While Gene Williams has written "Living in the Zoo and Loving It!" as a book of encourgament for other members of the clergy, a layperson, or a potential reader not even connected with organized religion, shouldn't pass up this honest revelation from the heart of a an man who obviously loves being in the ministry.

From his humble beginnings in Nashville, through the years of pastoring a large Midwestern church, Dr. Williams' writing style is accessable and transparent. He allows the reader to view blunders and lean times not often announced from pulpits.

The book, while full of practical wisdom, rides on entertaining adecdotes including family experiences as he and his late wife, Bettye raised five children in parsonages, sometimes at poverty level. His love for his congregations is also evident, although he doens't gloss over problems and tensions that sometimes occure between a pastor and his members.

Encouraged by his present wife, Joyce, Pastor Williams has written an entertaining little book full of gems of everyday wisdom, not always found in Seminary classes. "Living in the Zoo..." provides a fine read whether you consider yourself religious or not.

Living What You Believe: Wisdom From The Book Of James is the collaborative effort of Kenneth Boa and William Kruidenier and designed to take the reader on a guided tour of the Book of James to learn how to embrace a hands-on, concrete faith that will enable him or her to truly live out what they profess to believe as Christians. The issues and elements surveyed within the context of the Book of James include temptation, relationships, speech, finances, good works, prayer, and planning -- all for the purpose of encourage and instructed Christians to live wisely and well within the framework of the Gospel. Living What You Believe is a highly recommended addition to personal and small group New Testament and Christian Life studies.

William Christian takes the long-overlooked results of a survey of local religous practice by Philip II, and draws an interesting picture of 16th c. popular religion in Castile.

The study of 'popular religion' is fairly new, and not usually well-done. Christian shies away from Natalie Davis-style revisionism, though, and sticks to the sources. It's fascinating work on a couple of levels. First of all, popular piety in Renaissance Spain was as diverse, earthy, and practical as one might expect, given the difficult conditions of folks living in recently-conquered Castile. Second of all, the tension between popular religion and the filtering down of Tridentine reforms is illustrated quite well by Christian later in the book.

This is a fairly well-focused monograph, but the general reader as well as the specialist will find it a good companion to his other treatment of Spanish popular religion, 'Apparitions'.

Using the Lord's Prayer as a starting point, Hauerwas and Willimon guide readers through major areas of Christian Ethics and thought in their trademark style. Readers familiar with the work of Hauerwas and Willimon will enjoy seeing their individual styles shine through occasionally, and the book reads like one of Willimon's sermons. It is important to understand that this is not a discussion of the Lord's Prayer for experienced Christians, but it can be good for people who have claimed but perhaps not actively thought about their faith.

This book offers couples advice, insight and opportunity to foster loving and lasting marriages. The journal/devotional format is highly effective as a way to spark and record thought and conversation. Topics are relevant to couples in all stages of marriage. I highly recommend this book to couples as a way to encourage discussion and prayer with one another. Great gift idea as well.

I first met Robert Smith while serving a mission for the LDS church in Albuquerque. He is a great guy. I bought an autographed copy of his first book when I left and I have been hooked ever since. Rob is a gifted writer with a creative flair for metaphor. If you are frustrated with the trashy humor taking over out there, then read this book and all of his others. If you love small towns, live in one or know somebody from hickville, this is for you. If you are Mormon, or if you even know any Mormons, you'll love it.

As a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and father of three daughters, I cannot bgin to say where I would be without Loving Obedience. In my own home, we have used the practical techniques Dr. Richardson provides with great success with our daughters. Our two older daughters, twin 8 year olds, get themselves up for school, make their bed and dress themselves and then wake us up. No Joke! We got there with Loving Obedience. As a therapist, I have recommended Loving Obedience to hundreds of clients and not one has been disappointed. You learn skills to build your children up in a world that tears them down and simple techniques to stop unwanted behavior and start new desired behavior! This is parenting at its best. Oh Yeh, I know Dr. Richardson and his family and he has successfully put his skills to the test with his own two sons. They don't come any finer!

McClendon tells the story of a year as interim pastor of a small church and interweaves his sermons. He explains the context in the life of the church. Good story-telling and good preaching.

What are the social, legal, medical and psychological implications of the fact that marriage is good for you? This collection of essays seeks to answer that question.

The social sciences have make it quite clear that marriage confers a number of benefits on those who partake of it. Married people live longer, healthier and fuller lives than those who do not marry. How are the various professions, such as law, medicine and therapy, to respond to these facts?

A number of family experts, theologians, and social scientists here address these questions. The professions, they argue, have tended not to discuss such issues because marriage is often viewed as a strictly private and personal affair. But as we begin to understand the public nature of the institutions of marriage and family, the professions need to look more closely at some of the new findings concerning marriage.

For example, if marriage is indeed good for couples, good for children, and good for society, how should family law reconsider its role? What changes might business leaders make in the light of the new research? How should governments respond to the findings of the social sciences?

The 14 chapters in this book address these issues, and explore a number of related themes. The result is a new examination of marriage and its importance, especially in its social and public setting.

Several of the chapters alone are worth the price of the book. The chapter by David Popenoe and Barbara Dafoe Whitehead on "The Personal and Social Costs of Divorce" is a very fine summary of what the social sciences have been discovering over the past few decades. Their concluding remarks are worth repeating:

"It is clear that children are hurt by divorce, often seriously and much more than many adults seem to believe. And high rates of divorce create a social climate in which the kinds of intact families most likely to help children thrive are in ever shorter supply. Through its gradual corruption of a strong culture of marriage, childbearing, and child rearing, divorce may have negative consequences for society far greater than we now realize."

Equally important is the article, "The Health Benefits of Marriage" by Linda Waite. She provides a helpful overview of the available evidence which tells us that married people do indeed live longer, healthier and happier lives than do non-marrieds. Singleness, cohabitation and other relationships simply do not compare with that of marriage.

The implications of these truths are spelled out in the remainder of the book. Legal changes, for example, seem to be in order if it is true that easy divorce has such bad ramifications for children, adults and the broader community. A return to some kind of concept of fault in divorce laws is one possibility. Covenant marriage is another. But societies must make marriage more secure while making divorce more difficult.

Likewise, in education we need to do more to spread the message that marriage is a valuable social good, as well as a benefit to individuals. And the negative impact of divorce also needs to be made known. Just as society has cut down smoking, drink driving and other harmful behaviours by education campaigns, such an approach is needed here as well.

In the same vein, counselors and therapists need to reassess their approach to marital difficulties. Instead of simply blessing a quick divorce, more work needs to be done on getting couples to work through their difficulties, and reinforcing the ideal of marriage. And marriage educators need to restore the social dimension of marriage, instead of treating it in such a highly individualised manner. Marriage is much more than a private, individual affair, and this needs to be kept at the forefront of any counselling.

Indeed, on every front we need to affirm the goodness and usefulness of marriage and family, while pointing out the negative results of divorce and family breakdown. Individuals and societies both need to hear this message.

As John Witte concludes in his article on the goods and goals of marriage: "Stable marriages and families are essential to the survival, flourishing, and happiness of the greater commonwealths of church, state, and civil society. And a breakdown of marriage and the family will eventually have devastating consequences on these larger social institutions."

We now know this truth conclusively, with a wealth of social science research to back it up. The next step is to act accordingly. This book helps us to do just that.

Back in the mid-70's, I was a high-school student of Father O'Malley. He used his "Meeting the Living God" in a theology course he taught for seniors, so it is hard, if not impossible, for me to separate the book and the person. I'd like to say this, though: One Friday or Saturday night way back then, relaxing on a cool night in a parked car with two or three buddies, we were not talking about the upcoming big game or trying to get into a bar without IDs. Of all things, we were talking about Father O'Malley and his book. One basic idea in both the class and the book was for the student/reader to realize what a Christian is and to act on that by kind of lighting a fire under one's ....arse. At one point in that parked car of twenty years or so ago, a buddy, talking about Father, blurted out (a little too emotionally), "He's a living god." Father O'Malley would balk at that, but my friend was probably talking more about himself and whatever changes he was going through. Both the course and the book really did get many of us past the point of thinking about certain things and into the realm of acting. In this way, and through my "Meeting the Living God" experience of the book and the course, I felt very similar to my feelings about Soren Kierkegaard's "Concluding Unscientific Postscript." In both books, the authors are asking and trying to find out the answer to this question: "What do I have to do to become a Christian"?