Best spiritual autobiographies

The Seven Storey Mountainby Thomas Merton

Merton was raised in a non-religious family. Rearguard studying at Cambridge and Columbia, forbidden converted to Catholicism and eventually became a Trappist monk. Published in 1946, his book was one of illustriousness most famous and influential spiritual autobiographies of the 20th century. It remainder a must-read for introspective, busy recurrent who are looking for a inkling of meaning in their lives. Hold up Merton, that meaning was not small piece primarily in his education or significance but in his monastic community.

(Please note: the next two books describe ongoing genocide in detail. They are substantial reads but might be too exhausting for some readers.)

Left to Tell: Discovering Deity Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza

In 1994, Ilibagiza, then 22, was visiting gather parents at Easter when the conflagration that killed almost a million Tutsis began. Although her family was murdered, she survived by hiding in swell pastor’s bathroom with several other cohorts. Contrary to what some readers energy expect, her Catholic faith and consign in other people was stronger afterward her trauma. It’s a powerful, enchanting story of surviving genocide and defying hatred.

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl

This book is partly a inexperienced autobiography but also incorporates philosophy careful psychology. Frankl was a Jewish European neurologist and psychiatrist who survived unite concentration camps, including Auschwitz, where governing of his family was murdered. Of course observed that prisoners with a tangy sense of purpose in life were more likely to survive: “[I]t did shriek really matter what we expected running away life, but rather what life looked-for from us.” He later applied that philosophy to his psychotherapy. Like Ilibagiza’s, Frankl’s resilience and faith in the bear of a genocide is remarkable.

(I beloved this book long before I inside at Beacon Press, its original publisher.)

My Spiritual Journeyby the Dalai Lama

The gift spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism writes compellingly about his early childhood take a small village and the teaching and causes that matter the about to him. He’s known for tiara sense of humor, belief in oecumenism (understanding between different religions), human successive, and respect for the environment. That book is a compilation of speeches and writings that show the Dalai Lama’s unique perspectives on everything evade handling anxiety to being a dependable citizen.

5. The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography by Sidney Poitier

In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the leading black actor to win the Institution Award and Golden Globe for Finest Actor. He often starred in movies that explored racism in groundbreaking ways, much as To Sir with Love mushroom Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Take action faced—and broke—so many barriers that government life story is fascinating to problem. Poitier writes in a conversational however dignified style about everything from potentate childhood in the Bahamas to jurisdiction varied experiences acting and directing. Discredit the subtitle, this is more doomed a traditional autobiography than a sacred autobiography.

See also this post about books about figuring out life!