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Reviews of Spirituality Books|
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Francis Phillips reviews more Spiritual Books for June 2010
Francis Phillips reviews Spiritual Books for June 2010
Francis Phillips reviews Spiritual Books for February 2009
Francis Phillips reviews Spiritual Books for January 2009
Includes review of new book on the Eucharist The Mystery of Faith, by Fr Tadeusz Dajczer.
Francis Phillips reviews Spiritual Books for June 2007
Francis Phillips reviews Spiritual Books for May 2007
Francis Phillips reviews Spiritual Books for January 2007
Christian Living: the Spirituality of the Foyers of Charity. By Donal Foley. Theotokos Books. £7.95.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Translated by Bernard O’Donoghue. Penguin Classics. £8.99
The Silence of Thomas. By Bruno Forte. New City: 020 8453 1558, £5.95.
Meditations on Life. By Thomas Kala, £11.50
Comments and reviews on: Apocalypse Nights: Catholic Hope in the Nihil, by Stephen Hand
"A breath of Christian sanity. I think we need more books like Stephen Hand's Apocalypse Nights. This collection of essays stirs the ashes of the culture of death and finds the embers of life still burning. His insights, clear and direct, perhaps even prophetic at times, help reveal the moral bankruptcy of some unchallenged assumptions of our moribund culture and bring the Gospel to bear on the purveyors of sham antidotes for the mortal illnesses of 'the nihil.'
Francis Phillips reviews Spiritual Books for Advent 2006
Marking The Hours, by Eamon Duffy, Yale University Press, £19.99
The Gospel for Little Children and The Bible for Little Children, by Maite Roche. The Rosary and The Way of the Cross, by Juliette Levivier. CTS Children’s Books. £4. 95 each.
Francis Phillips reviews Spiritual Books for September 2006
Catholic Matters, by Richard John Neuhaus. Basic Books. £14.99
Amazing Grace for Married Couples, by Jeff Cavins, Matthew Pinto and Patti Armstrong. Family Publications. £8. 95
Francis Phillips reviews Caryll Houselander: Essential Writings, Ed.Wendy M. Wright
"This book, which is in a series of modern spiritual masters, draws attention to one of the oddest yet most readable of latter day mystics. Houselander, 1901-1954, has always had a small band of devoted readers; indeed, once discovered the experience is unforgettable. This is because she writes with an electrifying directness and simplicity."
Francis Phillips reviews The Pope Benedict Code, by Joanna Bogle
"The title of this work is clearly a ‘coded’ allusion to a book with solemn New Age pretensions, very popular in recent years, that includes a Renaissance artist in its own title. However, Joanna Bogle takes pains to point out that “there isn’t really a code to crack. Catholicism is an open book which anyone can read.”"
Francis Phillips reviews Benedict XVI and Cardinal Newman, edited by Peter Jennings
"The title of this book elicits momentary surprise: what is the link between our present Holy Father and John Henry Newman, an Englishman who died in 1890? The answer lies in a holy serendipity; the editor, an author and broadcaster who is also press secretary to Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham, was in Rome earlier this year covering the election of Pope Benedict XVI and standing near the place where Newman celebrated his first Mass as a Catholic priest, when the inspiration for the book came to him. Baptised in the Birmingham Oratory by the late Newman scholar, Fr Stephen Dessain, and a member of the executive committee of the Friends of Cardinal Newman, Peter Jennings has a long association with the English Oratorians and therefore the Cause of Newman himself."
Francis Phillips reviews On Christian Dying, Ed. Matthew Levering
"This book brings together many classic texts on how Christians have faced death, some from the ‘red’ martyrdom of blood to be shed, others from the ‘white’ martyrdom of living out the demands of faith in the circumstances of ordinary life."
The Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Fr John Croiset
"Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Fr John Croiset SJ, is not 'just another book on the Sacred Heart devotion' but it can be truly said to be the book on this devotion."
Francis Phillips reviews The Rosary in Space and Time, by Ruth Rees
"This book, written disarmingly by 'a sinner for sinners' and dedicated to the Holy Family, is certainly the most stimulating book I have read on this subject for a long time. This is because it is not written from a pious or narrowly devotional perspective. It is written in forthright prose by a journalist and a convert from Judaism, who once worked as an actress."
Francis Philips reviews Spiritual Friendship, by Aelred of Rievaulx
"When people gush in the pages of Hello! magazine that ‘we are just good friends’, one senses that the relationship is probably heading straight for the rocks. St Aelred, c.1110-1167, abbot of the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx, does not use the word ‘friend’ so lightly. Indeed, friendship for him is synonymous with love and he is impassioned in defending it from those who would debase its true meaning."
"Regardless of the cynics, Mel Gibson intended his film to evangelise - to share his own deep, Christian faith. This Guide takes us beyond its raw emotion and challenges us to examine The Passion in the cool light of our reasoning faculty. Why not invite non-Christian friends to see the film with you and then give them a copy? After all, it is a little different from that other blockbuster, The Titanic."
Francis Phillips reviews Daily Lenten Meditations: Prayerful reflections from John Paul II, edited by Fr. Max Polak
"To review a book like this is almost a contradiction. It is meant to be read slowly and carefully, a day at a time for six weeks. Is it therefore possible to suggest its riches in a quick appraisal? Perhaps. The editor has chosen excerpts from the homilies, addresses and official Letters of John Paul II, sign-posted by readings from the Lenten Masses, especially the Gospels. Each day is given a page or so of text; just enough to provide a thoughtful meditation."
Dr Pravin Thevathasan reviews, Contemplation and Compassion: The Victorine Tradition, by Steven Chase. Darton, Longman & Todd - ISBN 0-232-52437-8
" 'In Victorine spirituality, contemplation gives birth to charity. Charity involves love, service to others, social justice, liberation, healing and compassion.'
So begins a fine introduction to the Victorine spiritual tradition - one of the less well known traditions to emerge during the Middle Ages for the Victorines - and other emerging orders of the same period - contemplation and compassionate service to others went together."
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Theotokos Catholic Books - Book Reviews Section - www.theotokos.org.uk