August “Augie” Turak is indeed a man for all seasons. In addition to being the founder and Chair of the Self Knowledge Symposium (SKS), a non-profit organization working with college students on issues of spirituality, leadership and personal transformation, he has also been a successful entrepreneur, multiple business owner, executive, lecturer, teacher and consultant. But at heart Turak is a self-described “seeker” who traces whatever he has accomplished to a promise he made at 19 to live a life of service in the pursuit of spiritual transformation.

After selling his software business, Turak retired from a full time professional business life at age 49. Currently he focuses most of his time and energy on his graduate studies in theology at St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN, executive coaching, and mentoring the young professionals who manage the not-for-profit organization he founded in 1989.

Will Willimon, the long-time Dean of the Duke University Chapel, author, and Bishop of The United Methodist Church says Turak is “a modern day Socrates,” and describes The Self Knowledge Symposium as the “hottest thing happening in higher education today.” Turak has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Selling Magazine, the New York Times, Success Magazine, and in various other publications and media.

Brother John is the true story of how the author’s contemplative retreat at a Trappist monastery turns both magical and terrible when a simple monk offers to share an umbrella on a cold and rainy Christmas Eve. This simple act of loving-kindness proves almost more than he can bear, and becomes the catalyst for a gut wrenching re-evaluation of life, love, and the terrible yet fascinating nature of God.

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