A spiritual and knowledgeable woman once told me that I was a Sacred Prostitute. She explained that a Sacred Prostitute is someone who soothes, nurtures and heals another and then sends them on their way to find their true destiny, a better, more emotionally complete person for the experience. I was initially confused, but eventually relieved and elated by this possibility. I sometimes felt guilty because it wasn't possible for me to ignore a woman who was strong or beautiful or talented or sweet. I had many deep but relatively short lived relationships. I was in love with many of these women. I respected and admired every single one of them. I found them simply amazing. I was never looking for notches on a bedpost, only searching for my one true Love. Many left me and moved on, found another. I was left alone, again and again, wondering...But maybe there was a reason for such an active lovelife. Maybe I really am a Sacred Prostitute! After all, very few of the women seemed to hate me when we parted. And most were married shortly after their time spent with me. I can't tell you why I was chosen as a Sacred Prostitute. I can't tell you how to become one yourself. But, in this book, I share the journeys, the thoughts and passions of 89 women that loved one, in their own words.

The disconnection between spirituality and passionate love leaves a broad sense of dissatisfaction and boredom in relationships. The author illustrates how our vitality and capacity for joy depend on restoring the soul of the sacred prostitute to its rightful place in consciousness.

As seen on The Today Show When she was fifteen years old, Leslie King ran away from an abusive home, looking for a better life and longing for real love. What she found instead was a man who wooed her just long enough to trap her in a life of prostitution. She became one of the many thousands of trafficked individuals in the United States, a number that continues to rise--in the biggest cities and in the most idyllic towns. As is true for so many in similar situations, life was nothing but brokenness and pain for Leslie. After years of hopelessness, she finally decided to take her own life. And then God spoke. With his promise that he was with her and had mighty things for her to accomplish ringing in her ears, she got off the streets, got clean, and got to work on the mission to which he'd called her. Now Leslie is a passionate and heroic advocate for other trafficked women and teenage girls in her community and across the country. More than a gritty, no-holds-barred deliverance story, When Angels Fight includes powerful advice from Leslie and those she's encountered in her work--police officers, judges, and other advocates and activists. She also shows you what YOU can do to make a real difference in your own community. Her call from God includes marshaling others to the cause and equipping them to fight alongside her and the angels who battle for God's children--just as they once fought for her.

“A breakthrough work coming from the heart of evangelical Christianity,” writes theologian David Gushee. “Wilson shows how God has led him on a journey toward a rethinking of what the fully authoritative and inspired Bible ought to be taken to mean in the life of the church today.” “This book … will shape what the church becomes,” writes anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann. “One of the most exquisite, painful, candid, brilliant pieces … that I have ever seen,” writes Christian author Phyllis Tickle. The second edition contains expanded material.

“Absurdistan is not just a hilarious novel, but a record of a particular peak in the history of human folly. No one is more capable of dealing with the transition from the hell of socialism to the hell of capitalism in Eastern Europe than Shteyngart, the great-great grandson of one Nikolai Gogol and the funniest foreigner alive.” –Aleksandar Hemon From the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of The Russian Debutante’s Handbook comes the uproarious and poignant story of one very fat man and one very small country Meet Misha Vainberg, aka Snack Daddy, a 325-pound disaster of a human being, son of the 1,238th-richest man in Russia, proud holder of a degree in multicultural studies from Accidental College, USA (don’t even ask), and patriot of no country save the great City of New York. Poor Misha just wants to live in the South Bronx with his hot Latina girlfriend, but after his gangster father murders an Oklahoma businessman in Russia, all hopes of a U.S. visa are lost. Salvation lies in the tiny, oil-rich nation of Absurdistan, where a crooked consular officer will sell Misha a Belgian passport. But after a civil war breaks out between two competing ethnic groups and a local warlord installs hapless Misha as minister of multicultural affairs, our hero soon finds himself covered in oil, fighting for his life, falling in love, and trying to figure out if a normal life is still possible in the twenty-first century. With the enormous success of The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, Gary Shteyngart established himself as a central figure in today’s literary world—“one of the most talented and entertaining writers of his generation,” according to The New York Observer. In Absurdistan, he delivers an even funnier and wiser literary performance. Misha Vainberg is a hero for the new century, a glimmer of humanity in a world of dashed hopes.