Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment, by Deepak Chopra

Last updated on: September 13, 2010 at 5:37 pm By Guest Contributor

{Excerpted from “Buddha: A Story of Enlightenment” (HarperSanFrancisco, 2007), a novel by Deepak Chopra. Reprinted with permission from HarperSanFrancisco.} The Kingdom of Sakya, 563 BCE One crisp spring day King Suddhodana turned in his saddle to survey the battleﬁeld. He needed a weakness to exploit, and he was conﬁ dent the enemy had left one for him. They always did. His senses were closed to everything else. Screams of the wounded and dying were heightened by the hoarse commands of his... Read more

Understanding Santeria through Stories

Last updated on: August 30, 2010 at 7:26 pm By David Charles

{Ocha’ni Lele. Teachings of the Santeria Gods. Destiny Books 2010. 269 pages. $16.95} Reviewed by Star Foster I love a good story. A good story has a mystery, a moral, a familiarity or a sense of the fantastic. A good story satisfies you down to your bones. Ocha’ni Lele’s book Teachings of the Santeria Gods is chock-full of just such stories. Today when we want to learn about the Gods we often go to books that explain the Gods to us, rather... Read more

Joan Chittister and Rowan Williams: Saying Alleluia, Despite Life’s Challenges

Last updated on: August 3, 2010 at 5:59 pm By David Charles

{Joan Chittister and Rowan Williams. Uncommon Gratitude: Alleluia for All That Is. Liturgical Press 2010. 192 pages. $16.95} Reviewed by Elizabeth Nordquist Here are two leaders of the Christian Church — prominent and outspoken, thoughtful and spiritual — engaged in reflection on a practice that is common to almost every faith tradition, that of gratitude, or praise of the Holy, or as the two of them describe it, “It is the arch-hymn of praise, the ultimate expression of thanksgiving, the... Read more

“Definitive Bonhoeffer biography for the 21st century” from Eric Metaxas

Last updated on: August 3, 2010 at 5:45 pm By David Charles

Author and Editor Jana Riess recently interviewed Eric Metaxas about his major new biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Some highlights: Your subtitle suggests you’ll be looking at four different aspects of Bonhoeffer the man: pastor, martyr, prophet, and spy. Christians are probably used to the first three, but what do most people know about Bonhoeffer as a spy for the Resistance? In 1939, after Hitler declared war on Poland, and after Bonhoeffer returned from his fateful and abbreviated trip to the... Read more

Star Foster Reviews Galina Krasskova, “Exploring the Northern Tradition”

Last updated on: August 3, 2010 at 5:08 pm By David Charles

{Galina Krasskova. Exploring the Northern Tradition. New Page Books 2005. 220 pages. $14.95} Reviewed by Star Foster A good, solid, human and engaging introductory text to a religion, particularly a minority religion, is worth its weight in gold. Crafting an introduction to a religious practice, mythos, cosmology and values is a bit like walking a tightrope: too far to one side creates a text that is inaccessibly esoteric and too far to the other side leaves you with a “dummies... Read more

Craig Detweiler Reviews Paul Verhoeven’s “Jesus of Nazareth”

Last updated on: July 27, 2010 at 5:40 pm By David Charles

{Paul Verhoeven. Jesus of Nazareth. Seven Stories Press 2010. 304 pages. $23.95} Reviewed by Craig Detweiler Imagine this movie trailer: from the director of ”Showgirls” and “Basic Instinct” comes his most revealing project yet—“RoboJesus.” One might expect such a seemingly absurd tagline from provocative Danish filmmaker, Paul Verhoeven. Instead, Verhoeven has written a smart, rigorous and accessible book about Jesus of Nazareth. While rooted in scientific skepticism, Verhoeven also adds a storyteller’s appreciation for Jesus’ subversive parables. In 1986, Paul... Read more

Elizabeth Scalia Reviews James Martin’s “Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything”

Last updated on: July 27, 2010 at 4:57 pm By David Charles

{James Martin. The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life. HarperOne 2010. 432 pages. $26.99} Reviewed by Elizabeth Scalia As Bill Creed, a Jesuit spiritual director, once told me, “In the bright sunshine of God’s love, your shadows begin to emerge.” — James Martin, The Jesuit Guide to Almost Everything; A Spirituality for Real Life Boy, does that resonate with me, and with everyone I know who is serious about deepening their relationship with Christ. Face-to-face with the... Read more

Martha Baker Reviews “Connecting Like Jesus”

Last updated on: July 15, 2010 at 11:12 pm By David Charles

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{Tony Campolo and Mary Albert Darling. Connecting Like Jesus: Practices for Healing, Teaching, and Preaching. Jossey-Bass. 232 pages. $21.95} Reviewed by Martha K. Baker Tony Campolo and Mary Albert Darling set out to write Connecting Like Jesus to prove that “relationships can be radically transformed through integrating communication practices with spiritual practices.” They succeed. In Connecting Like Jesus, the second book they’ve penned together, Campolo and Darling have produced a text both wise and practical. Theirs is a humble effort, never flying too... Read more

Jim Burklo Reviews “The Shack”

Last updated on: July 9, 2010 at 10:17 pm By David Charles

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{William P. Young. The Shack. Windblown Media. 256 pages. $14.99 pb} Reviewed by Jim Burklo I’m a few years late reading The Shack by William P. Young (Windblown Media, 2007), which made a big splash in the world of evangelical Christians. On vacation now, I took the time to read it, and it surprised me in many ways. The protagonist of the novel is Mack, an evangelical Christian whose youngest daughter is kidnapped and murdered in a mountain shack in... Read more

The Lonely Polygamist: An Interview with Brady Udall

Last updated on: June 24, 2010 at 6:19 pm By K. Mulhern

{Brady Udall. The Lonely Polygamist. W.W. Norton & Company 2010. 602 pages. $26.95} Reviewed by David Crumm This is a novel about a very big Mormon family. You’re from a famously big Mormon family yourself. So, let’s start with your place in your own family tree. Your great-great-grandfather was David King Udall, a polygamist. More than a century later, the family tree now includes a former U.S. Secretary of the Interior and U.S. Senators. The “Udall family” page in Wikipedia... Read more