Original RBL Reviews
Seek Me with All Your Heart
Beth Wiseman. Thomas Nelson, $14.99 paper (320p) ISBN 978-1-59554-824-5
Prolific Christian fiction author Wiseman (Plain Perfect) pens another Amish tale that has her characters relocating to Canaan, Colo. In this contemporary novel, Emily Detweiler and her Amish family move West a few months after she is brutally attacked in their Ohio town, but for Emily, the miles don’t erase nightmarish reminders of betrayal. Kidney transplant recipient David Stoltzfus and his family relocate from Pennsylvania in a move to start over and erase their growing financial debt. When these two meet, there isn’t anything like romance, but rather mutual distrust. Given their small community, Emily and David are forced to come to terms with their private pain and find measures of comfort in a fledgling friendship that seems destined to develop into a permanent marital bond. Wiseman’s voice is consistently compassionate and her words flow smoothly, yet the story of this Amish-set tale of love that overcomes all obstacles feels not exactly novel. (Oct.)
How to Be Sick: A Buddhist-Inspired Guide for the Chronically Ill and Their Caregivers
Toni Bernhard. Wisdom, $15.95 paper (176p) ISBN 978-0-86171-626-5
How does one face a chronic illness? In 2001 law professor Bernhard became sick from a virus that no doctor has been able to treat. Faced with ongoing disabling symptoms, forced to give up her profession, and unable to take part in most of the activities she loves, Bernhard has dug into the roots of the Buddhism she once studied intensively, looking for resources to cope with such devastating loss. She clearly explains how such Buddhist principles as the four noble truths, impermanence, no-self, and dependent origination help her cope with limited energy and frequent enforced solitude. No longer able to meditate formally, Bernhard describes a set of easy mental practices, drawn from her own daily experiences as well as vipassana (insight meditation), Zen koans, Tibetan Buddhist compassion exercises, and the “inquiry” technique of author Byron Katie, a practice for working with thoughts. Bernhard’s applications of Buddhism are sound and her insights gentle and honest; others may take heart from her determination to use the Buddha’s timeless wisdom to ease the mental suffering brought about by unrelieved physical illness. (Sept.)
The Edge of the Divine: Where Possibility Meets God’s Faithfulness
Sandi Patty. Thomas Nelson, $19.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-4002-0280-5
Patty, one of the most well-known and honored Christian singers of our day, invites readers into her journey of “edges,” those “points at which something is likely to begin.” One of her edges was a decision to undergo gastric surgery for weight loss. She begins with her presurgery thinking—“I was staying close to God, watching for his guidance”—and her postsurgery mindset: “I had such confidence that I was on the right path.” Patty shares her struggles and triumphs with weight, is honest about the moral failings that derailed her career for a time, and sprinkles her own and others’ stories throughout. Most readers will enjoy Patty’s upbeat writing style, filled with witticisms and an ability to laugh, as well as her heartfelt honesty about her weight and the surgery. Some may wish for a deeper look at spiritual issues, but all will appreciate this closer look at the famous singer’s world and her tale of stepping off the edge into a healthier life. (Aug.)
The Day Metallica Came to Church: Searching for the Everywhere God in Everything
John Van Sloten. Faith Alive (www.faithaliveresources.org), $14.95 paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-59255-495-9
The idea that God can be found in all things is nothing new in Christianity. Still, some contemporary believers are reticent to search for God in popular culture, which is often dubbed a “lower” form of entertainment. Van Sloten, a pastor and former real estate developer, cannot help seeing God everywhere, and he goes to great lengths to help his congregation do the same. Whether heavy metal music, sports, or blockbuster films, the author mines a large swath of U.S. pop culture and adroitly connects people’s desire to enjoy these entertainments with their desire to find God. All along he cautions against replacing or equating God with music and mass media, but he never dilutes the message about God’s omnipresence in human life. Not all Christians will be comfortable with the author’s suggestions, but many others will appreciate his ability to discern the holy in everyday life, especially in those areas too often considered “secular.” (Aug.)
Women, Sex, and the Church: A Case for Catholic Teaching
Edited by Erika Bachiochi. Pauline Books and Media, $19.95 paper (272p) ISBN 978-0-8198-8320-9
In this thoughtful and wide-ranging collection of essays, eight women and one man set out to explain and defend the Catholic Church’s teaching on sex, reproduction, priestly ordination, and family. Bachiochi, a lawyer and theologian who edited and contributed to the compilation, opens by calling herself an unlikely candidate for the project because she once “identified with a radical feminist contingent and was adamantly anti-Catholic.” As she learned more about Catholicism’s teachings, she writes, she decided that the church needed a way to explain them as “pro-woman.” The essays she assembled seek to show that the church’s teachings free rather than oppress women. Other contributors to the volume include Sister Sara Butler, a theologian and former proponent of women’s ordination, who wrote the essay on the priesthood, and economist Jennifer Roback Morse, whose essay looks at marriage. Given that this book challenges a popular view of Catholicism as antiwoman, it will be welcomed by those who support the church’s teaching; readers who disagree might still find its perspective provocative. (Aug.)
When Christians Get It Wrong
Adam Hamilton. Abingdon, $14 paper (144p) ISBN 978-1-42670-914-2
Why are growing numbers of American young people choosing not to affiliate with churches? Head of the Leawood, Kans., Church of the Resurrection, Hamilton (Confronting the Controversies: A Christian Looks at the Tough Issues) views this well-documented phenomenon from a pastoral perspective. Threading his reflections with anecdotes and conversations with younger adults both inside and outside church walls, the author takes a look at some of the hot button issues younger adults report as divisive. These include Christians and judgmentalism; science and Christian practice; how believers relate to those of other faiths; how to understand God's role when tragedy strikes; and what happens when the church focuses on such issues as homosexuality. “When Christians get it right they love and give, they work for justice and demonstrate kindness,” asserts the author. He makes the argument throughout this slender volume that when nonbelievers see the faithful “knocking holes in the darkness” by deeds done in Jesus’ name, they see evidence for Christian faith that attracts rather than repels. (Aug.)
Sneak Peek: Religion Book Reviews Coming in PW, August 9
Untold: A History of the Wives of Prophet Muhammad
Tamam Kahn. Monkfish, $18.95 paper (188p) ISBN 978-0-9823246-4-6
A practicing Sufi, poet, and speaker, Kahn tells the little-known stories of the wives of the Prophet Muhammad in this brief book. Usually ignored or used as salacious fodder, the stories are pieced together by the author, using the few and disparate sources on the lives and personalities of the wives. Kahn also employs the “prosimetrum” technique, which intersperses narrative text with short poems that recreate, in fictional, imagined terms, some event in a particular wife’s life. The unorthodox device becomes, as only poetry can, an illustrative window into early Islam and everyday Arabian life 1,400 years ago. Kahn points out that many of Muhammad’s reforms were unique for their time and benefited women. Kahn also doesn’t shy away from the controversial, acknowledging that Muhammad’s marriage to the beautiful Zaynab, the ex-wife of the Prophet’s own adopted son, may not have had the purest motivations; she also addresses the practice of veiling. With only a few exceptions, the Prophet mainly married widows and did so largely to form political alliances. Quite open-minded in his spouses, Muhammad even had converted Jewish wives and had a son (who died as a baby) with an Egyptian Christian woman. Even talking back to the influential Prophet, each of the women influenced Muhammad in her own way. (Sept.)
Choosing to SEE: A Journey of Struggle and Hope
Mary Beth Chapman. Revell, $21.99 (288p) ISBN 978-0-8007-1991-3
Chapman, wife of singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman, tells the story of her life and loss in this tender memoir. Chapman discloses how unsuited she is to be the public figure spouse to a charismatic and outgoing husband. Marrying him totally upset her orderly mental image of a quiet life in the suburbs with a 9-to-5 working husband. Instead, she discovered that God gave her a life she didn’t expect that has taken her places she didn’t want to go. As Chapman tells it, fame, travel, and adoption of children took this quiet woman out of her comfort zone more times than she cares to remember. In 2008, the tragic death of their five-year-old daughter, Maria, led to still more inner heartache. The Chapmans’ story is harrowing and deeply sorrowful, yet the author finds a way to communicate their hope, faith, and love for a faithful God in every moment by grace-infused moment. (Sept.)
A First Look at the Stars: Starred Reviews Coming in PW, August 9>God and Sex: What the Bible Really Says
Michael Coogan. Twelve, $24.99 (256p) ISBN 978-0-446-54525-9
Readers looking for an unbiased appraisal of what the Bible says about premarital sex, homosexuality, and polygamy can trust Coogan, a biblical scholar of the highest order. Concise, clear, and accessible to general readers, this book covers all the usual topics plus a few that may surprise. Professor of religious studies at Stonehill College and editor of the New Oxford Annotated Bible, Coogan has also taught at Harvard and Wellesley. He covers predictable ground in unpredictable ways, frankly noting, for example, the pervasive biblical assumption that women are subordinate while explaining how that reflects the Bible’s foreign and ancient context. The author does not overreach the evidence to promote his own agenda, but notes the Bible’s contradictions on certain issues and admits the limits of modern scholarship. Readers may be surprised to find a convincing discussion of evidence for God's own (sometimes unflattering) sexuality, in metaphor if not in fact. Coogan’s reminder at the book’s end that modern application of biblical texts requires interpretation and nuance is a welcome corrective to selective, literalist use. (Oct.)
Hillel: If Not Now, When?
Joseph Telushkin. Nextbook-Schocken. $24 (272p) ISBN 978-0-8052-4281-2
Rabbi, lecturer, ethicist, novelist, playwright, and author, Telushkin demonstrates his unusual versatility in this 15th entry in the Jewish Encounters series. This new book about Hillel, “perhaps the greatest rabbi of the Talmud,” is not a conventional biography, since little is known about Hillel’s life. What is known comes as maxims and teachings based on stories in the Talmud and the Midrash; speculation places the period of Hillel’s religious leadership from about 30 B.C.E. to 10 C.E. During that time, he and his followers, the School of Hillel, frequently had disputes with the School of Shammai, led by Hillel’s adversary. One argument they had dealt with was the attitude to be taken toward a potential convert. Hillel offered this instruction: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. This is the entire Torah! All the rest is commentary. Now, go and study.” Telushkin points out that this response is about ethics, not about rituals nor even about God, thereby underlining Judaism’s ethical essence. Telushkin’s lucid explanations are a model of clarity, enabling readers to better understand and appreciate the significant contributions of Hillel and their contemporary applications. (Sept.)
On the Virtual Shelves: Web Exclusive Religion Book Review
Psychic: My Life in Two Worlds by Sylvia Browne (HarperOne, June)
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/reviews/single/58886-psychic-my-life-in-two-worlds.html
