cover image Being Priest to One Another

Being Priest to One Another

Michael Dwinell. Liguori Publications, $10.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-89243-872-3

This book is not about the doctrine, beloved by Protestants, of the priesthood of all believers; nor is it a recommendation to Roman Catholics on how to handle the current clergy shortage. Rather, it is 24 reflections on various facets of priesthood, broadly defined to include all ministers, both lay and clerical. ""We are all called to set each other on fire,"" says Dwinell, an Episcopal priest and psychotherapist. Juxtaposing psychology and mysticism, personal story and poetry, he addresses a way of being in the world. The priest is hero and fool, mother and child, killer and wounded, the nexus where everything is joined. He or she is symbolos (""thrown together"") standing against diabolos (""division""). Indeed, rationalism and fundamentalism are the only acknowledged enemies in this expansive and metaphorical book, in whose last chapter, ""Priest as Humor,"" Dwinell divulges that he himself always carries a red plastic clown's nose in his left pocket. (Mar.)