Isaac Luria (1534-1572) is one of the most extraordinary and influential mystical figures in the history of Judaism, a visionary teacher who helped shape the course of nearly all subsequent Jewish mysticism. Given his importance, it is remarkable that this is the first scholarly work on him in English. Most studies of Lurianic Kabbalah focus on Luria’s mythic and speculative ideas or on the ritual and contemplative practices he taught. The central premise of this book is that Lurianic Kabbalah was first and foremost a lived and living phenomenon in an actual social world. Thus the book focuses on Luria the person and on his relationship to his disciples. What attracted Luria’s students to him? How did they react to his inspired and charismatic behavior? And what roles did Luria and his students see themselves playing in their collective quest for repair of the cosmos and messianic redemption?

In this totally revised and expanded edition of 'Physicians of the Soul', Robert May examines how the greatest spiritual teachers of the world's religions serve as guides to the greatest human adventure: the quest for wisdom and the inner search for Self.

To what extent should spiritual information be part of a patient’s medical assessment? How should physicians respond when patients refuse life-saving care on religious grounds? Should doctors pray with their patients? Questions such as these raise deeper ones about the goals of medicine and the nature of healing. In a set of engaging and candid essays, The Soul of Medicine explores the role and influence of spirituality in clinical practice, professionalism, and medical education. The contributors to this volume approach this topic from their own spiritual perspectives—Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, New Age / Eclectic, secular, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Christian Scientist. Their thought-provoking essays provide rich insights not only into the needs of patients with various world views but also into how spirituality influences the practice of medicine. When their own spiritual issues arise in medical practice, physicians rely on their professionalism, ethics, and education. To better understand how various world views are incorporated into clinical work, doctors must ask themselves—as these contributors have—a series of important questions: What insights about life and healing does your faith provide? How does your faith challenge or reinforce contemporary medicine? How do you assess and address spirituality in clinical practice? How do your own beliefs influence your interactions with patients? The Soul of Medicine encourages medical students and practitioners to recognize the spiritual dimensions of medicine, to consider how these dimensions inform their own education and practice, and to be compassionate about their patients’—and their own—religious beliefs.

A moving memoir and an extraordinary love story that shows how an expert physician became a family caregiver and learned why care is so central to all our lives and yet is at risk in today's world. When Dr. Arthur Kleinman, an eminent Harvard psychiatrist and social anthropologist, began caring for his wife, Joan, after she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, he found just how far the act of caregiving extended beyond the boundaries of medicine. In The Soul of Care: The Moral Education of a Husband and a Doctor, Kleinman delivers a deeply humane and inspiring story of his life in medicine and his marriage to Joan, and he describes the practical, emotional and moral aspects of caretaking. He also writes about the problems our society faces as medical technology advances and the cost of health care soars but caring for patients no longer seems important. Caregiving is long, hard, unglamorous work--at moments joyous, more often tedious, sometimes agonizing, but it is always rich in meaning. In the face of our current political indifference and the challenge to the health care system, he emphasizes how we must ask uncomfortable questions of ourselves, and of our doctors. To give care, to be "present" for someone who needs us, and to feel and show kindness are deep emotional and moral experiences, enactments of our core values. The practice of caregiving teaches us what is most important in life, and reveals the very heart of what it is to be human.

Every now and again, one comes across a book that opens the heart and lets the soul sing. Such a book is a window on the wonder and joy, the beauty and the depths of the world around us. Such a book leads us from one jeweled insight to another, like the Genii giving Aladdin a tour of the treasure cave. Once found, such a book joins a precious few in a privileged place on one's bookshelf, to be taken down, re-read and savored over and over. Soul Medicine is exactly such a book. With exquisite prose, it transcends its pages to become a heart's companion, delivering exactly what its title promises. Outstanding! David Spangler, Author and Spiritual Teacher. Dr. Judith Boice has a rare skill that few will ever grasp. She is a healer with an in-depth understanding of the mechanics behind the art of healing. From the wisdom of the elders whom she has studied under, and her learnings of the complexity of traditional and modern medicine today, this medicine woman understands not only how to prescribe and predict results but also, with these mystic skills, how to heal those who come her way. Jim Great Elk Waters, Shawano Elder, Fourth Degree Mide' and Pipe Carrier

Newly reissued in trade paperback, from the author of the bestselling Man's Search for Meaning--the classic book in which he first laid out his revolutionary theory of logotherapy. Dr. Viktor E. Frankl is celebrated as the founder of logotherapy, a revolutionary mode of psychotherapy based on the essential human need to search for meaning in life. Even while suffering the degradation and misery of Nazi concentration camps--an experience he described in his bestselling memoir, Man's Search for Meaning--Frankl retained his belief that the most important freedom is the ability to determine one's spiritual well-being. After his liberation, he published The Doctor and the Soul, the first book in which he explained his method and his conviction that the fundamental human motivation is neither sex (as in Freud) nor the need to be appreciated by society (as in Adler), but the desire to live a purposeful life. Frankl's work represented a major contribution to the field of psychotherapy, and The Doctor and the Soul is essential to understanding it.

Discover Dr. Sha's Powerful Techniques for Healing Your Soul, Mind, and Body What is the real secret to healing? Internationally acclaimed healer and author Dr. Zhi Gang Sha gives us a simple yet powerful answer to this age-old question: Heal the soul first; then healing of the mind and body will follow. In Soul Mind Body Medicine, Dr. Sha shows that love and forgiveness are the golden keys to soul healing. From that foundation, he presents practical tools to heal and transform soul, mind, and body. The techniques and the underlying theories are easy to learn and practice but profoundly effective. They include: Healing methods for more than 100 ailments, from the common cold to back pain to heart disease to diabetes Step-by-step approaches to weight loss, cancer recovery, emotional balance, and maintenance of good health A revolutionary one-minute healing technique Endorsements “Just as our thoughts can influence water, our souls can bring healing and balance to our selves, our loved ones, and our world today. Dr. Sha is an important teacher and a wonderful healer with a valuable message about the power of the soul to influence and transform all life. His book Soul Mind Body Medicine will deeply touch you.” — Dr. Masaru Emoto, author of The Hidden Messages in Water “All cultures have produced authentic healers from time to time. Dr. Zhi Gang Sha is such a healer — a man of deep wisdom and compassion, and a gift to the human race.” — Larry Dossey, MD, author of The Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things

Essays by Harvard Medical Students on what they learned about healing from the patients and physicians to whom they were assigned during their beginning years of medical training. This book provides a rare opportunity to understand what new medical students learn about the most intimate details of patients' lives and their roles as physicians.

Even in the degradation and misery of Dachau concentration camp, Viktor Frankl retained the belief that the most important freedom of all is the freedom to determine one's own spiritual well-being. He wrote the international bestseller Man's Search for Meaning as a result of that experience, while in The Doctor and the Soul, Dr Frankl revolutionised psychotherapy with his theory of Logotherapy. Viktor Frankl's work has been described as "the most important contributions in the field of psychotherapy since the days of Freud, Adler and Jung." In The Doctor and the Soul, Dr Frankl maintains that the individual's most important need is to find meaning in life and the frustration of this need results in neurosis, suffering and despair. A doctor's work lies in finding personal meaning in a patient's life, no matter how dismal the circumstances of the life.

'Compelling, convicting, persuasive preaching, revealing God's mercy and redemption to dying souls, is seldom heard today. The noblest art ever granted to our fallen human race has almost disappeared.' Even where the free offer of the Gospel is treasured in principle, regular evangelistic preaching has become a rarity, contends the author. These pages tackle the inhibitions, theological and practical, and provide powerful encouragement for physicians of souls to preach the Gospel. A vital anatomy or order of conversion is supplied with advice for counselling seekers. The author shows how passages for evangelistic persuasion may be selected and prepared. He also challenges modern church growth techniques, showing the superiority of direct proclamation. These and other key topics make up a complete guide to soulwinning.