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Spirituality and Religion July 2026 |
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| Beyond Wellness: How Restoring the Religious Roots of Spiritual Practices Can Heal Us by Liz BucarChallenging our contemporary fixation on “wellness” (along with the many promises made by the attendant industry), this guide traces ma variety of self-care ideas back to their religious and spiritual traditions. Looking beyond self-optimization toward deeper questions of meaning, ethics, and caring for those around us, readers are encouraged to take old practices and make them their own. |
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| Love Thy Stranger: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience... by Bart D. EhrmanBiblical scholar Bart D. Ehrman turns to early Christian texts to explore what Jesus originally taught about loving outsiders, enemies, and those on the margins. While the ideas themselves may feel familiar, this accessible study places them in historical context, tracing how a radical ethic of care took shape, and how it continues to echo, albeit imperfectly, in modern moral discourse. |
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| We Mend with Gold: An Immigrant Daughter's Reckoning with American Christianity by Kristin T. LeeIn this searching debut, physician Kristin T. Lee draws on the Japanese art of kintsugi to reflect on her own Christian faith -- broken and reshaped after growing up in a strict immigrant church setting. Weaving personal story with theology, she explores what it means to question inherited beliefs and to piece together something more expansive and truer to her lived experience. |
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| Beyond Life and Death: The Way of True Freedom by Jet LiBest known for his martial arts films, Jet Li turns inward in this reflective memoir, drawing on Buddhist philosophy and his own life experiences to make sense of both loss and survival, and the search for meaning itself. He explores how confronting impermanence can reshape priorities and open the door to a more centered kind of peace. |
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| Engaged Compassion: Seven Practices to Cultivate Resilience, Connection, and a... by Lobsang Tenzin Negi, PhD; foreword by His Holiness the DaLai LamaRooted in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, this thoughtful work brings together contemplative practice and research on how we think, feel, and relate to others, exploring compassion as something we can actually learn. With a focus on practical steps and real‑world application, it offers a grounded approach to developing empathy in a world where it can be hard to find. |
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Conversations with My Rabbi: Timeless Teachings for a Fractured World
by Rabbi Eli Schlanger
A radically hopeful exploration of faith, identity, morality, and purpose grounded in timeless Jewish principles, captured in a series of profound conversations between Nikki Goldstein and the man who saved her life and became her spiritual mentor, Rabbi Eli Schlanger--whose teachings and wisdom endure beyond his tragic killing in the December 2025 Bondi Beach Chanukah terrorist attack in Sydney, Australia. Conversations with My Rabbi is an unforgettable true story and a profound book of wisdom, offering timeless teachings for living well in an uncertain world. In September 2022, Nikki Goldstein was comatose, near death in a Sydney ICU when her daughter spotted Rabbi Eli Schlanger in the hallway. Nikki's husband asked the rabbi to come pray for her. Standing beside her bed, he blew the shofar and whispered ancient prayers over Nikki. One day later, Nikki began recovering from the life-threatening infection. The doctors called it a miracle. As she regained her health, this secular Jewish woman and the devout rabbi formed an unlikely and beautiful friendship. Coming from profoundly different worlds--one grounded in religious tradition, the other in temporal modernity--they discovered they were seeking answers to the same essential questions. Together, they turned to ancient Jewish teachings for guidance on living more ethically, compassionately, and spiritually. In January 2025, they began to record their conversations as a book. But just weeks before they were to write the final chapter, Eli was murdered on Sydney's Bondi Beach in Australia's second deadliest mass-casualty shooting. He died before lighting the menorah at his annual Chanukah by the Sea celebration, an event he'd run for eighteen years. Devastated by shock and grief, Nikki refused to be silenced by terror. She vowed that Eli's legacy and his mission to bring light, love, and moral clarity to the world would not die, because his teachings were more necessary than ever. Reflecting the dialogue-driven Jewish intellectual tradition, the question and answer format of Conversations with My Rabbi invites readers to ponder, to question, and to define their own beliefs as they follow Nikki and Eli's real, raw, tender, sometimes funny, sometimes fierce, yet always deeply human conversations centered around the timeless ethical teachings known as the Noahide Laws, tied to the biblical Noah: universal principles rooted in Jewish wisdom that speak to all who seek meaning, moral clarity, and hope in their lives. Questions include: Tell Me Why I Should Believe in God?Why Are We So Afraid to Talk About God?What If People Are Just ... Terrible?Do Animals Have Souls?Is Stealing Really That Bad?What's So Scary About Sex?What Does Justice Look Like? Conversations with My Rabbi is a repudiation of the madness we are experiencing today. It is Rabbi Eli's eternal gift--a guide for all, regardless of faith, who struggle to live with integrity, compassion, and courage in a divided and uncertain world. Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.
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| Malcolm in the Desert: Wisdom from the Spiritual Transformation of Malcolm X by Ilyasah ShabazzWritten by Malcolm X’s daughter, this account looks beyond the public figure to explore a quieter period of spiritual searching and transformation in his life, centered around his pilgrimage to Mecca. Drawing on family memory and historical context, it traces his shift from religious certainty toward a more expansive vision of faith and human connection, offering a portrait of change that feels especially relevant for readers navigating their own evolving beliefs about identity, faith, and justice. |
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| Reality in Ruins: How Conspiracy Theory Became an American Evangelical Crisis by Jared Stacy, PhDIn this impassioned debut, former pastor Jared Stacy looks at what happens when people stop agreeing on what’s true. Drawing on his own experience inside evangelical communities, he explores the attraction of certainty and conspiracy -- and what it might take to find a way forward with more honesty and humility. |
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| The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America by Raphael G. WarnockIn this deeply passionate reflection, Senator Raphael Warnock (also a pastor) draws on scripture, personal experience, and a deep commitment to justice to consider what faith looks like in public life. Grounding his thinking in the prophetic vision of Isaiah, he connects it to issues like inequality, gun violence, and incarceration -- inviting readers to imagine a more just and compassionate society. |
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| A God-Shaped Nation: Five Hundred Years of Religion in America by Brook Wilensky-LanfordIn this wide‑ranging history, Brook Wilensky‑Lanford explores how religion has shaped American life from its earliest beginnings to the present day. Tracing tensions between diversity and dominance, belief and power, she offers a nuanced look at how faith continues to influence the United States today -- for better and for worse. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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Glenview Public Library
1930 Glenview Rd.
Glenview, Illinois 60025
847-729-7500www.glenviewpl.org/ |
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