Reviewed Elsewhere [Vol. 1, #45]
Byron Borger of Hearts and Minds Books
Reviews Walsh and Bouma-Prediger’s BEYOND HOMELESSNESS
http://www.heartsandmindsbooks.com/reviews/beyond_homelessness_christian/
In my enthusiastic announcement at the BookNotes blog this June I confidently stated that Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement by Steven Bouma-Prediger and Brian J. Walsh (Eerdmans; $24.00) will be the Book of the Year. Perhaps I was a bit rash, since so many truly great titles have subsequently been released (I admit I’m writing this postdating it, in the fall since I didn’t get to this review earlier.) Still, I insist that this book is one of the most important in ages, a thrilling, if demanding, read, and a great example of the wonderful kinds of books that are being written these days. This book is deeply, profoundly Christian, radically faithful, and wondrously interdisciplinary. There are a few trouble spots and a few annoying tics, but my criticism, which I will raise eventually, should not keep you from taking it seriously. I again announce that I suspect it will be named as the Hearts & Minds book of the year.
There are lots of fine books, many good ones this year, and we are grateful to be in the business of recommending many. Every now and then, though, one comes along that stands out, and although it may not be for everyone, we truly try to promote it widely. We are often told that customers appreciate this, since some of the best religious books are not sold in typical bookstores. I say this from time to time, I know, but I couldn’t be more sincere or more urgent: for serious Christians, those who care about how God’s Word impacts and shapes our thinking and living, who desire an integrated worldview that can propel us towards distinctive cultural engagement, who wants to learn more about the nature of our times—Jesus told us to read the signs, recall—Beyond Homelessness is a must. Yes, a true must-read. As Marva Dawn puts it in her very enthusiastic recommendation, “Broadly researched and splendidly written, this book is essential reading for anyone who wants truly to comprehend and mend our culture.” Amen.
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Read the full review:
http://www.heartsandmindsbooks.com/reviews/beyond_homelessness_christian/
BEYOND HOMELESSNESS:
CHRISTIAN FAITH IN A CULTURE OF DISCPLACEMENT
Brian Walsh and Steven Bouma-Prediger.
Paperback: Eerdmans, 2008
Buy now: [ Doulos Christou Books $20 ] [ Amazon ]
BOOKFORUM reviews two books on the meaning of death
in the aftermath of the Civil Warhttp://bookforum.com/inprint/015_04/2999
The Civil War was by far the bloodiest war in American history. The Union and Confederate armies suffered more than 620,000 fatalities— roughly equivalent to the American dead of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War put together. Among all combatants, the death rate was six times that of World War II; among Southerners, three times that of Northerners. Noncombatants, too, were swept up in this first modern, total war: An estimated fifty thousand civilians died. The numbers can be fleshed out with images of suppurating wounds, severed limbs, and mass graves. Scholars have documented this suffering, popularizers have sensationalized it, but few retrospective accounts have sustained a focus on its moral and emotional meanings for the people who experienced it.
Most Civil War chroniclers have lifted their gazes from battlefield losses to political gains—the emancipation of African-American slaves and the emergence of the United States as a modern nation. The war, from this view, was a Christian saga of suffering and redemption. Its outcome was the “new birth of freedom” envisioned by Lincoln at Gettysburg, a more democratic society purged of the original sin of slavery. This Civil War story lies at the heart of the American political mythos; it also resonates with fundamental human longings—above all, the desire for mass death to make sense, to fit into some larger pattern of cosmic meaning. No wonder the grand narrative possesses so much staying power.
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Read the full review:
http://bookforum.com/inprint/015_04/2999
AWAITING THE HEAVENLY COUNTRY.
Mark Schantz.
Hardcover: Cornell UP, 2008
Buy now: [ Doulos Christou Books $20 ] [ Amazon ]
THIS REPUBLIC OF SUFFERING:
DEATH AND THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR.
Drew Gilpin Faust.
Hardcover: Knopf, 2008
Buy now: [ Doulos Christou Books $22 ] [ Amazon ]
Andy Whitman Reviews the most recent cd from Aradhna
AMRIT VANIhttp://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/whitman/2008/02/aradhnaamrit-vani.html…
[W]hen an album comes along that fits squarely within the Worship Music tradition, and I actually like it, then there may be some evidence that hell has begun to freeze over. But it’s happened with Aradhna. The four core members of the band – Chris Hale, Peter and Fiona Hicks, and Travis McAfee – are as American as their names would indicate. But they’ve all spent significant portions of their lives in Bangladesh, Nepal, and India. And therein lies the strange and wondrous merger of two worlds that contributes to the uniqueness of the band’s music, and to the surprising vigor of Amrit Vani. There are sitars here. And tablas. They sound as exotic as you would expect. And there are acoustic guitar arpeggios and gently lilting violin solos that wouldn’t sound out of place on a very western Windham Hill album. It works beautifully. The lyrics are sung in Hindi, and far from being an impediment, the language barrier is actually a great help (see “apple of my eye” and “wind beneath my wings” above). Like Sigur Ros, sometimes the indecipherable is greatly preferable to the old, tired formulas. And by the time we reach the final song, “Narahari,” the music swells and soars, the ramshackle choir enters sounding like the Hindustani angelic host, and something remarkable happens. I find myself worshipping God.
Amrit Vani digs deep in a contemplative, meditative way that few worship albums even begin to approach. And it’s quite lovely. Even in the car.
Read the full review:
http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/whitman/2008/02/aradhnaamrit-vani.html
AMRIT VANI
Aradhna.
Indie
Stream songs from Amrit Vani
or purchase the Cd directly from the band:
Aradhnamusic.com
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