May Publications

Last year, psychotherapist Charlotte Kasl explored the first flushes of romance in If the Buddha Dated; now she takes the next step in If the Buddha Married: Creating Enduring Relationships on a Spiritual Path. There is some strong, wise marital advice here, but how Buddhist is it? One glaring fact that Kasl never so much as mentions is that the Buddha did have a wife and child, whom he abandoned in the quest for enlightenment. A more interesting book would have investigated the tensions between the demands (and joys) of marital relationships and the individual's need to embark on the spiritual journey. (Penguin Compass, $11 paper 272p ISBN 0-14-019662-6) "Our desire for spiritual growth can help us balance the role of work in our lives," write Robert Johnston and J. Walker Smith in Life Is Not Work, Work Is Not Life: Simple Reminders for Finding Balance in a 24/7 World. Americans, they say, have allowed work to become too all-encompassing and must slow down—not a particularly new message, but one that is delivered here with thoughtful anecdotes and suggestions for change. Many readers will appreciate the authors' pint-sized recommendations for spiritual growth through deliberate moderation. (Wildcat Canyon, $13.95 224p ISBN 1-885171-54-4)

That They Might Have Books More Abundantly

In The Prayer of Jabez, Bruce Wilkinson took a single passage of Scripture and expounded on it so powerfully that Multnomah has just gone back to press for a total of—gulp—four million copies in print. The publisher is hoping that history will repeat itself with Wilkinson's follow-up, Secrets of the Vine: Breaking Through to Abundance. Here, Wilkinson takes on John 15 and divulges three secrets of "bearing fruit" more abundantly for Christ. Wilkinson has that special talent for making readers feel that his books speak directly and personally to them. Multnomah plans an initial release of 250,000 copies—and after that, who knows? ($9.99 128p ISBN 1-57673-975-9; Apr.)

More Odes to Saint Francis

This spring has already brought us Salvation: Scenes from the Life of St. Francis (Knopf) and Francis of Assisi (HiddenSpring), both of which have been favorably reviewed in PW, the New York Times Book Review and elsewhere. The 13th-century saint has captured yet another writer's imagination in Francis: A Saint's Way by Australian novelist James Cowan. Cowan takes the approach of a devotional biography, exploring Francis's inner world more than his social one. This engagingly written biography wrestles with larger questions of asceticism, sainthood, poverty and ethics as the author winds through the watershed moments of Francis's life. (Liguori/Triumph, $19.95 192p ISBN 0-7648-0707-2; Apr.) It has been said that Saint Francis has the longest bibliography of any person in history. Attesting to that claim is The Prophet, the third hefty volume in the Francis of Assisi: The Early Documents series. Here, we see early Franciscan monks discussing the sayings of their order's founder; original sources and hagiographies are offered with explanatory introductions and helpful annotations. (New City, $54 912p ISBN 1-56548-115-1; paper $34.95 -114-3; June)

Glimpses of Jesus

As a Western religion, Islam gives primacy to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and considers Jesus to be a holy prophet. In The Muslim Jesus: Sayings and Stories in Islamic Literature, Tarif Khalidi brings together Islamic primary sources about Jesus from the eighth to the 18th centuries. Included are mystical works, historical texts about prophets and saints and, of course, the foundational words about Jesus in the Qur'an. "As a whole," Khalidi explains, these writings "form the largest body of texts relating to Jesus in any non-Christian literature." Khalidi pays particular attention to the literary quality of the texts and the role "the Muslim Jesus" has played in both Muslim piety and Muslim-Christian relations. (Harvard, $22.95 224p ISBN 0-674-00477-9; May) What did Jesus wear? What foods might he have eaten? What religious customs and festivals did he observe? In The World Jesus Knew: Beliefs and Customs from the Time of Jesus, Anne Punton explores the everyday world of the central figure of the Christian faith. Punton does a fine job of discussing how "mundane" aspects of life (particularly agriculture) influenced Jesus' teachings. (Kregel, $12.99 paper 272p ISBN 0-8254-6004-2; May)