Giving words

Christian Century, Dec 15, 1999

It may be a wired world of online texts, but books remain a source of delight and enrichment. Some gift ideas from Century editors:

Garry Wills's brief biography, Saint Augustine (Viking, $19.95), is a crisp and engaging introduction to the churchman's life. Anyone who wants to dig deeper into the life, times and continuing influence of Augustine would welcome either of two hefty encyclopedias, Augustine Through the Ages, edited by Allan Fitzgerald et al. (Eerdmans, $75.00), or Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World, edited by Peter Brown et al. (Harvard, $49.95). Augustine was one of 33 men and women who have, so far, made the cut as official doctors of the Roman Catholic Church. Bernard McGinn's The Doctors of the Church (Crossroad, $17.95) is an introduction to the figures--from Athanasius (c. 300-373) to Therese of Lisieux (1873-1897)--who have earned the title doctor ecclesiae.

Rembrandt's art is lavishly treated by Simon Scrams in Rembrandt's Eyes (Knopf, $50.00). Megan Holmes considers the art of a Renaissance monk in Fra Filippo Lippi the Carmelite Painter (Yale, $65.00). Jumping continents, centuries and media, Lynn Davis's photographs may be the best part of Henry Louis Gates's Wonders of the African World (Knopf, $40.00).

Those who want a sophisticated take on apocalyptic belief at this turn of the millennial calendar will enjoy Eugen Weber's lively Apocalypses: Prophesies, Cults, and Millennial Beliefs Through the Ages (Harvard, $24.95). Looking to the future is The Coming of God: Christian Eschatology (Fortress, $30.00), which won Jurgen Moltmann the $200,000 Grawemeyer Award. A more present-oriented Moltmann work is God for a Secular Society: The Public Relevance of Theology (Fortress, $20.00).

The moral dilemmas broached by the Kosovo war are illumined by James Turner Johnson's Morality and Contemporary Warfare (Yale, $25.00). Anyone interested in learning about the latest theological trend--"radical orthodoxy"--can turn to Radical Orthodoxy, edited by John Milbank et al. (Routledge, $25.99). The ferment in American religiosity is probed by one of the foremost investigators of the topic, Wade Clark Roof, in Spiritual Marketplace: Baby Boomers and the Remaking of American Religion (Princeton, $24.95).

All who are concerned about race relations would be interested in The Unsteady March: The Rise and Decline of Racial Equality in America, by Philip A. Klinker with Rogers M. Smith (Chicago, $32.50). Those facing retirement will find a companion in Carl H. Klaus, who wrote a "beginner's diary," Taking Retirement (Beacon, $25.00). A take on "religion and politics" quite different from that of the Religious Right is offered by Kyle A. Pasewark and Garrett E. Paul's The Emphatic Christian Center: Reforming Christian Political Practice (Abingdon, $29.00), a book that started as an essay in the CHRISTIAN CENTURY.

Vigen Guroian's meditations on gardening, Inheriting Paradise (Eerdmans, $12.00), also includes materials that appeared first in the CENTURY.

The tradition of American preaching is celebrated in American Sermons: The Pilgrims to Martin Luther King Jr. (Library of America, $40.00). An eloquent continuation of this tradition, with a slight English accent, is represented by B. A. Gerrish's The Pilgrim Road: Sermons on the Christian Life (Westminster John Knox, $14.95).

For fiction, consider Gaff Godwin's story of a young female priest, Evensong (Ballantine, $25.00); J. M. Coetzee's novel of repentance in South Africa, Disgrace (Viking, $23.95); and J. K. Rowling's series of Harry Potter books--the latest is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Levine, $17.95). And any list in 1999 should include Anne Lamott's hilarious and moving Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith (Pantheon, $23.00).