An unknown author writes an unlikely book and inadvertently sparks an improbable global movement.

The manuscript was written longhand on a yellow pad in a small Oregon town by a Quaker pastor describing twelve ancient Christian disciplines (the very definition of the term unlikely). But publishers at Harper & Row saw something special in what Richard Foster had written and took a risk.

The movement kindled by the book developed slowly, almost imperceptibly. But once it caught hold, it exploded into flame.

Celebration of Discipline was conceived during a period in history that Charles Dickens might describe as being the best of times and the worst of times. From its inception, American culture had been linked to Christian faith and values. We were one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The 1950s and early '60s saw the peak years of American churchgoing, when 70 percent of citizens attended church. But as the decade of the '60s stretched on, values and perspectives that had long been accepted as foundational to American faith and life began to come into question.

When Celebration of Discipline spotlighted the superficiality that had come to characterize Christianity, it ignited the spiritual formation movement by prescribing the ancient spiritual practices as the necessary corrective. Michael Maudlin, religion publisher at HarperCollins, acknowledges, People do not remember how Christians thought about spiritual formation in Christ before Celebration of Discipline was published. Most everybody now thinks it is natural for evangelicals to practice spiritual Disciplines. But it was not always so. Celebration of Discipline serves as a wonderful window into how a book can change a subculture.

This is the story of that book.

Charles Middleberg is a Holocaust survivor. But when you hear his story in person, he prefers to be called a witness.

Charles and his family are Polish Jews, living in France during World War II. After the German invasion in May 1940, Charles's father is taken away. Soon after, his mother is taken as well, and for the next five years, Charles and his brother will have their lives saved - again and again - by a series of small miracles.

Some of these miracles happen by chance, but most occur because of the concern and care of people who simply decide to do what is right, at exactly the right moment, at great risk to themselves, at a time of great evil when doing nothing would have been the safe and easy thing to do.

This is the message Charles brings as he tells his story of perseverance and survival, and about the dangers of hate, especially during today's troubled times when hate is again on the rise. He is a witness to the greatest crime against humanity; he is the evidence - the living proof of that crime - and when Charles retells his story, we, too, become witnesses.

With the same biblical lens employed by the founders of the Quaker movement, Paul Anderson explores what it looks like to be the body of Christ. He describes in practical terms a journey that is Christian rather than denominational. And he lovingly, humbly invites you to follow Jesus.

Trauma creates substantial pain and suffering and can inevitably create cycles of dysfunction that may span generations. We can and should break these cycles and build bridges of trust and empowerment that renew hope and help families heal, not just for this generation but for the sake of all those to follow.

The good news is that children are resilient and have innate abilities to recover from their painful past, heal the invisible wounds of trauma, and rebuild their lives. But this will not occur without the perseverance and hard work of good people who care deeply about children.

If you are a parent or caregiver whose children have been traumatized by events like war, forced displacement, disaster, abuse, neglect, or violence, this book is for you. This book will increase your understanding about your empowering role, what your children need, how they develop, how trauma interrupts their development, how to show your children healing love and attention, and how to use community resources to achieve that. It will also suggest ways to take care of yourself in the process.

If you are a mental health professional, a teacher, an advocate, or community leader, this book is also for you.

Much of what was controversial more than 300 years ago when Robert Barclay wrote An Apology for the True Christian Divinity still exists in contemporary religious debate. This Quaker theologian confronts with boldness issues of individual concern such as the dynamics of redemption, the Bible and authority, and eternal security. He also addresses crucial matters for the corporate life such as the nature of the church, its ministry and sacraments, gathered worship, and the relationship between church and state. As Barclay develops these issues, a Christianity emerges in which Christ's revelation through the Spirit is central to each aspect. It is a faith that challenges shallower concepts and is enhanced by the drama of intense opposition that Barclay encountered.

The Apology has always been the classic systematic statement of the Quaker faith. But the lucid prose of the original text suffered the same hardening of the linguistic arteries that overtook the King James Version of the Bible. Obscure words and sentence structure have been eliminated in this edition, and the addition of annotations enhances the text.

Whether you are an ecumenist trying to understand beliefs that were significant to Methodism, challenging to Calvinism, and frequently in rapport with Catholicism; or a Quaker seeking a better understanding of your own faith; you will find Barclay's Apology enlightening.

If you have never witnessed the Holy Land, this volume will bring you one step closer to humanizing the people behind the news headlines. It is a riveting account of the various developments since the Second Intifada and the struggle for peace in the Holy Land, including the competing narratives that stall progress toward justice and peace in Palestine. This book challenges everyone to seek a third way in their approach to the Palestinian-Israeli struggle and contributes significantly to the narration of the Ramallah Friends School history.

Everett Cattell presents Christian holiness through the lens of the Bible and from experience. First published in 1963, Cattlell's insights remain remarkably relevant. A topic easily misunderstood as only pertinent to the spiritually elite is made practical for everyday living.

Revelation speaks to the reality that we are caught in the fray of cosmic conflict. We are guilty. We've already been contaminated. But it's not too late for us to exit empire and enter the kingdom. We are yet both victim and victimizer. We have healing work to do, and we must take responsibility for the ways in which we have benefited from and been complicit with the religion of empire.

This is the truth of Revelation. God wants to liberate us in body, heart, soul, and mind. We need rescue, and the way we read Revelation determines how we define ourselves and our communities in relation to empire and in resistance to it. Reading Revelation as Western Christians have over the past 150 years, as a book predicting the end of the world, leads us away from the book's original intention. Let's start over:

1. Revelation reveals how scapegoating functions within empire to define its own boundaries and contours as being over and against wicked others.
2. Revelation critiques wealth and shows that even in the first century there was prophetic critique against an economic system that was based on abundance for some, while exploiting the rest.
3. Revelation demonstrates the importance of liturgy as something that forms people into the likeness of either empire or the lamb.
4. Revelation reveals an alternative social order which becomes the center of resistance rooted in a vision of what the book describes as the multitude.

May your hearts and imaginations be revived, made more resilient and ever more focused on the needs of the world that surrounds us. Let us stop at nothing to make space for others and amplify the voices of those who the powers and principalities wish to silence. And in the end, may you find that you have already, always, been on the inside of the multitude, surrounding the lamb of God.

It was 1970. Fighting between the Jordanian Armed Forces and the Palestine Liberation Organization had been escalating, but a Quaker serving at a school for Palestinian children in Ramallah reported that things were quiet there: There are few signs of the war here. I see an occasional army patrol with their helmets and guns, and each night jets fly over on their way to attack in Jordan.

That quiet would come to an end just days later: It is impossible to teach. Most of my classes have been out on strike all week. Teachers break down in tears. We have spent the past few days preparing the school campuses to receive refugees from the fighting. Classrooms and dining rooms have been filled with beds-seventy in the Girls School.

That Quaker was Max Carter, a conscientious objector who would return to the Middle East again and again over the years. Growing up on a farm in Indiana, I never imagined that most of my adult life would be affected more by the Mideast than by the American Midwest

Max reflects on his travels in the region and the lessons he learned from his growing network of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim friends in this memoir covering the time from 1970 through the second Intifada. But the most important lessons may have been for students Max brought from the United States to see for themselves what it's like on the ground in places like Bethlehem, Hebron, and so many others.

One of those students spoke to Max about the purpose this experience had given her: 'I want to learn both Arabic and Hebrew, ' she told me, 'so I can tell each other's stories.' To be sure, there are stories to tell.

There is no greater privilege in the Christian life than to serve as a spiritual leader within the body of Christ. Unfortunately, we are in the midst of a genuine crisis in the church today. Pastors and other spiritual leaders are leaving vocational ministry faster than we can replace them. This is due primarily to the crippling effects of burnout, a pastoral pathology resulting from a lethal combination of extraordinary job-related stress and woefully inadequate self-care. Most of us know someone experiencing burnout. They might be serving in your church right now, or more than likely, they may have recently left. They may be your friends; they may be part of your own family. So what is the cure? We find clues in the life of the prophet Elijah, in his practices of physical refreshment, spiritual renewal, and vocational realignment. And as you will see, when practiced on a regular basis these renewing rituals or rhythms of grace prove to be life-saving disciplines for spiritual leaders.

Walter R. Williams presents a picture of the courage, faith, devotion, and sacrifice that have been displayed throughout the history of Quakerism. Biographical sketches of Quaker leaders challenge the reader to Christian integrity and selfless service.

Ruth Lor started life Chinese in a small Canadian town. Driven by curiosity, a yen for adventure, and a wish to be useful, she managed to spend her life fighting racial discrimination.

In Washington, D.C., she fought segregation by sitting in at whites only restaurants and swimming in whites only pools. She planted trees in Mexico, painted houses for Inuit victims of tuberculosis in the Canadian Arctic, and helped distribute food to refugees in Taiwan. When China reopened to foreigners after its Cultural Revolution, Ruth wrote the first English-language guidebook about that enormous country.

Ruth covered the war in Vietnam, crossed Himalayan passes on foot and horseback, and faced down an angry elephant in Africa. She worked in India to reduce prejudice against that country's caste of transgender hijras. She and her husband housed refugees in their Maryland home after the Vietnam War ended.

Now in her nineties, Ruth still works with refugees, and she still brightens her corner of the world, wherever she is.

The North American Christian church of the early twenty-first century finds itself in a period of decline. A growing percentage of young adults are not entering the front doors of churches while at the same time older and previously dedicated Christians are leaving. Coinciding with the deflation of the Western church is the explosion in popular culture of the mindfulness movement, which emphasizes meditation practices derived from Buddhism. These concurrent phenomena--the decline of Christendom in North America and the rise of a Westernized form of Buddhism and various secularized applications of Buddhist meditative practice--form an interesting juxtaposition that warrants exploration.

The writings of George Fox, Edward Burrough, and Margaret Fell demonstrate that at least these three, first-generation Friends, were reading the Bible with empathy. They stood within the thought and life-world of the earliest Christians and looked at the world through the window of biblical faith. For them the heart of the Bible lay in its personal narratives-the stories of living men, women, and communities; unlike many Christians, then and now, they did not look at the Bible as a legal constitution. They reveled in the poetic language of the Bible's rich symbol and metaphor. Out of this empathetic reading emerged not only some of their strange behaviors, such as going naked in public as a sign, but also their innovative understanding of the Christian way of life-their anti-war testimony and commitment to social justice (through their empathetic Lamb's War reading of the Book of Revelation), their insistence on the full equality of women and men in preaching and declaring the Christian message.

Can a sermon reach beyond the hour it is presented? Does our world still have a place for sermons? Are we in an era that despises sermonizing-an age in which the ego is often fed with advice to look within yourself for truth? Arthur O. Roberts puts these questions and doubts to rest. Throughout the fifty sermons and addresses in The Sacred Ordinary, you'll find soaring idealistic reflections alongside down-to-earth, practical advice, followed by plain-speaking poetic verse, writes Corey Beals in the foreword. The Sacred Ordinary, a celebration of nearly forty years of public ministry, brings together pulpit and pen, offering the eyes what was previously presented to the ears. As a reader you get to set your own pace. Study, probe, contemplate, pray, and discuss. Listen carefully for God's message and be prepared to respond. Look for ways to encounter the sacred in the ordinary.

Missions by the Spirit captures Quaker (Friends Church) dynamics in global outreach. Author Ron Stansell shows that Quakers have carried out some aspects of missions differently than other evangelicals. Consciously and unconsciously, twentieth-century Friends were influenced by traditions and beliefs about the Holy Spirit, interpersonal relationships of peace and harmony, convictions that the human condition involves both physical and spiritual needs, and the belief that a passionately holy life full of integrity was required of them as missionaries. The bold witness of early Friends includes biblical teaching about the equality of all human beings, the work of God in the hearts of people everywhere, loyalty to Scripture, the centrality of Christ, the possibility of culture being transformed, and the personal guidance of the Holy Spirit. The theology and practice of Friends is evident in the mission work of twentieth-century Friends missionaries Arthur B. Chilson, R. Esther Smith, Everett L. Cattell, and Jack L. Willcuts. Rather than offering comprehensive biographies of these four pioneer missionaries, Stansell focuses on the principles that make his subjects worthy models for Spirit-directed service.

Befriending the Prophets intends to help readers understand and cherish the prophets for who they were and what they said. Over years of teaching, Howard Macy met folk who were both curious and eager to know more about the prophets, and he often met readers who were puzzled or even put off by them. This book reaches out to both groups. It considers lingering questions, misunderstandings, and other barriers to understanding. (Who were these people? Why did they say yes? Why didn't they quit? How did they know what to say? Why do they seem hard to read? Were they just weird or cranky?) It also explores the prophets' practical guidance about how to live well in ordinary life. Reading it will invite you to embrace the core of their message and their faithfulness even today.