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Jon M. Sweeney
Jon M. Sweeney (born July 18, 1967) is an American author. His most frequent subjects are Catholic, particularly St. Francis of Assisi, about whom Sweeney has written ''The St. Francis Prayer Book'', ''Francis of Assisi in His Own Words'', ''When Saint Francis Saved the Church'', ''The Complete Francis of Assisi'', and ''The Enthusiast''. Life Sweeney converted to Catholicism after spending twenty years as an active Episcopalian, on the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi in Woodstock, Vermont, in 2009. He is married to Michal Woll, a rabbi, and has four children. Sweeney and Woll were profiled in "When a Jew and a Catholic Marry" by Mark Oppenheimer in ''America (magazine)'' in August 2017. Education While at Moody, Sweeney arranged to serve as a summer missionary in Batangas City, Philippines, an experience that he later wrote about in his memoir, ''Born Again and Again''. After finishing at Wheaton, Sweeney was an M.Div. and then an M.A. student at North Park Theological Semi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions and has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilization.Gerald O'Collins, O'Collins, p. v (preface). The church consists of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical rites#Churches, ''sui iuris'' (autonomous) churches, including the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches, which comprise almost 3,500 dioceses and Eparchy, eparchies List of Catholic dioceses (structured view), around the world, each overseen by one or more Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishops. The pope, who is the bishop of Rome, is the Papal supremacy, chief pastor of the church. The core beliefs of Catholicism are found in the Nicene Creed. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Massimo Faggioli
Massimo Faggioli (born 1970) is an Italian academic, Church historian, professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, columnist for '' La Croix International'', and contributing writer to ''Commonweal''. He was on the faculty at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, Minnesota) from 2009 to 2016, where he was the founding director of the Institute for Catholicism and Citizenship. In 2017 and 2018 he was an adjunct professor at the Broken Bay Institute, part of the Australian Institute of Theological Education in Sydney, Australia. Career Massimo Faggioli worked in the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies in Bologna between 1996 and 2008 and received his Ph.D. from the University of Turin in 2002. Since 2016 he has been full professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University (Philadelphia). He was the founding director (2014–2015) of the Institute for Catholicism and Citizenship and on the faculty in the Depar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Walter Brueggemann
Walter Albert Brueggemann (March 11, 1933 – June 5, 2025) was an American Christian scholar and theologian who is widely considered an influential Old Testament scholar. His work often focused on the Hebrew prophetic tradition and the sociopolitical imagination of the Church. He argued that the Church must provide a counter-narrative to the dominant forces of consumerism, militarism, and nationalism. Career Walter Albert Brueggemann was born in Tilden, Nebraska, on March 11, 1933. The son of a minister of the German Evangelical Synod of North America, the family moved frequently throughout the Midwestern United States because of his father's work, before settling in Blackwood, Missouri. He received an A.B. from Elmhurst College (1955), a B.D. from Eden Theological Seminary (1958), a Th.D. from Union Theological Seminary, New York (1961), and Ph.D. from Saint Louis University (in 1974). He was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1958. He was professor of Old Test ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Amy-Jill Levine
Amy-Jill Levine (born 1956) is Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace. She works in biblical studies and is a self described "critic of antisemitic, sexist, and homophobic theologies". Biography Amy-Jill Levine was born in 1956. Raised in a predominantly Catholic neighborhood in Massachusetts, she grew up with an appreciation for many aspects of the Christian tradition, though she was raised in a Jewish home. She completed her undergraduate work at Smith College, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa and held honors in both religion and English. She earned her doctorate at Duke University. She has held office in the Society of Biblical Literature, the Catholic Biblical Association, and the Association for Jewish Studies. Her publications include ''The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus'' (HarperSanFrancisco, 2006), the edited collection, ''The Hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Pico Iyer
Siddharth Pico Raghavan Iyer (born 11 February 1957), known as Pico Iyer, is an English-born essayist and novelist known chiefly for his travel writing. He is the author of numerous books on crossing cultures including ''Video Night in Kathmandu'', ''The Lady and the Monk'' and '' The Global Soul''. He has been a contributor to ''Time,'' '' Harper's'', ''The New York Review of Books'', and ''The New York Times''. Early life Iyer was born Siddharth Pico Raghavan Iyer in Oxford, England, the son of Indian parents. His father was Raghavan N. Iyer, a philosopher and political theorist then enrolled in doctoral studies at the University of Oxford."Raghavan Iyer, Political Science: Santa Barbara, 1930-1995" Calisphere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Sue Monk Kidd
Sue Monk Kidd (born August 12, 1948) is an American writer from Sylvester, Georgia. She is best known for her historical novels, which frequently deal with themes of race, feminism, and religion and include '' The Secret Life of Bees'' and '' The Book of Longings''. Early life and education Kidd was born and raised in Sylvester, Georgia. In 1970, she graduated from Texas Christian University with a bachelor of science degree in nursing. She worked as a nursing instructor at the Medical College of Georgia. Kidd was influenced by the writings of Thomas Merton. She took creative writing courses at Emory University and Anderson University, and studied at Sewanee and the Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Career She got her start in writing when a personal essay she wrote for a writing class was published in '' Guideposts'' and reprinted in '' Reader's Digest''. She went on to become a contributing editor at ''Guideposts''. Her first three books were spiritual memo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Robert Barron (bishop)
Robert Emmet Barron (born November 19, 1959) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Winona–Rochester, Diocese of Winona–Rochester since 2022. He is the founder of the Catholic ministerial organization Word on Fire, and was the host of ''Word on Fire#Catholicism series (2011), Catholicism'', a documentary TV series about Catholicism that aired on PBS. He served as rector at Mundelein Seminary from 2012 to 2015 and as auxiliary bishop for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Archdiocese of Los Angeles from 2015 to 2022. Barron has published books, essays, and articles on theology and spirituality. He is a religion correspondent for NBC and has also appeared on Fox News, CNN, and EWTN. He has been informally called the "bishop of social media" and the "bishop of the Internet". , Barron's regular YouTube videos have been viewed over 151 million times; he has over 3 million followers on Facebook, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
James Martin (priest, Born 1960)
James J. Martin (born December 29, 1960) is an American Jesuit priest, writer, editor-at-large of ''America'' magazine and the founder of Outreach, a LGBTQ Catholic organization. A ''New York Times'' Best-Selling author, Martin's books include ''The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life'', ''Jesus: A Pilgrimage'', and ''My Life with the Saints''. He is a public speaker on the Ignatian spirituality as inspired by Ignatius of Loyola. Pope Francis appointed Martin as a consultant to the Secretariat for Communications at the Vatican in 2017. In July 2023, it was announced that Martin was among the people specifically invited by Francis to take part in the final phase meetings of the Synod on Synodality. Martin's public outreach to the LGBTQ+ community has drawn both support and condemnation from within the Catholic Church. This is the subject of his book ''Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and the LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915December 10, 1968), religious name M. Louis, was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, Christian mysticism, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. He was a monk in the Trappist Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown, Kentucky, living there from 1941 to his death. Merton wrote more than 50 books in a period of 27 years, mostly on spirituality, social justice, and Christian pacifism, pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews. Among Merton's most widely-read works is his bestselling autobiography ''The Seven Storey Mountain'' (1948). Merton became a keen proponent of Interfaith dialogue, interfaith understanding, exploring Eastern religions through study and practice. He pioneered dialogue with prominent Asian spiritual figures including the Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, Dalai Lama, Japanese writer Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, D. T. Suzuki, Thai Buddhist monk Buddhadasa, and Vietnamese monk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionism, abolitionist, and poet who led the Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and critical thinking, as well as a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and conformity. Friedrich Nietzsche thought he was "the most gifted of the Americans," and Walt Whitman called Emerson his "master". Emerson gradually moved away from the religious and social beliefs of his contemporaries, formulating and expressing the philosophy of Transcendentalism in his 1836 essay, "Nature (Emerson), Nature". His speech "The American Scholar," given in 1837, was called America's "intellectual Declaration of Independence" by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.Richardson, p. 263. Emerson wrote most of Essays (Emerson), his important essays as lectures and then revised them ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Leo Tolstoy
Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution reform, pre-reform Russian orthography. ; ), usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most influential authors of all time. Born to an aristocratic family, Tolstoy achieved acclaim in his twenties with his semi-autobiographical trilogy, ''Childhood (Tolstoy novel), Childhood'', ''Boyhood (novel), Boyhood'' and ''Youth (Tolstoy novel), Youth'' (1852–1856), and with ''Sevastopol Sketches'' (1855), based on his experiences in the Crimean War. His ''War and Peace'' (1869), ''Anna Karenina'' (1878), and ''Resurrection (Tolstoy novel), Resurrection'' (1899), which is based on his youthful sins, are often cited as pinnacles of Literary realism, realist fiction and three of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
