The Raft Is Not the Shore is a profound and inspired exchange between a gentle Buddhist monk and teacher from Vietnam Nhat Hanh and a Christian dissident Daniel Berrigan, originally published in the 1970s, but, sadly in many ways, striking in its relevance to the current international crisis in the Middle East. Unlike a mere theological conference, where matters revolve around "conceptual" issues, pedantic scripture exegesis and other superficial attributes of "knowing the way," Nhat Hanh and Berrigan's dialogue is a true sharing of religious experiences and personal insights that invites the reader to "be on the way". Akin to the saints whose greatness both admire, their own lives serve as a moving example of containing the Good in the very movement to it.

Revolving around many of the issues related to the Vietnam War and how it affected religious life in both Vietnam and America, the book focuses on such eternal dilemmas as the meaning of life and death, retaining wholeness in the face of living in modern society, and the role of a religious person in the world, as well as discusses resistance to violence, dogma and conformity. It offers a unique exchange of perspectives on suffering and spiritual life, which, in the true spirit of ecumenism, affirm that faith is ultimately in the heart and that peaceful meditation and listening to each others' stories of suffering is a viable alternative to national strife and terrorism.

Both authors believe that no doctrine, whether religious or philosophical, should be treated as the absolute truth, but rather serve only as a guiding means for developing awareness, tranquility and opening one's heart to others. They see organized religion as an institution parallel to society and oftentimes as bankrupt, complacent and antihuman as to make an individual's true spiritual quest by necessity one of perpetual resistance. Since both Nhat Hahn and Berrigan attempted mediating between Israelis and Palestinians without taking sides, they bring a freshly unbiased and much needed perspective on how to prevent the nation states from "protecting" the well-being of their citizens through sacrificing the lives of these very citizens. The book is full of memorable stories from the Diamond, Lotus and Heart Sutras, the Bible, contemporary life of Vietnamese monks and nuns, and religious communities of resistance in the United States. One of them relates the curious rites to which the Le Dynasty emperors in Vietnam were bound in times of major national disasters: since it was believed that emperors caused calamities by not having pure enough hearts, they were expected to confess their sins publicly, eat vegetarian meals and sleep on a mat for a while, to atone for their misguided leadership. Would it be a gross misunderestimation not to expect the same from a Texas rancher?

Written over 25 years ago, this book is so fresh it's scary. Their discussion of the situation in the middle east offers a much needed window on the spiritual dimensions of the problem of believing that violence ever ultimately solves anything. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking spiritual guidance and salve during this difficult time after the World Trade Center attack. Nhat Hahn is very task oriented, Berrigan very heart oriented, a great mix. It is a true ecumenical dialog, which enlightens.

Thich Nhat Hanh and Daniel Berrigan, S. J. are longtime friends and soulmates. These conversations , taped in paris in the 1970's,show the depth and breath of their friendship and spirituality. After 26 years these conversations are still fresh,if not vital[vital is totally subjective].The Buddhist -Christian dialogue was not started by these men, though it was taken to a new level by these poets. Unlike many of these books,there is no need by either man to explain away their beliefs nor make it so palatable to the other that all of the original tang is lost. This is more like two poets speaking at a cafe{which it was,in part} talking about their lives, and the forces and times in which they live. Since I view these two men to be two of the best spiritual guides alive, this book is important and interesting and much much LIGHTER than the titile would suggest{.Also, of similar intetest,THE GETHSEMANI ENCOUNTER.} Excellent book by two giants

In DANIEL,Fr. Daniel Berrigan,priest,poet,prophet takes on that strange book of the Biblical prophet Daniel.As in his earlier works,Isiah,Ezekiel and after this in Jeremiah,Berrigan seamlessly[well,most of the time]relates modern day society with the doomed cultures of which the prophets spoke.Daniel Berrigan has been,for some,a pain in the neck,a,burr,for others, as a previous reviewer wrote, the sanest man of the 20th century. What struck me in this book is how GROUNDED Berrigan is in the scriptures, unlike many catholics of his or any generation.Poetically, Daniel Berrigan once more shows how these ancient, musty texts are alive,not simply relevant but breathing.If he is not the sanest man of the 20th century,he's damn close.

While serving the Catonsville (Maryland) Presbyterian Church in the early 1980s, I often would make lunchtime pilgrimages (three blocks!) to the Knights of Columbus building where Daniel Berrigan and eight others poured napalm and blood on draft files more than a decade earlier to protest America's involvement in the Viet Nam war. Always I sensed myself to be standing on holy ground, for, despite the lapse of years, the asphalt still contained the imprimatur of gospel proclamation.

Daniel Berrigan is a poet, prophet, and priest. Sometimes he is more poet than priest, other times more prophet than poet, still others more priest than prophet. But, oh, how these vocations all are mixed in him so that, in my estimation, Berrigan was the sanest person of the twentieth century.

In these twilight years of his life, Berrigan has written a progression of books about the major prophets of the First (Old) Testament. He is harvesting a lifetime of dogged fidelity to the gospel of Jesus Christ and these books ("Daniel: Under the Siege of the Divine;" "Isaiah: Spirit of Courage, Gift of Tears;" "Ezekiel: Vision in the Dust;" and "Jeremiah: The World, the Wound of God") bear and share the fruit of his radical obedience. Ostensibly about the biblical prophets of long ago, these books are as up-to-date as this morning's sports page. Taken together, they are a clarion call to people of faith and conscience not to be seduced by the spirit of the age nor to acquiesce to the principalities and powers of the "empire."

"Daniel: Under the Siege of the Divine" is really a book about "seeing"- seeing deeply, seeing truly, seeing beyond the appearances of things to the truth of things. Not only is scripture's vision of "the new heaven and new earth" in which peace will reign and "all manner of things shall be well" championed by Berrigan in this book; we are given "prolonged glimpses" of the paths we must walk in order to "get there from here."

What Berrigan proposes out of his spiritual encounter with the biblical Daniel is "dangerous faith"- dangerous to the empire because it subverts the present arrangement of things in which the powers-that-be are so heavily invested and to which they want so desperately to cling, and dangerous to those who seek to speak truth to those powers because the empire is not in the least bit loathe to strike back.

"Daniel" is Daniel at his best. Herein, Berrigan eloquently and passionately demonstrates that the first step in saying "yes" to life is saying "no" to death in all of its multi-faceted and seductive forms, no matter what the cost.

To me, the power of the gospel is that, in Jesus, it was lived. That gives me hope that I, also, however imperfectly, can move out of the house of fear and into the house of love. Berrigan is our contemporary guide.

For thirty years, Daniel Berrigan has spoken truth to power, and in the process has paid the price of scorn and jail. In our day, when our social ethic is as unsteady as jello, when the mantra of our morality is "it depends," who better to remind us of some powerful, prophetic truths than this modern "Daniel?" Berrigan translates the word of his namesake into a poetry sweet enough for even the M-TV generation to understand. The message that justice and love are our tickets to peace is just as true now as in "Daniel's" time. This book should be required reading for anyone who believes that the truth of nonviolence is still true.

My 7 year old son, Aaron, and I have just finished reading Macon Treasures Remembered. He was totally fascinated with it! What a wonderfully done work. It was so special to me to be able to tell him about the town in which I grew up.

This book has been needed a long time! The photos are spectacular! The anecdotes tickle your tastebuds for more. It makes you want to go on a tour of each home and learn more. Thank goodness these authors preserved the memories of times past and talents shared of people who cared about building a city of warmth and beauty in which to live out their lives and for generations to appreciate over a hundred and seventy years later. A great book to sit with by the fire and take a journey back in time and be inspired for today.

This is a wonderful book. Venture into the world of antebellum Georgia as you relive the characters and mansions of beautiful, historic Macon, GA--the city that Sherman by-passed but General Layfayette visited. The authors and photographer have taken extraordinary pains in recreating the old South. Outstanding photography and dynamic history. Every home should have one gracing their living room coffee table. Excellent Christmas present for people who have everything.

Fr. Daniel Berrigan,poet, Jesuit priest,witness and confessor,has used his considerable poetic gifts in union with Fr. William Hart McNicholas,a renonwned iconagraper.There subjects are varied,to say the least:Padre Pio, Maura O'Halloran,{a Irish American Zen monk Saint},Adreine von speyer,a mystic {closely associated with the former jesuit and theologian du jour, Hans urs von Balthazar},a new Russian Martyr,St. Benedict Joseph Labre and others. What beautiful Icons!Lovely prose-poems accompany each icon,making it quite a useful meditative tool.

Dan Berrigan and william Mcnichols have combined thier gifts to bring about this gift . Fr. Mcnichols is a renowned writer of Icons, Fr Daniel Berrigan, poet, prophet priest{though that sounds too easy}. With this eclectic choice of icons{a Zen nun from ireland, a female physician mystic from Europe}, and the poetic text of Fr. Berrigan, this is an excellent meditative tool,lovely to look at,pleasant to hold.Well done by the publisher as well.Another book of awe from one of the sanest men of the 20th century

The most famous Roman Catholics in America in the 1960's were two priests who were (still are) brothers: Philip and Daniel Berrigan, the former a priest member of the Society Of St. Joseph (commonly known as the "Josephites," an order dedicated to serving the Black community), the latter a Jesuit. SSJ and SJ respectively.

Starting in the 1960's, these two priests broke a lot of laws, and served a lot of time in various jails and prisons. They became famous as objectors to the War In Vietnam, and later expanded their respective "ministries of protest" to other situations of social injustice, as they perceived it.

Murray Polner and Jim O'Grady have written a fascinating account of the Berrigan brothers worth buying and reading. The Berrigan brothers became famous as two ninths of the "Catonsville (Maryland, USA) Nine," a group of protesters who, on May 17, 1968, raided a suburban Baltimore (Maryland, USA) draft board office, took its files of eligible young men about to be drafted into military service and possible combat in the then on-going War In Viet-Nam, and burned the draft board's records in a nearby parking lot, using a home made form of napalm. Only some of the records were removed and burned. The records left behind were stained with blood the two priests helped to pour over those records as a symbolic protest about the work of the draft board in promoting the War.

That was only the start of the civil protest career of these two men. In the same year (1968), they traveled to Hanoi (the same year Jane Fonda did.) In succeeding years and decades, they continued their dramatic forms of protest, and were often jailed and served hard time in tough prisons.

The story of the Berrigan Brothers is one every enthusiast about the social revolution of the 1960's should read. All Roman Catholics should read it, too, especially Josephites and Jesuits. These two priests put those two Catholic religious orders in the NEW YORK TIMES and in other prominent media many times, and in some ways no doubt determined the future of those orders, the Catholic Church (especially in the USA), and the USA itself.

Much has been written both about and by the Berrigan Brothers. This 1997 book is an important addition to the important history of these important Catholic priests. Buy this book from Amazon.Com. Read it carefully. You won't be sorry.

Disarmed and Dangerous is an empowering work for all conscientious persons who find themselves alarmed by the wide range of injustices abounding in our world. The core of the book focuses on the Fathers Berrigans' courageous, faith-inspired, non-violent 'ultra-resistance' to the criminal war in/on Vietnam, and to the military-industrial-violence complex, racism and poverty in general.

Authors Polner and O'Grady vividly recreate the world of Fr. Dan and Phil (now married), especially during that turbulent period of the late 1960s. The authors do a fine job of examining the inner psyches of these 'men of moral conscience who would suffer to confront the enormous power of the state.' We also hear the reactions from their many friends (e.g., Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, et al.) and, yes, their detractors and opponents, many of whom nevertheless greatly admired the two men.

Those of us persuaded by Mahatma Gandhi that non-violent civil disobedience should never engage in destruction of property (e.g., burning draft files) will be challenged by the Berrigans' undoubtedly correct belief that 'some property had no right to exist.' The controversial issue is still with us today as certain Earth First!ers occasionally destroy logging equipment used to kill irreplaceably-precious old growth forests. Wouldn't a mother do the same for her children if they were threatened by violence?

With hindsight, it is clear that the 'domino theory' concerning Communism was a fallacy. Moreover, Sec. of Defense McNamara has admitted that American involvement in and escalation of the Vietnam War was a mistake. Surely, then, the Berrigans and their countless colleagues throughout the land who suffered immensely in rising up to protest the war stood on the side of good and justice. Vilified by many at the time for their civil obedience, these men and women deserve to be rightfully viewed by the media as great American heroes, and heroes of the Catholic Church. Authors Polner and O'Grady succeed in this task, while not shying away from pointing out the occasional quirks and flaws in the two subjects whom they have profiled.

This book will be a special inspiration for those in Phil's Plowshares movement and groups like Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) tirelessly laboring on behalf of peace against nuclear weapons and war. The book will also inspire those of us outraged by crimes against humanity like the horrors of US sanctions against the innocent people of Iraq. (Circa 1.5 million--mostly small children, women, the infirm and elderly--have died from lack of clean water, medicine, healthcare, adequate food, and poisoning from our depleted uranium [DU]-tipped bombs and tank shells.)

As Phil and his colleagues wrote in their statement of purpose to the press and public upon pouring blood on the draft files in Baltimore, 1967: 'We invite friends in the peace and freedom movements to continue moving with us from dissent to resistance. We ask God to be merciful and patient with us and all men.' (p. 177)

I hard heard many times that The Book of Ezekiel was boring. Furthermore, I was told that he was not much of a prophet, when compared to Amos for example, because he was too priestly and apocalyptic. Well, after reading Berrigan's book, I know that this is not true.

I especially enjoyed Berrigan's poetic style; albeit, I wish that some of his words wer not so arcane. Boberly's art is also very good.

Non-violent, Christian activists, if you want to know about street theater, read this book!

The Singing Bird Will Come is a remarkable book by a man who is truly in touch with himself as he struggles with the reality of death. His strong desire to continue to celebrate life as he prepares to die makes a lasting impression on the reader. How the author comes to grips with communicating his journey is the focus of the book. He seems to follow Kubler-Ross's stages of death--denial, anger, bargaining with God, depression and finally, acceptance. He feels it is especially ironic that he has to come to accept his dying so soon after he had come to accept himself as a gay man. This story captures the well-balanced tension John Noonan experiences between continuing daily living and thinking of eternity. I recommend it highly for caregivers, service providers, and all of us who will prepare to die someday.

If you want to be comfortable and continue to feel all warm and fuzzy with your Christian faith, don't read this book! John Dears read on the Christian message hits home hard and in a big way. It challenged me on many levels, as material consumer, as peace maker, as one person challenging the system, whether it be political or religious. It clearly outlined the mission, as a call to work for justice at every point in our life. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who is searching for the deeper meaning of the Christian message. Mary Routh Ankeny, Ia joyfam@dwx.com

I was amazed at this book, and the impact it has had on my life, and choices I have orignally made. This book tells of the Gospel of Jesus and relates it to everyday modern life, and choices we must all make. I never really understood the messages behind the gospels I read this book. This book relates the Christian message behind the death penalty, civil disobediance, belief in faith, and your sprititual journey in life. The book is well written and easy to understand. Each chapter starts out with a chapter in one of the Gospels and then relates it to modern day life. I will be forever changed by the reading of this book.

Daniel Berrigan's early work is his best, written in a time when the poet realized that "poems are made of words, not ideas" and took a craftsmanlike attitude to each syllable.

As has been noted, "Time without Number" was justly lauded by the modernist titan, poet Marianne Moore; and Berrigan's second volume prompted Moore to exclaim, "I read with reverence anything Fr Berrigan writes"; indeed, the poems of "Encounters" are unsurpassed, esp "Trees: October" and "A Statue of the Blessed Virgin Carved in Wood" with its initial line "Wood is noble when it forgets resemblance." There is, too, a poem which ends with the lines "is flown, is fled, is spent / skeleton : element."

Up until about 1964, the poems were poems and not slogans. In fact, Berrigan is perhaps at his best when he pays tribute to other poets, notably Wallace Stevens and Gerard Manley Hopkins. Berrigan's hymns to Hanoi are virtually indistinguishable from the great glut of anti-war matter that was written at this time, and his elegy to Thomas Merton -- though evidently heartfelt -- is slack, sprawling, and aesthetically infirm (the last lines, something about lotus blossoms) are just plain dippy.

In the later work, it helps the reader if she or he is sympathetic to Berrigan's political Weltanschauung, but there are felicities: Berrigan's lean athleticism of language, and way with a pleasing embedded rhyme or calculated dissonance, are knacks which serve him well.

But the priest/poet does, too often, confuse sloganeering with art, and that is a foible we find somewhat difficult to ignore.

Daniel berrigan, S.J.,poet,priest,confessor,witness has his second volume of collected poems.{the first,published by doubleday in the mid-1970's,is out of print.}It is curious that Berrigan is so overlooked{ignored]. His poetry is superb:supple,elegant,concise. Due to his political{religious}witness, he has been consigned to the fringes{where he is quite comfortable}Unfortunately, this has made his poetry less accessible,which is really too bad. For I believ him to be one of the great poets of our time. This collection begins with his Lamont award collection,TIME WITHOUT NUMBER,up and beyond HOMAGE TO GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, and some uncollected work. From Vietnam to prison, to an elegy for some young children on block island, to an homage to his 10 year old namesake killed,these are vital poems, lush with language,deeply heartfelt,written about life as seen by one of its more ineresting participants . Beautiful,lyrical rich poerty, a feast for the mind and heart. Do yourself a service,read this book,savor these poems,for in many of them you enter a holy realm,a place of peace.

It's rather sad the mainstream press has overlooked this wonderful collection. Before he became known for his activism in the name of peace, Dan Berrigan was-and still very much is-a poet of grace and enormous insight. This collection gives new readers the gift of being able to trace the progress of his work through more than 40 years.