No comments about Hildegard of Bingen (Devotions, Prayers & Living Wisdom).

1 comments about A Dynamic God: Living an Unconventional Catholic Faith.

1. The ten remarkable essays of A Dynamic God continue the interior journey Nancy Mairs began in her spiritual memoir, Ordinary Time: Cycles in Marriage, Faith, and Renewal (1993). In that book, Mairs introduced us to her understanding of belief, faith, conversion, and social conscience, maturing within the context of family history (both she and her husband were conventional Protestants) and continuing medical catastrophes. (She has multiple sclerosis; her husband George has had multiple melanomas.) This one-disaster-after-another life, which might have led a less hardy soul to despair, has graced Mairs with both wisdom and a wise uncertainty. "I now know that I now know less about God than I did to being with," she says in A Dynamic God. "I have discarded as many fixed ideas as possible about the God I inherited, and I'm unlearning more every day."
   
   This "deconstructive process"--trading conventional notions of God for radical understandings of the Sacred--is traced in a variety of ways throughour the essays. In "Left at the Altar," about communion and community, she reminds us that the central purpose of the Eucharist is to take God in "in preparation for living God out," and that absent the outreach to others, communion has little significance. In "A Calling," she wonders what her life purpose can be, bound to a wheelchair: "My doing days are done," she says. "Wanting some task carried out, God can do better than look to me." But being has a purpose that far transcends mere doing. We have to help God be God, she says, echoing Etty Hillesum, in An Interrupted Life. I am who God is. God is who I am. It is a theological, moral, and ethical statement of profound significance, and it colors all of Mairs' beliefs and actions.
   
   Many parts of this book will be uncomfortable for conventional Christians. Rejecting belief in a personal salvation gained by taking Christ as a personal savior (she doesn't believe in hell, either, or the virgin birth or the resurrection--literally, at least), she insists that we are not in this world for the purpose of being personally "saved." We are here to be God, to love others as ourselves: "If we take care of one another, we are saved." Her profound faith in a God that is the Whole of It expresses itself in her moral and ethical life: the choice that she and her husband have made to live modestly and simply, their protests against war, their visits to the sick and imprisoned and gifts to the poor--acts of charity described with a refreshing humility. "Believing as I do . . . that our every atom bears God into being, I cannot experience myself as truly apart," she writes. "Between you and me there is no Between."
   
   But while Mairs' doing days may be done, she is still writing, and it is her wry, witty candor and fierce, unflinching honesty that draws me to her work, over and over again. As an agnostic, I find her radical doubt energizing and inspiring. I am moved by the unconventional questions she asks and by her embrace of the best of Catholicism, Buddhism, and Judaism, to seek radical answers for myself. Mobile and more or less able-bodied, I am challenged by her courageous refusal to allow her immobility to define the direction and dimensions of her moral and spiritual growth.
   
   A Dynamic God is rich, risky, and startling. It is a remarkable book. Read it.
   
   --Susan Wittig Albert is the author of Writing From Life: Telling the Soul's Story. This review is also published on the website of the Story Circle Network Book Reviews.

5 comments about Francis: The Journey and the Dream.

1. This book was recommended to me by a brother Franciscan Priest of Father Murray Bodo, my Pastor, Father Andrea McGrath.
   I made a pilgrimage in 2006 to the tomb of St. Francis in Assisi, Mount Subasio, the Soleto Valley and San Damiano, where the Crucifix spoke to St. Francis . Father Bodo's book affirmed for me that St. Francis is truly an "instrument" of God sent to teach us the power of humility, poverty and long-suffering. I recommend this book to all... Just reading it has brought great peace and joy to my life.
   To complete the full breath of Father Bodo's expose on St. Francis of Assisi, I would strongly recommend that one also, read Father Bodo's book about St. Claire entitled,
   A Light in the Garden.



2. I belong to Secular Franciscan order and we are reading this book together. It's one of the best on the life of St.Francis.



3. when some life has passed and you are (even unconsciously) sick of it - then, start here, please --- this book, like the words, "come, follow me" is an invitation. my mother handed me this book fifteen years ago (with a wagging finger of warning - "don't you become like him !") and it has changed my life forever...
   there are other books, too - that I read again every couple of years - but this was the first - the stepping stone. it's an 'easy read' - a group of short vignettes that tell of a wonderful beginning. most highly recommended.
   thank you, mom.



4. I'll have to differ with the ecstatic reviewers before me. This is the wrong book to come to for either a.) a biography of Francis, or b.) a strong narrative line or, even, a cohesive story. Fr. Bodo gives us highly subjective moments from Francis's life, some very beautiful, some funny, all lovingly rendered. Many of his observations do indeed inspire the reader (this reader anyway). What he does not do is meaningfully connect these various moments and bits, most of which are no more than a page or two long, together into a strong story. So we get a very sketchy narrative that works better in individual moments than it does as a whole. The episodes have a sort of chronological unity. They are also continually roped in by the terminology of the subtitle, with lots of talk about Francis's Journey and Dream. But by the end of the book (novel? bio?), these terms have become so ambiguous that they aren't much help.
   
   I think this may be a great book to come to after one has read more concrete and chronological accounts of Francis's life. It's not a good place to begin to get to know him.



5. I first read Maurray Bobo's book back durring the Gulf War when my son was there and in great danger. It brought me to tears. This book was so moving and it so inspired me that I wrote to the author and told hom how much it helped me. I asked him to pray for my son - which he did (My son did make it home after the war). What I remember best is that he took the time to respond back to me with a nice card. So t is the least I can do now is to tell people about the greatness of his book.
   
   This telling of Saint Francis is both readable and enjoyable. He makes Francis come alive and spiritual hug you!
   
   This is the best book on any saint's life that I have read and I have read many. I strongly rememend this book to read. You will find that your life may change! Mine did.

5 comments about Wife No. 19.

1. The book is a haunting vision of how Brigham Young treated wife No.19. I cannot believe that to this day no one knows what happened to her or where she died. Ann Eliza has a honest and forthwith way of explaining her view of what happened to her. Anyone that has ever wondered how one of Brigham Young's wives lived and was treated, this book is for you.



2. Gives a sense of life as a mormon in the 1800's. I am about half way thru this long book. It's interesting enough to get one past the slow read aspect/ repetitious points without further specific evidence. The illustrations are of very poor quality.



3. Ann Eliza Young was a 19th century LDS woman who was born into the second generation of Mormon polygamy. One of the most heart-wrenching parts of the book recounts how her mother heartbrokenly went from being her father's only wife for years before polygamy was introduced, to being only one of his wives, after church leaders pushed polygamy on their congregation.
   
   Mrs. Young (she was married to Brigham Young himself) finally decided to escape and speak out against the polygamist lifestyle she and so many other women in her community found devastating. Although the book was written well over a century ago, it exposes many of the same problems as contemporary polygamy memoirs (such as Escape, Shattered Dreams and His Favorite Wife, all of which I recommend). These are:
   
   1. The lower status of women in polygamist society;
   
   2. Men (even wealthy men) who do not provide financially for their huge plural families;
   
   3. Lack of education, and children pressured to quit school early and work to support and care for their father's plural families;
   
   4. Pressure on women to marry against their will;
   
   5. Physically and/or emotionally abusive behavior of husbands whose religion and community give them total power over their wives;
   
   6. Husbands who dote on favorite wives while neglecting the others;
   
   7. Unhappy households that feature intense jealousy and competition among plural wives;
   
   8. Most of all, the profound and lasting pain felt by good, loving women whose religion and community compel them to share their husbands (they are told there is no way to heaven except through polygamy).
   
   This is an excellent primary source about early Mormonism in general (it contains a first-generation family narrative that describes the church's history) and polygamy in particular. Highly recommended to anyone interested in either subject.



4. I just ordered this book to add to my shelf of primary source materials of nineteenth century Mormon polygamy. It is a classic work. Ann Young made alot of money off of this book, as did she touring the united states on the same pulpit. For that it deserves five stars. It had a profound effect upon how non-Mormon AMericans perceived Utah Mormons. With that said, i was disappointed to see so many reviews tout this as "true" or valuable history in and of itself. Such reviewers need to step back and take some courses in both AMerican history and critical thinking and theory. You read this book to know what nineteenth-century Americans were being told about Utah polygamy, not as accurate history of what really happened. Such is identical and equally intellectually naive and embarrassing as saying Maria Monk's expose (written in the 1830s) of catholic convents was also true history. For literature on the historical placements of such nineteenth century novels and exposes see Terryl Givens, Viper on the Hearth; Sarah Gordon, The Mormon Question; Ann Douglass, The Feminization of American culture, and Franchot, Roads to Rome.



5. If I ever had any warm and fuzzy feelings about the Mormon Church and especially its founders and early disciples, this very credible eyewitness account sent those feelings into the dustbin of history.
   
   Though the writing is not perfect by today's standards, Ann Eliza Young's personal story is very believable (I believe it is authentic) and yet incomprehensible (I am astounded that so many people put up with the religion she describes) at the same time.
   
   This is the quite detailed personal memoir of a girl who grew up in a Mormon family and became the 19th polygamous wife of Brigham Young. She finally became so disillusioned that she took the very dangerous and rare step of leaving him and divorcing him. Even more astounding for her day and age, she went on the lecture tour and exposed the Mormons and polygamy for what it was (from her point of view at least).
   
   Anybody looking for details of the sex lives of polygamous spouses will be disappointed, as there is no information on that matter whatsoever. (At the very end of the book she hints that there were gross injustices and humiliations of a personal and private nature that she would not reveal.)
   
   I enjoyed reading the book though I was appalled at the story it told. Any student of the history of the Latter-day Saints should read this book. I bet it isn't to be found in the bookstore of Brigham Young University.

5 comments about Mary Magdalene: A Biography.

1. As a woman in the healing profession I found this book to be a gem: perhaps the most important book I've read in my life. How indebted we are to Bruce Chilton for his work on the Magdelene who will,no doubt,continue to influence future generations despite what history denies her. A huge obstacle in our Spiritual development has been lifted thanks to this great soul and to the one who made her known to us.



2. This text was a major disappointment to read. The author uses so many "mights", "coulds", "maybes" and "perhapses" that it seems like a text in speculative biography. Maybe she did this. Perhaps she did that. This could have happened. It might have been the case...
   He claims that Jesus was not able to read or write, though most scholars give him some capacity for that. Frustratingly, he offers no reason for his statement. Also, he states that since Mary was possessed by seven demons it took Jesus at least a year to exorcise them all. Sadly I got so frustrated with his writing that I didn't even finish reading it. But my margins are riddled with question marks and exclamation points at parts where I was befuddled or frustrated.



3. I found this book a fascinating read. Chilton has taken limited information about Mary Magdalene from gospel, gnostic, and other sources and drawn some educated conclusions about her as a person, her relationship with Jesus, her centrality in his movement, and her significance in the development of the Christian faith through the centuries. He has also posed an interesting theory about the legends about her and her supposed marginalization in the growth of the faith and church. Childton admits, more than once, that much of what he says cannot be proved decisively, yet he uses the little information available, along with his understanding of culture and history, to present a compelling portrait of Mary Magdalene, her relationship to Jesus, and her influence on the development of the Christian movement. Whether this portrait is on target or not, it is certainly interesting and plausible enough to bring some human spice into our reflection on the faith and its beloved Jesus. After all, we interpret history all the time using the information available, and that's what Chilton has done here in interesting fashion. I find it helpful to reflect on the human possibilities about Jesus, his movement, and those who first loved and followed him. It's fuel for the imagination and brings excitement to the faith, at least it does for me. As for me, such reflection helps me love all the more the one I call Christ, and gives me a new and inspired appreciation for the woman named Mary from Magdala.



4. Chilton provides an excellent review of the church's response to the faith of Mary Magdalene. I appreciated his commentary on gnostic thought and, as always, his scholarship is impeccible. This book doesn't read as easily as did his almost-novelesque Rabbi Jesus. Chilton takes much more liberty in drawing conclusions about the Magdalen than the research should allow. Still, the book is well written and provides plenty of food for thought. If your church book club read the DaVinci Code, they should follow it up with Mary Magdalen: A Biography.



5. Chilton illustrates to what extent MM acted as one of Jesus' disciples, how exorcism, annointing, and visions were valued, and how she was integral both as witness and herald of the Resurrection. This book uses MM more as a catalyst for great discussion of historical events, political influences, other writings, translation issues, fundamentalist interpretations, modern feminist theology, etc. as it is biographical. Even though Chilton quotes the Bible and many other writings throughout, including The Gospel According To Mary, I perceive that Chilton is helping the reader find Truth from the Bible. It is well-organized, well-written, and interesting.

5 comments about Blindfold's Eyes: My Journey From Torture To Truth.

1. Sister Ortiz account makes tears flow; the truth of her suffering makes folks strviing to become fully human think to our current situation...to the warmaking reality we allow, and the inevtiable suffering of innocents that ALWAYTS springs from it.
   
   Reading Ortiz makes you say, OUT LOUD "Never again." Ortiz makes you get up, call your representatives, and tell them that you are going to be a CITIZEN, and demand of them an end to what Ortiz calls "The ominous silence" surrounding torture and warmaking activity and all that accompanies them...
   
   Are you awake, and aware, now all you backseat warmongers?
   
   You're warmaking has always made me sick. Sister Ortiz' ordeal makes me overwhlemingly sad.



2. A spiritual journey through hell to light and grace. A book about torture and its effects, Blindfold Eyes is more than that. It describes an innocent nun's dark night of the soul as she is betrayed and disbelieved by her own government. It can speak to all of us who feel hurt and alone.
   
   Here is a link to a radio interview given by Sr. Dianna in 2002:
   
   http://www.wnyc.org/shows/lopate/episodes/12262002
   
   Listen to her voice and you will hear how wonderful a person she is. This book is about the truth--which Sister Dianna tells without flinching.



3. A thousand Thankyou's to the Author for writing this Book. I had picked this up at the local library as I walking around the recent book arrival section.

   This was book was so helpful to me on a spiritual/religious level and I appreciated the sharing of the deep personal struggle and strategies to cope with Post Traumatic Stress.

   From a Religious p/o/v I thought this was awesome as it introduced me to completey new ways of seeing meeting God.
   It was also the first book that I have read on the experinces of the church in Guatemala.Although I have seen the documentary " Finding Dominga" at a retreat for PeaceMakers.

   I had also never read any of the works of the mentioned Poets at the vigil in Washington and now have them on my reading list.

   Thanks so much for sharing the journey .




4. Sister Dianna Ortiz' story had to be told and more importantly it must be heard. The first person account of her torture and rape is horrorific, but even more shocking is the scale of crimes committed against the people of Guatemala. Ortiz is even handed in describing the atrocities performed by the guerrillas as she is in telling on her torturers, the Guatemalan military. As an American, it is disheartening to learn about my country's involvement by providing military and financial aid to a regime that massacred thousands.

   Ortiz reveals in grisly, personal detail the physical, mental, and emotional abuse she suffered beyond her 24 hour detention. Her memoir is extremely painful to read. The turmoil she has experienced for more than a decade has not silenced her, instead, she has become a voice for those whose cries cannot be heard beyond their cell. Her memoir is a testimony for all torture victims.

   The Blindfold's Eyes would have received a 5 star evaluation had there not been two major flaws:
   1) The statistics of those killed and disappeared vary from different sources as they appear on different pages (p. 47, 183, 350, 422)from 20,000 to 47,000 disappeared and from 100,000 to 200,000 killed.
   2) Ortiz' objectivity becomes diluted during the DOJ investigations. Her characterizations in that time period are very judgemental; tribute is given to those who support her and those who oppose or question her are villanized. No one is neutral.




5. The Blindfold's Eyes is a tragic tale told by a broken woman. This shows how a brutal 24 hours can linger for a lifetime. Sistor Dianna's tragedy was horrific, proven by the way she releases the actual events of that day. Piece by piece, so things she will not even reveal. What caught my attention was the underlying story she presented when dealing with the US government. The lack of concern for this case and the cases of many others from Guatemala was astounding. The deciet and treachory that occurs so they our government could continue selling arms, training soilders, and talking peace (which was an utter joke) was disgusting. I commend Sister Dianna on being brave enough to put her horror to words, to stand in front of the government and point her finger, and to go on, rebuild, and learn to live again.

2 comments about Prophets and the Prophetic Movement, Vol. 2: God's Prophetic Move Today (Prophets, 2).

1. ...a little dry for those who do not enjoy reading historical overviews. (Personally, _I_ find them fascinating at times.) I used to own a copy of this book--I bought one back in 1989--but I don't know what happened to my copy.



2. It's time to know and understand. There is no doubt that God is restoring the prophet today and that we are in the midst of a crucial prophetic movement. Therefore, there is a desperate need for apostolic wisdom, prophetic perspective and pastoral cousel to bring clarity, balance and understanding to these needed truths and ministries in the Body of Christ.

3 comments about Liberty of Conscience: Roger Williams in America.

1. This beautifully written book brings to light, in an understated but poetic way, the genius and greatness of the man who, as Gaustad says, "was out to do nothing less than alter the institutional structure of the Western world." It is a measure of our time that many people, especially young people educated pursuant to the fashionable bromides of contemporary social science education, have never heard of this first founder of liberty of conscience and disestablishment of religion in America. In our epoch of attempted "faith-based" governmental initiatives, Gaustad's book reminds us, by constant reference to the writings of Roger Williams, of those principles that, after a bitter struggle of more than a century, came to distinguish this nation from the government-controlled religion and thought of the rest of the world. The life of Roger Williams shows that deeply held religious belief necessarily implies an unwavering commitment to the principle of absolute separation of church and state. Williams' life also demonstrates that at least one colonial leader tried, unsuccessfully, to overcome the tendency of the Puritans to treat Native Americans as less than human or as mere subjects for conversion to Christianity. The tragedy of Williams' life consisted solely in the failure of his decades-long effort to resolve the conflict between rapacious, religiously hypocritical English settlers and the Native Americans. The triumph of his life was his original pronouncement, in this country, of the enduring but often threatened principle that government should be restricted to civil, not religious, tasks. More than a century later, Jefferson and Madison built on the foundation that Roger Williams so nobly established in his writings and in the constitutional documents of Rhode Island.



2. Gaustad did an excellent job of portraying not only Williams' beliefs, politic and theology but the state of the world that led to their development and need. Very readable, never boring, practical and insightful to William's America as it is to ours. WE could learn a great deal from Williams, even so mamy years later. Gaustad truly brought him to life.



3. Gaustad's Liberty of Conscience is the second biography of Roger Williams I have read this summer. Perhaps because the first, Covey's The Gentle Radical, was so prolix, I loved Gaustad's work. His selection of historical data, his clear sequencing, and his explication of Williams's own writings make this a delight to read. Seventeenth-century Britain and colonial America and all those names one vaguely remembers are vividly described. The prose is clear and attractive. I came away with a new appreciation of Williams. Gaustad sees him as the first to set forth those principles of religious liberty that were picked up after him by Locke, Penn, Jefferson, and others and which we take for granted today. Toleration is a subject of current conversation within the United States. This biography depicts someone who fought for toleration in a time when people were being banished and even executed for not believing what the political powers said they must believe. It really gives a healthy perspective on our times. I recommend it highly.

2 comments about Christ in the Margins.

1. The iconography of Robert Lentz has always pushed the margins and this book would be valuable for the illustrations alone, any one of which could serve as a spiritual focus for meditation. The brief stories of each subject invite the reader to delve further into that person's life and work.
   Gateley's longer reflections -- interspersed throughout the book -- explore some of the people represented here more fully and open up the complexity of the person in ways that the normal biographies of saints often avoid.
   As a spiritual director, I find this an invaluable book as it reminds us all that Christ is found on the margins of life and in the witness of those who live on the margins, often unnoticed by the news media or those in the centers of power and prestige. I would enjoy using this book with spiritual friends, but also with young people (14 - 25) who seem to yearn for stories of those who made a difference in spite of poverty, lack of education, disease, voicelessness, or age.



2. This handsome book can be enjoyed in diverse ways: meditating on Lentz' beautiful contemporary icons or pondering the penetrating and provocative reflections by Edwina Gateley following each of the eight groups of icons. Subjects of the icons range from Christ of the Desert to Black Elk, from the Syro-Phoenician woman to Cardinal Bernadine of Chicago, from Julian of Norwich to Cesar Chavez, and from St. Brigid to Michal Judge, OFM. Grouped under such headings as Founders, Prophets, Outcasts, Holy Fools, Mystics, and Artists, the 41 icons include such surprising subjects as Einstein and Tolkien, along with more traditional saints. The visual appeal alone of this book makes it a valuable addition to any library, but the inclusion of Lentz' texts and Gateley's essays more than doubles its worth as a holy book to be treas-ured.

5 comments about In the Footsteps of Jesus: One Man's Journey.

1. This volume has been a complete blessing to me! It found it's way to my door by Divine intervention while I was already on the road from FL to NY while my only son was a reported missing person in NY. Amazon ships sporatically and I received this the day I left, again, I was already packed, in my vehicle and on the road. I returned home and grabbed this from in front of my door, threw it into my SUV and headed back out. My son was murdered and I found out while I was still en route north. This book was a HUGE blessing during this worst of all possible tragedies.
   
   It announces a very different picture of the serene, somber Jesus we've heard about throughout our lives, a picture of love, gaiety, kindness, passion and, most of all, smiles. I read this in my weakest moments and found inspirations, blessings and, ironically, perfectly timed revelations.
   
   "In the Footsteps of Jesus" tells the story of the "Matthew" actor that played Jesus, Bruce Marchiano. It details how the author came to play the role and how playing the role changed his life through daily insights into the life, love, compassion and gentleness of Jesus as seen through the Gospel of Matthew.
   
   What an absolute goldmine the Lord sent my way during this most horrific time in my life! Without this volume, safely tucked away in the backseat of my SUV, I don't believe I would have been able to make it through this terrible time. Thank you to Bruce Marchiano and GLORY TO HIM!!!



2. This book has done more for me in learning to love Christ than any other I have ever read, with the only exception being the Bible. Bruce Marchiano does a wonderful job of making Jesus real, approachable, and, more than anything, lovable. If you have any question about God's love for you, read this one!



3. What a joy to read the book and be given the idea that Jesus was joyful and loving, not like other Hollywood movies where Jesus never blinks and is very pious. This Jesus character related to the people he was here to save. Loved the book and the movie-which is word for word the Gospel of Matthew.



4. I bought this book for my book club. We usually read fiction but I had read this and wanted them to read it too. They loved it. The experience the author has as he plays Jesus, along with the cast and crew in making this move Matthew is truly amazing. The way they depict Jesus in the movie this book is about, is more like I like to think of who Jesus is and what he was like while he was here on earth. Truly inspiring!



5. It was an encouragement to me to read Bruce Marchiano's testimony about his amazing journey of following Christ and his life changing experience of portraying Jesus in the film "The Gospel according to Matthew". I enjoyed reading every page of this book because the love of Jesus flows through it.
   I recommend this book to everyone, especially those who loved Bruce Marchiano's presentation of the joyful Jesus in the film "The Gospel according to Matthew". After I read "In the Footsteps of Jesus", I had to watch the film "The Gospel according to Matthew" again and again. In my opinion, it is the best Jesus film I have ever seen! Check out the plans for Bruce's new film "The Gospel according to John".