Biography & Autobiography : Religious

Set against the backdrop of the witchcraft trial of his mother, this lively biography of Johannes Kepler – 'the Protestant Galileo' and 16th century mathematician and astronomer – reveals the surprisingly spiritual nature of the quest of early modern science. In the style of Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter , Connor's book brings to life the tidal forces of Reformation, Counter–Reformation, and social upheaval. Johannes Kepler, who discovered the three basic laws of planetary motion, was persecuted for his support of the Copernican system. After a neighbour accused his mother of witchcraft, Kepler quit his post as the Imperial mathematician to defend her. James Connor tells Kepler's story as a pilgrimage, a spiritual journey into the modern world through war and disease and terrible injustice, a journey reflected in the evolution of Kepler's geometrical model of the cosmos into a musical model, harmony into greater harmony. The leitmotif of the witch trial adds a third dimension to Kepler's biography by setting his personal life within his own times. The acts of this trial, including Kepler's letters and the accounts of the witnesses, although published in their original German dialects, had never before been translated into English. Echoing some of Dava Sobel's work for Galileo's Daughter , Connor has translated the witch trial documents into English. With a great respect for the history of these times and the life of this man, Connor's accessible story illuminates the life of Kepler, the man of science, but also Kepler, a man of uncommon faith and vision. more...

Price: $11.95

This intimate, affectionate portrait of Pope John Paul II by his longtime secretary and confidant reveals fascinating new details about the opinions, hopes, fears, and dramatic life of this public man. “I had accompanied him for almost forty years: twelve in Kraków and then twenty-seven in Rome. more...

Price: $17.95

A Recipe for an Emperor, a Classic of Everyday Philosophy. A Recipe for an Emperor, a Classic of Everyday Philosophy. So live as indifferent to the world and all worldly objects, as one who liveth by himself alone upon some desert hill... Let them behold and see a man... living according to the true nature of man. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, emperor of Rome, was an intensely private man with intensely public obligations. His notes on the proper way to conduct one's life, for either an ordinary man or a ruler of the civilized world, were in large part written during Rome's campaign against the barbarian Quadi in Germania, shortly before his death. more...

Price: $4.99

Meet Laura Van Ryn and Whitney Cerak: one buried under the wrong name, one in a coma and being cared for by the wrong family. This shocking case of mistaken identity stunned the country and made national news. Would it destroy a family? Shatter their faith? Push two families into bitterness, resentment, and guilt?. Read this unprecedented story of two traumatized families who describe their ordeal and explore the bond sustaining and uniting them as they deal with their bizarre reversal of life lost and life found. And join Whitney Cerak, the sole surviving student, as she comes to terms with her new identity, forever altered, yet on the brink of new beginnings. Mistaken Identity weaves a complex tale of honesty, vulnerability, loss, hope, faith, and love in the face of one of the strangest twists of circumstances imaginable. more...

Price: $17.99

My Schools and Schoolmasters is Hugh Miller's account of his extraordinary life - from the hardships of is early life in Cromarty, in North Eastern Scotland, where he originally worked as a stonemason, to his later years as a scientist, journalist, lecturer and defender of Christianity against the Evolutionists. By the time of his tragic suicide in 1856, Miller's pioneering work in the field of Geology had secured his place as one of the foremost thinkers of his time, while his writing - on subjects as diverse as poetry, folklore, education, history and religion - had made him one of the best known of Victorian literary figures, admired by the likes of Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens and John Rusdkin. Written with wit, humour and humanity, Miller's autobiography is both a remarkable personal narrative and a fascinating picture of nineteenth century Scottish life. more...

Price: $8.99