Six acclaimed authors discuss the influence of religion on their writing. Includes comment by David Bradley, Allen Ginsberg, Mary Gordon and Jaroslav Pelikan. Third in the Writer's Craft series.

Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621), a Jesuit as well as a leading theologian of the Counter-Reformation, had an enormous effect on the religious life of his age. Here are two of his most influential ascetical works: The Mind's Ascent to God, written in the tradition of Bonaventure and John Climacus, and The Art of Dying Well.

A selection of the finest spiritual writing of the year offers essays and articles on faith, spirituality, and their influence on politics, creativity, literature, and other fields, reflecting Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and other diverse perspectives.

The renowned nonfiction annual makes its Penguin debut For more than a decade, Philip Zaleski has collected into a single volume the best spiritual essays and poetry of the year. The Best Spiritual Writing 2010, featuring essays by John Updike and Diane Ackerman, poems from Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney and Pulitzer Prize-winner Louise Glück, and personal reflections by Richard Rodriguez and Leon Wieseltier, is sure to expand on the series' already wide recognition and reach the growing audience of readers searching for unsurpassed spiritual writing. Contributors include: Mary Jo Bang, Jane Hirshfield, Melissa Range, Rick Bass, Paula Huston, Pattiann Rogers, David Berlinski, Pico Iyer, Amanda Shaw, Joseph Bottum, Charles Johnson, Master Sheng Yen, Nicholas Carr, Jon D. Levenson, Floyd Skloot, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Philip Levine, Meir Soloveichik, Billy Collins, Wilfred M. McClay, Richard Wilbur, Chrisi Cox, Richard John Neuhaus, Seamus Heaney, Robert Pinsky

A new volume of the critically acclaimed spiritual writing series, with an introduction by bestselling author Stephen Prothero Boasting an impressive selection of personal essays, articles, and poems by today's leading luminaries, The Best Spiritual Writing 2013 captures our nation's spiritual pulse and offers readers an opportunity to explore the most nourishing writings on spirituality published in the past year. As in previous editions, Philip Zaleski draws from a wide range of journals and magazines to build an anthology of stimulating works by some of the nation's most esteemed writers such as Adam Gopnik, Edward Hirsch, and Melissa Range. The result is a book, ideal for gift giving, that will appeal to religious thinkers, atheists, and people of all faiths and beliefs.

Presents a collection of essays, articles, and poems from a variety of religious and spiritual traditions, including the writings of Harvey Cox, Heather King, Dana Tierney, Gary Snyder, and Helen Garner.

"When I begin to write, I open myself and wait. And when I turn toward an inner spiritual awareness, I open myself and wait." With that insight, Pat Schneider invites readers to contemplate their lives and deepest questions through writing. In seventeen concise thematic chapters that include meditations on topics such as fear, freedom, tradition in writing and in religions, forgiveness, joy, social justice, and death, How the Light Gets In gracefully guides readers through the artistic and spiritual questions that life offers to everyone. Praised as a "fuse lighter" by author Julia Cameron and "the wisest teacher of writing I know" by the celebrated writing guru Peter Elbow, Pat Schneider has lived a life of writing and teaching, passion and compassion. With How the Light Gets In, she delves beyond the typical "how-to's" of writing to offer an extended rumination on two inner paths, and how they can run as one. Schneider's book is distinct from the many others in the popular spirituality and creative writing genre by virtue of its approach, using one's lived experience--including the experience of writing--as a springboard for expressing the often ineffable events that define everyday life. Her belief that writing about one's own life leads to greater consciousness, satisfaction, and wisdom energizes the book and carries the reader elegantly through difficult topics. As Schneider writes, "All of us live in relation to mystery, and becoming conscious of that relationship can be a beginning point for a spiritual practice--whether we experience mystery in nature, in ecstatic love, in the eyes of our children, our friends, the animals we love, or in more strange experiences of intuition, synchronicity, or prescience."

The newest addition to the acclaimed Best American series brings readers the year's best writing about faith and spirituality and is sure to enrich the lives of all readers. Includes writings that reflect Christian, Muslim, Jewish, secular, and pan-Hindu perspectives.

The newest addition to the acclaimed Best American series brings readers the year's best writing about faith and spirituality and is sure to enrich lives. It includes writings that reflect Christian, Muslim, Jewish, secular, and pan-Hindu perspectives.