Reading Jesus : a writer's encounter with the Gospels

by Mary Gordon. Gordon, O. Henry Award winner and best-selling author of novels (e.g., Pearl) and memoirs (e.g., Circling My Mother), has taken on what she deems an impossible project-finding the "real" Jesus as a character of the Gospels read as narratives. Gordon, a skilled writer and thinker, wants to add her voice to the many already spoken, in a tone that neither shouts nor threatens. She is not interested in converting anyone with this book. Gordon, dually influenced by her relationship with Catholicism and the feminist movement, writes well, with passion and candor, exploring those Gospel stories that are part of the fabric of many religious people's psyches. She finds fault with those who read, rewrite, and retell the Gospel words to suit their own agendas. Gordon is a believing skeptic writing of her journey-not a Jefferson trying to clean up the Gospels but a writer mining the rich depths of these sacred texts. Verdict Valuable to the thoughtful scholarly reader, Christian and non-Christian. --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)

A theory of justice

by John Rawls. Rawls's Theory of Justice is widely and justly regarded as this century's most important work of political philosophy. Originally published in 1971, it quickly became the subject of extensive commentary and criticism, which led Rawls to revise some of the arguments he had originally put forward in this work. These revisions were incorporated into the German translation of the work, which first appeared in 1975, and in all subsequent translations (numbering 23 to date). Unfortunately, English speaking readers have not had have access to the revised version until now. This edition will certainly become the definitive one; all scholars will use it, and it will be an essential text for any academic library. It contains a new preface that helpfully outlines the major revisions, and a "conversion table" that correlates the pagination of this edition with the original, which will be useful to students and scholars working with this edition and the extensive secondary literature on Rawls's work. (Check catalog)

Good without God : what a billion nonreligious people do believe

by Greg M. Epstein. The humanist chaplain at Harvard University offers an updated defense of humanism in response to the belligerent attacks on religion put forward by such new atheists as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. Epstein's approach to religion is respectful, and for the most part, friendly. He sees liberal Christians, Unitarian Universalists, Jews and spiritual self-help gurus, such as Oprah Winfrey, as natural allies of humanists though at times he seems impatient for them to admit they no longer believe in a transcendent God. A student of Sherwin Wine, the late rabbi and founder of Humanistic Judaism, Epstein's humanism is rooted in his mentor's essentially Jewish formulations. His most impassioned argument is with megachurch pastor Rick Warren and other evangelicals who believe secularism is the enemy and a moral society impossible without a belief in God. While such an argument may be needed, Epstein's book is marred by redundancies and a lack of organization that suggests it was hastily put together. --Publisher's Weekly. (Check Catalog)

One simple act

by Debbie Macomber. Macomber, one of today's leading fiction writers with more than 100 million books in print, walks a new path with this nonfiction title. "I've just got to share the news," she says of her book on generosity. "Intentional acts of generosity can open our lives to the very best God has to offer." Macomber builds her book on the biblical story of Jesus' multiplication of five loaves and two fishes, a miracle recorded in all four gospels, using her storytelling prowess to retell the tale. She then takes readers on a journey through the true meaning of generosity (and it's not about cash): encouragement, good deeds, forgiveness and believing the best. She also delves into giving, listening and hospitality, and dips into what generosity means when it comes to Christmas, caregiving and prayer. The theme, Macomber says, is, simply, to offer what you have. She fills out her chapters with real-life stories, suggestions for "Simple Acts" and brief "Discovery" sections. This is a useful, inspiring study of an underpracticed art, written by one who has received, given and witnessed generosity. --Publisher's Weekly. (Check Catalog)

Have a little faith : a true story

by Mitch Albom. In his thirties, Albom's rabbi, after hearing him deliver a speech, asked Albom to deliver the eulogy at his funeral. Not big on faith and married to a Christian woman of Lebanese background, Albom was taken aback. He'd known Rabbi Albert Lewis since he was a child, seeing him as the tall and distant figure somewhere between God and the congregants of the synagogue in a New Jersey suburb. He consented and asked to spend time with Reb to get to know him as a man. In eight years, what began as a reluctant assignment grew into a treasured friendship with a man of unbounded joy, singing everything from show tunes to greetings to his visitors. In his new hometown of Detroit, where he developed a charitable foundation, Albom met Henry Covington, pastor of a dilapidated inner-city church and a humbled former drug dealer and ex-con. Covington's church, with a huge hole in the roof and very few and very poor congregants, obviously needed help. But Albom wasn't sure how much to invest until he began to witness the faith of Covington and his congregation, struggling to overcome poverty, addictions, and hopelessness. Albom parallels time spent with Rabbi Lewis, Pastor Covington, and his own personal spiritual journey as he learned the incredible complexities of faith, finding it, holding on to it, and seeing and appreciating it at work in others. Albom, author of the acclaimed Tuesdays with Morrie (1997), offers another inspirational and heartwarming story about the strength of friendship and power of faith. --Booklist (Check catalog)

Lectures on the history of political philosophy

by John Rawls. After the publication of A Theory of Justice in 1971, Rawls (1921-2002) became the most influential moral and political philosopher in the Western world. As such, the issuing of this posthumous volume, carefully edited by Freeman (philosophy & law, Univ. of Pennsylvania), a former student and teaching assistant from Rawls's courses at Harvard University, is a major event. Rawls discusses Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, J.S. Mill, and Karl Marx (appendixes treat Henry Sidgwick and Joseph Butler as well). He is especially concerned with how each thinker views the fair terms of social cooperation. He distinguishes between being rational (i.e., efficient in pursuit of one's ends) and being reasonable (i.e., willing to cooperate on fair terms with others)-Hobbes did not make this distinction, but it is useful in explaining Locke and Rousseau. Rawls finds in Rousseau the notion of public reason, the key concept of his Political Liberalism. He devotes much attention to the utilitarian tradition, the principal rival of his own approach. An unexpected feature is a sympathetic discussion of Marx. Highly recommended for all philosophy collections. --Library Journal (Check Catalog)

Logics of worlds : being and event, 2

by Alain Badiou. When people today are not making an effort to believe something else, says Badiou (École Normale Supérieure and Collége International de Philosophie, Paris), they believe that there are only bodies and languages, a conviction he names democratic materialism. He examines it from the perspectives of the formal metaphysical theory; the greater logics of the transcendental, the object, and relation; the four forms of change; the theory of points; and what a body is. His conclusion asks what it is to live. Logiques des mondes was published by Editions du Seuil in 2006, and is translated here by Alberto Roscano (sociology, U. of London). To some extent, it is a response to criticism of his 1988 Being and Event. --Publisher (Check Catalog)

The secrets of Mary : gifts from the Blessed Mother

by Janice C. Connell. Connell, the author of many prior books about Mary, here offers one that, but for the dates of the events and apparitions described, might have been written 100 years ago. A capable and persuasive writer, she takes the conservative and literalist Catholic line, moving swiftly away from the Mary of the Scriptures to the post-Scriptural Mother and comforter. Connell fervently embraces not only medieval and post-medieval Marian mysticism but 19th- through 21st-century apparitions. Verdict While she may well disappoint readers of China Galland's Longing for Darkness: Black Madonna or Marina Warner's Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary, she will please a now somewhat neglected constituency of traditional Catholic readers. --Library Journal. (Check catalog)

After the prophet : the epic story of the Shia-Sunni split in Islam

by Leslie Hazelton. In June 632, the founder of Islam died without having clearly designated a successor. It seemed obvious to some that Muhammad's first cousin, Ali, who occupied the place of a son in the prophet's circle, would assume leadership. But Aisha, Muhammad's favorite, youngest, and most forceful wife, favored her father, and others backed Muhammad's greatest warrior. Ali would succeed, but not until 25 years later. Thus began the turmoil that eventuated in the bisection of Muslims into Sunni and Shia and that Hazleton describes in a new masterpiece of a kind of history seldom seen these days, in which the telling of a complicated, eventful story takes precedence over constant quotation of documents and squabbling with other historians. Hazleton closely relies on the great texts of early Islam and vivifies the main players by following what common sense would deduce about their temperaments and personalities from their actions and statements. She brings in parallel modern events only to emphasize the depth of the trauma the conflict she recounts inflicted on Islam. Best, she doesn't pontificate or argue religion. She just thrillingly and intelligently distills one of the most consequential trains of events in all history.-- (Check Catalog)

Eternal life : a new vision : beyond religion, beyond theism, beyond heaven and hell

by John Shelby Spong. Spong, the controversial retired Episcopal Bishop of Newark, NJ, may rightly be considered the bellwether of the most advanced opinions in theology that still cling to a nominal Christian identity. With subtlety and complexity, Spong promotes an idea of an ongoing existence beyond our physicality, one that entirely supercedes "religious" notions of Heaven or Hell and even conventional notions of God. For conservative Christians, Spong's views are heretical; for many other readers, Christian and non-Christian, Spong's writing here as elsewhere is intelligent, engaged, comforting, and uplifting. VERDICT Spong's thought and theology are crucial stimulants for every thinking Christian; an important book. --Library Journal. (Check Catalog)