Pope Francis (Life) delivers a series of compassionate if flat meditations on seeking joy in the mundane. Contending that God “created us because he wants us to be happy”—and that despite earthly challenges, he has given humans the tools to cultivate a sunnier perspective—Francis encourages readers to perform acts of charity; to love others rather than get swept up in materialistic lifestyles that spark “unhappiness, apathy and... boredom”; and take risks even if it means making mistakes. Much of his advice boils down to centering one’s life around God and other people, which he characterizes as a “revolutionary” act in a world ruled by self-obsession and superficiality. While such lessons may not offer much new insight or be as “against-the-grain” as the author suggests (even as he frequently relies on inspirational quotes from Francis of Assissi, J.R.R. Tolkien, and others), Francis’s down-to-earth prose and matter-of-fact guidance makes for a sound reminder to seek the good in a world filled with bad news. Catholics will be reassured and inspired. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 11/08/2024 | Details & Permalink

Wroe (Six Facets of Light) draws on her life and her career as obituaries editor for the Economist in this freewheeling exploration of “the unique and essential part of ourselves” most synonymous with the soul and the challenges of capturing it on the page. According to Wroe, the clues to this essential self are found in the particulars: a sugar cake whose sweetness evokes a great aunt; “the gesture of taking someone’s pulse, touching the fingers gently to the wrist, then falling silent to listen.” Exploring how other artists aim to capture their subjects’ “life-force,” she notes that figurative artists complete the first study of a figure in “a minute, to catch not the shape or the mass but... to seize something more,” while poets including Stanley Kunitz traverse the “boundaries between what they observe and themselves.” In the end, Wroe suggests the soul might be best defined as a transitory force that is rooted in a love that operates “according to its own laws. Instead of pausing over our troubles, it pours itself out continually among them.” Wroe delivers her perceptive insights into life, death, and the struggle for meaning in luminous prose, though her rapid shifts between topics (she moves from Fidel Castro’s mistress to chess champion Bobby Fischer in a few sentences) can feel haphazard. Still, spiritually curious readers will be captivated by Wroe’s wide-ranging quest to understand what comprises a life. (Oct.)

Reviewed on 11/08/2024 | Details & Permalink

Comedian Merritt (I Take My Coffee Black) recounts his four-year struggle with cancer in this witty, digressive, and often moving memoir. After he was diagnosed with lipiosarcoma, a rare cancer that originates in the body’s fatty tissues, at age 44—and underwent emergency surgery to remove a 27-pound mass from his abdomen—Merritt learned that the cancer had not been fully eradicated and would need to be scanned every six months. As his life devolved into half-year “countdowns,” Merritt was forced to shift out of “strong Black man mode” and grapple with his emotions and his faith. At the same time, the Black Lives Matter movement prompted him to consider his illness in light of what it means to be Black in America (noting that he and George Floyd were nearly the same height and weight, Merritt writes of his remorse that Floyd is gone “and I’m still here”). Though other musings can feel less tethered to the central narrative, Merritt draws out the humor and pathos of his illness with impressive self-awareness (within a week after surgery, he went from “having a heart-to-heart with God, promising that I would never take life for granted” to “ripping my care nurse a new one because she didn’t get me a sippy cup of juice fast enough”). This entertains and inspires. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 11/01/2024 | Details & Permalink

In her rigorous debut, Haqqani, an assistant professor of Islamic studies at Mercer University, uses gender issues as a lens through which to explore how Muslim Americans “decide when past Islamic legal precedents are open to renegotiation.” Drawing on interviews with American Muslims in Austin, Tex., she finds that views on such issues as female inheritance and the validity of Muslim women’s interfaith marriages are complex and varied, and sometimes reveal how different parts of the Muslim world are at odds. For example, many lay Muslims reject the Quran’s inheritance rules—namely, that daughters receive half the inheritance their brothers get—still embraced by the scholarly community, while current prohibitions on female-led mixed prayer mostly mirror premodern viewpoints (though some respondents expressed a desire for change). Haqqani concludes that a “mainstream Islam” does not exist—scholars and laity have been disagreeing (with themselves and one another) for centuries, shaping a flexible tradition of legal interpretation that relies on shifting social contexts, historical realities, and identity. She concludes with a hopeful call for Muslim women and the Islamic community to challenge Islam’s “gendered foundation” with the confidence that they’re not “transgressing against an unassailable tradition” but rather embracing its innate fluidity. Scrupulously researched and analyzed, this is an excellent resource for scholars of Islamic and gender studies. (Nov.)

Reviewed on 10/25/2024 | Details & Permalink

While cast in popular culture as a “chubby little red guy with horns and a pitchfork,” Satan—along with other evil spirits “whose sole mission is to oppose God and his plans”—constitutes a pressing threat to believers, according to this overzealous guide. Pastor Pokluda (Why Do I Do What I Don’t Want to Do?) characterizes “the Enemy” as a pervasive force with “an active plot to cause you pain and suffering” that particularly enjoys “enslaving” believers to “sin, addiction, and anything else” that distracts from their faith. Much of the author’s advice comes down to living a life so suffused with faith that the devil can find no way in—a “constant, daily process” of “filling your mind with truth” via scripture, religious podcasts, and worship songs. Unfortunately, Pokluda’s passion too frequently shades into hyperbole and fearmongering (“When you are scrolling through social media comparing your life to others, [Satan] is involved. When you want to buy something you hope will make you happy, he is involved.... You are at war”). To make matters worse, the book’s explanation for why God created Satan in the first place—namely, that his temptation gives believers an opportunity to cement their trust in God—feels insufficient. This fails to convince. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 10/25/2024 | Details & Permalink

Harber, a marketing manager at digital ministry Endeavor, addresses his substantive debut to Christians whose loved ones are having doubts about their beliefs. Examining some of the factors that trigger deconstruction—a “crisis of faith that leads to the questioning of core doctrines... [and] settles into a faith that is different from before”—he details how churches overrun by partisan politics and a “cultural Christianity” that prizes celebrity pastors over true shepherds of faith have left believers feeling anxious and alienated. In Harber’s view, rigid, all-or-nothing religious communities that discourage doubts end up widening cracks in one’s faith, causing believers to pick apart “doctrines like heaven, hell, creation... and the trustworthiness of Scripture” until the “whole sweater has unraveled.” Clarifying that this needn’t mean the death of one’s faith, Harber outlines how believers can rebuild their Christianity (and encourage others to do the same) by embracing God’s complexities, among other strategies. While the guidance isn’t as user-friendly as Harber advertises (concrete suggestions for change are relatively few, and casual readers will have a tough time with such terminology as “moralistic therapeutic deism”), his detailed assessment of deconstruction on individual and social levels enlightens, and his promise of a path that balances doubt and faith inspires. It’s a comprehensive consideration of a pressing issue affecting today’s church. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 10/25/2024 | Details & Permalink

In her vulnerable follow-up to Becoming Free Indeed, bestseller Vuolo recounts how she began to change the approval-seeking mindset she internalized during her upbringing on the TV series 19 Kids and Counting. Raised in a “controlling, man-centered, and legalistic” religious system where her ability to follow rules was “at the core of how I saw myself,” the author recalls “doing everything I knew to avoid any kind of confrontation or failure... to be the most ‘perfect’ I could be.” Soon after she got married, those efforts grew stifling, and she decided to break free of “the fear of rejection, imperfection, and criticism.” Describing how God’s acceptance helped her serve others from a “place of genuine joy,” she explores how readers can own their flaws in order to build more genuine relationships, engage in productive conflict, and surround themselves with people who don’t judge them for their weaknesses. Candidly admitting that her struggle to abandon approval-seeking is ongoing (“I’ve come a long way but, my friend, I’ve got a long way to go”), she makes particularly salient points about how people-pleasing exacerbates loneliness—“You can be all alone in the midst of a crowd when you’re more worried about messing up than you are about making progress”—and how it undercuts faith in a God who “created you to... thrive in healthy community.” This inspires. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 10/25/2024 | Details & Permalink

Zen teacher Rhodes explains in her openhearted debut how asking “deep questions about life” can foster self-knowledge. She contends that readers can use kong-ans—questions like “What am I?” and “How is it just now?”—to tap into a “mind before thinking” that lacks “prejudgments, opinions, desires, anger, and ignorance,” and makes space for wisdom and compassion to emerge. She then shows how to use this mindset to grapple with such challenges as climate change (readers should “focus on trusting ourselves to walk into this unfolding universe with open eyes, courage, and a sense of how we can help”) and finding one’s vocation. While those seeking a systematic program for Buddhist practice will have to look elsewhere, the author’s refreshingly playful outlook produces many approachable and charming bits of wisdom (“We have everything we need to become completely awake and realized. Then we can be fulfilled selling insurance or being a saint, or being a saint who sells insurance. The only thing that matters is that our direction” is “woven into our existence”). Spiritual seekers looking to refresh their practice will be energized. (Dec.)

Reviewed on 10/18/2024 | Details & Permalink

Pastor Chandler (Stop Waiting for Permission) provides a retrograde guide to Christian dating. Stressing that God designed “romantic relationships between men and women... to move toward marriage,” he outlines a road map that begins with pinpointing desired traits in a partner. From there, he tells readers how to seek the advice of “seasoned travelers” (long-married parents and pastors), pick up on “signs” that a relationship is thriving or failing (red flags include “unhealthy emotional responses” to both positive and negative events), and navigate engagements and breakups. Chandler’s focus on “intentionality” produces some specific and sensible suggestions, as when he encourages readers to seek counseling for trauma or anxiety while they’re still single in order to enter a relationship with a greater level of self-knowledge. Unfortunately, he more frequently delivers tired advice for adhering to stereotypical gender roles (women are instructed that “at some point early on, you’ve gotta let the man take the lead”), avoiding platonic friendships between the sexes, and finding love on a rigid timeline (those 22 or older who don’t want to be married right away have a “massive problem,” according to Chandler). Only the most conservative of evangelical singles need apply. (Jan.)

Reviewed on 10/18/2024 | Details & Permalink

Day (Catholic Activism Today), an associate professor of religion at the Franciscan School of Theology, and James C. Cavendish, an associate professor of sociology at the University of South Florida, team up with other scholars to deliver a robust study of the state of modern American Catholicsm. Drawing from surveys conducted in 2017 with 706 American Catholics, the authors paint a grim picture of a church in which parish life is felt by more than half of adherents to be “tenuous or nonexistent”; clergy’s moral authority is eroding due to sexual abuse crises; and leadership’s silence on issues of racial justice has spurred resentment among Catholics of color. Meanwhile, the Vatican has attempted to stem departures from the faith (roughly 6.5 Catholics leave the church for every new convert) with an ethos of “meeting people where they are,” or tailoring church teachings and initiatives to “affective expressions of faith already present” in congregations. However, that approach, advocated by Pope Francis, has caused some clergy to fear that Catholic principles are being watered down. Drawing on rigorous statistical analysis, the authors provide a frank but hopeful portrait of a church in flux, and conclude with pragmatic suggestions for improvement, including reconciliation efforts with sexual abuse survivors and Catholic communities of color. Scholars of American religion will want to take a look. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 10/04/2024 | Details & Permalink