No comments about Pope John Paul II: His Remarkable Journey (Spanish).

No comments about Murder at Morija: Faith, Mystery, And Tragedy on an African Mission (Reconsiderations in Southern African History).

No comments about Finding God in the Story of Amazing Grace.

No comments about Touching the Soul: The Diary of a Jewish Chaplain.

No comments about Susanna Wesley : Servant of God.

No comments about Padre Pio: The Irish Connection.

5 comments about Street Zen: The Life and Work of Issan Dorsey.

1. I found this book extremely inspiring. The life of Issan Dorsey is a must read for anyone who has ever felt dragged down, left out, and mentally or physically ill. That should include everyone!



2. I read the reviews of this book before purchasing it. As a queer writer in Spirituality and Religion I have a great deal of sensitivity about heterosexist bent towards gay characters and history. So, David Sunseri's review of the book sat perched on my shoulder as I read this book.
   
   Having finished this book I have to say that I am left seriously questioning Sunseri's criticism of the book. It is a wonderful story and a tender account of a remarkable person. Having read this book and appreciating the care given to speak to the myriad parts of Issan Dorsey's (full) life story, I have to wonder if Sunseri isn't speaking from a place of internalized homophobia. Nowhere did I find the "sensationalizing" of homosexuality that Sunseri and Harper Leah (?) mention.
   
   In fact, I am now left to believe that Sunseri and Leah would prefer a completely sex-free, queer-free reading of Dorsey's life.
   If the book had sensational parts, that's because parts of Issan Dorsey's life were sensational and outrageous. That's not heterosexist bias dear ones. Heterosexist bias would be to "clean up" those stories and de-queer Dorsey. Fortunately Schneider doesn't suffer from any such prudery.
   
   A closer reading of Sunseri's reviews show what is clearly a bitter bias towards anything involving the entire Soto Zen community. Sunseri states that quite vividly in his review of Robert Winson's "Dirty Laundry."
   
   Fortunately, I don't suffer from that bias. I approached this book wanting to know more about this intriguing person, Issan Dorsey, who, by all accounts, wasn't afraid to embrace the totality of his life's existence and who has left a legacy of caring for others in need.
   
   Do not miss this book if you're interested in a truly remarkable story of a Gay pioneer and spiritual elder. It is not the complete story. But it is one of the stories and it deserves to be read. Perhaps members of the Hartford Zen Center complaining about the lack of Issan's "teachings" in the book could get off their zazen pillows and publish them. I'm sure they have more access to it than anyone.



3. My impression from this book was it was a story of a present day Bodhisattva.
   A story of a man whom lived life fearlessly. Who lived as a Herman Hesse's Narcissi but in reality not between book covers. In this book I felt was a true betrayal of the concepts of the Bodhisattva. Issan seems to have had spontaneously.
   
   
   Earlier statements of cheapness is sad.Value statements betray a judgment and lack of Bodhisattva sentiment. Was Milarepa's story a cheap story? The fact that murderer he was? Or is it part of the story of that Bodhisattva's life? I find Issan Dorsey's life neither cheap or over blown. I have known others with similar lives so the fellow whom judges this book as " straight " has a "bent" view. Again cheapness ...well it saddens me to hear a student of Dharma make such a statement.



4. I enjoyed this book, and nearly gave it four stars, but I felt that it was missing something.
   
   There was a little too much of the dark history. I know it was setting the stage, but I found that it went from depressing to numbing. Perhaps that's my own baggage: Having known drag queens, drug addicts, drug dealers, and hustlers, I guess I could have skipped over most of the first half of the book.
   
   The intimate details of death towards the end of the book were powerful, and appreciated. Again, perhaps it's just me, but it was refreshing to hear such honest detail without the author becoming gruesome or patronizing. Death, without the facade we in America often use to hide from it.
   
   Two things I would have enjoyed: (1) More details about the author's relationship with Issan, e.g., more conversations they had had simply as friends; (2) Samples of Issan's talks and teachings.
   
   Still, a good book about a great man.



5. I read this book because I heard about a renowned Buddhist named IssanDorsey at a dharma talk. I'm gay myself, and hearing that Issan Dorsey was also a gay man made me interested in finding out about his life. So, I popped his name into a search engine, and ordered this book from amazon.
   Up until recently, my relationship with religion in general has been a bad one. The tendency of Western religions to preach hate toward my kind has made it all but impossible for me to participate in any of them. Legislators on both sides of the political aisle have used religion as a vehicle for either passing laws to restrict my freedom or turn a blind eye to these efforts, for fear that any support for my community would render one 'unelectable'. None of this has made for a very good advertisement of religion for my community.
   Buddhism struck me as being fundamentally different, and when I read this book, I realized just how different it was. Issan Dorsey was from my side of the tracks, and instead of preaching self-loathing to him, Buddhism taught him how he could make a major difference in the lives of those who needed him the most.
   I'm pretty inspired to give this Buddhism thing a try now. I've never heard of a religion that doesn't judge people before. Maybe this is the one for me.

1 comments about Leading with Billy Graham: The Leadership Principles and Life of T.W. Wilson.

1. This book contains a number of great stories from the life of T.W. Wilson; however, overlaid on top of the stories of his ministry are the leadership principles of this author. I'm not saying his principles are wrong, but they seem unnaturally squeezed into this book. Also, the first chapter is filled with a hodgepodge of sermon illustrations that may top a list of cliche illustrations somewhere.

No comments about Life in Hawaii: An Autobiographic Sketch of Mission Life and Labors.

2 comments about John Marco Allegro: The Maverick Of The Dead Sea Scrolls (Studies in the Dead Sea Scrolls and Related Literature).

1. John Marco Allegro - The Maverick of the Dead Sea Scrolls
   - By Judith Anne Brown -daughter of John Allegro.
   
   John Marco Allegro is hereby vindicated! Scholars of the world beware!
   
   Judith Anne Brown has inherited the same writing style, razor sharp wit, and knack for forcing people to think, as well as for stirring trouble and controversy that her father had.
   
   Judith takes us through a riveting and fascinating glimpse at the life of John Marco Allegro. From John's youth as the son of an immigrant family, to his beginnings in the British Navy, to starting his studies as a Methodist minister. While studying for the ministry, she shows his personal, detailed letters that start him questioning the authority of Biblical teachings; to finally leaving the ministry to begin his studies at Manchester, and then Oxford, making him noticed as an up and coming biblical and language expert and Dead Sea Scrolls authority. Then finally on to his discovery that Christianity and religion is primarily based on entheogen (drug) use and star/sun worship.
   
   Judy takes the reader through the times of laughs and the times of tears and turmoil.
   She provides an outline of John's personal history, his family, his life as a playboy, the falling apart of his marriage, to the inner turmoil and outrage he had that no one would look at his views open mindedly and seriously, because they challenged the orthodox.
   
   She provides and excellent breakdown of the content of each of his books, screen writes, and personal letters; proving John's side of the story. Judith gives the reader interesting and easy to follow story line, with a deep understanding into the most controversial of topics in recent decades.
   
   This book contains a beautiful collection of previously unpublished photographs of John, the family, and the Middle East during his expeditions.
   
   If this book wasn't written about John, I would have forgotten that I wasn't reading John's own work. Judy certainly has the Allegro ability to stir controversy--only this time people will have to pay attention. She has thoroughly debunked the 30 years of attacks, lies, and rumors that had spread over the years against John.
   
   At times the book may move you to tears while reading about his personal struggles and the emotions over the blanketed attacks stirred regarding his unorthodox approach at religious scholarship and finally to his sudden death, on his birthday, on Feb. 17, 1988-and continuing legacy today.
   
   Judith Brown has provided substantiation for Allegro's views, and debunked those empty attacks on his integrity and scholarship. Any intelligent and open-minded scholar will hereby be forced into reconsidering many of John's views...and for that matter, Judith's own views.
   
   This book provides an absolutely solid foundation for future work to begin building on John Marco Allegro's ideas--an excellent foundation for up and coming publications by her and other scholars and authors.
   
   The Allegro legacy of controversy lives on!
   
   A better than 5 star rating.



2. Obviously, a favorable review of her father who was much maligned for presenting a novel
   explaination for the origins of myth and religion, specifically the Christian
   faith. He has never been seriously challanged by authentic philologists,
   only by religious zealots and others who are convinced the Earth is flat.
   Her portrait of a driven, ambitious and wounded man is full and warm and shows
   much love of the man and his ideas, who opened the world to the hidden
   exegeses by biblical scholars too frigtened to make known to a deluded public
   what the Chuches and their minions were doing to them and the 'civilized'
   world.