Catholic Book Club

We thought this book although published last fall would be appropriate reading during the season of Lent Dominican Father Wilfrid J Harrington a professor of Scripture at the Dominican House of Studies in Dublin is a highly regarded scholar who has written on the subject for many decades The

This book would make a nice companion for last month rsquo s selection on contemplating with icons Sister Wendy Beckett is familiar to America readers and CBC members her book Encounters With God was a club selection in 2009 She is a cloistered nun who lived nearly 20 years as a hermit before a

Father William Hart McNichols hailed by Time magazine as ldquo among the most famous creators of Christian iconic images in the world rdquo is joined here by writer translator and retreat director Mirabai Starr in offering a powerful and inspiring blend of images reflecting the feminine face of

An American Catholic theologian of worldwide renown Avery Dulles 1918-2008 looms large in the intellectual life of the church He wrote more than two dozen books and many hundreds of articles and was a peritus at the Second Vatican Council As Patrick W Carey mdash a professor of theology at Mar

The authors’ previous work, Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy, which recounted the shooting of schoolchildren in Nickel Mines, Pa., was a CBC selection in the fall of 2007 and became a national bestseller and a television movie. Drawing on the authors’ personal interviews and firsthand experience, their follow-up book, The Amish Way, probes the spirituality and practices of this fascinating culture and its adherents. Its 12 chapters offer a window into the meaning of community, living together, children and family, nature, evil and more.

In recognition of the centennial of the birth of Mother Teresa of Calcutta on August 26 we thought this new book would be a welcome addition to everyone rsquo s home library In ldquo Unconditional Love rdquo the book rsquo s introduction the noted pastor Rick Warren pens these stirring words

One of the world’s most influential contemporary theologians, and “the man who stood up to Hitler” (New York Times), the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was imprisoned in 1943—and executed in 1945—for his role in confronting The Final Solution and plotting the assassination of Adolf Hitler. His bestselling works, especially The Cost of Discipleship and Letters and Papers from Prison have influenced generations of students and Christian scholars. In a review of this masterful biography in the June 21 issue of America, Peter Heinegg assesses Bonhoeffer as “a thinker both innovative and conservative and a fearless teller of the truth” and this biography by Metaxas a “warm-hearted, lively chronicle.” (You may also visit Regina Nigro’s June 15 blog post for America, which stresses Bonhoeffer’s heroism and deep commitment to justice and “his decision to sacrifice all for faith, for the persecuted and for God.”) Bonhoeffer is a compelling, often spellbinding read that you will want to pass around to others after you have finished it.

Purchase Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy from amazon.com.

In light of the popular and critical response to Nancy Sherman’s The Untold War (reviewed in the June 7 issue of America), we bring to your attention two related books:

By now most of our readers have heard of this book and author a Jesuit priest and founder of Homeboy Industries mdash the largest gang intervention program in the country It rsquo s tough it rsquo s wrenching but it is also deeply inspiring and leaves the reader with a measured hope that these

This book traces the dramatic shifts in American Catholics’ prayer life from the style of the immigrant church (1865-1900) through and after the Second Vatican Council. James M. McCartin, a professor of history at Seton Hall University, notes in the prologue: “Positioned at opposite ends of the twentieth century, these two scenes suggest a remarkable alteration in the patterns of prayer and in the popular experience of the spiritual life.” And these shifts, as the book shows, came alongside larger changes within the American society and its political culture and reflect how prayer shaped people’s attitudes toward the hierarchy and the institutional church. What we see in the present, inspired by the post-Vatican II charismatic renewal movement, is a personal approach to prayer.