Religious Biographies

Ida Scudder was sure she would never follow in the footsteps of her medical missionary father. But when she witnessed Indian women dying because their religious beliefs didn't allow male doctors to treat them, Ida heard herself pray, "God, if You want me to, I will spend the rest of my life in India trying to help these women." Serving for nearly sixty years, Dr. Ida Scudder lived out the truth and compassion found in Christ.

Since he was a small boy, Mosab Hassan Yousef has had an inside view of the deadly terrorist group Hamas. The oldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding member of Hamas and its most popular leader, young Mosab assisted his father for years in his political activities while being groomed to assume his legacy, politics, status...and power. But everything changed when Mosab turned away from terror and violence and embraced instead the teachings of another famous Middle East leader.

Burke Masters had the perfect game plan for his life: he was going to become a Major League Baseball player. As a star infielder for Mississippi State with a game-winning grand slam to help his team reach the College World Series, he was well on his way to the career of his dreams. But little did he know that his life-changing call would not be from a recruiter to join the Major Leagues—it would be from God to become a priest.

On September 11, 2001, Lisa Beamer was thrust into the national spotlight after her husband, Todd, became an American hero by preventing terrorist hijackers from almost certainly flying United Flight 93 into the White House or the United States Capitol. Instead, Todd led a group of passengers to resist the hijackers, forcing the plane to crash into a Pennsylvania field. Todd and the other heroes of Flight 93 gave their lives so that untold others would be spared. Nothing could be more heroic. Lisa is now telling that story, and much more.

At the age of five, Megan Phelps-Roper began protesting homosexuality and other alleged vices alongside fellow members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Founded by her grandfather and consisting almost entirely of her extended family, the tiny group would gain worldwide notoriety for its pickets at military funerals and celebrations of death and tragedy.

A Life in the Spirit chronicles beloved author and speaker Ralph Martin’s journey from the early days of the Catholic charismatic renewal to become one of the most courageous voices defending the truth of the Gospel during an age of dissension and disbelief.

Why is religion still around in the 21st century? Why do so many still believe? And how do various traditions still shape the way people experience everything from sexuality to politics, whether they are religious or not? In Why Religion? Elaine Pagels looks to her own life to help address these questions. Drawing upon the perspectives of neurologists, anthropologists, and historians, as well as her own research, Pagels opens unexpected ways of understanding persistent religious aspects of our culture.

The world's most famous demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren, were called in to help an average American family who were assaulted by forces too awesome, too powerful, and too dark to be stopped. It's a true story, supported by dozens of eyewitnesses - neighbors, priests, police, journalists, and researchers.

Nearly a decade after Spain's conquest of Mexico, the future of Christianity on the American continent was very much in doubt. Confronted with a hostile colonial government and Native Americans wary of conversion, the newly-appointed bishop-elect of Mexico wrote to tell the King of Spain that, unless there was a miracle, the continent would be lost.

Brigham Young was a rough-hewn craftsman from New York whose impoverished and obscure life was electrified by the Mormon faith. He trudged around the United States and England to gain converts for Mormonism, spoke in spiritual tongues, married more than 50 women, and eventually transformed a barren desert into his vision of the Kingdom of God. While previous accounts of his life have been distorted by hagiography or polemical exposé, John Turner provides a fully realized portrait of a colossal figure in American religion, politics, and westward expansion.

JEANNE GUYON is Christianity's best-known and most influential woman in church history. Her autobiography has moved the hearts of believers for three centuries. Even today, in France, she is one of the greatest figures of French history. Guyon's influence reached the court of Louis XIV. Jealousy ensued, and she was imprisoned in the infamous Bastille. For most of her life she suffered persecution at the hands of the church, because she believed all Christians could have a rich prayer life. Perhaps John Wesley summed it up best: "Guyon is the greatest Christian to rise since the first century.

Amazing Grace is a rags-to-riches story that charts the many ways a young man squanders opportunities and experiences misery and poverty, only to unexpectedly rise to a level of respectability and privilege. This dramatic retelling of his life story is a tale of romance, in which young love sparks wild actions, only to be followed by years of seemingly hopeless longing, before eventually being crowned by a long and happy marriage. Lastly, it is a story of grace of a youth who rejects God repeatedly, only to be rescued by divine mercy that reaches deeper than he ever imagined.

In 1992 Sripad Jagannatha Das was asked if he would do an exclusive interview with the Maharishi in Switzerland. The author readily agreed as the reclusive spiritual master almost never met the press and was embarking on an ambitious mass meditation program to purify vast areas of the United States. After a great deal of negotiation, the two finally got together on Christmas Eve and had a prolonged, stirring conversation that is documented here.

To Love and Be Loved is a firsthand account of Mother Teresa’s last years, and the first book ever to detail her dealings with worldly matters. We see her gracefully navigate the opportunities and challenges of leadership, the perils of celebrity, and the humiliations and triumphs of aging. We also catch her indulging in chocolate ice cream, making jokes about mini-skirts, and telling the president of the United States he’s wrong. Above all, we see her extraordinary devotion to God and to the very poorest of His children.

Aimee Semple McPherson was honored by Time magazine as one of 20th Century's 100 Women of The Year and was one of the most famous women of the 1920s and 1930s. She was greeted by multitudes wherever she arrived and usually presented with the Key to the City. Her meetings packed the largest indoor arenas. And her visits were always deemed a blessing to every town she visited.

Still Learning is India Oxenberg’s intimate, first-person account of how she was lured into and, seven years later, escaped from the NXIVM cult, DOS. As the secret sorority within NXIVM's vast Ponzi network, DOS was created by Keith Raniere and his acolytes to serve as a source of "slaves" to Keith and the other “masters”. Despite the fantastical headlines, the focus of Still Learning reflects what many parents and age peers of India’s will recognize as a far more familiar 20-something conundrum - a new adult trying to discover who she is.

"Sometimes I want to spend hours talking with my best friends about boys and fashion and school and life. I want to go to the gym; I want my hair to look nice; I want to be allowed to wear jeans. I want to be a normal young woman living in America, sometimes. But I want other things more. All the time. I want to be spiritually and emotionally filled every day. I want to be loved and cuddled by a hundred children and never go a day without laughing.

Since the 16th century we have been fascinated by Henry VIII and the man who stood beside him, guiding him, enriching him, and enduring the king's insatiable appetites and violent outbursts until Henry ordered his beheading in July 1540. After a decade of sleuthing in the royal archives, Diarmaid MacCulloch has emerged with a tantalizing new understanding of Henry's mercurial chief minister, the inscrutable and utterly compelling Thomas Cromwell.

These 11 personal conversion accounts are unlike any you’ve ever listened to; they’re packed with biblical theological and historical proofs for Catholicism. Each year thousands of atheists, Evangelicals, Fundamentalists, and Pentecostals are being surprised by Catholic truth—and these converts tell you why.

The Sri Sai Satcharitra is more than a book–it is a living embodiment of Shirdi Sai Baba's teachings, miracles, and interactions with his devotees. Regular listening of this holy text, infused with love and devotion, opens a portal to wisdom, enlightenment, and solutions to life's challenges. It supports you in your life's endeavors, shining a light on your path like a beacon in the ocean of worldly existence.