In the spring of 2008, Jon Sweeney set out to discover firsthand two of the finest examples of medieval faith, the Abbey of Mont St. Michel, on the Normandy coast, and the soaring Chartres Cathedral, in the fields of the Loire Valley one hour south of Paris. Stepping beyond the purely intellectual, armchair journey, he uncovers what once drove men to construct enormous abbeys and cathedrals, with gargoyles, rounded arches, rose windows, dark recesses, and flying buttresses. In the modern imagination, these structures are believed to tell a series of fictions about the meaning of life; but this anachronism would have made no sense to their actual, medieval creators. Instead, Sweeney offers a series of reflections on seven words of Gothic spirituality - using the two magnificent constructions of Mont St. Michel and Chartres. Space, sanctuary, stone, light, darkness, gargoyles, and flight are all shown to be essential ways of being Christian today.

Beauty Awakening Belief: How the Medieval Worldview Inspires Faith Today

Sweeney, Jon M.

SPCK Publishing

The riveting story of Pope St. Celestine V, the pope who retired from the papacy. At the close of the tumultuous Middle Ages, there lived a man who seemed destined from birth to save the world. His name was Peter Morrone, a hermit, a founder of a religious order, and, depending on whom you talk to, a reformer, an instigator, a prophet, a coward, a saint, and possibly the victim of murder. A stroke of fate would, practically overnight, transform this humble servant of God into the most powerful man in the Catholic Church. Half a year later, he would be the only pope in history to abdicate the chair of St. Peter, an act that nearly brought the papacy to its knees. What led him to make that decision and what happened afterward would be shrouded in mystery for centuries. The Pope Who Quit pulls back the veil of secrecy on this dramatic time in history and showcases a story that involves deadly dealings, apocalyptic maneuverings, and papal intrigue.

The Pope Who Quit: A True Medieval Tale of Mystery, Death, and Salvation

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Random House Publishing Group

A thousand years ago, the church experienced a time of tremendous upheaval called the Great Schism. The one faith became two churches, East and West, and the course of world history was forever changed. And it all swirled around one Latin word in the Nicene Creed, filioque, that indicated the Holy Spirit proceeded both from God the Father "and from the Son." From the time that phrase was officially instituted onward, the Holy Spirit's place in the Trinity and role in the lives of believers would be fiercely debated, with ramifications being felt through the centuries to this very day. In this fascinating book, readers will encounter not just the interesting historical realities that have shaped our faith today but also the present resurgence of interest in the Holy Spirit seen in many churches across the theological spectrum. Tickle and Sweeney make accessible and relevant the forces behind the current upheaval in the church, taking readers by the hand and leading them confidently into the Age of the Spirit.

The Age of the Spirit: How the Ghost of an Ancient Controversy Is Shaping the Church

Religion & Spirituality

Tickle, Phyllis

Christian Books & Bibles

Baker Books

Servant of God Nicholas Black Elk (1863--1950) is popularly celebrated for his fascinating spiritual life. How could one man, one deeply spiritual man, serve as both a traditional Oglala Lakota medicine man and a Roman Catholic catechist and mystic? How did these two spiritual and cultural identities enrich his prayer life? How did his commitment to God, understood through his Lakota and Catholic communities, shape his understanding of how to be in the world? To fully understand the depth of Black Elk's life-long spiritual quest requires a deep appreciation of his life story. He witnessed devastation on the battlefields of Little Bighorn and the Massacre at Wounded Knee, but also extravagance while performing for Queen Victoria as a member of "Buffalo Bill" Cody's Wild West Show. Widowed by his first wife, he remarried and raised eight children. Black Elk's spiritual visions granted him wisdom and healing insight beginning in his childhood, but he grew progressively physically blind in his adult years. These stories, and countless more, offer insight into this extraordinary man whose cause for canonization is now underway at the Vatican.

Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Catechist, Saint (People of God)

Leaders & Notable People

Liturgical Press

Fr. James Martin, SJ, is one of the most recognized Catholic priests in the United States. His book My Life with the Saints introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to many saintly heroes. More recently, Building a Bridge called the Catholic Church to more respect and compassion for the LGBT Community—and made Martin not only a friend to LGBT people but a lightning rod for some “traditionalist” Roman Catholics. His articulate and winsome personality has endeared him to millions inside and outside the Church. Now it is time to tell the story of his own life, to explore the experiences that made him the person he is today.
And there’s no better narrator for the story than Jon M. Sweeney, an award-winning and highly accomplished writer in his own right. In James Martin, SJ: In the Company of Jesus, Sweeney probes Martin’s early life, his experiences as a corporate executive, his call to religious life, his ministry and spirituality, his feelings about both the adoration and the criticism he receives from so many, and much more. Readers will come away with a much better understanding of one of today’s most interesting and influential Catholics.

James Martin, SJ: In the Company of Jesus (People of God)

Review\n" A superb brief introduction to the most important saint of our time." 
James Martin, SJ, author of Learning to Pray and In All Seasons, For All Reasons\n"Sweeney contributes something which has been sorely missing from the discourse surrounding Mother Teresa in recent years—nuance and context. It is refreshing to finally read an account of Mother Teresa's full humanity—her complexity and her sainthood. Sweeney captures the life and spirituality of one of the most influential religious voices of the twentieth century, refusing to reduce reflections on her inner life to clichés and platitudes." 
Emilie Grosvenor, PhD Candidate, Centre for the Study of Religion and Politics, St. Mary's College, University of St. Andrews\nMost people living in the last quarter of the twentieth century knew Mother Teresa by name and appearance. They could also identify her as the saint of the gutters of Calcutta. Two years after her death, she was still recognized as “the most admired person of the century.” So, what is there still to say about her? Quite a bit, as it turns out. The story of both her public and private lives remains little known, and we continue to grapple with the extraordinary things she did, as well as the way that she interpreted the vocation of any would-be follower of Jesus.\nThis biography shows Mother Teresa as the first great saint of television. We came to know her on the screen, and, as such, we felt we knew her in a way that we could not have known the saints before her. Presented in three parts, this biography looks at the preparation, the call, and the legacy of the extraordinary woman whom Pope Francis named Saint Teresa of Calcutta in 2016.

Teresa of Calcutta: Dark Night, Active Love (People of God)

What once drove men to construct enormous abbeys and cathedrals, with gargoyles, rounded arches, rose windows, dark recesses, and flying buttresses? In the modern imagination, these structures are believed to tell a series of stories about the meaning of life, but this anachronism would have astounded their medieval creators. As he explores two of the finest churches of this period – the Abbey of Mont St- Michel on the Normandy coast, and soaring Chartres Cathedral in the fields of the Loire Valley – author Jon Sweeney comes to the conclusion that, without faith, they make no sense at all. But within a life of faith, the universe that includes them is marvelous, beautiful, mysterious, and tapped into something that secularism cannot fathom. This luminous series of reflections hinges on seven words of Gothic spirituality ― space, sanctuary, stone, light, darkness, gargoyles, and flight and shows us that beauty is not just for admiring, but a key to believing, and reveals how the vision of our medieval forebears can refresh and inspire our faith today.

Morehouse Publishing

- Authorized text, initiated with Phyllis Tickle's active involvement - Covers the full range of her life and work By the time of her death in 2015, Phyllis Tickle was one of the most beloved and respected figures in American religious life, and her writing offers a unique combination of the down-to-earth, deep spirituality, and scholarship. In this comprehensive new volume, Jon Sweeney, official biographer of Tickle's literary estate, explores every aspect of her life, a more than 50-year legacy of poetry; plays; literary, spiritual, and historical/theological work; and advocacy. Himself an author and editor in the religion field, Sweeney examines Tickle's personal and professional roots, from her family, long marriage, and life on The Farm in Lucy, Tennessee, to early academic career and move into book publishing, where her role as founding editor of the Religion Department at Publishers Weekly influenced the growth of spiritual writing and interfaith understanding during the 1990s. Sweeney also looks at pivotal relationships with John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg, and Brian McLaren, as well as her great influence on the increasing number who adopted fixed-hour prayer, the Episcopal Church as a whole, and the Emerging Church, for which she served as historian, forecaster, and champion. A look at her early, passionate advocacy for the LGBT community, lecture circuit controversies, and projects left unfinished completes the picture.

Phyllis Tickle: A Life

Community & Culture

Church Publishing

This story of how Hell got “invented” is engaging, erudite, and illuminating. It could be the most important theology book you ever read. It is also hilarious.Jon Sweeney, convert to Catholicism and married to a rabbi, author of two dozen of his own religious books and editor of hundreds of others, delves into the question of Hell with intellectual curiosity, sincere faith, and good humor. He pretty much proves that it was Dante who gave us the Hell we have, and then he admonishes us to think again about the hell that exists around us every day.Do you think Hell has nine levels, each one worse than the previous? Do you think that Hell is so hot it can burn your skin right off your body? Do you think that God’s punishment will fit the sins we commit? If so, you think that because of Dante, not the Bible. Maybe the Hell you do (or don’t) believe in is the one the Renaissance literary master Dante Alighieri described in the Inferno section of his epic poem The Divine Comedy. This is the Hell of eternal damnation that most of us were raised to fear, the place where, we are told by Dante, “Abandon all hope, you who enter here.” But it turns out that Dante’s vision of Hell is not based very much on the Hebrew or the Christian Scriptures but on an amalgam of sources from Greek and Roman philosophy to Medieval morality plays to Islam’s Qu’ran—all stitched together by an accomplished artist to scare the bejesus out of all of us.Allow this book to help you reflect on what you believe about evil and what happens to bad people and just how merciful your God might be. “To be frank, I think that perhaps no single belief has done more to undercut the spiritual journey of more Western people than the belief that God could be an eternal torturer of people who do not like him or disobey him. And this after Jesus exemplified and taught us to love our enemies and forgive offenses 70 x 7 times! The very idea of Hell (with a capital ‘H’), as Jon Sweeney explains in this magnificent book, constructs a very toxic and fear-based universe, starting at its very center and ground. Hatred, exclusion, and mistreatment of enemies is legitimated all the way down the chain of command.” —from the Foreword by Richard Rohr “Every minister, priest, rabbi, and sheikh needs to read this book, and so do we all.” --Rabbi David Zaslow, author, Jesus: First-Century Rabbi“His scholarship is impeccable and his sense of humor ubiquitous. Dante himself would have loved this one!” --Phyllis Tickle, author, The Age of the Spirit JON M. SWEENEY is an independent scholar, culture critic, editor, and publisher. He is the author of more than twenty-five books, including The Pope Who Quit: A True Medieval Tale of Mystery, Death, and Salvation and Francis of Assisi in His Own Words: The Essential Writings. He writes regularly for America and The Tablet. He is married and the father of four.

Inventing Hell: Dante, the Bible, and Eternal Torment

ACTA Publications

An elegant rendering of the great mystic's thoughts on the mysteries of the authentic life This is a little book about soul freedom. It is a book about discovering the secret to all the things we most desire: contentment, meaning, peace of mind, and true freedom. This skillfully edited translation of selections from the writings of Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1328) provides a road map to the spiritual life for contemporary seekers. Eckhart takes us on a journey of discovery, a journey in which we learn to let go, relinquish our need to know everything, and lose those things that we think are important for a life of worth. And in the end he shows us that the true secret is this: to find yourself, you must lose yourself. Here is timeless wisdom from a medieval mystic who has influenced a wide range of spiritual teachers and mystics both inside and outside the Christian tradition. Erich Fromm, Arthur Schopenhauer, Dag Hammarskjöld, Eckhart Tolle, Richard Rohr, D. T. Suzuki, Rudolf Steiner, and Matthew Fox have all credited Eckhart as being an important influence on their thought. In addition, his work has influenced the development of twentieth-century American Buddhism and the Theosophical tradition. This book, divided into five sections--"Seeking the Light," "Facing Darkness," "Risking Love," "Knowing Nothing," and "Embracing Everything"--leads readers on the path to an authentic spiritual life.

Meister Eckhart's Book of Secrets Lib/E: Meditations on Letting Go and Finding True Freedom

Literature & Fiction

Burrows, Mark S.

Poetry

Blackstone Publishing

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sweeney, Jon M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Sweeney, Jon M.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Sweeney, Jon M.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Beauty Awakening Belief: How the Medieval Worldview Inspires Faith Today

The Pope Who Quit: A True Medieval Tale of Mystery, Death, and Salvation

The Age of the Spirit: How the Ghost of an Ancient Controversy Is Shaping the Church

Nicholas Black Elk: Medicine Man, Catechist, Saint (People of God)

James Martin, SJ: In the Company of Jesus (People of God)

Teresa of Calcutta: Dark Night, Active Love (People of God)

Beauty Awakening Belief: How the Medieval Worldview Inspires Faith Today

Phyllis Tickle: A Life

Inventing Hell: Dante, the Bible, and Eternal Torment

Meister Eckhart's Book of Secrets Lib/E: Meditations on Letting Go and Finding True Freedom