A look at the entire career of leading spiritual teacher and author of Be Here Now Ram Dass and tips for Sensing God in nature and elsewhere are among the religion and spirituality books publishing in January.
Jan. 1
The Prayer Map for a Less Stressed Life compiled by Barbour staff (Barbour, $7.99 spiral, ISBN 978-1-64352-716-1) guides busy women to write out specific thoughts, ideas, and lists to create a “map” for praying and speaking to God.
Jan. 3
Always a Guest: Speaking of Faith Far from Home by Barbara Brown Taylor (WJK, $25, ISBN 978-0-664-26170-2). Theologian and Episcopal priest Taylor collects stories and sermons about faith, grace, and hope.
Jan. 5
Discover Your Dharma: A Vedic Guide to Finding Your Purpose by Sahara Rose Ketabi (Chronicle Prism, $25.95, ISBN 978-1-79720-206-8). Rose, host of the Highest Self podcast, offers a how-to for readers seeking to gain self-awareness and live out their own personal dharma.
Fear in Our Hearts: What Islamophobia Tells Us About America by Caleb Iyer Elfenbein (New York Univ., $28, ISBN 978-1-4798-0458-0). Elfenbein, history professor at Grinnell College, examines Islamophobia in the United States, positing that anti-Muslim activity grows out of an innate American fear of difference.
Being Ram Dass by Ram Dass. SoundsTrue, Jan. 12 (Sounds True, $29.99, ISBN 978-1-68364-628-0). Dass (formerly Richard Alpert) tracks his life and spiritual evolution: being fired by Harvard because of his experimental use of psychedelics with students, his travels to India, and his spiritual awakening at Neem Karoli Baba’s ashram. 100,000-copy announced first printing.
Jan. 12
Sensing God: Experiencing the Divine in Nature, Food, Music, and Beauty by Joel Clarkson (NavPress, $16.99 paper, ISBN 978-1-64158-208-7). Composer Clarkson describes ways to find the truth of scripture in the world, including seeking the imprint of the divine in nature and encountering Christ in art.
Jan. 26
Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep by Tish Harrison Warren (Formatio, $22, ISBN 978-0-8308-4679-5). Anglican priest Warren explores themes of human vulnerability, suffering, and God’s seeming absence framed around the nighttime prayer of Compline.
Be the Refuge: Raising the Voices of Asian American Buddhists by Chenxing Han (North Atlantic, $17.95 paper, ISBN 978-1-62317-523-8). Han calls out erasure and whitewashing of Asian American Buddhists and strives to uplift the complexity of their stories through 89 interviews with a pan-ethnic, pan-Buddhist group.
Dear God: Honest Prayers to a God Who Listens by Bunmi Laditan (Zondervan, $24.99, ISBN 978-0-310-35916-6) shares a collection of letters to God exploring feelings of anger, desperation, doubts, gratefulness, joy, and loneliness.
Jan. 28
The Lost Pillars of Enoch: When Science and Religion Were One by Michael Elliston (RedFeather Mind Body Spirit, $29.99, ISBN 978-0-7643-6088-6). Based on principles of direct sensory immersion, this guide from ordained Zen priest Elliston presents step by step instructions for designing a contemporary Zen life.
