In 1987, Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind was published; a wildly popular book that drew attention to the shift in American culture away from the tenants that made America—and Americans—unique. Bloom focused on a breakdown in the American curriculum, but many sensed that the issue affected more than education. The very essence of what it meant to be an American was disappearing.

Entrepreneurship, Steve Mariotti claims, is vital. An Entrepreneur’s Manifesto is Mariotti’s rallying cry for the world to recognize the potential that business creation holds for the individual and the economy. Mariotti explores how entrepreneurship affects schools and prisons, developed cities and isolated villages, brick-and-mortar stores, and internet-based businesses. He takes a hard look at the research on entrepreneurial education, entrepreneurship, government policy, and the social and cultural attributes most likely to foster successful business creation, incorporating his discussions with some of the best minds on the question of entrepreneurship. Mariotti also examines how the rise of the Internet and Web-based innovations like crowdfunding have both changed—and not changed—the fundamentals of promoting those who take the ultimate gamble of going into business for themselves.

In God in the Machine, author Liel Leibovitz leads a fas­cinating tour of the emerging virtual landscape and its many dazzling vistas from which we are offered new vantage points on age-old theological and philosophical questions. Free will vs. determinism, the importance of ritual, transcendence through mastery, notions of the self, justice and sin, life, death, and resurrection all come into play in the video games that some critics so quickly write off as mind-numbing wastes of time. When one looks closely at how these games are designed, their inherent logic, and their cognitive effects on players, it becomes clear that playing these games creates a state of awareness vastly different from when we watch television or read a book. Indeed, the gameplay is a far more dynamic process that draws on various faculties of mind and body to evoke sensa­tions that might more commonly be associated with religious experience. Getting swept away in an engaging game can be a profoundly spiritual activity. It is not to think, but rather to be, a logic that sustained our ancestors for millennia as they looked heavenward for answers.

From the all-star cast who brought you The Seven Deadly Virtues comes a book with a look at the good life… or the crazy-stressful-overwhelmed life… of a father.

The Dadly Virtues is a tongue-in-cheek collection of encouragement and guidance for any stage of fatherhood, from pacifying babies to prepping for senior prom, from cutting the cord to getting the first, “Best Grandpa” t-shirt. P.J. O’Rourke sets the stage with the chapter, “What Do Men Get from Fatherhood? Besides What They Put In …”

What is the state of Christianity in China? Some scholars say that China is invulnerable to religion. In contrast, others say that past efforts of missionaries have failed, writing off those converted as nothing more than “rice Christians” or cynical souls who had frequented the missions for the benefits they provided. Some wonder if the Cultural Revolution extinguished any chances of Christianity in China.

In Bring Back the Bureaucrats, John J. DiIulio Jr., one of America’s most respected political scientists and an adviser to presidents in both parties, summons the facts and statistics to show us how America’s big government works and why reforms that include adding a million more people to the federal workforce by 2035 might help to slow government’s growth while improving its performance.

How the West Really Lost God is a startlingly original account of how secularization happens and a sweeping brief about why everyone should care. A book written for agnostics as well as believers, atheists as well as “none of the above,” it will permanently change the way every reader understands the two institutions that have hitherto undergirded Western civilization as we know it—family and faith—and the fundamental nature of the relationship between those two pillars of history.

This book draws from previously unpublished letters and interviews with physicists, theologians, and Sir John’s close associates and family to present Sir John’s ideas on pure unlimited love. Post, who was in dialogue with Sir John for fifteen years on this topic and who had founded the Institute for Research on Unlimited Love (www.unlimitedloveinstitute.com), addresses how John Templeton arrived at his philosophy as a youth growing up in Tennessee. Post also shares how classical Presbyterian ideas came to synergize in his mind with the more Eastern influences of American transcendentalism and the Unity School of Christianity and ponders if Sir John truly believed that science and spirituality might fully converge on the same view of Ultimate Reality with their very different ways of knowing. Is Ultimate Reality Unlimited Love? presents Sir John’s hope for spiritual progress with the eventual convergence of ultimate reality and unlimited love.

In Making Grateful Kids, two of the leading authorities on gratitude among young people, Jeffrey J. Froh and Giacomo Bono, introduce their latest and most compelling research, announce groundbreaking findings, and share real-life stories from adults and youth to show parents, teachers, mentors, and kids themselves how to achieve greater life satisfaction through gratitude. Most importantly perhaps, they expand on this groundbreaking research to offer practical and effec­tive common-sense plans that can be used in day-to-day interactions between kids and adults to enhance success and wellbeing.

In this autobiography, Robert L. Herrmann tells the story of his life and his work with Sir John Templeton. Through his reflections on his working relationship with Sir John, Herrmann provides valuable insights into the early years of the John Templeton Foundation. Herrmann collaborated with John Templeton on three books published by the Templeton Press. Drawing on stories of this collaboration, Herrmann gives readers a fresh understanding of Sir John’s ideas and how these ideas coalesced to become the mission that still guides the John Templeton Foundation today.

Head and Heart: Perspectives from Religion and Psychology takes an inter-disciplinary ap­proach, linking the thinking of theologians and philosophers with theory and research in present-day psychology. The tradition of using framing questions that have been developed in theology and philosophy can now be brought into dialogue with scientific approaches developed within cognitive psy­chology and neuroscience. Though these scientific approaches have not generally used the terms “head” and “heart,” they have arrived at a similar distinction in other ways. There is a notable convergence upon the realization that humans have two modes of cognition at their disposal that correspond to “head” and “heart.” The time is therefore ripe to bring the approaches of theology and science in to dialogue—an impor­tant dialogue that has been heretofore neglected.

Regardless of where we are in our careers, we can all find joy and meaning in the work we do, from the construction zone flagger who keeps his crew safe to the corporate executive who believes that her company’s products will change the world. In Make Your Job a Calling authors Bryan J. Dik and Ryan D. Duffy explore this powerful idea and help the reader navigate the many challenges—both internal and external—that may arise along the pathway to a sense of calling at work.