Religious Biographies

Educated meets The Vow in this story of liberation and self-empowerment - an inspiring and stranger-than-fiction memoir of growing up in and breaking free from the Children of God, an oppressive, extremist religious cult.

MercyMe’s crossover hit, “I Can Only Imagine,” has touched millions of people around the world. But few know about the pain, redemption, and healing that inspired it. Now Bart Millard, award-winning recording artist and lead singer of MercyMe, shares how his dad’s transformation from abusive father to man of God sparked a divine moment in music history.

This biography evokes the pervasive importance of religion to Queen Victoria's life, but also that life's centrality to the religion of Victorians around the globe. The first comprehensive exploration of Victoria's religiosity, it shows how moments in her life - from her accession to her marriage and her successive bereavements - enlarged how she defined and lived her faith.

Hudson survived his perilous maiden voyage to his beloved China. With his heart set in determined obedience to God, and trusting the provision of the One who had called, Hudson overcame persecution and almost overwhelming personal losses to bring to bring God's truth to the "ripe harvest fields" of China. Today, Hudson Taylor's story continues to challenge and inspire believers young and old to carry the anchoring gospel message, regardless of personal trial or hardships, to those who are adrift and without hope.

In Seven More Men, the sequel to the enormously successful Seven Men, number one New York Times best-selling author Eric Metaxas offers more captivating stories of some of the most inspiring men in history. A gallery of greatness comes to life as Metaxas reveals men who faced insurmountable struggles and challenges with victorious resolve.

George Müller was a Christian evangelist and director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England. The Life of Trust contains his diary up to 1860, supplemented by autobiographical notes at the start and throughout the text. Mueller founded a number of orphanages in England in the 19th century whilst refusing to personally benefit in any way, fully trusting that God would provide in his financial needs. Throughout his life, he relied on God’s goodness in order to feed, clothe, and house thousands of English children under his care.

Dallin H. Oaks may not have seemed the likeliest choice to become an Apostle. His life path had been anything but conventional. He was only seven when his mother became a widow. His young adulthood saw him joining the National Guard and marrying at nineteen. But all along that path, the Lord was preparing him for the call that would eventually come. This engaging biography by noted historian Richard E. Turley, Jr. takes the listener on a fascinating journey through the life of an extraordinary leader.

In this poignant and disturbing memoir of lost innocence, coercion, survival, and healing, Dianne Lake chronicles her years with Charles Manson, revealing for the first time how she became the youngest member of his Family and offering new insights into one of the 20th century's most notorious criminals and life as one of his "girls". While much has been written about Charles Manson, this riveting account from an actual Family member is a chilling portrait that recreates in vivid detail one of the most horrifying chapters in modern American history.

In one decisive moment, Cameron Townsend understood that God had called him to translate the Bible into the language of his Guatemalan friends. For Cam, the obstacles were small when compared to the growing reward of helping the diverse people of Guatemala, Mexico, and Peru read God's life-changing Word for themselves. Quick on his feet and slow to give up, Cam started Wycliffe Bible Translators with the dream of making the Good News available in every language. Since 1942, Wycliffe has translated Scripture into hundreds of languages, spreading God's Word to people all over the world.

This is the powerful story of Gladys Aylward. Without formal education or a missionary organization to back her, Gladys raised her own finances for the overland trip that would bring her to the country and people that God had etched so deeply on her heart.... China! What follows is an amazing adventure of faith and determination. Gladys Aylward, a housemaid from England, dared to trust God in the face of dire and seemingly hopeless circumstances. Her amazing adventure of faith and determination is one of the truly great missionary stories of our era.

This book recounts the history of the Watchtower/Jehovah's Witness' movement in an autobiographical style. A. H. Macmillan was baptized by the Bible students in 1900 and served at Brooklyn Bethel headquarters until his death in 1966.

As a lifelong student of Scripture, Kathie Lee Gifford has always desired a deeper understanding of God's word and a deeper knowledge of God himself. But it wasn't until she began studying the biblical texts in their original Hebrew and Greek - along with actually hiking the ancient paths of Israel - that she found the fulfillment of those desires. As you journey through The Rock, the Road, and the Rabbi, you'll also find additional content from Messianic Rabbi Jason Sobel throughout the book.

When she arrived at a clinic, usually five hundred, sometimes a thousand people were there to greet her. Helen's reputation as the unstoppable Mama Luka had gone before her—she could do more to heal a sick child or baby than all the witch doctors in the area combined. This was the work God had called her to pioneer, and that belief encouraged her.

C. S. Lewis is the 20th century's most widely read Christian writer and J. R. R. Tolkien its most beloved mythmaker. For three decades they and their closest associates formed a literary club known as the Inklings, which met weekly in Lewis' Oxford rooms and a nearby pub. They read aloud from works in progress, argued about anything that caught their fancy, and gave one another invaluable companionship, inspiration, and criticism.

Graveyard chronicles a host of Ed and Lorraine Warren's most harrowing, fact-based cases of ghostly visitations, demonic stalking, heart-wrenching otherworldly encounters, and horrifying comeuppance from the spirit world. If you don't believe, you will. And whether you listen alone in the dead of night or in the middle of a sunny day, you'll be forever haunted by its gallery of specters eager to feed on your darkest dread.

In the tradition of Educated and The Glass Castle, this shattering and poetic memoir from a brave new voice tells the story of the author’s experience in an apocalyptic cult, and how understanding the natural world was her key to escape—and survival.

A Chance in the World is the unbelievably true story of a wounded and broken boy destined to become a man of resilience, determination, and vision. Through it all, Steve's story teaches us that no matter how broken our past, no matter how great our misfortunes, we have it in us to create a new beginning and to build a place where love awaits.

Beloved contemporary Christian musician Rich Mullins lived his life with abandon for God, leaving the spotlight to teach music among a Navajo community. An accident cut his life short in 1997, but his songs and ragamuffin spirit continue to teach many. In honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Rich's homegoing, this edition of Rich Mullins: An Arrow Pointing to Heaven delivers an intimate look at the experiences that sparked praise hits and the values behind his Christ-like candor.

For a long time, Edie thought she had escaped. It started in an Appalachian trailer park, where a young girl dreamed of becoming a doctor. But every day Edie woke up to her reality: a poverty-stricken world full of alcohol and violence, where getting out seemed impossible. She taught herself to drive a stick shift truck at 12 years old so she could get her drunk daddy home from the bar. She spent Saturdays at Brushy Mountain prison visiting her incarcerated cousin. She watched adults eat while her stomach gnawed.

When Dorothy Day died in 1980, the New York Times eulogized her as “a nonviolent social radical of luminous personality...founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and leader for more than 50 years in numerous battles of social justice.” Here, in her own words, this remarkable woman tells of her early life as a young journalist in the crucible of Greenwich Village political and literary thought in the 1920s, and of her momentous conversion to Catholicism that meant the end of a Bohemian lifestyle and common-law marriage.