Religion & Philosophy

A specially published book of 70 inspirational essays written by internationally renowned educator, historians and scholars marking the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz - to be read one a day.

Abiding is not a word we have much use for in everyday conversation. Yet Ben Quash shows that this one concept is central to the Christian life. Quash skilfully and creatively explores the implications that 'abiding' has for our bodies and minds, our relationships and communities, and our spiritual lives.

Discover the keys to a life of success, fulfilment, wholeness and plenty

Many of us live in a mindset of lack and limitation, focusing on the things we don't have. Too often we allow our egos to drive our thoughts and actions, preventing us from reaching something greater: a true sense of inner peace, acceptance and fulfilment.

In Abundance, international bestselling author Deepak Chopra offers a simple seven-step plan to help you reset your focus, become the agent of your own life and strive for life's unbounded possibilities. Demonstrating how to work past self-generated feelings of limitation and providing meditations to help you focus your attention and intuition, this is your guide to a life of true power, prosperity and plenty.

The philosophy of Ancient Greece provides the background of Western ethical thought and politics. In this approachable introduction, Hugh Griffith, a leading translator of Plato, covers the main ground from the Pre-Socratics through Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and the Epicureans.

With wit and insight the Dalai Lama shows how ancient truths can help us to live happy and fulfilled lives at a time when science and technology have taken over from religious belief.

The philosophy of Aristotle dominated Western thought for over a thousand years. Above all, Aristotle is credited with the founding of logic. He divided human knowledge into separate categories, and enabled our understanding of the world to develop in a systematic fashion.

How do we say what we truly mean? How can we learn to listen with compassion and understanding? How do we find true connection with one another? Celebrated Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh shares the five steps to truly mindful communication. Drawing on his experience working with couples, families, colleagues and even on international conflict, the world's most famous monk has created a simple guide to communicating with yourself, others and the world.

One of the world's great spiritual leaders offers his practical wisdom and advice on how we can overcome everyday human problems and achieve lasting happiness.

No thinker has had a more profound influence on western civilisation than Aristotle. His work has been one of the main props of our culture for over two thousand years. Underlying all of it is a conviction that system and order can be found to govern everything, even human conduct. In the Ethics and Politics Aristotle examines what is the best kind of life, and what is the best kind of society for making this possible.

Bruce Lee's daughter illuminates her father's most powerful life philosophies, and how we can apply his teachings to our daily lives. 'Empty your mind; be formless, shapeless like water' Bruce Lee is a cultural icon, world renowned for his martial arts and film legacy. But Lee was also a deeply philosophical thinker, believing that martial arts are more than just an exercise in physical discipline - they are a perfect metaphor for personal growth.

In Be Water, My Friend, Shannon Lee shares previously untold stories from her father's life along with the concepts at the core of his teachings. Each chapter reveals a lesson from Bruce Lee, expanding on the foundation of his iconic 'be water' philosophy to reveal a path to an enlightened way of being. This is an inspirational call to action to consider our lives with new eyes and a testament to Lee's unique power to ignite our imaginations and transform our lives.

The book is based on a radio 3 series in which Joan Bakewell discussed many aspects of belief with some of today’s most influential thinkers including Rowan Williams, Karen Armstrong, Philip Pullman, and Richard Dawkins.

From the award-winning author of The Trauma Cleaner comes an exploration of the power of belief. This book is about ghosts and gods and flying saucers and certainty in the absence of knowledge. Weaving together the stories of six extraordinary ordinary people, The Believer looks at the stories we tell ourselves to deal with the distance between the world as it is, and the world as we'd like it to be. How they can stunt us - or save us. Some of the people you will meet believe in things most people don't. Ghosts. UFOs. Heaven and the Devil. The literal creation of the universe in six days. Others believe in things most people would like to. Dying with autonomy. Facing one's own transgressions with an open heart. Intensely personal and gorgeously written Krasnostein talks with her characteristic compassion and empathy to these believers - and finds out what happens when their beliefs crash into her own. 

Beyond Good and Evil confirmed Nietzsche's position as the towering European philosopher of his age. The work dramatically rejects traditional Western thought with its notions of truth and God, good and evil. Nietzsche seeks to demonstrate that the Christian world is steeped in a false piety and infected with a 'slave morality'.

With wit and energy, he turns from this critique to a philosophy that celebrates the present and demands that the individual impose their own 'will to power' upon the world.

Did Jesus marry and have children? If so, what happened to his family? Are descendants of his still alive today? From access to archives and repositories, the author casts new light on the truth behind the Holy Grail, and gives a history of the Knights Templars of Jerusalem.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama have been friends for many, many years. Between them, they have endured exile, violence and oppression. And in the face of these hardships, they have continued to radiate compassion, humour and above all, joy.

To celebrate His Holiness's eightieth birthday, Archbishop Tutu travelled to the Dalai Lama's home in Dharamsala. The two men spent a week discussing a single burning question: how do we find joy in the face of suffering?

This book is a gift from two of the most important spiritual figures of our time. Full of love, warmth and hope, The Book of Joy offers us the chance to experience their journey from first embrace to final goodbye.

A N Wilson explores how readers and thinkers have approached the Bible, and how it might be read today. He challenges the way fundamentalists - whether believers or non-believers - have misused the Bible, either by neglecting and failing to recognize its cultural significance, or by using it as a weapon against those with whom they disagree.

From getting ready in the morning, through heading to work, going to a party, having sex and falling asleep, Smith provides an hour-by-hour commentary of what history's greatest philosophers have said about the meaning behind everything we do. X rated, contains offensive language and explicit sex.

An understanding of Buddha, his teachings, religion and philosophy.

The late Gerald Priestland, broadcaster and writer, plays the devil's advocate and presses the case against the existence of God.

It was one of the most startling moments in the modern history of the City of London. In 2011, the Occupy movement set up camp around St Paul's Cathedral. Giles Fraser, who was Canon Chancellor of the Cathedral, gave them his support. It ended in disaster. This remarkable book is the story of the personal crisis that followed, and its surprising consequences. As Giles Fraser found himself crushed between the forces of protest, the needs of the church and the implacable City of London, he resigned, and was plunged into depression.

As his life fell apart and he battled with ideas of suicide, Fraser found himself by chance one day in Liverpool, outside the great Victorian synagogue once presided over by a distant ancestor. Suddenly he realized that there was a great deal he did not know about himself, about his relatives and about his Jewish roots. Fraser calls this book 'a ghost story' and it is a book which is indeed filled with many ghosts. His search into his family's Jewish past makes this both a fascinating personal story and a wonderful piece of writing about the healing power of theology, in individual lives and across religious divides. It is a book about the deepest, most ancient elements in our culture, and the most modern and personal. It is throughout alive with the charm and intellectual vigour which have made Fraser such an admired and controversial preacher and broadcaster.

In the fourth century AD, a new faith exploded out of Palestine. Overwhelming the paganism of Rome, and converting the Emperor Constantine in the process, it resoundingly defeated a host of other rivals. Almost a thousand years later, all of Europe was controlled by Christian rulers, and the religion, ingrained within culture and society, exercised a monolithic hold over its population. But, as Peter Heather shows in this compelling new history, there was nothing inevitable about Christendom's rise to Europe-wide dominance. 

In exploring how the Christian religion became such a defining feature of the European landscape, and how a small sect of isolated and intensely committed congregations was transformed into a mass movement centrally directed from Rome, Peter Heather shows how Christendom constantly battled against both so-called 'heresies' and other forms of belief. From the crisis that followed the collapse of the Roman empire, which left the religion teetering on the edge of extinction, to the astonishing revolution of the eleventh century and beyond in which the Papacy emerged as the head of a vast international corporation, Heather traces Christendom's chameleon-like capacity for self-reinvention and astounding willingness to mobilize well-directed force. Christendom's achievement was not, or not only, to define official Christianity, but - from its scholars and its lawyers, to its provincial officials and missionaries in far-flung corners of the continent - to transform it into an institution that wielded effective religious authority across nearly all of the disparate peoples of medieval Europe. This is its extraordinary story.

An anthology of Prayers, Hymns and Readings in everyday use.

A guide to prayer that is practical and realistic from a Benedictine monk.

René Descartes was a central figure in the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. In his Discourse on Method he outlined the contrast between mathematics and experimental sciences, and the extent to which each one can achieve certainty. Drawing on his own work in geometry, optics, astronomy and physiology, Descartes developed the hypothetical method that characterizes modern science, and this soon came to replace the traditional techniques derived from Aristotle. Many of Descartes' most radical ideas - such as the disparity between our perceptions and the realities that cause them - have been highly influential in the development of modern philosophy.

Epictetus, a Greek stoic and freed slave, ran a thriving philosophy school in Nicropolis in the early second century AD. His animated discussions were celebrated for their rhetorical wizardry and were written down by Arrian, his most famous pupil. Together with the Enchiridion, a manual of his main ideas, and the fragments collected here, The Discourses argue that happiness lies in learning to perceive exactly what is in our power to change and what is not, and in embracing our fate to live in harmony with god and nature. In this personal, practical guide to the ethics of stoicism and moral self-improvement, Epictetus tackles questions of freedom and imprisonment, illness and fear, family, friendship and love, and leaves an intriguing document of daily life in the classical world.

The intricacy of modern life has created a false dichotomy between things that are 'hard and important,' and those that are 'easy and trivial.' Everything has become so much harder than it ought to be. But, Greg McKeown, bestselling author of Essentialism, says, there is a third alternative. In Effortless, he offers practical strategies for making the most vital tasks the easiest ones. Honed over the better part of a decade, these strategies include:

Asking 'What Step Can I Remove?' (accomplish more, in fewer steps). Having the Courage to Be Rubbish (prioritize progress over perfection). Deciding What 'Done' Looks Like (don't keep running after you pass the finish line). McKeown's philosophy of essentialism has helped thousands to eliminate nonessential activities and focus on the few that really matter. Working out what is essential is the first step - making these tasks effortless is the next. Effortless will show you how.

An introduction to several meditation methods including visualization, breathing exercises, chants and invocations from the Buddhist tradition. The aim is to guide the reader to a deeper understanding of prayer, whatever their faith.

A quick A to Z of parish clergymen, from the saintly to the wildly eccentric.

In An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, first published in 1690, John Locke (1632-1704) provides a complete account of how we acquire everyday, mathematical, natural scientific, religious and ethical knowledge. Rejecting the theory that some knowledge is innate in us, Locke argues that it derives from sense perceptions and experience, as analysed and developed by reason. While defending these central claims with vigorous common sense, Locke offers many incidental - and highly influential - reflections on space and time, meaning, free will and personal identity. The result is a powerful, pioneering work, which, together with Descartes's works, largely set the agenda for modern philosophy.

To overcome a crisis of melancholy after the death of his father, Montaigne withdrew to his country estates and began to write, and in the highly original essays that resulted he discussed themes such as fathers and children, conscience and cowardice, coaches and cannibals, and, above all, himself. On Some Lines of Virgil opens out into a frank discussion of sexuality and makes a revolutionary case for the equality of the sexes. In On Experience he superbly propounds his thoughts on the right way to live, while other essays touch on issues of an age struggling with religious and intellectual strife, with France torn apart by civil war. These diverse subjects are united by Montaigne's distinctive voice - that of a tolerant man, sceptical, humane, often humorous and utterly honest in his pursuit of the truth.

When we're not held in the grip of fear, we can truly embrace the gifts of life. Learn how to overcome the worries, insecurities and fears that hold you back in this perspective-shifting book. Drawing on his years of experience as a celebrated Zen master, Thich Nhat Hanh shows that by mastering the practices of mindfulness you can learn to identify the sources of pain that cause fear and move past them to live a mindful and happy life.

Judge not, lest ye be judged. This timeless wisdom has guided the Anglican Church for hundreds of years, fostering a certain tolerance of eccentricity among its members. This book celebrates the cream of the crop: the drinkers (and publicans), the inventors, the lion tamers, the suicidal missionaries, and even one piratical Archbishop. But despite their sometimes bizarre behaviour, many in the clergy saw the church as their true calling.

We are living in an age of cynicism and division, in a world of 'we' against 'them'. What we desperately need is radical change. In Fierce Love, highly respected faith leader Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis shares the path to engineering the change we seek with nine essential daily practices. From downsizing our emotional baggage to speaking truth to power and fuelling our activism with joy, she reveals the power of small courageous steps to revitalize our souls and transform the world at large.

Combining edifying lessons, evocative storytelling and inspired spiritual guidance, Fierce Love will equip you with the tools to seek transformational change from within and spread that change among family, friends, communities and the wider world, like ripples on a pond.

Originally written over thirteen years ago, the teachings in this book have transformed the lives of people across the world and, despite the passing of time, the advice has never been more pertinent. Having lived an extraordinary life spanning across Eastern and Western cultures, Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche, world-renowned meditation master and abbot of the oldest and largest Buddhist monastery in the UK, Kagyu Samye Ling, shares how simple Buddhist practices can help us all to train our minds so that we can find happiness and achieve our true potential. 

He teaches us that our minds are infinite like the sky, which can easily become clouded with stress and emotions, but with meditation we are able to see beyond the clouds and free our minds of obstacles. By practising this we can find peace in every moment and live a truly fulfilled life. With practical steps on breathing, posture, forgiveness, relationships and establishing a meditation routine, this is the definitive guide for beginners and experienced meditators alike to learn from the wisdom of a globally revered meditation master.

Abbott Christopher Jamison of Worth Abbey, which was featured in the TV series The Monastery, provides insights into Christian living based on the teachings of St Benedict. He speaks particularly to those looking for spiritual peace in a busy modern world.

Well known for his appearances on TV and radio, Christopher Jamison once again shows his ability to communicate spiritual insights in an accessible way.

Finding the Language of Grace: Rediscovering Transcendence focuses on the transcendent experiences of grace that we struggle to talk about in today's very business-like culture. Abbot Christopher shows how the ways we listen and speak, read and write can all be channels of grace. 

The power and the pain of grace resonate throughout the book, offering a new perspective on healing the loneliness and mistrust experienced by many, as well as on the turbulence and political extremes of today's world. How do we restore trust? How can we listen well? What is the right way to read the signs of the times? And how can we revitalise the language of grace in our day?