Book Review - period ended 10.1.2006

Book Review/Religious Faith/Christianity/Foster, Richard/Renewing the spirit/Austin American-Statesman/Austin/TX/USA/19-Sep-06//... Christians have been following Foster's guide to spiritual formation — practicing disciplines that help believers imitate Christ — for decades. The magazine Christianity Today ranked his 1978 book, "Celebration of Discipline," among the top 10 books of the 20th century. Foster, a Quaker, began the book with a call for spiritual depth: "Superficiality is the curse of our age," he wrote in the first chapter. "The desperate need today is not for a greater number of intelligent people, or gifted people, but for deep people."

Foster's efforts appeal to Christians across denominational and ideological boundaries, Griffin said, because "Renovaré does not concentrate on differences. It concentrates on unity in Christ Jesus." . ...

Book Review/Quaker History/Slavery//Do we like Jack? Absolutely!/Waterloo Record/Waterloo/Ontario/Canada/16-Sep-06//... This third book, Absolute Honour, another prequel, opens with Jack sailing home from Newport, RI, leaving the warm arms of a wealthy Quaker widow. ...

Book Review/Pacifism///Hamilton novel explores family, war/The Capital Times/Madison/WI/USA/15-Sep-06//... The book is dedicated to your mother. Does Julia (Aaron Maciver's second wife) resemble your mother?

Not really, no. My mother isn't a Quaker. Although I'm sure she considers herself a pacifist, she was not an activist. They share the same sort of spiritual qualities, but she isn't verbatim my mother. The house is the same. ...

Book Review/Conscientious Objection/Religious Faith/Natural Science/Misbegotten sons/Economist/London/England/USA/21-Sep-06//... It is easy to denounce such deluded zealots, but what relation do they have to ordinary, “sensible” religious people? The problem, as Mr Dawkins sees it, is that religious moderates make the world safe for fundamentalists, by promoting faith as a virtue and by enforcing an overly pious respect for religion. (Why is it easier for a Quaker to avoid combat duty as a conscientious objector than someone who simply deplores violence?) Furthermore, the argument goes, any positive aspects of religion can be replaced by equally beneficial non-religious substitutes. ...

Book Review/Christianity//Realistic: Writer appreciates pitfalls of having loyal following/Winston-Salem Journal/Winston-Salem/NC/USA/20-Sep-06//... Do you mean Nestorian? Do you mean Greek Orthodox or possibly Russian Orthodox? Do you mean Quaker? ... I prefer people to be more specific. ...

Book Review///The Lay of the Land by Richard Ford/Guardian Unlimited/London/England/UK/16-Sep-06//... Number 24 Bondurant Court, where lights are on inside, is built in the solid, monied, happy family-home-as-refuge style, houses Haddam boasts in fulsome supply, owing to its staunch Dutch-Quaker beginnings and to a brief nineteenth-century craving for ornamental English-German prettiness. ...