Spiritual Living

We all want to be modern, even in the oratories and meditation centers; this season, Library Journal has seen an unusually insistent emphasis on the ultracontemporary, from a Protestant, everyday take on Ignatius of Loyola through the tangles of the web for contemporary Christian parents. We've come to terms with a pagan spirituality that negotiates a dozen traditions for the modern practitioner, as well as the reinvention of the Christian wisdom tradition for a 21st century and global outlook; we've seen the face of God in the crass cleverness of Family Guy, read a philosopher's bloggings, and found redemption with Katharine Hepburn. With these latest titles, we find Joan Chittister as rewarding as always; among the newer authors, Greg Garrett and Bruno Barnhart prove to be especially worth watching.

Barnhart (The Good Wine; Second Simplicity) is also a monk of the New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, CA. His new book, a substantial contribution toward the renewal of Christian spirituality, is rather more controversial than it might first appear, given Barnhart's good Catholic background. Barnhart seeks and desires no less than a wholehearted rediscovery and reinvigoration of the mystical wisdom tradition that was once a powerful component of Christian spirituality, both Western and Eastern. As he rightly points out, this tradition, which he allies with Aldous Huxley's philosophia perennis, went into decline hand in hand with the overall decline of monastic orders, as Christianity became more public and congregational in its focus. He sees this moment of history as the "new dawn" of the wisdom tradition within Christianity; whether he is correct, and what role his learned and passionate advocacy will have, only time will tell. For most collections.

Chittister, a Benedictine nun and prolific author (e.g., In Search of Belief; Scarred by Struggle, Transformed by Hope), here turns her attention to a broad range of spiritual authorities and traditions in order to discover and present many models of what it might mean to be a holy person. She wisely avoids any easy answers: spirituality, she assures us, does not permit quick solutions. Chittister's brief chapters and easy, elegant style should captivate and keep many readers. An epilog of several chapters addresses elements in Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity pertinent to her reflections. Highly recommended.

Courtney is the founder of Virtuous Reality Ministries and author of Teenvirtue, Your Girl: Raising a Godly Daughter in an Ungodly World, and other guides for the harassed and desperate parents of adolescent girls. Her new book addresses more explicitly the stances parents ought to take regarding the Internet, cell phones, social-networking sites, chat rooms, photo- and video-uploads, and text-message use among their teen children. Whether Courtney's depiction of the digitized world will alarm or comfort parents is open to question; her counsel is not unreasonable and is certainly "Godly" ("'Would what I am typing bring honor and glory to God? Would it make him smile?' "). Many Christian parents will see Courtney's run around the tech-savvy bases as a true Godsend. For most collections.

In its very concept and name, this book is apt to conjure up visions of Salvation Army soup kitchens or Benedictine monasteries—sermons as the price of sustenance. Its reality is at once darker and deeper. Davis, an elected district judge in Texas, collects a few of his gospel-driven addresses to inmates in prisons around Texas. Despite our media-informed stereotypes, prison life, even in Texas, is not just a matter of tattoos, buggery, and weight rooms: Davis testifies that God had turned many convicts into "men who loved the Lord passionately." Many readers—since, as Davis rightly points out, we are all "felons at heart"—will be touched and even transported by the clear style, with its constant reference to Scripture and sense of the forgiving love of God. For most collections.

Farrer-Halls (The World of the Dalai Lama; The Encyclopedia of Buddhist Wisdom) has written an attractive book on the Buddhist law of karma. Karma, as she reminds us, means action: in operation, it is the sum of all our actions, past and to come, in this life and all our other lives. This simply written and heavily illustrated volume, a kind of coffee-table Buddhist guide, is also an intelligent introduction to the ins and outs of the ramifications of karma in our careers and love lives and points willing readers toward ways to heal karmic suffering and discover serenity. For most collections.

Negotiating the tricky terrain between spirituality and popular culture is a specialty of Garrett (Holy Superheroes: Exploring Faith and Spirituality in Comic Books). In his latest work, Garrett casts his net more widely than before, using films as far-ranging in date and genre as The Philadelphia Story, Brokeback Mountain, Unforgiven, Crash, and North by Northwest, among many others, to discuss the hard and serious traditional Christian themes of faith, the Trinity, sin, grace, redemption, and justice. Garrett's book confines itself to movies that are not explicitly religious (which, as Garrett recognizes, preach to the choir) but finds valuable and distinctive lessons in movies with mass appeal. The strength and fascination of the book lie in Garrett's deftness in showing moviegoers that the messages they can feel really are there—and in persuading the devout that there are values to be found, even in the cineplex. Highly recommended.

Groff (The Soul of Tomorrow's Church; What I Would Believe if I Didn't Believe Anything) shows here how the search for a deeper faith and the practice of writing can be interwoven to enrich each other. Not many guides to spirituality or spiritual practice offer the faithful and would-be faithful such an active role in the creation of their own sense of contemplation and belief: where else would one encounter a discussion of kenosis (the outpouring of God) as a form of Keats's "negative capability"? This work includes 30 exercises, as well as resources for further study, and is a perfect springboard for workshops. Groff's fascinating work ought to renew and refresh both writers and people of faith. Highly recommended.

Almost six years have passed since 9/11, but the sense of trauma has scarcely faded for some Americans. Haskin, a survivor of Tower One, went on to face a terrible struggle with posttraumatic stress disorder. This is the story of her journey to recovery and renewed function and purpose, partly recast as advice to other survivors of catastrophe. Gradually, through what she sees as God's grace, she has turned her anger and dismay into triumph: "my life, my stories, and my living now are about giving…all of me." Readers should not look for a sophisticated analysis of the politics that surrounded those events, but Haskin's sincerity and warmth as she moves toward brighter places should please many readers. For most collections.

The new age presses hard upon us, as technology alters our modes of communication, our expectations, our minds, and perhaps our very souls. This book, whose title plays almost shockingly on the words of W.B. Yeats, exemplifies such changes. Kennedy (psychology, emeritus, Loyola Univ.) collects more than 100 of his blogs, posted at Beliefnet.com, the National Catholic Reporter, and other places around the Web. Readers should not expect the full and often embarrassing self-revelations found in blogs of the under-thirty set (and the unselfconscious of any age). These "blogs" have much more in common with newspaper columns, speaking intelligently of current events and the quotidian, with the wisdom that comes with experience and wide reading. For most collections.

Lewis began her training in the Western medicine tradition, but her Ph.D. is in alternative medicine, and she has interned at the hospital in Dalian, China. Her aim is to uncover ten "secrets" in Chinese and Taoist tradition that will help women of all backgrounds realize their full potential—as wives and mothers, to be sure, but also as individuals with their own dreams and goals. Among the secrets she reveals are "Live from your joy" and "Reenergize yourself by repatterning." Lewis's book is engaging and interesting but disquieting to read: Chinese tradition is no less misogynistic than Western tradition, and Lewis has had to cherry-pick her way through her reading to find such strenuous affirmations of female potential. For most collections.

Religion journalist Pinsky here considerably updates and expands his best-selling guide to issues of faith and morality as seen, sideways, through the astonishingly and persistently popular animated series The Simpsons. Although the sarcasm and exaggerated situations that characterize The Simpsons may blindside some viewers, Pinsky, demonstrating a wide and appreciative knowledge of the series, sees a fundamental affirmation of the values of family life and even faith. New material includes a chapter-long treatment on daughter Lisa Simpson's conversion to Buddhism, as well as the controversial episode that treats gay marriage. Most intriguingly, Pinsky devotes a final long afterword to the animated series that have sprung to life in the series' wake—South Park, Family Guy, Futurama, American Dad, and King of the Hill. Here, Pinsky demonstrates the same sympathetic acuity that made the original edition of this work such a delight; readers will want him to expand this portion into a book or books. Highly recommended.

Rousell, a counseling psychologist with a doctoral degree in philosophy, has published his interesting book at a happy moment. Rousell's 20 years of research on what he calls "spontaneous influence events" (SIE) attempt to give solid grounding to the old adage "Mighty oaks from little acorns grow." To Rousell, simple words or actions, heard or received when we are in an "emotionally charged" state, can be life-transforming in a way well beyond their apparent meaning. Rousell's work includes examples and proofs of the merits of his argument, as well as advice for both making use of such SIE moments and helping to create them for others. This book has a kind of counterpart in Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Black Swan and other recent works that emphasize the role of suddenness, chance, and influence—a kind of happy coincidence not unlike his own "events." For most collections.

Whitehouse's journey toward this book is in itself a wonder: she was a model and talk-show host before her encounter with A Course in Miracles. Since then, she has become a popular speaker and writer and the creator of a process called the "E3 Transformational Triad"—none of which is required reading for this charming book. Neither a recipe book nor a diet plan, Whitehouse's book helps readers negotiate their way through a variety of food choices while remaining aware of the spiritual implications of food and diet. For most collections.

The prolific author/illustrator, founder of the Celebrate Recovery ministry, takes us on a journey toward wholeness using eight principles drawn from the Beatitudes. An audio is also available, attesting to the author's popularity.

Desperate for a book that will help parents guide their teens through the craziness of the contemporary world? The president of ParenTeen seminars, also a professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, joins with his family therapist wife to offer faith-based advice.

Written by leading pagan Greer and beading expert Vaughn, this book helps readers make prayer beads for use in any practice. A chance to spread some real magic; with 30 black-and-white illustrations.

Meditation is great; how much better to bring the tranquility that results into your relationships with others. From a longtime student of Buddhism who is also a scientist and a composer.

Serious Zen taught in a friendly and accessible manner with special exercises, jokes, and more; from a San Diego-based teacher of Zen with 30 years' experience.

A pastor who has served as a hospital chaplain, Knutson is currently a caregiver for her mother, so she's eminently qualified to write this book, which aims to deliver much practical information while showing that caregiving can be a call from God.

A famed teacher of Zen—you'll know him from works like The Healing Power of Sound and Zen of Creativity—gives instructions on how to meditate, covering basics like where and how to sit. With a 70-minute CD.

How to throw out everything—body, thoughts, and memories—in the act of contemplation that is Jnana Yoga; from a founder of the Sanatan Society, which honors the work of Tantric scholar Harish Yohari.

On the way to a family wedding, the author lost his wife and four children in a flash flood. Yet as he recounts in this memoir, his faith not only endured but was strengthened.

The best-selling author (Walking from East to West) shows how the random threads of our lives are part of a larger design. Look for the unabridged audio.