No comments about Jesus (Great Biographies series).

1 comments about Jesuit Saints & Martyrs: Short Biographies of the Saints, Blessed, Venerables, and Servants of God of the Society of Jesus.

1. This is a very wonderful book for everyone who wants to know a little bit more about Jesuits Saints and Martyrs.

2 comments about Eighth Century Prophets: A Social Analysis.

1. My mom gave me this book to read while I was in the hospital; better than anything that I would've watched on TV. The book used a lot of Hebrew words that I didn't understand but since I was in a hospital, many of the doctors could explain them to me. Thanks,



2. DN Premnath has collected and isolated a significant amount of material relating to eighth century Israel and the prophets assigned to that period by modern scholarship.
   
   Premnath's book is divided into two main sections. He begins with a discussion of the social and economic climate of Israel leading up to and including the eight century B.C. The focus of the first part (chapters 1-3) is upon the land of Israel. Included is a discussion of land ownership, political control, and economic production, most of which is centered in land ownership and land productivity. The second part of the book is an analysis of specific passages from the eighth century prophets (Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah). Short passages are discussed for their contribution to the topic of land development, ownership, and control. Premnath accentuates the tension that grew between the rich and the poor during this time. Some repetition occurs with the first section to the degree that it participates in the broader discussion of the first section.
   
   The author's analysis is interesting, helpful at times, but narrowly focused and shaped by sociological perspectives. While influenced by minimalists like R. B. Coote his own study emphasizes a fair amount of the historical perspective from the eighth century prophets. Where comparative material from archaeology is found the book resembles the work of Philip King's on Amos, Hosea, and Micah.
   
   Premnath's penchant for assuming context that favors his position shows in his comments on various passages. For example, the audience of Amos 4:1-3 is the women of Samaria, who Premnath assumes to be wives of the court officials that are then identified as "wealthy large estate owners, and merchants," 141. For a book subtitled a "Social Analysis," there is need for more balance of discussion about society as a whole. The tension stresses is between the royal, upper class, landed elite and the peasant poor. Passages that shift some of the responsibility to the people are not included in this study (Hosea 4; Amos 3:1-8; 7:8). Even the basic assumption that one can separate such a social analysis from the religious side of life in ancient Israel is presumtive.
   
   Yet, even with the need for a more thorough discussion of context the book collects a significant amount of data from the history of ancient Israel and from the eighth century prophets. Though not an introduction to the prophets the book is recommended for students of the prophets that want a concentrated look at one aspect of the challenges offered by these prophets to their people.

2 comments about C. S. Lewis Through the Shadowlands: The Story of His Life With Joy Davidman.

1. This is the most heartrendingly true, real, unfettered love story ever lived or written about. Brian Sibley has masterfully set the achingly beautiful love story between Jack Lewis and Joy Gresham within the masterfully researched and delightfully detailed context of the greater love story which God the Master storyteller was writing through their lives. This is the definitive work proving the maxim that the book is always better than the movie.

   Filled with wonderful quotes not only from the extensive works of Lewis, both before and after the entrance of Joy into his world, this work also excerpts from Joy's writings and the writings of the many literary and philosophical geniuses of their world. Journal entries from Jack's brother Warnie bring special intimacy to the daily life and passages toward death of both characters, and Douglas Gresham's experience as son and step-son told through conversations and remembrances are invaluable close-up additions to the tale.

   Altogether surprising are the two seemingly disparate threads of Jack and Joy's continents-apart lives and paths to faith. (These journeys to awakening are surprising in themselves.) The seeming coincidences that bring them together as pen-mates and ultimately marriage partners bring the reader to the unmistakable conclusion that "the fair Silent Thou" was at work all along in the quiet, relentless weaving of their lives.

   The reader familiar with the works of C.S. Lewis will see by story's end that this miraculously joyful, simultaneously tragic love story is in reality True Myth shining through into our shadowlands anew. As Lewis was convinced, and has convinced me, myth is the vehicle through which God speaks to man, and the story of the happily-ever-after love, even through death and grief, is the greatest story ever told, as well as the most Real. For this reason it breaks our hearts while transporting us into the joyful longing to be a part of it.

   Brian Sibley gently proves the need for this particular myth to become true in Jack's battened-down bachelor soul. In the friendliest and most respectful of ways Sibley shows the necessary journey that the life and death of Joy Gresham, the most unlikely of angels, set our hero upon, and what adventures he had therein, and how it ended happily ever after.




2. A very readable and well-done book which highlights the fascinating relationship between two people who would seem to have little in common. Even better than the movie!

4 comments about Blessings: Transforming My Vietnam Experience.

1. This is an excellent book for two reasons: its lively writing and its emotional impact. Don Yost gives life to many of the underlying frustrations of serving in Vietnam that most other books and essays about Vietnam haven't even identified. It also provides a superbly realistic look at the war through the eyes of someone who understands and appreciates the depth of the potential sacrifice that each man must face when he's called to serve, especially in a war that's misunderstood my most people, and bitterly opposed by his own generation.
   When it comes to first-person accounts of the Vietnam war, this book is like no other. It's an excellent work that should be on everyone's bookshelf.



2. I am not a reader, you'll never find a romance novel in my presence, but I do like war stories. This is anything but, it is a story of a man's love for his family written in a way that would move the most manly of men. It is more of an appology to all of those who he hurt during his healing than a war story but it's written in an entertaining, "laugh while you cry", "I can relate to that", matter of fact manner. It's a must read for anyone and everyone. I have passed it around to friends who have passed it to friends, my copy has been in more homes than me because everyone loves it and relates to it in one way or another.



3. I couldn't put it down! The word "Vietnam" has meant little more to me than buff actors with atitude, this book changed that. It's not a blood and gore or look what America did to me, story. It's an appology and a promise to get over it. Anyone could relate this to the struggles in their own lives and learn how to turn them into something wonderful. This is so wonderfully written that I was able to empathize with this man rather than just have sympathy for him. I have given this to both male and female friends, everyone agrees, it's wonderful.



4. Don Yost, in Blessings, pulls you into his heart and holds you willingly captive on his journey of self-discovery. Through his first person narrative, he tells a profound story of innocence, disillusionment, and acceptance. His book is a reassuring tribute to all of us who have had "Vietnams" in our own lives.

1 comments about The Memoirs of Fray Servando Teresa de Mier (Library of Latin America).

1. An extraordinary book. One of Oxford University Press' 'Library of Latin America' series, translated from the Spanish by Helen Lane, here is a tome worthy of high praise. Fray Servando Teresa de Mier y Noriega (Mexico, 1763-1827), persecuted by the Inquisition for thirty years for his challenge to the colonial mentality and his willingness "to play an active role in movements of emancipation," Written in the Inquisitor's prisons, this is a topsy-turvy book where Europeans are the barbarians. Refreshing! De Mier was famed in his own time as a scholar and thinker, &indeed these 240 pages unsheathe a remarkable man, revealing with a novelist's succinct eye the true nature of the world and its passing, and our time in it. Impossible to overstate the beauty and severity of a spirituality in high bloom. Recommended.

No comments about Little Lady, BIG DREAM.

5 comments about The Life of John Wesley: A Brand from the Burning.

1. After I read this brilliantly written book, I fell in love with the enigmatic John Wesley. He may have been eccentric, driven and rigid, but he also had a heart of gold evidenced by his compassion for animals and for turning vegetarian for ethical reasons. John Wesley was too vexed for marraige but his mystical Sermon entitled "The General Resurrection" envisioned an idyllic afterlife for all God's children and creatures. John Wesley was a valiant, charismatic and compelling Christian leader. Thank God for John Wesley, and Roy Hattersley merits accolades for writing such a poignant, informative and comprehensive biography detailing the tribulations and triumphs of a paramount Christian !



2. This book is a quick read with clever language, witty remarks and remarkably astute historical connections found only in classrooms! Structurally, the writer boldly sets aside certain conventions of writing, most notably chronology. This allows Hattersley to convey something other than a standard timeline-like biography. By exploring the nuances of certain formative events for Wesley, the author humanizes a most revered man, thereby finding a balance.
   
   I recommend pp. 115ff: The story of John Wesley's desire to marry Sophy Hopkey. In the middle of the story, we find a confused Wesley casting lots. I suppose this is why some Wesleyan Holiness congregations dissuade its adherents from playing games of chance. In the same story, we find a jealous Wesley "fencing" Sophy and her new husband from the Holy Communion. Another implicit doctrinal connection is made: the Eucharist later becomes, for Wesley who is now older and wiser, a means of God's grace. These connections simply cannot be found in chronological biographies.
   
   The narrative of the Epworth rectory fire (pp. 25-7) demonstrates beautifully the author's natural story-telling ability and sense of humor.
   
   If you're in a rush to complete a research paper, you might look elsewhere. If you are looking to enrich your faith in humanity and in God (or to add tremendous depth to your class syllabus), then I highly recommend this book to you.



3. I have to say I enjoyed this book. He does excellent justice to the significance and reasoning behind Wesley's actions and relationships with other people. I also liked Hattersley's tendency to bring in the story of the Methodist societies. Being an American, I liked the analysis of Wesley's attitude toward American Methodism. In fact, the analysis of Wesley's attitude toward many things seems to be good on the whole. What keeps this from being a 5 star book? Sometimes I felt as if this book drifted too much into the details of others' lives. While relationships were important for Wesley, necessary information can be given about those relationships without losing focus on Wesley. In terms of the author's attitude toward Wesley, I think the author had a fair attitude toward him. As a Wesleyan fanatic, I don't feel offended that the author ventured to show some of Wesley's faults and their consequences. Overall, highly recommended for someone who has any interest in great church leaders.



4. John Wesley, outside of biblical characters, is my hero of the faith. From page 1 Hattersley, sarcastically belittles this great man of faith. After having read many works by other authors about Wesley as well as Wesley's journals and sermons, it is impossible to imagine that this is the same Wesley I have grown to deeply admire. Hattersley writes with an attitude that will be obvious to readers familiar with Wesley's tremendous legacy. Reading Hattersley's work about Wesley's life is comparable to reading a book about the Bible written by one of the fallen angels. I cannot in good conscience recommend such a distorted view of this giant in the faith.



5. Hattersley takes a complex subject and, I believe, turns in a fair treatment. If he has a socialist perspective, as one reviewer remarks, then we understand it from that particular bent. Again, contrary to a reviewer, he does not spend too much time examining Wesley's relationship with women. Wesley did not handle women well...too shy to express his inner feelings to the women he loved, too Georgian to be a good husband to the wife he finally chooses (and chooses unwisely), and susceptible to flirtation. This is an important aspect of Wesley's life.

   More important, though, and Hattersley does it justice, is the relationship he has with the men who mean the most to him. Hattersley spends a great deal of time helping the reader understand Wesley's relationship to his brother Charles (tempestous at times, but always instantly forgiving), his greatest rival and best friend, George Whitefied. One wishes there was more to developing his relationship with his father (love/hate, respect/fear) and the relationship he had with his heir apparent, John Fletcher, as well as Asbury.

   Wesley was not an original theologian. He is obtuse. His arguments are difficult to understand, and he waffled continually. Yet, his strength is his ability to borrow concepts from other denominations, even from outside Christianity, and then meld them into a coherent set of beliefs. Methodist opened Christian doors to the unchurched of the times--the poor working class. Wesley would be proud to have been called a socialist.

   Read Hattersley's book. It is an honest appraisal. And then read other biographies. And then, do yourself a favor, and start on Wesley's Journals. With all his too human foibles, Wesley is a great man.

2 comments about A Book of Hours: Music, Literature, and Life.

1. Well known to opera lovers for his insightful commentaries during the Saturday broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera, Father Owen Lee's memoir of a year teaching in Italy and travelling all over Europe to attend operas adds a remarkable depth to Father Lee's clearly multifaceted life. Combining musings about religion, faith, scholarship,music and human nature, this is a beautiful book, rich in insights and moving in many ways. Although Father Lee's faith clearly derives from his calling as a Catholic priest, his observations and insights into things spirirual and musical should not be off-putting to a person of any faith, or none at all. "I hated to turn to the last page" is quite the literary cliche, but I was genuinely sorry for this wonderful book to end. I wish there were a volume two.



2. In this book we follow Father Lee through a year spent in Rome in the seventies, teaching American students attending a Catholic University. He opens the eyes of his students, as he does his readers, to the power of art to enrich and inspire us. We follow him as he teachs his students about the works of Homer and Virgil, and we come to understand the freshness of these works written thousands of years ago. We follow him as he travels to the opera houses of Europe in pursuit of one of his passions - opera. The conversations he has with ordinary people he meets en route are powerful ruminations on theology and philosophy. A gay American couple he meets on a train, who are unable to come to terms with Church teaching on homosexuality, challenge his notions of religion and love. A performance of Wagner's Die Meistersinger sparks a conversation with a German couple - innkeepers - who wrestle with Germany and the Holocaust. His thoughts on the fire bombing of Dresden I found powerful and devastating especially in view of today's world situation. His thoughts on 'that most complicated of the performing arts - opera - I found refreshing. I have known Father Lee through his wonderful books on opera, but The Book of Hours gives us a much deeper look at the world around us, and the role the arts play in that world, and in the human soul. What Father Lee reminds those of us who love the arts, is that they connect us with the divine. They draw us to what is deep inside us, and what is extraordinary outside us, for in the end the arts help us touch what is immanent and what is transcendant. A must read for those with a deep appreciation for literature, art and music.

No comments about German Mystical Writings (German Library).