This month in the Patheos Book Club, we’re featuring the new book, A Catholic Mother’s Companion to Pregnancy, by author and blogger Sarah Reinhard. We caught up with Reinhard this week, in between her son’s birthday party, helping with homework, and tucking her kids into bed, to ask her a few questions about why she wrote this book, and what she hopes other women will glean from it. What inspired you to write A Catholic Mother’s Companion to Pregnancy? This... Read more
By J. Peter Nixon Book Review: My Journal of the Council by Yves Congar, OP (Liturgical Press) At a recent Mass marking the 50th anniversary of Vatican II, Pope Benedict gave a homily that returned to a major theme of his pontificate: the need to interpret the Council in continuity with the Church’s doctrinal tradition. “The Council did not formulate anything new in matters of faith,” stated Benedict, “nor did it wish to replace what was ancient. Rather, it concerned itself... Read more
By Sr. Judith Miryam Boneski, O.P. Dominican Nuns, Summit, NJ My Journal of the Council by Yves Congar, OP. Translated from the French by Mary John Ronayne, OP, and Mary Cecily Boulding, OP. Edited by Denis Minns, OP. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2012. 979 pp. “I am keeping this little journal as a witness (455),” notes Yves Congar, halfway through writing his account of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). In the recent publication of the English translation of his journal... Read more
Philosopher Alfred North Whitehead asserted that doctrinally speaking, a religion is “a set of general truths which have the effect of transforming character when they are sincerely held and vividly apprehended. In the long run your character and your conduct of life depend on your intimate convictions.” (Religion in the Making, 15) Experience is essential to vital spirituality. Experience alone is not enough. As whole persons, our spiritual lives depend on the interplay – hopefully creative and congruent – of... Read more
When Clay Morgan was four years old, he was accidentally abandoned by his family at a funeral home. I’m not saying that shaped his life, but I do know that when he was four years old, Stephen King saw a playmate get hit by a freight train, and he has had a bit of an obsession ever since. And I do know that Clay Morgan has written an insightful, funny, and inspiring book called Undead: Revived, Resuscitated, Reborn about death,... Read more
A number of years ago, I appeared on a CNN talk show along with a woman who had recently penned a book on guardian angels. Perhaps they saw an article on angels I had written for a denominational magazine and wanted a Christian voice represented on the program.[1] I was my theological best – after all, I am a theologian – describing the possibilities of angelic beings intervening within normal cause and effect relationships. It was a call-in show and... Read more
By Grant Schnarr Author, Ghost Brother Angel (now featured at the Patheos Book Club) Some say that this is the time of year when the veil between our world and the world of spirit is thin. For some, this is the time of year when ghosts appear, and even reach out for us. I experienced a haunting of a room in our house growing up. The whole family did. I can tell you without blinking an eye that we had... Read more
By David Murrow I just wrote a book titled, What Your Husband Isn’t Telling You. In it, I catalog the many secrets men keep from their wives. I can’t possibly reveal all of these in the limited space of a blog post. However, I’d like to hand you a precious key that can unlock your husband’s heart – so you can discover these secrets on your own. First, let me state the obvious: some men withhold the truth from their... Read more
In perfect time for the Halloween season, I had the pleasure of talking to author Grant Schnarr about his latest spiritual memoir and true-life ghost story, Ghost Brother Angel. The adventure story is indeed about a ghost, a brother, and an angel, and is a gripping page-turner beginning with Schnarr’s childhood memories of the agitated ghost in his house. Laced with spiritual insights on facing our fears, gleaned largely from Schnarr’s Swedenborgian tradition (he is a Swedenborgian minister), the book... Read more
By Padma Kuppa [This post is part of an inter-faith response to Brian McLaren’s new book Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed Cross the Road?, hosted at the Patheos Book Club.] When I was asked to respond to Brian McLaren’s book, I did so with hope. I have written and spoken often about the difficulty in separating cultural and religious identity for many Hindu Americans from India – it is part of why I call my life a Balancing Act. Mclaren’s book provided me... Read more
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