Brethren

The Brethren is the first detailed behind-the-scenes account of the Supreme Court in action. Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong have pierced its secrecy to give us an unprecedented view of the Chief and Associate Justices—maneuvering, arguing, politicking, compromising, and making decisions that affect every major area of American life.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • They call themselves the Brethren: three disgraced former judges doing time in a Florida federal prison. One was sent up for tax evasion. Another, for skimming bingo profits. The third for a career-ending drunken joyride. Meeting daily in the prison law library, taking exercise walks in their boxer shorts, these judges-turned-felons can reminisce about old court cases, dispense a little jailhouse justice, and contemplate where their lives went wrong. Or they can use their time in prison to get very rich—very fast. And so they sit, sprawled in the prison library, furiously writing letters, fine-tuning a wickedly brilliant extortion scam—while events outside their prison walls begin to erupt. A bizarre presidential election is holding the nation in its grips, and a powerful government figure is pulling some very hidden strings. For the Brethren, the timing couldn’t be better. Because they’ve just found the perfect victim. Don’t miss John Grisham’s new book, THE EXCHANGE: AFTER THE FIRM!

"All articles by Lisa Marie Stahl originally appeared in the Great Falls Tribune, Great Falls, Montana 1999-2002."

This book gives a personal insight into the hearts and minds of a fundamentalist Christian sect, the Open Brethren. Using Brethren magazine articles, obituaries, and testimonies, Peter Herriot argues that the Brethren constitute a perfect example of a fundamentalism. Their culture is entirely opposed to the beliefs, values, and norms of modernity. As a result, like other fundamentalisms they challenge modern Christianity and impede its efforts to engage with global society.

The epic first novel in the million-selling Brethren trilogy. In the tradition of Bernard Cornwell, Conn Iggulden and Manda Scott, Brethren brilliantly evokes that extraordinary clash of civilizations known in the West as the Crusades. From the burning plains of Syria to the filthy backstreets of Paris and London, Brethren is the story of Will Campbell, coming of age in a time of conspiracy, passion, politics and war. Will longs to become a Knight Templar, but first he must serve as an apprentice to the foul-tempered scholar Everard, a man of dangerous secrets. Meanwhile, a new star is rising in the east. Amir Baybars has fought his way from slavery to become a fearsome commander, driven by an unquenchable desire to free the Holy Land from the European invaders. A stunning, epic novel of war, savagery and heroism.

' . . . when the CityLink tolls were being established in Victoria, the Brethren argued unsuccessfully to then Kennett government minister Rob Maclellan that they should be exempted from paying tolls because, in the words of one witness, 'the e-TAGs or perhaps the toll gantries were instruments of the devil'. -Michael Bachelard, The Agenewspaper Out of nowhere in 2004, this obscure religious sect burst onto the political stage in Australia. Almost unheard of until then, the Exclusive Brethren was suddenly spending up big in election advertising in support of conservative political parties. But its members were shy to the point of paranoia about who they were - preferring, as they said, to 'fly under the radar'. Brethren members assiduously lobbied politicians, but did not vote. And they were very close to then prime minister John Howard. What exactly was their interest in politics? Why did their activism suddenly blossom almost simultaneously across the world, from Canada and the United States to Sweden and Australia? And how did a small, fringe group whose values are utterly detached from those of most Australians infiltrate the highest office in the land? Michael Bachelard, formerly an investigative reporter at The Ageand now at The Sunday Age, has been uncovering the facts about this secretive sect for more than two years. The results of his inquiries are the most comprehensive book ever written about the Exclusive Brethren. It's a fascinating story of politics and power. But it's a very human story, too - of damaged lives, that broken families, and of hurt and anger that stretches back decades.

This is the first history of the Plymouth Brethren, a conservative, nonconformist evangelical Christian movement whose history can be traced to Dublin, Ireland in the late 1820s. The teachings of John Nelson Darby, an influential figure among the early Plymouth Brethren, have had a huge impact on modern evangelicalism. However, the credit for Darby's work went to some of the first generation of his students, and as evangelicalism has grown it has completely ignored its origins in Darby and the Brethren. In this book, Massimo Introvigne restores credit to John Nelson Darby and his movement, and places them in a contemporary sociological framework based on Introvigne's participant observation in Brethren communities. The modern-day Plymouth Brethren emphasize sola scriptura, the belief that the Bible is the supreme authority for church doctrine and practice. Brethren see themselves as a network of like-minded independent assemblies rather than as a church or a denomination. The movement has also refused to take any formal denominational name; the title "the Brethren" comes from the Biblical passage "one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren" (Matthew 23:8). The Plymouth Brethren offers a typology of differing branches of this reclusive movement, including a case study of the "exclusive" branch known as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, and reveals the various ways in which Brethren ideas have permeated the modern Christian world.