5 comments about Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community.

1. A precious little book, with wonderful advice for Christians on how to live a fully-fledged Christian life, in community, as it corresponds to the Body of Christ, His church.
   
   Advice on prayer, specially when we are not in the spiritual mood to do so; on the importance of fellowship and solitude, each one at their right time, complementing each other. Even the smallest details are here, and very welcome ones: "when our thoughts wander (...) quite calmly to incorporate into our prayer the people and events to which our thoughts keep straying and thus in all patience return to the starting point of the meditation." Here you realize the enormous importance for Christians of living, praying, singing, encouraging, helping, praising, confessing in comunity. Iron sharpens iron.
   
   The book was written for the underground church during the nazi years in Germany. A most timely book for the times we are starting to live in. And by the way: the way it started is the way it will all end.



2. It's strange to say I both like this book and don't like it, but that's true. It's convicting me, which I know I need, but which doesn't always "feel" good. However, I like his central premise about Christ being at the center. What he writes about not knowing my brothers and sisters directly, but through Christ, changes the way I look at relationships. Regarding his writing about singing, I didn't really agree with it. But I reminded myself that Bonhoeffer wrote in a different place and time. I'm beginning to think that the best books are not those that make me "feel" good but that make me think differently.



3. This is a great little book, a classic that all Christians should read. At roughly 128 pages, this is a short treatise on Christian community that is very accessible. In the first chapter of this book Bonhoeffer presents his understanding of the reality of Christian community. Bonhoeffer's basic claim is that Christian community is a reality, both in the mundane realm and in the spiritual realm, and that this reality should inform the way we live with fellow Christians. The remaining four chapters deal with exactly how this reality should inform our lives, both as we live together and as we spend time alone.
   
   Bonhoeffer provides in this book a plethora of practical considerations for us to consider in light of the reality of our Christian brotherhood. For some reason, various reviewers have criticized Bonhoeffer's views found in the second chapter, "The Day With Others". In particular it seems that people are uncomfortable with Bonhoeffer's views concerning worship.
   
   Basically Bonhoeffer stands for the proposition that Christian worship should be limited to unison-singing. Although I am not sure that I agree with Bonhoeffer's particular thoughts on this subject, I think he is essentially correct that overall we should consider how these practical parts of our life together effect the fellowship. Bonhoeffer's concern is that modern forms of worship can lead to sin (or at least a less fruitful expression of worship) in the body; that we should be wary of allowing one group within the body to impose their personal preferences on the whole.
   
   This thinking is in-line with Bonhoeffer's overall point in this book: we should always be thinking of the body when considering the various aspects of our lives, both as we live together and as we spend time alone. Music is just one example. And I think that the people who have somehow reconciled themselves to criticize Bonhoeffer in this one area while at the same time praising the rest of the book are clearly not understanding the point of this book. They say, "If we resort only to unison-singing in worship my rights of self-expression will be violated... I find self-expression in other forms of worship." My response, and I think Bonhoeffer's response would be: the essence of Christian fellowship, and thus the essence of Christianity, is that we look to the interests of our brother before we tend to our own interests. Christianity isn't about my rights... it's about loving others with grace. This means, among other things, thinking practically about how our choice of worship style effects the body. And if we choose to worship with a more contemporary style, while offending other portions of the body (elderly people are a group that come to mind), causing those portions of the body to withdraw, how are we serving and loving the body? Bonhoeffer's point is that we aren't, and I think he's essentially right.
   
   The types of practical considerations Bonhoeffer applies to music are the same type of considerations we need to apply to our entire lives, both our lives together and our lives alone. This is the point of this book, and it is a profound message for a time when people tend to focus more on their own rights, interests, and claims. While individual autonomy is the order of the day, Bonhoeffer calls us to love one another. This includes the hard work of dealing with practical problems, such as worship style. I think this is a great book because it challenges us to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. We all say we love the brotherhood, but are we actually doing it? What does it mean to really love? In this book Bonhoeffer presents a challenging picture of what loving looks like, and even though we don't need to agree with everything he says, his overall message is a necessary one. I hope you enjoy the read!



4. Biblical applications of Christ-centered faith in the Trinity, and the fellowship of Christians in home and common prayer accedes the test of time in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community".
   As the Nazi regime began to take shape in Germany in 1935, the author wrote the book in Stettin, where he shared a common life in emergency-built houses with twenty-five vicars. For Christians today, "Life Together", transcends an age-old message to every group of people in fellowship: Christianity is community through and in Jesus Christ, alone.
   Bonhoeffer attests to the first community as that of the Trinity in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Scriptural submissions follow as the author stresses that it is God's will that Christendom is "like scattered seed into all the kingdoms of the earth (Deut 28:25) as both a curse and a promise. "God's people live among unbelievers but are also the seed of the Kingdom of God in the world." The author submits that this has happened in Christ who died, "that he should gather together in one the scattered children of God." (John 11:52). Therefore, Christians need other Christians to speak God's Word to one another in both daily, and seasons of their fellowship.
   In his central statement that we need one another because of Christ, the theologian further explains that God's Word must be spoken among the fellowship of believers where there is uncertainty and discouragement, so that brothers and sisters in Christ can bear and proclaim the "divine word of salvation" to one another. Bonhoeffer further attests that the more sincere and authentic, and the deeper each community of fellowship becomes, the more visible and purely Christ is present among them. In this, says the author, Christian brotherhood is not an ideal, but a divine reality. A framework of a first, and foremost, Christ-centered focus, would be pivotal to contemporary small group ministries which may constrain this application to favor a blend of both the human and the spiritual.
   As the author puts it, it is the "undiscerning" who believe in this mix, with varied levels of community structure, such as marriage, family and friendship, "Where the human element assumes a central importance for coming into being, and where spiritual is only added to the physical and intellectual, the author attests that there's a danger of confusing the two spheres, when there is no such danger in a purely spiritual fellowship
   Bonhoeffer perceived "Life Together" as Christian family fellowship, groups in prayer, and in common worship as the body of Christ. He extolled passing on the Christian faith at home, as parents and children share in reading the scriptures and psalms, and in daily table fellowship, saying grace in "Come Lord Jesus, be our guest", which binds Christians to Jesus and to one another. The theologian also asserts that Christians should remember daily prayer, particularly in the morning. "At the break of light, the church remembers the morning on which death and sin is defeated and new life and salvation was given to mankind". He further states that those who gather together in groups at this time of day should bond in "common praise of God, common prayer, and common hearing of the Word".
   This book is "must read" for small groups, pastors, staff and the laity in general. As Bonhoffer submits, it is Christ who must be the focus of the group or church's mission and ministry . The first questions small groups and the church as a whole must ask is: What is Christ's will for this ministry? This humble submission frames our love in service to the neighbor.



5. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is the Lutheran version of Francis Schaeffer, particularly when in comes to honesty, blatancy, and compassion in teaching personal relationships without compromising the gospel truth, but instead, teaching them within the framework of the gospel. "Life Together" is a rare gem on the beauty and sweetness of God-ordained Christian fellowship, that Bonhoeffer describes as an "extraordinary grace"; the "roses and lilies" of the Christian life. It is useful for pastors and lay-Christians; specifically for the emergent churches. Here is a pastor and theologian who understands and loves people, not by embracing post-modern relativism, however, or distorting the Christian gospel for the sake of making it more appealing and relevant. People are loved the most when they are loved in truth, and only in this context can a true Christian community exist and be sustained.
   
   His argument is that Christians can exist neither in community only nor as individuals only, but in both realities. Though the structure of a corporate worship that he proposes is somewhat rigid, where not everybody would agree, his analysis on human nature created by God to be social beings, is impressively sharp. The basis of a community is a common gospel faith; the foundation of which is the Lord Jesus Christ, who has called them into one body. On the other hand, he also exposes the dangers of those who can not be alone and those who refuse to be in a community. Concerning the dangers of both cases, he wrote,
   
   "Let him who can not be alone beware of community. Let him who is not in community beware of being alone. Each by itself has... pitfalls and perils. One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings (by which I take it to mean the case where a community may degenerate into undesirable malicious effects like gossips and quarrels), and the one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair" (pp.77-78).
   
   The treatments on the disciplines of prayer and Bible reading within the community and personal communion with God are tremendously beneficial and indispensable, as are the deeply personal directives in the last two chapters on how to minister and treat one another, where, when it comes to the discussion on confession, it is closely related to the case of those who avoid being in the community. Despite the seemingly outward pompous togetherness in the name of tolerance, I still see gaping evidences of pockets of loneliness in the post-modern world. I sense the abundance of the availability of social networking sites, chat rooms, instant messengers, blogs and online dating services, for examples, may testify to this hidden loneliness behind our narcissistic spirit. This aloofness poses a greater threat to ruin one's soul that Bonhoeffer describes as follows in the context of transparency to one another through confession in a Christian community,
   
   " `Confess your faults to one another' (James 5:16). He who is alone with his sin is utterly alone. It may be that Christians, notwithstanding corporate worship, common prayer, and all their fellowship in service, may still be left to their loneliness. Many Christians are unthinkably horrified when a real sinner is suddenly discovered among the righteous. So we remain alone with our sin, living in lies and hypocrisy. The fact is that we are sinners... Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person. In confession the light of the Gospel breaks into darkness and seclusion of the heart. Confession in the presence of a brother is the profoundest kind of humiliation. It hurts, it cuts a man down, it is a dreadful blow to pride... In the confession of concrete sins, the old man dies a painful, shameful death before the eyes of a brother. Because this humiliation is so hard, we continually scheme to evade confessing to a brother. Our eyes are so blinded that they no longer see the promise and the glory in such abasement" (pp. 110, 112, 114).
   
   There are many other valuable lessons that Bonhoeffer shares that would make this book a must read. He is not an ivory-tower theologian but one who understands human beings, though not perfectly, and cherishes and teaches them as both individuals and community with the right balance thereof, to the glory of God in Christ.

5 comments about Lopsided: How Having Breast Cancer Can Be Really Distracting.

1. I was drawn to this book because it says "wickedly funny in the style of Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris." I did find the book to be funny and entertaining, but I also found it harrowing and definitely not a pretty picture of what one goes through in the course of cancer treatment. At the end of the book, Meredith says that her experience with cancer was pretty normal or that it wasn't as bad as she expected. However, reading the book from the viewpoint of someone who has never had cancer or chemotherapy, I thought what she went through was gut-wrenching and certainly not something that I would think of as no big deal. And while I did find a significant amount of humor in her stories of her family and friends, the parts that were about her disease and treatment were not fun to read or funny or even entertaining. They made me very sad for her and for all of those around her during that horrible period of time. I originally bought the book to give to a fried of mine who is currently battling cancer, but I don't think she would find one bit of solace in the story, with the exception of the fact that Meredith is still alive to tell the tale.



2. I thoroughly recommend this book. Meredith Norton is an incredible writer, and her story is inspirational and also very funny. A great read, highly recommended.



3. There is light at the end of the tunnel... even if it means laughing, crying and struggling along the way. Lopsided was an opportunity to hear from someone just like me (although I am not nearly as funny)a 30 something, wife, mother and lover of life. When the author describes what she goes through, from strong denial to acceptance to treatment-- while constantly thinking about her son, who would raise him and how she would deal with his French/American upbringing-- that hit home. Thanks to Meredith Norton for allowing us to peek into her life, her memories and all of her thoughts as she figured out how to deal with a sharp turn in her life that came without a manual or a clear logical answer.



4. I bought this for a friend who was scheduled for surgery. Advised her to read it first so she would have some snappy answers for the idiotic things people say when you have cancer. She enjoyed it and has been ready for the remarks!



5. I picked up this book because I had heard it was hilarious. In addition, as a retired M.D. and former practicing radiologist, I was particularly interested in a patient's story of her ordeal with cancer. Though I have read thousands of mammograms in my day and have diagnosed thousands of cancers of various types, I have rarely viewed cancer through a patient's perspective. Radiologists, as you may know, have limited patient contact.
   
   This book is light summer reading. Despite the fact that it is nonfiction and deals with a rather gruesome topic, the author has written a page-turner. The main reasons, it seems to me, is that she is an extremely funny and very talented writer, and an unusually pithy observer of human nature.
   
   I had recommended the book to my wife, who said she had no interest in a cancer memoir. But once a number of our friends had also started raving about the book and she stumbled across a great review of it, she bowed to the pressure and started reading it. Now she's interrupting my writing with gales of laughter and exceptionally positive commentary.
   
   So that's my bottom-line recommendation to you--if you're not interested in cancer, fine. Forget this book is about cancer. It's really about the human condition and will keep you in stitches from the moment you pick it up until it allows you to put it down, which won't be until you've finished it.

5 comments about Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide.

1. This was a fast, easy and pleasant read. I went on a safari from my living room chair. Peter Allison made the landscape, ecosystem, animals and envionment of Botswana come to life. I very much liked his honesty regarding his naivate when first starting to be a guide. I recommend this book highly.



2. Even though Peter Allison never made Germans laugh, his book is sure to bring out chuckles and smiles. Even while describing serious hair-raising situations, Mr. Allison's way with words captures the moment, and brings to life a colorful cast of characters making each chapter an enjoyable and interesting account.
   Mr. Allison tells his safari stories like they are; refreshingly honest about himself, co-workers, wild animals, and best of all, the tourists. His youthful exuberance and love for wildlife is obvious. These true tales made this arm-chair traveler want to book the next available safari tour guided by Peter Allison.



3. For anyone who has ever been on an African safari or has ever thought they might want to this book is the one to read. The author has a great sense of humor which shows up consistently throughout this book. However, most importantly his love for Africa and its wildlife is the primary theme and is catchy. You will find yourself wanting to go to Botswana with Peter Allison as your guide



4. This book is a collection of stories from the author's time as a safari guide in Africa as a young man. It reminds me of other "travel misadventure" books I have read, but the setting and the fact that the author is a guide make a nice change. I laughed out loud many times while reading the book. There is a bit of "bodily function" humor in here, but less than many other similar books and most of it is pretty funny anyway (like the author finding himself practically peeing on a honey badger, which has a reputation for going for the balls, or being kept awake by amorous lions going at it every 15 minutes all night). Highly recommended light summer reading.



5. Allison's description of life as a safari guide and his interaction with beast and man will put a smile on your face. While most of the book showcases Allison's sense of humor, I also enjoyed the chapters which showed his heart. His ability to poke fun at himself and others in good-humored fashion left me hoping that he will continue to share his journey in a sequel. As the owner of a travel agency, this will be a gift for all of my clients who travel to Africa. I have lots of fantastic images from my safari - http://thetravelsource.vacationport.net but Allison inspired images that I would never have imagined: the honey badger pet, the mouse plague, and Salvador, the elephant in labor. If you have been on a safari, this book will bring back memories; if you haven't, it will let you dream about what it will be like when you do go. Either way, you'll learn something about the animals that you didn't know before.

5 comments about Travels with Charley in Search of America: (Centennial Edition).

1. (4.5 stars) When John Steinbeck obeys a life-long urge to drive from coast to coast in 1960, he little anticipates the variety of the "American experience." Beginning in Maine and traveling along the northern states through Wisconsin, the Badlands, Montana, and all places in between, to Washington and Oregon, Steinbeck then decides to visit his childhood community of Salinas, in northern California. After meeting with friends there, though many have died, he then drives southward through the length of California and then eastward through the southwest desert to Texas, Louisiana, and eventually up to Virginia before returning to New York.
   
   Carrying the reader along with him as he reconstructs this journey for publication in 1962, Steinbeck observes people and human nature, being careful not to draw conclusions about an entire area based on the individuals he meets along the way. Often it is their reactions to Charley, his aging standard poodle, which stimulates their conversations and allows Steinbeck glimpses of their thinking and ways of life. From the terminally gloomy waitress in Maine to the evil-looking mechanic in Oregon (who turns out to be the kindest and most generous of men), Steinbeck explores attitudes toward life (and strangers). Steinbeck's high school buddy (who almost comes to blows with him) shows him that you really can't go home again, and "the cheerleaders" of New Orleans, a group of white-supremacist women who taunt and scream obscenities at a tiny black girl integrating one of their schools, shows him how much work the human race still has left to do.
   
   As he travels in his truck with a house attached to its bed (a pre-camper invention), he notes the changing landscape, the disappearance of treasured aspects of the environment, and the growth of new trends--including the increasing popularity of the mobile home and the contemporary loss of "roots." He is genuinely frightened by the Badlands, until night falls, when it becomes beautiful. He adores Montana, and he hurries through the almost blank southwestern desert where he learns something new about shooting. Though Steinbeck gets tired of travel before the end of the trip, he still manages to record signal moments which resonate with the reader.
   
   What elevates this book especially is the glimpses it gives of Steinbeck himself, a far more upbeat man than one would expect from novels like Cannery Row, Of Mice and Men, and Grapes of Wrath. His observations of life in the early 1960s capture the country at pivotal moments of history--the time of Sen. John Kennedy and freedom rides. In this respect, Steinbeck creates a time capsule for future generations and a picture of himself that lovers of his writing will treasure. n Mary Whipple
   
   Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck Centennial Edition)
   John Steinbeck, Writer: A Biography



2. In this book, John Steinbeck shows patriotism at its best. He travels through the United States, and experiences all the beauties of this nation in a marvellous way. He shows no arrogance as he appreciates his homeland. Instead, he shows this nation's beauty and riches in an amicable way, and invites others to travel and experience the beauty of this nation. The hymn "America The Beautiful" comes to the reader's mind.



3. TRAVELS WITH CHARLEY gives us a chance to move to an up-close-and-personal position with the aloof, John Steinbeck, At the age of 60 in the fall of 1960. Steinbeck acquired a primitive pickup-style recreational vehicle, packed up a few belongings, and loaded his faithful poodle. He drove throughout the United States to reconnect with the inhabitants of the nation.
   
   Like any other tourist who travels too far too fast, he was unable to see everything, and he skimmed over many details in his tale. He delineated some of his stops in sufficient detail. Most of the travel log is a glazed-over account.
   
   Steinbeck wrote with the voice of a mature senior citizen, who was disappointed with much of what he saw in the nation. When I first read this book, I was in college. Now that I am in the age group of Steinbeck when he wrote it, I wonder what he would think of our nation today. He showed some of the good, such as the idyllic farms with friendly people, and some of the bad, such as people who were prejudiced and unkind. I believe if he could see our country today he would find something positive. He always expressed trust in the underlying goodness of our people.



4. In Travels with Charley, Steinbeck is on a journey to discover if he still knows the country he memorializes in almost all of his other works. Steinbeck manages to express in this memoir of his journey through America a whole host of emotions that many of us still feel today, a conflicting love for our country and disgust with our countrymen, appreciation for our past and worries about what we have become. Like all of his best works, the writing is natural, warm, and often funny. This is a beautiful book that captures America, both the good and the bad, in it's pages.



5. Steinbeck's Travels with Charley was his last book I believe. This is a memoir of John Steinbeck's drive from Long Island, New York to the tip of Maine to California and back to Long Island. Of course it's well written, as you'd expect from any Nobel Prize winner in Literature, but it also captures that turbulent time in the early 1960s when Martin Luther King Jr. was trying to achieve Civil Rights and Khrushchev was banging his shoe in the United Nations.

1 comments about A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It.

1. I read this book in preparation for trip to Rwanda later this year. Mr. Kinzer has done exhaustive research into the history or Rwanda from the early 20th century through the present. From the time of Belguin colonialism, the rise of the RPF in Uganda and the genocide to an a fair presentation of Paul Kagame's mission to bring peace, reconciliation and prosperity to Rwanda post genocide. Although Rwanda has a long way to go, according the author, they are on the right track - largely thanks to Paul Kagame. The author is highly critical (rightfully so in my opinion) of the Clinton Administration, the UN and France in particular in the role either ignoring or aiding the genocide. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of Rwanda and the current state of affairs in the country.

1 comments about Origins: A Memoir.

1. I am amazed with the speed and proffesionalism of delivering and quality of the transaction.
   
   thanks a million
   
   alexs

5 comments about Rome Sweet Home: Our Journey to Catholicism.

1. I would give this 1/4 of of a star if possible. The book is without reason! The appeals lack reason and intellect, Scott ONLY appeals to Roman Dogma to justify "swimming the Tiber", it is HORRID! I threw mine away, into cat litter in the garbage where it belonged. What a piece of rot!



2. ArchBishop Fulton Sheen used to say that there were many hundreds of thousands of people who hate the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) for what they THINK it teaches, but not more than a hundred who hate the RCC for what it ACTUALLY teaches. The story of Scott and Kimberly Hahn's faith journey is an awesome illustration of this basic truth.
   
   This book chronicles the faith journeys of Presbyterian ministry husband-and-wife team, Scott and Kimberly Hahn. This couple knows Scripture better than anyone I've ever seen or heard. In fact, it was their extensive knowledge of Scripture which led them to realize that according to Sacred Scripture, they had to side with RCC teaching on issue after issue, again and again. Finally they realized that if they were to be honest, they had no choice but to join the RCC.
   
   Furthermore their love of and excitement for Holy Scripture shine out from every page, and is infectious! I wish all Catholics were as Biblically conversant and fervent as these authors! I include myself in that statement!
   
   I wish that I too were as Biblically conversant as they are. Scott and Kimberly Hahn have inspired me to begin a quest to read the ENTIRE Bible, (currently underway!) and then to continue to read from it, love it and get to know it better every day of my life. I thank them for this beautiful gift! (Of course, I primarily thank God for giving me the Grace to be open to this inspiration!!!)



3. This may sound like a tangent, but it's highly relevant. This Easter Vigil, I will be receiving the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation, and the Eucharist. What's incredibly ironic about that statement is that just two to three years ago, I fiercely hated Roman Catholicism -- despite considering myself a devout Christian! I attended an evangelical, nondenominational church, a church that taught me be disgusted with the Catholic Church's positions on transubstantiation, the Virgin Mary (and the Rosary), contraception, Purgatory, the Deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament, and St. Paul's letter to the Galatians that emphasizes being "justified by faith." Over the past year, the more I have learned about the Roman Catholic Church, the more I have understood the foundations for the beliefs of the Church, and the more I have understood the foundations, the more I agreed with them! And now I'm happily entering the Catholic Church.
   
   Rome Sweet Home has given me indescribable confidence and comfort regarding my decision to convert. Scott and Kimberly Hahn were faced with many of the same misconceptions and disagreements as I was with the Church. Reading how they "came home to Rome" helped me feel like I am not alone in my walk. It also helped me to further understand the Scriptural foundations for many Catholic beliefs. What's more, it has opened up the door to other books of Catholic apologetics, which is even more comforting.
   
   Therefore, I highly recommend this book to all Catholics and to some of those interested in the Catholic Church. For Catholics who may be somewhat unsure of their faith, it will probably be very reassuring. For those interested in Catholicism but not Catholic, this might not be the best place to start. I read one negative review of this book by a reader who apparently treated this book as a work of apologetics. Yes, there are some apologetics within this book, but only because the Hahns are explaining their conversion stories! Please keep in mind that this book is simply a biographical story; if you're interested in Catholic apologetics, this is definitely not the first place to go, since it's more about their lives than the Roman Catholic Church. To those non-Catholics who are coming home to Rome, you'll love it!



4. This was an interesting book, but what I learned from it was surprising. What was notable was not their conversion from Protestant to Catholic, but the fact that they were Evangelicals, and remained that way regardless. The husband's story is full of zeal and enthusiasm and the wife's is loaded with struggle and torment. The book was way too dramatic, and I wonder if the couple converted not because of their love for Catholicism, but for their love of Scripture, which they analyzed for what seemed every minute of their waking lives. I don't doubt their sincerity, but their zeal can be a bit off-putting. For me, not a keeper.



5. The journey of faith is personal, yet it's fun to read about others searching, even if their approach, or where they end up, might be very different from one's own. "Rome Sweet Rome" has its moments, though I found Hahn's pedantic approach to conversion off-putting. Why are there so few negative reviews of the unbelievable amount of pure drivel this man has "mass" produced? Pun intended.
   
   Words, sola scriptura, and authority matter a lot to Hahn. How can he consistently avoid writing about the Church's sex abuse scandals (how can so many Catholic theologians turn such a blind eye?), or, having studied Martin Luther, fail to address his infamous rants against Jews? Lutherans actually have been fairly open about this, especially the wise Kristal Stendahl. It would be a grace from God if all Christianity became more objective and honest about its history, thus allowing for real growth and real faith.
   
   Hahn's self-importance precluded his waiting to convert to Catholicism until his wife became comfortable with this significant change and process. Unlike the suffering of the saints, Hahn couldn't humbly exercise patience and compassion towards his partner, but exhibited extraordinary vanity. His mantra should be, "I want, I want..." His desire for the Eucharist became his justification to break a marital promise/covenant (of course, misusing a scriptural passage to justify this action), leaving his wife to struggle on her own in an unfamiliar spiritual landscape that kept shifting under her feet. Kimberly Hahn's description of her pain was humble, and humorous. Her conversion experience, with its real challenges, appears to have been deeper than her husband's, thus the sections she wrote are more compelling. Opus Dei members assisted Hahn's adherence to the Church, while leaving his wife floundering spiritually and emotionally.
   
   Like many who purchased Hahn's later books, I thought they might mirror real development of spirit as he learned about the early Catholic faith and its Judaic roots. Rather, Hahn bends Catholicism to fit a Protestant perspective, reinventing faith from an ivory tower built on a Babel of words. Real faith should be able to examine extremely difficult issues and find some way forward. While Hahn's scriptural quotations are usually accurate, his analysis and interpretation lack theological maturity. Hahn is not the best source for Catholic theology, his previous formation molded his perspective, and his misinformation is a serious theological issue for those seeking real faith. Yet his enthusiasm and sincerity pull thousands along, unquestioningly; there are few dissenting voices regarding Hahn.
   
   In "Rome Sweet Rome," his vanity actually prompts him to brag about lingering in Pope John Paul II's private chapel, alone with the Pope, after the honor of being invited to a private mass. While the Pope knelt in prayer after all the other guests respectfully left, he was unaware that a lingerer remained to observe him. The Pope's private secretary had to hurriedly return to the private sanctum to collect the Lurking Hahn, who was busy enjoying his illicit thrill of being alone with Pope John Paul II. Perhaps this occurrence is one reason private masses with the Pope were since cancelled?
   
   Others seeking a sincere, informed path in faith need to be provided another point of view. Having read many of Hahn's books (never again!), I feel obliged to warn others, as there are few critiques of Hahn's body of work and misrepresentations. Consistently, Hahn's scriptural quotations form a litany of words that obscure, rather than illuminate, truth, though he has quite the following.
   
   I'd like to say some faith is better than no faith, and that if Hahn helps encourage people, fine. But faith has too often been horrifically misused in history, through bad ideas, to remain silent. Of course, Hahn is a fan of the fatuous Anglican writer N.T. Wright, another cultural relativist. Hahn was "convicted" to become a Catholic, and has found a wide audience, convicted to read his quantity of books, but theological bulk does not equal quality.

5 comments about Survival In Auschwitz.

1. A monotone, sort of scientific voice. His story is sad...but is told with very little emotion. It was hard to get into - a little harder to read due to the "scientist' type voice that I'm not used to. I found Elie Weisel's "Night" to be a much more candid look inside a survivor's haunted soul. Primo Levi is good for someone who prefers reading something about the Holocaust that is a bit more textbook vs. memoir.



2. Excellant book, I felt like I was living Mr Levi's life in the camp with him. What a wonderful story of survival.



3. This book from bnpublishing contains serious multiple errors, sometimes five per page, that disrespect the author and the Holocaust and force the reader to stop and try to figure out the author's real meaning. Book is full of incorrect or missing punctuation (such as periods), words and names spelled different ways from one sentence to the next, random capitalization, run-on sentences, grammatical and spelling errors in English, French, and German. "Figfit" is not a word. Neither are "infaticable," "aroupd," or "mochery." The phrase is "flash of intuition," not "flask." The sign over every concentration camp was "Arbeit Macht Frei," not "Fret." You say, "avec moi," which means "with me," not "avec mot" which means "with word." Phrases like "there were no dark cold air had the smell" (p. 107) stop the reader dead. Very disrespectful of the author and the subject. Levi was a brilliant man with astounding powers of observation and recall for his hellish experiences. His words deserve to be preserved better than this.



4. I like the author. Many years ago he wrote "Christus kam nur bis Eboli"
   and that made me travel to that place in southern Italy.
   This book is even better. It informes me and at the same time it
   is interesting and I can not put it aside while reading.
   He writes about what he thinks and feels and how they react.
   This book is worth its money.



5. My review of this classic emphasizes matters not raised by previous reviewers, and is based upon the 1986 edition which combines SURVIVAL IN AUSCHWITZ, THE REAWAKENING, and AFTERWORD...
   
   Levi wasn't sent to or near the gas chambers and crematoria. Instead, he was diverted into forced labor in the sub-camp of Monowitz (p. 386), some 7 km east of Auschwitz proper. Poles had to wear a large "P". German political prisoners got various privileges, such as food and clothes from home, and exemption from the dreaded "selections". (p. 183) He saw the bombed-out ruins of the Buna synthetic rubber plant. (p. 137) He predicted that, in the winter of 1944-1945, 7/10ths of the prisoners like him will die. (p. 123)
   
   The reader may not realize that western European Jews commonly looked down upon eastern European Jews as "backward". These feelings were fully reciprocated. Levi comments: "The Germans call them [the Italian Jews] `zwei linke Hande' (two left hands) and even the Polish Jews despise them as they do not speak Yiddish." (p. 49) After his release from Auschwitz, Levi ran across Polish Jews who couldn't believe that Levi was even possibly Jewish because he didn't speak Yiddish. (p. 279)
   
   Unlike most Auschwitz survivors, who traveled west, he traveled east and then south (for map, see pages 178-179). He saw for himself the victimization of the Poles: "In Katowice, and in all Poland, there was a shortage of men; the male population of working age had disappeared, prisoners in Germany and Russia, dispersed among partisan bands, massacred in battle, in the bombardments, in the reprisals, in the Lagers, in the ghettos. Poland was a country in mourning, a country of old men and widows." (p. 239)
   
   In the AFTERWORD, Levi said that, whereas the Nazi concentration camps had 90-98% mortality, the figure for Soviet concentration camps was 30% maximum (p. 389). This is incorrect. Slaves toiling in the gold mines in the Soviet Far East faced close to 100% mortality. And, of course, particular groups targeted for annihilation experienced 100% mortality, be they Jews sent to the gas chambers by the Nazis, or the Polish officers and intellectuals sent to the killing forests near Katyn by the Communists.

5 comments about Istanbul: Memories and the City.

1. I think book reviews, rather like any similar activity composed of observation, reception and reflection, can be skewed by our personal experiences and knowledge, as well as corrupted by the opinion and speculation that we sometimes try and keep under control. The empathy and sense of understanding that I felt when reading Istanbul, Memories and the City, were very much shaped by my prior experiences, my personal interpretations of what I had seen, and my own frame of mind.
   
   I was going through Istanbul's Ataturk airport last December (2007) and with the prospect of a long and dull journey in front of me, I was looking in the bookstore for something that I could "lose myself in" during the incredibly dull and boring journey back to Alicante. I was doing some idle browsing in the airport bookshop and I came across Orhan Pamuk's book entitled Istanbul, Memories and the City.
   
   After hurrying to the gate to embark on my flight, there was yet another set of security check, another set of the same procedures to go through - belts off, boots off, everything metal through the scanner, mobile phones, MP3 player, pens, coins, I had so much junk; I even put the Pamuk's book into the plastic tray they provide as part of the terror free scanning service.
   
   Actually this book seemed to be of more interest to the security person than all the rest of the modern technology and metal crap I was having scanned. She looked at the book placed in the tray, as if it might contain some thing rather subversive material, she smirked, picked the book up, then she chucked it back into the tray. I pretended not to notice. Again she picked the book up, made some comment to one of her colleagues, and then chucked the book back into the tray, laughing the way people do when actually there is nothing funny to laugh about; a forced laugh. I still pretended not to notice and of this "behaviour", and just walked through the detector and picked my things up at the other end.
   
   Little things like that can really turn me off a place, it can lead to momentarily dislike and antipathy towards places, especially one that I have found to be, on occasions, desperately depressing, grey and miserable, somewhat filthy, frequently anachronistic, and neither comfortably traditional nor fundamentally contemporary; a pessimistically gloomy halfway house, stuck between a densely populated provincial backwater and a peculiar and unauthentic pastiche of modernity.
   
   I boarded the Iberia flight back to Madrid, with the feeling of someone arriving home, to the familiar and friendly. I took my seat, and prepared for the 4 hour flight to Madrid, within 5 minutes I was asleep.
   
   I awoke to the sound of the in-flight service, I was handed a tray, and I also took a bottle of nice red Spanish wine to accompany dinner.
   
   Sufficiently relaxed and replenished, I took out my recent literary acquisition and started to read.
   
   The book, as I read it, focuses on Orhan Pamuk's recollections of the experience and sensations of growing up in Istanbul, from a very young child in the fifties to a young adult in the seventies. Pamuk expresses a wealth of empathy for the memories of his childhood, and for the city that has been his home for most of his life.
   
   In many ways, Pamuk's account of his Istanbul reminds me very much of many aspects of my life in Cardiff and South Wales when I was very young. This idea was reinforced by a review in the English daily newspaper The Telegraph, in which David Flusfeder wrote:
   
   "Europe has its share of melancholy cities: the citizens of Lisbon take each destructive fire as fate's latest grim joke; Warsaw has been regularly ripped apart by foreign invaders; and it's hard to be cheerful in Trieste or, indeed, Cardiff."
   
   I find it curious that quite a few "western" travellers, writers and artists have sough to represent Istanbul, to recall memories of Istanbul, even modern Istanbul, as a somewhat some what exotic eastern place, full of mystery, harems, intrigue and promise; interesting for its cute differences and it's perceived quaint traditions, for it's ancient history, for its old buildings and even older dirt, for the perceived charm, permissible decadence and cultural diversity. As an aside, I find some of the reviews of Pamuk's work to be bizarre and only vaguely byzantine in their intricate expressions of misplaced and arrant nonsense, and far more so than authors are typically exposed to.
   
   However, I do not find it so strange that many of Pamuk's compatriots are as quick to dismiss and deride him as others in Europe are as quick to laud him, and both doing so on the basis of scant knowledge of the author or their work, and are frequently seasoned with oppressively recondite forms of anachronistic nationalism, by people both in Pamuk's home lands and elsewhere in Europe.
   
   But in his book of memories, Pamuk talks to us about his family, his father, his mother, his friends, desires, the Black Rose, as well as the city; the quarters, districts and neighbourhoods; The Pamuk apartments; Cihangir, Beyoðlu and Niþantaþi; flavoured gin, stuffed mussels, sweets and puddings; the peoples, the Turks, the Italians, the Armenians, the Germans, the French, the Greeks, the Jews, the Persians, and others; art and literature; the necessity of the cosmopolis and the importance of authenticity; the ever present Bosphorus; books, bookshops and booksellers; the cities pizza eating dogs; the trams, buses, shared taxis and metro; the calming and relaxing nature of act of painting; simit sellers and unmentioned fish sandwiches; the changes in life; shared experiences; schools and colleges; books; fishermen, fantasies and murder; art, artists and the artist as seen by the bourgeoisie; the collisions between ships on the Bosphorus, crumbling buildings, the effect of neglect on wooden buildings and the burning of palaces of Ottoman Pashas; the end of empire, the decay that follows and also the new opportunities; family apartments, change and movement; the other self; walking the streets at night; black and white; the taste of a little goats cheese held in the mouth and a sip of tea; ships and ferries; big American limousines; quarrels and complications; the westernised, ornate and hardly used lounges in many apartments; Istanbul Modern; life and death; the writers, poems and novels; the humorous anecdotes culled from articles written during more than 100 years of Istanbul journalism; of architecture, and, of course, writing.
   
   Throughout the book Pamuk comes back to the theme of melancholy (hüzün, in Turkish) which I think he strongly identifies with a depressing spectre that haunts certain abstractions of what can be seen and felt as being Istanbul. I am not so sure exactly where this melancholy stems from, but I would bet that much of it comes down to a deep sense of deception and loss, that goes way beyond the passing of innocence and has been allowed to grow into a monster of nightmares that threatens to cast asunder any modern senses of education, culture and civility; the sad and avoidable debasement of hope and the defeatist crushing of the promises of a better future.
   
   Pamuk seems to have used the writing of this book as one might use a mirror, to reflect his states of mind - his moods, and to project his desires and dislikes, his hopes and fears, into the world. It is a truth that I find compellingly attractive, authentic and very contemporary. Of course, it might not be to everyone's liking, but if you want to truly understand Istanbul then it really is a "must read".
   
   Thinking again about the insignificant incident at the airport, I suspect that the behaviour of the security guard was just another example of the petty, provincial and anachronistic spirit that has created such a depressingly and melancholic place for people who have made Istanbul their home, and yet who desperately want to live in the global "here and now", in their own interpretation of a cosmopolitan, comfortable, modern, cultured and civil society, and unsurprisingly, they do not want to be dragged back into the distant past, into the dark ages; those times that most of us have fortunately never experienced; a return to times, backwardness and conduct, that none of us in our right minds, would ever desire.
   
   Orhan Pamuk, very much like Immanuel Kant who never ventured outside of Königsberg,, has lived virtually all of his life the city of his birth. The following words written about Kant by the critical philosopher Ursula Reitemeyer, in "The History of Mankind between Nature and Reason" strike a chord of relevance and similarity:
   
   "So criticism is the core of Kant's metaphysics of history and the reason, why his metaphysics outlasted his epoch and made him to the very first global philosopher. Kant, that is to say, identified "world" not with a coincidental and necessarily limited perspective of the world but with the whole history of mankind as a morally evolving process. On this theoretical basis every human being is a citizen of the world by birth. This message contains Kant's lasting merit for the modernity - and is probably its only chance."



2. Times gone by. Greater times, present days. A very personal take on the Great City by one of the world's great writers. Not always popular in his home country, his prose transcends borders, showing Istanbul as it truly is: universal. Packed with great black and white pictures.



3. The book is personal, moody, altogether a very lovely snapshot of an enigmatic city which hangs between East and West. Vintage photographs add their atmosphere to the text.
   
   Orhan Pamuk is a master at his craft; for further reading after this, I suggest "My Name is Red."



4. I finished this on a flight from Izmir to Istanbul. It's a good thing I did: it provides an excellent preface to visiting that amazing city.
   
   Pamuk has three guiding ideas in this book. First is that all Istanbullus share a sort of melancholy which Turks call huzun. The idea is that they all lament the decline of their city since it was the capital of the Ottoman Empire, and that they lament their servitude to the Western world. Secondly, Pamuk wants to harness this huzun and create an artwork that is distinctively Turkish -- not Western, not Muslim, but a harmonious blend of the two. Thirdly, Pamuk believes that the city inhabits the man just as much as the man inhabits the city: Pamuk feels Istanbul's moods and it feels his. Huzun is thus a strictly collective emotion. One cannot feel this sort of melancholy on one's own; one can only experience it in a collective way along with one's fellow-Istanbullus. (Indeed, it's not clear to me that residents of any other city -- Vienna, maybe? Pittsburgh? -- can feel huzun; it may be a nostalgic melancholy that only Istanbullus are logically entitled to feel.)
   
   I didn't feel the huzun in Istanbul, but then I was only there for a few days; Pamuk doesn't believe that anyone can understand his city without living there for ten years or more. It may also be impossible for a new generation of lifelong Istanbullus to feel the huzun: those born into today's Istanbul may not realize that there's anything other than the Western model to follow.
   
   This is all his perspective as an insider to the culture. As an outsider to it, my perspective says something altogether different. When I visited Istanbul, there was at least one mosque, minaret, and muezzin per quarter square mile. One block off the main drag in Beyolu (Istiklal Caddesi), our cab had to stop to let a flock of sheep and their shepherd pass. One block off on the other side was a warren of little streets filled with conservative Muslims. I felt distinctly foreign there, both in nationality and in culture. If this is "the West," Istanbul-style, then Pamuk has nothing to worry about.
   
   At times -- certainly over the last fifth of the book -- Pamuk's melodrama about huzun gets to be a bit much. He haunts the miserable streets of a lost empire, collar upturned against the snow, trying to shake off his own desperation at a lost love and make an art form that doesn't just ape the West. On and on he goes, trying to beat us over the head with the idea that the city inhabits the man and the man the city: we cut back and forth between his furious wanderings in the streets and his fight with his mother over what he'll do with his life. Pamuk thinks he is terribly clever. He wants us very much to know how clever it is; earlier in the book he drops hints about its "hidden symmetry." This symmetry, so far as I can tell, is just the symmetry between the man and the city. So now you know. If you were paying attention during the first half of the book, you already knew. I'd rather not be bludgeoned with the Cleverness Stick.
   
   Still, it's a fun read. It's peppered with (deliberately) black-and-white photos of old Stamboul, from an era when people flocked to the shores of the Bosphorous to watch the Ottoman pashas' wooden "yals" (waterfront mansions) burn to the ground one by one. There's great romance in this book, great love for the Bosphorous, and delicious history. Worth reading, but not worth owning.



5. I have now read all of Orhan Pamuk books available. I have learned so much about another culture because of this brillian author.

5 comments about Midnights with the Mystic: A Little Guide to Freedom and Bliss.

1. Before you read this book, keep in mind that Sadhguru is the leader of Isha Foundation. This "yoga" group charges significant fees for its services and yet has many non-paid full time volunteers. Be sure to do background research on the group.



2. I found the book easy to get into and I identified with the author and her search for self realization and feelings of doubt. I would recommend this to any seeker of Truth.



3. It was a good read but not in the traditional sense. It was more like an insight into Sadguru and his poignant view of life as it really is. His words reflect clearly the human dilemma we all face in our quest for enlightenment.
   Cheryl's account of her experience with Sadguru is amazing. Her description of her own experiences seem honest.



4. To those who are searching for ultimate truth, this is book is highly recommended. This is beautifully written in simple language describing direct experience of an american lady with Yogi and mystic of our times. If you want to know the amazing possibilities of being human, if you want to understand the cycle of life and death, if you want to understand the importance of leading blisfull and fulfilling life and if you have varied doubts and questions about God or the Ultimate...then this is the book you must read.....



5. This Book is a must read for the seekers. It is a page turner as well.Highly recommended.
   -Kumar Saravanan