Finding meaning in business -- The genealogy of corporate spirituality -- The making of a Christian company -- How Jesus became a management guru -- The spiritual education of a manager -- Team chaplains, life coaches, and whistling referees -- The future of workplace spirituality.

A new history explores the commercial heart of evangelical Christianity. American evangelicalism is big business. For decades, the world’s largest media conglomerates have sought out evangelical consumers, and evangelical books have regularly become international best sellers. In the early 2000s, Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life spent ninety weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list and sold more than thirty million copies. But why have evangelicals achieved such remarkable commercial success? According to Daniel Vaca, evangelicalism depends upon commercialism. Tracing the once-humble evangelical book industry’s emergence as a lucrative center of the US book trade, Vaca argues that evangelical Christianity became religiously and politically prominent through business activity. Through areas of commerce such as branding, retailing, marketing, and finance, for-profit media companies have capitalized on the expansive potential of evangelicalism for more than a century. Rather than treat evangelicalism as a type of conservative Protestantism that market forces have commodified and corrupted, Vaca argues that evangelicalism is an expressly commercial religion. Although religious traditions seem to incorporate people who embrace distinct theological ideas and beliefs, Vaca shows, members of contemporary consumer society often participate in religious cultures by engaging commercial products and corporations. By examining the history of companies and corporate conglomerates that have produced and distributed best-selling religious books, bibles, and more, Vaca not only illustrates how evangelical ideas, identities, and alliances have developed through commercial activity but also reveals how the production of evangelical identity became a component of modern capitalism.

Provides the tools to make your work experience a gratifying one. A common misconception equates workplace spirituality with religion in the workplace; this sets the record straight, providing a practical definition of spirit at work and explaining its benefits for employees, managers, the organization, the societies in which the organization operates, and the world at large. Whether you are a leader, a manager, or an employee who cares about the people and the place you surround yourself with, you'll find the broad focus presented here useful for improving your work and your life.--From publisher description.

In Minding Spirituality, Randall Sorenson, a clinical psychoanalyst, "invites us to take an interest in our patients' spirituality that is respectful but not diffident, curious but not reductionistic, welcoming but not indoctrinating." Out of this invitation emerges a fascinating and broadening investigation of how contemporary psychoanalysis can "mind" spirituality in the threefold sense of being bothered by it, of attending to it, and of cultivating it. Both the questions Sorenson asks, and the answers he begins to formulate, reflect progressive changes in the psychoanalytic understanding of spirituality. Sorenson begins by quantitatively analyzing 75 years of journal literature and documenting how psychoanalytic approaches to religious and spiritual experiences have evolved far beyond the "wholesale pathologizing of religion" prevalent during Freud's lifetime. Then, in successive chapters, he explores and illustrates the kind of clinical technique appropriate to the modern treatment of religious issues. And the issue of technique is consequential in more than one way -- Sorenson presents evidence that how analysts work clinically has a greater impact on their patients' spirituality than the patients' own parents have. Sorenson brings an array of disciplinary perspectives to bear in examining the multiple relationships among psychoanalysis, religion, and spirituality. Empirical analysis, psychoanalytic history, sociology of religion, comparative theory, and sustained clinical interpretation all enter into his effort to open a dialogue that is clinically relevant. Turning traditional critiques of psychoanalytic training on their head, he argues that psychoanalytic education has much to learn from models of contemporary theological education. Beautifully crafted and engagingly written, Minding Spirituality not only invites interdisciplinary dialogue but, via Sorenson's wide-ranging and passionately open-minded scholarship, exemplifies it.

Spirituality and Chemical Dependency shares current thinking on how spirituality is used in recovery from alcoholism and other forms of chemical dependency. The 12-Step programs have been the most successful form of treatment thus far; you will find the insight in this book to be revealing as to why. Each of the contributors has devoted a significant part of his or her life to help those suffering from chemical addiction. In each chapter, the author gives ideas on specific aspects of spirituality in the 12-Step context and answers the ever-important question "So what? " to provide guidelines for healthy spirituality in the addicted person.

Social work in modern society requires practitioners to be culturally and spiritually sensitive. This book explores the often challenging relationships between spirituality, religion and social work. It considers the skills, knowledge and values that are required to incorporate a spiritual awareness into social work practice and in doing so explores in greater depth the social worker/service user relationship. By using case studies, reflective exercises and other learning features, students will begin to appreciate and understand the importance of a spiritually sensitive approach to their social work practice.

As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny. The Upanishads The words printed on the back of the business card sent a chill through Leneas body, causing her to question what it is she desires most in life: a partner. But how could this be her destiny when she doesnt trust men? The answer awaits in an erotically mysterious dance studio, where a broken-hearted yet hopeful Lenea joins a group of like-minded women who are taught that any desire they have can be realized through dance lessons, an intriguing objective. Things start to go awry when Lenea discovers the studio is haunted by a spirit of the pastwhen the building once served as a brothel in the late 1800s. She grasps for a hold on reality as she seeks to understand the connection between the supernatural occurrences and her growing relationship with an incredibly hot, talented artist who seems to have caught the eye of more than just Lenea. Ultimately the navigation through her rock-strewn journey leads to her own sexual awakening, and the truth about the one thing she believes matters most in a partnership: trust.