Three Religion Reviews Coming in Publishers Weekly on September 25

-- Publishers Weekly, 9/13/2006

Short Trip to the Edge: Where Earth Meets Heaven—A Pilgrimage
Scott Cairns. Harper San Francisco, $22.95 (256p) ISBN 978-0-06-084322-9

As a former Baptist who passed through the Presbyterian and Episcopal churches on his way to the Orthodox Church, Cairns, a poet and professor of literature and creative writing at the University of Missouri, offers readers a unique and often compelling perspective on life as a pilgrim on Mount Athos, Orthodoxy’s holy mountain. Recounting three visits to the mystical bastion of male monasticism and another trip to an Orthodox monastery in Arizona, Cairns writes transparently of his struggles to grow in the life of prayer as he searches, mostly in vain, for a spiritual father who can help him. His accounts of traveling to the various monasteries on Mount Athos are earthy and blessedly not saccharine, yet beautifully accented with descriptions of times when he was particularly moved by an experience of worship. Especially touching is his narrative of the pilgrimage he makes with his son, Benjamin, who affords a fresh perspective on all that his father has previously seen and related. Cairns includes several of his poems, which serve as well-placed enhancements to the text. His open attitude in explaining matters of faith makes this book suitable for a broad audience of readers on spiritual journeys. (Mar.)

What Makes You Not a Buddhist
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse. Shambhala, $19.95 (128p) ISBN 978-159030-406-8

Here at last is a crisp new voice in Tibetan Buddhism. Khyentse, a lama from an influential family and Buddhist lineage in Bhutan, is also a filmmaker, responsible for the sleeper hit The Cup, about a group of Tibetan monks obsessed with soccer. The monk brings the same multicultural fluency to his first book. He can make references to Viagra and Camilla Parker-Bowles as easily as he can tell stories of the Buddha’s life. With confidence tempered by wit, he cuts to the core of Buddhism: four “seals”—truths—that make up a Buddhist “right view” of the world and existence. This book is not, repeat not, about meditation. Instead, it looks at everyday life through a Buddhist lens, understanding happiness and suffering from that perspective. Enlightenment ends suffering but also trumps happiness. Khyentse writes persuasively about the importance of understanding emptiness: disappointment lessens, expectations soften, and change is not a shock. There is much food for thought in this short book for Buddhist students and for anyone interested in the ongoing adaptation of traditional Eastern wisdom into postmodern Western settings. “You can change the cup,” Khyentse writes, “but the tea remains pure.” (Jan. 9)

The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On
Dawn Eden. W, $13.99 paper (224p) ISBN 0-8499-1311-X

New York Daily News columnist and blogger Eden offers a Christian apologetic for premarital chastity, aimed at “marriage-minded single women who’d had enough of the Sex and the City lifestyle.” Eden herself is a convert to both Christianity and chastity, and now an unmarried 30-something, she’s persuaded that chastity is more “hope-filled” and “vibrant” than sex outside of marriage. She draws on John Paul II’s theology of the body to explain why Christians should reserve sex for marriage; “our bodies are living metaphors of God’s loving nature,” she argues, and to have sex casually is to make a false promise of total commitment. Eden doesn’t just theologize—she gives practical advice about how women should relate to their parents (if yours are divorced, as Eden’s are, you should resist the temptation to blame them for bad sexual choices you’ve made) and masturbation (avoid it—you’ll just feel lonely afterward). But trading on familiar (and tired) gender stereotypes, she notes that men lose interest in women who pursue them. In a sea of evangelical books on chastity that read like they were written for college students, Eden’s will stand out as a book for grownups and should be popular with more mature Christian women. (Dec. 5)