God in the Garden: Discovering the Spiritual Riches of Gardening: A Week-By-Week Journey Through the Christian Year

We' ve seen a bumper crop sorry for the pun of books recently on spirituality in the garden, including Rabbi Balfour Brickner' s Finding God in the Garden (reviewed above). Liturgically minded Christians who love to putter in the soil may enjoy God in the Garden: A Week-by-Week Journey Through the Christian Year, which intriguingly enough is arranged according to the liturgical calendar as well as the seasonal one. Author Maureen Gilmer is particularly sensitive to the spiritual import of various plants (lily of the valley symbolizes the Virgin Mary' s purity, while wormwood is believed to be the gall offered to Christ just before his death on the cross). She teases out some of the religious history of plants, such as the connection between St. John the Baptist and the plant that bears his name St. John' s wort. The book is well written and attractively designed. (Aug.)