5 comments about E.W. Bullinger: A Biography: A Biography.

1. This book is very helpful, if you are a Bullinger fan, in putting his life into it's historical and cultural context. It helps one understand the man better, and his passions. I was very sad to read that he died before he completed The Companion Bible, because one can almost feel where he stopped in that Bible. Very good reading.



2. Anyone who is a fan of E.W. Bullinger's work will appreciate this book! The author does an exceptional job portraying E.W. Bullinger's life from youth to the masterful bible scholar that he became. The book gives helpful insight to the man that gave biblical truth's to a Christian world that was severally lacking biblical accuracy and understanding.
   
   E.W.'s work inspired many people including myself, to study God's Word with great care and great love. I've read many of his books, but knew very little about the man that wrote them until I came across this book. Naturally, I was very excited to find out that a biography has been written about him. And after reading this biography, I have even more appreciation and respect for the man whose books taught me the spectacular accuracy of God's infallible Word. A must have for anyone who is familiar with Mr. Bullinger's works!!



3. This book gives great detail and care to the historical surroundings of a great era of Biblical truth. If you do not know who Dr. Bullinger is, don't worry because your Seminary professors all do. He stood for the fundamentals of the faith and is counted as faithful to the Word of God.



4. A must read about a great man.



5. I read this book some years ago. It is a very good work that gives insights to the life of this man and encouragement by seeing his example. He died almost a century ago, yet his work is still alive. It is good to read his books but it is also good to know the life that produced them. After all, it is not only a matter of the work but most a matter of the life that produces the work, and this book will give useful insights to it

No comments about The Life of Anthony: The Coptic Life and the Greek Life.

5 comments about The Other Side of Heaven.

1. It's true that the author does not have alot of verbal finesse amd that his writing style lacks fluidity & artistic imagery. Still, the story is compelling and what's more, it's true. I cried and I remembered my own mission in so many of his stories even though I served in Honduras. The story is so inspirational. I recommend this book.



2. This is a book that explains a great deal about the Tongan culture and missionary work within that culture. I was very impressed to learn about the simplicity of the Tongans but also very amazed at the depth of the people.
   
   In addition to explaining about the culture, you learn a great deal about missionary work in general. Specifically, you learn about missionary life in teaching individuals, in disappointment, in trying to follow the spirit, and in learning to love the people.
   
   All in all, I was very impressed with the message and insights of this book. You can read this book strictly for learning about the culture, but you can also gain a number of insights about missionary work (in some ways, this would be great reading for a prospective missionary) as well as good core concepts of kindness and not judging.



3. An excellent movie about what we can do with the help of God. Mormons will enjoy the whole missionary aspect of the film, and non-Mormons will not be put off by any "preaching". Though this is a film about a Mormon missionary if you don't pay attention you may not even realize he is Mormon. He's just a guy trying to do God's work. LOVED IT.



4. This was a wonderful book! In this autobiographical story, Elder Groberg shares his experiences as an LDS missionary in the 1960s in the small islands of Tonga. There are lots of exciting near-death adventures and amazing miracles and other interesting page-turning stories that made it hard for me to put the book down. But more than that was the story of a boy who, through determination and help from his father in heaven, learns to love the gospel and the people with all his heart and grows to be a man. This book is a must have for every personal library.



5. Really enjoyed this book. It was interesting and inspirational. Also, Groberg has a very understated, matter-of-fact style which works well because the story is so amazing. Highly recommend this book.

No comments about Lords of the Earth: An Incredible but True Story from the Stone-age Hell of Papua's Jungle.

2 comments about Mother Maria Skobtsova: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters Series).

1. Modern Spiritual Masters Series, Orbis Books: Maryknoll, NY
   
   In 1998 Orbis Books launched its Modern Spiritual Masters Series, a collection of the writings of important spiritual masters of our age. Each "Master" is made available in readable and inexpensive formats. Each is edited with an introduction about the master's legacy, along with relevant biographical information and commentary. To date there are some 36 volumes as diverse as Albert Schweitzer, theologian, doctor, Nobel Peace Prize winner; Caryll Houselander, English Catholic laywoman, artist, and visionary; Eberhard Arnold, founder of the Bruderhof; Howard Thurman, minister, philosopher, and civil rights activist; Flannery O'Connor the great southern writer whose distinctive spiritual voice covered topics on Christian Realism, the Church, the relation between faith and art, sin and grace, and the role of suffering in the life of a Christian; Rufus Jones, who won a Nobel Prize as cofounder of the American Friends Service Committee and Swami Abhishiktananda (Henri le Saux) a Breton-born Benedictine monk who hoped to Christianize India but instead became deeply influenced by Hindu spirituality.
   
   In this brief space I can only give you a glimpse of some of the masters, editors and their thoughts.
   
   Maria Skobtsova was a promising poet, a gifted amateur painter, a theological student in St. Petersburg, and a mayor all before becoming an Orthodox nun in 1932. She served a community of Russian expatriates in France during World War II and rescued hundreds of Jews before being captured and taken to the Ravensbruck concentration camp. Jim Forest provides an illuminating overview of her unusual life and ministry. She wrote, "In our time Christ and the life-giving Holy Spirit demand the whole person. The only difference from state mobilization is that the state enforces mobilization, while our faith waits for volunteers. And, in my view, the destiny of mankind depends on whether these volunteers exist and, if they do, how great their energy is, how ready they are for sacrifice."
   
   Anthony de Mello was a world renowned spiritual director and retreat leader. His mysticism was rooted in story and imagination. He taught spiritual practices and exercises designed to silence the mind and give expression to the yearnings of the heart. Born in India he helped bridge the gap between Eastern and Western Spirituality
   His stories from many cultures and traditions help us to find God behind our words, concepts, and religious formulas. Story to de Melllo was the shortest distance between a human being and truth: How would spirituality help a man of the world like me? said the businessman. It will help you to have more,' said the master. 'How?' 'By teaching you to desire less.
   
   Clarence Jordan founded the interracial community of Koinonia Farm near Americus, Georgia. Jordan was a man of radical ideas who once defined faith as not belief in spite of the evidence but a life in scorn of consequences. He translated the New Testament into the well known "Cotton Patch" version. Jordan was against rampant materialism in America and while visiting a fancy house of a wealthy person, he responded by saying, Nice piece of plunder you got here. Jordan founded the Fund for Humanity, which evolved into Habitat for Humanity. He also instituted "a cow library" in which families in need of milk could check out a cow free of charge. His efforts to assist two African-American students apply to a formerly segregated business college led to shooting, bombings, and vandalism against the Koinonia Farm. He wrote, With Jesus, peacemaking involved not merely a change of environment, but also a change of heart. God's plan of making peace is not merely to bring about an outward settlement between evil people, but to create people of goodwill.
   
   Dorothee Soelle was a German theologian who escaped Nazi Germany and became a professor of a theology at Union Theological Seminary in NYC. Her writings were shaped by the memory of war, the Holocaust, and totalitarianism. She wrote scathing critiques of capitalism, consumerism, nuclear arms buildup, Vietnam, and a Christian theology that created the space for Auschwitz. Soelle emphasized experience. For example, she finds the question, Do you believe in God? to be superficial and off the mark. Instead one should ask Do you live out God? She commends Judaism for the idea of human beings as the image of God, which she takes to mean we can act like God: Just as God made clothes for Adam and Eve, we can clothe the naked. Just as God fed Elijah through a raven, so to we are to feed the hungry.
   
   In this awesome collection you will find your rich spiritual heritage, a legacy of teachings and guidance that have their roots in the Bible. You will find Christian models and mentors whose words can serve as the stimulus for new spiritual maturity, and for the courage to realize our calling and potential as disciples of Jesus.
   
   Let me close with the poignant words of Dorothy Soelle: If the most essential element of Christian faith is sin and not our capacity for love, if the first thing that should come to our minds in church and in our religious life is our impotence, our weakness, our guilt, our repeated failures, then the die is already cast. Then we cultivate our own fears and coddle our own need for security. We deny that human beings are capable of making peace; we abandon the unarmed Christ and run away just as the disciples did when Jesus was taken captive and when it became clear that protection and weapons were useless now. We are tempted to look for other masters who offer more protection and security.
   
   
   John Laughlin



2. To any who think that Orthodox Christians do not have the social conscience of Catholics, here is Mother Maria (now St. Maria)clearly stating that Christ will not ask us how many prostrations we have made, but whether or not we have loved our neighbor. This is a moving and perhaps jarring collection of writings by an Orthodox martyr of modern times, which serves to illustrate that words and gilded Gospel books are not enough. She was known to leave a liturgy to answer the door when someone in need came for help to the "house of hospitality" she established in Paris. She would roam Paris in search of aid, puffing a cigarette. She spoke of the sword which pierced the heart of the Virgin Mary and which should pierce ours as well, that of love. This is not a self-consumed religion Mother speaks of, but one of ultimate self-denial in acts of love for the other, even when the other steals from us. We can only hope more of her works appear in English.

No comments about I Saw Him in Your Eyes: Everyday People Making Extraordinary Impact in the Lives of Karen Kingsbury,Terri Blackstock, Bobby Bowden, Charlie Daniels, S. Truett Cathy, and More..

2 comments about St. Benedict: Hero of the Hills (Vision Books).

1. Note: This is the same book that is published by TAN books, except "Hero of the Hills" has been added to the Vision Book title.



2. There is not a Religios book in the world like this the auther took all the facts and turnd saint benidicts life into a naritiv like it is realy happining while you are reading it. this book is a real page turner and once i started i couldent stop just like the harry potter series. I hily recomend this book to people interested in monastic life, the life of saint benidict, the catholic church, miricals, or even somone who just wants to read a good book as rare as this one. believe me this book is worth reading.

3 comments about The Sacred Monster of Thomism: An Introduction to the Life and Legacy of Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.

1. Peddicord's book isn't horrible, but it isn't all that great either. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an alternate biography of Fr. Lagrange in any language. We have yet to have a biography of him written from a traditional Catholic's point of view.
   
   The book moves from the beginning of his life to his death and discusses several tiffs the modernists had with him, including a large portion of the Bergon/Blondel episode. A few excerpts from modernist letters against him is also included. Maritain's disagreements on social issues is also touched on.
   
   What you get is basically a classical liberal's take on his life. The grosser objections of the modernists to Lagrange are called excessive because they aren't as tolerant as they preach folks ought to be. A few especially radical theologians are shown as having little constructive to say in comparison to the "monster"(as if this wasn't evident already). Garrigou Lagrange is presented as a pious fellow, quite bright and well-meaning, but a bit too, well, traditional (tsk, tsk). Especially interesting are a few details about his disagreements with Congar and Maritain. An especially telling omission is that after stating that he was JPII's dissertation advisor, there is no mention of the fact that Fr. Lagrange was extremely critical of that dissertation! The attempt to rehabilitate him for the neo-modernists is a bit awkward. Information of his stance against some of the the neo-Thomists (he was very much of the tradition of the now-extremely-unpopular commentator school) is curiously absent from the work as well.
   
   All in all, it's a bit short, fairly well-written, and quite fascinating at points. Mind, it isn't as good as it could be and has its faults, but it's all we have in terms of a biography. If you have a love for his works, it is definitely worth a look. But be forewarned, for the traditional Catholic the style is sometimes cloyingly modern.



2. Peddicord's book isn't horrible, but it isn't all that great either. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an alternate biography of Fr. Lagrange in any language. We have yet to have a biography of him written from a traditional Catholic's point of view.
   
   What you get is basically a classical liberal's take on his life. The grosser objections of the modernists to Lagrange are called excessive because they aren't as tolerant as they preach folks ought to be. A few especially radical theologians are shown as having little constructive to say in comparison to the "monster"(as if this wasn't evident already). Garrigou Lagrange is presented as a pious fellow, quite bright and well-meaning, but a bit too, well, traditional (tsk, tsk). Especially interesting are a few details about his disagreements with Congar and Maritain. An especially telling omission is that after stating that he was JPII's dissertation advisor, there is no mention of the fact that Fr. Lagrange was extremely critical of that dissertation! The attempt to rehabilitate him for the neo-modernists is a bit awkward. Information of his stance against the neo-Thomists (he was very much of the tradition of the now-extremely-unpopular commentator school) is curiously absent from the work as well.
   
   All in all, it's a bit short, fairly well-written, and quite fascinating at points. Mind, it isn't as good as it could be and has its faults, but it's all we have in terms of a biography. If you have a love for his works, it is definitely worth a look. But be forewarned, for the traditional Catholic the style is sometimes cloyingly modernistic.



3. In Fr. Rick Peddicord's The Sacred Monster of Thomism, one encounters a man both maligned and praised in his day, although perhaps more feared than lauded, Fr. Reginald Garigou-Lagrange, O.P. It should not surprise us that Garigou-Lagrange, a man who devoted his entire life to the explication of the truths of the Christian faith, would be attacked in a world that wished to rid itself of dogma and extinguish any pangs of hypocrisy arising from society's espousal of nominal Christianity. Such intransigence in the face of "progress" won him many adversaries.
   
   The greatness of Peddicord's work rests not only in the Dominican's ability to situate his confrere historically but also resides in his analysis of Garigou's Thomism and how the senior friar's hunger for truth necessitated his often harsh reactions to those who wished that the Church would adjust her message in the modern world. This passion clearly emanated from his identity as a Dominican: Garigou embraced a life in which he vowed to preach His word for the salvation of souls. As such, he realized that letting the Kantian epistemology of Blondel or the heterodoxy of Laberthonnière go unchallenged would eventually imperil men's souls. A strict adherence to Neo-Thomism constituted Garigou's sword and shield.
   
   Throughout the work, the reader can easily see Garigou's motivations. In one of the most interesting segments of the book, Peddicord argues convincingly that modern theologians should not ignore Garigou-Lagrange's contributions to philosophy, theology, and spirituality, all of which pose significant challenges to current, popular hermeneutics. However, as an accomplished professor of moral theology, one wishes that the author would have touched upon the fundamental reasons why Garigou's modern opponents such as Roger Haight, Monika Hellwig, and Elizabeth Johnson work to undermine the legitimacy of the dogmatic teachings of the Magisterium. Their agenda goes beyond that of lessening the transcendence of the divine or stirring up doubt in the perpetual virginity of Mary.
   
   Still, this is an introduction, and we can only hope that the next work by Peddicord will shed more light on the tension between classical Thomism and modern theology. Regardless, The Sacred Monster is both well researched and insightful. Perhaps its greatest attribute is that it brings the thought of Garigou-Lagrange back into current theological inquiry, although one cannot be sure that the old frère dominicain will win any more allies in a world that unfortunately adheres to much of the same heterodoxy he attempted to eliminate during his life.

5 comments about The New Rabbi.

1. ... do you really want to know how it's made?
   
   A friend who teaches a college course that covers how Americans practice religion uses The New Rabbi as a text, and at his request i read it so i could help him with the specifically Jewish parts of the book. i found myself scratching notes in the margins on nearly every page - so much of what Fried writes about replacing a superstar rabbi in a large city shul relates directly to my own experiences with synagogue politics and a rabbinical search here in my small town.
   
   Fried is an excellent writer. He captures perfectly the clash between our desire for religion to be somehow exempt from the problems of all other organizations on one hand and the reality of human frailty on the other.
   
   Read this book if:
   - you are interested in understanding contemporary religious practice;
   - you are part of the volunteer governance of your own religious organization;
   - you are interested in the simultaneously spiritual and pragmatic process of choosing religious leaders.
   
   Many parts of Fried's account are uncomfortably close to my own experience with a rabbinical search. But, in addition to the usefulness for my friend's class, i came away reassured that most religious organizations have as many "managers" - and as many opinions - as there are volunteers involved.



2. Stephen Fried is a brilliant writer. I enjoyed every page of this book. Thanks to Fried, you don't have to know these real-life characters to feel as if you do.



3. The kind of journalism Stephen Fried pursued for years here is always risky. To cover the rabbinical search at a major synagogue is a great idea, but the risk is that in the end it won't make much of a story. Even with the Epilogue, the true story of the Har Zion rabbinical search is incomplete on both ends--we don't see the formation of the search committee or the final appointment of a permanent senior rabbi--and ultimately unsatisfying because we also don't see the inner workings of the synagogue elite who made the decisions.
   
   And yet Fried makes up for that with his real talent, which is to delve the depths of the souls of some of the most important participants, particularly Rabbis Gerald Wolpe and Jacob Herber and future Har Zion President Jeff Blum and his wife Cindy, revealing to us their hopes and fears, and along the way giving us great insight into his own experiences and his own connection with Judaism, with the rabbinate and with synagogues.
   
   My Zede, God rest his soul, used to tell me that all Jewish organizations were the same, and he would regale me with stories about board meetings, always ending with this remark, "Everyone thinks they should be President." In my own wider experience, I can say that his remarks had far wider application than to Jewish groups, but Fried reminds us that they still apply there just as they did in my Zede's day. As the final stones are cast at Rabbi Herber and President Blum, Fried comments that there were those who took a side not because they believed in it, but because they were people who always had to take a side. I thought of my Zede and smiled.



4. I agree with all the other readers who have posted comments here that the book is well-written and very engrossing.
   
   But no one else seems to be bothered by the fact that Mr. Fried commits the unconscionable and inexcusable sin of using the real names of the unsuccessful rabbinic candidates. They had every reason to expect that their interviews would be confidential. The Acknowledgments section makes it clear that not all the candidates gave permission for their names to be used, or that Mr. Fried even thought it necessary to ask them.
   
   A footnote tells us that the name of a millionaire trouble-maker has been changed. But what does it tell us about the author that he felt no such need to conceal the names of rabbis who have now been embarrassed in print and in public?
   
   The book would have lost none of its force if those names had been changed. Shame on the author!



5. Fried's coverage of Har Zion's search for a new rabbi to fill the significant shoes of Rabbi Gerald Wolpe provides an engaging read and an excellent specific example of some of the more general issues affecting contemporary Judaism in America. Also, Fried does a fantastic job in describing his exposure to the Har Zion and greater Philadelphia-area Jewish community and how it paralleled his own spiritual search following some life-changing events.

No comments about Nobody's Child.