BOOKS
For over 25 years, Sven Erlandson has been a leader in the field of spirituality in America -- as it intersects sports, politics, religion, business, and relationships. He was the very first author to both name and delineate the 'spiritual but not religious' movement in America, long before the phrase entered America's common parlance, and even longer before the movement hit critical mass; and is recognized in Wikipedia for that cutting-edge work.
His articles have been published in major newspapers, international journals, ezines, and magazines.
Additionally, his books have been critically acclaimed as 'highly controversial', 'extremely cutting-edge', and more. Like his counseling and speaking, Sven's books have been challenging outdated ideas and radically changing lives for decades.
Learn more about the invaluable books about counseling that Sven has authored. Discover how important it is to reconnect to your soul.
"Hey man, I don't know if you remember our sessions from last summer, but your book is the most intense book i have ever read, because the farther I get into it, the scarier it gets. But, its a damn good book and I'm telling everyone so."
- T. Gabel, 26, NYC, regarding I Steal Wives
Badass Wisdom
Audiobook available now!
Ebook, Paperback, & Hardcover Coming November 20
Are you uninspired? Unmotivated? Depressed or full of anxiety? Do you desire to shed all the old crud you’ve been stuck in, and finally experience true ALIVENESS? Or maybe you’ve done a lot of the healing work, but crave more or would love fresh inspiration and challenges each day!
Badass Wisdom is the book that takes you, day by day, into powerful thoughts, deep questions, and penetrating quotes to help you begin to heal and finally come alive or expand your ALIVENESS to new heights. Sometimes funny and very personal, yet always challenging, this book is no normal meditation/self-care book. It’s powerful life learnings from the Master Badass, himself, Sven Erlandson. 30 years of counseling people in all situations of life, decades of learning at the feet of his wise, old mother, and a rugged life of his own all come together in this book to kick your ass and hold your hand, so you can finally fly at full wingspan! Are you ready?
There’s a Hole in My Love Cup
Are you depressed, but don't know why? Or is it inexplicable anxiety that grips your gut?
Do you, over and over, sabotage yourself, your career, or your relationship?
Is your relationship falling apart and you're not sure what to do?
Do you have it all, but still feel unfulfilled or even miserable inside?
Is your 20-year-old son or daughter unmotivated, causing you to feel ever more frustrated?
Does your mother or father continue, even well into your adulthood, to control or undermine your life?
If any of these sounds like you, we need to talk! That's the purpose of this book: a real conversation about what is causing the problems and unrest in your soul. But first, you must understand: One of the core truths of this book is that trying to change behaviors never changes behaviors, long term. Until there is a fundamental shift in the deep-down, core beliefs driving the behaviors, no changes will ever stick. Most importantly, the beliefs driving your life are neither visible to you nor were they ever chosen by you.
Your depression and anxiety are, at their root, the result of a life disconnected from your soul - your own true self, which has been waiting for decades, deep inside, to be rediscovered. In this book, I reconnect you to your true voice, free you from the fears that dog you, and give you the courage to finally experience true aliveness, lasting joy, and inner peace.
I Steal Wives: Book 1
With a counter-intuitive, Freakonomics-Esque approach and positive, often self-deprecating voice, I Steal Wives delivers the one thing all couples want but no book has been able to provide – a proven inoculation against marital infidelity.
I Steal Wives is the first and only book, past or present, to bring a repeat cheater’s experience and a therapist’s eye to marital self-help. To draw a parallel, it is “How to secure your house,” from the perspective of a professional burglar.
Fusing the narrative color of I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell with the relationship insight of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, I Steal Wives both entertains and packs a punch.
So fresh is the concept, MSN carried an advice article on March 31, 2011, with this tag:
“Imagine your husband cheated. Now imagine that you could sit down with the other woman and find out, from her perspective, why he strayed. Before you recoil in horror, consider this: This woman’s advice may actually be helpful.”
Unlike the MSN article, in which therapists offer second-hand commentary -- usually learned from a book...written by someone else who likely had no first-hand experience with infidelity -- on the stories of cheating women, I Steal Wives is told by a therapist who was a serial cheater, himself.
I Steal Wives: Book 2
The author writes,
"Over the past 25 years, since my junior year of college, I have had affairs with 25+ women in committed relationships, seen two wives cheat on me, and cheated on my first wife. Yet, I also have nearly two decades of experience as a trained relationship and trauma counselor in private and public practice. Thus, I Steal Wives is a fascinating, funny, and powerful book of true stories and theories that I have developed and successfully applied in my work with couples. This is the real deal, not the crap you see on TV or read in People magazine."
I Steal Wives is the first and only relationship self-help book that men will actually want to read and women will not be able to put down. For, it addresses the single most terrifying yet least talked-about issue crippling marriages in America: Why women cheat, and why it is far more common than anyone wants to admit, or even realizes.
Written in salty, everyman language with real 'guy stories', I Steal Wives is like having a few beers with the coolest and most insightful therapist you've ever met. It is guaranteed to change how you view relationships and women, especially if you are one.
Badass Jesus: The Serious Athlete and a Life of Noble Purpose
About the Book: This isn’t your grandma’s Jesus. This book is for those who need a Jesus who was:
a fighter
a ferocious personality
a man of fire and courage
a man who had hell in his blood and mad love in his heart.
This book is for a rare class of athletes: the fiercest and most intense. It is for the lions, the wild horses, and the badasses, who naturally possess the strongest potential for great leadership.
Badass Jesus will powerfully challenge your spirituality. Focused on Jesus’ core principle rather than all the differing beliefs of Christian churches, Badass Jesus offers a simple new vision of intense faith: Jesus’ ethos of extreme self-sacrifice mixed with his 1st and Greatest Commandments of radical, noble love – all dedicated to serving God and changing the world.
Rescuing God From Christianity: A Closet Christian, Non-Christian, and Christmas Christian’s Guide to Radically Re-Thinking God Stuff
Finally, a usable and relevant reinterpretation of Christian Scripture, using metaphor rather than literalism.
A challenging, life-changing new path for the spiritual seeker and for all who believe in God, but whose souls the Church cannot satisfy.
The 7 Evangelical Myths: Untwisting the Theology Behind Politics
Written during the height of the presidency of George W. Bush, 7 Myths is written for people who are tired of the overreaching of evangelical Christianity, particularly as it intrudes on American politics.
Through critical exploration of Christian doctrine and Jesus’ teachings on love, noted author Sven Erlandson exposes the flaws in evangelical theology and provides penetrating insights for those trying to counter evangelicalism and restore some measure of balance to American politics.
Spiritual But Not Religious
A BOOK WELL AHEAD OF ITS TIME
This seminal book by author Sven Erlandson put him and his work on the map and forever influenced future authors in the field of American spirituality. Raw, fresh, and deep, this book is everything the individual seeker could need, yet everything institutionalized religion fears.
From the Back Cover:
For many spiritual people in America, the Christian Church has lost its appeal. Americans have become disenchanted with the Church's unbelievable story and ugly history. They have been turned off by the Church's use of outdated and hard-to-understand language and music. And they have become contemptuous of Church leadership littered with the uninspired, overbearing, and weak. This has created an exodus from organized religion that, in turn, has created an enormous spiritual longing in America.
Spiritual But Not Religious takes a deep look at this ever-growing problem, which in the new century is strengthening its grip on younger America and posing a mortal threat to the Church--a threat the Church has been too afraid to look at. Challenging, fascinating, and oftentimes humorous, Spiritual But Not Religious closely examines the exodus from the Church, citing its causes and implications. It also offers a detailed plan for what the Church must do to not only regain its lost members, but to regain its lost spirit. Let there be no doubt, a revolution is needed! Spiritual But Not Religious is the call for that revolution.