Book Recommendations / Resources

The Confessions - By St. Augustine, an amazing life changing book. Lovely use of imagery. Studied it in college but re-read it recently for enjyment and liked it.

Hi!

MeditationMom wrote:

Hi Everybody -
(...)I'd love to hear a little more on this book and the other's mentioned.

If you click on the links you’ll be able to search inside the book to see if it’s something you'd like to by or borrow at the library, and if you scroll down there are several book reviews.

Here are some of the reviews about Awareness

By "kaioatey":

"This is a sweet and funny and profound book which warmed up my heart and consistently made me laugh. De Mello was a universally respected Jesuit priest who managed to go far beyond the orthodox catholic dogma and into the very heart of spiritual alivennes and connectedness. Several centuries earlier a similar attempt was made by Loyola, another Jesuit troublemaker; however, in A., DeMello dispenses with the extraneous mumbo jumbo and goes straight to the heart of the matter. God is presence itself and through awareness we are simultaneously connected to who we truly are and to the sacredness of all life. De Mello reminds us time and again of this simple yet profound truth; i especially admire his skilfull use of anecdote and parable, which reminds me of another great spiritual teacher.."

"A reader" says:

"This book pulled me out of a state of contant anxiety and depression. After reading it, I find myself looking at the world, to borrow de Mello's metaphor, as a beautiful symphony. My life has become a constant joy. While I have read books on mindfulness and also books by Jiddu Krishnamurti, none have had the impact that this book has had on me.
One of the reasons that I believe that this book was had such an impact is that it addressed a point in my life where I had become disillusioned and doubful of the ideas of the afterlife and a personal God as taught in Christianity. If this is you, this book is definitely for you. However, if you are a person who is happy and content in your ideas in a personal God, and you're certain of a personal afterlife, I'd actually discourage you from reading this book. It will likely only upset you."

(Personally I didn't have any problems with both finding the book helpful and at the same time keeping my belief in a personal God at the time I read it the first time. As I see it, de Mello doesn't say that "God is personal" or "God is not personal", he just say that God is beyond our concepts and that clinging to concepts about God might be a problem. M.)

About Dead Man Walking, review by Michael K. McKeon:

" While the manner in which the story is presented is quite readable and engaging, the strength of this work is in the important and poignant experiences and issues the author presents. Reading this book one is struck by the incredible depth and character of the author. She is clearly a person of profound integrity and compassion, yet does not convey the impression of being judgemental nor saccarine.

Prejean confronted the issue of capital punishment by embracing the situations of two of the least sympathetic situations perhaps possible: the men executed had committed heinous, unforgiveable crimes, ones that are alone horrifying to read about. However, in an incredibly objective fashion the author presents their atrocities in the context of the circumstances of these mens' lives which, while it does not in any way mitigate their crimes, does make their predilection for commiting them perhaps more comprehensible.

Besides the fortitude Prejean demonstrated while supporting these men through their executions, including witnessing them, one is moved by her character in embracing the need to engage in dialog with the relatives of the victims of these mens' crimes. She shows incredible compassion in presenting their circumstances and suffering as well. While opposed to capital punishment Prejean fairly represents the perspective of those demanding vengance. The author also, in a very subtle fashion presents how the criminal justice system is cynically manipulated for political purposes, and the immense economic cost involved in executing prisoners."

I hope this helps!:)

A Case for Christ

http://www.ucb2go.co.uk/?action=fiche&id=694&t=the_case_for_christ

I got it off UCB2GO.CO.UK.

Fairly into it now, a good read and offers extra insight into the reasons why Jesus is the one...

I would recommend it to believers and skeptics alike.

Post-Christendom by Stuart Murray.

Murray is an anabaptist who traces the corruption of Christianity into Christendom under the Emperor Constantine and his successors, both political and ecclesiastical.

He also traces how small groups of Christian believers have tried to remain faithful despite persecution throughout the centuries.

I didn't agree with all of Murray's conclusions, but I agree with him that the decline of Christendom is not necessarily a bad thing.

Another book I've been reading is The Last Moghul by William Dalrymple.

It's not actually a Christian book, so Brian, feel free to delete this post if I'm straying outside the limits of the thread. But history is a passion of mine, and this book describes the great mutiny of the sepoys in India when they believed that they were being forced to bite the end off cartridges that were greased with pork & beef fat (an urban legend, but one that managed to get Hindus and Muslims equally incensed).

The Moghul, the last of a long-line of rulers that had once ruled India, was a moderate Sufi Muslim and basically a puppet king controlled by the British, but he became the focal point for a rebellion that turfed the British temporarily out of Delhi.

I found the book interesting due to its treatment of the Anglican chaplain to Delhi (a key figure in pre-mutiny tensions), whom the author disapprovingly accuses of prosletysing. The chaplain, his daughter, and his Indian converts all got killed in the mutiny.

I've just finished reading A Concise History of the Crusades by Thomas Madden. The guy is a top notch medieval historian & does a great job of explaining the complex motivation behind the Crusades. He also explodes a lot of the modern myths about the Crusades that present them as exceptionally bloodthirsty & pointless.

I'm tackling the OT and at the moment, and I'm coming out of it with more questions than answers.

Hi Fanny personally to me that sounds like a good thing because it sounds like you are reading it on a deep level but onto some of my favourite christian books.

The first is one I am reading at present, it is called "What return can I make" by M. Scott Peck, it is specifically christian that combines hymns, art work and writing. It is very beautiful and although it is out of print you can get copies either through amazon or abebooks.co.uk or abebooks.com. I would recommend the tape that comes with it because the hymns are really joyful and uplighting. Each section discusses a single theme, be it faith, Jesus, conversion and so forth (I haven't finished it yet). A lot of Scott Peck's book have a strong religious theme so I would reccomend all of his books and the last one he wrote before he died dealt with the devil entitled "glimpses of the devil" and deals with exorcism, it may not be everyone's cup of tea but I enjoyed it.

"Awareness" by Antony de Mello, again a deeply profound book and one I read several times, I also have the CDs which is great to listen to. Another wonderful book is called "Finding Sanctuary" by Fr. Christopher Jameison, you can check his website on the internet, he is the abbot of Worth monastery and it was covered on the BBC. I listened to him in Oxford and the book is amazing offering spiritual exercises and again deals with various religious themes.

On the fictional front, Susan Howatch writes wonderful books based on characters within the church (they are predominately Church of England), I particularly love the St. Benet series - "a question of intergrity", "the high flyer" and "the heartbreaker".

I like a lot of medieval christian literature and two that come to mind are "The cloud of unknowing" that deals with the mystery of God and christian experience and the other is called "Dark night of the soul" that deals with dry patches one experiences in their spiritual life.

Sacred Causes: Religion and Politics from the European Dictators to Al Qaeda by Michael Burleigh.

Burleigh is a historian who has previously specialised in the rise of the Third Reich. In this book he examines totalitarian regimes and their relationships to religion. I learned a lot of new information from this book, but found the author's fierce pro-Catholic bias a bit hard going at times. For example, in trying to exonerate Pius XII from the charge of collaborating with the Nazis he feels he has to belittle the activities of all other denominations and churches. In one notorious passage, for example, he refers to Martin Neimoller as being "incarcerated, none too onerously, in Sachsenhausen concentration camp".

Overall, however, a good read and useful for anyone who wants to understand the fundamentally anti-Christian nature of the 20th Century's repressive regimes.

My latest read was actually recommended to me by one of our atheist posters on this board. From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple recounts how the author retraced the steps of John Moschos, the great Byzantine traveller-monk of the 6th Century.

It gives a fascinating insight into the history of forms of Christianity (Orthodox, Coptic etc) that we are usually not familiar with here in the West. It also describes how Christian communities are still surviving in the face of Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East.

I had already enjoyed Dalrymple's writing on India, but now I am impressed at the wide range of his knowledge and interests.

robindch wrote:

Sounds like my recommendation. I'm currently re-reading it here in sunny Kiev, as (a) it's a cracking good read and (b) it's got some good stuff on Armenia (at least the turkish side) which I'll be getting to shortly if I make it through Abkhazia and Georgia intact.

Yes, Robin, and thank you for your recommendation. It was much more helpful than some of your other posts.

When you get to Armenia see if you can visit the main monastery in Yerevan where they claim to have a piece of Noah's Ark. I'm sure JC would appreciate a photo. (It certainly looks a very old piece of wood - but beyond that, who knows?) The monks, I understand, also believe that the foundation stone of their monastery is the same rock on which Noah offered sacrifices after coming out of the Ark. If you get time then get out of Yerevan and up into the mountains. I once visited Sevan at this time of year and it was beautifully cool. You can go sailing on a mountain lake and they grow wonderful fruit which thrives at that altitude.

I will be passing through Kiev next month on my way to Donetsk. While you're in the Ukraine try the pelmeni (stuffed dumplings). They do them so much better than the Russians, and my mouth is watering just at the thought of a dish of pelmeni smothered in sour cream.

Worth thinking about, isn't it?

Yes, I often think about it. I agree wholeheartedly that it was only through the action of the Holy Spirit that God preserved his truth and guarded us from errors and heresy.