Having lived with the Bruderhoffers (including author Arnold) for twenty years I find the contrast between the values advocated in this book and the methods employed by the Bruderhof in dealing with ex-members and critics intriguing. My sensitivity to the unique language and syntax of Bruderhoffers informs me that with almost complete certainty the preceeding reviews were submitted by Bruderhof insiders.

The original edition of this book has gone out of print, but only to make way for an expanded version. Find the latest edition of A Plea for Purity under ISBN 0874869609. My wife and I have turned to the author several times for advice in our own marriage, so I recommend him highly. This book is very thought provoking, and confronts the western myth of romance and dating as the route to "living happily ever after". The Foreword by Mother Teresa were some of the last words ever published from her.

Marriage starts with a fire, at least ours did eight years ago. Wherever there's a good thing though, the bad want's to take over. In subtle ways, the fire cools. It was at this point that a friend (unknowing of our inner situation) suggested A Plea for Purity. He was angry at its anti-gay stance. I took it, in the hopes of finding fuel for arguments with him (I enjoy heated arguments, especially on such topics). What happened though was that the book hit home. The more I read, the more I saw my own sitation. It was depressing and firmly and steadfastly uplifting at the same time. I saw where I was in my relationship, but also the door to where I could and should be. I'm not really a religious person (haven't gone to church for years) but here was solid rock. It changed my life. As for the gay-sympathetic friend of mine, he was wrong. The book is not anti-gay, its anti-gay lifestyle. What I mean is, again, it shows them the way out. It condemns the lifestyle but at the same time points out WHY its not a good way to live and what to do about the problem. Tim Major, United Kingdon

I really liked the Historical American short stories in this romance compilation, they are great short stories that aren't too short like in some other romance compilations, I especially liked Coming Home by Teresa Warfield, I really liked the nice down to earth characters, my favorites are Timothy Benton, and Rachel Cameron and I really felt that they definitely made a great couple, I also liked Rachel's grandmother Lydia, also I just can totally relate to Timothy's Rachel's and Lydia's love for books and like Rachel I would be totally amazed by Timothy's wonderful collection of books! My second favorite story is Twice Blessed by Rebecca Hagan Lee, it is a nice story, I liked the heroine Lydia Turner and I both liked and at times disliked the hero Thomas Sullivan a doctor who has just arrived from France with his insecure young son, I liked how Lydia was so patient and so caring to Thomas's son Robert but I felt that Thomas could have been a little more understanding to poor Robert's feelings, okay Robert could be bratty but he was only about 4 or 5 years old and scared and lonely, his mother has died and his father who he barely knows and has maybe seen once or twice in his life has plucked him out of his country and brought him to a new country which has got to be scary to a little kid being moved to a new place. Also what was big deal to Thomas about Robert speaking French, sure you would want him to also be able to speak English but what would be so wrong to let him also speak French which is his first language and part of his heritage and also what was the big deal to Thomas about Robert wanting his name Robert pronounced the French way which is kind of like Ro-Bear, I say let the kid pronounce his name the only way he knows, afterall that was how his late mother being French would have pronounced it. The other story Emma's Day by Jill Metcalf was good and I liked the heroine Emma Parker and the hero Ward Hamilton but it wasn't my favorite of the stories, If you like short romance stories than you will probably like this book.

I loved these little love stories -- especially Twice Blessed. Thomas is a wonderful hero and I love the way Lydia learned to be a mother to Robert. I also liked the time and the setting. The people of the little beach town of Eden Point really came to life! I highly recommend this special story.

This is a wonderful book. The layout allows you to read only a few of the entries or, if inspired, the whole book. As always, what Mother Teresa says is touching and simply profound. The meditations found in this book allow you to witness the beauty of a life of service.

This book is amazing! I had no idea that Mother Teresa's work was so wide spread.

Mother Teresa is truly an inspiration. Her life and work and heart have touched me through this book. I learned so much about her and even more about true faith, reliance on God and what a servants heart really is.

This book is very thorough, yet it is not dry in the least. The book is well written and interesting as well.

I really enjoyed this volume in the Heroes of Faith series and I plan to read more in this series. I highly recommend this book. It is quick reading, though I feel very informed about Mother Teresa and like I know her a bit now.

With a grace characteristic of a 16th century mystic, Mother Teresa shares with the reader the gentle wisdom of her soul. Though her personal experiences were extraordinary, her challenge to love, and to view suffering itself as the "kiss of Jesus" is relevant, timeless, and deeply affecting. A joy as devotional material or for insight into the mind and heart of a modern day saint.

I found it terribly disturbing in this book when, upon reading this right wing rant of a book, that being a prominent politician entitles one to handle a dead infant's body, taking it home so that one's entire family may observe the new family member, and then burying the remains. And conservatives call late term abortions barbaric?! To induct a dead infant into a family is downright insane, and it is sad that so many do not see this for the mere political grandstanding that it is. I guess that a white Christian male senator from Pennsylvania should speak for all women in America who carry fetuses in pregnancies that are potentially life-threatening. And for a political faction that places so much emphasis on the role of God in morality, it is intriguing that such a public official would assume the authority to judge when, or even if, a pregnant woman's life is in danger due to a pregnancy. Maybe Rick Santorum professes so much faith in God because he believes himself to be that very deity.

I hope there are some good Democrats running for the Senate in Pennysylvania for 2006.

This book is a great way to explore the depraved thinking of right-wing Christians. The part where Karen brings the fetus home to have her children handle it before burying "Gabriel" makes one think that she needs psychiatric counseling! I do feel sorry for her for being married to that idiot, however.

I hope the reader from San Francisco never has to experience the death of a child...I have, and holding my child before my wife and I gave her to God was one of the most precious events of my life. I applaud Mrs Santorum on having the strength to write a book that could help many, many people. The comment that she needs mental help for wanting to share the experience is bitter and evil. although you are a negative, horrible person (who is too much of a coward to use your name), I know her response would be the same as mine...May God have mercy on your soul....

And I hope God blesses the Santorums

I'd hoped to find a balanced, no-nonsense look at the life of Mother Theresa, but this wasn't it. After some 200 pages, my attempts to shake off growing annoyance at the author's cynicism and derision faltered. While I was open to the possibility that Mother Theresa might have had the same human frailties that we all share, I was disappointed that the author couldn't just accept that and move on. Instead, he seems to revel in gleefully attributing the most profane and egotistical motives to the reverend Mother's actions and words, but only rarely supplies any evidence to support his speculations. It seems at times that he is truly perplexed at the subject's motives, and thus failing to understand them, he merely constructs what he thinks should have been the rational approach. In the end, I don't really care what Paul Williams thinks of Mother Theresa...I want to know objective facts. I'll be more than happy to come to my own conclusions.

The only book that presents the true story of Mother Teresa.
It is shocking and provocative.

While many attack this book, the attacks usually just prove one of Hitchens' points; that many people have a knee-jerk reaction to Mother Teresa, considering her beyond all criticism, while not really knowing anything about her.

One of his themes is that Teresa is not primarily concerned with helping people. She is more concerned with glorifying God (or the church) than loving mankind, and has a regrettable tendency to put the glory of God ahead of the comfort (or even the lives) of the people she tended.

Hitchens also asks what real benefit to the poor Teresa produced, especially considering the huge amounts of money that flow in from around the world. Often, the 'care' seems to be little more than being given a cot and allowed to die, even if simple treatment could save their life.

And while it's been pointed out that there's nothing wrong with taking money from evil people and using it to do good, this misses the point. When Teresa accepts money from someone like Keating, she isn't taking money from an evil man, she is taking it from all those who Keating stole it from. She is, in other words, stealing from the poor to give to the poor.

Ultimately, one's opinion of Mother Teresa will probably be determinied by one's priorities. If you consider the glorification of God to be most important, then you will probably not have a problem with the building of churches instead of schools and hospitals. If you consider the next life to be more important than this one, you probably won't be bothered by the philosophy that it is better to love the poor than to feed them, better to love the dying than to cure them. And if you believe that God's will is to be trusted over all, then you probably don't mind the encouragement of reproduction in lands where millions already starve. To each his own.

"The Missionary Position: Mother Teresa in Theory and Practice," by Christopher Hitchens, is one of the most audacious books I have ever read. The book is a merciless of expose of Mother Teresa, the Roman Catholic nun who has been internationally hailed for her work with the poor. But Hitchens claims that there is a dark side to this seemingly saintly figure, whom he calls "a religious fundamentalist, a political operative, a primitive sermonizer and an accomplice of worldly powers." With his grimly intelligent prose, Hitchens does a good job of supporting this assessment.

Hitchens looks at Teresa's involvement with such unsavory figures as the corrupt Duvalier regime of Haiti. He analyzes the international "cult" of Teresa, and considers the political alliances she formed. He also takes a critical look at the hospices operated by her order, noting that the "point" of these institutions "is not the honest relief of suffering but the promulgation of a cult based on death and suffering and subjection." Hitchens also considers Teresa's role as an international tool of the Roman Catholic hierarchy.

Perhaps the most damning section of the book is the sordid tale of Teresa's involvement with Charles Keating, who was convicted in the Savings and Loan scandal of the 1990s. This part of the book includes a photocopy of a remarkable letter signed by Teresa on behalf of Keating.

Hitchens' remarkable book reminds us that no public figure should be considered so "saintly" as to be above scrutiny. He also reminds us that it is often useful to analyze the political and ideological motives behind certain "charitable" enterprises. "The Missionary Position" is a well-written and thought-provoking analysis of the shadowy intersections of politics, religious dogma, and popular culture.

In discussing this book with my friends and co-workers, I found that they reacted with the same "raised-eyebrow shock" that I did. But what we also shared was the same mis-quided, media driven vision of a person that was suposedly unquestionable. After reading this book, intently I might add, I wanted answers. I want to know where all the donations to Mother Teresa's organiztion has gone because it certainly hasn't gone to the poor. I want to know why Mother Teresa has posed in pictures with the wife of a dictator, with a man claiming to have a higher spiritual consciousness than Jesus himself, and with Charles Keating, the man who financially raped so many. Her actions and her words are not congruent and I am thankful to those who look at a situation and make the hard decisions. Christopher Hitchens is intelligent and courageous for writing this book and I am now a fan. The book was well written with sources that will withstand independant scrutiny. I don't know how anyone, after reading this book, could say that Mother Teresa is a saint.

This book is a worthwhile guide to McBrien's odd biases. As a noted 'dissenter', this book should be a great comfort and resource to like-minded people.

To those looking for a credible, well-written guide to Saints - those chosen by God as exemplars off heroic virtue, the book will not do at all. A few lines on great, wildly popular modern saints such as Faustina and Padre Pio? But longer disquisitions on McBrien hobbyhorses such as Albert Schweitzer. Martin Luther King, and Cardinal Bernardin? Please.

Disappointing is the only way to describe this book. Despite its potential - fine quality pages, saints for every day of the year, plus additional information on Church history and spiritual movements within the Church -this book simple failed to deliver for what I was looking for - daily readings on the saints that might be interesting, provoking, and inspiring.

Instead I found this to be yet another in a long list of saint books that provides for the most part a very dry and hurried account of dates and accomplishments - squeezed into a paragraph or two for many saints. Worse is reading a whole page on a saint without finding anything remotely interesting. After awhile you guess what is going to be written. I.E. "spent time helping the poor, reforming prostitutes..."

Spare yourself these boring accounts that I found quite biased and inaccurate at times. (This is not a shot at the author - I just happen to be familiar with much literature on a few saints and can easily spot inaccuracies).

For an exceptional book on saints, check out on amazon 'Voices of the Saints'.

Lives of the Saints
Richard McBrien

McBrien's compilation of saints for each day covers a multitude of canonized and non-canonized people. He also offers saints who are recognized by the Anglican/Episcopalian, Lutheran and Greek Orthodox churches. His descriptions are short, comparatively with Butler's descriptions, but non-devotional. He includes in his short essays references to history, legend and myth. This book can exist along side other longer works and can offer some perspectives that others do not.