Spiritual Living

By Graham Christian -- Library Journal, 05/01/2007

Benedict XVI. Spiritual Thoughts: In the First Year of His Papacy. U.S. Conf. of Catholic Bishops. 2007. c.128p. ISBN 978-1-57455-765-7. pap. $9.95. REL

Spiritual leaders are, almost as a condition of their prominence, the center points of controversy. Few recent popes have been more controversial than Benedict XVI, who had the thankless task of succeeding the beloved John Paul II; the meaning of Benedict's past as Joseph Ratzinger during and after the Nazi period of Germany's history is still disputed. This reverent little volume, assembled and published by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, is a collection of very short extracts drawn mostly from the pope's addresses and sermons. Nothing in it will surprise the Catholic reader, although even in selection the pope's scholarly approach to spiritual and ethical issues is clear. Likely to command a wide readership; for most collections.

Chopra will doubtless experience the pleasures and perils of having a well-known father: Deepak Chopra has provided the introduction to his daughter's book. Her father's fame will likely cause readers either to underrate or to overrate her work, which is unfortunate; quite on its own merits, her book is useful, clear, and appealing. Chopra supplies, sometimes from example, 100 questions from a child ("Why can't I get those shoes?" "Mommy, what's a bomb?"). Her answers are always personal but emphasize respect for her children while offering them structure for the development of their own sense of self and world. For most collections.

Apparitions, like hair shirts and holy water, are certain to make unbelievers contemptuous and agnostics queasy; even the Catholic Church takes a cautious line on new news from Heaven. In June 1981, six children in Bosnia-Herzegovina allegedly began to receive visions at Medjugorje; this book, originally issued in 1997, now includes everything that the apparitional Virgin Mary has said to the visionaries (now grown) from the first edition until now. Despite the promise, the "New Introduction from Rome" does not speak with the authority of the Catholic Church, so the apparition's meaning remains as baffling for devout Catholics as ever. Still, the Lady's intimations of coming apocalyptic catastrophe and her adjurations to pray intrigue and inspire a wide readership.

De la Torre (ethics & religion, Iliff Sch. of Theology) here discusses the profound influence of feminist and liberation theologies. The savor and seriousness of his convictions is apparent from the disposition of his materials: unlike most books in the U.S. publishing market, which end on an upbeat note with suggestions for change, De la Torre moves outward from affirming women and the body to a carefully argued condemnation of predatory sexualities (pornography, rape, violence, sexual abuse), with only the most guarded hope for "resurrection after crucifixion." An excellent and intelligent book that deserves a wide audience.

Hilsman, director of the Pastoral Care Education programs for the Franciscan Health System in Tacoma, WA, has written a necessary and rather carefully directed book on sexuality in a contemporary Catholic framework. As Hilsman reminds us, this is not a marriage manual but a guide to loving and spiritual sexuality; as such, it is a refreshing antidote to the tradition of body-repressive Catholic culture. The aware reader, however, has to read fairly far into the book to find Hilsman's quiet advocacy of fresh thought on birth control and even further to discover his most decisive statement: "Law has always failed to promote love." Hilsman's book, full of subtle strengths, should prove useful and instructive to many Catholic readers.

Any woman who can write a book called Just Hand over the Chocolate and No One Will Get Hurt cannot be said to take herself too seriously, and this follow-up is full of laughter about need, longing, satiation, food, and self-control (or lapses from it). Still, Linamen has real business to pursue: she wants her readers to laugh long enough to go with her as she discovers deeper satisfaction in God than in chocolate or anything else—the heart of her story finds her refraining from a dangerously close relationship with a married man, as she finds peace in God. For most collections.

Lionberger, head chaplain at a retirement community in Evanston, IL, as well as the founder of Renewal in the Wildnerness, an interfaith wilderness ministry, has written a timely book on the lessons that direct experience of the wild—"God's cathedral"—has to teach. Moses and Jesus, in differing ways, used the transformative power of the wild to engage with God, but Lionberger's book draws widely on many faith traditions along with the wilderness journeys he leads to show how the wild takes us beyond our comfort and expectations into God's presence and the transcendent.

Dancer and mathematics instructor MacBeth's charming book may be the first to combine the pleasures of doodling with a discussion of, among other things, lectio divina. Here, she shows how simple drawings—often hardly more than circles and lines with names or ideas or places sketched in and enlivened with color—can focus the praying heart, making prayer something better than a shopping list or a chore and helping the praying believer to carry the wishes and thoughts of the prayer through the day. MacBeth's book is not for unbelievers or those who do not pray; it is directed to those suffering something more like spiritual attention deficit disorder. Still, it is one of the most appealing books on prayer to appear in the last five years. Highly recommended.

This winning book comes from the mind of the versatile Maisel, who is a family therapist, creativity coach, novelist, and nonfiction writer living in San Francisco. His 12 simple incantations—he also calls them "charms"—deftly fuse Eastern-derived ideas about mindfulness and breath awareness with contemporary Western notions of positive psychology and visualization. Maisel is straightforward about the brevity of his method: "Suffering is overrrated," he says. "I would prefer that you change your life in a day and not in a decade." These simple sentences, such as "I expect nothing" or "I return with strength," uttered with careful inflow and outflow of breath, stimulate awareness and change. Less, perhaps, about Zen than self-mastery and freedom from anxiety, these "charms" are certain to appeal to a broad range of readers. Highly recommended.

Only a few scholars of religion can have been read by nonacademics as much as Marty, author of Righteous Empire and the classic three-volume Modern American Religion. As Marty moves well into old age, he now steps off into new territory, looking closer toward the beginning of life in this examination of the misunderstood inner nature of the child. His new book is neither a parenting guide nor a work in child psychology, but a vigorous advocacy for seeing the child as a useful disrupter of convention, resistant to control, and open to the unexpected. This book, at once revolutionary and deeply devout, is likely to become extremely important in our view of human personality and possibility from childhood forward. Highly recommended.

Newman's (theology & ethics, Baptist Theological Seminary) new book is an intriguing approach to Christian spirituality. She understands the contemporary diminutions and distortions of hospitality in dinner parties and the slighter manifestations of charity or politeness; her pioneering work moves toward recognizing and cherishing the "stranger," whose receipt of hospitality will change us and bring us closer to the heart of the mystery of the Eucharist and of Christianity itself. Her gently persuasive and deeply spiritual work is far-reaching in both its scholarship and its implications. Highly recommended.

The subtitle of Perez's book says almost more than a short review can convey and is certainly a fast-forward through its contents at almost lightning speed. Perez is certainly not the first writer to try to find a unique mixture of alternate sexuality and religiosity, but his memoir has the heat and immediacy of the blog from which it was developed. As Perez comes to terms with illness, loneliness, and the spirit, he also shows us a part of the future of reading and publishing—the voyeuristic thrills of blog diaries and a continual dialog between print and electronic media. For most collections.

Lighthearted but never foolish and certainly not a joke, this book interestingly marries the experience of golf and the strategies and techniques the novice and experienced player might well want to master with spiritual insights. Ragonnet (English, Springfield Coll.), a U.S. Navy veteran and managing partner in a firm that delivers computer-based faculty development materials, has adapted Buddhism's Four Noble Truths—or, rather, taken their example—to declare the Three Noble Truths of golf: actualizing full potential, remaining balanced and centered, and uniting the head and the heart. For Ragonnet, awareness is the key to transforming potential in golf and life to actuality, and he allows golf and life to illuminate each other with humor and zest. Highly recommended.

Unarguably moving and various, this anthology brings together the spirit of Guideposts, a magazine cofounded by Norman Vincent Peale and his wife, Ruth, and the broad media appeal of television. Given such a premise, it is hardly possible to find anything but uplift in such a book, but the editor understands the power of humanizing the famous as a source of inspiration and example. Highlights include Peter Jennings, Harry Connick Jr.'s return to New Orleans after Katrina, Della Reese's steadfastness, and Brooke Shields's courage after a friend's suicide. For most collections.

By now, Japanese Buddhism is a commonly encountered, if incompletely understood, manifestation of Eastern spirituality in the West; publishers' catalogs are stuffed with new introductions to Zen Buddhism and fresh translations of spiritual classics. It could be argued, however, that Shinto, unique to Japan, comes closer to expressing Japanese culture and spirituality. Yamakage, who until his retirement in 2005 was the 79th Grand Master of Yamakage Shinto, has written an outstanding introduction, from the Japanese perspective, of this remarkable religious tradition, with its emphasis on nature, place, and harmony. Whether the publication of this book will stimulate the sort of interest Zen Buddhism already commands only time will tell, but thoughtful Western readers can hardly do better than this intelligent insider's guide. Highly recommended.