This gripping book tells the largely unknown story of longtime Russian dissident Alexander Ogorodnikov -- from Communist youth to religious dissident, in the Gulag and back again. Ogorodnikov's courage has touched people from every walk of life, including world leaders such as Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and Margaret Thatcher.

In the 1970s Ogorodnikov performed a feat without precedent in the Soviet Union: he organized thousands of Protestant, Orthodox, and Catholic Christians in an underground group called the Christian Seminar. When the KGB gave him the option to leave the Soviet Union rather than face the Gulag, he firmly declined because he wanted to change "his" Russia from the inside out. His willingness to sacrifice himself and be imprisoned meant leaving behind his wife and newborn child.

Ogorodnikov spent nine years in the Gulag, barely surviving the horrors he encountered there. Despite KGB harassment and persecution after his release, he refused to compromise his convictions and went on to found the first free school in the Soviet Union, the first soup kitchen, and the first private shelter for orphans, among other accomplishments.

Today this man continues to carry on his struggle against government detainments and atrocities, often alone. Readers will be amazed and inspired by Koenraad De Wolf's authoritative account of Ogorodnikov's life and work.

Everyone longs to be happy, yet many wrongly believe that happiness comes from having enough money, fame, personal comfort, worldly success, or even dumb luck. Happiness all too often seems to be an elusive, arbitrary things -- something that is always just out of reach.

Joan Chittister sees happiness differently -- as a personal quality to be learned, mastered, and fearlessly wielded. In Happiness she embarks on a "great happiness dig" through sociology, biology, neurology, psychology, philosophy, history, and world religions to develop "an archaeology of happiness." Sifting through the wisdom of the ages, Chittister offers inspiring insights that will help seekers everywhere cultivate true and lasting happiness within.

Many Christians regularly enjoy listening to rock and roll, blues, country, and hip-hop while driving in the car, jogging, or relaxing in the den, and most would not censor lyrical themes rarely found in "Christian music." Often we justify our practices by describing this guilty pleasure as just entertainment or relaxation, accepting the divide between what liturgical theologian Don Saliers has called "Saturday evening and Sunday morning." Reflecting on music from the Beatles to Los Lobos, Don Compier argues that Christian faith shapes what we hear while in turn positively contributing to Christian spiritual formation. In exploring how musical styles have been received and resisted throughout Christian history" and critically engaging issues of commerce and social justice, he shows how attention to the situated spirituality of listening breaks down the supposed split between the "sacred" and the "secular" in contemporary Western culture.

Sharon Garlough Brown tells the moving story of four strangers as they embark together on a journey of spiritual formation: Hannah, a pastor who doesn't realize how exhausted she is. Meg, a widow and recent empty-nester who is haunted by her past. Mara, a woman who has experienced a lifetime of rejection and is now trying to navigate a difficult marriage. Charissa, a hard-working graduate student who wants to get things right. You’re invited to join these four women as they reluctantly arrive at a retreat center and find themselves drawn out of their separate stories of isolation and struggle and into a collective journey of spiritual practice, mutual support and personal revelation. Along the way, readers will be taken into a new understanding of key spiritual practices and find tangible support for the deeper life with God. If you want to travel this journey with others, you will find a group study guide and book club resources at www.sensibleshoesclub.com.

In gods at war, Kyle Idleman, bestselling author of not a fan, helps every believer recognize there are false gods at war within each of us, and they battle for the place of glory and control in our lives. What keeps us from truly following Jesus is that our hearts are pursuing something or someone else. While these pursuits may not be the 'graven images' of old, they are in fact modern day idols. Behind the sin you're struggling with, the discouragement you're dealing with, the lack of purpose you're living with is a false god that is winning the war for your heart. According to Idleman, idolatry isn't an issue---it is the issue. By asking insightful questions, Idleman reveals which false gods each of us are allowing on the throne of our lives. What do you sacrifice for? What makes you mad? What do you worry about? Whose applause do you long for? We're all wired for worship, but we often end up valuing and honoring the idols of money, sex, food, romance, success and many others that keep us from the intimate relationship with God that we desire. Using true, powerful and honest testimonies of those who have struggled in each area, gods at war illustrates a clear path away from the heartache of our 21st century idolatry back to the heart of God -- enabling us to truly be completely committed followers of Jesus.

有些古老的方法可教導我們踐行和平、喜樂、自我控制和公義。傳統屬靈操練如禁食、屬靈閱讀、默想等，都讓我們的心靈得到鍛鍊，就如運動給我們身體的，或研究給我們思想的鍛鍊。
這些古老的踐行是我們預備讓恩典給我們驚喜的方式。藉著這些踐行，我們的心靈愈加穩重；這些思來想、身體和意志的行動，讓我們現有的品格與我們渴望擁用的品格之間的距離拉近。
作者在書中解釋信仰如一條道路，我們從踐行中學習。他讓我們明白這些踐行為何是不可或缺的，不單對我們個人的生活，對我們社會的狀況而言，也是如此。
從這些古老的途徑，可找到新的發現和啟發。

Most of us emphasize one aspect of Christianity over another. Competing voices tell us that the Christian life is all about this or that: missions, discipleship, worship, the cross, or the kingdom. It’s as if we are navigating the Christian life with fragments of a map—bits and pieces of the good news—rather than the whole picture. If we put those map fragments together, we discover a beautiful, coherent picture. Faithmapping invites Christians to see that map, exploring a whole gospel that forms a whole church who carries that glorious news to the whole world.