Books about Holiest from Amazon.com

In The Siege of Mecca, acclaimed journalist Yaroslav Trofimov pulls back the curtain on a thrilling, pivotal, and overlooked episode of modern history, examining its repercussions on the Middle East and the world.

On November 20, 1979, worldwide attention was focused on Tehran, where the Iranian hostage crisis was entering its third week. That same morning, gunmen stunned the world by seizing the Grand Mosque in Mecca, creating a siege that trapped 100,000 people and lasted two weeks, inflaming Muslim rage against the United States and causing hundreds of deaths. But in the days before CNN and Al Jazeera, the press barely took notice. Trofimov interviews for the first time scores of direct participants in the siege, and draws upon hundreds of newly declassified documents. With the pacing, detail, and suspense of a real-life thriller, The Siege of Mecca reveals the long-lasting aftereffects of the uprising and its influence on the world today..
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The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is the mother of all the churches, erected on the spot where Jesus Christ was crucified and rose from the dead and where every Christian was born. In 1927, Jerusalem was struck by a powerful earthquake, and for decades this venerable structure stood perilously close to collapse.
In Saving the Holy Sepulchre, Raymond Cohen tells the engaging story of how three major Christian traditions--Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Armenian Orthodox--each with jealously guarded claims to the church, struggled to restore one of the great shrines of civilization. It almost didn't happen. For centuries the communities had lived together in an atmosphere of tension and mistrust based on differences of theology, language, and culture--differences so sharp that fistfights were not uncommon. And the project of restoration became embroiled in interchurch disputes and great power politics. Cohen shows how the repair of the dilapidated basilica was the result of unprecedented cooperation among the three churches. It was tortuous at times--one French monk involved in the restoration exclaimed: "I can't take any more of it. Latins--Armenians--Greeks--it is too much. I am bent over double." But thanks to the dedicated efforts of a cast of kings, popes, patriarchs, governors, monks, and architects, the deadlock was eventually broken on the eve of Pope Paul VI's historic pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1964.
Today, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is in better shape than it has been for five hundred years. Light and space have returned to its ancient halls, and its walls and pillars stand sound and true. Saving the Holy Sepulchre is the riveting story of how Christians put aside centuries of division to make this dream a reality..
Price: $7.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Scholars estimate that a fifth of the world's population is Muslim, and this figure is growing rapidly. Traditionally, very few people in the West are familiar with the specific beliefs of Islam, but in an increasingly interconnected global society, there is a growing interest in gaining a better understanding of the faith. This text, written by an American scholar, highlights one of the lesser-known aspects of Islam called Mahdism, which centers belief on a "rightly guided one," a prophet who will at some point return to earth to rally Muslims and make the world right. This belief is powerful and potentially dangerous, and deserves the attention it receives in this volume. It hasn't always received such scrutiny. Before September 11, 2001, most Western Islam scholars ignored Mahdism, dismissing it as a relic of Muslim history. However, today it is nearly impossible to ignore the topic, as we have seen first-hand the ways in which religious beliefs can lead to violent acts of terrorism. The Mahdist movement's very aim is to re-order global society into a Muslim community--a cause for which many Islamic faithful would gladly fight and give up their lives. This book serves as a guide to this aspect of Islam. Topics covered include: The Origins of Mahdism; Mahdist Movements throughout History; Counter-Mahdist Rationales and Policies; and Mahdism and Anti-Mahdism Today. While the text is richly detailed, the writing is nonetheless very readable and engaging, making it ideal for students of religious philosophy, for people wishing to understand what leads to religious wars, and indeed for all Americans living in the post-9/11 world..
Price: $16.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Nearly impossible for an outsider to gain access to, these two holy places have never before been as fully documented Nomachi enters this world and returns with beautiful photographs, as thoughtful as they are revealing. "The photographs of these two cities are spectacular. What makes the book and the photographs even more compelling is that these cities are closed to non-Muslims and thus the book provides a rare glimpse at a culture and its artifacts, such as its architecture, that is little known. A fascinating look at one of the world's largest and least known living traditions." --Kirk Robertson, Neon.
Price: $65.39 [Notify me when price goes down.]

As a sophomore at Brown University, Kevin Roose didn't have much contact with the Religious Right. Raised in a secular home by staunchly liberal parents, he fit right in with Brown's sweatshop-protesting, fair-trade coffee-drinking, God-ambivalent student body. So when he had a chance encounter with a group of students from Liberty University, a conservative Baptist university in Lynchburg, Virginia, he found himself staring across a massive culture gap. But rather than brush the Liberty students off, Roose decided to do something much bolder: he became one of them.


Liberty University is the late Rev. Jerry Falwell's proudest accomplishment -- a 10,000-student conservative Christian training ground. At Liberty, students (who call themselves "Champions for Christ") take classes like Introduction to Youth Ministry and Evangelism 101. They hear from guest speakers like Mike Huckabee and Karl Rove, they pray before every class, and they follow a 46-page code of conduct called "The Liberty Way" that prohibits drinking, smoking, R-rated movies, contact with the opposite sex, and witchcraft. Armed with an open mind and a reporter's notebook, Roose dives into life at Bible Boot Camp with the goal of connecting with his evangelical peers by experiencing their world first-hand.


Roose's semester at Liberty takes him to church, class, and choir practice at Rev. Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church. He visits a support group for recovering masturbation addicts, goes to an evangelical hip-hop concert, and participates in a spring break mission trip to Daytona Beach, where he learns how to convert bar-hopping co-eds to Christianity. Roose struggles with his own faith throughout, and in a twist that could only have been engineered by a higher power, he conducts what would turn out to be the last in-depth interview of Rev. Falwell's life. Hilarious and heartwarming, respectful and thought-provoking, Roose's embedded report from the front lines of the culture war will inspire and entertain believers and non-believers alike..
Price: $16.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This majestic history of Jerusalem is the first to bring together in a single volume the experiences of the three great religions in the holy city from their ancient beginnings to the present. A massive and impressive work...sublime, thrilling, and anguished history. --R. J. Zwi Werblowsky. Intelligent and compassionate. --New York Times Book Review. Brilliantly balanced and comprehensive. --Middle East Journal.
Price: $1.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]