Happiness and suffering are not antithetical—they’re inextricably linked, according to this lucid English-language debut from Tibetan Buddhist teacher Wangdrak. Instead of spending one’s life avoiding pain, readers should harness the “power, energy, and spiritual growth” within suffering to make way for an “all-pervasive happiness” rooted in the mind’s “pure true nature,” and eschew the “grasping” that causes one to “shrink away from the totality of experiences.” Contending that the attachment to self is the root of suffering, Wangdrak offers guidance on cultivating gratitude, using meditation to receive positive and negative stimuli with equanimity, and practicing “tonglen,” wherein practitioners take on the suffering of others. Moving from meditation basics to thornier concepts such as making peace with physical illness, Wangdrak builds a convincing if challenging case for embracing pain as fuel for personal development and the source of a deeper contentment. Buddhists of all stripes will find value. (June)

Reviewed on 04/19/2024 | Details & Permalink

Harvard law professor Feldman (The Broken Constitution) delivers a sweeping overview of Jewish ideas “as they exist today, and as they are being transformed for the future.” Eschewing the traditional classifications of Judaism (Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, etc.) in favor of categories that better reflect “how God and spiritual morality are conceived internally,” Feldman breaks down what he defines as Traditionalists, Progressives, Evolutionists, and Godless Jews. He examines the benefits and drawbacks of each group (Traditionalists, for example, live in highly supportive communities that are rife with sexism and gender hierarchies), and their views on issues related to God, Jewish life, and Israel. Rather than anointing one group as the future of Judaism, he advances an inclusive notion of all Jews as members of a family that finds in God and one another “love and embrace along with contention.” The same holds true even for “godless Jews and cultural Jews,” who in their nonbelief are “struggling with God too, whether they like it or not.” Feldman’s methodical analysis takes little for granted—not even the value of Jewish survival in and of itself (“We should hope to preserve Jewishness only if doing so reflects our deepest values,” he writes). This will be a welcome resource for readers curious about Judaism’s past, future, and purpose. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 04/19/2024 | Details & Permalink

Rice University English professor Morton (The Stuff of Life) presents an erudite theological meditation on the ecological “hell” into which the world has descended. According to the author, humans were created to be blessed inhabitants of Eden, “entwined with... oxygen breathed from leaves and birdsong.” Yet, unaware of their blessedness due to the “foundational error” of “original sin,” humans have fallen prey to fascism; “settler-colonial Christianity,” which paves the way for corporations that harm the earth; and a “toxic theism” that holds sway on social media, undermining faith in science and social institutions. Morton draws loosely on the notion of Christian mercy and the “liberation phenomenology of African American Christianity” to counteract the judgmental ethos of “revenge-based environmentalism,” though what this new model might look like in practice never quite comes into focus. Instead, a mystical meditation on the author’s 2023 return to Christianity after years spent practicing Buddhism adds a final twist to an account whose tendency toward ambiguity and paradox makes for challenging reading. Still, persistent readers will find insights into the ways religion shapes conceptions of science and the self. (May)

Reviewed on 04/19/2024 | Details & Permalink

Rabbi Allen explores in her stimulating debut the “immense potential of creativity” to cast “ancient Jewish wisdom” in a new light. Defined here as a way of working through “thorny issues within ourselves” and the world while remaining “open to new insights,” the creative process inspires readers to use their experiences to interpret traditional Jewish texts in new ways, yielding “energizing, exciting, and useful... insights.” More broadly, creativity also offer new angles from which to understand key elements of faith. For example, Allen suggests that the knowledge that God fashioned creation from the “void” can inspire readers to experience “darkness... [and] chaos” as “generative.” Through a clever mix of artistic exercises and rabbinic wisdom, Allen encourages readers to “peel back layers of what we think we know” to construct new understandings of their faith and themselves. It’s a unique and invigorating lens on Judaism. (July)

Reviewed on 04/12/2024 | Details & Permalink

“Technological innovations” are required to manage the ill effects of climate change on urban landscapes, according to this informative if irksome debut. Ecological engineer Galle recounts efforts by herself and others to implement such technical fixes. These include the installation of sensors to notify arborists when the soil around trees in a park in Maastricht, Netherlands, has dried out, in order to halt a mass die-off; the use of LiDAR (light detection and ranging) sensors mounted on vehicles to monitor the health of trees in New York City and Singapore by collecting hard-to-record data, such as tree canopy size; and the deployment of AI-directed drones that spray flame-retardant chemicals to fight wildfires in cities in Southern California. Galle’s finely detailed microhistories of city employees attempting to find more efficient and effective ways to do their jobs fascinate. But as the stories reach their climactic moment of technological innovation, they start to sound more like promotional material (“DIOPSIS will give local authorities the information they need to prove the incredible value of targeted investments and maximize cities’ outcomes”). While the narrative is instructive on a granular level, its boosterish tone feels at odds with the dire situations under discussion, in which excessive monitoring is necessary merely to mitigate worsening conditions. This disappoints. (June)

Reviewed on 04/12/2024 | Details & Permalink

Tebow, winner of the 2017 Miss Universe pageant, debuts with a sincere invitation for readers to separate their identity from earthly accomplishments and reinvest it in their faith. After finishing out her tenure as Miss Universe, the author “watched her identity slip through her fingers” as she “handed over my crown, and with it a giant part of myself.” Time spent languishing in a “no-man’s-land” of personal and career uncertainty taught her to swap out self-confidence rooted in accolades for God’s “everlasting and unchanging” love, accept waiting periods as part of “God’s plan,” and better understand that “life on earth is temporary, but... our ultimate hope lies in eternity,” a perspective readers can emulate by connecting with God through prayer, journaling, or serving others. (Tebow also reminds readers that even while waiting for the next step in God’s plan, they should appreciate the good in the present moment: “God... doesn’t want us to go through life only to look up at the end and realize we missed it.”) Though the glittery pageant industry world of fake eyelashes, hair curlers, and simultaneous privilege and enormous pressure won’t be relatable to most, Tebow’s advice on how to harness God’s “purpose, hope, and ultimately victory” has widespread appeal. Christian women will be inspired and renewed by Tebow’s uplifting message. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 04/12/2024 | Details & Permalink

Pastor Dobbins debuts with an ill-considered guide for Christians who’ve endured sexual abuse, judgment and exclusion from pewmates, and other forms of “church hurt.” Though he acknowledges that “the place that should be known for lifting burdens is too often known for adding to them,” Dobbins generally recommends staying within the church rather than leaving it (“Asking God to move in your life without [the church] is like asking a carpenter to build without a hammer or a surgeon to heal without a scalpel”). He offers advice for retaining faith amid crisis, harnessing “God’s Spirit” to forgive offenders when appropriate, and remembering that God has a plan (sexual abuse survivors are assured they’ve reached a “crucial turning point where [their] testimony is being shaped by God”). Despite the author’s positive intentions, the offensive tone, dizzying lack of nuance (he conflates the shame he felt after seeing pornography with the trauma of those who have endured “physical, violent, or even criminal” sexual abuse), and frequent contradictions (after devoting a chapter to encouraging readers to “stay planted” at their current church community, Dobbins writes that “the change we need is another church”) make this more of a harm than a help. Christians will be best off giving it a wide berth. (June)

Reviewed on 04/12/2024 | Details & Permalink

Pope Francis (A Good Life) provides a plainspoken overview of how some of the most significant events of the 20th and early 21st centuries shaped his life and morals. Among other episodes, he examines how the news from Nazi Germany he heard during his childhood in Argentina awoke him to “the persecution of Jews”; remembers watching the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall, a recollection that leads him to call for Christians to build “bridges instead of barriers”; and suggests that the events of September 11 offer a lesson in the importance of decrying “the use of the name of God to justify slaughter.” Elsewhere, Francis covers the creation of the EU, the 2007–2008 Great Recession, and the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite a tendency to meander (as when his recollection of the 1969 moon landing awkwardly launches into a critique of technology’s ills), readers will be fascinated by the insights into how these historical events influenced a transformative pope who broke with his more conservative predecessors by recognizing and blessing same-sex civil unions and entertaining the possibility that atheists could go to heaven. Catholics will value this chance to see the leader of their church in a fresh light. (Mar.)

Reviewed on 04/12/2024 | Details & Permalink

Ghostwriter French (co-author with of Home and Away) turns her gaze inward for this candid memoir. A lifelong conservative who collaborated on the biographies of such high-profile right-wing figures as Sarah Palin, French found herself “at odds with [her] own community” in 2015 when she and her husband, political commentator David French, refused to support Donald Trump. The decision was especially personal for French, who’d survived sexual abuse and spoke out about the willingness of the supposedly pro–“family values” Republican party to excuse Trump’s admissions of groping women. An “ever-widening gap” between the author and the Republican establishment grew into a chasm as she was alienated from her church community and frozen out by former clients. After her husband publicly criticized the president in the National Review, the couple was warned by the FBI that they might be a target of domestic terrorist Cesar Sayoc, who mailed pipe bombs to prominent Democrats ahead of the 2018 midterms. Realizing that “my unwillingness to bow the knee to an unsuitable president was the most American thing I’d ever done,” French “quit” the GOP and decided to tell her story of witnessing Trump’s ascent and the ensuing transformation of the Republican party from the “outskirts of the powerful.” French balances her frank, up-close political analysis with an uplifting message about the faith that sustained her: when she was “ghosted by political friends, spiritual allies, and even some neighbors... [God] showed up and occasionally took my breath away.” This will resonate with never-Trumpers dreading the former president’s next run. (Apr.)

Reviewed on 04/05/2024 | Details & Permalink

In the rousing follow-up to Believe IT, IT Cosmetics founder Lima helps women harness their self-worth to lead more personally and professionally fulfilling lives. After launching her makeup company in 2008, the author saw how the belief that she was “worthy of love and belonging” helped her transform a startup based in her living room into a thriving company she sold to L’Oréal for $1.2 billion in 2016. Sharing lessons gleaned along the way, Lima outlines how to reframe rejection in empowering ways (for example, by reminding oneself that noes are “God’s... protection” from those who aren’t “assigned to my destiny”). She also encourages readers to dismantle beliefs that friends and family “won’t love us if we reveal who we truly are,” and realize that labels—whether bestowed by others or self-applied—are not verdicts on one’s identity. Anchored by vivid recollections of her professional triumphs—including how she pushed back against producers’ warnings not to show women with skin issues on a home shopping channel advertising segment (she did, and IT Cosmetics became the most popular brand in the channel’s history)—Lima’s case for discounting untrustworthy external voices and relying on “inner knowing” is uplifting, even if the religious overtones sometimes feel out-of-place. This inspires. (Feb.)

Reviewed on 04/05/2024 | Details & Permalink