100 books like Questioning Spirituality

OK, so this guy’s work appears on everybody’s spiritual book list. Well, there’s a reason.

In my case, I was encouraged by a therapist to read a page of this book. After reading the page, I turned back to the book’s first page and read the breezy book in a sitting. That works for me, a spiritual book that can be read straight through with ease.

Entering the book, I had thought I was a relatively happy human. Tolle let me know that I was suffering all the time under ridiculous notions of damage and fear, and the next thing I knew, I was off to see Adyashanti and then find neo-Buddhists who could help with the suffering side of life.

One of the secrets of my wildly successful joy trainings is an elevation of self-love. I say “secret” because self-love is a tired, cliched topic.

For some, it implies a self-indulgent pursuit for weaker-willed people than we like to admit ourselves to be. Others, who know they don’t have it, deep down believe they aren’t worthy of it anyway. It’s heartbreaking because self-love is the key to everything we believe we want. And it’s not about bubble baths or buying the shoes.

It’s about how we talk to ourselves all day long, day after day, with that voice in our heads. Spending time with Scott Stabile via the insightful musings in this precious book will create a shift in your relationship with that voice. And that shift will upturn everything.  

Two of my favorite things in the world combine to make this one of my favorite books of all time.

The first is reading something that inspires that sacred moment of recognition; a glimpse into the vulnerable heart of an author sharing a slice of humanness that makes me nod my head in recognition of that bit of humanness within me as well. The second is wildly skillful word-weaving mastery for conveying such insights.

This collection of tender, poignant essays zings right into my heart and fills me with compassion and admiration for us beleaguered, hopeful inhabitants of Earth. A brilliant, honest, and ultimately optimistic observation of the human condition.

As we explore in my joy trainings, when life sucks, our sweet little hearts want to close in defense. It’s been that way our whole lives.

We learned from experience that an open heart is a vulnerable heart, so it only seems right and natural that we’d want to safeguard this fragile part of us in this way. The problem is it doesn’t work. In walling off our hearts from experiencing pain and mess, we inadvertently block out joy, wonder, and bliss in the process.

In this gorgeous little gem of a book, S.C Lourie shows us what it looks like to bravely wedge open your tender heart, even when circumstances around you would dictate you do otherwise.  

Deep ideas, indeed some of the deepest ideas possible. This is state-of-the-art theology by one of the greatest living theologians who brings together essential insights from the Hindu, Christian, Sufi, Buddhist, and other religious traditions showing how all have much more in common than separates them. Essential reading for anyone interested in the nature of consciousness, because the fundamental subject matter of theology is none other than ultimate consciousness, the source of all other forms of consciousness in the universe, including our own. Hart’s writing is lively and engaging.

In the current search for spirituality, many people inside and outside of the Jewish community are looking for the Jewish path to spirituality.

This is a powerful introduction to the various practices in Judaism that offer such a spiritual path for the seeker. The book contains a vehicle to enhancing one’s connection to the Divine or finding it for the first time. I found it helpful on a personal level. 

I love Barton’s personal and practical approach to a key cluster of spiritual disciplines in this accessible overview. She explores how to encounter God in Scripture and in prayer, how to practice solitude, self-examination and discernment, how to honor the body and keep sabbath. Individual chapters are framed by an introduction to spiritual formation and book-ended by combining them into a single rule of life. Think of this book as a fresh update of Richard Foster’s classic, Celebration of Discipline. (See her Transforming Center website for more.)

This is the most “how-to” book on the list. Whether we are reflective about it or not, our character will be shaped and our lives transformed into something—the only question is In what way? and For what end? John Stott once said that “Spirituality is not a condition into which we can drift.” Steve’s book teaches you how not to drift through life. 

Steve’s ministry (Leadership Transformations) helps Christian leaders and laypeople live renewed and beautiful lives. This book walks you through a process of self-reflection and intentional choice to create a “rule of life”—an intentional rhythm or pattern of our days that primes us for spiritual growth and attentiveness to God.

Believers in God see him as the creator of man and women in his own image. Firm believers tried throughout history to model themselves as they imagined God. But God, the author says, evolves through his relationship with man, and man becomes rival to God. So believers and non-believers discover that God, the protector of the poor and weak, becomes a warrior who nearly destroys all humans and animals he created by causing the flood. So rational people realize that God is a tribal chief who gets angry, kills, destroys, loves some and forgets many more. This book is a must-read for all believers and non-believers. I found this book unusual in telling amazing stories about God and his actions and reactions. 

In this book, author Neale Donald Walsch, at the lowest point of his life, picks up pen and paper one night and begins an interesting and quite intimate conversation with God.

The conversation becomes a daily routine and helps him get past his fears and challenges. Walsch asks questions I think many people, including myself, want to ask God, and God (the author’s higher consciousness) provides answers that really make you think and look at things through a different perspective.

This conversation ends up changing Walsh’s life, as well as the reader’s.