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Friday, February 29, 2008

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A book based on Ignatian spirituality, which makes clear some important steps in discernment. Wolff defines discernment in the following way: "influenced by our values, we work with our intellect and our affectivity in order to determine, in time, our decision." The Latin verb which is the root of "discern" means "to separate, to distinguish accurately one object from another." He addresses how an individual can make a decision - with both one's head and one's heart. He also talks about how individuals who know this process and are experienced with it can also come together for group discernment, but is clear that discernment is in an altogether different category from a group decision.

One idea which was new to me is the idea of separation. There's a story about Ignatius and his companions seeking a consensus about becoming an order or not. After a number of days of prayer, they came together and each was asked to talk about if they were an outsider what they would believe. This is a challenge to do, but can be a very helpful toward objectivity. Ignatius also talked about indifference. Not in the modern usage, meaning not caring about anything - but in the sense that if one were standing at a fork in the road, one could go either way. If one want so discern about a decision, and are already drawn to one so much that any arguments or feelings toward the other would be ignored, it's not really a discernment. Wolff encourages us that we can learn how to better listen to ourselves, both our logic and our emotions, and we can also learn how to listen to God and to seek His way. In so doing, what we choose can be both what we want and what He wants.

Title:Discernment: The Art of Choosing Well
Author: Pierre Wolff
Date published:1993
Genre: Spirituality
Number of pages: 138
Notes: from Diane

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Thursday, February 28, 2008

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This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for a year or two now, and I haven't been able to bring myself to read it. Wurmbrand is a Romanian man who spent many years in jail for believing in Jesus, and this book is about those years in prison - what he experienced, what prison was like, conversations that he had - with a little bit about the years before and what happened after. I knew it would be an intense book, with stories of torture and pain. I recently picked it up, and actually read it in about three days - because the writing is that compelling. There were times i finished a chapter and put it down, sick to my stomach - but I picked it up again later that day to read about this man who truly loved Jesus.

Wurmbrand spent a total of 14 and a half years in communist prison. Most the first three years (or so) were spent in interrogation, torture, and isolation. After that, most of his time was spent in group cells of various prisons. But Wurmbrand and his wife had known this was coming, and had prepared themselves - studying the lives of others who had endured similar things, as well as asking God for strength. Throughout his time, Wurmbrand always found ways to share God's truth and love with those he came in contact with, be it other prisoners or guards or important communist officials. It has been said that prison (especially this kind of extreme, violent prison) makes beasts of some men, and saints of others. By the grace of God, Wurmbrand stayed a saint and faithful to God throughout much evil and pain.

Wurmbrand is an eloquent speaker, and able to answer questions well. Toward the end of his time in jail, the communists tried to make everyone pro-communist, with hours of propaganda lectures, statements over a sound system, and rewards for those who turned and betrayed other prisoners and their own beliefs. One Sunday they did an anti-Christian play, and then asked prisoners to talk about how wonderful it was. When they called on Wurmbrand, everyone waited to see how he would respond. He talked about how all the best parts of communism come from Christianity - reminding them that Jesus was a carpenter, a common laborer, that Jesus drove the rich moneylenders from the Temple and valued the poor, that the first Christians shared all they had as communists spoke of doing. He spoke of God's love and judgment in front of the whole prison, and they allowed him to speak. As a result, things became harder - but Wurmbrand was unafraid of speaking up. This man and his wife (who was also in a labor camp for 3 years) had souls of steel and deep faith, trusting God and standing up for what is right and good, no matter what. And bringing many other prisoners to saving faith, even in the hardest place.

Title:In God's Underground
Author: Richard Wurmbrand
Date published:1968
Genre: Spiritual, Biography
Number of pages: 268
Notes: gift from the Huggins

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Saturday, February 23, 2008

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cover of Promised Land

I've read this book so many times, and I know it's not great literature, but it's such a delightful, entertaining, pleasant book that I often find myself reading it again. I guess it is my reading equivalent of comfort food (I read it in a single night once). I needed something to lighten the bleak, heaviness of Watchmen, and this is what I thought of and grabbed off the shelf. It's an entertaining story, again the "married first, fall in love second" that there are so many versions of, but with the trappings of a rough colony planet and the humorous escapades of an outsider, a "been-to" coming back from off-world and unfamiliar with the local ways.

I think the reason this book, and these kinds of stories, are so compelling is because it's a picture of unconditional love. A former pastor once said that we know perfect love not because we are capable of giving it or because we have received it, but because we know how we want to be loved. And near the end of the story, when you finally get all the details and find out how blindly and completely Sonny loves Delanna, it's a taste of that. He puts up with all the crazy things she does and the hurtful things she says, and he has no expectations from her; as soon as he sees how beautiful and educated she is he knows she doesn't belong on his primitive planet, but he still wants to show her the land and the beautiful flowers she used to love as a child. Sonny is generally so careful and thoughtful about things, but eventually we find out that he took off across the shifting, unsafe landscape in a broken solar the moment he heard Delanna was coming. He even tries to accommodate her leaving and getting money to go off planet, even though he knows it will force him and his brothers to abandon their land for ten years and go work in the mines to get by, but he never treats he never seems to think of himself when Delanna is involved.

The one thing that bugs me about this book (and I think it bothers me more every time I read it) is the last few lines. There are other things that are slightly out of character earlier in the book (like Delanna beginning to interpret and speak for the laconic Sonny when she's hardly seen him for a few hours), but for some reason I can put up with that. But at the end Sonny and Delanna suddenly forget that they are already married by the laws of the land (when they have argued about it and danced around it and avoided it for months by this time), and the only reason I can figure this happens is so the authors can get in what they think is a clever last line, but I find it disappointing and unsatisfying.

Title:Promised Land
Author:Connie Willis & Cynthia Felice
Date published:1997
Genre:Science Fiction / Romance
Number of pages:368
Notes:repeat reading

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cover of Watchmen

Brilliant, but so dark. This is one of those great graphic novels that you hear about-- it's a Hugo award winner, made Time's 100 best novels of the last century, etc. I've been wanting to read it for a while, and finally got around to it. It's incredibly well-written and it's a compelling story, but it took me a while to read because it is so dark and challenging. Set in the Cold War of the 1980s, gripped by the terror of nuclear war, this is a world where real people decided to become masked superheroes, and Moore shows us the downside of that life, in large and small terms-- the societal outcomes, where police went on strike and the heroes handled the rioting poorly, and masked heroes were eventually outlawed. But we also see some of the individual outcomes of those choices: the flaws and world-views and motivations of these different people. Perhaps part of the reason I didn't particularly enjoy reading the book was that none of these people are particularly likable. Also, this story is set in a confusing and complicated world, and sometimes it was hard to figure out what was going on-- although I think this is probably a disorienting quality intended by the creators of the story.

The story begins with a dead man. One masked superhero, Rorshach, investigates and discovers that this man was the superhero known as the Comedian, and is convinced that someone is plotting to kill the masks. The story goes from there, with various chapters about some of the different people who became masked vigilantes. Each chapter (except the last, I believe) ends with an excerpt from a written "historical" document-- such as the tell-all memoir of the retired hero Night Owl.

Threaded through the book is a pirate comic series that a kid is reading on the street near a newsstand (it's supposed to be a well-known story written by a missing writer who comes into the plot in a small way). This is a dark tale of a man stranded on an island, his boat destroyed and his fellow crew members killed by a ghastly death boat that his heading towards his home town. In his fear for his family, he does whatever he can to get home in time to warn and protect them-- committing atrocities while intending good. By the time he gets there, he is so transformed by the process of all he has done in the name of protecting his family that he has turned into a monster himself, does more damage than good, and finally recognizes all he is fit for is the death ship, which was waiting for him in the first place. Of course, this story is a very bleak take on the heroes of the main story, and the bits of the pirate story we get mesh tightly with the rest of the plot as it flows around it.

Each chapter also ends with a quote from a song or literature that is relevant to the section that has just ended. The last one of these is in Latin from Juvenal, the famous line that most people know about this book if they know anything: "Who watches the watchmen?"

There are some compelling characters here, and for some of them we get a very clear insight into their perceptions and thinking. Rorshach, who wears a mask with shifting patterns like the famous ink blots, and who sees the world in black and white:

Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose.
Dr. Manhattan, the man who wanted to be a watchmaker but became a physicist and was accidentally disintegrated, and then figured out how to put himself back together piece by piece, and in the process learned to manipulate atoms, but who experiences time all at once and not in sequence the way the rest of us do. He explains his perspective thus:
I read atoms... I see the ancient spectacle that birthed the rubble. Beside this human life is brief and mundane.
(Although later he changes his mind on this last part when he is reminded by his one-time lover Laurie that every human birth is an improbable and miraculous event.)

In places the artwork is very compelling-- particularly the page at the beginning of each chapter-- a black page showing the top of a clock with the hand moving slowly toward some fateful hour and blood seeping down the page. These images change gradually enough that I didn't notice where it was going at first, but near the end of the book, when the details about some impending disaster were more clear, this image with the slow build-up was very compelling. Also, of course, the iconic cover image-- a close-up of a smiley face button with a drop of blood on it.

Title:Watchmen
Author:Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons
Date published:1995
Genre:Graphic Novel
Number of pages:334

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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

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A story told by 5 women, a mother and her 4 daughters, who are taken by Nathan Price (husband and father) into the Belgian Congo in 1959. He wants to take the Gospel to the natives, regardless of the cost for himself or his family. They arrive and are sent to a small village where they are the only white people - a vast difference from the life they knew in Georgia. The story begins in 1959 and continues through 1986 and beyond, telling the story of how each family member is strongly affected and changed by Africa. Nathan is horrified by trauma he experienced during the war, and because of this he runs through life, pushing himself to make a difference, to save lives to make up for his 'sin' and demands moral goodness and obedience from all the women in his life - to some how atone for his past.

There are four sisters: Rachel, the oldest; Leah and Adah who are twins; and Ruth May. Rachel likes pretty things and wishes for an easy life, and never adjusts to living in a village without so many comforts that she knew before. Leah is intelligent and adores her father until something happens and suddenly she can't get far enough away from him, but she asks questions and doesn't want to live a certain way just because she has been told to, but wants to know truth and to keep learning. Adah was born with a defect, and walks with a limp and sees the world differently. Her reflections are filled with palindromes and doubt and disbelief and comments her father would never allow, but in some ways she sees much more clearly than any of her family members. Ruth May is young, stubborn, and quite good at getting what she wants out of life, even taking what she wants if it isn't given, and finding things to enjoy. After a tragic event, each woman goes a different direction: one to eventually own a hotel in another African country; another to marry an African and face harsh life and dangerous political events her whole life; another to become a doctor seeking cures for dangerous diseases; another to plant gardens and mourn their losses and ache for the land where so much happened. Orleanna, the mother, has a chapter at the beginning of each section. She is speaking to another character in the book, and also to the reader. Kingsolver compares Orleanna to Africa, which makes sense. Orleanna was married to a husband who cared so much for himself that he only thought of her to be angry or to demand something or to chastize her. Many political events in Africa take place as these women live through history, but the villagers who make up most of the population of Africa are largely unaffected. They continue on with their hard lives, trying to survive as famine and flood and plenty take their turns in the conditions of Africa. A people and a continent which has been beaten and taken for granted and used - but which still manages to survive and to have something worthwhile and beautiful to offer to the world. Kingsolver plays with words and images in beautiful ways. Adah's chapters were probably my favorite, with their slightly 'skewed' perspective and word plays. She and Leah learn the language of the village the most quickly, and find odd links. The same word can mean three or four different things depending on how it's pronounced, which means that when their father preaches or talks, he often miscommunicates - saying something quite different than what he intended. This is definitely a commentary on missionaries and those who go abroad, seeking to carry God's truth. In the various examples of words and meanings and concepts in this new language, there are some beautiful comparisons to Biblical truths - but nathan was completely unaware of these and totally unwilling to recognize them, had he seen them. It is easy for people to be so stuck to their own culture and way of viewing Scripture that they are blind to any other culture or facet of truth. This is painful to see and to hear of. Someone told me that one of the most important things a missionary can do is pray not to be an obstacle to the Gospel they preach, as they miscommunicate with language and culture. Only by the grace of God is Truth shared and learned from others - of the same culture, let alone others with a different culture and language.

Title:The Poisonwood Bible
Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Date published:1998
Genre: Fiction
Number of pages: 543
Notes: recommended by jude & diane

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Thursday, February 14, 2008

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Wagner gathers insights and stories from Christians all over the globe, with varying but connecting experiences. Each chapter is written by a different person, with enjoyable and challenging stories. There are pratical insights, with certain steps that might be taken were a group of people desiring to undertake such spiritual warfare. Everyone makes sure that it is known spiritual warfare is not something to be done lightly, but to be prepared for as one would prepare for war.

In all the writings, there are a few themes which are agreed upon by everyone. There are spirits who have control over certain areas, and these areas might be as small as a house, or as large as a country. When large changes come over an area, these spirits have been somehow neutralized or challenged. Opinions varied on how these battles were to be fought, but they are certainly battles that the Lord fights and that He wins, not humans. The role that humans play is mostly in prayer - which, contrary to common practice, is actually Kingdom work and powerful. Especially when those praying have confessed and live God's power of sin, and are praying in unity with other believers. Prayer is often made stronger with fasting, and God's insight and wisdom can be more clearly heard.

Many Biblical examples are brought to play, such as Daniel fasting and praying until the archangel could come - some 3 weeks, and that his prayers somehow gave energy and power to the angels fighting to break through with God's message. Another example that is used is that of Jericho, where the Israelites might have felt useless but were living in obedience and power and purity - such that on the 7th day, in God's time, they had God's power to conquer. Another story tells of a YWAM group who went to a city to hand out tracts, but felt great opposition. After intense prayer, God revealed to them the spirit of pride had power of the city. In answer to this, they split up into groups and came in the opposite spirit - that of humility, praying on their knees in public places. In answer to this, people became interested and gladly received tracts and listened to the message of hope and truth they had to share. In spite of the encouragement and amazing stories in this book, it is still scary to step into something like this. I feel more prepared with information, and more sure than ever that only in God's strength and calling and power is it possible to stand up to evil.

Title:Territorial Spirits: Insights on Strategic-level Spiritual Warfare from 19 Christian leaders
Author: Edited by Peter Wagner
Date published:1991
Genre: Religious
Number of pages: 202
Notes: Recommended by Diane

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Tuesday, February 12, 2008

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cover of The Ransom

Christobel Kershaw is a bit different from most Grace Livingston Hill characters. She comes home from boarding school for her step-mother's funeral, and she is a rather angry young woman, and not sure what she believes in or where she thinks her step-mother has gone now that she's dead. Christobel and her brother Randall are practically strangers from her father because of this woman he married who immediately shipped them away to school and started enjoying her new husband's wealth. Everyone thinks Mr. Kershaw is quite wealthy, but they don't know that his wife was profligate in her spending and his business is starting to founder (I believe this is set near the beginning of the Great Depression). This doesn't prevent his wife's stylish servants from trying to steal all the silver and expensive dresses (Christobel figures this out and helps catch them), and eventually Randall is kidnapped and a ransom is demanded.

In some ways, Christobel is more interesting than many of Hill's other heroines, because of her uncertainty and her questions. However, it seems that Hill only does this in order to have another character share his faith in Christ with her, and the way this is written dragged me out of the story pretty abruptly. There's something similar in the second part of the book, too. Roughly half-way through, the story shifts to the kidnapped Randall who is being kept in a remote cabin in the woods. Randall notices a little book hidden in the chinks of his room, and because it has an endorsement by a famous athlete (not to mention he has nothing else to do), he begins reading it first to himself and then to his captors. The little book is the Gospel of John, which none of them have ever heard before, and they are convicted by it. The Gospel effectively becomes Randall's ransom, because when their hiding place is discovered and they flee, the kidnapper who is ordered to kill Randall lets him go instead, and Randall eventually escapes back to his family.

This is not really much of a romance, and with the plot ingredients it should be a more exciting adventure than it actually turns out to be. Hill seems to be orchestrating the plot and her characters' lack of belief purposely so that she can overtly share her faith through the book, which to my mind makes both the story and the gospel she's attempting to share less engaging. The Gospel being someone's "ransom" in a life-or-death situation is a compelling idea, but it seems to be handled rather clumsily here.

Title:The Ransom
Author:Grace Livingston Hill
Date published:1933
Genre:Romance/Adventure
Number of pages:238
Notes:repeat reading

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Friday, February 08, 2008

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A husband lives a life of secrets, telling no one of his past. He marries a woman, and they truly love each other. She becomes pregnant and on the night of her pregnancy, due to a blizzard, he is the one to deliver their child. Or children. Only a nurse is there to help them, and only she too knows the secret. The second child is a girl who has Down's Syndrome, and because of his past, this man cannot imagine allowing his wife to have this pain. So he sends their daughter away and tells everyone she died. Dr. David Henry makes a decision that takes away one source of pain and puts another in its place - for himself, for his wife, for their son.

David and Norah feel themselves fading farther and farther from each other. David has built a wall around himself to protect the secret, but this wall also keeps everyone else outside. So much is unspoken in their family .. David's painful past; Norah's present attempts to run away from pain and loss; the way Paul (their son) escapes and seeks to fill the emptiness with music; Phoebe (their daughter) and her very existence. Edwards does a wonderful job of creating connections between times and people, whether or not they are aware of them. David's sister loved to sing, and both of his children also create beautiful music. Both Norah and Caroline (the nurse) change from being dependent on David to becoming independent, strong, forceful women. All the main children grow up disconnected from their parents one way or another. Two spouses are often running from something, having a hard time sitting still.

Near the beginning of their sadness together, Norah gives David a camera. It becomes his way to see the world .. to make sense of his pain .. to find connections and establish relationship where it has been broken. This seeking to capture moments and connections often sets him one step away from others, but he already feels that separation so this only aggravates his loneliness. As a doctor, he enjoys being able to see and help others to see the way our bodies reflect the world (ie lungs and trees, veins and rivers). His art becomes valuable and honored later in life, but is almost adverse to the depth of his relationships. The only person he tells his story to is a stranger, who then becomes part of his life and closer to him than his wife .. although still held at arm's length. Art has such power .. but when used as a way to hide it's effects are painful for so many. As with all good art, there are many levels of truth in this book, and I suspect that I will revisit it a number of times in the future.

Title:The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Author: Kim Edwards
Date published:2005
Genre: Fiction
Number of pages: 513
Notes: Recommended by Betty

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Saturday, February 02, 2008

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cover of Marcia Schuyler

One of my favorite Grace Livingston Hill books, yet another variation on the story of a man and a woman who get married first and fall in love later. The Schuylers are all caught up in the preparations for the wedding of Marcia's older sister Kate, but Kate-- beautiful, whimsical, charming, and selfish-- decides to elope with another man the night before the wedding. To save face for the family and the groom, Marcia agrees to marry David in her sister's place. In an age when transportation was expensive and slow, none of David's family or neighbors have actually met or seen or met his fiancée, so if he brings home a bride he doesn't have to tell everyone how he was jilted and disgraced. Marcia is just beginning to grow into a young woman and has never been in love before, but has always admired and respected David. Without realizing it, she gradually grows into love with him, all the while he is heartbroken about his sweet Kate (not understanding just how selfish she is) and treating Marcia like a child (even though she is more thoughtful and better educated than Kate, and actually interested in his work). Eventually, of course, circumstances bring them to both recognize and admit their love to each other, and they discover they are better suited to each other than David and Kate would have been.

This book has quite a bit of adventure, a couple of real out-and-out villains, and an unusual amount of historical detail. David is a journalist, and for a while he goes to New York to help lobby for a steam engine train, and then later he and Marcia attend the beginning of the first steam engine trip in NY; also referenced are the "home sweet home" song which was popular in New York at the time, and Andrew Jackson in the senate.

I don't recall a lot of Hill's books having outright villains who are clearly evil, but here we have two. Harry Temple is in David and Marcia's small town for business (although he seems to do very little work), and decides that this pretty new bride would be a delightful conquest. Marcia is so naive she doesn't realize what he's up to at first, but the moment he makes a move she runs out of the house and away across the fields into the woods (giving a friendly young neighbor a chance to help and David the opportunity to rescue Marcia, and begin to see her as a desirable woman). Similarly, when David is in town he runs into an unhappy, poor Kate (disappointed in her marriage and in her father's lack of forgiveness), and while David is oblivious, the reader is shown Kate's deliberate choices that lead her down the path of evil as she attempts to manipulate and seduce David. Eventually, Kate and Harry Temple meet and join forces, and their villainy culminates in an attempt to kidnap Marcia and make it seem that she abandoned David. Their plot is foiled by the feisty and hilarious neighbor Miranda who goes out of her way to look out for the naive Marcia.

A delightful story with wonderful characters. I've read it many times and will no doubt read and enjoy it again.

Title:Marcia Schuyler
Author:Grace Livingston Hill
Date published:1908
Genre:Romance
Number of pages:375
Notes:repeat reading

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