Best Spiritual Books of 2005
The Spirituality & Health Awards - 2005
Selected by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
We are pleased to announce our choices of the 50 books that have most impressed and inspired us in 2005. We have made this selection from the more than 300 books reviewed during the year on this web site. Since we only review books that we want to recommend to you for your spiritual journey, this selection actually represents the best of the best.
We have organized this list by a major theme or spiritual practice covered in the book. (These are not subcategories of the awards.) Through diverse approaches, drawing upon the wisdom and practices of the world's religions, these titles explore the quest for meaning and purpose, wholeness and healing, commitment and community, contemplation and social activism.
We congratulate the authors and publishers of these exceptional contributions to today's spiritual renaissance.
ANGER
The Anger Diet: Thirty Days to Stress-Free Living by Brenda Shoshana (Andrews McMeel Publishing, paperback) is a thoughtful and practical resource on dealing with anger in your life.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Born Again and Again: The Surprising Gifts of a Fundamentalist Childhood by Jon M. Sweeney (Paraclete Press, hardcover), a progressive Christian's autobiographical jaunt through his past fundamentalist experiences, models the spiritual practices of openness and hospitality.
BEAUTY
How Rembrandt Reveals Your Beautiful Imperfect Self: Life Lessons from the Master by Roger Housden (Harmony Books, hardcover) reveals how the artist's paintings speak to our spiritual perceptions of self, beauty, vision, meaning, and aging.
BEING PRESENT
How Now: 100 Ways to Celebrate the Present Moment by Raphael Cushnir (Chronicle Books, hardcover) includes 100 spiritual practices to help you stay focused in the moment and savor the riches available to you there.
BIBLE
The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love by John Shelby Spong (HarperSanFrancisco, hardcover) is a clarion call for reformation addressed to progressive Christians and others.
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions by Sister Helen Prejean (Random House, hardcover) makes a good case against capital punishment and for the positive value of compassion.
CHANGE
The Five Things We Cannot Change . . . and The Happiness We Find by Embracing Them by David Richo (Shambhala, hardcover) presents ideas and spiritual practices that are gateways to contentment.
CHILDREN
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv (Algonquin Books, hardcover) is a hard-hitting and revealing study of today's wired generation of children who have little or no connection with nature.
CHRISTIANITY
Where God Happens: Discovering Christ in One Another by Rowan Williams (New Seeds, hardcover) presents ways for Christians to grow in holiness and to be a place where God happens for others.
COMPASSION
Compassion: Listening to the Cries of the World by Christina Feldman (Rodmell Press, paperback) is a top-drawer overview of the spiritual practice of compassion.
CONSUMERISM
Hooked! Buddhist Writings on Greed, Desire, and the Urge to Consume, edited by Stephanie Kaza (Shambhala, paperback), offers practices to use to resist the global phenomenon of excessive consumption.
CULTURAL CRITICISM
A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut (Seven Stories Press, hardcover) is vintage Vonnegut filled with wry humor, playfulness, incisive cultural criticism, savage political satire, and spiritual gems.
DREAMS
Kabbalah and the Power of Dreaming: Awakening the Visionary Life by Catherine Shainberg (Inner Traditions, paperback) is an excellent resource designed for those who want to make the most of their imaginations through inner-vision exercises.
EMPATHY
Were You There? Finding Ourselves at the Foot of the Crossby Erik Kolbell (Westminster John Knox Press, hardcover) challenges us to see ourselves in the actions and reactions of those surrounding Jesus during his last days.
ETHICS
To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (Schocken Books, hardcover) is a substantive treatment of the importance of responsibility in Judaism.
EVERYDAY SPIRITUALITY
White China: Finding the Divine in the Everyday by Molly Wolf (Jossey-Bass, paperback) unpacks the spiritual meanings in everyday events and encounters.
FAITH
Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott (Riverhead Books, hardcover) reveals the Christian author's idiosyncratic faith as she finds tiny bits of hope and rebirth in her own experiences.
FASTING
The Sacred Art of Fasting: Preparing to Practice by Thomas Ryan (Skylight Paths, paperback) is an inspiring and down-to-earth manual on the spiritual dimensions of this practice common in many religions.
GRACE
If Grace Is So Amazing, Why Don't We Like It? How God's Radical Love Turns the World Upside Down by Donald McCullough (Jossey-Bass, hardcover) offers a rounded and enticing overview of the linchpin of Christianity.
GRIEVING
Unattended Sorrow: Recovering from Loss and Reviving the Heart by Stephen Levine (Rodale, hardcover) includes concrete spiritual practices for coping with grief and the losses that accumulate over time.
HASIDISM
The Light and Fire of the Baal Shem Tov by Yitzhak Buxbaum (Continuum, hardcover) is a treasure trove of profoundly mystical stories and teachings by the founder of Hasidism.
HOSPITALITY
Gandhi's Hope: Learning from Other Religions as a Path to Peace by Jay McDaniel (Orbis Books, paperback) provides a soul-stirring and enlightening overview of the adventure of finding wisdom in our times.
ICONS
The Icon Reborn by Frederick Franck with Sally Cunneen (Pacem in Terris, paperback) is a subversive work that challenges us to see the Divine within, all around us, and behind the faces of other human beings.
JUDAISM
Jewish With Feeling: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Practice by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi with Joel Segel (Riverhead, hardcover) is a mystical masterpiece filled with spiritual practices and an exciting vision of the future.
KINDNESS
Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness by Marc Ian Barasch (Rodale Books, hardcover) is a highly readable overview of the practice that just may be the best hope for humanity's survival.
LOVE
How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of Loving Relationships by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Atria Books, hardcover) presents helpful and down-to-earth practices developed over the centuries in Tibet for cultivating love and compassion.
MEANING
On the Threshold: Home, Hardwood, and Holiness by Elizabeth J. Andrew (Westview Press, hardcover) is an exquisitely written book that mines the spiritual meanings in the ordinary.
MEMOIR
At the End of Ridge Road by Joseph Bruchac (Milkweed Editions, paperback) is a fine philosophical memoir by the acclaimed Native American writer and storyteller.
MERCY
Merciful Meekness: Becoming a Spiritually Integrated Person by Kerry Walters (Paulist Press, paperback) is a fine spiritual primer on two spiritual attributes advocated by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
MULTIFAITH
Sitting with Sufis: A Christian Experience of Learning Sufism by Mary Blye Howe (Paraclete Press, paperback) is an interfaith gem that ought to embolden others to act upon their deepest yearnings to draw closer to God.
NATURE
The Circle of Life: The Heart's Journey Through the Seasons by Joyce Rupp and Macrina Wiederkehr (Sorin Books, paperback) is a truly wonderful devotional resource about nature as a spiritual teacher.
NOVEL
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd (Viking, hardcover) is a novel about Celtic spirituality, the Sacred Feminine, and God's manifold comings-and-goings in family, nature, rituals of remembrance, love, and marriage.
OPENNESS
Blue Truth: A Spiritual Guide to Life & Death and Love & Sex by David Deida (Sounds True, paperback) is an in-depth salute to the spiritual practice of openness.
PEACE
Peace Is the Way: Bringing War and Violence to an End by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, hardcover) debunks the myths that make war so addictive and suggests ways to practice peace every day.
PLAY
Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up by Patricia Ryan Madson (Bell Tower, hardcover) includes useful exercises for a way of living that is playful and creative.
PRACTICE
Observing Spirit: Evaluating Your Daily Progress On the Path to Heaven with Gurdjieff and Swedenborg by Peter Rhodes (Chrysalis Books, paperback) is an illuminating volume on the spiritual practices of Gurdjieff's "Work" supplemented with insights by Swedenborg.
PRAYER
God Has No Religion: Blending Traditions for Prayer by Francis Sheridan Goulart (Sorin Books, paperback) contains a perfect model for the kind of devotional resource we need in our multifaith world of crossover seekers.
REVERENCE
Divining the Body: Reclaim the Holiness of Your Physical Self by Jan Phillips (Skylight Paths, paperback) calls us in a compelling and imaginative way to take seriously the Divine Presence within our bodies.
SACRED FEMININE
The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature translated and annotated by Rabbi Rami Shapiro (Skylight Paths, paperback), pays tribute to Mother Wisdom who in the teachings of the Hebrew Bible proves Herself to be a grand and nurturing presence.
SACRED TEXT
No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva by Pema Chodron (Shambhala, hardcover) contains this Buddhist teacher's meditations on the classic text about compassion and a life of meaning and service.
SERVICE
The Difference a Day Makes: 365 Ways to Change Your World in Just 24 Hours by Karen M. Jones ( New World Library, paperback) is an invaluable resource for the altruist in you.
SPIRITUAL POLITICS
God's Politics: Why The Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It by Jim Wallis (HarperSanFrancisco, hardcover) presents a new vision for faith and politics in America based on prophetic religion's imperatives of justice, compassion, peace, and hope.
STORIES
Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?: Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life's Difficulties by Ajahn Brahm (Wisdom Publications, paperback) consists of 108 Buddhist teaching stories brimming with humor, humanity, and goodwill.
STORYTELLING
Storycatcher: Making Sense of Our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story by Christina Baldwin (New World Library, hardcover) is packed with helpful and healing advice on the art and craft of personal storytelling.
SUFISM
The Sufi Book of Life: 99 Pathways of the Heart for the Modern Dervish by Neil Douglas-Klotz (Penguin Books, paperback) is a poetic, practical, and enlightening introduction to this mystical path.
TAOISM
A Path and a Practice: Using Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching as a Guide to an Awakened Spiritual Life by William Martin (Marlowe & Company, paperback) gives us a vivid sense of this classic's relevance to our lives today.
TRANSFORMATION
How to Free Your Mind: Tara the Liberator by Thubten Chodron (Snow Lion, paperback) recommends spiritual practices to achieve liberation from many dangers.
WAR
Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism, edited by Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans (Inner Oceans Publishing, paperback), is an inspiring and thought-provoking collection of essays and other resources for those who are determined to create a more peaceful world.
WOMEN'S SPIRITUALITY
Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World by Jean Shinoda Bolen (Conari Press, hardcover) calls for a woman's peace movement to combat violence in all sectors of our lives.
YOU
The Exquisite Risk: Daring to Live an Authentic Life by Mark Nepo (Harmony Books, hardcover) explores the inner dimensions of holding nothing back and practicing love, compassion, listening, and mystery in all that we do.
Selected by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
We are pleased to announce our choices of the 50 books that have most impressed and inspired us in 2005. We have made this selection from the more than 300 books reviewed during the year on this web site. Since we only review books that we want to recommend to you for your spiritual journey, this selection actually represents the best of the best.
We have organized this list by a major theme or spiritual practice covered in the book. (These are not subcategories of the awards.) Through diverse approaches, drawing upon the wisdom and practices of the world's religions, these titles explore the quest for meaning and purpose, wholeness and healing, commitment and community, contemplation and social activism.
We congratulate the authors and publishers of these exceptional contributions to today's spiritual renaissance.
ANGER
The Anger Diet: Thirty Days to Stress-Free Living by Brenda Shoshana (Andrews McMeel Publishing, paperback) is a thoughtful and practical resource on dealing with anger in your life.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Born Again and Again: The Surprising Gifts of a Fundamentalist Childhood by Jon M. Sweeney (Paraclete Press, hardcover), a progressive Christian's autobiographical jaunt through his past fundamentalist experiences, models the spiritual practices of openness and hospitality.
BEAUTY
How Rembrandt Reveals Your Beautiful Imperfect Self: Life Lessons from the Master by Roger Housden (Harmony Books, hardcover) reveals how the artist's paintings speak to our spiritual perceptions of self, beauty, vision, meaning, and aging.
BEING PRESENT
How Now: 100 Ways to Celebrate the Present Moment by Raphael Cushnir (Chronicle Books, hardcover) includes 100 spiritual practices to help you stay focused in the moment and savor the riches available to you there.
BIBLE
The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love by John Shelby Spong (HarperSanFrancisco, hardcover) is a clarion call for reformation addressed to progressive Christians and others.
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions by Sister Helen Prejean (Random House, hardcover) makes a good case against capital punishment and for the positive value of compassion.
CHANGE
The Five Things We Cannot Change . . . and The Happiness We Find by Embracing Them by David Richo (Shambhala, hardcover) presents ideas and spiritual practices that are gateways to contentment.
CHILDREN
Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv (Algonquin Books, hardcover) is a hard-hitting and revealing study of today's wired generation of children who have little or no connection with nature.
CHRISTIANITY
Where God Happens: Discovering Christ in One Another by Rowan Williams (New Seeds, hardcover) presents ways for Christians to grow in holiness and to be a place where God happens for others.
COMPASSION
Compassion: Listening to the Cries of the World by Christina Feldman (Rodmell Press, paperback) is a top-drawer overview of the spiritual practice of compassion.
CONSUMERISM
Hooked! Buddhist Writings on Greed, Desire, and the Urge to Consume, edited by Stephanie Kaza (Shambhala, paperback), offers practices to use to resist the global phenomenon of excessive consumption.
CULTURAL CRITICISM
A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut (Seven Stories Press, hardcover) is vintage Vonnegut filled with wry humor, playfulness, incisive cultural criticism, savage political satire, and spiritual gems.
DREAMS
Kabbalah and the Power of Dreaming: Awakening the Visionary Life by Catherine Shainberg (Inner Traditions, paperback) is an excellent resource designed for those who want to make the most of their imaginations through inner-vision exercises.
EMPATHY
Were You There? Finding Ourselves at the Foot of the Crossby Erik Kolbell (Westminster John Knox Press, hardcover) challenges us to see ourselves in the actions and reactions of those surrounding Jesus during his last days.
ETHICS
To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (Schocken Books, hardcover) is a substantive treatment of the importance of responsibility in Judaism.
EVERYDAY SPIRITUALITY
White China: Finding the Divine in the Everyday by Molly Wolf (Jossey-Bass, paperback) unpacks the spiritual meanings in everyday events and encounters.
FAITH
Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott (Riverhead Books, hardcover) reveals the Christian author's idiosyncratic faith as she finds tiny bits of hope and rebirth in her own experiences.
FASTING
The Sacred Art of Fasting: Preparing to Practice by Thomas Ryan (Skylight Paths, paperback) is an inspiring and down-to-earth manual on the spiritual dimensions of this practice common in many religions.
GRACE
If Grace Is So Amazing, Why Don't We Like It? How God's Radical Love Turns the World Upside Down by Donald McCullough (Jossey-Bass, hardcover) offers a rounded and enticing overview of the linchpin of Christianity.
GRIEVING
Unattended Sorrow: Recovering from Loss and Reviving the Heart by Stephen Levine (Rodale, hardcover) includes concrete spiritual practices for coping with grief and the losses that accumulate over time.
HASIDISM
The Light and Fire of the Baal Shem Tov by Yitzhak Buxbaum (Continuum, hardcover) is a treasure trove of profoundly mystical stories and teachings by the founder of Hasidism.
HOSPITALITY
Gandhi's Hope: Learning from Other Religions as a Path to Peace by Jay McDaniel (Orbis Books, paperback) provides a soul-stirring and enlightening overview of the adventure of finding wisdom in our times.
ICONS
The Icon Reborn by Frederick Franck with Sally Cunneen (Pacem in Terris, paperback) is a subversive work that challenges us to see the Divine within, all around us, and behind the faces of other human beings.
JUDAISM
Jewish With Feeling: A Guide to Meaningful Jewish Practice by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi with Joel Segel (Riverhead, hardcover) is a mystical masterpiece filled with spiritual practices and an exciting vision of the future.
KINDNESS
Field Notes on the Compassionate Life: A Search for the Soul of Kindness by Marc Ian Barasch (Rodale Books, hardcover) is a highly readable overview of the practice that just may be the best hope for humanity's survival.
LOVE
How to Expand Love: Widening the Circle of Loving Relationships by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (Atria Books, hardcover) presents helpful and down-to-earth practices developed over the centuries in Tibet for cultivating love and compassion.
MEANING
On the Threshold: Home, Hardwood, and Holiness by Elizabeth J. Andrew (Westview Press, hardcover) is an exquisitely written book that mines the spiritual meanings in the ordinary.
MEMOIR
At the End of Ridge Road by Joseph Bruchac (Milkweed Editions, paperback) is a fine philosophical memoir by the acclaimed Native American writer and storyteller.
MERCY
Merciful Meekness: Becoming a Spiritually Integrated Person by Kerry Walters (Paulist Press, paperback) is a fine spiritual primer on two spiritual attributes advocated by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
MULTIFAITH
Sitting with Sufis: A Christian Experience of Learning Sufism by Mary Blye Howe (Paraclete Press, paperback) is an interfaith gem that ought to embolden others to act upon their deepest yearnings to draw closer to God.
NATURE
The Circle of Life: The Heart's Journey Through the Seasons by Joyce Rupp and Macrina Wiederkehr (Sorin Books, paperback) is a truly wonderful devotional resource about nature as a spiritual teacher.
NOVEL
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd (Viking, hardcover) is a novel about Celtic spirituality, the Sacred Feminine, and God's manifold comings-and-goings in family, nature, rituals of remembrance, love, and marriage.
OPENNESS
Blue Truth: A Spiritual Guide to Life & Death and Love & Sex by David Deida (Sounds True, paperback) is an in-depth salute to the spiritual practice of openness.
PEACE
Peace Is the Way: Bringing War and Violence to an End by Deepak Chopra (Harmony Books, hardcover) debunks the myths that make war so addictive and suggests ways to practice peace every day.
PLAY
Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up by Patricia Ryan Madson (Bell Tower, hardcover) includes useful exercises for a way of living that is playful and creative.
PRACTICE
Observing Spirit: Evaluating Your Daily Progress On the Path to Heaven with Gurdjieff and Swedenborg by Peter Rhodes (Chrysalis Books, paperback) is an illuminating volume on the spiritual practices of Gurdjieff's "Work" supplemented with insights by Swedenborg.
PRAYER
God Has No Religion: Blending Traditions for Prayer by Francis Sheridan Goulart (Sorin Books, paperback) contains a perfect model for the kind of devotional resource we need in our multifaith world of crossover seekers.
REVERENCE
Divining the Body: Reclaim the Holiness of Your Physical Self by Jan Phillips (Skylight Paths, paperback) calls us in a compelling and imaginative way to take seriously the Divine Presence within our bodies.
SACRED FEMININE
The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature translated and annotated by Rabbi Rami Shapiro (Skylight Paths, paperback), pays tribute to Mother Wisdom who in the teachings of the Hebrew Bible proves Herself to be a grand and nurturing presence.
SACRED TEXT
No Time to Lose: A Timely Guide to the Way of the Bodhisattva by Pema Chodron (Shambhala, hardcover) contains this Buddhist teacher's meditations on the classic text about compassion and a life of meaning and service.
SERVICE
The Difference a Day Makes: 365 Ways to Change Your World in Just 24 Hours by Karen M. Jones ( New World Library, paperback) is an invaluable resource for the altruist in you.
SPIRITUAL POLITICS
God's Politics: Why The Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It by Jim Wallis (HarperSanFrancisco, hardcover) presents a new vision for faith and politics in America based on prophetic religion's imperatives of justice, compassion, peace, and hope.
STORIES
Who Ordered This Truckload of Dung?: Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life's Difficulties by Ajahn Brahm (Wisdom Publications, paperback) consists of 108 Buddhist teaching stories brimming with humor, humanity, and goodwill.
STORYTELLING
Storycatcher: Making Sense of Our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story by Christina Baldwin (New World Library, hardcover) is packed with helpful and healing advice on the art and craft of personal storytelling.
SUFISM
The Sufi Book of Life: 99 Pathways of the Heart for the Modern Dervish by Neil Douglas-Klotz (Penguin Books, paperback) is a poetic, practical, and enlightening introduction to this mystical path.
TAOISM
A Path and a Practice: Using Lao-Tzu's Tao Te Ching as a Guide to an Awakened Spiritual Life by William Martin (Marlowe & Company, paperback) gives us a vivid sense of this classic's relevance to our lives today.
TRANSFORMATION
How to Free Your Mind: Tara the Liberator by Thubten Chodron (Snow Lion, paperback) recommends spiritual practices to achieve liberation from many dangers.
WAR
Stop the Next War Now: Effective Responses to Violence and Terrorism, edited by Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans (Inner Oceans Publishing, paperback), is an inspiring and thought-provoking collection of essays and other resources for those who are determined to create a more peaceful world.
WOMEN'S SPIRITUALITY
Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World by Jean Shinoda Bolen (Conari Press, hardcover) calls for a woman's peace movement to combat violence in all sectors of our lives.
YOU
The Exquisite Risk: Daring to Live an Authentic Life by Mark Nepo (Harmony Books, hardcover) explores the inner dimensions of holding nothing back and practicing love, compassion, listening, and mystery in all that we do.
Reviews copyright 1998 - 2007 by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, SpiritualityandPractice.com.
