The Audacity of Faith is about the greatest five-letter word in the English language: FAITH, and about how critical it is to our survival, whether or not we are Christians.

A rich and passionate compilation of sermons and essays from religious leaders across the Christian landscape, all reflecting on the 2008 historic election of Barack Obama as the forty-fourth president of the United States of America. Features dynamic preachers Tony Campolo, Carolyn Ann Knight, and Gardner C. Taylor; respected scholars Dwight Hopkins, Anthony Pinn, and Emilie Townes; respected pastors Brad Braxton, Otis Moss II, and Gina Stewart; and popular authors Marvin McMickle, William Willimon, and Philip Yancey.

What happens when you feel like you are losing your mind and common sense eludes you. What do you do when you are trying to live as a servant of God and a good citizen but your parents do not understand you, your wife, brothers and sisters; and even your neighbors consider you as an outcast? (Perhaps worthless).The journey seems so long and you do not know where to turn. What can you do? Where can you go? Do you leave the people you love behind or do you move to another location to bring relief from the pain everyone is feeling? Wait. Remember there is hope in God! The pain of death was at my bedside, the pangs Sheol laid hold of me; sorrows and troubles were at my doorstep. I was brought down low, and then the Lord delivered my soul from death. I am glad that God has dealt mercifully with me, for He has returned my soul to rest.

How much worse could it get for me? After several failed marriages, unemployment, and the threat of losing my house a few years ago, I had to turn to God for a 911 intervention. At that point in time, I just lost my job and my ex-wife had just moved out with all her furniture, including the accessories and mattress. I thought I had reached my limit, but with Gods grace I bounced back and refused to be defeated. One of the greatest lessons learned then is to stay faithful to God, hold on to Him because He's the only one that could help me throughout my days in the wilderness. The Audacity of Gods power shows how toughness of a man or woman cannot be measured through their physical stature, but rather the ability to stay strong and reach-out to God for assistance. Challenges are inevitable, they are like the weather or a season, no matter how undesirable they appear at one point. A better one will surely replace the not too great ones. As for me, it was my willingness to ask for Gods help that ultimately saved me and allowed Him to go the extra mile for me and my family.

The Audacity of Prayer shares the stories of modern-day miracles that have occurred as a result of audacious prayer

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Barack Obama’s lucid vision of America’s place in the world and call for a new kind of politics that builds upon our shared understandings as Americans, based on his years in the Senate “In our lowdown, dispiriting era, Obama’s talent for proposing humane, sensible solutions with uplifting, elegant prose does fill one with hope.”—Michael Kazin, The Washington Post In July 2004, four years before his presidency, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchored itself in listeners’ minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in our history as a nation, we have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future, or what Obama called “the audacity of hope.” The Audacity of Hope is Barack Obama’s call for a different brand of politics—a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the “endless clash of armies” we see in congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of “our improbable experiment in democracy.” He explores those forces—from the fear of losing to the perpetual need to raise money to the power of the media—that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment. At the heart of this book is Barack Obama’s vision of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families, the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and the transnational threats—from terrorism to pandemic—that gather beyond our shores. And he grapples with the role that faith plays in a democracy—where it is vital and where it must never intrude. Underlying his stories is a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, Obama says, can Americans repair a political process that is broken, and restore to working order a government that has fallen dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans. Those Americans are out there, he writes—“waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them.”

Experience Oneness with the Divine and Light Up the World On the publication of her first book, Larry Dossey, MD, author of Prayer Is Good Medicine , wrote: “Martella-Whitsett is a wise guide." Her new book makes the audacious claim that each of us can be “the light of the world” Jesus instructed his followers to be. Martella-Whitsett offers a path for living a deep and authentic life outside of the strictures of traditional religious categories. A refreshing approach, in essence, on how to be spiritual without being religious. We need to jettison the idea of a God who is out there and above us. God is not a super-human who gives and takes, punishes and rewards. God does not require human suffering and repentance. We truly find God when we go inside to connect with divine light, realize our oneness with God and others, and let our light shine in the world. Martella-Whittset looks at what “divine light” is and how it is both audacious and normal to claim it for ourselves. Next she introduces us to 12 spiritual powers we can all develop and learn to use on a daily basis: faith, understanding, will, imagination, zeal power, love, wisdom, strength, order, release, and life itself. When we consciously shine our spiritual powers on ourselves, not only are our lives improved, but all of humanity can be enriched and transformed. Let your light shine!

One of the most gifted literary essayists of his generation defends stylistic boldness and intellectual daring in American letters. Over the last decade William Giraldi has established himself as a charismatic and uncompromising literary essayist, “a literature-besotted Midas of prose” (Cynthia Ozick). Now, American Audacity gathers a selection of his most powerful considerations of American writers and themes—a “gorgeous fury of language and sensibility” (Walter Kirn)—including an introductory call to arms for twenty-first-century American literature, and a new appreciation of James Baldwin’s genius for nonfiction. With potent insights into the storied tradition of American letters, and written with a “commitment to the dynamism and dimensions of language,” American Audacity considers giants from the past (Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Harper Lee, Denis Johnson), some of our most well-known living critics and novelists (Harold Bloom, Stanley Fish, Katie Roiphe, Cormac McCarthy, Allan Gurganus, Elizabeth Spencer), as well as those cultural-literary themes that have concerned Giraldi as an American novelist (bestsellers, the “problem” of Catholic fiction, the art of hate mail, and his viral essay on bibliophilia). Demanding that literature be audacious, and urgent in its convictions, American Audacity is itself an act of intellectual daring, a compendium shot through with Giraldi’s “emboldened and emboldening critical voice” (Sven Birkerts). At a time when literature is threatened by ceaseless electronic bombardment, Giraldi argues that literature “must do what literature has always done: facilitate those silent spaces, remain steadfastly itself in its employment of slowness, interiority, grace, and in its marshaling of aesthetic sophistication and complexity.” American Audacity is ultimately an assertion of intelligence and discernment from a maker of “perfectly paced prose” (The New Yorker), a book that reaffirms the pleasure and wisdom of the deepest literary values.

MARY MROZOWKI WAS AN ORDINARY NEW YORKER WHO BECAME EXTRAORDINARY. The Audacity to be Divine is a revelatory tale of transformation, resilience and unparalleled truth-seeking. Mary was a quintessential New York housewife living in the depth of despair. Bearing the secret of her family's tumultuous past, Mary reclaimed her truth and strove for redemption against all odds -- transcending as a social activist, international organizer, and spiritual leader for the masses. Mary was able to transcend worlds. Having integrated Christian modalities with Eastern philosophies, she established a lay monastic house of contemplation called "Chrysalis House." She mingled as an equal with spiritual and religious leaders, companions and strangers. As her teachings led her across five continents, thousands followed, considering her a modern day saint, role model for transformation, and sage for self-fulfillment. Seeking truth was her religion. Amidst a sea of neutrally-dressed spiritual leaders, out would walk Mary - a vision in a bold red dress and heels. She did not fit in and she did not want to -- she was embraced by those who found solace in her relatability and charisma beyond measure.