spiritual Books of the Century.” In the book, Yogananda tells the story of his life, beginning with his childhood... Read Autobiography of a Yogi Summary
Becket or The Honor of God is a 1959 play by the French dramatist Jean Anouilh. It portrays a fictionalized version of the conflict that took place between King Henry II of England and the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, in the 12th century. The English translation of the play premiered on Broadway in 1960 to great acclaim and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning film in 1964.The central conflict of Becket, which ended in... Read Becket Summary
Between a Rock and a Hard Place is a 2004 adventure and survival memoir by American mountain climber Aron Ralston. The narrative focuses on Ralston’s near-death experience when his arm became stuck under a boulder in a canyon in Utah, where he remained trapped for five days until he amputated his arm. Dealing with profound existential themes, the book garnered critical acclaim and became a New York Times bestseller. A 2010 film adaptation titled 127... Read Between a Rock and a Hard Place Summary
The Bhagavad Gita is a religious text written by an unknown author in the 1st or 2nd century BCE. The title translates as The Song of God, and the text contains 700 verses that explore the nature of the Hindu religion. The Gita comprises part of the Mahabharata, one of two ancient Indian epics, but it is often regarded and studied as an independent work. The narrative portrays a conversation between a prince named Arjuna... Read Bhagavad Gita Summary
Black Beauty was written by English novelist Anna Sewell, and published in 1877. It quickly became extremely popular, and led to increased activism and public concern for the humane treatment of horses and other animals. It went on to become one of best-selling novels of all time, and has been adapted numerous times into films and theatre productions. Sewell used her novel to explore themes such as kindness and responsibility, and to critique social problems... Read Black Beauty Summary
Boy of the Painted Cave is a 1996 middle-grade Historical Fiction novel by Justin Denzel set 18,000 years ago in prehistoric France. The novel is told in limited third person point of view and follows Tao, a 14-year-old boy with a disability, who longs to be a cave painter for his clan. Tao has difficulty walking with his right foot, and he compensates for this by using a spear as a crutch. The crutch allows... Read Boy of the Painted Cave Summary
Brighton Beach Memoirs is a semi-autobiographical play by American playwright Neil Simon. It is the first play in Simon’s Eugene Trilogy and follows its young protagonist as he grapples with adolescence and identity in the midst of the Great Depression. Its initial 1983 Broadway run enjoyed critical acclaim and won several awards. Most notably, actor Matthew Broderick won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor for originating the role of Eugene. Despite its initial success... Read Brighton Beach Memoirs Summary
American author Karen Cushman’s middle grade novel, Catherine, Called Birdy, explores the life of a young woman in 13th-century England. Published in 1994, the book won the Newbery Honor the following year. It is currently being adapted for the screen by actor, writer, and director Lena Dunham. This detailed work of historical fiction immerses the reader in the very different world of medieval England, with its emphasis on religion as the organizing force behind daily... Read Catherine, Called Birdy Summary
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, a key figure in the British Romantic Era of poetry wrote the Gothic narrative poem “Christabel” in two parts, the first in 1797, and the second in 1800. Though it was still unfinished, “Christabel” was published in 1816.“Christabel” is Coleridge’s longest poem, at almost 700 lines. It is also the least edited of Coleridge’s work. Most of the poem contrasts the innocent piety of Christabel with the experience and supernatural abilities of... Read Christabel Summary
E. L. Doctorow’s 2000 novel City of God is a postmodern, metafictional novel of religious questioning that attempts to reconcile the history of the 20th century, particularly the Holocaust, with modern conceptions of morality and God. The novel is structured as a fragmented writer’s notebook written by a character loosely based on Doctorow himself. The plot, which concerns a stolen cross and an Episcopalian priest’s doubts about his faith, is rendered through the mediated lens... Read City of God Summary
Cloud Atlas is a 2004 novel by British author David Mitchell. The sprawling narrative is composed of a series of nested stories, spanning centuries into the past and the future. In addition to winning numerous literary and science fiction awards, the novel was adapted into a 2012 film of the same name. This guide uses the 2014 Sceptre edition of Cloud Atlas.Content Warning: The novel and this guide depict slavery and discuss racism, death by... Read Cloud Atlas Summary
Published in 1846, Concluding Unscientific Postscript to the Philosophical Fragments is one of the major works of the Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard. The book is so named because Kierkegaard intended it as a sequel to his 1844 work Philosophical Fragments, although the Postscript is more than six times longer than the Fragments. The word “unscientific” is an ironic allusion to rationalistic philosophy, particularly that of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.Hegel’s philosophy—known as Hegelianism—held that... Read Concluding Unscientific Postscript Summary
Confessions, or Confessiones in the original Latin, is a book of spiritual reflection, philosophical commentary, and Biblical interpretation produced in the last century of the Western Roman Empire. Written around the year 400 CE by Saint Augustine of Hippo, a prominent Catholic bishop in the Roman province of Africa, the book is sometimes called the world’s first autobiography. Although this claim is inaccurate, Confessions has nevertheless born enormous influence on personal narrative writing in the... Read Confessions Summary
Nikolai Gogol called his 1842 work Dead Souls an “epic poem in prose,” though most critics and scholars now refer to it as a novel. Structured in part as an analog to Dante’s Inferno, Dead Souls is an absurdist social satire of imperial Russia before the emancipation of the serfs, especially the foibles and customs of the Russian nobility. Though Gogol is not interested in strict realism, his portraits of nobles who speak French more... Read Dead Souls Summary
Don Quixote is a novel in two parts by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes published between 1605 and 1615. The novel portrays the life of a middle-aged Spanish man who decides to become a knight, just like the characters in the works of fiction he loves. Considered to be a foundational work of Western literature and one of the first modern novels, Don Quixote is one of the most translated books of all time. It... Read Don Quixote Summary
John Steinbeck’s East of Eden is an American classic. A work of contemporary fiction, the novel was a popular success upon its 1952 publication, quickly rising to the top of the fiction bestseller list. It has remained in print ever since and is still a widely read and well-respected book. Steinbeck published 33 books, including nonfiction, and received the Nobel Prize in 1962 for his contribution to American letters. His most famous works are the... Read East of Eden Summary
Eat Pray Love is a 2006 memoir by writer Elizabeth Gilbert whose previous works include the novels Stern Men and The Last American Man. The book’s subtitle is One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, and it chronicles Gilbert’s quest for mental and spiritual healing following a divorce, difficult legal settlement, unhealthy love affair, and period of depression. This guide references the 2016 Penguin Random House edition.SummaryThe author searches for “I” in... Read Eat Pray Love Summary
“Eloisa to Abelard” is a poem published in 1717 by Alexander Pope. The poem discusses the ill-fated love affair of a real-life couple from 12th-century France: Heloïse d’Argenteuil, a gifted 18-year-old student, and Peter Abelard, a renowned French scholar, philosopher, and poet of the Medieval era who was 20 years older than Heloïse. The poem is a heroic verse epistle, which is a genre first made famous in Ovid’s Heroides. Pope adopts Eloisa’s persona and... Read Eloisa to Abelard Summary
Everybody, a one-act play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, premiered Off-Broadway in 2017 at the Signature Theatre and was first published in 2018. It is a modern retelling of Everyman, the most well-known and anthologized example of a medieval morality play, which was adapted from a Dutch play by an anonymous 15th century English writer. Morality plays first appeared in the 12th century, evolving from the Catholic Church’s cycle plays and liturgical dramas, which reenacted biblical scenes... Read Everybody Summary
Fall on Your Knees (1996), first-time novelist Ann-Marie MacDonald’s ambitious multigenerational family saga set in the early decades of the 20th century, moves from the bleak coastal towns of Canada’s Cape Breton Island to the bustling New York City of the Jazz Era. Recalling both the psychological richness of William Faulkner’s family sagas set in Yoknapatawpha County and the dark passions in the Gothic tales of Flannery O’Connor, Fall on Your Knees follows three very... Read Fall on your Knees Summary
Fear and Trembling is an 1843 Christian philosophical tract written by the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard and published under the pseudonym Johannes de Silentio (John of the Silence). The title refers to a passage from the Bible, which demands that “salvation” be worked out “with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). Most of Fear and Trembling focuses on the biblical story of Abraham, whom God told to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham’s actions (despite his fear... Read Fear And Trembling Summary
Future Home of the Living God is a 2017 speculative fiction novel by American author Louise Erdrich. Told by Cedar Hawk Songmaker, a pregnant Native American woman in her mid-twenties living in Minneapolis, the story consists of her reflections as she waits to give birth. In the novel’s pre-apocalyptic America, human evolution has reversed, meaning that the species has begun to biologically regress into an infertile state. Meanwhile, the United States government has undermined citizens’... Read Future Home of the Living God Summary
The play Ghosts (1881) by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen chronicles the complicated relationship between Helen Alving and her son, Oswald. Ghosts documents a day in the life at the Alving estate as Helen prepares to open an orphanage in honor of her late husband. A three-act play, Ghosts explores the complex social issues of sexually transmitted infections, incest, and euthanasia—topics that made the play highly controversial when it was first produced. Ghosts followed the success... Read Ghosts Summary
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything (2007) is a polemical text by English writer Christopher Hitchens. The author argues that religion is a cultural construct that represses people more than it liberates them. He examines religion’s role in sexuality, science, and human dignity and posits that organized religion rarely (if ever) benefits humanity at large. Hitchens was a noted columnist and contributing editor to Vanity Fair magazine.Its themes include mass delusions, the misogyny... Read God Is Not Great Summary
The Gospel of John is the last of the four biblical gospels in the New Testament, each offering a biography of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. It is traditionally attributed to John, one of Jesus’s 12 disciples and a major leader in the early church, though some scholars dispute that attribution. The Gospel of John, most likely written in the latter decades of the first century CE, is part of the Johannine corpus... Read Gospel of John Summary
Have a Little Faith: A True Story is a 2009 work of expository nonfiction by American author Mitch Albom. It reflects on a series of conversations Albom had with a rabbi in a wealthy, suburban part of New Jersey and, separately, with a Protestant minister in an impoverished area of Detroit, Michigan. Albom wrote the book in response to a request from his childhood rabbi, Albert L. Lewis, to write his eulogy. He agreed on... Read Have a Little Faith: A True Story Summary
Hannah Hurnard’s 1955 novel Hinds’ Feet on High Places is an allegorical portrayal of purgation, progress, and ascent within the spiritual life. Born to Quaker parents, Hurnard struggled with her faith in her youth but experienced a powerful conversion at the age of 19. In the wake of this newfound inspiration, she gained theological training in England and went on to author almost two dozen books over the course of her life.Of those, Hinds’ Feet... Read Hinds’ Feet on High Places Summary
SummaryHoly the Firm is a 1977 book on Christian spirituality by American naturalist and author Annie Dillard. Dillard, whose 1974 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction, is often championed for her ability to describe and narrativize the natural world. In Holy the Firm, Dillard applies this ability to what happened during a three-day period on an island in Puget Sound. Dillard ultimately stayed on this Island for two years... Read Holy the Firm Summary
How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe is a popular history by Irish American author Thomas Cahill, published in 1995. The book argues that Ireland’s conversion to Christianity was instrumental in preserving the remnants of classical culture that survived in Western Europe after the Roman Empire’s demise. The book was on The New York Times Best Seller list for... Read How the Irish Saved Civilization Summary
I Am David by Anne Holm is a children’s historical fiction novel written in 1963. It was originally written in Danish but has since been translated into many languages, including English, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, German, Dutch, Afrikaans, French, and Konkani. It was first published in the United States under the name North to Freedom but eventually was retranslated into its original title. It was made into a movie in 2003. The novel received several awards... Read I Am David Summary
I and Thou is a book of existentialist philosophy composed by Martin Buber. First published in 1923, the book explores the meaning of human relationships, and how relationships bring us ever closer to God. Critics consider the book to be one of the most significant philosophical texts of the 20th century. Buber was a writer and philosopher best known for his contributions to religious existentialism and the philosophy of dialogue. Before World War II, Buber... Read I and Thou Summary
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah was written in 1977 by American writer Richard Bach and is a philosophical novel that questions the nature of reality. This novel was a follow-up to Bach’s bestseller Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970), which has similar themes and imagery. Illusions suggests that all of reality is a construct of the imagination and can facilitate or hinder a person on their path to having the life that they want. One... Read Illusions Summary
Inherit the Wind is a 1955 play by American playwrights Jerome Lawrence (1915-2004) and Robert E. Lee (1918-1994). It is based on the 1925 Scopes trial, where schoolteacher John T. Scopes was put on trial for teaching the theory of evolution at a time when doing so was illegal. Although Inherit the Wind draws from the events of the Scopes trial, it deviates significantly from the details of the case, as Lawrence and Lee were... Read Inherit the Wind Summary
In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do by American Minister Charles Monroe Sheldon is a Christian novel that encourages readers to lead their lives according to the compassionate teachings of Jesus Christ. Published in 1896, it was an instant bestseller in the UK and the US. With more than 30 million copies sold, it was one of the best selling American novels of all time.The work is based on Sheldon’s lectures to his congregation in... Read In His Steps Summary
Jayber Crow, published in 2000 by Counterpoint, is one of author Wendell Berry’s 80 novels and is set in the fictional town of Port William on the banks of the Kentucky River. Berry’s works focus on the agrarian lifestyle he practices in his personal life living and working a farm in rural Kentucky. Many of his novels share what he calls the “Port William membership” and have overlapping characters and settings examining similar themes of... Read Jayber Crow Summary
Landscape with Invisible Hand is a satirical dystopian science fiction novel by M. T. Anderson, written for a young adult audience. A diverse author, Anderson writes both fiction and nonfiction for people of all ages. In 2023, Landscape with Invisible Hand was adapted for film, reflecting the novel’s popularity and relevance. The book depicts a future world in which an alien species, the vuvv, have sold their technology to humans, causing the collapse of the... Read Landscape with Invisible Hand Summary
Lazarillo de Tormes (also known as The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Fortunes and Adversities) was published in three Spanish cities in 1554 and has been in publication ever since. It is a picaresque novel characterized mainly by its use of satire. A picaresque novel contains a first-person narrator who is a picaro, a young boy who might be considered a rogue or born of low class. In this early style novel... Read Lazarillo De Tormes Summary
Left Behind (1995) is the first book in the series of the same name. It was co-authored by Tim LaHaye, a minister and prophecy scholar, and Jerry B. Jenkins, an author of mystery novels, biographies, and Christian fiction. The series is a work of speculative Christian fiction based on biblical prophecies related to the so-called “end times.” Its plot opens with “the Rapture,” a cataclysmic event discussed in biblical prophecy in which Jesus returns to... Read Left Behind Summary
“Light Shining Out of Darkness,” written by William Cowper, was first published in 1774 by John Newton, a Calvinist pastor, in Twenty-Six Letters on Religious Subjects; to Which Are Added Hymns. Later, the hymn was again collected in Olney Hymns in 1779, a text featuring hymns by both Cowper and Newton (“Light Shining Out of Darkness.” Representative Poetry Online, 1998.). In addition to being a hymn, the text could be labeled as a lyric poem... Read Light Shining Out of Darkness Summary
The novel Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, published by Random House in 2017, offers a portrait of an American legend in mourning, surrounded by a poignant but funny cast of 166 characters. It is Saunders’s debut novel, though he has been a notable author of short story collections for decades. The novel won the prestigious Man Booker Prize and was a New York Times best seller.Set in 1862, Lincoln in the Bardo is... Read Lincoln in the Bardo Summary
Gary D. Schmidt’s Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (2004), an historical novel for young adults, received the Newbery Honor in 2005. It is based on actual events occurring on Malaga Island, Maine in 1912, when the government of Maine placed the residents of the island in a mental hospital and tore down their homes.Turner Buckminster is the son of a reverend living in Phippsburg, Maine in 1912. Turner has just relocated to Phippsburg from... Read Lizzie Bright And The Buckminster Boy Summary
Man’s Search for Meaning details the author, Victor Frankl’s experience in a concentration camp and his attempts to overcome and understand the trauma of that experience. The book is in three parts: I. Experiences in a Concentration Camp; II. Logotherapy in a Nutshell; and III. Postscript 1984: The Case for Tragic Optimism.Victor Frankl was born in 1905 and later became a psychiatrist in Vienna. Although he was Jewish, Frankl was protected from arrest by the Nazis... Read Man's Search for Meaning Summary
Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives is a new-age, self-help memoir written by American psychiatrist Dr. Brian L. Weiss. Originally published on July 15, 1988, by Touchstone, the book covers a portion of Weiss’s career in which he conducts therapy sessions with Catherine, a patient with symptoms of fear and anxiety. After putting Catherine under trance with hypnotic... Read Many Lives, Many Masters Summary
“Master and Man” is a short story, written in Russian, by Leo Tolstoy in 1895—a period of the author’s life often considered distinct from the early periods of his most famous novels. Having disowned these previous works, the 67-year-old began writing stories on ethical-religious themes. Set in post-reform Russia, when serfdom was abolished and capitalistic forms of work were redefining social life, “Master and Man” is also a commentary on the effects of the new... Read Master and Man Summary
John Donne, one of the most famous English writers of the Jacobean Age, is the central figure of a group of 17th-century poets called the Metaphysical poets. These poets combined complex, unusual metaphors with philosophic and scientific allusions, their poems often focusing on metaphysical quandaries (hence the name “Metaphysical poetry”). Donne wrote “Meditation 17” in 1623 while he was deathly ill, and though it isn’t a poem, the sermon still explores the metaphysical mystery of... Read Meditation 17 Summary
Meditations on First Philosophy is a philosophical treatise by René Descartes. Originally published in Latin in 1641, the text would go on to influence European and global philosophical traditions. In this work, Descartes argues for the existence of God and the immortality of the soul. Two of its major contributions to philosophy are mind/body dualism and the famous phrase “I think, therefore, I am.” The book comprises six meditations wherein Descartes seeks to doubt all... Read Meditations on First Philosophy Summary
Mere Christianity, by Clive Staples (“C. S.”) Lewis, was first published in 1952 as an expansion of some radio talks Lewis had given during World War II. Though Lewis himself is best known for his children’s fantasy series, The Chronicles of Narnia, Mere Christianity is likely Lewis’s most famous work of Christian apologetics—a genre dedicated to addressing various critiques of Christian theology. Lewis was well poised to make this kind of argument, having grown disillusioned... Read Mere Christianity Summary
Midnight’s Children is a 1981 magical realism novel by British American novelist Salman Rushdie. The story follows Saleem, a child born at the moment of India’s independence who possesses strange powers. The novel won many awards, including the Booker of Bookers Prize, which was awarded to the best all-time winner of the Booker Prize on the award’s 40th anniversary. Midnight’s Children has been adapted for theater, radio, and film. This guide uses the 2006 Vintage... Read Midnight's Children Summary
Canadian author Eden Robinson’s novel Monkey Beach (2000) is set in the village of Kitamaat in British Columbia, Canada. Kitamaat is the primary community of the Haisla nation, one of the Indigenous Canadian groups known as the First Nations. Monkey Beach tells the story of teenager Lisa Hill, whose brother Jimmy has mysteriously disappeared. In the aftermath of his disappearance, Lisa reflects on memories of her youth. The novel combines elements of mystery and the... Read Monkey Beach Summary
First published as a play in 2001, the novella Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran is part of Franco-Belgian author Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s Cycle of the Invisible series consisting of unrelated stories on the themes of human connection, the transition from childhood to adulthood, and spirituality. Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran has been performed on the stage and was adapted for the screen in 2003. This study guide refers to Marjolijn... Read Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran Summary
Nine Perfect Strangers is a 2018 novel by Liane Moriarty. Set in Sydney, Australia, the novel follows a group of strangers who gather at a wellness retreat to receive treatment from a mysterious health guru. The novel was adapted for a 2021 television series starring Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, and Michael Shannon.This guide uses an eBook copy of the text published by Flatiron Books. It also discusses potentially triggering situations, including death by suicide, trauma... Read Nine Perfect Strangers Summary
Sophocles’s play Oedipus Rex, first performed in the early-to-mid 400s BCE, is one of the most famous and influential tragedies left to us from the ancient Greek tradition. Based on the myth of Oedipus, whose cursed fate was to marry his mother and kill his father, the play explores themes of destiny, free will, and literal and metaphoric vision and blindness. This guide uses the 1984 Penguin edition of The Three Theban Plays, translated by... Read Oedipus Rex Summary
St. Augustine of Hippo’s On Christian Doctrine is a theological work offering guidance to the interpretation of biblical scripture, as well as Augustine’s precepts for effective rhetorical practice and Christian teaching. The work first appeared in 397 AD. Augustine’s expertise on these topics is twofold. As Bishop of Hippo, Augustine brings ecclesiastical authority and an extensive knowledge of the scriptures to his theology; as a former teacher of rhetoric, he speaks as an expert when... Read On Christian Doctrine Summary
Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (published in 1859) is a seminal work in evolutionary biology of great historical and scientific importance. Darwinian thought, especially regarding evolution, is now commonly accepted as the most powerful theory in biology and the natural history of species—and the system of natural selection that this theory advanced has been applied (and misappropriated)... Read On the Origin of Species Summary
Aristotle (384-322 BC) was an important ancient Greek philosopher whose work embraced politics, ethics, and metaphysics. The title of his treatise On the Soul (sometimes known by its Latin title De Anima) suggests it is a seminal work on the process of understanding human beings. For Aristotle, “soul” denotes the life principle in plants, animals, and humans, and is thus a more biological and psychological than a spiritual concept. Some scholars believe that On the... Read On the Soul Summary
G. K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy was published in 1908 as an awaited follow-up to his acclaimed essay collection entitled Heretics, which was published three years earlier. A short and pithy volume, Orthodoxy lays out the author’s philosophical convictions aligning with the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and the Christian religion. Chesterton questions the resonance and popularity of Christianity, and he attempts to answer this question by saying that it is the perfect blend of the... Read Orthodoxy Summary
Out of Darkness is a young adult historical novel written by Ashley Hope Pérez and published in 2015 by Holiday House of New York. Pérez holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from Indiana University, where her research focused on Latin American literature. A professor of World Literatures at Ohio State University, she is also the author of What Can’t Wait (2011), The Knife and The Butterfly (2012), and Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions about... Read Out of Darkness Summary
Parable of the Talents is a 1998 novel by Octavia Butler; it is the sequel to her 1995 novel Parable of the Sower. The novel is a dystopian, science fiction narrative set in a futuristic America ravaged by the climate crisis, violence, and racial and religious persecution. Unlike many science fiction authors, Butler focuses her novel mainly on the experiences of racially diverse characters, including many Black and Latinx characters. Parable of the Talents was... Read Parable of the Talents Summary
Paradiso is the third and concluding part of The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri’s three-part epic narrative poem. It completes the allegorical journey initiated by the first two parts, Inferno (Hell) and Purgatorio (Purgatory). Beatrice, who symbolizes Dante’s ideal woman and who had previously accompanied him through the past part of Purgatory, here accompanies him as he journeys through the nine levels or spheres of Heaven, which are represented by various celestial bodies. In each sphere... Read Paradiso Summary
Petey is middle grade novel written by Ben Mikaelsen and published in 1998. Mikaelsen is the author of 10 novels for young adults and the winner of several awards for his work. Petey is dedicated to and based on the life of Clyde Cothern, a Montana man with cerebral palsy who was misdiagnosed as intellectually disabled and confined to Montana State Hospital in the 1920s. Mikaelsen and Cothern shared a close personal friendship, and while... Read Petey Summary
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard is a personal narrative describing her observations of a creek near her home in Virginia over the course of a year. Dillard, a suburban housewife, uses a first-person narrative voice to describe her walks, paying homage to a tradition of nature writing while posing large questions about the nature of God and wilderness. The author blends research into the natural world, philosophical inquiry, and poetic imagery while engaging... Read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Summary
The Popol Vuh is a cultural narrative of the Quiché people that blends folklore, mythology, and historical accounts. The contents of the Popol Vuh have been relayed through oral tradition for many years, and its written form has suffered many losses following Spanish colonization of Latin America. Spanish colonizers destroyed nearly all Quiché texts and codices, including the Popol Vuh. Thus, the earliest known version of the Popol Vuh that exists is a Spanish translation... Read Popol Vuh Summary
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking (1907) is a philosophical work by the American philosopher and psychologist William James. It consists of eight lectures originally delivered at the Lowell Institute in Boston and at Columbia University in New York. James is closely associated with the philosophy of pragmatism, originally formulated by the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce, and this book is considered the major statement of the ideas and principles of... Read Pragmatism Summary
Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (c. 1466-1536) was one of the most influential Renaissance humanists, and his 1509 satire Praise of Folly has become his best-known and most popular work. Originally written in Latin, the book is presented as a long speech or “declamation” delivered by a personified Folly. Erasmus uses the character of Folly as a mouthpiece to criticize and to poke fun at the foibles of human nature in general as well as many... Read Praise Of Folly Summary
Revelations of Divine Love, by Julian of Norwich (c. 1342 to after 1416), is a classic work of Christian spirituality from the late Middle Ages, as well as the first book written in English by a woman. Originally in Middle English, Julian's text has been translated numerous times into more modern forms of English, and its spiritual insights have attracted such admirers as T.S. Eliot and Pope Benedict XVI. Few details are known about the author's... Read Revelations of Divine Love Summary
Riders of the Purple Sage is a novel by western writer Zane Grey. Set in 1871, the novel follows the story of Jane Withersteen, a Mormon woman being persecuted by her church leaders for refusing to become the third wife of church leader, Elder Tull, as well as her fondness for non-Mormons, or gentile, settlers in the area. The novel first appeared as a 19-part series in the magazine, Field and Stream, in January of... Read Riders of the Purple Sage Summary
Dennis Covington’s Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia is a work of non-fiction, originally published in 1995. The narrative begins when Covington starts reporting on Glenn Summerford’s trial for the attempted murder of his wife, Darlene, by rattlesnake bite. Brother Glenn is a preacher in a snake-handling church in Scottsboro, Alabama, which is close to Covington’s home in Birmingham. Glenn is pleading that his wife tried to commit suicide and had... Read Salvation on Sand Mountain Summary
Same Kind of Different as Me (2006) is a memoir written by Denver Moore and Ron Hall, with the assistance of Lynn Vincent. Employing a first-person point of view that switches between Moore and Hall in its chapters, the book tells the radically-different life stories of the two men—Moore spent most of his adult years being homeless or in prison, while Hall was a high-end art dealer—and how they were brought together thanks to Hall’s... Read Same Kind Of Different As Me Summary
Famed 17th-century English poet and pamphleteer John Milton published Samson Agonistes (a Greek word that can mean “struggle”) in 1671. The work is a dramatic poem and a tragic drama—though Milton announces that it isn’t for the stage. Milton’s work is informed by one episode in a story from the Old Testament, in which the superhuman hero Samson is betrayed by his wife Dalila, loses his strength, and is imprisoned by his foes, the Philistines... Read Samson Agonistes Summary
Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work, published in 2009, is an often personal and meditative pitch for a cultural recommitment to the vocational arts. As a mechanic with a doctorate in philosophy, author Matthew B. Crawford has lived both lives—that of the “knowledge worker” of white-collar culture and that of the manual laborer who solves the problems society faces on a daily basis. He uses the space of the book... Read Shop Class as Soulcraft Summary
Siddhartha, written by Hermann Hesse and first published in German in 1922, is a work of philosophical fiction. The book is based closely on the teachings of the spiritual leader Gautama Buddha who lived in present day Nepal or Northern India in the 4th or 5th century BCE. The book tells the story of the physical and spiritual journey of a fictional Brahmin’s son Siddhartha, in his quest for self-discovery and the meaning of existence... Read Siddhartha Summary
Setting himself the task of authoring a modern-day apologetic, N. T. Wright offers Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense (2006) as a contemporary treatment of the same ground covered by C. S. Lewis in his classic Mere Christianity, published in 1952. Simply Christian attempts to lay out as clearly and simply as possible the fundamental manner in which Christianity makes sense, and why it is capable of answering the most important questions that the human... Read Simply Christian Summary
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is a sermon written by Jonathan Edwards, pastor of the Congregational church of Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1741, during the period of the First Great Awakening. Edwards delivered the sermon to remarkable effect on July 8, 1741, in Enfield, Connecticut, during a revival tour, and it was published shortly thereafter in Boston. Though its hellfire-and-brimstone style is not typical of Edwards’s work, it quickly became his best-known publication... Read Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God Summary
“Sonnet 55” (1609) is an English love sonnet by renowned poet William Shakespeare (1564-1616). The sonnet is part of Shakespeare’s Fair Youth sonnet sequence, which makes up the first 126 of his sonnets. This sonnet follows a number of the Fair Youth sonnets in the way it praises the fair youth’s beauty and claims his beauty is eternal. In this sonnet specifically, Shakespeare claims that the subject’s beauty will outlive all monuments of princes and... Read Sonnet 55 Summary
Sophie's World is a young adult book by Norwegian author Jostein Gaarder. The book follows main character Sophie, a young girl who is fourteen years old and living with her parents in Norway. Sophie's life changes dramatically when she receives a series of strange postcards, which ask her large, existential questions about the world around her. Each day, Sophie receives a postcard, and in the evenings she receives a package from a man named Alberto... Read Sophie's World Summary
Matthew Arnold’s “Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse” takes its name from a seventeenth-century monastery in Grenoble in the French Alps, famous as the headquarters of the Carthusian order of Catholic monks. Arnold wrote this philosophical poem after visiting the monastery in the early 1850s. Comprised of thirty-five stanzas, each of which contains six lines of iambic tetrameter verse set to an “ABABCC” rhyme scheme, the poem is one of the better-known examples of Arnold’s early poetry... Read Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse Summary
Stories of Your Life and Others is a collection of short stories published in 2002 by the American science fiction and fantasy writer Ted Chiang. The book contains eight stories that belong to science fiction, science fantasy, alternative history, and magic realism genres. Seven of the eight stories appeared in previous publications. In the stories, Chiang explores concepts including the ethics of science, the benefits and dangers of intelligence, and cultural differences in alternate realities... Read Stories of Your Life and Others Summary
Summa Theologica (originally Summa Theologiae) is the principal work of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), an Italian friar, philosopher, and theologian and one of the central figures in medieval Christian thought. Aquinas wrote the Summa between 1265 and 1273, intending it to serve as a summation of all known theological learning for seminarians. He never finished the massive Latin work, but what he completed has influenced Roman Catholic theology and Western thought in general. Aquinas’ central... Read Summa Theologica Summary
Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America’s Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion by Pulitzer Prize-winning author and academic Edward J. Larson is a work of historical non-fiction first published in 1997 that discusses the history of the Scopes trial, the events surrounding it, and the aftermath. The 2006 edition includes a new afterword by the author.Larson begins by describing the geopolitical environment in the United States at the time of the 1925... Read Summer for the Gods Summary
Surprised by Joy is C.S. Lewis’s spiritual autobiography, tracing the steps that led up to his conversion to Christianity. This guide refers to the 1955 Harcourt Brace & Company/Harvest Books edition. Lewis was born in 1898 in Ireland and begins his story with his childhood in Belfast, where he and his family lived in a maze-like house full of empty attics and heaps of books. He was close with his older brother, and together they... Read Surprised by Joy Summary
Thomas Paine’s The Age of Reason is both a defense of Deism and a rejection of the world’s major monotheistic religions. Published in three parts (1794, 1795, 1807), Age of Reason reflects Paine’s belief that a significant religious upheaval would follow in the wake of the American and French Revolutions. In France, privileged orders such as monarchy and aristocracy had been toppled, and the established Catholic Church had not survived the onslaught. Paine feared that... Read The Age Of Reason Summary
The Beautiful Mystery, published in 2012, is the eighth book in former Canadian journalist Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Gamache series. The Gamache series is known for its recurring cast of characters, psychological depth, and long-term story arcs. Gamache is a longtime member of Québec’s provincial police force, most often known by its French name, the Sûreté du Québec. Gamache’s struggles with police corruption form the main plot of several books, including A Fatal Grace and... Read The Beautiful Mystery Summary
Louise Erdrich’s The Beet Queen, published in 1986, is a sequel to her award-winning debut novel, Love Medicine. The Beet Queen was followed by two other novels in the series, Tracks and The Bingo Palace. Though most of The Beet Queen’s characters are non-Indigenous, the series as a whole is concerned with issues facing Indigenous Americans, particularly those living on tribal lands in Minnesota and North Dakota. Characters and storylines are woven throughout the four... Read The Beet Queen Summary
American author Scott O’Dell’s The Black Pearl is a young adult novel and bildungsroman (coming-of-age story) that was first published in 1967. The Black Pearl was a runner-up for the Newbery Medal, which recognizes distinguished American children’s literature. The work’s literary influences include Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, and John Steinbeck’s The Pearl—another novel set among the pearl divers of La Paz. Scott O’Dell is best known for historical children’s fiction and his novel Island of... Read The Black Pearl Summary
The Book of Joy is a 2016 novel coauthored by Tenzin Gyatso (the fourteenth Dalai Lama) and Desmond Tutu. The former is the leader of the Tibetan spiritual tradition, and the latter has lived as an Anglican South African Archbishop and religious philosopher. The authors use their decades of formative experience as leaders of nonviolent opposition to existential oppression in their native lands to explicate a simple path to obtaining joy. Acknowledging the reality of... Read The Book of Joy Summary
The Book of Margery Kempe is a 15th-century autobiography of an English mystic, wife, and mother who devoted much of her life to Christian spirituality. Kempe (b. ca. 1373) was a semi-literate member of the upper-middle class from King’s Lynn, a mercantile town in Norfolk, a county in eastern England. She gave birth over a dozen times before she convinced her husband to embrace a chaste marriage. Kempe claimed to have divine revelations in which... Read The Book of Margery Kempe Summary
The Book of Mormon: An Account Written by the Hand of Mormon, Upon Plates Taken from the Plates of Nephi is a sacred text of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). It was translated and produced by Joseph Smith who founded the Church in 1830. Smith claimed to have received a revelation from God who told him the truth about Jesus, the Americas, and God. However, the Church now believes that many... Read The Book of Mormon Summary
Written in the last two years of the author’s life, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s final novel, The Brothers Karamazov (1880), is the culmination of a politically fraught career spent pursuing a full, unsentimental vision of humanity. Dostoevsky is famous for his work’s distinctive psychological nuance—particularly involving pathological dimensions of self-destruction and misguided sentimental altruism—and has deeply influenced Western schools of theology, existentialism, and literary modernism.The eponymous brothers are the four sons of the profligate Fyodor Karamazov. As... Read The Brothers Karamazov Summary
The Case for Christ, by Lee Strobel, originally published in 1998, follows Strobel’s nonfiction, journalistic investigation into the claims of Christianity. Strobel is both a journalist and a lawyer—he earned an undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Yale before joining the Chicago Tribune as a legal affairs editor. But when his wife, Leslie, becomes a Christian, Strobel launches into an “all-out investigation into the facts surrounding the... Read The Case For Christ Summary
The Castle of Otranto, first published in 1764 by English author Horace Walpole (1717-1797), is considered the first supernatural work of Gothic fiction, influencing many well-known 19th century writers such as Clara Reeve, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe, and Robert Louis Stevenson.The five-chapter long novella revolves around the mysterious supernatural events at the titular castle, whose owner goes to villainous lengths to maintain control of it. Walpole introduces Gothic elements that drive the... Read The Castle of Otranto Summary
The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure is a 1993 novel by James Redfield. A bestseller, the novel is a compilation of New Age philosophical and spiritual concepts, which Redfield labels as insights, that are loosely connected by a plot that follows the narrator’s search for them in the Peruvian jungle. An ancient manuscript is rumored to have been discovered, and the insights in the Manuscript claim that the end of the 20th century will witness a... Read The Celestine Prophecy Summary
Rabbi Chaim Potok published The Chosen in 1967, and the book became a National Book Award finalist and established Potok as an influential Jewish writer. Born in Brooklyn and raised by Hasidic parents, Potok’s historical novel arguably links to parts of his personal life, as it follows two Jewish best friends, Reuven and Danny, and emphasizes Danny’s rocky relationship with his Hasidic father. The book centers on themes like Judaism and the Quest for Knowledge... Read The Chosen Summary
This guide refers to the 2003 Penguin Classics edition, translated by Henry Bettenson and edited by G.R. Evans. Your page numbers may vary. Please note that this guide covers only Part 1 (Books 1-10) of the 22 books of City of God. Begun in 413 AD, only a few years after the Sack of Rome, City of God is Augustine’s rejoinder to pagan misconceptions of Christianity. In the aftermath of a disastrous and unprecedented attack... Read The City of God Summary
Clouds is an Attic Comedy by Aristophanes (circa 450-385 BCE). The play was initially produced at the City Dionysia in 423 BCE, where it placed third in a drama festival. Aristophanes subsequently worked on a revision that he never completed, and it is this incomplete revision that represents the surviving text of the play known today. Clouds centers on the character of Strepsiades and his ill-conceived attempt to learn sophistry, or fallacious arguments, from Socrates... Read The Clouds Summary
The Color of Water is a nonfiction autobiography published in 1996 by the American author and musician James McBride. Subtitled A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, The Color of Water chronicles the author’s challenges growing up in the 1960s and 1970s as a child with a white Jewish mother and Black father. Interspersed with the author’s recollections are interview transcripts describing his mother’s abusive upbringing as an Orthodox Jewish woman living in the... Read The Color of Water Summary
Considered widely as a masterpiece of Persian literature, Farid ud-Din Attar’s epic poem, The Conference of the Birds, tells the story of thirty birds on a journey to find their ideal Sovereign, the Great Simorgh, the mythical bird that dwells on Mount Qaf, a legendary mountain that encompasses the earth. First published in 1077 CE and consisting of more than 4,500 lines, the central concern of the poem is Sufism, a mystical doctrine of Islam... Read The Conference of the Birds Summary
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown was originally published in 2003 and has become an international bestseller, with sales of over 80 million. It was made into a popular movie starring Tom Hanks, Audrey Tatou, and Ian McKellen. The novel is Brown’s fourth, a fast-paced thriller with political, historical, and religious overtones. Its initial release generated controversy for perceived condemnation of the Catholic Church and historical inaccuracies. Despite the charges, The Da Vinci Code... Read The Da Vinci Code Summary
The Dead Zone (1979) is a science fiction thriller novel by Stephen King. King’s story about a man who sees visions of the future after awakening from a years-long coma explores themes of missed opportunity, belief, and the sacrifices inherent in moral action. The novel was nominated for numerous awards, including the 1980 Locus Award, and has been adapted for film (1983) and television (2002-07). Please be advised that The Dead Zone includes mention of... Read The Dead Zone Summary
The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886) is a fictional novella by the Russian author Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). The story raises questions about what is important in life through Tolstoy’s observation of social interaction and individual priorities.Tolstoy was born into aristocracy and was popular at a time when Russia was under the autocratic rule of Tsar Nicholas II, the last Russian emperor of the Romanov Dynasty. Tolstoy, whose best-known works are War and Peace (1867) and... Read The Death of Ivan Ilyich Summary
The Decameron is a collection of short stories by Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio, completed in 1353. The book was published in the wake of the Black Death, a bubonic plague which swept through Europe in the 14th century. The plague killed a large percentage of the population of Boccaccio’s native Florence. Boccaccio uses the epidemic as a key part of the book’s framing narrative, as in the book, a group of young Florentine men and... Read The Decameron Summary
The Denial of Death was written by the American cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker and published in 1973. The work explores the fear of death and the ways in which rituals and beliefs have helped humans to cope with it throughout history. It was inspired by the fact that Becker had been diagnosed with terminal colon cancer. Over the course of his life, he taught at several prestigious universities, including Syracuse University, UC Berkeley, and, by... Read The Denial of Death Summary
IntroductionThe Everlasting Man is a work of philosophical history, written by G. K. Chesterton in 1925. In The Everlasting Man, Chesterton seeks to demonstrate the providential ordering of history and the uniqueness of human beings in general and of the person of Jesus Christ in particular. Ever since its publication, the book has been widely influential, even contributing to the intellectual conversion of C. S. Lewis, who called it the best popular apologetic he knew.A... Read The Everlasting Man Summary
“The First Seven Years” is a short story that Bernard Malamud originally published in 1950. The story subsequently appeared in several collections, including The Magic Barrel, which won the 1959 National Book Award for fiction. Malamud’s exploration of the complications of the American Dream for immigrants and the aftermath of the Holocaust make the story an important contribution to American Jewish literature of the twentieth century. This guide is based on the short story as... Read The First Seven Years Summary
The Five People You Meet in Heaven is a novel by best-selling writer Mitch Albom. Published in 2003, it sold more than 10 million copies and appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. In 2004, the story was adapted into a made-for-television movie starring Jon Voight. The novel follows the story of Eddie, a man who believes his life was unfulfilling until his death brings him answers to the key events in his life... Read The Five People You Meet In Heaven Summary
The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz was first published in 1997. Born into a family of healers and shamans, Ruiz dedicated his life to creating a philosophy that blends ancient Toltec wisdom with modern sensibilities. After its publication, The Four Agreements stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for 10 years and ranked as the 36th best seller of the decade. Many celebrities, including Oprah Winfrey... Read The Four Agreements Summary
The Future of an Illusion is a 1927 book by Sigmund Freud in which the Austrian neurologist investigates the origins of society and religion. Freud is well-known as the founder of psychoanalysis, a discipline that he developed in the late 1800s that seeks to use talk therapy to help patients cure their mental disorders. Freud wrote a number of influential books that popularized his psychoanalytic theories, such as The Interpretation of Dreams (1899) and The... Read The Future of an Illusion Summary
The Gifts of Imperfection: Your Guide to Wholehearted Living (2022) by Brené Brown (originally published as The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are in 2010) introduces the key concepts that have become a signature of Brown’s research, such as reclaiming the importance of vulnerability and defining shame as an obstacle to self-development and connection. The original book spent 75 weeks on The New... Read The Gifts of Imperfection Summary
“The Grand Inquisitor” is an embedded narrative, or a story within a story, contained in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1880 novel The Brothers Karamazov. In the novel, “The Grand Inquisitor” is a prose poem composed by the character Ivan Karamazov. Its fictional author, who writes this poem in an increasing state of despair, recites this work to his younger brother, the novice monk Alyosha. “The Grand Inquisitor” imagines Jesus Christ coming to Seville at the time of... Read The Grand Inquisitor Summary
C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, first published in serial form in 1945 and as a novel the following year, explores an unnamed narrator’s experiences in Heaven and Hell. Although Lewis is best known for his contribution to children’s literature in The Chronicles of Narnia series, he also wrote many works of adult fiction and nonfiction. Almost all of his published work is either explicitly or implicitly religious in nature; many of his nonfiction works are... Read The Great Divorce Summary
The Harbinger, by Jonathan Cahn, a Messianic Jewish rabbi and author, is Cahn’s debut novel. The Harbinger is described as a Christian novel; it uses and relies on themes, concepts, and scripture that are prevalent in the Old Testament. It was initially published in September 2011 by FrontLine, an imprint of Charisma House, which is a religious publishing group dedicated to spreading religious messages. FrontLine is the imprint of Charisma House used for discussing cultural... Read The Harbinger Summary
Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter was published in 1948 and is one of his most famous Catholic-themed novels. These novels comprise the majority of his literary oeuvre and underscore a recurring theme in Greene’s works: moral crisis and true faith. Greene’s iconoclastic views of Catholicism are explored through complex protagonists like Henry Scobie, the flawed hero of The Heart of the Matter, who are torn between passion and faith.The Heart of the Matter... Read The Heart of the Matter Summary
The Hiding Place, published in 1971, is by author Corrie ten Boom and co-authors John and Elizabeth Sherrill. Ten Boom’s autobiographical account centers on her family’s work with the Dutch underground during World War II and her family’s punishments after being arrested. The authors consistently draw attention to the ten Boom family’s Christian faith and the ways in which it shaped their experiences and inspired them to persevere. Ten Boom wrote many other books after... Read The Hiding Place Summary
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue is a historical fantasy novel by the American author V.E. Schwab published in 2020. It chronicles the story of Addie LaRue, an 18th-century Frenchwoman who gains eternal life through a bargain with a demonic entity. However, the deal comes at a great cost: Everybody who meets Addie immediately forgets her. A New York Times bestseller, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue received a 2020 Goodreads Choice Award nomination for... Read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue Summary
H. G. Wells is one of the earliest science fiction authors, sometimes referred to as the father of the genre. His 1897 novel, The Invisible Man, follows an albino scientist who discovers the secret to turning himself invisible. The novel’s blend of fantastical science and realistic, mundane detail is a signature of Wells. This novel has influenced generations of writers and artists, both through its powerful prose and fascinating plot, as well as for its... Read The Invisible Man Summary
The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life by Father James Martin was published in 2010. The book is an accessible introduction to Ignatian spirituality, a famous Catholic devotional practice developed in the 16th century by St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. Father Martin, who left a career in corporate finance to become a Jesuit priest, is a prolific and popular writer on Catholic topics. He is an editor-at-large... Read The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything Summary
The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th Century America is a work of non-fiction published in 1994 by Oxford University Press. Historians Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz tell the little-known story of Matthias the Prophet in a dramatic and well-documented account that blends biography with true crime. The authors recount events that occurred during the Second Great Awakening, a Protestant religious revival in the United States that reached its peak... Read The Kingdom Of Matthias Summary
The Lais of Marie de France is a collection of 12 romantic narratives—known as Breton Lais—composed in the late 12th century and credited to the French-English poet Marie de France. The lay or lai is a short tale of octosyllabic rhyming couplets which is generally 600–1000 lines long. It can be accompanied by music and is typical of Brittany, a Northern French region with strong Celtic influences. Themes of love, chivalry and the supernatural are... Read The Lais of Marie de France Summary
The Lemon Tree: An Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East is a biography and memoir written by Sandy Tolan and published in 2006. Against the backdrop of the first Arab-Israeli War’s 50th anniversary, American journalist Sandy Tolan travels to the Middle East to research his assignment. Through the biography, Tolan aims to highlight how two families on opposite sides of the conflict—the al-Khairis and the Eshkenazis—are connected on a level that... Read The Lemon Tree Summary
James Boswell’s The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) is often considered to be one of the finest pieces of biographical writing in the English language. Samuel Johnson was an English poet, essayist, and lexicographer who produced a pioneering and influential Dictionary of the English Language. However, he is less well-known today for his writings than as the biographical subject for Boswell, a lawyer from Scotland who first met Johnson in 1763. During their 21-year friendship... Read The Life of Samuel Johnson Summary
Written by Indigenous American author Leslie Marmon Silko and published in 1968, “The Man to Send Rain Clouds,” a short story depicting the relationship between Laguna Pueblo customs and Christianity, received international acclaim. Inspired by an incident in Silko’s hometown, the short story won her a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” was later compiled into an anthology of works by Indigenous American writers called The Man... Read The Man to Send Rain Clouds Summary
The Man Who Knew Infinity is a 1991 biography of famed Indian mathematician Srinivāsa Ramanujan, written by Robert Kanigel. The text closely follows Ramanujan’s rise from humble origins to become one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th century. Joining forces with another notable mathematician in his own right, G. H. Hardy of Cambridge University, Ramanujan produced some of the most insightful, imaginative, and original work in mathematics that is still studied today. From Ramanujan’s... Read The Man Who Knew Infinity Summary
One of the monuments of 20th-century philosophy, The Myth of Sisyphus, by Nobel Prize-winning author Albert Camus, delves deeply into the emptiness of life and how to cope with it. Published in France in 1942, during the darkest days of World War II, the book resonated strongly with French readers and soon had a worldwide following. The 2018 edition of the 1955 English translation by Justin O’Brien forms the basis for this study guide.The book’s... Read The Myth of Sisyphus Summary
The Nine Billion Names of God is a collection of science-fiction short stories published in 1974 by the English author Arthur C. Clarke. Most of the stories in the collection were written in the late 1940s and ’50s. One of the most successful and prolific early science fiction writers, Clarke wrote about space exploration, scientific inventions such as satellites, and aliens long before humans even landed on the moon. His short story “The Sentinel,” which... Read The Nine Billion Names of God Summary
The Pilgrim’s Progress was written by John Bunyan and published in 1678. The work is a religious allegory that is among the most famous works of English literature; many critics also consider it the first English example of the novel genre. Like Christian, the main character in Part 1, Bunyan’s path to Christianity was a journey. After rejecting religion early in his life, Bunyan devoted himself to God and became a Puritan. He believed the... Read The Pilgrim's Progress Summary
Graham Greene’s The Power and the Glory (originally published in 1940) recounts the tragic story of the whisky priest. His religion has been outlawed, his faith shattered, and his history—like his name—all but erased. He’s relentlessly pursued by the lieutenant, whose secular beliefs are as passionate as others’ spiritual beliefs. The priest’s mere presence endangers those he once served, and he constantly struggles to fulfill his duty to bring comfort and absolution to others at... Read The Power and the Glory Summary
The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? by Rick Warren, an American evangelical Christian pastor and author, is a work of Christian literature that offers guidance by means of a 40-day personal, spiritual journey. Warren brings his experience in spiritual leadership to this text, exploring what he identifies as God’s five purposes for human life on Earth. This framework seeks to serve as a blueprint for Christian living in the modern... Read The Purpose Driven Life Summary
R. K. Narayan’s The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic (Suggested by the Tamil Version of Kamban) was first published in 1972 by Viking Press. The epic story of Rama’s journey contains the teachings of ancient Hindu sages, and these teachings continue to have a major influence on Indian culture.The story of Rama stems from the tradition of bardic literature that was passed down orally through the generations across different regions... Read The Ramayana Summary
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) wrote The Razor’s Edge in 1944. The novel’s title comes from a quotation translated from the Katha Upanishad, with the assistance of Christopher Isherwood: “Rise, wake up, seek the wise and realize. The path is difficult to cross like the sharpened edge of the razor." The story has been adapted for film twice, once in 1946 starring Tyrone Power and again in 1984 with Bill Murray. When World War I air... Read The Razor's Edge Summary
The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism is a 2008 book by Timothy Keller that seeks to provide a rational defense of the Christian faith. As such, it is a book on religion and society that falls within the subgenre of Christian apologetics. Keller (1950-2023) was the pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City and is the author of many notable works of popular Christian theology, with a particular focus... Read The Reason for God Summary
The Red Tent (1997) is an adult historical novel by Jewish American author Anita Diamant. It describes the life of Dinah, daughter of Jacob, who appears in the biblical Book of Genesis. While her mention in the Bible only concerns her abduction by a Canaanite man and her brothers’ act of atrocity in response, Diamant imagines a full life for Dinah—including a childhood raised by several mothers, her first marriage, and life in Egypt, where... Read The Red Tent Summary
In The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, published in 2012, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt presents a new way to understand the often-contentious moral divides in politics and religion. Haidt looks at the topic in three separate parts. First, he works to give a clearer picture of how the mind works. Secondly, he presents a framework for understanding the different moral values that emerge between different cultures and political parties... Read The Righteous Mind Summary
The Rig Veda: An Anthology is a selection of 108 hymns from the ancient Sanskrit collection of religious poetry, the earliest substantial literary composition in an Indo-European language. Intended for a general audience, Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty’s popular translation of the Rig Veda, published by Penguin in 1981, anthologizes approximately one tenth of the original Sanskrit text, which numbers over 1,000 poems. Composed between 1400-900 BCE, the hymns of the Rig Veda praise the gods of Bronze... Read Rig Veda Summary
“The Rockpile” is a short story by the novelist, essayist, and civil rights activist James Baldwin. Although it was originally published in Baldwin’s only short story collection, 1965’s Going to Meet the Man, it was likely written much earlier, as it uses characters that appear in his 1953 semi-autobiographical debut novel, Go Tell It On the Mountain. This guide refers to the 1995 First Vintage International edition of Going to Meet the Man.“The Rockpile” takes... Read The Rockpile Summary
In The Secret Chord (2015), Geraldine Brooks, a former journalist and a Pulitzer Prize-winning author of historical fiction, turns to the story of the biblical King David. She uses this figure from religion and history to study human nature. Her David is far from a saint. He is a complex character: “a man who dwelt in the searing glance of the divine, but who sweated and stank, rutted without restraint, butchered the innocent, betrayed those... Read The Secret Chord Summary
The Setting Sun and the Rolling World is a short story collection published in 1987 by Zimbabwean author Charles Mungoshi. Across 17 stories, Mungoshi explores profound cultural divides in his native country between tradition and modernization, rural and urban life, and colonialism and African nationalism. Although the characters are different in each piece, taken together the stories comprise a coming-of-age narrative, as the protagonist of each tale is generally a little older and more experienced... Read The Setting Sun and the Rolling World Summary
The Seven Storey Mountain: An Autobiography of Faith (1948) is Thomas Merton’s account of his early life and spiritual journey toward becoming a monk at the age of 26. Merton wrote the book in two-hour daily stints of personal time in a monastery, and it was published when he was in his early thirties. Although the book focuses on Merton’s spiritual life and includes long passages of religious reflection, the book is conceived as an... Read The Seven Storey Mountain Summary
The Story of My Experiments with Truth is the autobiography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, more widely known as Mahatma Gandhi. A key political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement, Gandhi penned this work to narrate his quest for truth and the principles that underpinned his life’s journey. Originally published in 1927, this memoir provides a meticulous account of Gandhi’s spiritual, moral, and political evolution. The literary era in which this was... Read The Story of My Experiments with Truth Summary
English writer Graham Greene penned his novella The Third Man to work out the finer details of the plot and setting for the screenplay of Carol Reed’s 1949 film of the same name. (In writing screenplays, Greene preferred to work from source material in story format.) Although publication of the novella wasn’t originally planned, the film was such a huge commercial and critical success that the novella was published in 1950. The film The Third... Read The Third Man Summary
Michael A. Singer’s The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself, originally published in 2007, is a spiritual self-help book about living life from the point of view of centered consciousness. Identifying with the nonstop chaos of thinking, emotion, and stimulus in our minds causes most of our problems, and Singer offers insight about how to identify as pure awareness and simply notice our experiences pass by without identifying with them. He discusses how our levels... Read The Untethered Soul Summary
The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Nature (1902) by William James is a philosophical examination of how religious revelations function in individuals’ lives and minds. This renowned work applies James’s theoretical framework of pragmatism to the study of the functionality of religion. James utilizes radical empiricism to examine both the subjective and objective experiences of religion. James argues that individual experiences, not major religious institutions, form the spiritual shape of the world. He... Read The Varieties of Religious Experience Summary
The Way of Kings (2010) is the first book in Brandon Sanderson’s ongoing epic fantasy series, The Stormlight Archive. The Way of Kings won Best Novel at the 2011 David Gemmell Legend Awards for fantasy literature and is considered an exemplary and influential entry to the epic fantasy genre. DMG Entertainment purchased the rights to a film adaptation of The Stormlight Archive in 2016, and Arcturus VR released a videogame adaptation of the novel in... Read The Way of Kings Summary
Essayist and commentator Sarah Vowell published her historical and social commentary The Wordy Shipmates in 2008. A humorous but seriously critical examination of the Puritan emigrants that traveled with the flagship Arbella from England to Massachusetts in 1630, the book revisits leading Puritan figures and the colonial events and ideologies they created while trying to establish the “city upon a hill” that defined their Christian mission in, what was to them, a New World.Though colonial... Read The Wordy Shipmates Summary
Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book for All and None is a work of fiction written by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Published between 1883 and 1885, the allegorical novel also known as Thus Spake Zarathustra is a collection of speeches by a character named Zarathustra to the villagers of The Motley Cow. Nietzsche uses many literary devices such as personification, allegory, and allusion. The philosophical points referenced in Thus Spoke Zarathustra include the death of... Read Thus Spoke Zarathustra Summary
In 2003, Jon Krakauer, nonfiction author and journalist, published Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. Now the inspiration for a television series of the same title on Hulu, the story sent shockwaves as it explored religious extremism on American soil that closely resembled the Taliban-style extremism that had captured the country’s attention following the September 11 attacks. This guide refers to the 2004 paperback edition published by First Anchor Books.Content warning:... Read Under the Banner of Heaven Summary
UnWholly (2012) by Neal Shusterman is Book 2 in the Unwind Dystology. Shusterman originally planned the series to be a dystopia trilogy, but the third book, UnSouled, was split into two for publication due to length. While it was nominated for several awards in Young Adult literature, it did not win any, in contrast to the first book of the series, Unwind, which won nearly a dozen awards and prizes. UnWholly is science fiction, specifically... Read UnWholly Summary
Originally published in 1980, Way of the Peaceful Warrior: A Book that Changes Lives, is a semiautobiographical novel by American author and lecturer Dan Millman. The book is Millman’s first novel and part of the Peaceful Warrior Saga, a series of four novels about personal development and spirituality. The text is based on the author’s early life as a college student in California, with a narrative that blends reality with fiction. The storyline follows a... Read Way of the Peaceful Warrior Summary
Distraught by the loss of his son to a crippling disease, Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote When Bad Things Happen to Good People in an effort to share what he learned from the tragedy and to help others find their way through loss and suffering. Published in 1981, the book was for many months a New York Times bestseller. The 1981 edition is the basis for this guide.Rabbi Kushner’s main idea is that God cannot, or... Read When Bad Things Happen to Good People Summary
Wise Blood is Flannery O’Connor’s first novel, and it is concerned with the journey of a young man named Hazel Motes. At the beginning of the narrative, Motes is traveling to Taulkinham, Tennessee, after fighting for four years in World War II. Before his military service, Motes had always intended to become a preacher like his grandfather before him, but his war experiences cause Motes to become an anti-religious nihilist.After arriving in Taulkinham, Motes encounters a young... Read Wise Blood Summary
Women of Trachis is a classical Greek tragedy composed by Sophocles (circa 496-406 BCE). The play’s precise dating is unknown, but it is believed to have been produced sometime during the 440s, among Sophocles’ earliest surviving plays, and to have been performed at the City Festival of Dionysus, held in March in Athens. The play itself subverts traditional heroic themes, notably the homecoming hero, the unknowability of the gods, and the importance of pity.Sophocles is... Read Women of Trachis Summary
“Works and Days” is a didactic poem by Hesiod dating to approximately the eighth century BCE. Hesiod begins the poem with the traditional invocation to the muses, but he deviates slightly from this tradition by including personal information; the poem is an explanation of a dispute between Hesiod and his brother Perses over a family inheritance. The poem’s thematic concerns, which Hesiod explores by arguing how harmful his brother’s actions are not only to himself... Read Works and Days Summary
