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Welcome to Faith.com's Featured Books area. Books can be helpful and intimate companions as you travel the way of the spirit. Here's a place where you can glimpse some of the best new works available. We've also added a sprinkling of first-rate selections from Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, ancient and modern texts that have proved the test of time.
Best American Spiritual Writing 2004
by Philip Zaleski
Houghton Mifflin, 2004
Readers of Zaleski's anthologies will be glad to know that, after a yearlong hiatus, his spirituality series has found a new home with Houghton Mifflin's Best American books. This sixth volume follows the expected format: some 25 essays and 10 poems that, according to the introduction, "address the eternal oppositions of good and evil, virtue and vice, creation and destruction; the sorrows and exaltations of heart, mind, and soul; the ceaseless quest for God." With approaches ranging from Seyyed Hossein Nasr's philosophical argument for the primacy of consciousness to Mark Doty's ecstatic vision of "fire [calling] its double down," the collection includes household names like Natalie Goldberg and Oliver Sacks alongside newer authors. Bus driver Robin Cody, for example, pays touching tribute to "birth-damaged or world-beaten children," and memoirist Lindsey Crittenden describes depression, death, her mother and the kind of prayer that is "pure throw of yourself into the unknown." Welcoming varied perspectives, Zaleski includes David Gelernter's summary of Judaism as well as a sprinkling of overt Buddhists and Christians, though most selections transcend religious categories. A large number, like David James Duncan's "Earth Music" and Allen Hoey's "Essay on Snow," focus on the natural world, while some, like B.K. Loren's "Word Hoard," resist classification. With few misses and many hits, the collection is a thought-provoking and often poignant read. (Publisher's Weekly)
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The World’s Religions
by Huston Smith
HarperSanFrancisco, 1991
This work is a classic in its field; over a million copies have been sold since it was first published in 1958. What distinguishes Smith’s approach is its clarity and its warmth. He has an innate ability to convey the essential genius of the world’s great religions and to clearly describe what makes each of them unique. A kindly sense of humor is also evident: Smith points out, for example, that Lao Tsu, the name of the founder of the Taoist tradition, means something like "the Old Boy" in Chinese.
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Under God
by Toby Mac & Michael Tait
Bethany House Publishers, 2004
This attractive book should win awards for its innovative design and layout even while raising eyebrows with its revisionist text. Mac and Tait, the Grammy and Dove Award-winning members of Christian band DC Talk, move from the tremendous success of their Jesus Freaks series to take a quickie tour of American history. It’s certainly more nuanced than some other Christian interpretations of the nation’s founding, as the Founders are allowed to have a few flaws. (Benjamin Franklin, for all his teachings on thrift and industry, was a slave-owning dandy, for example.) The authors don’t stop with the Founders and Framers, but carry forward the American story in a greatest-hits manner while touching on freedom fighters (Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr.) and political leaders through the 20th century. But the historical merits of this book are shallow in the area of religion. In their determination to show the Christian foundations of the American nation, the authors strongly overstate the evangelical bona fides of their heroes. Thomas Jefferson appears all through the book, for example, but the authors never discuss his controversial reworking of the Bible with all of the miracles and supernatural elements excised. And Sojourner Truth is cast as a classic evangelical Christian with no mention of her forays into the Kingdom of Matthias cult or spiritualist seances. Still, the lasting appeal of this book is its stunning design, not its one-sided view of history. With jagged-cut pages, Old World backgrounds, "distressed" illustrations and bold sidebars, the book’s appearance is both arresting and ingenious. (Publisher's Weekly) Buy This Book
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The Path of Prayer
by Sophy Burnham
Penguin Group, 2003
In this fervent but unfocused primer, prayer is more therapeutic protocol than divine commandment. Drawing on the writings of sages, unconventional (and some might say dubious) scientific studies and many true-life parables of supplications miraculously answered, Burnham (A Book of Angels) reassures us that all prayers great (cure this cancer) and small (untie this necklace) go straight to God's ears. Nominally a Christian, Burnham has a broadly ecumenical but unspecific idea of God-a.k.a. "Creative Element," "force of the universe" and "tachyon energy"-and her concept of prayer is similarly unstructured and abstract. Prayer can be the familiar hands-clasped entreaty (for which she provides tips on posture and warm-up breathing exercises), but it can be virtually any other act-listening to music, drinking coffee, washing the dishes-done with a pure heart. Prayer taps into the mystical healing power of a cosmos that is raptly attentive to our needs, but demands little from us except emotional sincerity. Devotees of Burnham's free-form New Age spirituality will like this approach, but religious traditionalists who think that specific beliefs and rituals are important to God may not. (Publishers Weekly)
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Transforming the Faiths of Our Fathers
by Ann Braude
Palgrave Macmillan, 2004
Far from being a dry anthology of essays about the movers and shakers of religious feminism in the late 20th century, this book dares to let these iconoclastic women speak for themselves, in all their pain, wisdom and glorious humor. Some of the writers' names may sound familiar, particularly to those who have read feminist and womanist theology: the roster includes Rosemary Radford Ruether, Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza, Judith Plaskow, Carol Christ and Delores Williams. Other contributors, such as Lois Miriam Wilson, the first female moderator of the United Church of Canada, are not household names, but readers will be fascinated by their experiences. The contributors come from mainline Protestant, evangelical Protestant, Catholic, Islamic, Jewish, Mormon, Buddhist and goddess backgrounds. As the women share their spiritual journeys, they talk about how religion has both limited and empowered them. The book can be revisionist; several essays challenge the idea that womanist theology was created by black and Latina women because "white feminist" theology had ignored their needs. Readers will be encouraged by these women's bravery, as well as by the book's implicit reminder of how far women have come in a relatively short time. (Publishers Weekly) Buy This Book
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Practical Virtues
by Floyd H. Flake M. Elaine McCollins Flake
HarperCollins Publishers, 2003
In a treasure trove of African-American spirituality, Revs. Floyd Flake and Elaine McCollins Flake offer Practical Virtues: Everyday Values and Devotions for African American Families. While the title might suggest another simplistic niche devotional with bite-sized expressions of spiritual wisdom, the book actually offers an incomparably rich selection of historical writings by, for and about African-Americans. Here we find snippets from the memoir of Rosa Parks, the speeches of Sojourner Truth, the poetry of Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks and the socio-political writings of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. (Polar opposites in their approaches a century ago, Washington and DuBois actually seem at home appearing cheek-by-jowl in this collection.) The writings are organized around spiritual virtues such as courage, diligence, faith, honesty, love, loyalty and service. (Publishers Weekly)
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Life After Death
by Alan Segal
Doubleday, 2004
This monumental study combines history, geography, mythology, archaeology and anthropology with biblical text analysis. Segal, a professor of Jewish studies at Barnard College, spent 10 years on this project, but the erudition he displays is undoubtedly the result of a lifetime of scholarship. In every culture, people ask the same fundamental questions about their existence, including "what happens after we die?" Although Segal maintains that answers to that question lie "beyond confirmation or disconfirmation in the scientific sense," he offers a comprehensive overview of how the afterlife is understood in the three main Western religions. He thoroughly examines early influences from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Canaan, Iran and Greece, then analyzes Jewish views as expressed in the first and second temple periods, the book of Daniel, the Dead Sea scrolls and writings from and about New Testament times, the early rabbis, mysticism and fundamentalism. For Christianity, systematic attention is given to Paul, the Gospels, the pseudepigraphic literature and the Church Fathers. Segal also scans Muslim beliefs as they appear in the Qur'an and the writings of Shi'a mystics and modern fundamentalists. The introductory and concluding chapters provide the essence of the presentation, enlivened by quotations from Shakespeare. Impatient readers may begin with these two chapters as a guide to determining which other sections of the book warrant further scrutiny. Careful readers, however, will take the trouble and the time to pore over this impressive contribution to our understanding of human belief and behavior. (Publisher's Weekly) Buy This Book
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The Way Things Are
by Huston Smith, Phil Cousineau (Editor)
University of California Press, 2003
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that he would gladly walk 100 miles through a snowstorm for one good conversation. Fortunately, readers don't have to trudge through a blizzard or even leave their armchairs to listen in on these 22 fascinating conversations with renowned religious scholar Huston Smith. Kudos to editor and accomplished author Cousineau (The Art of Pilgrimage) for gathering these interviews that span more than 30 years. Readers will find themselves ravenously eavesdropping on captivating discussions, such as Smith's humorous story of meeting His Holiness the Dalai Lama for the first time or his soothing anecdote of how he became spiritually reconciled to the death of his eldest daughter to cancer. When Smith speaks about religious violence, his insight could be relevant to any era of humanity: "First of all, my persuasion is what really breeds violence is political differences. But because religion serves as the soul of community, it gets drawn into the fracas and turns up the heat." Indeed, a lifelong career of studying the world's religions has made him especially gifted in illuminating the dialogues that are timeless. As a result, his conversations touch upon many Big Questions: what is the meaning of God? Where do science and religion meet? How can we teach children about the sacred in everyday life? Why do we move toward the light? Incidentally, Cousineau's stunning preface is worth the price of admission alone. (Publishers Weekly)
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The World’s Wisdom
by Philip Novak (editor)
HarperSanFrancisco, 1995
There are many fine anthologies of sacred texts available on the market. This is one of the best. It contains essential writings from all the major religions of the world, carefully culled and presented to convey the spirit of each faith. An excellent accompaniment to Huston Smith’s World Religions.
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Spiritual Perspectives
by Surya Das (Contributor) Tony Campolo (Contributor)
SkyLight Paths, 2003
This timely anthology contains the viewpoints of 16 noted spiritual leaders from a variety of religious traditions and the whole political spectrum. The SkyLight Paths editors offer a collection that mostly lives up to their hope that "together we can try to change the world." These short essays, many of them with provocative stances, will compel audiences toward deeper reflection on globalization, spirituality and power. (Publishers Weekly)
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The Monotheists
by Frank E. Peters
Princeton University Press, 2003
Historian Peters has long been an astute and objective chronicler of the history and beliefs of the three great monotheistic
religions--Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In this sprawling, majestic and elegant narrative, he offers the best study we presently
have of the ways, words and wisdom of these religions. With straightforward prose and evenhanded examination, Peters devotes
Volume 1 to an historical overview of the Abrahamic faiths, tracing each religion from its earliest expressions to the 17th century. In
his second volume, Peters focuses on the various beliefs and practices of each religion, examining the canonization and interpretation of
scripture, scripture and tradition, God's law and its observance, worship, ethics and eschatology. Throughout the book, he includes
boxed notes for historical asides or to explain terminology. Peters's magnificent book is the new place to turn for a first-rate historical
introduction to these three religions. (Publishers Weekly)
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Standing in the Need of Prayer
by Coretta Scott King
The Free Press, 2003
This well-designed gift book pairs photographs and prayers to help readers understand the richness and diversity of African-American
spirituality, including Muslim, Rastafarian, Jewish, Protestant, Catholic, Voudou and Yoruba traditions. As Coretta Scott King points
out in the foreword, the book's dedication to a wide range of faiths seems encapsulated by a 1964 photograph of her husband leading a
prayer at their dinner table under an irenic portrait of his Hindu mentor, Gandhi. A helpful appendix provides information about the
setting of many of the photographs: a Promise Keepers rally, a prison service, a Buddhist meditation gathering, a prayerful university
protest from 1960. Most of the photos are memorable, and often cleverly parallel the quote chosen for the facing page. These short
quotes are taken from prayers, novels, speeches, hymns, spirituals and sacred texts like the Bible and the Qur'an. (Publishers Weekly)
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Sacred Song in America
by Stephen A. Marini
University of Illinois Press, 2003
In Sacred Song in America, Stephen A. Marini explores the full range of American sacred music and demonstrates how an understanding of the meanings and functions of this musical expression can contribute to a greater understanding of religious culture.
Marini examines the role of sacred song across the United States, from the musical traditions of Native Americans and the Hispanic peoples of the Southwest, to the Sacred Harp singers of the rural South and the Jewish music revival to the music of the Mormon, Catholic, and Black churches. Including chapters on New Age and Neo-Pagan music, gospel music, and hymnals as well as interviews with iconic composers of religious music, Sacred Song in America pursues a historical, musicological, and theoretical inquiry into the complex roles of ritual music in the public religious culture of contemporary America. (University of Illinois Press)
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Come and See
by Linda Schaefer
DC Press, 2003
When Schaefer first showed up unannounced at Mother Teresa's headquarters in Calcutta in 1995 and begged to be allowed to do a
photo book of the nun's life and work, the answer was a humble but firm "no." Instead, Mother Teresa put Schaefer to work as a volunteer,
changing diapers and playing with the children in one of the Missionaries of Charity's 40-odd orphanages. Over time, as Schaefer's motivations shifted from a drive to merely document to a desire to participate in the ministry, the nun permitted her to bring out the camera. The result is this unique, behind-the-scenes collection of photos from various outreach centers throughout India, including a leper colony and a hospice for the dying. Schaefer draws on her own experiences and on interviews with other volunteers, who come from many different nationalities and religious backgrounds. In all, this is a very appropriate tribute to Mother Teresa on the eve of her canonization, since it celebrates not just the woman's life, but the people who were her life's work. (Publishers Weekly)
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Subverting Greed
by Paul F. Knitter (Editor) Chandra Muzaffar, Daisaku Ikeda (Editor)
Orbis Books, 2002
Insightful essays by distinguished religious scholars--who are also practitioners of the religious traditions they represent--consider the impact of globalization as they seek to shed light on their own tradition's concerns, define common problems, and propose common solutions. (Amazon.com)
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God's Rule
by Jacob Neusner (Editor) Neusner (Editor)
Georgetown University Press, 2003
Offers the perspectives of multiple faiths and disciplines in surveying the prominence of religions in contemporary international politics. (Publishers Weekly)
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The Sacred and the Sovereign
by John Carlson (Editor) Erik Owens (Editor)
Georgetown University Press, 2003
Assembles contributions by different scholars as well as military and diplomatic viewpoints in essays on religion in global affairs. (Publishers Weekly)
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Fingerpainting on the Moon
by Peter Levitt
Crown Publishing Group, 2003
In creativity lies the true path to freedom is this book's central and oft-repeated thesis, and Levitt uses a mishmash of mystical Judaism, Zen Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Hinduism and other spiritual and philosophical traditions to inspire readers to tap into their own creative genius. Poet Levitt talks mostly about writing here, but asserts his message applies to "anyone who longs to return to his creative source and to express both the journey and what he finds once he is there." Levitt is a warm and often wise teacher, but his lessons can come off as a bit too precious, a bit too New Age. On the importance of asking questions, Levitt muses that questions "can be the moon calling to us to join them there, which we know how to do. To embrace a question born in our imagination is to feel embraced." Levitt's portrait of a creative life, with its intense focus on dreamy self-examination, may strike some as overly earnest, even solipsistic. Those inclined to express creativity through social commentary, for instance, or satire, will likely not be moved by advice such as "It is in the spirit of awe, inspiration, yearning and the need we all have to discover the light of the creative sparks in our lives that I urge you to close the gap and give yourself entirely to all parts of your world." The strongest parts of the book come when Levitt connects ancient mystical teachings with the present search for creativity. The story of a Zen master who shot an arrow into the sea and declared it a bull's-eye, for example, is a tale meant to help readers overcome fear of failure by avoiding narrow, pre-determined definitions of success. As far as creative success goes, Levitt encourages readers, "the target is large and the center can be found everywhere." (Publishers Weekly)
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Simple Acts of Moving Forward
by Vinita Hampton Wright
WaterBrook Press, 2003
Sometimes, even the most creative people feel "stuck"--they battle writer's block, wrestle with a family problem, or struggle with feelings of burnout. Wright offers 60 shrewd tips on moving forward during these times, from the simple (read a different newspaper, change your routine) to the spiritual (pray, look to God for inspiration) and the joyful (sing, feast, and get naked, though not necessarily all at once). Wright's suggestions are helpfully grounded in her own experience as a novelist who leads retreats on creativity and spirituality. The book is designed so that it can be picked up at random, and readers can choose whether to implement quick tips that take just a few moments, or work on larger issues such as nurturing colleagues, confessing their own faults, and forgiving themselves. Wright's voice is gentle yet honest as she urges readers forward toward greater fulfillment. (Publishers Weekly)
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Working on the Inside
by Retta Blaney
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2003
Stage and screen actors form unique relationships with their audiences. Through their work, they challenge, teach, and inspire us by shedding light on all corners of life and connecting with us through our senses and emotions. Working on the Inside goes backstage into the inner lives of respected actors like Liam Neeson, Vanessa Williams, Phylicia Rashad, Edward Herrmann, Kristin Chenoweth, and many others to reveal the deep spirituality each one relies on in their lives and work. The result is a book like no other that draws ten key elements of the universal spiritual life from the perspective of actors whose work it is to tap into the essence of life, tell stories, and reveal life's truths.
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Wine at the End of the Feast
by Kristen Johnson Ingram
Loyola Press, 2003
This passionate collection of essays by Ingram, author of 18 books, argues that "aging gracefully" is really about growing in God's grace. The book is more descriptive than prescriptive; this is not a how-to manual but a keen observation of how the aging process opens people to spiritual growth. Various chapters explore topics such as friendship and community, creativity, loss, sleeplessness, death and resurrection. Ingram writes honestly about some of the drawbacks of growing old (such as being called an "old fart" in the grocery store), while also pointing to the increased spiritual awareness that comes with understanding the inevitability of death. She writes from a Roman Catholic perspective, but also casts her net wide, drawing upon Buddhism, Christian history and the arts--even extolling the wisdom of Ravel and David Bowie in the same sentence. Opinionated and personal, discerning and candid, this book adds a luster of insight to the golden years. (Publishers Weekly)
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Uncivil Rites
by Robert Detweiler
University of Illinois Press, 1996
In Uncivil Rites, Robert Detweiler adds a new dimension to scholarly debate as he explores major works of fiction, drama, and film and shows how each reveals religious values and shapes discourse. Detweiler identifies politics, sexuality, and aggression--which he terms the bodies politic, erotic, and apocalyptic--as public discourse that fictional works often inform. (University of Illinois Press)
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How to Pray
by Helene Ciaravino
Square One Publishers, 2001
Winner of the 2002 Benjamin Franklin Award for the religion category. How to Pray explores prayer and meditation practices of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, in each case providing a clear explanation of that religion or philosophy's approach.
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Field Notes on the Compassionate Life
by Marc Ian Barasch
Rodale Press, Incorporated, 2005
Marc Ian Barasch, dubbed "one of today's coolest grown-ups" by Interview magazine, sets out on a journey to the heart of compassion. He discovers its power to change who we are and the society we have become. Compassion, he concludes, is "a prescription for authentic joy."
Can tapping into one simple human trait, hardwired into our nervous system and just waiting to be awakened, transform our lives and the world at large? Could it help us enjoy new levels of happiness and contentment? Exploring his subject through the multiple lenses of psychology and biology, pop culture and theology, history and philosophy, Barasch weaves a stirring, unforgettable account of his search to find within himself and others: the ability to live compassionately.
He examines such fascinating questions as: What can we learn from exceptionally empathetic people? Can we increase our kindness quotient with practice? How do we open our hearts to those who do us harm? What if the great driving force of our evolution were actually "survival of the kindest?"
Drawing from influences as disparate as Buddhist monks and skeptical neuroscientists, Barasch creates a riveting, persuasive argument that a simple shift in consciousness can have a tremendous, lasting impact on our psyches, our relationships, our health--and the very fate of the Earth.
The Best Spiritual Writing of 2002
HarperSanFrancisco, 2002
Zaleski's fifth annual collection of the best spiritual writing achieves something memorable and fresh in a year marked by an upsurge in the sheer quantity of spiritual writing. (Publishers Weekly)
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The Stories of Paul Bowles
by Paul Bowles
HarperCollins Publishers, 2001
As elusive as his enigmatic fiction, which is epitomized by the 1949 autobiographical bestselling novel, The Sheltering Sky, Bowles (1910-2001) arguably has been venerated as much for being the mythical forerunner of the Beat Generation as for his considerable genius, both musical and literary. A darling of iconoclastic literati both here and abroad, he first became known as a composer, writing music for stage and screen. Only after his marriage to Jane Auer (herself soon to become a cultishly popular writer under the name Jane Bowles) in 1938 did he turn seriously to fiction. The exotic settings of the 62 stories collected in this landmark volume reflect the wanderings of nomadic Paul and Jane as, during the '30s and '40s, they flitted from Europe to Mexico, the Caribbean and the U.S. before finally settling in Tangiers in 1949. Over the years, Bowles's fascination with Western man's intrinsic decadence, laid bare in clashes with exotic cultures, became the signature motif of his existential fiction ("The Hours After Noon" and "Too Far from Home"). His oblique language and abrupt endings ("At Paso Rojo") are curiously confounding, and his tales are invariably charged with subterranean currents. Frankly incestuous and homosexual, "Pages from Cold Point" is almost certain to stir anew speculation about Bowles's sexual orientation. Earthy, violent and comfortable with corruption, these deeply affecting stories are distinguished by their lyrical rhythms and meticulous regard for language. The assemblage of this impressive collection marks a literary event of the highest order: This definitive volume will be a must-have for all major libraries, and should attract much reviewattention and feature coverage. (Publishers Weekly)
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A Calendar of Festivals
by Cherry Gilchrist
Barefoot Books, 1998
This compelling collection takes readers back through story and legend to the origins of many festivals celebrated throughout the world and traces some of the stories that are connected to them. The cross-cultural collection includes stories from Russia, India, China, and Jewish tales--and, of course, stories of Christmas. (Ingram)
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The Dying Time
by Joan Furman and David McNabb
Bell Tower, 1997
One of the best books available on caring for the dying, The Dying Time combines deep insight and down-to-earth practicality. All caregivers need to know what's between these covers. This book demystifies the process of death, yet honors the sacredness of life's final transition. (Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Prayer Is Good Medicine)
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God in All Worlds: An Anthology of Contemporary Spiritual Writing
by Lucinda Vardey (editor)
Pantheon, 1995
Vardey has gathered a diverse and highly philosophical collection of modern (since 1945) writings representative of all spiritual traditions. Her goal is to "contribute to the understanding of the revelation of the spirit in our time.” (Publishers Weekly)
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Sacred Origins of Profound Things
by Charles Panati
Penguin Arkana, 1996
Sprightly, wry and irreverent, Sacred Origins of Profound Things attempts to explain the arcana of religious practice and dogma like prayer, celestial personae, moral codes, festivals, saints, evil, heaven, hell and miracles. Panati digs up fascinating curios while clearly explaining fundamental tenets of the world's religions. (Publishers Weekly)
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Searching for Your Soul
by Katherine Kurs (editor)
Schocken, 1999
In this remarkable collection, Kurs, who teaches religious studies at the New School of Social Research, has gathered a rich variety of autobiographical writings on spiritual matters. Writers both contemporary and historical, ranging from Augustine, Thomas Merton and Mohandas Gandhi to Dan Wakefield, Dennis Covington and Kathleen Norris reflect upon such questions as: "Who or what is God, or the holy, for me?"; "Who are my spiritual ancestors?"; "When did I begin to lose my sense of connection to the holy and to the world around me and how do I regain it?" (Publishers Weekly)
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Faith
by Sharon Salzberg
Riverhead Books, 2002
In this beautifully written work, one of America's most beloved meditation teachers offers discerning wisdom on understanding faith as a healing quality. Through the teachings of Buddha and insight gained from her lifelong spiritual quest, Salzberg provides us with a road map for cultivating a feeling of peace that can be practiced by anyone of any tradition. (Riverhead Books)
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The New Millennium Spiritual Journey
Edited by the editors at Skylight Paths.
Skylight Paths, 1999
Let some of the most respected spiritual teachers in America--teachers from all faiths and spiritual traditions--share their personal spiritual priorities with you. You will be both surprised and enlightened. The approaching new millennium is an opportunity for each of us to re-evaluate and re-prioritize our lives.
This outstanding resource is designed to use insights, prayers and meditations from today's most prominent spiritual leaders to set your own course of self-examination, reflection and spiritual transformation using: Self-tests to focus your intention. Spiritual practice suggestions for strengthening mind and spirit. Intriguing facts about religious traditions and sacred texts. Journaling space for your thoughts and for charting your personal growth. Time capsule pages for recording reflections, ideas and dreams, to be revisited in future years. (Amazon.com)
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Adventures with the Buddha
by Jeffery Paine
W. W. Norton & Company, 2004
Starred Review. "Many Buddhist books will edify you," Paine writes, "but will any entertain you?" Paine (Re-enchantment: Tibetan Buddhism Comes to the West) here offers up an enthralling anthology of nine Western "writer-adventurers" who journeyed to India, Tibet, Nepal, China and Japan to study the various incarnations of Buddhism. The first five writers, including a disaffected Frenchwoman and a Dutch mystery novelist, tell of their experiences in Asia during the first half of the 20th century, when there were still tantalizing unexplored "white spaces" on the map. They reverently describe a wild and woolly land filled with magic: lamas discoursing via mental telepathy; almost-naked gurus meditating in icy caves for years at a time; Shangri-La landscapes filled with clanging processions of gaily-dressed pilgrims. The book's second half features four contemporary American Buddhist writers such as Sharon Salzberg and Michael Roach. To one degree or another, they also share their experiences in Asia, but these writers' main focus is the interior realm: how Buddhism has affected their own day-to-day emotional and spiritual lives—a familiar theme in current Buddhist writing, but one which these writers make fresh. Paine's own contributions are limited to brief introductions, but these are lively and illuminating. Paine's real genius, however, is constructing a cohesive, potent anthology that informs, delights and fires the imagination, a work that both recalls a lost world and illustrates its continued relevance today. (Publisher's Weekly) Buy This Book
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Taming the Tiger Within
by Thich Nhat Hanh
Riverhead Books, 2004
Vietnamese Zen Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh has authored three national bestsellers that deal with negative emotions: Anger, Going Home and No Death, No Fear. Here he distills some of the best quotations from those three books, offering advice on how to conquer rage, jealousy, fear and the desire for revenge. Often the thoughts are just a sentence long, and rarely more than three; the book is designed to be savored over time through deep reflection. Some of Hanh’s suggestions are practical (such as walking to diffuse anger or writing a love letter to a cherished individual), while others will require more rumination. One key to reducing anger, for example, is to practice "deep looking" and recognize that all beings are interconnected; the angry person is inextricably intertwined with the one she imagines is her enemy. Though spare, even Spartan, this book holds seeds of profound wisdom. However, more serious readers will want to delve into the three classics that this book draws upon, since they are already accessible, brief and easy to understand.
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The Lost Art of Compassion
by Lorne Ladner
HarperCollins Publishers, 2004
As the president of the Guhyasamaja Buddhist Center in Virginia, Ladner is a strong proponent of the Buddhist practice of compassion, which develops positive emotions through mental exercises. "Cultivating compassion is the single most effective way to make oneself psychologically healthy, happy and joyful," Ladner writes. "It is a direct antidote to prejudice and aggression." The author, who also works as a clinical psychologist, bemoans the lack of attention compassion receives in the West, and argues that most psychotherapists do little to help their patients increase their feelings of happiness. Nonetheless, Ladner does draw upon both Eastern and Western examples in this book, referring to sources as diverse as Jesus, T.S. Eliot, Lama Zopa Rinpoche and the Dalai Lama, as well as including numerous anecdotes from his clinical practice. Though the exercises that Ladner recommends are sometime quite elaborate-one them involves identifying your "narcissistic patterns," personifying them as enemies and battling against them-he carefully walks readers through them one chapter at a time and then organizes them into a helpful "Summary of Compassion Practices" at the end of the book. To inspire readers, Landner cites the many recent studies showing that aspects of practicing compassion can significantly improve people's stress levels and their communication and relationships with others. Readers eager to test those findings for themselves should appreciate this book's realistic, manageable approach to dispelling bitterness and anger and replacing it with empathy and patience. (Publishers Weekly) Buy This Book
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Re-Enchantment
by Jeffrey Paine
W.W. Norton & Company, 2003
Memorable anecdotes, great storytelling and keen observations mark this cogent exploration of the explosive growth of Tibetan Buddhism in the West. Paine offers chapters on many famous Tibetans, including the Dalai Lama (who, refreshingly, doesn't appear until nearly the end of the book), the pioneering Lama Yeshe, who first taught Westerners, and the controversial rogue playboy Ch gyam Trungpa, Yeshe's character foil. Other chapters profile Westerners who discovered Tibetan Buddhism, like Tenzin Palmo (formerly a Cockney London girl named Diane Perry), who meditated alone for 12 years in an Indian cave and American lama Jetsunma (Catherine Burroughs), a much-married "tough bird from Brooklyn" who was the first Western woman to be recognized as a tulku (reincarnated Buddhist figure). Of course, there's a chapter on Hollywood, but Paine eschews a superficial chronicle of Tibetan Buddhism's sudden popularity among the glitterati in favor of a compelling analysis of why a Buddhist concept of reality might make sense to people whose lives revolve around the creation of impermanent "realities" like films. Throughout, Paine explores how Tibetan Buddhism has changed the American religious landscape, but also how it has been changed by America: in Tibet, for example, meditation was traditionally a very advanced practice, but in practical-minded America, practitioners "dive straight into meditation immediately." A final chapter introduces the only Tibetan Buddhist on death row; in a fascinating observation, Paine notes that famed Tibetan saint Milarepa was in fact a reformed criminal. (Publishers Weekly)
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The Buddha Book
by Lillian Too
Thorsons, 2003
In the Buddhist tradition, there are countless Buddhist deities - embodiments of enlightened wisdom - who also represent different aspects of the enlightened mind. These Buddhas can act as a sacred map for the reader, leading us towards experiencing the healing, compassion and hope they can bring into our daily lives. The nine chapters in this text include the Historical Buddha, Shakyamuni; the Five Dhyani Buddhas; the Purification Buddha; the Healing Buddhas; the Compassionate Buddhas; the Longevity Buddhas; the Mother Goddess; the Wealth Buddhas; and the Buddha of the Future. Each Buddha is illustrated and throughout are hundreds of prayers, commentaries by both Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lillian Too and meditations for each, along with holy mantras - simple yet powerful practices that require only good intent, the voice, mind and body. Also included are instructions on making tsa tsas, or miniature buddhas, mandala offerings, prayer flags and altars. (Amazon)
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The Zen of Creativity
by John Daido Loori
Ballantine Books, 2004
"Naturalness, spontaneity, and playfulness are all aspects of the ordinary mind that catches a glimpse of the world of things just as they are," writes Loori, the founder and abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery, in the Catskill Mountains. Loori, who was once a research scientist, had his first taste of what he describes during a weekend workshop decades ago with the great photographer Minor White. Thanks to the guidance of White, Loori's love of photography became a lens that allowed him to glimpse what it might mean to really awaken. Zen training followed, first with the Japanese Zen master and artist Soen Nakagawa and finally with Maezumi Roshi. In 1980, Loori established the Zen Arts Center in Mount Tremper, N.Y., which soon became a monastery offering formal Zen training. Through exercises, anecdotes and illustrations of his own work and the work of others, he illuminates how in Zen the seemingly different pursuits of awakening and creative expression are actually kindred, even twins. The real aim of artistic expression is to point the way to the truth, Loori shows. True originality can arise only from having a real contact with our origins, with the ground of our being—and this is the aim of Zen practice. "Give yourself permission to be yourself, and don't be frightened by the unknown," writes Loori, and here he is writing of creativity, of Zen and of life itself. Loori offers a superb overview of the spirit and meaning of the Zen arts. More than that, he has created a fresh and persuasive (for he obviously practices what he preaches) guide to the art of waking up to the beauty and mystery of our own lives. (Publisher's Weekly) Buy This Book
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Hardcore Zen
by Brad Warner
Wisdom Publications, 2003
Hardcore Zen is a truly revolutionary book. Brand Warner, although strongly grounded in essential Zen teachings, gives a totally novel take on what it means to live a Buddhist life. Tracing his own life through years of rebellion, punk music, and the graphical presentation of animated monsters, Warner connects with the reader on an intimate level. All readers, but especially the young will enjoy Warner's stories of life in the U.S. and Japan and how the most unlikely events can lead one to awareness. Hardcore Zen is written in an open, accessible style with biting humor that spares no one. (Wisdom Publications)
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The Tibetan Way of Life
by John Peacock
Element Books, Ltd., 2003
What's the difference between a lama and a tulku? Who is Tara? What are the four classes of tantra? In this lavishly illustrated book on
Tibetan spiritual wisdom, Peacock, a British professor of Indian religions, answers these questions as he analyzes Tibetan approaches
to life, death and rebirth. One unusual feature is the book's extended discussion of how Tibetan Buddhism has been informed by Bon, the
pre-Buddhist folk religion that is still practiced by many in Tibet. From Bon, Tibetan Buddhism has appropriated "preoccupation with
shamanic healing, demonic forces, and the fight between good and evil," contributing to Tibet's complex and esoteric form of Buddhism.
Peacock also describes how tied Tibetan religion is to the landscape of Tibet, "the land of snows"--a particularly important issue in the
past fifty years, when Tibetan Buddhism has flourished in exile. Every page is garnished with full-color illustrations, and there are
numerous informational sidebars. (Publishers Weekly)
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Anger
by Thich Nhat Hanh
Berkley Publishing Group, 2002
In an age of road rage, Americans would do well to cool down with prolific Buddhist monk Hanh (Living Buddha, Living Christ). There is plenty in this small volume worth skipping, such as Hanh's tedious call for "Healing the Wounded Child Within." And some of his advice is banal (e.g., if a husband is angry at his wife, he should tell her). But some of Hanh's suggestions cut refreshingly against the grain. He dissents, for example, from the popular therapeutic wisdom to "express our anger": when we beat a pillow to get rid of our feelings, he insists we are merely "rehearsing" our anger, not "reducing" it. Hanh reminds us that anger begins and ends with ourselves we may feel that we are mad at our wife or son, but really we are the direct objects of our rage. Hanh doesn't limit his task to discussing anger between families and friends; he also deals with anger among countries and between citizens and governments. That expansive vision is not surprising (Hanh, after all, is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee) but it is refreshing, lifting this book out of the self-absorbed self-help pile. Like Hanh's other books, this is not weighed down with Buddhist terminology. The appendices, which contain meditations designed to help release anger, give it the specifically Buddhist spice that some readers will appreciate. The meat of the book, however, will be accessible to a broad, ecumenical audience. (Publishers Weekly)
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No Beginning, No End
by Jakusho Kwong
Harmony Books, 2003
The "Big Mind" that Zen Buddhist master Shunryu Suzuki Roshi so poetically described in his classic Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind shines throughout this collection of talks by Kwong, a disciple and authorized successor of Suzuki's. Appropriately for someone erasing the usual dualistic lines that separate self and other, Kwong's voice is strikingly reminiscent of his teacher's, from the traditional stories and poems he cites to the same central figures of speech and simple diction he uses. The book is also organized like Zen Mind into three parts with quotes pulled out to head each chapter. It even includes 10 of Kwong's calligraphic illustrations, while Zen Mind opens with calligraphy facing its title page. Unlike his teacher, however, the California-born Kwong speaks the language of Zen with an American accent. He is intimately familiar with the American lexicon of words and values, which gives him direct experience-important in Zen-to bring to the cultural meeting of modern American and Japanese Zen minds. He uses "living words"-concrete nouns and simple examples from everyday observation or experience-rather than abstract concepts to make plain and understandable the teasing and logic-confounding contradictions found in Zen. Culled from a lifetime of teaching and studying, the book is persuasive. It is the fruit of a ripened mind, hardened by practice but also softened by the compassionate wisdom drawn from those same long years of experience. (Publishers Weekly)
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Letting Go
by Lama Surya Das
Broadway Books, 2003
Das, an American-born lama in the Dzogchen lineage of Tibet and author of the bestseller Awakening the Buddha Within, here explores the losses and changes that inevitably mark our lives. He argues that what is important is not that difficult things happen (Buddhism's first truth, after all, is that life is suffering), but how we deal with them. Pure detachment from loss and sorrow is not sufficient, he says; the goal is non-attachment to circumstances that are by nature impermanent. Despite losses and pain, we still need to be fully engaged with the world: "Spiritual detachment or equanimity should never be equated with indifference or complacent resignation." One of the strongest sections of the book is Das's simple chronicle of various losses he has suffered, both enormous (the death of his father) and mundane (a stolen bike). Thus acknowledged, his echoing pain prevents the book from being self-help pabulum about how bad things make good people stronger. The writing style, composed mostly of short, choppy sentences, seems well suited for effective public speaking, but unpolished for a book. Many of Das's recommendations-meditating, journal writing, "naming" your feelings, visualizing attachments, chanting a healing mantra-are fairly standard self-help ideas, as are the classic and familiar Buddhist anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book. But there are also great and original nuggets of wisdom here, as when Das advocates the ancient Tibetan practice of chod, a hero's quest-like ritual to confront personal fears. (Publishers Weekly)
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Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart
by Mark Epstein
Random House, Inc., 1999
Over 200 years ago, philosopher John Locke proposed that the human mind was a blank slate waiting to be filled up with ideas. Locke's ideas developed into the Western psychological notion of self-fulfillment. In order truly to be self-fulfilled, ones mind literally must be filled to its brim with ideas and desires. Buddhist psychotherapist Epstein (Thoughts Without a Thinker) offers a radically different way of understanding the self in his latest book. Beginning with the Buddhist doctrine that no self is the key to self, Epstein divides his book into four parts "based on the nicknames that Tibetan Buddhists sometimes give to their spiritual practices." These nicknames derive from the activity of falling in love, for in such activity one "simultaneously forgets and discovers oneself." Thus, in "Looking," Epstein advises that we learn how to live with the emptiness of self and to surrender to the void rather than rushing to fill the void with the trivial thoughts of everyday life. In "Smiling," he offers guidance on developing a meditation practice that will help center the self and connect with the universe's harmony. Finally, in "Embracing," Epstein urges moving from the solitude of meditation to the fabric of relationship, and in "Orgasm," he shows how all the threads of the self are woven into a passionate practice. Using stories drawn from his own Buddhist practice and that of his patients, as well as insights from great Buddhist teachers like Chogyam Trungpa and Ram Dass, Epstein shows through sparkling prose and effervescent wit how spiritual practice can transform our everyday lives. (Publishers Weekly)
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What Is Love?
by Taro Gold
Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2003
Don't be fooled by the gifty, attractive look and feel of this little square hardback. It may appear similar to any number of frothy books
on spirituality and relationships, but it rises above the genre to offer some reflective and even profound wisdom about Buddhism and
romance. Although the Buddha himself left his family for an itinerant life, and Buddhism stresses non-attachment, Gold says that Buddhism is primarily about "living a joyful life," which includes satisfying romantic relationships. He draws on a variety of Buddhist teachings (particularly from the Nichiren tradition, and its lay movement, Soka Gakkai), sprinkling dharma quotes throughout his own text. The short chapters help readers distinguish between love and illusion, take responsibility for creating their own happiness, overcome fears of pain and loss, and focus on inward change. This is a beautifully illustrated, accessible and perceptive guide. (Publishers Weekly)
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The Art of Happiness at Work
by Dalai Lama
The Putnam Publishing Group, 2003
It should come as no surprise that the Dalai Lama, who is believed by his followers to be the human incarnation of the Buddha of Compassion, would take a compassionate interest in helping Westerners find happiness in the daily grind. Still, this slim follow-up to the 1998 bestseller The Art of Happiness will be a revelation to those who aren't yet familiar with the thought of the brilliant Buddhist monk. Attitude and a sense of meaning are the keys to happiness at work, the exiled Tibetan leader tells psychiatrist Cutler in the course of conversations that took place over several years. What will surprise many is the prime importance the Dalai Lama places on reason and analysis, and on the need to acquire "a sense of self that is grounded in reality, an undistorted recognition of one's abilities and characteristics." Cutler presents the findings of various Western researchers, including the concept of "flow," that state of blissful absorption in an activity that allows people to lose track of time and self-identity. The Dalai Lama compares flow to meditative experience, yet downplays it. In order to achieve the kind of happiness that can be sustained even in the hardest times, he says, we must engage in the slow, steady work of training our hearts and minds, rooting out negative habits and cultivating basic human values like kindness and compassion. The Dalai Lama avoids generalization, emphasizing the complexity of individual situations. He won't condemn the manufacture of weapons, for example, because, he says, although they are destructive, "nations do need weapons for security purposes." At a time when Western spiritual seekers are flocking to books telling them that all they really need to be happy and good is to enter into a blissful meditative communion with the now, it is provocative and moving to be urged to think and to know oneself by the man who is arguably the greatest living symbol of the developed spirit in action. And what may be most moving is this: if the Dalai Lama is right, and if people do as he suggests-if they learn to see themselves impartially and to analyze their work in light of how many people it touches-they will begin to see, whether they are picking oranges or writing a novel, that the highest purpose of work and, indeed, of life is the helping of others. (Publishers Weekly)
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365 Nirvana: Here and Now
by Josh Baran
Element, 2003
Enlightenment is often imagined as something for only the elite, requiring many years of spiritual practice. This book suggests that the awakened state is actually immediately present and available to everyone. Josh Baran, a former Zen priest, spent ten years gathering 365 of the most powerful and inspiring examples of this insight--illuminating the abundance and grace that is here right before our eyes and in every breath. (Element)
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Buddhist Symbols
by Mirabai Blau
Mirabai Blau Tatjana Blau
Sterling Publications, 2003
Images of enlightenment and beauty that offer a universal system of values: these Tibetan Buddhist symbols, and the instructions for incorporating them into everyday life, will please the eye, mind, and soul. (Amazon.com)
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Monk Dancers of Tibet
by Matthieu Ricard
Shambhala Publications, Inc., 2003
Tibetan Buddhism, the most symbolic and esoteric of all Buddhist traditions, has a rich history of sacred dance in which every mask,
costume, sound and gesture has spiritual significance. Most Tibetan dances, says Ricard, a French Buddhist monk, are based in the exploits of masters and great teachers, and seek to preserve their legacy. Since the Chinese occupation of Tibet, however, the dances have been restricted, and are now found mostly in exile communities in India, Nepal and Bhutan. The color photographs and illustrations are the real highlight of this book, which discusses the role of sacred dance in Tibetan Buddhism and, most interestingly, profiles what life is like for the monk dancers. The book makes it clear that dance is a meditative practice, and even the crafts associated with it - such as
the making of masks and elaborate costumes - are sacred acts. A final section explores the ritual cycle of Tibetan Buddhism, and outlines
which dances are performed for holidays and festivals. (Publishers Weekly)
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Tibetan Prayer Flags
by Diane Barker, Dru-Gu Choegyal Rinpoche
Connections Book Publishing Ltd, 2003
This attractive package consists of an illustrated hardcover and a long, colorful Tibetan prayer flag, packaged together in a lovely gift box. This set offers a superior book as part of the package. In it, Barker presents an accessible history of the role of prayer flags, explaining the symbolism of the five colors and the customary invocations that accompany the flags. Barker's approach is practical, advising readers about the most auspicious places and times to hang their flags, and helping them to understand the symbolism of the most popular designs. The book's best attribute is its beautiful full-color photography, showing images of the flags' use in the lives of ordinary Tibetans, as well as famous lamas. (Publishers Weekly)
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Buddhist Wisdom: Daily Reflections
by David Crosweller
Charles E Tuttle Co, 2003
This day-by-day collection of Buddhist wisdom invites readers to explore brief, pithy statements, many of which are drawn from the Dhammapada. Crosweller advises readers to "give themselves time to absorb" the short meditations contained here, since at first glance they seem deceptively simple: an aphorism here, a platitude there. The tiny, square paperback format may also lull the unsuspecting into imagining that this is a trite, undemanding introduction to Buddhism. But readers who are willing to dig a little deeper will find that this carefully selected collection has much to offer. In addition to the daily meditations, the book has an unusual appendix of sacred observances and holidays in the Buddhist year, and tools for further exploration in the form of books and organizations. (Publishers Weekly)
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When Things Fall Apart
by Pema Chödrön
Shambhala, 1996
In recent years Pema Chödrön has become one of the most beloved Buddhist teachers in America. In this collection of talks, she talks about that most difficult of topics: suffering and how to face it. Her view, inspired by Buddhist teachings, is that if we can somehow go directly into the suffering, feeling it as fully as possible and even relaxing into it, we can find a strange sense of liberation, energy, and even joy.
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Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State
by Namkhai Norbu
Snow Lion, 1996
Dzogchen, the "Great Perfection," is considered to be the pinnacle of Tibetan Buddhist practice. In this concise, highly readable work, Dzogchen master Namkhai Norbu sets out the essence of this teaching. It’s all about relaxing in a state of primordial awareness; an accomplished Dzogchen practitioner is capable of doing this in the midst of daily life as well as in meditation. It’s said that you have to be directly introduced to this state of consciousness by a qualified teacher, but Namkhai Norbu’s work gives you as clear an idea of it as a book can convey.
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The Miracle of Mindfulness
by Thich Nhat Hanh
Beacon Press, 1992
Few spiritual teachings offer as much advice on being aware in daily life as does Buddhism. This book by the noted Vietnamese monk and peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh is a clear and gentle introduction to Buddhist teachings on mindfulness. Sometimes it’s a matter of meditative practice: for example, sitting quietly with your awareness focused on the breath (a practice that is said to go back to the Buddha himself). But it also can — and should — be attempted in every moment of waking life. This book offers some wonderful suggestions about how to increase mindfulness from moment to moment.
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The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
by Sogyal Rinpoche
HarperSanFrancisco.
In medieval Europe it was called the ars moriendi — the "art of dying." Although we tend to avoid death as a morbid topic, most religions say that we should constantly remember the fact of our own mortality. This is not only to put daily life in perspective but to help ready ourselves for facing the end of earthly existence. Tibetan Buddhism has a well-developed tradition for preparing for death and even for trying to help souls who have already departed. This account of these teachings by the Tibetan teacher Sogyal Rinpoche has been hailed as the most accessible introduction to these unfamiliar but powerful ideas.
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Breath Sweeps Mind
by Jean Smith (editor)
Riverhead, 1998
A nice introduction to the practice and theory of meditation, including posture, breathing, and potential problems. All traditions are represented, with short pieces by a wide variety of teachers and ancient and contemporary texts from the words of the Buddha to contemporary teachers such as Jon Kabat-Zinn and the Dalai Lama. (Library Journal)
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Crooked Cucumber
by David Chadwick
Riverhead, 1999
From 1959 until his death in 1971, Zen master Shunryu Suzuki taught the principles and practice of Zen Buddhism to receptive audiences in San Francisco. In 1961, Suzuki founded the San Francisco Zen Center, where he taught hundreds of students hungry for the master's words on Zen. Chadwick, who studied with Suzuki from 1966 to 1971, collects stories from the master, or roshi's, many students about Suzuki's life and work and weaves them into a lively biography. (Publishers Weekly)
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Dharma Family Treasures
by Sandy . Eastoak (editor)
North Atlantic Books, 1994
When Buddhists become parents, they sometimes encounter conflicts between their practice and the demands of childrearing. How can time be found to meditate? The 155 essays, poems, and stories in this book will be of value both to Buddhist parents seeking answers and non-Buddhists who want to combine a sense of spirituality with everyday activities regarding children. 20 line drawings. (Ingram)
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Love Dharma
by Geri Larkin & Geraldine Larkin
Charles Tuttle Co., 2003
Combining ancient Buddhist texts and personal anecdotes, Larkin--herself an ordained dharma teacher--offers fascinating stories of Buddhist women who achieved enlightenment 2,500 years ago. She then presents lighthearted, humorous "crazy wisdom" to readers looking for new ways to deal with their relationships. (Alibris.com)
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Natural Liberation
Commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche, translated by B. Alan Wallace.
Wisdom Publications, 1998
Natural Liberation is concerned with taking the commonplace events of life and death and turning them into opportunities for the highest liberation. In this work, Padmasambhava, the great 9th century Indian master who established Buddhism in Tibet, describes in detail six life-processes and shows how to transform them into vehicles for enlightenment. (Ingram)
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Skillful Means
by Tarthang Tulku
Dharma Publishing, 1978
A dynamic three-step approach combining theory and exercises leads to inner freedom, effective communication, and joyful sharing. Dharma Publishing's best-selling book.(From the Publisher)
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Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
by Shunryu Suzuki
Weatherhill Press, 1970
In one of the best and most succinct introductions to Zen practice, the important teacher Shunryu Suzuki discusses posture and breathing in meditation as well as selflessness, emptiness, and mindfulness. (Library Journal)
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Turning the Mind into an Ally
by Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche
Riverhead Books, 2003
Is the mind our enemy? It can be, suggests Shambhala International's director Mipham in his first book. The key to peaceful and sane living, says Mipham, is training our minds. Without that training, people live "at the mercy of our moods." Meditation is the tool that can help spiritual seekers master, rather than be mastered by, their own minds. This book blends a philosophically savvy explanation of why meditation is necessary with an artful and accessible introduction to the basics of meditation. (Publishers Weekly)
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The Search for the Buddha
by Charles Allen
Carroll & Graf, 2003
Allen weaves an engrossing tale of the process by which some of Britain's brightest military men, civil servants and employees of the powerful East India Company began in the late 18th century to uncover both the existence of Buddhism and its enormous impact on ancient Indian history. (Amazon.com)
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Female Buddhas
by Glenn H. Mullin
Clear Light Publishing, 2003
Whereas the art of most Buddhist countries features a preponderance of male images, the art of Tibet has traditionally emphasized what the authors call "the strong role of the feminine." This book, one of the first Western titles ever to analyze this unique artistic tradition, is the companion volume to a touring art exhibit about female buddhas. Mullin, a Tibet expert and Buddhist scholar, writes that feminine imagery in Tibetan frescoes and tangkas reinforces the notion of the personification of wisdom and meditative consciousness. (Publishers Weekly)
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The Office Sutras
by Marcia Menter
Red Wheel/Weiser, 2003
Menter contends that the job you have right now, for all its imperfections, may be just the spiritual challenge you need to confront the most important issues of life--issues like self-worth and fulfillment and paying your way in the world. Office Sutras will help readers find opportunities for growth and peace in even the most stultifying of work situations. (Amazon.com)
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Zen for Christians
by Kim Boykin
Jossey-Bass, 2003
In Zen for Christians, author Kim Boykin-- who has personally experienced the gifts of Buddhism in her own Christian faith and has taught this subject in a variety of settings-- offers Christians a way to incorporate Zen practices into their lives without compromising their beliefs and faith. (Amazon.com)
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The Heart of the Buddha’s Teaching
by Thich Nhat Hanh
Broadway Books, 1999
Thich Nhat Hanh's introduction begins with the Turning the Dharma Wheel Sutra, the classic tale of Buddha's announcement in the Deer Park of his awakening. Nhat Hanh then proceeds through a series of laundry-list definitions of core Buddhist terminology: Four Noble Truths, The Noble Eightfold Path, The Three Dharma Seals, The Three Doors of Liberation, The Twelve Links of Causation, The Three Jewels, The Six Harmonies, The Five Powers, The Five Wonderful Precepts and The Four Immeasurable Minds. Despite the tedium of the list, Nhat Hanh does present Buddhism as way of thinking and a well-traveled path toward enlightenment. Buddhism, he teaches, is not only about the individual's attainment of enlightenment but also about the community, past and present, which has fostered the possibility of an individual's enlightenment. As an introduction to Buddhism, this is a masterful inventory of the basic accouterments of a well-furnished Buddhist life. (Publishers Weekly)
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God in the Alley
by Greg Paul
Shaw, 2004
In this brief, affecting memoir, Paul chronicles his life as pastor of the evangelical Sanctuary Community in Toronto, which "make[s] it a priority to welcome people who have, for the most part, known only rejection and abuse." As Paul tells stories about prostitutes, drug addicts and abuse victims, he shares an epiphany from early in his ministry: While helping a man with AIDS who had soiled himself, "It became clear that being Jesus to Neil... was most perfectly summed up in the odious task of gently wiping excrement from his foot." Paul goes on, "I recognized that Neil was, at that moment, a physical representation to me of a vulnerable and dying Christ." In a similar vein, Paul writes about Mutt, whose love for his prostitute girlfriend mirrors almost exactly Hosea's love for Gomer and, as such, Jesus' love for humanity. Most refreshing about Paul's book is his awareness that many at Sanctuary may never have a conventional Christian conversion experience or may fall off the wagon even after conversion. In the midst of one story he explains, "This is not a fairy tale. Nobody, in this life at least, lives happily ever after." In Paul's experience, God does not make everything better in this life, but instead allows people to connect redemptively to one another and to Him through their brokenness. Buy This Book
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The Joy of My Heart
by Anne Graham Lotz
J. Countryman, 2004
This latest installment in J. Countryman’s line of padded-cover pocket devotionals offers all of the features that have come to be associated with this series: a big-name Christian author (Lotz follows in the footsteps of the likes of Max Lucado, John MacArthur and Eugene Peterson), glossy paper, a gift-dedication page and a ribbon marker. Each day’s devotion offers a brief line from the Bible and a paragraph-long meditation from one of Lotz’s six full-length works. Helpfully, each reflection is followed by a quick attribution, letting readers know which of Lotz’s books is excerpted in case they want to read more or follow up on a particular idea. Lotz fans will delight in this beautifully designed gift book, which can be digested methodically in a daily reading program or thumbed through at random for quick inspiration. (Publisher's Weekly) Buy This Book
Prayers of Our Presidents Men
by MacGregor Jerry
Baker Books, 2004
Just in time for election season comes this compendium of prayers from the nation’s presidents, appearing in mostly chronological order by administration. MacGregor and Prys cull the prayers from personal journals, letters, inaugural addresses, speeches and other writings in the presidents’ papers. Most are short, such as a lovely prayer that Rutherford and Lucy Hayes are said to have recited together every day when he was in office in the late 1870s. President Kennedy is represented by a Thanksgiving prayer of gratitude, while Teddy Roosevelt makes an appeal for justice and charity that is marked by his characteristic emphasis on those "virtues that make for manliness and rugged hardihood." The editors follow the prayers with a brief "life and times" section about each leader, mini-biographies that are remarkably free of partisan swagger. They also include little-known facts about each president, some of which deal with religion. Less successful are the questions for reflection and personal prayer that follow each presidential prayer; this book works better as a Christian history and introduction to American presidents than it does as a guide to individual spirituality. (Publisher's Weekly) Buy This Book
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All the Pope's Men
by John L. Jr Allen
Doubleday, 2004
Allen, the Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and analyst for CNN and National Public Radio, offers an authoritative guide to the church's inner workings. Far from sensationalistic, this book provides a carefully balanced view of how the Catholic Church works—and sometimes doesn't—in the modern world. Allen, who is Catholic himself but does not see himself as a missionary or apologist for the church, is a fair and thorough reporter of ecclesial affairs who drew on four-plus years of covering the Vatican as well as 35 interviews with officials in the church bureaucracy to write this book. He begins with an overview of the Vatican, then debunks five myths—including, notably, the idea that power is concentrated solely in the Pope and that the Vatican is fantastically wealthy. In talking about the myth and reality of Vatican secrecy, Allen lays out the basis for his book: that the Vatican's psychology and culture are difficult for people, even most Catholics, to grasp, resulting in miscommunication and animosity toward the church. Allen also delves into Vatican psychology, sociology and theology before concluding with lengthy chronologies detailing the Vatican's role in the American sexual abuse crisis and the war in Iraq. (Publisher's Weekly) Buy This Book
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The Best Christian Writing 2004
by John Wilson
Jossey-Bass, 2003
Chosen by Christianity Today editor Wilson, this eclectic treasure trove, on subjects as diverse as repentance, being an unmarried believer, and the evangelical Christian Book Association convention, contains some truly extraordinary writing. Notable essays include a wide-ranging interview with German filmmaker Wim Wenders, a spare but haunting recollection of a trip to Wounded Knee, and a wonderfully contemporary and demanding sermon on the Old Testament Book of Daniel. Wilfred McClay's subtle and keenly honed meditation on what it means to be an American Christian after September 11 is timely, theologically acute, and likely to be very challenging to some readers. Although some authors, like Frederica Mathewes-Green, Philip Jenkins, and Kathleen Norris, are famous, others edit religious journals, pastor churches, or teach in colleges. Rich in whimsy, overflowing with gentle wonder, and laced with both irony and anguish, these pieces by and large live up to their rather audacious billing, as the best of the best. (Publisher's Weekly)
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The Future of Man
by Teilhard De Chardin
Image Books, 2004
The Future of Man is a magnificent introduction to the thoughts and writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, one of the few figures in the history of the Catholic Church to achieve renown as both a scientist and a theologian. Trained as a paleontologist and ordained as a Jesuit priest, Teilhard de Chardin devoted himself to establishing the intimate, interdependent connection between science (particularly the theory of evolution) and the basic tenets of the Christian faith. At the center of his philosophy was the belief that the human species is evolving spiritually, progressing from a simple faith to higher and higher forms of consciousness, including a consciousness of God, and culminating in the ultimate understanding of humankind’s place and purpose in the universe. The Church, which would not condone his philosophical writings, refused to allow their publication during his lifetime. Written over a period of thirty years and presented here in chronological order, the essays cover the wide-ranging interests and inquiries that engaged Teilhard de Chardin throughout his life: intellectual and social evolution; the coming of ultra-humanity; the integral place of faith in God in the advancement of science; and the impact of scientific discoveries on traditional religious dogma. (Inside Flap Copy) Buy This Book
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The Catholic Revolution
by Andrew Greeley
University of California Press, 2004
Greeley may be better known as a novelist than a sociologist, but in this latest book he is in full professional stride, offering studied observations on his Church in the years since the landmark Second Vatican Council. As the title suggests, Greeley proposes that a revolution has occurred since the heady days of Vatican II. In fact, he likens the actions that made change possible to the storming of the Bastille. Vatican II's reforms were modest, Greeley believes, yet were "too much for the rigid structures of 19th-century Catholicism to absorb." In short, he says, the new wine burst the old wineskins. He attributes this to the Church's failure to adjust its rhetoric and style to educated contemporary Catholics who no longer blindly obey the directives of Church authorities. Thus, he writes, Church leadership is now in conflict with lower clergy and laity, who have redefined Catholicism on their own terms, holding onto core doctrines and traditions even as they disagree with the rules in such areas as sexual behavior. Greeley does not necessarily endorse these unofficial reforms, but he does applaud the laity for their faith and calls on Church leaders to recognize and respect them. He has especially harsh words for authoritarian liturgists who have imposed their vision of worship on congregations starving for a real connection between faith and daily life. Catholics who want to know what happened after Vatican II will find this compelling reading. (Publisher's Weekly) Buy This Book
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The Healthy Balance for Body and Soul
by Cynthia Culp Allen Charity Allen Winters
Fleming H Revell Co, 2004
This upbeat book will show you how to achieve greater physical and spiritual vitality and balance in your life. As your mind and body are reenergized, you will also feel your spirit renewed. In The Healthy Balance for Body and Soul, Cynthia Culp Allen and her daughter Charity Allen Winters clearly demonstrate how our bodies were created by God to respond to a balanced lifestyle. You'll benefit from their proven nutrition and exercise plan that can help you shape up your immune system, tone your muscles, and lose that excess weight. And Allen and Winters emphasize the important part that faith plays in your overall health and wellness. Whether you want to overcome fatigue or a weight problem, or simply become a healthy, balanced woman of God, you can't afford to miss this inspirational how-to guide on nutrition, exercise, and spiritual rebirth. (Fleming H Revell Co.) Buy This Book
Dark Night of the Soul
by Gerald G. May
HarperCollins Publishers, 2004
"Hello darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again." These lyrics from Simon and Garfunkel's famous song could be the guiding theme of this excellent offering by psychiatrist and spiritual counselor May. As May delves into the meaning and purpose of "the dark night of the soul," we come to see it as a comforting and necessary friend, ushering in a time of transformation, rather than a gloomy blackness to avoid. In order to illuminate the dark night, May draws upon the lives of the Carmelite mystics, John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, as well as psychiatric research and scripture. Like the contemporary scholars of psychiatry, both Teresa and John had early insights into the unconscious dimension of life that goes on beneath our awareness-an obscure and mysterious arena that they both called "the dark." Since humans are so skilled at denial-especially denying the power of their compulsions and attachments-they would never enter into this spiritual night of reckoning if they could see in advance what it would entail. This is why we need the darkness in front of us. May, who also wrote Addiction and Grace, eventually moves into a strong discussion about depression and addiction, showing why the dark night is necessary to overcome both. Ultimately, he becomes a messenger of hope, reminding readers that every dark night brings the sweet dawn of awakening. With its clear writing and strong psychological foundation, this is a relevant resource for readers of all spiritual persuasions. (Publishers Weekly) Buy This Book
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American Jezebel
by Eve LaPlante
HarperCollins Publishers, 2004
Publisher's Weekly
LaPlante, an 11th-generation granddaughter of Hutchinson, provides a fast-paced and elegant account of Hutchinson's life and work, including the reasons that Hutchinson's teachings threatened the fabric of Puritan theology. By the time she was born, her father, Francis Marbury, had already been in and out of jail for challenging the religious authority of the Anglican priests in England. His continuing nonconformity, according to LaPlante, had a lasting impact on Hutchinson's own views of religious authority. Hutchinson also learned from the Reverend John Cotton that God's revelation to individuals occurred mystically as a kind of inner light and did not require a formal religious setting. After she moved to the colonies with her husband, William Hutchinson, she began to teach that men and women could attain salvation not through performing religious works but through this inward grace. The Puritans, who emphasized that the covenant of works was the only guarantee of salvation, charged her with antinomianism (an attack against the law of God) and with violating God's commands that a woman should not teach. LaPlante offers a stimulating account of Hutchinson's eloquent self-defense at her trial. Knowing that the magistrates had no religious or political grounds to convict her, since a woman was not a subject of the law, Hutchinson stymied their questioning. LaPlante's first-rate biography offers glimpses into the life and teachings of a much-neglected figure in early American religious history. (Publishers Weekly) Buy This Book
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St. Patrick of Ireland
by Philip Freeman
Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, 2004
Born to an aristocratic British family in the fifth century, Patrick was kidnapped by slave raiders at age 15 and sold to an Irish farmer. After six years of tending sheep he escaped, walked 200 miles to a port city he had seen in a dream, and sailed for home. Years later, as a priest or bishop, he returned to Ireland. Bribing petty kings for safe passage through their rural domains, he preached, baptized and established churches in his beloved adopted land. This information about the saint's life is known from two lengthy letters he wrote late in life, both included in a lively translation by Freeman, a classics professor and author of three previous books about the Celtic world. Dismissing many familiar tales as myths, he relies on archeological discoveries as well as Greek and Roman writers to create a colorful picture of Ireland at the end of the Roman Empire: its kings and headhunting warriors, gods and human sacrifices, belief in the Otherworld. "I am a stranger and an exile living among barbarians and pagans, because God cares for them," Patrick wrote. Besides, time was running out: As Freeman observes, "The gospel had been preached throughout the world and was even then, by [Patrick's] own efforts, being spread to the most distant land of all. There was simply no reason for God's judgment to be delayed once the Irish had heard the good news." In the storytelling tradition of popular historian Thomas Cahill, this small book offers a fascinating and believable introduction to Ireland's patron saint. (Publishers Weekly) Buy This Book
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Letters to a Young Catholic
by George Weigel
Basic Books, 2004
In this spiritual memoir-cum-travelogue, Weigel writes with the same beauty and clarity that characterized his biography of Pope John Paul II, Witness to Hope, merging reportage with personal insights about Catholicism. He takes readers on a journey from Maryland to Europe and Israel, visiting sites that are whimsical (G.K. Chesterton’s favorite pub) as well as those that are renowned as holy (the Dormition Abbey in Jerusalem, St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome). Writing in a conversational, epistolary form aimed at young Catholics, Weigel offers a book that simultaneously is, and is not, your grandmother’s catechism: he affirms the core doctrines of the Church, but he does so in a way that is refreshingly contemporary and—because of his emphasis on Church sites around the world—catholic as well as Catholic. Weigel opens the book with an entertaining description of his childhood in the Catholic stronghold of Baltimore, and invites young readers to entertain the idea that Catholicism is not just a creed but an "optic," a rooted way of viewing the world. In the rest of the book, he introduces that world and offers them new lenses with which to understand it. This book is simply first-rate. (Publishers Weekly) Buy This Book
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Seeing is Believing
by Gregory A. Boyd
Baker Books, 2004
Boyd, author of Letters from a Skeptic and God of the Possible, makes a powerfully persuasive argument for the use of imaginative prayer by Christians, then outlines a method for beginning the practice. He begins by describing the paralyzing effect of the " `try harder' solution" for spiritual growth. His description of this futile striving and its source in false ideas of identity rings true, although occasionally his emphasis on the negative role of action is overdone. The real treasure of the book is found in the second and third sections, where he mines 15 years' experience of leading imaginative prayer conferences. He provides a vivid description of the power and effectiveness of the imagination in settings like prayer and worship. In addition to a careful biblical basis, Boyd gives a survey of historical figures (from Julian of Norwich to Saint Ignatius and John Wesley) who have used and advocated imaginative prayer. He explains the basic idea of the prayer technique he calls "resting in Christ" and courageously offers his own experience as an example of how this technique can bring healing. Aware that visualization techniques can be controversial among evangelicals, he explains possible sources of distrust and offers answers to the most common objections. The final section illustrates the power of imaginative prayer for healing with three moving stories from those who have used the technique. (Publishers Weekly) Buy This Book
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Hours of Power
by Robert H. Schuller
Harper, 2004
These 366 daily meditations come from some of Schuller's most famous books, including "Be Happy Attitudes," "Tough Times Never Last, but Tough People Do" and "Move Ahead with Possibility Thinking." The relentlessly cheerful founder of the Crystal Cathedral in (where
else?) Southern California uses bite-size daily devotions to tackle a few traditional topics (forgiveness, prayer, resurrection) and many motivational ones (positive thinking, self-confidence, risk-taking, the gift of imagination). Most of the devotions are generically spiritual, with
God as the "eternal creative force" or wearing some other benign moniker, while others are more explicitly Christian. The writing style is sometimes too upbeat, with extensive use of exclamation points and rhetorical questions. Some tidbits that were fine in their original contexts seem glib when stripped down to their hour-of-power exuberance in this greatest-hits volume, where every tragedy is a possibility and every problem an opportunity. Some readers will no doubt gravitate toward Schuller's uncompromising optimism, while others will find it simplistic and thus unhelpful. (Publisher's Weekly) Buy This Book
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Credo
by William Sloane Coffin
Westminster John Knox Press, 2004
The title "prophet" is not one to be used lightly, but it comes up often in reference to William Sloane Coffin. The famous preacher and
activist has shared the pulpit with other prophetic voices, including Martin Luther King Jr., Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, and was
immortalized as "Reverend Sloan" in the Doonesbury comic strip. He first gained notoriety for his opposition to the Vietnam War in the
1960s while chaplain at Yale University. During the next decades, as a civil rights freedom rider, senior minister of New York City's
Riverside Church, president emeritus of SANE/FREEZE and the author of five books, he continued to use his verbal prowess to fight for social justice.
Now the best of those words have been collected into one volume. Credo contains quotations and excerpts
from Coffin's speeches, sermons, writings and unpublished works on topics including charity and justice, politics and patriotism, war and
peace, nature and the environment, faith and the church. (Publishers Weekly)
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All For Jesus
by Franklin Graham Ross S. Rhoads
Thomas Nelson, 2003
Through vivid description and sound biblical teaching, Franklin Graham and Ross Rhoads make Scripture passages come alive in this devotional, causing the reader to not only hear the Word but to experience it. In a compassionate yet uncompromising approach, All for Jesus offers insights on a variety of topics, including God's will, forgiveness, prayer, the Holy Spirit, God's character, worship, and serving God. Ultimately, this devotional challenges us all to move beyond reluctance and fear to increase our faith and become fully committed disciples of Christ. (Thomas Nelson)
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Unveiled: The Hidden Lives of Nuns
by Cheryl L. Reed
Berkley Publishing Group, 2004
What do nuns really think about life, death, love, sex, faith, friendship, guilt, regret, loss, motherhood, feminism, and the modern world and all its conveniences and luxuries?
To answer these questions, award-winning journalist Cheryl L. Reed interviewed more than 300 nuns from a wide variety of orders-and with divergent beliefs. She lived with them, observed their daily lives, and participated in silent worship. She witnessed their vow ceremonies, mourned with them, celebrated and drank beer with them. They welcomed questions no one had ever dared ask before. In the end the nuns that Reed approached with suspicion and curiosity ended up teaching her more about motherhood, relationships, and feminism than she ever gleaned from the outside world.
In Unveiled, Reed has succeeded in opening up the doors to a once closed world-one often misrepresented and almost always misunderstood-to present nuns not as stoic icons of secrecy and ritual but simply as women who have chosen an independent path, and who now offer themselves as guides to their fascinating, surprising, and enlightening interior lives. (Berkley Publishing Group)
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The Gospel of Mary Magdala
by Karen L. King
Polebridge Press, 2004
The Gospel of Mary of Magdala, a second-century gospel that was discovered in the 19th century and not published until 1955, shows Mary to be the apostle (yes, apostle) to whom Jesus revealed deep theological insights. King, a professor at Harvard Divinity School and author of What Is Gnosticism?, argues that the Gospel prefers inner spiritual knowledge to exterior forms such as the law and that it reveals some of the gender conflicts and spiritual divisions of the early Christian movement. King places translations of two extant fragments of the Gospel of Mary side by side, so readers can see the slight differences that appear in the originals. (Because approximately 10 pages of the Gospel are still lost, scholars believe we only have about half of its original material.) In the brief text, the male apostles are afraid and despondent after Jesus' post-resurrection departure, so Mary tries to cheer them by revealing some of the esoteric teachings that Jesus imparted to her alone. But the teachings cause discord, as Peter and others refuse to believe that Jesus would have given such "strange ideas" to a woman. ("Did he choose her over us?" a petulant Peter asks.) The bulk of King's book takes up various issues raised by the text-questions about the Son of Man, law, women's authority, visionary experiences and the body. This is a serious scholarly study with the apparatus of an academic book, including Coptic facsimiles of the papyrus, and Coptic and Greek phrases sprinkled throughout the text. (Publishers Weekly)
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Doing Business by the Good Book
by David L. Steward
Hyperion Press, 2004
In 1990, David L. Steward founded his company, Worldwide Technology, Inc., on a shoestring budget and borrowed money, well aware of the high-risk nature of the venture he was undertaking. Despite the fact that he was a novice entrepreneur, he was certain he would succeed. Steward believed intensely that God wouldn't let him down. Doing Business by the Good Book shares the inspiring lessons culled straight from the Bible, that Steward used to build his privately held billion-dollar company into a global information technology enterprise. (Hyperion)
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When God Doesn’t Answer Your Prayer
by Jerry Sittser
Zondervan, 2004
Few people know the desperate agony of unanswered prayer as much as Sittser, whose mother, wife and young daughter died when a drunk driver hit their car. (He and three other children survived.) "Why doesn't God answer our prayers?... It is no longer an abstract question to me," he writes. To find an answer, he turns the question inside out and upside down: When our prayers go unanswered, does it mean we don't have enough faith, or have prayed the wrong way? What would happen if God answered all our prayers? Prayer seems to work sometimes, "which only makes the problem of unanswered prayer more bewildering." Sittser acknowledges that some answered prayers would be bad for us we might use the power of prayer for wealth, success and domination at the expense of others. His own eloquent and powerful musings are interspersed with thoughts from such classic writers as Jean-Pierre de Caussade, Tolstoy and O. Hallesby, and contemporary writers such as Jane Kenyon, Henri Nouwen and Leif Enger. In the end, he writes that unanswered prayer challenges us to explore the deepest places within us and to ask ourselves searching questions. "Perhaps how we respond in the face of such mystery is more important than whether or not we will ever find an answer to the question itself," he muses. Although the study questions at the end of each chapter can be distracting, any Christian who has ever questioned the validity of prayer will find this to be a luminous book, full of vulnerable and venerable wisdom. (Publishers Weekly)
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Rumors of Another World
by Philip Yancey
Zondervan, 2003
Philip Yancey believes we are missing the supernatural hidden in everyday life. He investigates the natural world and discovers the supernatural hiding in plain view. Nature and super nature are not two separate worlds, but different expressions of the same reality. To encounter the world as a whole, we need a more supernatural awareness of the natural world. He promises that the grace-filled result will be a life of beauty, purpose, freedom, and faith. (Amazon.com)
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Who is Jesus?
by Thomas P. Rausch
The Liturgical Press, 2003
Who Is Jesus? An Introduction to Christology covers the three quests for the historical Jesus, the methods for retrieving the historical Jesus, the Jewish background, the Jesus movement, his preaching and ministry, death, and resurrection, the various New Testament Christologies, and the development of christological doctrine from the New Testament period to the Council of Chalcedon. (The Liturgical Press)
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Dying With Jesus
by Angela M. Hibbard
The Liturgical Press, 2003
Dying with Jesus is for people who are dying and for their caregivers, whether family members or pastoral-care professionals. Each page contains a Scripture passage with a brief commentary, a meditation intended to capture the thoughts and feelings of the dying person, and a response from Jesus. The booklet can be used as a single extended meditation or it can be read a page at a time in any sequence that is helpful. Page headings indicate the theme found in the meditation and can guide the user to the appropriate page for a given moment.
The meditations, rooted in the experience of dying people, may help to identify and give words to many painful thoughts and feelings. By reading a given meditation together chaplains, family members, or the dying person may be able to initiate a difficult but necessary conversation. It is hoped that Dying with Jesus will reveal some of Jesus’ human struggle and will make it accessible to all who are facing the same frightening reality. All who use it are especially encouraged to share the feelings and memories it calls forth. This gift of shared experience will enlighten those who accompany the dying and will create a bridge between the gospel story and those of us who hear it today. (The Liturgical Press)
Dying With Jesus
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Praise in the Presence of God
by Jack Hayford
J Countryman Books, 2003
Hayford, a pastor, author and composer of hundreds of hymns and praise choruses (including the popular evangelical song "Majesty"), draws from over 30 of his books for this daily devotional. The theme is praise, which Hayford says "not only exclaims God's worthiness" but "invokes his daily mercies, grace, and power into our lives." And speaking of exclamations, they're everywhere; Hayford's writing style is heavy on exclamation points, numbered arguments and biblical exposition, with a curious absence of storytelling to bring the message home. However, this is a beautifully designed gift book, with an embossed cover, ribbon marker and lovely color illustrations throughout. (Publishers Weekly)
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A Year with C.S. Lewis
by Patricia Klein (editor)
Harper SanFrancisco, 2003
This book of daily readings, culled from C.S. Lewis's major nonfiction writings like The Screwtape Letters, Mere Christianity, Miracles and A Grief Observed, might be called the thinking Christian's devotional: it is deeper and meatier than most other devotionals on the market. With 366 entries (including one for Leap Year) that are typically one or two paragraphs each, Klein has managed to distill some of the most memorable passages from Lewis's famous corpus. Interestingly, she includes a bit of Lewis trivia for each day of the year, and often pairs the reading with the biographical information: for example, we learn that on March 21, 1957, Lewis married Joy Davidman Gresham, and the entry for that day is about their marriage. Three separate indices list the sources by book, by day and by selection title or theme. (Publishers Weekly)
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John Paul II: A Light for the World
by Mary Ann Walsh
Sheed and Ward, 2003
As the pope's silver jubilee approaches, publishers are gearing up with all manner of tributes to the beloved pontiff. This coffee-table book, with memorable full-color images by official Vatican photographers and reflections by many people who have had personal encounters with John Paul II, may be the pick of the crop. As imprimaturs go, it has an impeccable pedigree: it is an official commemorative book commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Also, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan weighs in with a foreword highlighting the pope's commitment to international human rights. The book is divided into three sections, exploring the pope's roles as pastor (including his leadership in family life issues and his stand against sexual abuse in the priesthood); a pilgrim (highlighting the more than 700,000 miles the pope has traveled in his tenure); and prophet (discussing his ethical stance on issues such as human rights, racism, labor and the death penalty). Throughout, various cardinals, monsignori and archbishops share brief anecdotes about their personal encounters with the man who was born Karol Wojtyla. While some of these are so fawning as to remove any trace of humanity from the man, other remembrances are candid and humorous. The book's photographs, which span the course of his 25-year papacy, show him interacting with people all over the world, and also depict some private moments. The book closes with a brief chronology of John Paul II's life, as well as synopses of his encyclicals and other key writings. (Publishers Weekly)
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Eerdmans Commentary on the Bible
by James D. G. Dunn (Editor) John Rogerson (Editor)
William. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003
An international team of 63 biblical scholars offers this judicious and solid introduction to the varieties of biblical literature. Like
similar one-volume commentaries from Oxford and HarperCollins, this one covers the Apocrypha, though the Eerdmans commentary is more comprehensive, adding an expansive chapter on the oft-overlooked pseudo-epigraphical book of 1 Enoch. Each entry begins with some kind of overview of the biblical or apocryphal book in question, then proceeds to analyze the book section by section rather than verse by verse (a real boon for nonspecialists who often get lost in abstruse, highly technical discussions). The commentary uses the New Revised Standard Version, though some contributors add their own insights about the meanings of contested Hebrew or Greek terms. The essayists draw upon and summarize previous biblical scholarship and sometimes offer revisionist explanations (as with Morna Hooker's passionate and well-argued reinterpretation of Philemon). (Publishers Weekly)
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The Holy Way
by Paula Huston
Loyola Press, 2003
Drawing on the powerful histories of the saints and personal experience, author Paula Huston, a professor, wife, and mother, offers practical guidance to pursuing and achieving spiritual simplicity in a chaotic world. In this book, Huston examines a variety of spiritual practices in the Christian tradition that lead to a simpler life.
Each chapter introduces a different spiritual practice, including solitude, purity, and generosity, and explores it through historical perspectives and Huston's compelling personal reflections. From Saint Anthony's chosen life of solitude to Saint Catherine of Siena's strength of conviction, Huston tells stories of courageous faith that exemplify the blessed and transformative power of being alone with God. Although based on Christian philosophies, Huston's strategies are applicable to people of all faiths. (Barnes and Noble)
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The Historical Atlas
by Juan Maria Laboa
The Liturgical Press, 2003
This expansive illustrated guide to Christian monasticism offers a history of various monastic traditions and shows the rise of
monasticism in different parts of the world. Although the text can be dry, it is enhanced by several hundred color photos and illustrations,
including 59 detailed maps showing the locations of monasteries and the historical development of different branches of the Christian
church. The book's real draw is the fact that it gives equal time to Eastern as well as Western monasticism, devoting pages to relatively
obscure Eastern monasteries such as the Laura of Calamon (beside the Dead Sea), or the hermitages of Moldavia, "characterized by exterior murals as well as completely painted interiors." This book is an important attempt to understand monasticism on a global scale. (Publishers Weekly)
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Boundaries Face to Face
by Henry Cloud
Zondervan, 2003
Drs. Cloud and Townsend, whose book Boundaries sold more than a million copies and won a Gold Medallion award, have established a Boundaries franchise with niche titles on boundaries in marriage, dating and parenting. This book continues the flourishing series, with advice on conflict resolution and cultivating mutual respect. "Successful people confront well," the authors observe, laying out
tools for readers to stop simply avoiding conflict and start having productive, loving confrontations. Their advice for such conversations
is familiar: listen actively; clarify the problem; affirm the other person; acknowledge your own part in the problem; and commit to being
an agent for change. The second half of the book offers practical, hands-on advice for preparing for and having a difficult conversation,
complete with specific suggestions of what to say--and what not to say. The Bible is used as a resource throughout, but not in a heavy-handed way, making this a valuable self-help manual for people from many walks of life. (Publishers Weekly)
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Seeking Paradise
by Thomas Merton
Orbis Books, 2003
"The peculiar grace of a Shaker chair is due to the fact that it was made by someone capable of believing that an angel might come and sit on it," wrote Thomas Merton in 1964, at the height of his interest in the Shakers and their spiritual arts. Merton never completed his planned book on the Shakers, but he did write two brief essays and several letters on the subject, and he spoke to his fellow Cistercian monks about what they could learn from the Shakers' quasi-monastic approach to faith and work. All of these brief reflections are included in this simple, meditative compilation on Merton and the Shakers. Merton admired the Shakers' simplicity, and the fact that their furniture, crafts and music flowed freely from a pure and holy devotion to God. Shaker creativity, he claimed, extended from a "perfect fusion of temporal and eternal values, of spirit and matter." Some of Merton's own black-and-white photographs of Pleasant Hill Shaker Village in Kentucky are included here. (Publishers Weekly)
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Next Door Savior
by Max Lucado
W Publishing Group, 2003
The essays, each built around an episode in the life of Jesus, are often unabashedly poignant, at times humorous and always hopeful. Lucado's unique retellings cast Jesus as a compassionate, personal friend who isn't put off by anyone's past mistakes. Lucado clearly portrays his belief in God's love, forgiveness and his concern about the smallest details, "for even though he is in heaven, he never left the neighborhood." Solidly grounded in Scripture, drenched in the trademark Lucado anecdotes that have endeared him to legions of fans, this book may be his best in a decade. (Publishers Weekly)
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Is God to Blame?
by Gregory A. Boyd
InterVarsity Press, 2003
Boyd challenges Christians to rethink their assumptions about God and suffering, guided by the principle that "amidst the vast sea of things
we cannot know, we can know that God looks like Jesus Christ." Boyd argues forcefully that, for Christians, the deepest revelation of
God's character has to be the cross of Christ, where God's glory is revealed not as compelling power but as sacrificial love. The book
draws on a wide range of biblical material, including the Book of Job, accounts of answered prayer, and Jesus' response to human suffering. For Boyd, the mystery of suffering resides not in God's inscrutable will or a possible "dark streak" in God's character, but in the
complexity of a universe where freedom and risk are realities that even God must experience. Always compassionate, sometimes
cantankerous, and capturing biblical concepts with memorable clarity, this challenging book should be a valued resource for pastors,
counselors, support groups, and individual study. (Publishers Weekly)
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Learning to Pray
by Wayne Muller
Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing, 2003
Muller, a minister and therapist who is author of Sabbath, and Legacy of the Heart, here tackles the timeworn issue of prayer. Gearing his thoughts for the beginner who may be uncertain about how to pray, Muller defaults to the tried-and-true method of the Lord's Prayer. This is certainly not the first book to go phrase by phrase through the Lord's Prayer and use it as a guide to the Christian life, but few authors in the spirituality/self-help category communicate as effectively as Muller does. In brief, simple chapters, he expounds upon the well-known prayer he recites daily, drawing on Buddhist as well as Christian examples to demonstrate his points about interconnectedness, holiness, forgiveness, and God's will. Each chapter closes with a helpful "prayer practice" exercise to apply the concepts of the Lord's Prayer in daily life. Readers who are interested in prayer and who appreciate Muller's interfaith approach will relish this eloquent, gentle book. (Publishers Weekly)
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The Dead Sea Scrolls
by Michael Wise, Martin Abegg, Jr., and Edward Cook
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999
By now everyone has heard of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the ancient texts found at Qumran in Israel in 1947. These elusive documents shed enormous light on the religious milieu of Christ’s time. They’re not easy reading. Many of them exist only in fragments; others consist of lengthy lists of treasures or diatribes against religious leaders of the time. But anyone who is truly interested in Christian origins should at least glance at these documents. Of the several versions available, this one is the most accessible.
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The Nag Hammadi Library in English
by Edited by James M. Robinson
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1990
The Gnostic texts found in Nag Hammadi along the Nile in 1945 are as important, and in many ways as perplexing, as the better-known Dead Sea Scrolls. The Nag Hammadi library contains much material that was denounced by the mainstream church as heretical, but this does not reduce its value for the student of Christianity. The most important, and most beautiful, work included is The Gospel of Thomas, a brief collection of Christ’s sayings that may be older than the canonical Gospels. Anyone interested in Jesus Christ’s life and teaching should read this text.
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The Great Divorce
by C.S. Lewis
New York: Touchstone Books, 2001
Lewis is without question the most compelling Christian apologist of the twentieth century. Any thinking Christian will gain much sustenance — and entertainment — from his delightful and stimulating works. The title of The Great Divorce alludes to William Blake’s Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and the book describes the great gulf between heaven and hell, not as storybook territories filled with clouds or fire, but as states of mind and conscience.
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At the Corner of East and Now
by Frederica Mathewes-Grene
New York: Tarcher Putnam, 1999
Eastern Orthodoxy is one of the oldest and richest strains of the Christian faith. Yet to most Americans it is a mystery. In this fine new book, author Frederica Mathewes-Grene explores the possibilities of this tradition for a modern seeker. Her fresh, humorous voice has led her to be called "the Orthodox Erma Bombeck." (Example: "In Orthodox worship, more is always more, in every area including prayer. When the priest or deacon intones, ‘Let us complete our prayer to the Lord,’ expect to still be standing there fifteen minutes later.") But there is a serious intent as well: Mathewes-Grene means to provide an entrance point for modern Christians exploring the treasures of the Orthodox heritage, and she succeeds admirably.
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The Book of Women’s Sermons
Edited by the Rev. E. Lee Hancock
New York: Riverhead, 1999
If you associate the word "sermon" with an image of a dry, sterile discourse, this heartfelt collection will help you see things differently. There are talks here delivered by women from many denominations and approaches — Episcopal, Conservative Jewish, Unitarian, Quaker, Roman Catholic, African Methodist, Moravian. They deal with topics ranging from death to sexuality to the role of faith in the life of a modern woman. Sermons by such noted writers as Alice Walker, Kathleen Norris, and Jean Shinoda Bolen are included.
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Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith
by Kathleen Norris
New York: Riverhead, 1998
"Our ridiculously fallible language becomes a lesson in how God's grace works despite and even through our human frailty. We will never get the words exactly right. There will always be room for imperfection, for struggle, growth and change. And this is as it should be." With observations like this one, Kathleen Norris has provided a salutary corrective for contemporary Christians in Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith. The book is about how she learned to use religious words, such as "incarnation," "idolatry," and "evangelism." Norris is a feminist, a theological conservative, a sophisticate, and a country bumpkin. And she's one of the few living Christian writers who can be described as truly great. (Amazon.com)
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How Do We Know When It’s God?
by Dan Wakefield
Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1999
How do we know when it's God? That's a tough question, explains Dan Wakefield, whose memoir gives a painful account of fabricating God's will in order to justify his personal desires and delusions. (Amazon.com)
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In the Spirit of Happiness
by The Monks of New Skete
Boston: Little, Brown, & Co., 1999
The wise and cheerful monks of New Skete believe that our spirits are meant to be happy. So within these pages, the popular monks of Cambridge, NY, offer useful suggestions for mastering the elusive art of happiness. And while this might sound like a book written by jolly Friar Tucks, it is in fact an intelligent, informed discussion on the soothing power of prayer, mercy, compassion, and devotion. It also opens the doors to the private life of monastic living--helping readers to see that even nuns and monks experience rapture as well as doubt and despair. (Amazon.com)
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Listen With Your Heart
by Eileen Flanagan
New York: Warner Books, 1998
Drawing on original interviews, this book shows how loneliness and fear offer opportunities for spiritual growth, how listening to one's inner voice can bring peace and clarity, and how romance can be a path to transcendence. (Ingram)
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Love Is Stronger Than Death
by Cynthia Bourgeault
New York: Bell Tower, 1999
Reverend Cynthia Bourgeault was a 50-year-old priest when she met her soul mate, a hermit named Brother Raphael Robin (Rafe). They had only three years on earth together before Rafe died suddenly of a heart attack. Accounts of these earthly days together are as intense and emotionally wrenching as any love affair could be. And yet their relationship was always graced with a higher goal--creating spiritual love over romantic possession. (Amazon)
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Mormon America
by Richard N. Ostling and Joan K. Ostling
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999
Mormon America grew out of a 1997 Time magazine cover story called "Mormon's Inc." One of the reporters on that story, Richard Ostling, became so fascinated by Mormonism that he set out to write "a candid but non-polemical" overview of the Church, beginning with its founding by Joseph Smith Jr. in 1830 and continuing to the present day. The resulting book is a marvel of clarity, organization, and analysis. (Amazon.com)
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Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home
by Richard O. Foster
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992
Foster, Quaker theologian and best-selling author, provides an excellent and comprehensive survey of 21 forms of Christian prayer. He groups the sections around three movements (inward, upward, and outward) which address three human needs (transformation, intimacy, and ministry). Foster presents the best thinking of various church traditions to help the reader feel drawn to prayer and to a restored and deeper relationship with oneself, God, and others. (Library Journal)
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Readings for Meditation and Reflection
by C.S. Lewis
Edited by Walter Hooper
New York: HarperCollins, 1992
Known throughout the world as the intellect behind The Chronicles of Narnia and as the twentieth century's most influential Christian writer, C. S. Lewis has stirred millions of readers through his probing insights, passionate arguments, and provocative questions about God, love, life, and death. (Amazon.com)
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Receiving the Day
by Dorothy C. Bass
San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 2000
Bass, a historian of the Christian tradition and editor of Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for Searching People, dissects the elusive concept of time within the realm of Christian theology and practices. Using rich personal stories, she shares how time is truly a gift to be savored, not a tempest to be tamed. Bass understands the societal stress men and women feel to produce and provide within ever-decreasing time slots. (Publishers Weekly)
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Tell Me Why: A Father Answers His Daughter’s Questions about God
by Michael and Jana Novak
New York: Pocket Books, 1998
For anyone exploring a spiritual life for the first time -- and all those brought up in a religion without ever understanding why -- here is a rare chance to eavesdrop on a conversation between a believing father and a skeptical daughter about God, faith, and morals. At once warm, blunt, and down-to earth, this extraordinary book is a trustworthy and thought-provoking guide. (Amazon.com)
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The Unvarnished Gospels
Translated by Andy Gaus
Putney, Vt.: Threshold Books. (Now available from Shambhala Publications.), 1988
A groundbreaking new translation of the four Gospels. Many translations have been produced in modern English but they all interpret the original Greek in the light of later Christian doctrine. Andy Gaus is the first translator to give us the unvarnished meaning of the original Greek just as a person of the time would have read it. Thus Gaus translates mistake instead of sin, sky instead of heaven, breath instead of spirit, and many other startling thought-provoking readings. (Amazon.com)
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Learning to Hear with the Heart
by Debra K. Farrington
Jossey-Bass Inc., 2003
As faithful Christians, it is important we hear, see, feel, and think with the heart, for it is through the heart that we attune ourselves to the Spirit and to what God wishes for each of us. Learning to Hear with the Heart — written as a companion for your discernment journey— invites you to spend thirty days listening for God's guidance not only for the big questions of your life but for everyday matters as well. (Jossey-Bass Inc.)
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Jim's Last Summer
by Teresa Rhodes McGee
Orbis Books, 2002
Teresa McGee was struggling with arthritis, anger, and a sense of sin. Her friend Jim Lenihan, a 72-year-old Maryknoll missioner, lay dying in a nursing home. It was Jim's last summer. For Teresa it was a new beginning. "The last time I sat by his bed," writes Teresa, "there seemed nothing left of Jim but his essential goodness." That goodness remains, in Teresa, and in her moving story of friendship, faith, and rebirth. (From the Publisher)Buy This Book
The Foreign Missionary Enterprise at Home
by Daniel H. Bays (Editor), Grant Wacker (Editor)
Univ of Alabama Pr, 2003
This collection of academic essays about the missionary movement should be on the shelves of every college and university library. High-profile scholars such as Grant Wacker, Edith Blumhofer and Laurie Maffly-Kipp investigate how the foreign missionary enterprise changed people on the home front, arguing that "the standard textbooks on U.S. history have virtually ignored the missionary's domestic significance." (Publishers Weekly)
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The Trinity Guide to the Trinity
by William J. La Due
Trinity Press International, 2003
"From early on we are told that the Trinity is a mystery," writes La Due, a London librarian and Catholic commentator. "We were not expected to understand it, but simply to believe it." This volume goes a long way toward helping Christians understand the history of the doctrine of the Trinity. La Due opens with biblical sections that relate how scholars such as Walter Brueggeman, Gerhard von Rad and Karl Rahner have traced the evolution of the Trinity in Scripture. (Publishers Weekly)
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Warriors of the Lord
by Michael Walsh
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003
In the Middle Ages, writes Walsh, "military orders" flourished as they fought the Crusades, fueled the "reconquista" and furthered missionary outreach to distant lands. Most of these once-famous orders, such as the Knights Templar, the Teutonic Knights and the Knights of St. John, have not survived to the present day, their influence declining after "the crusading spirit grew colder." But their story is a fascinating glimpse into a distant past in which being a "soldier-monk" was not an oxymoron. Walsh's text is wonderfully accessible and well written, and is complemented by more than 100 illustrations and maps. (Publishers Weekly)
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How Much is Enough?
by Arthur Simon
Baker Books, 2003
"Why is it that in the face of unprecedented prosperity, so many of us feel discontented?" asks Simon, founder and past president of Bread for the World. In this hard-hitting and well-written book, Simon encourages North American Christians to examine how their materialistic culture has stunted their compassion and driven a wedge between themselves and God. (Publishers Weekly)
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Everyday Grace
by Marianne Williamson
Berkley Publishing Group, 2002
Although many people may perceive the achievement of mystical union with the divine as an arduous feat, requiring fasting, pilgrimage and mortification of the flesh, spirituality diva Williamson says "thirty minutes each morning" of "quality time with God" will do the trick. (Publishers Weekly)
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A Life God Rewards
by Bruce Wilkinson
Multnomah Publishing, 2002
Christians who are curious about the hereafter and what they can expect from it will be educated and comforted by this entry in Dr. Bruce Wilkinson's Breakthroughs series. Wilkerson, the man behind the bestsellers The Prayer of Jabez and Secrets of the Vine, here shows how the Bible presents a surprisingly vivid picture of what comes after death, and explains how Christians can make the most of the experience by being closer to God now. (Barnes & Noble)
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The Prayer of Jabez
by Bruce Wilkinson
Multnomah Publishing, 2001
Experience God's miraculous power and blessing by following the model of Jabez, one of the Bible's most overlooked heroes of the faith, in this extraordinary teaching from Dr. Bruce Wilkinson. (Amazon.com)
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A Love Worth Giving
by Max Lucado
W Publishing, 2002
Best-selling author Max Lucado has successfully pricked the hearts and minds of readers for decades. Now, he boldly says that before we can pass love on, we must receive it ourselves -- from God. (Amazon.com)
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The Power of a Praying Wife
by Stormie Omartian
Harvest House Publishing, 1998
The trials and pressures of modern life can make the prospect of a fulfilled, meaningful marriage seem impossible. In The Power of a Praying Wife, popular Christian author and speaker Stormie Omartian pinpoints common marital struggles and reveals the miraculous way that disciplined prayer can alleviate heartache and sustain unity. (Amazon.com)
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Jonathan Edwards: A Life
by George M. Marsden
Yale University Press, 2003
In this definitive and long-awaited biography, Jonathan Edwards emerges as both a great American and a brilliant Christian. George Marsden evokes the world of colonial New England in which Edwards was reared—a frontier civilization at the center of a conflict between Native Americans, French Catholics, and English Protestants. Drawing on newly available sources, Marsden demonstrates how these cultural and religious battles shaped Edwards’s life and thought. Marsden reveals Edwards as a complex thinker and human being who struggled to reconcile his Puritan heritage with the secular, modern world emerging out of the Enlightenment. In this, Edwards’s life anticipated the deep contradictions of our American culture. Meticulously researched and beautifully composed, this biography offers a compelling portrait of an eminent American. (Amazon.com)
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The Sun and Moon over Assisi
by Gerard Thomas Straub
St Anthony Messenger Press, 2000
Raised as a Catholic, Straub fell into a bout of atheism after a disillusioning stint working for one of television's leading Christian evangelists. Nonetheless, Straub was blessed (or is it cursed?) with a seeker's soul and a novelist's imagination. He couldn't stay away from the quest for spiritual understanding. The upshot is a story within a story: the story of two saints from Assisi, Francis and Clare, as well as the story of how a disillusioned man finds himself in the Umbrian hills of Italy, completely entranced by these two legendary Italians. Not only does it unveil the stories of Francis and Clare, it also reveals the classic human quest, where we face our most vulnerable spiritual questions and fears. Billed as an introduction to Franciscan scholarship, this is really more beautiful and ambitious. Consider it a primer on the art of Christian pilgrimage. (Amazon.com)
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True Vine
by John Fountain
PublicAffairs, 2003
True Vine is John Fountain's remarkable story--of his childhood in a neighborhood heading south; of his strong-willed grandparents, who founded a church that sought to bring the word of God to their neighbors; of his mother, herself a teenage parent, whose truncated dreams help nurture bigger dreams in him; of his friends and cousins, whose youthful exuberance was extinguished by the burdens they faced; and of his religious awakening that gave him the determination to rebuild his life. (Amazon.com)
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Sisters
by John Fialka
St. Martin's Press, 2003
This fascinating study provides an overview of the enormous contribution Catholic nuns have made to the American educational, social, and cultural landscape. Although much has been written about the men that helped to shape the structure of the American Catholic Church, Fialka argues that it was women in general, and the nuns in particular, who were primarily responsible for extending the faith through hard work and practical means. (Booklist)
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The Gospel Reloaded
by Chris Seay, Greg Garrett Greg Garrett
Pinon Press, 2003
The millions of people who saw and loved The Matrix understood that it was much more than just an action adventure movie with state-of-the-art special effects. Audiences gravitated toward the film because it made a statement about life. Its plot and themes resonated with a postmodern worldview and caused people to think carefully about their spirituality.
In The Gospel Reloaded, authors Chris Seay and Greg Garrett explore the Matrix films, studying the characters and metaphors for their hidden meaning. They show how these movies--with their themes of rebirth and awakening, fate and free will--are guaranteed to generate thoughtful discussion about culture and spirituality. (Amazon.com)
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A Baptist Among the Jews
by Mary Blye Howe
Jossey-Bass, 2003
With exceptional grace and clarity, Mary Blye Howe recounts her tale of discovery and in doing so gives us all— whether Christian or Jew— a story of hope, reconciliation, and mutual respect and admiration across traditions of faith. (Amazon.com)
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Healing a Broken World
by Cynthia D. Moe-Lobeda
Fortress Press, 2002
Explores and relates the Lutheran tradition of justice to globalization.
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The Healing Power of Prayer
by Chester L. Tolson, Harold George Koenig
Baker Book House, 2003
At times this book, co-written by a pastor and a physician, seems like two separate treatises. The first third convincingly lays out evidence from dozens of medical studies about the mind-body connection, while the rest is a fairly generic guide to prayer in the Christian life: "what it is, how to pray, what happens when we pray, and how to pray more effectively." However, the book's first part alone is worth the price of admission--it is filled with astonishing facts and statistics about the need for spiritual awareness in maintaining and regaining health. There is, for example, startling evidence of how stress disables the immune system, and how individuals with a strong religious orientation are statistically more likely than other patients to recover from a life-threatening illness. Prayer, according to the authors, "has the potential to produce healing along with drugs, surgery, and other therapies," and should be considered a vital component of recovery. (Publishers Weekly)
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Zen for Christians
by Kim Boykin
Jossey-Bass, 2003
In Zen for Christians, author Kim Boykin-- who has personally experienced the gifts of Buddhism in her own Christian faith and has taught this subject in a variety of settings-- offers Christians a way to incorporate Zen practices into their lives without compromising their beliefs and faith. (Amazon.com)
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The Gnostic Gospels
by Elaine Pagels
Vintage Books, 1989
Gnosticism's Christian form grew to prominence in the 2nd century A.D. Ultimately denounced as heretical by the early church, Gnosticism proposed a revealed knowledge of God ("gnosis" meaning "knowledge" in Greek), held as a secret tradition of the apostles. In The Gnostic Gospels, author Elaine Pagels suggests that Christianity could have developed quite differently if Gnostic texts had become part of the Christian canon. Without a doubt: Gnosticism celebrates God as both Mother and Father, shows a very human Jesus's relationship to Mary Magdalene, suggests the Resurrection is better understood symbolically, and speaks to self-knowledge as the route to union with God. Pagels argues that Christian orthodoxy grew out of the political considerations of the day, serving to legitimize and consolidate early church leadership. Her contrast of that developing orthodoxy with Gnostic teachings presents an intriguing trajectory on a world faith as it "might have become." The Gnostic Gospels provides engaging reading for those seeking a broader perspective on the early development of Christianity. (Amazon.com)
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The Lord is our Shepherd
by Albert Micah Lewis
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2002
In this brief devotional, Rabbi Lewis explores three famous psalms in considerable depth, going line by line and giving extensive attention to interpretations of the original Hebrew. Throughout, he uses the psalms to offer solace to the aging, who sometimes suffer from poor health and anxiety about death. In Psalm 121 ("I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills…"), a poem of "journeying and pilgrimage," Lewis finds comfort in the language of God's protection; God is shown as a bodyguard who "neither slumbers nor sleeps" and will not permit the psalmist to stumble. Psalm 23, the most familiar poem of the Psalter, is a song of rest and tranquility, while Psalm 98 expresses "pure exaltation… joy and reassurance." Throughout the book, short questions for reflection offer readers the opportunity to think more deeply about the messages of the three psalms. (Amazon.com)
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The Open Door
by Frederica Mathewes-Green
Paraclete Press, 2003
Unlike many books of meditations on icons, this book presents a unique opportunity for readers to visit an imaginary church and see icons "in action" throughout the year---to stand alongside worshipers for whom the use of icons is a natural part of their devotional lives. Reproductions of icons on the book jacket and in the inside text allow the reader to view the icons that would be found in a typical contemporary Orthodox church, as Frederica Mathewes-Green explains their history and theology. Stories of saints and texts of the prayers appointed for the day enhance the devotional quality of the book. Anyone interested in understanding and "praying with" icons will benefit from this warmhearted, practical guide. (Amazon.com)
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A Travel Guide to Heaven
by Anthony DeStefano
Doubleday & Company, Incorporated, 2003
Forget angels playing harps. In this fascinating, comforting book, DeStefano takes the reader on a tour of heaven, painting it as a dynamic place of unlimited joy, and using Scripture and dramatic imagination to fill in details about the afterlife. "God doesn't throw away the good things he creates," he writes, an idea which is the basis of many of his speculations about heaven. Heaven is a tangible place, believes DeStefano, and at least part of it will be a transformed new earth. People will have their own recognizable bodies, only perfected. DeStefano tackles tough questions about heaven, including the role of angels, the measurement of time, marriages and whether pets will be there ("Of course!"). Fears of boredom are dispelled with his depictions of possible activities ("How about a tour of the Andromeda galaxy?") and creative work ("Books will be written and read, public structures will be built and utilized"). However, he writes that nothing will compare with the thrill of meeting God, the source of true happiness. DeStefano persuasively argues that the idea of heaven is a positive force on earth, since "faith in God and heaven makes you more interested in what you do in this life-not less." He is neither an academic nor a professional theologian, which gives the book its delightfully conversational tone and frees him to conjecture without restraint. (Publishers Weekly)
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Thank God It's Monday
by Kim Hackney
Baker Book House, 2003
Kim Hackney blends business principles with personal stories, biblical wisdom, and an invigorating common-sense approach to show you how faith can transform your work life. You'll discover how to: live out your God-given purpose at work; ground your self-esteem in being a woman of godly character and integrity-not in money or status; transform attitudes about the "daily grind" and find satisfaction and joy in your job; and turn workplace conflicts into occasions to build others up. (Barnes and Noble)
The Body Broken
by Robert Benson
Doubleday, 2003
In looking at his own life with candor and hope, Robert Benson helps us to look at our own. His words have the ring of truth (Amazon.com)
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Embracing the Mysterious God
by James Emery White
Intervarsity Press, 2003
We give ourselves to God and then struggle profoundly with the relationship. We are drawn in and then want to flee in fear. We move from faith to doubt, trust to confusion, intimacy to a feeling of abandonment.
Coming to faith is like falling in love. It can be a head-over-heels rush to the altar or a slow acceptance that slips into a heartfelt embrace. Either way, eventually romance crashes headlong into reality. Often we make things worse either by feeling guilty about our struggles with doubt or by trying to dismiss them as unimportant or insignificant. We may even become resentful that God does not simply step in to clear up our confusion. When we find ourselves in any of these predicaments, the only way out is to face our uncertainties about God—deliberately and directly.
In Embracing the Mysterious God James Emery White explores these struggles we all face—struggles of heart, soul, mind and strength. And struggles to love our neighbors as ourselves. Here you will find your tough questions about God addressed. Better still, you will find the way to renewed faith. (Intervarsity Press)
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Answering Islam
by Norman L. Geisler & Abdul Saleeb
Baker Book House, 2002
What are the fundamental beliefs of Islam and how can Christians respond to them? Answering Islam evaluates the claims of orthodox Islam and examines the evidence for the Christian counterclaim, preparing you with strong apologetic answers. This revised edition contains more resources and updated information throughout. (Amazon.com)
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Traveling Light
by Max Lucado
W Publishing Group, 2001
Feel the need to throw off the cumbersome burdens that weigh you down? Certainly, responsible adults learn to adjust to tremendous stresses and equip themselves to carry the heavy weights of self-reliance, weariness, worry and hopelessness over the long haul. But this is not necessary, says bestselling author Lucado (Just Like Jesus; He Chose the Nails; The Applause of Heaven). In Psalm 23, God counters the misconception that burden-bearing signals Christian maturity and admonishes followers to leave their loads at Christ's feet, as he is the only one truly equipped to handle the weight. Lucado dissects Psalm 23 while recounting tender tales of men and women who have overcome crushing circumstances with Christ's support. In keeping with Lucado's typical homespun style, humorous anecdotes often precede powerful punches of biblical truth. Rounding out this collection of essays is a study guide encapsulating each chapter's topic. Readers will travel back, up and on as they reread key excerpts, study pertinent Bible verses and allow the lessons to take root. This insightful collection not only measures up to the high standard of Lucado's own previous works, but his profound perspective on life and spirituality frequently exceeds expectations. (Publishers Weekly)
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A Chosen Faith
by John A. Buehrens
Beacon Press, 1998
Buehrens, president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, and Church, senior minister of the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City, present a summary of what it means to be a Unitarian Universalist today. In a new foreword and a new preface prepared for this edition, bestselling author Robert Fulghum, a Unitarian Universalist minister, and Denise Davidoff, a Jewish convert to Unitarian Universalism, add their personal observations. Buehrens and Church cover the history of Unitarian Universalism, whose origins they trace to the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325. The authors also find precursors of Unitarian Universalism during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation, and they find the first mention of "Unitarianism" in England in 1654. The book is an informative look at what they call a "choice in religious living," which they describe as affirming diversity, dialogue, personal choice, and work for social justice. (Publishers Weekly)
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The Illustrated Bhagavad Gita
by Ranchor Prime (translator)
Barron's Educational Series, Incorporated, 2003
This well-illustrated version of the Bhagavad Gita, the central ancient text of devotional Hinduism, is distinguished by its easy accessibility. Prime's translations from the Sanskrit are not poetic, but they get the job done, and his section-by-section commentary opens the text to the spiritual seeker. Offered in the first person plural ("When we are overwhelmed by life's complexities…"), these comments show that Prime never loses sight of the audience for his book, and that he wants readers to understand the Gita in a personal way. In fact, Prime began this translation as a way of sharing the Gita with his own children, and his commentary exudes a fatherly and caring spirit. The book's photographs and illustrations are often breathtaking, showing Hindus at prayer or engaged in simple acts of daily life. (Publishers Weekly)
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The Myths and Gods of India
by Alain Danielou
Inner Traditions Intl Ltd, 1991
This widely praised study of Hindu deities reveals the message of tolerance and adaptability at the heart of this ancient religion. (Amazon.com)
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Hindu Gods: The Spirit of the Divine
by Priya Hemenway
Chronicle Books, 2003
Hindu gods serve mankind with compassion and devotion, breathing wisdom into every aspect of life. This exquisitely illustrated book presents profiles of 30 deities—from the powerful triad of Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer, to the colorful supporting cast of gods such as Ganesha and Saraswati. Author Priya Hemenway tells the stories of how these gods came to be, how they’re worshipped, and how they remain forever alive in the hearts of those who seek to know themselves. (Amazon.com)
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The Essentials of Hinduism
Swami Bhaskarananda
Viveka Press, 2002
This book gives clearly written explanations of the basic ideas and practices of Hinduism and its culture. It answers so many questions—Do the Hindus worship many gods? Are the Hindus idol worshippers? What is the purpose of life? What are Hinduism's spiritual practices?—and so on, covering the most mundane to the most profound ideas and questions of Hinduism. (Amazon.com)
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Development of Hindu Iconography
Jitendra N. Banerjee
South Asia Books, 2002
This book, by a reputed Indian specialist, views the subject of Hindu Iconography from the evolutionary standpoint and can claim to be a pioneer and authoritative work in this respect. The author has carefully marshaled all kinds of data - literary, epigraphic, numismatic, glyptic and sculptural - and presents his materials and different problems in a systematic manner so as to build up a logical and coherent picture of Hindu Iconography in its wide and varied scope. First published in 1941, the present edition has been completely revised and enlarged so as to serve as the most authoritative guide and reference work on this interesting subject. (Amazon.com)
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To Live Within
by Lizelle Reymond
New York: Doubleday, 1971
A Woman's Spiritual Pilgrimage in a Himalayan Hermitage
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Vivekananda: A Biography
Swami Nikhilananda
Ramakrishna Vivekanada Center, 1989
An absorbing biography of Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902). With 28 photographs and Appendix containing important teachings.
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Yoga from the Inside Out
by Christine Sell
Hohm Press, 2003
"There are dozens of books that tell you where to place your heel when you do yoga, where to place your arm when you
do yoga, where to bend your waist when you do yoga," Sell says. "This is a book about where to place your heart when you do yoga." (Religion Bookline-Publishers Weekly)
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The Ten Principal Upanishads
Translated by W.B. Yeats and Shree Purohit Swami.
New York: Macmillan, 1937
There are more than two hundred Upanishads in the Vedas. Shankaracharya, the eighth century vedantic philosopher and scholar, recommended that out of these only ten Upanishads are most important. He called them Principal Upanishads.
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The Dignity of Difference
by Jonathan Sacks
Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003
The Chief Rabbi of Britain and the Commonwealth, Sacks is well known through his appearances on British television and through his 12 books (e.g., A Letter in the Scroll). Americans will be taken with his incisive arguments and clear writing style. What he presents here is not a treatise on Jewish faith and customs but a look at the discontents of our world and how religious values can unite rather than divide us. Sacks sees certain values (e.g., education, responsibility, charity) as imperative to any new world order, regardless of one's religious beliefs. Though these values might seem self-evident, he shows how their absence causes much that is wrong. He further exhorts us to explore more covenantal relationships, which he defines as "a bond, not of interest and advantage, but of belonging" and sees as paramount to our survival-more so than commercial relationships, however essential they are to capitalist society. Throughout, Sacks makes reference to demanding philosophical thought, but he provides some much-needed spiritual uplift in this post-9/11 world, and his work is accessible to informed lay readers. (Library Journal)Buy This Book
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Seyder Tkhines
by Devra Kay
Jewish Publication Society of America, 2004
According to Kay, "Jewish women today who are seeking a precedent for women’s prayer need look no further" than the "seyder thkines," or Yiddish prayer books for women that were popular in the mid- to late 17th century. Now largely forgotten, these works of popular piety emerged in a time of remarkable messianic expectation and fervent holiness. Kay, who began researching these prayer books for her doctoral dissertation, writes that the prayer books flourished for approximately three generations and had no precedents in the history of Jewish prayer, since they were vernacular prayers written by and for women. Kay traces the development of the cottage industry of these prayer books, which proved to be financially profitable for printers and spiritually beneficial for women, who did not participate in many of the male-oriented rituals in the synagogue. Particularly interesting is a prayer book written specifically for an unnamed pregnant woman, who is encouraged to repent of her sins and be ever-ready for a possible departure from this world. One prayer explicitly beseeches God for an easy labor and a safe delivery. Kay does readers a great service by collecting these historic prayers into this volume and providing helpful commentary. (Publisher's Weekly) Buy This Book
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American Judaism
by Jonathan D. Sarna
Yale University Press, 2004
Such scholars as Howard M. Sachar, Henry L. Feingold and Jacob R. Marcus, among others, have produced complete histories of American Jewry. Sarna, a Brandeis University professor who has published on various aspects of American Jewish history, now joins the ranks of his distinguished predecessors. Marking the 350th anniversary of Jewish settlement in New Amsterdam (now New York), this outstanding survey emphasizes the religious history of Jews in America. Since it is difficult to disentangle religious history from the entire story of how Jews fared generally in the United States, the book provides a sweeping overview of the trials, tribulations and triumphs of American Jews from 1654 to the present. Sarna writes in sprightly prose, usefully presenting anecdotes about some unfamiliar people and events: for example, he introduces Rachel "Ray" Frank, an obscure late-19th-century "charismatic woman Jewish revivalist." Full attention is also paid to the great rabbinical leaders, the movements they led and the problems they encountered. Sarna's fact-filled presentation demonstrates that American Jews have always worried about intermarriage, assimilation and continuity. At various times, they have found answers in regeneration, revitalization and renewal. Concluding with a consideration of contemporary dilemmas, Sarna draws from history the possibility that "American Jews will find creative ways to maintain and revitalize American Judaism." (Publishers Weekly) Buy This Book
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The Jews of the United States
by Hasia R. Diner
University of California Press, 2004
In the fourth volume in the Jewish Communities in the Modern World series, Diner (an NYU professor and author of Hungering for America) shows that, from the colonial era to the present, Jews have wanted both to "be good Jews and… full Americans." The book opens with a survey of the small Jewish community in colonial and revolutionary America. Diner then turns to the 19th-century waves of Jewish immigration. In these pages, we meet upwardly mobile peddlers, religious reformers pressing for English-language worship services and Jewish state senators. In the final section of the book, Diner charts Jewish responses to World War I, the Holocaust and the Civil Rights movement. Diner is to be commended for her thorough integration of women into her Jewish American story; she recounts the stories of female philanthropists and teachers, and examines the roles women played in political movements from Zionism to second-wave feminism. She also deserves kudos for attending to both religious and secular Judaism. She traces the 18th- and 19th-century battles for religious reform, the impact of Orthodox Jewish immigration on the American Jewish landscape and so forth, but she does not reduce the history of Judaism in America to a strictly religious story, or neglect political and cultural expressions of Judaism, like Yiddish theater. This academic synthesis of Jewish American history will find a home in the university market and will have crossover appeal to a broader readership. (Publisher's Weekly) Buy This Book
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I am Jewish
by Ruth & Judea Pearl (editors)
Jewish Lights Publishing, 2004
In February 2002, Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was brutally murdered by terrorists in Karachi, Pakistan. Just before he died, he said, "My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish." His parents decided to honor his memory by asking several hundred Jews to record their reactions to his words-statements that form the core of this book. Most of the 146 contributors are well-known authors, educators, rabbis, reporters, entertainers and political figures, including Joseph Lieberman, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, Elie Wiesel, Dianne Feinstein, Kerri Strug, Richard Dreyfuss and Wendy Wasserstein. The length of their statements varies from a sentence or two to essays that cover several pages. Their thoughts are organized around the five basic themes of identity; heritage; covenant, chosenness and faith; humanity; and tikkun ha'olam (repairing the world). The respondents provide anecdotes, theological formulations, personal reactions, biblical references and historical reflections, ranging widely from the superficial to the profound. Among the few Israeli contributors is Avrum Burg, an outspoken critic of the Sharon government and its policies. He argues eloquently that being a Jew places on him a special obligation to work for peace. Others place different constructions on what it means to be Jewish. Lack of consensus highlights the extreme variations in Jewish views, indicating that one value of this collection is its demonstration that a healthy diversity of opinion continues to characterize the Jewish community. (Publishers Weekly)
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Contemporary Orthodox
by Rabbi Barry Freundel
KTAV Publishing House, 2003
Freundel, who counts former presidential candidate Joe Lieberman among his Washington, D.C., congregants, invites readers, Jewish and non-Jewish, to gain a better understanding of Jewish law, tradition and belief in his succinct but thorough analyses of 31 different topics crucial to Orthodox Judaism, such as teshuvah (repentance), Israel, prayer and Shabbat and Kashrut. Each chapter summarizes the central sources upon which the Halakhah (Jewish law) is based in clear, understandable terms and explains the development of the tradition as well as its practical application in today's world. Additionally, Freundel provides all the relevant Orthodox opinions on the matter, including those that he or the law ultimately rejects, and elucidates how and why Jewish law maintains its ancient positions even as modernity infringes on them. He does not shy away from or gloss over sensitive or controversial issues; instead he seems eager to take them on and debunk popular myths, including the widespread notions that Judaism considers women inferior and that Jews do not believe in an afterlife. Even though most chapters number only a few pages, his essays are accurate, entirely to the point, easy to finish without losing interest and convenient to pick up or put down at any time. Freundel's evident mastery of the vast breadth of materials within Jewish thought and law combined with his eloquent and cogent writing makes for an exceptionally worthwhile, inspirational and instructive work that no informed person should be without. (Publishers Weekly) Buy This Book
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The Jewish Study Bible
by Adele Berlin, Marc Zvi Brettler Michael Fishbane (Editors)
Oxford University Press, 2003
Oxford University Press breaks exciting new ground in the field of study Bibles with The Jewish Study Bible. This innovative volume will, for the first time, offer readers of the Hebrew Bible a resource that is specifically tailored to meet their needs. The JSB presents the center of gravity of the Scriptures where Jews experience it--in Torah. It offers readers the fruits of various schools of Jewish traditions of biblical exegesis (rabbinic, medieval, mystical, etc.) and provides them with a wealth of ancillary materials that aid in bringing the ancient text to life. The nearly forty contributors to the work represent the cream of Jewish biblical scholarship from the world over. (Oxford University Press)
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More Money Than God
by Steven Z. Leder
Bonus Books, Inc., 2003
More Money Than God explores how money affects our families, friends, work, loves, ethics, and feelings of self-worth. Where does money lust come from? How do you teach your children the value of money and giving? What do you do when money is tearing apart your marriage or relationship? How do you deal with losing money through death, divorce, or job loss? Author Steven Leder will use his 15 years of experience as a religious leader and spiritual counselor to tackle the questions with which all of us wrestle on a daily basis. (Bonus Books, Inc.)
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Mystics, Mavericks, and Merrymakers
by Stephanie Wellen Levine
New York University Press, 2003
This absorbing ethnography acts as one subculture's corrective to Reviving Ophelia, in that it offers a refreshing portrait of
adolescent girls who are far from insecure. While a graduate student in American studies at Harvard, Levine spent a year living as a
"participant observer" in the Lubavitcher community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, entering with the following assumption: "The possibility
that these girls' lives could be anything other than the Platonic essence of feminine subjugation seemed as unlikely as a suckling pig
on a Shabbos table." What she found instead is that Lubavitch culture nurtures most girls' inner and outer voices. Though they are not
immune from adolescent concerns about fashion, weight, looks and cliques, the Lubavitch emphasis on each person's godly mission to
bring the Messiah deepens their spiritual outlook; the single-sex environment in which they mature helps develop vibrant, expressive
personalities. Levine invites readers to share the "pure delight" of knowing these girls, and challenges us to draw on Hasidism as an
unexpected source in helping our own girls develop into secure, confident adults. (Publishers Weekly)
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Practicing the Sacred Art of Listening
by Kay Lindahl
Skylight Paths Publishing, 2003
This is a companion volume to Lindahl's first book, The Sacred Art of Listening, which provided 40 short, distinct entry points into the realm of real listening. Here, she organizes her thinking around broader themes such as "contemplative," "reflective" and "heart" listening, three modes that she says can help us to listen deeply to the divine, ourselves and one another. Lindahl hopes that people can slowly strengthen their listening "muscles" and pull themselves back from the brink of non-communication. She explores the implications of listening to friends, family, co-workers and ourselves. Calling thoughtful attention to the myriad ways we share conversation, she delineates among the formats and intentions of debates, arguments, councils, consultations, discussions, dialogues, negotiations, mediation and chitchat. The spiritual value of being present while listening shines within her clear, guileless strategies. Each chapter offers concrete techniques to practice listening, and the "Daily Practices" section is filled with ways to restore loving kindness to language. She also has clear directions for "Interfaith Café" etiquette, where lively conversation can spark lasting change among people of different faiths, viewpoints or life experiences. Similar to her first book, this is by turns both obvious and profound; on the whole, however, it has deep merit for all who want to reclaim the essential art of spiritual listening. (Publishers Weekly)
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Wise Men and Their Tales
by Elie Wiesel
Schocken, 2003
Wiesel's compelling portraits focus on disturbing episodes and character flaws, drawn with an unexpected zing that brings fresh perspective to these time-worn but timeless texts. Why did Lot's wife look back? To Wiesel, that's more understandable than why Lot did not. The stories "continue to guide and enlighten us" in facing incomprehensible events and contemporary challenges. Wiesel's dramatic narratives are bolstered by generous helpings of midrash, commentary, and a sense of humor. He raises the human, social, psychological, religious and historical dimensions of each conflict and character, but integrates them in a seamless way so they do not feel like the lectures they are. It's a treat to see how Wiesel's mind works, to be privy to his literary wisdom, his insights into human character, his narrative directness and self-admitted lack of answers. (Publisher's Weekly)
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Guide for the Romantically Perplexed
by Lisa Aiken
Pitspopany Press, 2003
1) A self-help guide that works for singles, married, divorced and second marriages. 2) Pertinent to individuals from every level of the Jewish spectrum. 3) Includes case studies that highlight the reasons for success and failure in interpersonal relationships. 4) Well documented from both a Jewish and contemporary psychology standpoint. 5) Best-selling author and speaker on marriage and relationships; she has condensed and refined her life's work into this one exhaustive volume. (Pitspopany Press)
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The Prophets
by Norman Podhoretz
Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group, 2002
The former editor of Commentary and a contributor to the National Review and the Wall Street Journal, Podhoretz steps away from the political writing for which he is noted to address the prophets of the Old Testament. Writing with a deep appreciation of the Bible, he provides an analysis and commentary that brings the prophets to life. He starts by describing the biblical setting and ends with a chapter that relates the prophets and their messages to the contemporary period. The specific prophets whom he considers are Amos, Hosea, Micah, First Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Second Isaiah. Each chapter describes the prophet's message, historical and social context, and religious setting through narrative and both biblical and scholarly quotes. (Library Journal)
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Culture of the Jews
by David Biale
Schocken Books, 2002
This insightful collection of essays by today's leading Judaica scholars (such as Ilana Pardes and Isaiah Gafni) transports the reader from the nascent Jewish nation first emerging from bondage in Egypt through both its cultural and religious decline and efflorescence in the Middle Ages to modern-day Israeli and American Jewish culture. Divided into three sections, "Mediterranean Origins," "Diversities of Diaspora" and "Modern Encounters," the compilation provides an array of creative perspectives. Objects of material culture a map, an amulet, a ketubbah (a Jewish marriage contract) are used as lenses through which to examines various aspects of Jewish life in a given time and place; e.g., a menorah topped by an eagle symbolizing Polish sovereignty opens Moshe Rosman's study of Polish-Lithuanian-Jewish culture. The contributors assume that Jewish history did not develop in a vacuum, but that Jewish culture and religion were at times influenced by the surrounding cultures, and that Jews incorporated elements of what they saw around them while striving to refashion them as distinctly Jewish. Furthermore, if Jewish identity changed according to differing historical contexts, editor Biale (a professor of Jewish history at UC-Davis and author of Power and Powerlessness in Jewish History) suggests, referring to Jewish culture in the singular is inadequate and oversimplified. The authors raise questions central to the understanding of Judaism and Jewish life, and propose answers that try to reconcile ideas with their historical realities. Intellectually stimulating, articulately written and extensively documented, this collection is sure to raise excitement in aficionados looking for something to whet their historical appetite. (Publishers Weekly)
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Masters of the Talmud
by Alfred J. Kolatch
Jonathan David Publishers, 2002
Startling in its scope, scholarly yet popularly written, The Masters of the Talmud is an essential tool for those interested in penetrating the surface of one of Judaism's most treasured creations. (Amazon.com)
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Living a Year of Kaddish
by Ari L. Goldman
Schocken Books, 2003
Living a Year of Kaddish is a deeply affecting journey through grief, loss, and acceptance--a book that will resonate for people of all faiths who struggle with the inevitability of losing the ones they love. (Amazon.com)
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A Baptist Among the Jews
by Mary Blye Howe
Jossey-Bass, 2003
With exceptional grace and clarity, Mary Blye Howe recounts her tale of discovery and in doing so gives us all— whether Christian or Jew— a story of hope, reconciliation, and mutual respect and admiration across traditions of faith. (Amazon.com)
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Sacred Art of Listening
by Kay Lindahl
Skylight Paths Publishing, 2002
Surely one test of belief is its application in everyday life. Restoring the sacred to the daily art of communication is an oft-overlooked avenue of practice, but one that finds its voice in this slender, substantive volume. Lindahl, the founder of the Listening Center in Laguna Niguel, Calif., summons us back to "the possibility of Listening as a key to peace in the world." For her, "listening is far more than hearing words"; it is a sacred art that requires reflection, illustration, meditation and practice. These 40 meditations are exercises in mindfulness that entreat us to slow down and practice silence, contemplation and presence with ourselves, others and God. The brief passages can be read superficially with little gain, but quieted learners can find gems among them about commitment, humility and favoring integration over balance, to name a few of the themes. Hand-drawn ink mandalas by Amy Schnapper complement each passage and should prove helpful to practitioners who might need a visual anchor while contemplating Lindahl's various themes. The meditation that is prescribed here feels Eastern, but the volume will be of great use to many types of readers, regardless of beliefs. The closing section, "Principles of Dialogue" (nine guidelines on listening to other people), crystallizes the tenets lovingly explored in the previous pages. The book is not large in size, but it is potentially powerful in application. (Publishers Weekly)
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If God is Good, Why is the World Bad?
by Benjamin Blech
Simcha Press, 2003
As the title suggests, Blech picks up where Harold Kushner's classic When Bad Things Happen to Good People leaves off, and offers a Jewish corrective to Kushner's view. (For more on Kushner's latest work, see below.) If we believe that we are not at fault for what happens to us, Blech argues, "the feeling that the world is spinning out of control leaves one more frightened than ever." It is this "gloomy anarchistic view" that Blech counters in his "quest for serenity in the face of adversity." Biblical heroes who faced suffering and divine tests-Job, Abraham, Moses among them-serve as models for Blech's questions and answers, which are further enriched by Talmudic and midrashic teachings. Divided into three parts (Why Bad Things Happen to Good People; Why We Die; Why We Suffer), the book addresses prickly and poignant questions like life after death; the death of children; blame and guilt; aging, pain and illness; and faith after the Holocaust. An Orthodox rabbi and the child of Holocaust survivors, Blech offers several perspectives in the hope that each reader will find his or her truth in at least one; all are grounded in his belief that faith holds the answer. We will never be able to fully explain why the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper, he posits; maybe we need the suffering to allow us to mature, change and gain understanding. The bottom line, he stresses, is that "having questions doesn't make you a non-believer. Doubting isn't the same as denying." (Publishers Weekly)
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A Jew in America
by Arthur Hertzberg
HarperCollins Publishers, 2003
This engrossing memoir by a leading American rabbi, an activist and historian, now in his 80s, who has been central to American political life, is a testament to the power of joining faith and political vision. "[T]he saving grace of times gone mad is the lonely person who keeps his sanity," Hertzberg (The Jews in America, etc.) was told as a child by his Orthodox father. Hertzberg's life was not a typical immigrant search for America ("My experience points away from assimilation and the melting pot," he writes). Charting his acute sense of difference from others because of his Orthodox life as a boy in Youngstown, Ohio, Hertzberg also speaks of this as liberation-"I never identified… the ghetto with backwardness." He uses this lens to view his life of thinking, action and resistance-his years studying to become a rabbi, his work to help Jewish war refugees relocate to Israel, his years in the civil rights movement and as a chaplain in the air force, and his continued work as a political critic and public intellectual. One wishes, at times, that Hertzberg might supply more context and less personal detail. When he is at his best, he maintains his steady political vision of faith tempered by tolerance ("The lasting danger to humanity is the uncompromising defender of the faith-any faith") and criticizes the Jewish urge to assimilate into "self-indulgent" consumerist U.S. culture. Readers may find much to disagree with here, but there is also much that will enlighten them. (Publishers Weekly)
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The Art of Blessing the Day
by Marge Piercy
Alfred A. Knopf, 1999
This exuberant selection from a premier Jewish poet captures the mystery and spirit of everyday life. Readers will find poems to celebrate marriage, good deeds, prayer and a host of holidays throughout the Jewish calendar.
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The Book of Blessings
by Marcia Falk
Beacon Press., 1999
In a groundbreaking new edition of the traditional prayer book, poet Marcia Falk offers worshippers a new, contemporary and lyrical language for their prayers. She has written poetry, reflections and words of explanation in addition to her gender-sensitive translations of the traditional text. In Hebrew and English.
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Eyes Remade for Wonder
by Lawrence Kushner
Jewish Lights, 1998
A collection of some of the finest writing of one of America’s best-loved rabbis. Included are writings on spiritual development, encouraging the reader to discover a deeper understanding of God, the self, and the world. It also explores Jewish texts, ethics, politics, and meditations. This consummate storyteller also relates parts of his book on tape, available from Sounds True.
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God is a Verb
by Rabbi David A. Cooper
Penguin USA, 1997
Kabbalah, the mystical tradition of Judaism, has become a trendy topic of late, producing a flurry of books, tapes, and videos. David Cooper’s warm and accessible introduction is probably the best of the latest books on Kabbalah. Clear, accessible, and punctuated with lively anecdotes, it offers an easy and gentle entrance-point to this formerly arcane area.
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The Essential Kabbalah
by Daniel C. Matt (editor)
Harper SanFrancisco, 1995
Daniel Matt's continued wonder at the confounding brilliance of kabbalistic writings is evident in this loving presentation of the key texts from the Jewish mystical tradition. This fine sampling of works from the earliest medieval European texts to 20th-century interpretations includes poems, symbolic stories, meditations, and ruminations by such important figures as Moses de Leon, Moses Cordovero, Isaac Luria, and Abraham Isaac Kook. (Amazon.com)
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Living a Jewish Life
by Anita Diamant with Howard Cooper
Harper Perennial, 1991
Spanning the spectrum of liberal Jewish thought -- Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform, unaffiliated, new age and secular -- this book provides a sensitive and practical introduction to making Judaism a meaningful part of your life. (Amazon.com)
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Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures
The Jewish Publication Society translation.
Jewish Publication Society, 1985
This original translation of the Holy Scriptures into English, is the culmination of three decades of collaboration by academic scholars and rabbis, representing the three largest branches of organized Judaism in the United States. The result is a triumph of literary style and biblical scholarship, unsurpassed in accuracy and clarity.
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The Thirteen Petalled Rose
by Adin Steinsaltz
Basic Books, 1980
A classic of Jewish mysticism, the world-renowned scholar seeks to answer the major questions asked by the modern Jews about the nature of their existence in God's universe. (Amazon.com)
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A Woman’s Book of Grieving
by Nessa Rapoport
William Morrow, 1994
This slim collection of evocative prose poems, plus a smattering of prayers, night thoughts, parables and a dialogue, speaks especially to women who are grieving over the death of a loved one, the end of a marriage or relationship, or the hard knocks of ill fortune. Instead of offering easy reassurances, Rapoport, author of the novel Preparing for Sabbath, gently encourages readers to work through their sorrow, rage and despair, remembering that "the opposite of depression is not happiness . . . but vitality, to feel alive each minute you are given." (Publishers Weekly)
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Wisdom of the Jewish Sages
by Rami M. Shapiro
Bell Tower, 1993
Pirke Avot is a treasury of maxims on justice, integrity, and virtue, and represents the spiritual teaching of 65 rabbis who spanned the preceding 600 years. For centuries it has been the most widely studied book in Jewish homes. Shapiro's interpretation makes the book's timeless wisdom available to a new generation of Jews and non-Jews alike. (Ingram)
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Wrapped in a Holy Flame
by Zalman Schacter Shalomi
Jossey-Bass Inc., 2003
Shalomi sets himself a difficult assignment with this book: to get to the heart of Hasidic inner life and spirituality. While he lauds both Gershom Scholem and Martin Buber for bringing Hasidism to the consciousness of modern readers, he thinks they did not venture far enough. (Publishers Weekly)
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Rebbe's Army
by Sue Fishkoff
Schocken Books, Incorporated, 2003
This remarkable ethnographic profile goes behind the scenes of Lubavitcher Judaism to explore how the movement's enthusiastic young emissaries, or schlihim, carry the Rebbe's message throughout the world. (Publishers Weekly)
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Jews in America
by David Gantz
Jewish Publication Society, 2002
A grandiose history, superbly produced…carefully researched and engagingly presented to inform and appeal to readers of all ages. (Library Bookwatch, June 2002)
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Master of the Jinn
by Irving Karchmar
BookSurge Publishing, 2004
Here is a tale set on the Path of the Heart, a beautifully written mystical adventure wherein a modern-day Sufi Master sends seven companions on a perilous quest for the greatest treasure of the ancient world - King Solomon's ring. The legendary seal ring is said to control the Jinn, those terrifying demons of living fire, and in seeking it the companions discover not only the truth of the Jinn, but also the path of Love and the infinite mercy of God. (Amazon) Buy This Book
Progressive Muslims
by Omid Safi
Oneworld Publications Ltd, 2003
Safi, a Colgate University professor, assembles a diverse set of essays by and about "progressive" Muslims. The essays vary in topic and in effectiveness, but generally seek to challenge the images of Islam held by both xenophobic Westerners and extremist Muslims. Safi's introduction, though showing insight into many problems today's Muslims face but rarely discuss publicly, is clunky, citing sources from Gandhi to Bob Dylan. Part I offers hard-hitting essays that are sure to be controversial in their discussion of what scholar Tazim Kassam claims is a "curtailment… of civil liberties such as freedom of inquiry and the expression of dissenting opinions" in the U.S. after September 11. There are also some triumphant essays. Scott Siraj al-Haqq Kugle superbly analyzes Islam's categorization of homosexuality as a sin in an essay that is long overdue and probably the only scholarly work of its kind. Gwendolyn Simmons's piece demands the establishment of feminism as Islamic in a touching essay-cum-memoir that connects her growth as a Muslim female to her experience as a young African-American during the Civil Rights era. The incomparable Amina Wadud offers an excellent article on racial tensions between immigrant and indigenous Muslims, while Marcia Hermansen pens the volume's bravest and most honest contribution, addressing the increasing conservatism of her American Muslim students-a topic previously not discussed outside the Muslim community. This collection is recommended for those who yearn for realistic information about Muslims, and for Muslims who are disgruntled with current Islamic leadership. (Publishers Weekly)
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Reading Lolita in Tehran
by Azar Nafisi
Random House, 2003
This book transcends categorization as memoir, literary criticism or social history, though it is superb as all three. Literature professor Nafisi returned to her native Iran after a long education abroad, remained there for some 18 years, and left in 1997 for the United States, where she now teaches at Johns Hopkins. Woven through her story are the books she has taught along the way, among them works by Nabokov, Fitzgerald, James and Austen. She casts each author in a new light, showing, for instance, how to interpret The Great Gatsby against the turbulence of the Iranian revolution and how her students see Daisy Miller as Iraqi bombs fall on Tehran Daisy is evil and deserves to die, one student blurts out. Lolita becomes a brilliant metaphor for life in the Islamic republic. The desperate truth of Lolita's story is… the confiscation of one individual's life by another, Nafisi writes. The parallel to women's lives is clear: we had become the figment of someone else's dreams. A stern ayatollah, a self-proclaimed philosopher-king, had come to rule our land…. And he now wanted to re-create us. Nafisi's Iran, with its omnipresent slogans, morality squads and one central character struggling to stay sane, recalls literary totalitarian worlds from George Orwell's 1984 to Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. (Publishers Weekly)
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The Qur'an: A New Translation
by Thomas Cleary
Starlatch Press, 2004
This is a new and complete translation of the Qur'an-the Muslim scripture-by one of the premier translators of religious texts in the world. The meanings of this sacred text are rendered into the English language with subtle touches of poetry, allowing for the opportunity to fully understand the spirit and soul of the Qur'an. This direct and timely rendition is an essential source for the modern seeker. Buy This Book
After Jihad
by Noah Feldman
Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2003
Feldman is careful to distinguish his first book from some of the spate of recent works with the word "jihad" in the title, which contend that anti-Western, violent brands of Islam are growing in strength and bravado. Feldman argues, on the contrary, that September 11 and more recent sporadic attacks mark "the last, desperate gasp of a tendency to violence that has lost most of its popular support." Violent jihad, or struggle, he asserts, has lost its luster in the Muslim world except in cases of self-defense, and most Muslims find both Islamic ideals and democratic values appealing. The question then becomes, "Would democratically elected Islamic governments be good or bad for Western interests?" His answer is that we shouldn't fear the worst. Feldman, a professor at New York University's School of Law with a doctorate in Islamic thought from Oxford, notes that both Islam and democracy are based on human equality and are highly flexible, and disputes claims that they are incompatible. About a third of the book is taken up with overviews of Islam and democratic development in specific countries and regions, such as Iran and Indonesia; these chapters cover well-hashed territory, but make useful summaries for nonexperts. Diehard proponents of a separation between mosque and state may remain unconvinced that elected Islamic governments would support such liberal notions as women's rights or religious freedom. But the strength of Feldman's work lies in his consistent and simple reminder that the emergence of democracy in some countries will not necessarily bring about Islamist rule, and that suppressing it would itself be downright undemocratic. (Publishers Weekly)
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Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet
by Karen Armstrong
HarperCollins Publishers, 2001
In a meticulous quest for the historical Muhammad, Armstrong first traces the West's long history of hostility toward Islam, which it has stigmatized as a "religion of the sword." This sympathetic, engrossing biography portrays Muhammad (ca. 570-632) as a passionate, complex, fallible human being--a charismatic leader possessed of political as well as spiritual gifts, and a prophet whose monotheistic vision intuitively answered the deepest longings of his people. Armstrong ( The Gospel According to Woman ) refutes the Western image of Muhammad as an impostor who used religion as a means to power, an attitude encapsulated in a psychotic dream episode in Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. Denying that Islam preaches total intransigence, she finds in the Prophet's teachings a theology of peace and tolerance. The "holy war" urged by the Koran, in Armstrong's reading, alludes to each Muslim's duty to fight for a just, decent society. She draws significant parallels between the spiritual aspirations of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. (Publishers Weekly)
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Islam: A Mosaic, Not a Monolith
by Vartan Gregorian
The Brookings Institution Press, 2003
This book is brief, but its scope is ambitious: Gregorian surveys 1,400 years of Islamic history, including such key modern events as the 1978 Iranian revolution and the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Gregorian competently presses home the point that Islam is a tremendously diverse religion that has changed considerably throughout its history. (Publishers Weekly)
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The Life of the Prophet Muhammed
by Leila Azzam and Aisha Gouverneur
London: Islamic Texts Society, 1985
This is a clear, readable, and reverent book about the life of the Prophet Muhammed. Written principally for children, it is useful for anyone who wants an accessible introduction to the remarkable man who was the founder of Islam. It has been translated into a number of languages (including most recently Bosnian). Like all works published by the Islamic Texts Society, it is beautifully designed and handsomely printed.
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Understanding Islam
by Frithjof Schuon
Bloomington, Ind.: World Wisdom Books, 1981
Frithjof Schuon is not exactly a household word, but this religious philosopher has gained the respect of some of the most influential religious thinkers and writers of our time, including Huston Smith. Schuon’s Understanding Islam is not always easy reading, but it does contain startling and profound insights into the Muslim tradition.
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The Knowing Heart
by Kabir Helminski
Boston: Shambhala, 1999
Sufism, the inner path of Islam, is classically a "way of the heart" which focuses on cultivating the love and warmth of the heart not as a sentimental exercise but as a means of attaining higher consciousness. Kabir Helminski, a celebrated Sufi teacher, explains this way of transformation. He also casts considerable light on Islam’s basic teachings.
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The Essential Rumi
Translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne.
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995
Rumi was a Turkish spiritual master of the thirteenth century A.D. Curiously, he may also be the most widely read poet in America today. Coleman Barks’ lively and spirited versions are the chief reason. They are a superb expression of Rumi’s vivid and ecstatic voice. To take one example: "I am filled with you. / Skin, blood, bone, brain, and soul. / There’s no room for lack of trust, or trust. Nothing in this existence but that existence."
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Atom from the Sun of Knowledge
by Lex Hixon Nur Al Jerrahi
Westport, Conn.: Pir Press, 1993
This comprehensive volume is an initiation into Sufism by a Western teacher of Islamic mysticism who saw in this ancient tradition a universal path to enlightenment. The first part of Atom from the Sun of Knowledge explores the spiritual secrets of many of the practices of Islam, as well as interpreting the rich spiritual wealth of Islam's sacred book, the Koran, and its supplementary resource, the Hadith, or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. The second part of the book contains ecstatic modern Sufi poetry and spiritual discourses that illuminate the essential unity of all existence and the immense love that is the heart of all. (Amazon.com)
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Doorkeeper of the Heart
by Charles Upton
Putney, Vt.: Threshold Books, 1988
Adaptations of prayers and sayings of Rabi'a.
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The Essential Koran
Translated by Thomas Cleary
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993
This collection of readings from the Quran is designed to help non-Muslim Westerners approach this sacred book and savor something of its amazing power through a selection of chapters and verses encapsulating some of its central ideas and essential beauties. (Amazon.com)
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The Cross and the Crescent
by Phil Parshall
Gabriel Publishing, 2002
Clear and concise insight into the world of Islam. Considers how Muslims beliefs' affect their behaviour. Compares Muslim and Christian views on a number of issues. (Amazon.com)
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Islam at the Crossroads
by Paul Marshall, Roberta Green, Lela Gilbert
Baker Book House, 2002
Islam at the Crossroads traces how the vibrant history of Islam has been inspired by specific core beliefs, including jihad or holy war. Written in a popular and engaging style, it begins with a panoramic view of invasions and campaigns, including those of the Prophet Mohammad, and quickly moves to today's events. (Amazon.com)
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I Heard God Laughing
by Daniel Ladinsky
Walnut Creek, Calif.: Sufism Reoriented, 1996
I Heard God Laughing introduces Hafiz, Persia's most beloved poet, with a fresh vibrant interpretation by the author. Hafiz describes the richness and beauty of the world when seen through the eyes of love and portrays all the stages and processes of spiritual unfolding that transform human love into divine love. (Alibris.com)
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Answering Islam
by Norman L. Geisler & Abdul Saleeb
Baker Book House, 2002
What are the fundamental beliefs of Islam and how can Christians respond to them? Answering Islam evaluates the claims of orthodox Islam and examines the evidence for the Christian counterclaim, preparing you with strong apologetic answers. This revised edition contains more resources and updated information throughout. (Amazon.com)
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The Islamic Year
by Noorah Al-Gailani Chris Smith, Helen Williams (Illustrator)
Hawthorn Press (Hawthorn House), 2003
Aimed at school-age children and their parents, it is loaded with activities, crafts, recipes and stories to help children understand the meaning behind holiday traditions. The authors discuss some variations in holiday celebrations by Muslims around the world. (Publishers Weekly)
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Mastering the Toltec Way
by Susan Gregg
Red Wheel/Weiser, 2003
This book of daily insights is structured according to the moon's cycles: it contains 13 chapters, each with meditations for 28 days, and readers are encouraged to begin a new chapter at a new or full moon. Gregg, author of "The Toltec Way" and "Dance of Power," draws upon Toltec wisdom and stories to help readers develop a heightened spiritual awareness, which she says is quite different from what the mind sees. She asks that readers commit themselves for a full year to the book's exercises, promising that their lives will "change dramatically" if they abandon themselves to the program. Throughout, visualization exercises offer opportunities to cultivate awareness. (Publishers Weekly)
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Real Power
by James A. Autry, Stephen Mitchell
Putnam Publishing Group, 1998
The Tao Te Ching is the world's oldest leadership manual, written, according to legend, by the sage Lao-tzu in the sixth century B.C.E. In this book, premier business consultant James A. Autry and bestselling author and translator Stephen Mitchell present a modern-day guide to business leadership drawing on the age-old lessons of the Tao Te Ching. With simple, evocative essays, commenting on a selection from the Tao Te Ching, they show how its elegant wisdom can transform the workplace from a source of stress into a source of creativity and joy--and make work, at any level of the corporate ladder, more fulfilling than ever before. (Putnam Publishing Group)
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The Secret Teachings
by Manly P. Hall
Tarcher, 2003
In 1928, a 20-something Renaissance man named Manly Hall self-published a vast encyclopedia of the occult, believing that "modern" ideas of progress and materialism were displacing more important and ancient modes of knowledge. Hall's text has become a classic reference, dizzying in its breadth: various chapters explore Rosicrucianism, Kabbalah, alchemy, cryptology, Tarot, pyramids, the Zodiac,
Pythagorean philosophy, Masonry and gemology, among other topics. Readers will marvel at the sheer scope of Hall's research and imagination, and at J. Augustus Knapp's famous illustrations, including a 16-page color insert. (Publishers Weekly)
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In the Dark Places of Wisdom
by Peter Kingsley
Inverness, Calif.: Golden Sufi Center, 1998
The founders of Western philosophy are acknowledged to be a collection of ancient Greek thinkers known as the Pre-Socratic philosophers. They’re usually seen as pioneers of logic and scientific inquiry. In this unusually clear and easy-to-read volume, classical scholar Peter Kingsley argues that they were also deeply religious visionaries; some were close to what we today would call shamans. Kingsley’s scholarship is impeccable. He has not only opened up our view of this formative period in Western thought, but he’s done a tremendous service in making the insights of archaeology and philology accessible to general readers.
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Hua Hu Ching
Translated by Brian Walker
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1995
The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tsu has become a phenomenon among today’s spiritual seekers. It exists in many translations and serves as a perennial source of inspiration. Another work attributed to Lao Tsu, the Hua Hu Ching, isn’t as well known, but is equally powerful and inspiring. This rendition by Brian Walker is fresh, lively, and engaging.
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Forgotten Truth
by Huston Smith
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992
Huston Smith is best known as the author of The World’s Religions, but his basic philosophical stance isn’t well understood. In this brief, clear book, he sets out his own views, which are centered on his own understanding of traditional wisdom. He criticizes the rigidly secular vision of modernity and even takes on Darwinism. You will almost certainly disagree with parts of this book. But it will make you see the world, and the contemporary scene, with fresh eyes.
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Women in Praise of the Sacred
Edited by Jane Hirshfield
New York: HarperCollins, 1994
This collection of spiritual poetry by women spans a range of five millennia and has already come to be regarded as a classic. It starts with Enheduanna, a Sumerian priestess who lived around 2300 B.C. Her hymn to Ihanna praises this moon goddess, "lady of all powers, in whom light appears." Other great works featured are a hymn to Aphrodite by the Greek poet Sappho, a poem by the Muslim saint Rabi’a, and even a text attributed to the Queen of Sheba. More recent writers include Anne Bradstreet, the first American poet, Emily Dickinson, and the Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. The translations are fresh and contemporary.
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American Indian Myths and Legends
Edited by Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz.
New York: Pantheon, 1984
Combines a bounty of unpublished tales related to the authors by living storytellers with the best of folklore sources to provide 160 myths and legends of more than 80 tribal groups across the continent. (Amazon.com)
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The Ancient Mysteries: A Sourcebook
Edited by Marvin W. Meyer.
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1987
The best English translations of forty sacred texts describing the mystery religions of the ancient Mediterranean world. (Amazon.com)
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The Essential Mystics
Edited by Andrew Harvey.
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1996
From Buddha to Christ, the mystic's journey involves the direct, unmediated encounter with the presence of an almost unfathomable mystery. Here are thematically grouped extracts from the major wisdom traditions, including the Way of Tao, the Way of Beauty (Ancient Greece), the Way of Love in Action (Christianity), and many others. Each is beautifully introduced with insightful analysis. (Ingram)
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The Inner Treasure
Edited by Jonathan Star.
New York: Tarcher/Putnam, 1999
Here is an unmatched introduction to the Bhagavad Gita, the Tao Te Ching, Rumi, and the world's most powerful mystic works, with modern-day translations. (Amazon.com)
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Finding Time For The Timeless
by John McQuiston II
Skylight Paths Publishing, 2004
An eloquent reply to the modern mantra "I don't have time for spiritual practices," McQuiston presents—in minimalist fashion—42 vignettes describing people who find some way in their ordinary day to spend time with the Divine. Interspersed between stories about how Jack, Alice, Nabil and others live out their faith are McQuiston's own journal-style entries expressing his Christian mysticism. McQuiston, a Memphis attorney and author of Always We Begin Again, includes practices from a wide range of faith traditions. His subjects talk about the spiritual aspects of fishing, singing, meditation, walking and giving away their wealth. They also speak from the heart about prayer. Bhaskar, a Hindu surgeon, couldn't answer McQuiston's question about how his lifelong practice of prayer had shaped him "because there was no way to imagine the kind of person he would have been without prayer." Following the vignettes and personal reflections are two practical chapters—a suggested "menu" of practices and McQuiston's recommended reading list. Crystalline in focus and written in a style so straightforward that reading it slowly and meditatively over time could easily become part of one's spiritual practice, this small book is a precious gift that busy people, considering new ways of being with God, will likely want to carry around with them for inspiration.Buy This Book
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The Mystic Hours
by Wayne Teasdale
New World Library, 2004
Teasdale, a lay monk and spiritual teacher, offers 365 insights on mysticism in this useful quote book that draws from all of the world’s major religions. The format is traditional; first, Teasdale offers up a quote from a sacred text or major religious thinker, such as St. Augustine, Thomas Merton, Baha’u’llah, Rumi, Pema Chodron and, of course, the mystic guru Meister Eckhart. (Other choices, such as Mel Gibson, are less predictable.) Teasdale then reflects on the quote in particular and its theme more generally, drawing connections between religions and pointing to the goal of every mystic: to achieve union with the divine. Some of this succinct spiritual commentary is wonderfully cogent and a fine tool on the path to personal transformation. (Publisher's Weekly) Buy This Book
Let Go…Letting Miracles Happen
by Kathy Cordova
Red Wheel/Weiser, 2003
In Let Go, Let Miracles Happen, Cordova illustrates the four different types of spiritual surrender and how, when faced with adversity, we can grow and heal, and experience miracles. (Red Wheel/Weiser)
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The Year Ahead 2004
by Susan Miller
Barnes & Noble, 2003
The bestselling series gets updated for a new year. What does the cosmos predict for you in 2004--for your love life, your health, or your finances? Join Susan Miller, accredited astrologer and creator of the award-winning site Astrologyzone.com, as she explores the planetary cycles the will affect your world in the 12 months to come. Featuring detailed predictions for each of the 12 signs, The Year Ahead 2004 reveals what you can expect in romance, family, career, and well-being, as well as the dates that are of special significance for your sign. Each entry begins with "the big picture" for the year, and then hones in on what should be the luckiest periods, the likeliest moments for passion to flourish, the challenges you'll face, and the opportunities that will open up. With special sections explaining the meaning behind all the houses, the planets, the sun, and the moon, this astrological "crystal ball" is the ideal way to prepare for the possibilities awaiting you. (Barnes & Noble) Buy This Book
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Rational Mysticism
by John Horgan
Houghton Mifflin Company, 2003
John Horgan has two all-consuming problems: (1) he worries about his death; (2) he actually likes Iron Butterfly's ''In-a-Gadda-da-Vida.'' There's not much to be done about the second problem. For the first, we would suggest that he explore the meaning of life and death by embarking on a spiritual journey, visiting religious leaders, postmodern theologians, neurotheologians, bodhisattvas and drug gurus.
As it turns out, he already has, and he's written a marvelous book about the experience. In Rational Mysticism, Horgan, a former senior writer for Scientific American, sets out to find how trances, visions, satori and other mystical experiences work. The early civilizations that invented science also used religion as an intertwining path to the truth, and Horgan follows in this tradition. He is a seeker as well as a journalist, and his mission is personal as well as professional. It's The Varieties of Religious Experience meets Siddhartha. (New York Times)
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The Power of Stillness
by Tobin Blake
New World Library, 2003
Many people who are interested in meditation don't know what kind of meditation to attempt or where to start. This book begins with a basic introduction to meditation, or "mind training" - what it is, how to do it, its numerous benefits, and the various ways it is practiced. In the second part of the book, the author offers a theme for each day, complete with a brief description of such things as mantras, breathing, chakras, movement and meditation, chanting, and stilling the mind. Each day's session concludes with a step-by-step explanation of how to use this knowledge to spend a few minutes in meditation. By the end of the 30 days, readers will have developed a daily habit and will have all of the tools they need to continue with their new practice. (New World Library)
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Simple Acts of Moving Forward
by Vinita Hampton Wright
WaterBrook Press, 2003
We all get “stuck” at times. You may be creatively blocked, spiritually burned out, or in some other way stalled, paralyzed, or simply bored. The good news is, there is always something you can do to move forward. In this thoughtful book, Vinita Hampton Wright offers sixty practical and possible suggestions and meditations to help propel you out of gridlock and into a richer life. (Amazon.com)
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Taming Your Gremlin
by Richard D. Carson
New York: Harper Perennial, 1986
Here is a more creative yet practical approach to solving life's problems. Through the powerful metaphor of the gremlin, presented so imaginatively by Richard Carson's writing and Novle Rogers's artwork, you will find ways to identify and banish the tenacious, self-defeating aspects of your personality. (Amazon.com)
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Yoga from the Inside Out
by Christine Sell
Hohm Press, 2003
"There are dozens of books that tell you where to place your heel when you do yoga, where to place your arm when you
do yoga, where to bend your waist when you do yoga," Sell says. "This is a book about where to place your heart when you do yoga." (Religion Bookline-Publishers Weekly)
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Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions
by Richard Smoley and Jay Kinney.
Penguin Arkana, 1999
Have you ever heard names like Kabbalah, Jung, Gnosticism, or Wicca and wondered what they mean? You can find out in this introduction to the various mystical and esoteric traditions of Western civilization. It’s for general readers and serious seekers alike.
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Essential Spirituality
by Roger Walsh, M.D., Ph.D.
New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999
If you’re interested in making spiritual practice a part of your daily life, this is an excellent book to start with. Transpersonal psychologist Roger Walsh has digested essential practices from many world religions and presented them in a way that modern people can make use of. You’ll probably learn at least one or two practices here that you’ll find yourself continuing for the rest of your life.
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Letters of the Scattered Brotherhood
Edited by Mary Strong.
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991
This is one of those books that you should keep handy for times when you’re feeling lonely or down. It’s a collection of letters written by anonymous authors to a spiritual magazine in the 1940s. Since its publication, it has been an inspirational mainstay for many. You will almost certainly derive strength and courage from it every time you open its pages.
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A Course in Miracles
New York: Viking, 1975
Twenty-five years after its publication, A Course in Miracles remains a phenomenon. It’s a powerful, mysterious "channeled" text: that is, the person who wrote it down, a New York psychiatrist named Helen Schucman, did not claim to be the author but said she was receiving it from an inner voice that claimed to be that of Jesus Christ. As wild as this claim may sound, the Course remains a classic of spiritual transformation; it has touched — and changed — the lives of innumerable people by suggesting to them that forgiveness is the central lesson we have to learn in life. If you put the teachings of this book fully into practice, you would be a saint. It’s as simple as that.
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Altars: Bringing Sacred Shrines into Your Everyday Life
by Denise Linn
New York: Ballantine, 1997
Altars, Linn says, are spaces consciously arranged with a spiritual--and, for her, a psychological--intent. In cultures in which spirituality is less circumscribed, less divorced from mundane life, people create altars naturally in the home and the workplace. Some of this altar-building is unconscious, but that it is altar-building becomes obvious when, for instance, one changes the arrangement of family photos on a coworker's desk, much to that person's discomfort. Linn urges us to make altars deliberately, whether they be ancestor altars for recalling the beloved dead, creativity altars for encourage visitation by the muse, or love altars to attract and encourage relationships. She offers numerous suggestions of artifacts for and arrangements of altars, so that this is not a cookbook of the spirit but a resource list meant to spur thoughtful construction. Lavishly and beautifully illustrated, Altars should prove quite popular with New Age readers. (Booklist)
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The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
by Alan Watts
New York: Vintage, 1966
Modern Western culture and technology is inextricably tied to the belief in the existence of a self as a separate ego, separated from and in conflict with the rest of the world. In this classic book, Watts provides a lucid and simple presentation of an alternative view based on Hindi and Vedantic philosophy. (Amazon.com)
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Imagine a Woman in Love with Herself
by Patricia Lynn Reilly
Berkeley, Calif.: Conari Press, 1999
Vanquishing once and for all the tired biblical theory of woman as the cause of man's fall from grace, Imagine a Woman in Love with Herself empowers women to move from self-loathing to self-love, from self-criticism to self-celebration. (Amazon.com)
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The Knitting Sutra
by Susan Gordon Lydon
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1997
This small, quite wonderful book shows all that knitting and meditation have in common--and it's more than some might suspect. In short essays, Lydon, a longtime knitter and dabbler in spiritual disciplines, winds her way through spiritual quests, physical problems, and, of course, yarn. (Booklist)
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Listen With Your Heart
by Eileen Flanagan
New York: Warner Books, 1998
Drawing on original interviews, this book shows how loneliness and fear offer opportunities for spiritual growth, how listening to one's inner voice can bring peace and clarity, and how romance can be a path to transcendence. (Ingram)
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A Little Book on Love
by Jacob Needleman
New York: Doubleday, 1996
This philosophical examination of love asks the meaning of sustained love and the source and intention of love in the world. Enjoy a spirited and detailed examination of the nature of love which examines fundamentals and experiences alike, centering on the major debates about love. (Midwest Book Review)
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Prescriptions for Living
by Bernie S. Siegel, M.D.
New York: HarperCollins, 1998
As a physician who has cared for and counseled innumerable patients, Bernie S. Siegel embraces a philosophy that is at the forefront of a society grappling with medical ethics and spiritual issues. (Amazon.com)
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The Spiral Dance
by Starhawk
San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1989
Lucid, appealing. . . a broad philosophy of harmony with nature, of human concord, sexual liberation, creativity, and healthy pleasure, as expressed and celebrated in a freewheeling worship of the universe. (Kirkus Review)
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