Edward H. Hammett, in his book "Reframing Spiritual Formation," presents a thoughtful view of the effects of postmodernism and the growing percentage of "unchurched" people on the modern church. He speculates that it will not be possible through current, or traditional means to reach unchurched peoples in our society. He theorizes that there must be substantial changes to our understanding of what church is if we are to grow into the 21st century.
The structure of the book is excellent. The author makes good use of subheadings and bullet points to place emphasis on his major points. He also makes good use of charts, which were generally placed well, so as not to be distractive while reading. The book is laid out in a logical manner, with small, easy to digest chunks. This is not to say, however, that the content is shallow. The author makes some very profound arguments for what the future of discipleship, and church in general, should look like.
My only major complaint about the book is the grammar. It really should have been edited better, some of the grammatical flaws are serious enough to be distracting, because they force you to stop and figure out exactly what the author was meaning. For such a well written book otherwise, with obvious thought and insight into the subject matter, it was disappointing to see it have so many easily fixable flaws.
Overall, I gave this book a 4 because of the serious and distracting editing flaws. Otherwise, judged strictly on content, it is a 5.

Solving Marriage Problems, by Jay Adams is a short easy to read book of only 122 pages. One should not be fooled by its brevity however. As far as a well annotated, academic treatise on marriage and family counseling goes, this book does not purport to be of that genre. What it is rather, is a very well thought out, practical handbook for the Christian counselor.

It follows judiciously it's a priori notion that God is in control of our lives, and therefore has the right to prescribe what is best for His children. It proscribes any solutions based solely on human ingenuity, but recommends instead a reliance on God's word. One gets the distinct impression while reading this book, that in the mind of the author, no marriage problem is too insurmountable for God, when these biblical principles are applied.

The assignments at the end of each chapter are an indispensable tool that counselors should avail themselves of. They force counselors to think very hard about the principles discussed in the previous pages. On balance, this is an excellent book that should be on the shelf of every serious Christian counselor.

To a young minister unable to possess the tapes or transcripts of these jewels, being able to reach and read the prose of America's greatest Preacher of the Gospel is an answer to many prayers.

The word leap off the page and is almost as if Reverend Taylor is speaking directly to you.

A must for all Brethren in the ministry.

The author tried to make something useful and meaningful from a mixture of various religious practices he learned. Apparently he failed, however. This book turned out to be a potpourri of several religious practices and ideas without providing real depth. I am afraid this book would make my days more complex rather than simple. I want to ask the author one question; is Jusus not enough for us and you as a priest to go to God?

A number of years ago, I had the good fortune to take several classes at the Shalem Institute, which was founded by Tilden Edwards. This book can help anyone who can't make it to Washington DC to participate in a Shalem program to nevertheless get a taste of the spiritual wisdom that is offered there. Edwards, an Episcopal priest, found his life turned upside down after participating in an extended retreat at the Nyingma Institute in California. This east-meets-west story does not end with Edwards becoming a Buddhist; rather, he uses the wisdom he gleaned from Tibetan spirituality to deepen his own practice as a western Christian. Over the years, I've come to see that many Christians find eastern or other non-Christian spiritualities to be threatening -- but Edwards shows in this masterfully simple book how the wisdom of the east can enhance, rather than confuse, a Christian's spiritual life. Through meditation, silence, open awareness, and embracing simplicity as a virtue, we create the space in our lives for deep wisdom and joy to transform us. This book is an excellent guide to adopting such disciplines of the inner life.

The author, Tilden Edwards, is an Episcopal priest, who went on a search during the seventies for spiritual guidance in eastern traditions, and was then able to bring back his own spiritual growth to join with the best of the west. Edwards acknowledges that we are driven by anxiety, and that no one size fits all self help solution exists, because we come from different traditions, and have differing gifts and personality types.

What Edwards offers are practical round-the-clock suggestions to help each of us live in prayerfulness and simplicity. Edwards divides the routines of daily living into specific windows of opportunity, through which the Holy One can shine through to us, and out from inside of us. Some of these windows are: waking, praying, eating, playing. Edwards shows how it is a matter of God's grace that a holy light shines from each of us, though we may be expert at blocking it, by our careless inattention, our scattered busy-ness, or our anger.

The book has usefulness not only for individuals, but also for book study groups, worshipping congregations and the whole gamut of meditation groups. The modern church phenomenon of small groups is thoroughly discussed by Edwards, who was also ahead of his time in approaching churchgoing as an intergenerational experience.

This book is both psychologically whole and deeply Scriptural. Edwards walks us through the practice of spiritual attentiveness gently and respectfully. He has punctuated the text with plenty of open space, useful subheadings, and lively brush drawn illustrations. I enjoyed the down to earth anecdotes of the Edwards's family life with young children.

I first read this book the year it was published, when I was the mother of a newborn, feeling alternately awestruck and shell shocked, and blessed to be participating in a Taize meditation group. This year, two decades later, I have been trying to learn how to survive the heart aches of mothering a young adult, how to juggle career and school, and how to spend more significant time in the presence of the Holy One. I have had a wise spiritual guide: Tilden Edwards' book LIVING SIMPLY THROUGH THE DAY; SPIRITUAL SURVIVAL IN A COMPLEX AGE. This book is as lively as it was two decades ago. I pray that it will continue to help us "to focus on the union of God in us with God out of us: on the overlap between us; on the Spirit that is whole..." [ page 78].

Farley sets out to describe the life of Christian faith using aesthetic rather than the more usual moral categories, complaining that 'an odd lack of relation between faith and the aesthetic dimension of human life. . . haunts the work of most theologians I know.' (Preface) To make up this deficiency Farley turns first and foremost, not to scripture, but to a survey of theologians who do take the aesthetic dimension of life seriously. Noting that some (mainly protestant) theologians are wary of beauty as a theological category while others (mainly Catholic) are more positive, Farley places himself in the positive camp. After a brief, lyrical introduction grounded in Farley's own childhood experience, the first half of this work comprises a history of ideas on the theme of beauty and theology.
On the plus side, this approach allows Farley to resurrect neglected work on this topic (this said, Farley ignores relevant work by more well-known figures, such as C.S Lewis and Francis Schaeffer). On the minus side, Farley does not grapple with the philosophical question of what beauty is. Rather, he simply reports what various theologians (and some philosophers) have said beauty is and works from there. Indeed, although Farley notes the association between beauty and being, he ignores the widespread and traditional definition of beauty as that which is objectively or intrinsically good to appreciate (a tradition continued today by the likes of Norman L. Giesler and Alvin Plantinga); concentrating instead on the scholastic definition of beauty as proportion in being. I also found it quite hard to determine exactly which of the views reported Farley himself held. While I was encouraged to see him proposing, in agreement with Christian tradition, that beauty is an objective facet of reality: '"aesthetics" refers to a dimension of human experience, an engagement with and participation in what is intrinsically attractive - in other words, with what is beautiful' (Preface), he does not argue for an objective view of beauty. For such a defence, readers would be well advised to turn to the first chapter of C.S. Lewis' The Abolition of Man, (Fount).
Farley's basic conclusion is that 'beauty comes with redemptive transformation' (p. 96). In other words, sanctification has an aesthetic dimension related to the Christian being made more like Jesus: 'virtue harmonizes the conflicted self and is thus beautiful. . . to lack virtue is to be ugly.' (p. 91). Beauty is part and parcel of 'the way in which the faithful person behaves towards others and in the world.' (p. 110). Farley also notes that: 'if God is dead, so is beauty.' (p. 64). It is good to see a contemporary theologian reminding his readership of this fact. However, that readership is unlikely to be very wide, because this book is written using some of the most impenetrable prose I have ever read. This is certainly not an introductory volume, but one that assumes some background knowledge on the part of the reader. The difficulty of reading this work is unfortunate, because Farley's analysis reminds us of some important past work in theological aesthetics, and his conclusions desperately need advocating in our post-modern society.

While I found myself having to re-read sections in order to fully grasp the density and complexity of this book, I still recommend it. Farley provides a commendable and important historical overview and analyses of various contributors and themes in theological aesthetics. The first 5-6 chapters seem to build to the pinnacle chapter 7 in which Farley offers his own theological aesthetic which the reader is better able to appreciate having read previous chapters that inform historical context. Given my own unique reasons for reading this text (for doctoral dissertation work), I wish that Farley had further developed what he begins in chapter 7; (the book has only 8 chapters).
Farley's contribution is to provide a re-newed vision of beauty i.e., beauty (and ugliness) have little to do with degrees of prettiness. Instead, beauty has more to do with a liberative, relational, life-affirming faith that is evidenced in benevolent concern for others. Farley's understanding of beauty concerns that which opens up and makes room for others (in our differences and idiosyncratic mysteries). He lays out criteria for the discernment of beauty and ugliness in theological terms as he asserts his thesis that beauty is intrinsic to the life of faith (because it is a "feature of the divine image which is distorted by sin and restored by redemption" (viii).
Given our cultural values around issues of beauty, Farley's thesis stands as an important theological position.

Carpenter proposes that self-conciousness and fear led to the entire world pantheon of different faiths.

"Naturally as soon as Man began to think about himself--a frail phantom and waif in the midst of tremendous forces of whose nature and mode of operation he was entirely ignorant--he was BESET with terrors...the natural defence against this state of mind was the creation of an enormous number of taboos...hardened down into very stringent Customs and Laws...avoidance not only of acts which might reasonably be considered dangerous, like touching a corpse, but also things much more remote and fanciful in their relation to danger, like merely...passing a lightning-struck tree; ... and acts which offered any special pleasure or temptation--like sex or marriage or the enjoyment of a meal.

"...Fear does not seem a very worthy motive, but in the beginning it curbed the violence of the purely animal passions, and introduced order and restraint among them. ...(F)rom the early beginnings (in the Stone Age) of self-consciousness in Man there has been a gradual development--from crass superstition, senseless and accidental, to rudimentary observation, and so to belief in Magic; thence to Animism and personification of nature-powers in more or less human form, as earth-divinities or sky-gods or embodiments of the tribe; and to placation of these powers by rites like Sacrifice and the Eucharist, which in their turn became the foundation of Morality...; observations of plants or of the weather or the stars, carried on by tribal medicine-men for purposes of witchcraft or prophecy, supplied some of the material of Science; and humanity emerged by faltering and hesitating steps on the borderland of these finer perceptions and reasonings which are supposed to be characteristic of Civilisation."

Carpenter goes on to compare Christian tenets with pagan practices around the world. You can see how fear of neverending winter, starvation, and death spurred belief in magic, ritual, animism, anthromomorphism, and today's conventional religions.

In his British imperialistic furor to spread civilization, Carpenter also predicts the emergence of a "Common Life" beyond self-consciousness, blasting the selfish motives of capitalism and actually hailing the practices of early Christian communities and the movements of the Communists in eastern Europe.

Granted, Carpenter's book was first published in 1920, just after WWI, before we could see Communism fall, and before Ayn Rand could inspire anyone to Constructivism. But Carpenter's view of religious history is useful. It certainly predates Campell's Hero of a Thousand Faces but has similar depth and scope.

I recommend this book along with:

* Joan O'Grady's "Early Christian Heresies" which examines the philosophies and turning points that molded Christian tenets during its birth and growth so that it could promise salvation to the masses. The scope includes Gnosticism, Marcionites, Montanists, Manichaeism, Donatists, Arianism, Nestorians, Pelagius, and more.
* Erik Davis' "Techgnosis: myth, magic + mysticism in the age of information" which proposes that forms of communication shape social and individual consciousness of reality. "It follows that when a culture's technical structure of communication mutates quickly and significantly, both social and individual 'reality' are in for a bit of a ride. ...The social imagination leaps into the breach, unleashing a torrent of speculation, at once cultural, metaphysical, technical, and financial."

I very much enjoyed reading this book, which, for its age, has held up rather well. I had always known that Early Christianity 'borrowed' from pagan religions some holidays and practices, but it was not until I read this book did I know the depth of theft. Almost like a plaigarism of faith intended to convert the masses (which it sadly succeeded in doing). The only part of the book I disliked was the final material, in which the author offers a new religion of sorts which is very metaphysical and a little dull. But the rest of the book is a keeper.

Professor Condit has written an inventive book, but it does not do justice to modern literary criticism. Its creativity is not faithful to Chaucer or to what we have learned about his life and his world in recent decades. Professor Condit often seems to have let his imagination get the better of him, at the expense of accurate and thorough historical and literary exposition.

Chaucer is a wonderful author. More people should read the Canterbury Tales. This book, however, will turn people off Chaucer. It seems to have been written from a 1950s perspective, and so is 50 years out of date. The author seems very pleased with his own ideas, but manages to ignore the wealth of good scholarship that would show his ideas to be outmoded at best, and just plain wrong at worst. This book is written from a privileged white-male perspective, and many readers will be repulsed by the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) sexism and racism that pervades it. Stay away. Read Chaucer himself, instead.

Even a student who had trouble understanding the Canterbury Tales could read this book in a long weekend and come away with a deep appreciation for Chaucer's work. I read this book in three days, and learned more about the Canterbury Tales than I had in a full-semester Chaucer course. I got an "A" on my final exam, largely because of what I learned from this book. And what's even more incredible is that I actually found myself ENJOYING the Canterbury Tales after reading this book!

My advice to college students: read this book BEFORE you sign up for a Chaucer course. You'll do better as a result.

My advice to professors: read this book and learn to teach as well as Condren writes!

According to Edinger the individual ego is the the stable wherein the Christ-child is born. That view can turn the stomach on any Christian or Jungian. Edinger is not really a Jungian. He says in the book: (ch."Resurrection..." concerning Paulus''heavenly body' (my tr. from Swedish))

"My own hypothesis is that they mean the goal of individuation, i.e the transformation of the personal ego to archetype".

That the personal ego should transform to an archetype does certainly not comply with Jungian theory. This is not how archetypes form.

The book is not much more than a compilation of excerpts from the Bible, Jung's books, etcetera. The author does some amplification, but he omits discussing to any depth the intriguing theological and psychological implications of the Passion of Christ. This book was not at all needed. He must have been a lazy dog, this Edward F. Edinger. Any student of Comparative History of Religion could have created this little compilation in a few days. It is not worth the money. If you are a Christian it will hurt your religious feelings. If you are a Jungian it will hurt your intellect.

If you wants to understand the symbolism of the christian myth and don't want to spend hours reading in depth, this is your book It answers the question, what is the point of Christ's message from Jungs perspective, writings and indepth study. Dr. Edinger has many other books that go much deeper if your curiosity is tweaked. If anyone understood the complex implications and meaning of the "archetype" as Jung used it, it would be Dr. Edinger He tries to reach a audience with varying degrees of exposure to Jungian ideas. He should be applauded for that effort. I realize he doesn't need me to champion his work.. But I will anyway. In the Swedish review previous to mine Dr. Edinger is accused of perhaps being a "lazy dog". Well, perhaps the writer should read Dr. Edinger's writing that speaks to the reality of projection in the psyche. I am a christian and I loved the book.

I've often referred to Edward Edinger as "the primier theologian of Jungian psychology." By this, I don't mean that Edinger knows a lot about theology (which he does). Rather, I mean that Edinger is one of those earlier Jungians who accepted Jung's views as gospel facts to be believed. Fortunately, he was also a highly intelligent man who was capable of expounding the details of Jung's personal psychology. Many of his books explored various aspects of Western myth and religion. THE CHRISTIAN ARCHETYPE is one of the few that looked at New Testament themes. It's deceptively brief. None of the individual chapters gets hugely into depth. But, Edinger subtly pulls the rug out from under the expected interpretation of these scenes from the life of Jesus.

Edinger, you may know, was raised a Jehovah's Witness, and thus he was steeped in the kind of purely literal interpretation of the Bible that most American Christianity promotes. So, it's long been of interest to me that he ended up a Jungian analyst, on the far other end of the spectrum, examining the purely symbolic meaning of religion. Whether one is or isn't a believer is really irrelevent when approaching this material. Adding the symbolic to your current world view will create a more balanced whole. Yes, and it also makes life remarkably more interesting.

Because Veith's other text "Postmodern Times" was largely informative and interesting, I expected more from "State of the Arts" than it was able to deliver. But before I address its shortcomings, my admiration for Veith's undertaking must be made clear. He should be praised for addressing the contemporary arts from a Christian perspective, as few Christians actually give attention to this highly influential cultural force. Too many Christians have abandoned the arts and sought spiritual solace in gated Christian ghettos. Yet Christ calls us to be salt and light in the world and the art world is not to be excluded. Thank you Veith for bringing attention to this part of the world and its need for Christ's redemption.

With that said, there are some reasons "State of the Arts" should not be regarded as a guidebook for an Evangelical entry into the world of art. Because it was written shortly after the Mapplethorpe and NEA controversy, Veith's weakly cloaked hostility runs through book like a greased pig. While I do believe that his engagement with the art world was sincere, his frequent lapses into name-calling and stereotyping only hurt his credibility and call into question his objectivity. I suppose some examples are due:

1) According to Veith, the art patrons who refuse to be shocked by Mapplethorpe "think, How interesting. They experience the exquisite pleasure of feeling sophisticated, of belonging to an elite group who "gets it," while looking down on those who do not. The outrage or bewilderment of those outside the art world only increase their smugness at being on the cutting edge." (p. 20)

Here, Veith is perpetuating two myths that must be countered. One, the art world is not an homogeneous group of rich snobs who "feel sophisticated" and laugh at those who are excluded from their arty antics. On the contrary, it is widely diverse so as to preclude any attempt at unification. The plurality is mind-boggling. Two, not everyone in the cultural elite "refused to be shocked." By incessantly referring to 'these people' as the type that uncritically accept shock-art, Veith reveals his ignorance of the vast amount of art criticism written on such works and the wide verity of responses given. He might be surprised at what he finds. Such errors and offenses caused by Veith's concealed anger are common in this book.

2) Because Veith is not adequately familiar with art criticism, philosophy of art, nor modern and contemporary art history, his account of art world practices is embarrassingly bizarre.

Apparently, in minimalist art, "the concept claims precedence over artfulness. Technical execution and crafting of an object becomes less important than having a clever idea. The urinal installed on a museum wall, Warhol's Brillo boxes, the signed bicycle wheel -such pieces show no artistic qualities, nor do they intend to. They may be humorous, or clever, or suggestive of the nature of contemporary culture, but they can hardly be considered good art. To judge them so, ironically, is to miss the artist's point and fail to see the joke." (p. 51)

One not need to be familiar with the works, artists, and movements Veith attempts to explain in these awkward statements, but it is important to recognize that he has conflated artworks ranging over a seventy year period, on two continents, in three different historical contexts. Yet Veith sees them all as having a single covert, unified, devious purpose. One wonders how such artists and movements collaborated under such spacio-temporal restrictions. Rather, it would be more helpful to consult any dictionary of art or art history text to find a more reliable diagnosis than Veith has provided.

3) Because Veith is more interested in writing a polemic against (his perception of) the art world than sensitively engaging with art, he inadvertently contradicts himself in different places.

"Minimalism-finding the least possible gesture to constitute a work of art -has been fashionable in modern art, but such a movement is negligible aesthetically. The more a form is pared down, the less there is to evaluate." (p. 50) Yet Veith has no trouble evaluating and praising the aesthetic merits of work that is itself minimalist (p. 185 and 189). This is because, no doubt, the makers of the work are Christians. This aesthetic duplicity in Veith is unfortunate. The real criterion being used in his "aesthetic judgment" is the theology of the artist, which begs the question of understanding art from a Christian point of view.

These criticism of "State of the Arts" are strong, but apt in my estimation. I urge those who seek engagement with art to do so under the guidance of either Hans Rookmaaker or Leland Ryken who have more expertise in art criticism while maintaining a strong evangelical faith. As one who attempts to integrate education in theology with training in fine art, I've found them both to be most helpful and worthy of consultation.

Veith tries to tackle a subject that has long been neglected - Christianity and art from biblical times to the postmodern era. Although he gives an acceptable overview for a 230 page paperback, there are many areas where he is just too simplistic.

Veith attempts to create an absolute of the "Christian artist" based on the Tabernacle work of Bezalel. That may be as erroneous as creating a flat world from the scripture verse that deals with "the four corners of the earth."

He makes quick generalized statements about non-Christian artists without being able to back them up - "Jackson Pollock's experiments in the random patterns made by paint flung onto a canvas, might exhibit some cleverness, I suppose - as in, whoever would think to do such a thing? - but no real intelligence or knowledge." Those of us who are artists, however, know better (Veith is an English professor). Pollock's work shows a remarkable amount of knowledge and mastery: The intricate rhythmic harmonies passed down from his mentor, Thomas Hart Benton; the "dance" of the western plains' indians now reproduced in an "action painting"; the understanding of how paint drips and flows (as seen in splatterings of nature); the knowledge of color harmonies; etc.

Veith also comments on Duchamp's inability to create art with his "ready-mades" (An idea championed by Francis Schaeffer). However, this is Duchamp's point. Art not only can be the idea and conception of the artist, but also, art exists around us in all forms that generally go overlooked. Duchamp expanded the narrow vision of the Christian artist and their understanding of creativity and freedom.

Until a writer/artist comes forward to write something of this nature, State of the Arts will have to do. Just remember to proceed with caution and don't buy the whole package.

Most helpful in this book, and probably unique compared to similar books, is "Part 2: The Biblical Foundations". (Sure, I had read Francis Shaeffer's "Art and the Bible"...But this may be a little more in-depth.) The chapters are called: "6)The Vocation of Bezalel" (the calling of the artist) "7)The Works of Bezalel"(various types of art sanctioned by scripture) "8)The Idolotry of Aaron" (Biblical example of a gifted artist who's art went arwy)

As a painter, I also found the chapter "Art and the Church" both encouraging and challenging. Dr Veith points to the centrality of the Word of God and the limitations of art & aesthetics compared to the Gospel. Very helpful.

I do not find Dr Veith's critique of the Art World to be too extreme, or as un-compassionate as a previous reader does. Considering the overall context of this book, it seems to me that Dr Veith emphasizes the high standard and purpose of Scripture for the arts, and invites Christians to join in on embracing these truths.

"Huh?" about sums up this rather silly book. The extremely brief summaries of the more notable Celtic saints is plush with legends that no critical, modern mind could put on a level above fairy tale. Granted fairy tale can be very educational, but there is no room in Sellner's summaries for a modern critique of what these legends indicate about the mind or faith of the hagiographers, much less the actual saints. Sellner's introduction is a feeble attempt to explain the symbolic importance of the legends, but he is obviously more concerned with Celtic culture than Christian faith. One is left wondering whether Sellner is a druid disguising himself as a Christian "theologian".

The Introduction is worth the price of the book. In the beginning of the book, the writer does a great job of introducing the reader to the Celtic way of sprituality. It is impossible to do justice to this section of the book in just a few words here. Suffice it to say that this one section of this one book is one of the best I've ever read as an overview to the way the Celtic person viewed the world and spirituality. The rest of the book is full of stories about numerous Celtic saints, and after following the great intro, was a bit of a let-down for me. Still,although I read this book three years ago, I have not forgotten how helpful this introduction was to my understanding.

Sellner, an associate professor of pastoral theology, brings historical interest and spiritual insight to his fine book on the celtic saints.

The main part of _Wisdom of the Celtic Saints_ consists of excerpts from original documentary material about the lives of various celtic saints. One flaw of the book is that Sellner does not tell you which original manuscript the excerpt is from, but, knowing a little about the material, I can see that he has been wide-ranging and very thorough. Among the saints whose lives he includes are such famous beacons of the Faith as St. Patrick, St. Columba, and St. Bride; but he includes also many who are not widely known: St. Ia, St. Ethna, and more. Nineteen saints in all make up this "gallery of faith."

But perhaps the most exciting part of the book is the ;material which brackets the main section. In the introduction, Sellner does one of the best jobs I have seen describing the complex, compelling, and somewhat alien celtic christian mindset. After a historical overview, he sets out for the reader seven characteristics of celtic Christian spirituality, including love of the environment, love of learning, and a peculiar attitude toward time. Each of the seven is discussed consicely yet adequately, and in such a way that the reader is invited to meditate further.

This is followed by a brief discussion of stages of spoiritual kinship with Jesus and of various symbols which symbolic objects and numbers which occur frequently in the stories to follow.

In the conclusion he beautifully provides one sentence for each of the saints the reader has just encountered, "mythologizing" that saint into the representative of some particular virtue or way of approaching life. For example, "Patrick's openness to letting the spiritual realm, including angels, lead him;" "Ia's placing her life in God's hands and letting go of the results." This feature hints to the reader that the holy people are not to be approached as historical relics, but as living companions and active guides on the road to fellowship with God.

I recommend this book with no reservations.