Authors John and Sylvia Ronsvalle present the results of a three-year Lilly Endowment Study which shows that both church membership and giving-as-a-percentage-of-income are declining. The study focused on many Protestant denominations and the Roman Catholic Church. Advice for Christian leaders on reversing this trend is given as well as a thorough diagnosis of the problem.

Judson: Innovation in Stained Glass by David Judson and Steffie Nelson is a history of the world-renowned family of artisans who began crafting stained glass windows in Los Angeles in 1897. Five generations of Judsons have worked with artists, architects, and designers to create Old World-style stained glass whose quality and craftsmanship has often been compared to the work of Louis Tiffany. Famed for its Craftsman glass, Judson arts-and-crafts era windows have been celebrated by experts in the field for decades. Judson's work with Frank Lloyd Wright on Hollyhock House in the 1920s was recently re-saluted when the house was named to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list. Established in the Pasadena during the heyday of the Arroyo Culture, headquarters of Judson Studios are still housed in the original Craftsman-era home and studio of patriarch William Lees Judson. Much of Judson's finest early work was installed in religious buildings. Along with the studio's numerous institutional and residential projects, Judson: Innovation in Stained Glass illustrates fine work in churches dating back to the early twentieth century. Modern work is also featured, including the extraordinary Air Force Academy Chapel in Colorado Springs, completed in 1962, a mid-century wonder whose soaring panels of color introduced an architecturally mesmerizing approach to stained glass that had never been executed before. In 2018, under David Judson's leadership, the studio created the world's largest fused glass window for the Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas. Including 140 panels, and measuring more than 3,400 square feet of art glass, the window made news internationally, intriguing congregants, tourists, and stained glass experts alike with its precision detail and artful melding of colors in a mural that depicted both sacred and secular stories. Once Judson Studios developed methods for blending subtle variations of color in glass for the Church of the Resurrection window, the possibilities of glass as an artist's medium were apparent. Now, in addition to its work in traditional leaded stained glass, Judson Studios is working with fine artists creating effects in fused glass that were previously unachievable. Most recently, fine artist Sarah Cain worked with Judson Studios to create a work in glass 10 feet high by 150 feet long; it was installed at the San Francisco International Airport in July 2019. About the Authors: David Judson is president of Judson Studios, the fifth generation of the Judson family to lead the studio since it was founded in 1897. David oversees the studio's creative process, where he works with architects, designers, and artists who turn to Judson for its legendary work in stained glass. In 2015, he opened the second Judson Studios facility which incorporates the firm's innovative fusing technology that allows fine artists to express their vision in glass. David is the president of the Stained Glass Association of America (SGAA) and lives with his family in Pasadena, California. Steffie Nelson has covered art, design, and culture for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, W Magazine, and others.

Finely rendered line drawings, based on photographs of authentic Victorian and Edwardian era designs, depict lovely floral and foliate motifs, a remarkable array of geometrics, transitional designs showing Art Nouveau influence, and much more — all in a wide range of sizes and shapes.

At St Philomena Academy convent school, Aurora finds more that just religious mystery to explore. The arbitrary cruelty the nuns inflict upon the pupils and the shameful secrets that like dormant in the academy provoke Aurora and her close-knit group of friends to ingenious feats of cunning and guile. In Behind the Stained-Glass Window, Patzi Raven allows the reader to witness the workings of a world where the oppression of children is institutionalized and the rites of growing up are soiled by guilt. In prose that weaves the past and present into an almost Proustian translucence, Raven takes on the urgent themes of adolescent piety, sexual awakening and the intensity of female friendship. Against the austere backdrop of the convent, a charming and touching tale emerges of the persistence of the sense of justice and the value of friendship through time.

"With auction prices of Tiffany lamps soaring, collectors are turning to Tiffany's highly desirable art glass, or Favrile glass. These luminescent vessels seize--and continue to hold--the imagination. Author Paul Doros explores the full range of remarkably diverse and innovative styles and forms that Tiffany Studios produced. Former Curator of Glass at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Doros spent twenty-five years studying and researching the subject. His definitive account is accompanied by David Schlegel's masterly photography, which captures the exquisite delicacy of the "Flowerform" vases, the dramatically dripping golden flow of the "Lava" vases, the dazzling iridescence of the "Cypriote" vases, and much more. A must for all lovers of Tiffany, art glass, and the decorative arts"--

This book is about one man’s journey to find himself and his place in the world, both spiritually and career-wise, and how his conventional views of the world, encompassing orthodox religion and old conforming and traditional ways, were radically changed by some extraordinary events during early education, travel, a career-switch to clinical psychology, and a powerful dream that led to a profound spiritual awakening. He worked in mental hospitals during the apartheid era and at the time of the un-banning of the ANC, and later began a private practice. The book has some historical value since the author’s grandfather was a great friend of General Smuts and was the Mayor of Benoni, a South African gold-mining town, during the turbulent wild-strike days of 1922, when his grandfather’s house was burned down by white strikers. The author’s mother attended the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games and sat near Adolf Hitler during the swimming events.