4 comments about Bad Dog!: A Memoir of Love, Beauty, and Redemption in Dark Places.

1. Lin Jenson has the grace to reflect on profound moments in his life in a non-judgemental way, regardless of the circumstances. It is refreshing to read the work of a person that has the gift of self reflection and can communicate the experience as well as this Zen teacher has been able to do. One can only hope to be able to learn as much from their own life's experiences.



2. The first story "Bad Dog" evokes the recurring theme of the entire collection: Redemption in a world of sorrow. It spans the author's life through more than fifty years in a mere six pages. An essence of humilty is evident as you try and understand the hardness of his father's will. The adage of he did the best he knew how plays a familiar tune to most of us raised by depression era parents. The resentment melts away with Jensen's tender acts of mercy towards his father nearing the end of his life. A tender act few if any of us would be able to muster up...
   It's a recommended read for everyone hoping to understand how to see into the darkness and not be afraid.



3. Stark, and beautiful.
   Many people, like the author's father, assert that the best response to tough times is to be cold and tough in our actions. But throughout his lifetime, in the shadow of the Great Depression and his cruel father, the author stayed true to his own inner desire for compassion.
   And he has lived to tell us about it.



4. I'm a fan of really good writing as well as Buddhism. I read this book several months ago and always meant to write a review about it. So today I finally got around to it and browsed the reviews written before me to see that all the superlatives had been already taken.
   
   Gut-wrenching, beautiful,powerful.
   
   This book touched me as very few have. It is a must-read regardless of its subject matter because of the quality of the writing alone. I could feel this kid's life. His loneliness, alienation and neediness.
   
   Like many great books it can be read on different levels. As a personal memoir of growing up in a particular time and place with a particular type of upbringing. As a lay Buddhist book; essentially a primer of how to step away from a world of samsara and build for yourself, step by step, act by act, a life of peace, love and compassion.
   
   What a journey he's had. How amazing that he shared it with us.
   
   It's an elegant, lyrical, deceptively "deep" book which really deserves a much wider audience.(Read it and imagine that it's Number One on the N.Y. Times bestseller list and see if you feel just a little more hopeful).

5 comments about Sanctifying the World: The Augustinian Life and Mind of Christopher Dawson.

1. Bradley Birzer's Sanctifying the World provides an authoritative and comprehensive appreciation of Christopher Dawson's achievement. Meticulous researched, painstakingly documented, and gracefully written, Birzer's assessment of Dawson's life and work deserves a wide readership. The book's thorough bibliography alone makes an invaluable contribution to any serious effort to grasp Dawson's place in historical scholarship in the twentieth century. Historians seeking to understand the contours of Christian thought in the ideological wasteland of the twentieth century owe a debt of gratitude to Birzer for his labors. Scholars in particular concerned with the ongoing debate over the historical and normative relationship between Christianity and culture cannot afford to ignore this volume.



2. The wonderful writings of Christopher Dawson are virtually forgotten now.
   "Sanctifying the World" brings them to life once again, a resurrection of a keen mind and thoughts that modernists should read.



3. Forgotten by some and unknown to others, Christopher Dawson's extraordinary mind comes to life in Birzer's thorough and insightful book. Dawson was a writer and thinker for writers and thinkers and (somewhat unexpectedly) also for artists. In an age of propaganda, Dawson proclaimed the truths that the ideologues chose to ignore, suppress and in many cases destroy.
   
   Keenly aware of the horrors of totalitarian government, yet also aware of the dangers of "totalitarian" free-markets, Dawson recognized the reality that humanity thrives not as a manipulatable mass or a disinterested collection of free agents, but as a culture. In Europe this culture had Christian roots that grew out of the ashes of the Roman empire. That culture developed over the course of centuries. Dawson realized that though it took many generations to mature, culture could only be sustained by a people willing to live up to it's ideals and truths. And it could be destroyed in an instant by those seeking only the "new" and who somehow considered its past as of little consequence.
   
   Dawson took up the challenge of trying to sustain and nurture Christian culture at one of its darkest hours. Like Chesterton, Dawson's insight and understanding is pertinent now more than ever. His influence can clearly be seen in the works of Eliot but more recently in the works of Pope John Paul II. For artists in particular, Dawson reminds that the power of poetry, paint and music does not aimlessly spew from the fountain of individual whim, but blossoms from the rich soil of works, and indeed the very lives, of those whose world we inherit.
   
   Bradley Birzer has done a great service by resurrecting the story and the ideas of Christopher Dawson. Highly recommended to historians, theologians, philosophers and artists alike.



4. As the title of Professor Birzer's book suggests, this biography chronicles more of Christopher Dawson's spiritual life than his social life--Dawson was a shy man anyway. No doubt Birzer does devote significant pages to Dawson's external life (the first two chapters deal especially with the early material influences on Dawson--factors such as Dawson's birthplace and family, his travels and his associations with such people as Frank Sheed, Victor Branford and the LePlay House and the Order group), but Birzer cites Dawson's social life only to transition the discussion to Dawson's intellectual development. Emphasizing Dawson's intellectual life over his social life is probably a wise approach anyway, since Birzer is not trying to reintroduce Dawson as an historical figure for antiquarian interests but as an intellectual still resonant in our own time.
   
   The most interesting part of Professor Birzer's book is his explanation of Dawson's Christian humanist view of history. According to Birzer, Dawson believed that God's "Divine economy of grace"--that is, God's universal plan for man's Salvation--accommodates not only every individual but also every culture. Thus, the West is not the exclusive cradle of Christianity but an inclusive source, as it contains elements of other cultures, too. Birzer insists that this view is Augustinian, and the evidence is convincing, especially when we read Dawson's many misgivings with Thomism's "eurocentric" views.
   
   Professor Birzer's book should make a significant contribution to Dawson's revival in the 21st century. It presents a judicious reading of this underestimated historian and should be a required companion to Dawson's works.



5. This book came as a complete surprise, and I have to admit that when it arrived as a Father's Day present, I found that the publishing house sent it by mistake. When notified by my wife, they told her to keep it...free.
   
   I don't know if this book will Sanctify the World, but I know it confirmed me in the work that I have been engaged in during the past four years---trying to help bridge the chasm that exists within my little section of the vineyard.
   
   I felt the Holy Spirit speaking through this book from the outset and I commend Bradley for his evenhanded treatment of an enigmatic man whom 95 out of 100 Catholics alive today have probably never even heard of. I have not met a priest, sister, or layman in the past week (20 or so queried) that recognized the name. This first taste of Christopher Dawson has moved me to greatly desire to read more.
   
   By today's standard of success/failure, Dawson's life seems a dismal failure, and yet isn't that the way of the prophets and saints?
   
   He speaks to humanity in 2008 and seems to have known all along what this "end state" of western culture would look like. Like Aldous Huxley's extended vision in The Brave New World Revisted, Christopher Dawson predicted a de-humanized, overorganized world that would be arrayed against the Eternal City of God, Incarnate in the Catholic Church. They arrive at this conclusion from different persectives (humanist vs. Christian humanist) but as G.K. Chesterton would say, that is a sure indication that they are both glimpsing at the Christocentic truth, the center of all that is.

5 comments about Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero.

1. Ashley, I loved reading your book. Your story is compelling. I appreciate your honesty in sharing with us, the readers, what was going on in your mind during such a trying time. It's great to see how your faith in God helped keep you focused, even though you admit that your daily life wasn't completely on track the way you would have preferred. The most important lesson I believe your book leaves with the reader is that it isn't where you are in life that is most important, but the direction in which you are headed.
   
   Good luck with your future, and that of your daughter.
   
   -- RuthAnn



2. I wasn't sure that when I started reading Unlikely Angel: The Untold Story of the Atlanta Hostage Hero, by Ashley Smith, that I was going to be able to stay with it. Sticking with a book for more than a page or two wasn't something I normally could do these days. But once I started reading it, looked at some of the pictures that are in the book also. I began to get close to the character, get drawn into her life. Once the situation turned bad you were going through everything with her to the very end. At one point I even went to my computer and looked up her interview on a famous news network and watched her talk about being taken hostage. There isn't anyway she could have come through it without God beside her each step of the way. It's truly an inspiring book,and teenagers,young girls going off to college especially, should have to read Ashley Smiths " Unlikely Angel". It would really make an impression on them.



3. Initially, I'd said that I'd NEVER read this story, but I was able to buy the book for a $1, so . . . IF Ashley's encounter with Brian Nichols is what it took to get her off drugs, make her a better mom to Paige, and strengthen her faith in God, then God bless her. I'm not judging, but I do have an opinion: Every story has three sides; this was Ashley's. We haven't really heard Brian's, and then . . .there's the truth. The story was probably great therapy for Ashley, but I think this is her version. I read it; it was ok, but I'm convinced that Ashley and Brian knew each other and a lot more happened in that apartment than what she wrote in the book. I wish the best for her and Paige . .. and Brian. He's guilty of killing three people, but there are probably some other folks out here who should feel some guilt for what happened. What he did was an act of a desperate man. Book - ok! Buy it somewhere for a $1.



4. This was a very inspirational book. Just goes to show that most people do deserve a second chance in life!



5. I guess I didn't know much about the whole ordeal. I mean, I remember watching the "surrender" unfold on TV and hearing about the single mom, blah, blah, blah, but I didn't know too much. I think that is what made it such a page turner for me.
   This book is really good in the aspect of thinking about what you would do in this situation. As for Ashley, it states in the beginning of the book that the conversations are just what she remembers and it's not word-for-word. In reading this statement and then her story, I have to wonder how much of it she actually "remembered" and how much she made up. It just seemed a little too good to be true. I'm not calling her a liar, I'm just saying I'm not convinced. Don't get me wrong, it is a good book and she was very brave (you would have to be to be able to make it out alive,) but I just didn't come away from it feeling "inspired."

1 comments about Scientists of Faith: 48 Biographies of Historic Scientists and Their Christian Faith.

1. This book is a good place to begin research of the topic of scientists of faith. The religious views of each scientist are summerized over several pages. The writing style is clear and concise. There are references given for more detailed information. Overall, it is an interesting read.

5 comments about Watchman Nee: Man of Suffering (Heroes of the Faith).

1. The folks I've noticed who command respect across the board are the ones who have a humility beyond what is natural. Mother Teresa, for example, was respected by the good, the bad, and the ugly. (I'm not sure which category I fall into.) Those who know of Watchman Nee, from a fistful of multi-hued denominations, have a deep respect for him as well. He was a man who lived and died for Jesus in China. Nothing fancy, he didn't even like to put a name on his church. He simply loved God and he loved people and they stuck him in a cell for it. This book is in a series of biographies of leaders in the Christian faith, and I was particularly delighted in how well the book was written; I am sometimes suspicious of what appear to be cranked-out, serial books. No fear on this one, the writing was so good I forgot about it and enjoyed the story. I remember one line quoted from a Chinese proverb, which seems to typify the life of Watchman Nee: He who puts his head above the crowd is in danger of decapitation. Watchman Nee was plain bread, the salt of the earth, the genuine article.



2. I originally read this book because I didn't know much about Watchman Nee and only knew that he wrote a lot of hymns. However, when I started reading about his life, my respect and awe of him grew so much. His lifestyle is so real and so encouraging. This book was an easy read and I read it in one sitting because it is impossible to put down. While I read this book, I was reminded of Hebrews 12:1, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." By reading about Watchman Nee, I was blessed by the radical lifestyle he lived. He ran the race and persevered in even the most difficult of times and now he is cheering us on in our race to the end! Go and get this book and be inspired and blessed!!



3. Watchman Nee was a man of conviction that kept his focus on Christ above all things. He faithfully discharged his callings as an apostle, evangelist, and teacher while often being betrayed, reviled, and under threat from communist China. One can be moved greatly by reading this book.

   I started reading this book while I was in the process doing a research paper for school. Being familiar with some of Nee's writings, and being curious about his life in general, I put my research paper on hold in order to read this book. My paper might not end up being as good, but that's ok :)




4. I must admit when I ordered this book it was for a friend. I received it and just thought I would glance through it to see what was there. I got so involved, so quickly, that I read it from cover to cover with great interest.

   Watchman Nee was a true man of God. He held onto his conviction and his faith through the very worst of circumstances. He was strong in his faith and God kept him strong and he did not faulter.

   This book is for ANYONE that wants to learn about true LOVE FOR GOD. Watchman like so many others was a martyr for his faith. He is one of few who have lived a life of faith and died for their devotion. Although he is considered now a man of history, there are people who suffer through this same fate and faith today for their love of God. **See Jesus Freaks Vol. 1 & 2 or Extreme Devotion**




5. Ever since I read this book, I cannot forget the way Mr. Nee denied himself to the very end, refusing to defend himself in court or at all. Out of all the books in the "Heroes of the Faith" series, this one probably remains my favorite.
   
   At the time that I read this book, I knew nothing about Watchan Nee, I had seen his books around my friends house, but thought of them as just another book on the list of endless spiritual books; that is, until I read this book. When Mr. Nee dedicated his life to Christ, he really dedicated it. He did not back down in the face of any sort of persecution, he would not even defend himself saying that "If Christ did not defend himself, then neither will I." Even as he wasted away in a prison cell, he remained faithful.
   
   This book was a reminder to me that I waste words and think more highly of myself than I should. A truly humble person does not need to defend himself because he knows that he is right with God, and that is why Jesus did not defend himself. Contunually, I have asked myself "Did Watchman Nee take it too far? Should have have defended himself?" I think not. Had he, he would probably still have died, but not such a death that glorified God and brought others into his glory.
   
   This book is a good intro into who Watchman Nee was, and what he stood for. It will bring tears to your eyes and inspire you to a deeper walk with Christ, or maybe inspire you to take that first step. If you were called to die for Christ, would you defend yourself to save your own flesh?
   
   God Bless & *enjoy* ~Amy

5 comments about Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings.

1. Once I started reading 'Miyamoto Musashi: His Life and Writings' I could not put it down and found myself reading until the next morning... This is a well written informative and detailed account of Miyamoto Musashi's life, his training, his teaching, his paintings and his writings. Various sources are cited and comparative analysis is rendered. We are given more than a glimpse into Musashi the warrior, the father, the artist and the man. I place this book on the top of the list of books regarding Miyamoto Musashi and his writing on Strategy as presented in Go Rin no Sho. It is a must for every military professional and devoted martial artists.



2. Well, I read one book on the subject and thought that I knew everything about the man... I was wrong.
   I especially like this book because the author tries his best to show the different points of view and include sometimes contradicting documents. Also he included much needed (for me at least) background data that helped to better understand the realities of that time.
   It definitely cured me from my "I know everything" attitude.



3. Having come to this book without any prior knowledge of Musashi, I was deeply impressed by this work, especially the biographical part. It also includes the Book of Five Rings which certainly adds weight to this addition, although I would've given the book 5 stars anyway if it only included the biographical/historical parts.



4. It's an excellent biography, it told me everthing I needed to know. It also includes a copy of the Book of Five Rings, which is nice, although I didn't notice and had already bought a copy, but having two different translations of a book is nice.
   
   Overall, a nicely organized book full of useful info and such-not.



5. This is perhaps the most complete review of the Gorin no Sho. Tokitsu not only offers a very well thought out and complete translation, he also gives an unbelievably in depth view of the Master's life. The notations for the translation are, to say the very least, quite thorough and very well written. Tokitsu used the two original existing copies to create his english translation, along with adding every known work that the Master is known to have written himself. The first section covers the Master's life and duels. The second is the translations of his writing, covering more than just the Gorin no Sho (however the full documents are not fully translated, only the parts which differ in tone or line from the Gorin no Sho). The final section of the book contains an amazing look at modern kendo, as well as other Japanese martial arts, and how Musashi's specific art can be related to them. Included in this are several observations of early 20th century kendo matches, in which the level of control and ability documented have yet to occur again. The sheer amount of research and sources cited, with the differing views and conflicting arguments make for a fascinating read from a fair and balanced point of view. For any individual who studies any martial art, or is interested in Japanese history, this book should considered to be essential.

5 comments about Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII.

1. A relatively easy read. The chronology is rather loose and jumps around more than I cared for. Certain positive issues and programs sponsored by the Vatican are ignored. Also, some negative situations addressed seems to be a more grabbing at straws to shore the argument, not much meat to them. Other determining factors were well covered. It could have been a little more balanced in my opinion. Not my favorite read on the issue.



2. A debate of how much the Pope Pius XII did to stop Hitler will continue regarding the historical decisions and paperwork. But a troubling piece of evidence is the great number of memorials in German Catholic Churches regarding the parish members who were killed in the service of Hitler's military services. In some there were more than 50 dead Catholic men being memorialized. This does not include the many who were wounded or who escaped any injuries, but served for Nazi aims.
   
   In the 200 to 300 AD period Catholic Christians stood up to oppressive acts of various governments. Many died while supporting the values and message of the Gospel. There was no similar Church-wide effort to fight for Gospel principles against the Hitler insanity. If there had been perhaps fewer Catholics would have been killed in this latter-day tragedy. I think it would have been better for those Catholic men to die as Christian martyrs rather than as tools of Hitler's regime.
   
   Speaking out strongly against Hitler would have also given the Catholic Church a position of meaningfulness in present day Europe. Instead the Church is fighting a huge tide of secularization in western europe.



3. John Cornwell's book is eminently readable and well suits the non- academic in the pursuit of historical perspective. Eugenio Pacelli is characterised in the book as a man somewhat divorced from the pervading reality of his time. A man seeking to retain, and enforce, a rigid hierarchical view of the world at a time when the world in general was 'moving on'.
   
   I would recommend John's book to anyone curious about the inner workings of the Vatican and seeking some understanding the church today.



4. This is a beautifully written and sensitively told biography of one of "God's most famous Representative on this earth," Eugenio Pacelli, otherwise known as Pope Pius XII. Pacelli is the Pope Italians referred to as the last Pope (l'ultimo papa)." No pope has been more revered nor respected, as has Pacelli; nor has any other Pope's reputation come under more quiet suspicion than his.
   
   It is a story told by a Catholic and an award-winning journalist, John Cornwell who apparently undertook this project with the hope of exonerating the famous Pope of complicity in the Nazi-generated holocaust and extermination of European Jewry. But what he uncovered, instead, only seemed to further implicate the famous Pope.
   
   In a profoundly balanced story, Cornwell does not try to demonize Parcelli; nor give him a pass, or provide excuses for the very dark side of his machinations and Papal maneuverings. He only seems to be asking of the reader the same compassion that one would leave for others caught up in the many morally confusing issues during the years of the war, and on the losing side of the grinding Nazi war machine. Much of what Parcelli did can be seen under the rubric of "self-preservation," as was true of so many others during the War.
   
   What this finely crafted biography shows is that even before he was nominated to become Pope, Pacelli, as a young Vatican lawyer, had shown himself to be a committed anti-Semite, if only passively and by omission rather than overtly and by commission. As well, he is seen to have been a power-hungry Vatican lawyer, a virtual street fighter, working behind the scenes in the corridors of the Vatican in the struggle to restore the fractured Church's power and ideology to its former position of prominence. Since the Renaissance, the Church had slowly lost the struggle for retaining its almost unchallenged influence. It was a struggle that Parcelli was tasked with to recover, a task which he eventually achieved. This victory, which culminated in his ascendancy to the papacy, a tricky and unstable restoration of Vatican power, and one that involved the un-holiest of pacts with Hitler, came at a price: the reputation of the Catholic Church for years to come.
   
   In the end, Cornwell concludes that although Pacelli engaged in the most callous of moral indiscretions and bureaucratic treachery, the Pope was not personally evil, but became morally flawed in his blind personal ambition and blind dedication to the pursuit of Church ideology and its quest to restore its former power base. For this, it is difficult not to agree with the author's major conclusion: that the famous Pope at the very least, should not be granted sainthood.
   
   The book is nothing if not a cautionary tale about how even the most morally pristine of institutions are still subject to corruption --especially when racism, personal ambition and institutional ideology and power are involved -- which unfortunately is most of the time. Equally, it is also a cautionary tale about how blind ambition even in the service of one of the most religious, most righteous and self-righteous and most moral of causes, can lead well-meaning people down a path to unmitigated evil, even when they themselves may not personally be evil. One must doubt if the Catholic Church, which recently has also been involved in a pedophilia scandal, can ever recover from this two-fisted wallop. At the very least these two moral lapses, a generation a part, will leave an enduring black mark on that much-respected and revered religion.
   
   Four Stars



5. This is the most hateful and dishonest book ever written during the 20th century. Cornwell sinfully and shamelessly violates truth again and again. Cornwell shall pass into history as a sample of what sheer dishonesty and intellectual misery can achieve. May Almighty God bless again and again the blessed memory of our Holy Father Pius XII.
   p.s. for an exposure of Cornwell's lies read the book "The Myth of Hitler's Pope," by Rabbi David Dalin, available in Amazon as well.

1 comments about Horses Like Lightning: A Story of Passage Through the Himalayas.

1. I previously visited Lomonthang in 2006, and will return this September 2008. Dr. Craig's book is a personal treasure of mine. Amplifying and enriching my insights, experiences, and appreciation of new friendships acquired during my travel to this remote, fragile, and culturally endangered region, "Horses Like Lightening" represents the very best of the travel memoir. Her writing combines qualities of personal integrity, open-heartedness, and intellectual acuity-a deeply satisfying combination for this reader. In "feeling" Mustang through the author, I was often reminded of The Buddhist poet Milarepa's "Song of the Galloping Horse of a Yogi", particularly the lines: "...In the temple of my breast, At the summit of the traingle of my heart, The horse which is my mind flies like the wind, He gallops on the plains of great bliss..."
   An intimate, eloquent, and fully dimensional accounting of a remote and wild beauty, teetering on the edge of great cultural transformation. Highly recommended.

5 comments about Padre Pio the Stigmatist.

1. Padre Pio, one of the most renowned modern-day Blesseds, was a very holy man loved by many people. The charisms he was blessed with by the Holy Spirit are truly amazing to read about, including bilocation, the odor of sanctity, as well as his most famous gift, the stigmata. The accounts of miracles attributed to his intercession are unbelieveable, and I'm sure they're just a small amount of the great deeds this man has done. This man seems MORE than a man, forgetting to eat meals, having great favor with the Lord, and sometimes being invisible from others. He comforted many dying souls in their last agony. This is a great compilation of the wonders of the great Blessed Padre Pio.



2. Padre Pio was canonized St. Pio of Pietrelcina on June 16, 2002. There are many books written about him, and this is one of the best and most complete. He was a Capuchin friar born in southern Italy in 1887 and died in 1968. He bore the stigmata, the wounds of Christ, for 50 years. He also possessed other unusual qualities, such as bilocation, odor of perfume, the reading of hearts, miraculous cures, remarkable conversions and prophetic insight. Because of his ability to read hearts many people sought to confess their sins to him. Although he heard confessions for 12 to 14 hours a day, it was necessary to register 10 days in advance because so many people desired his spiritual direction.

   I highly recommend this book and also "Stories of Padre Pio" by Madame Katharina Tangari.




3. This was an excellent book, Examples of many, many miracles, Many insights to the wisdom and knowledge of heaven. Wonderful book.



4. .
   
   There are so many books about Padre Pio. THIS ONE is a must-have... it was one of the first written. And, because so, the stories and accounts of his life have not been filtered down, as so often happens over the years with numerous re-tellings.



5. I have only read parts of this book, but the sections that I did read seemed somewhat sensational and dramatized. I much prefer Bernard C. Ruffin's biography of Padre Pio, which, to me, is more impartial and scholarly. Padre Pio's life is sensational enough; it does not need to be stylized like a drama to be gripping. Doing so only waters down the facts with unverifiable fiction, and lowers it to a human level. I might also add, there are no footnotes or references in this book, so everything must be accepted at face value.

1 comments about Friendship and Resistance: Essays on Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

1. Beautiful light and intellecutal clarity regarding the inner world of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the friendship between him and Eberhard Bethge. Tremendous challenge to 20th century christians and non christians who ponder politics and the human heart.