Editors picks

Christian Century, Jan 31, 2001

Reviewed by William P. George, who teaches religious studies and theology at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois.

The Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann, 1973-1983 (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press) includes some brilliant nuggets of theological reflection and wonderfully honest accounts of the struggles and victories of faith. Readers can glimpse the generous spirit and searching mind of a great Orthodox theologian, for whom "joy is not one of the components of Christianity, it is the tonality ... that penetrates everything." The hefty Oxford Companion to Christian Thought (Oxford University Press) includes 600 entries of exemplary clarity on people, events, practices and concepts--from heresies in the early church to current debates on reproductive technology. A reliable, engaging encyclopedia. Augustine of Hippo, by Peter Brown (University of California Press): The classic biography, which first appeared in 1967, has been updated in light of newly discovered letters and sermons and in light of Brown's own (autobiographically colored) second thoughts. "There is a harshness in my judgments of the old Augustine which the indulgent reader should put down to a young man's lack of experience of the world. Since then I have come to know bishops." Merry Christmas: Celebrating America's Greatest Holiday, by Karal Ann Marling (Harvard University Press): The experience of Christmas is inescapably shaped by lots of material stuff (like greeting cards and department store windows) and cultural icons (like White Christmas and It's a Wonderful Life). Marling records it all faithfully, with no ideological axe to grind. Evocations of Grace: Writings on Ecology, Theology and Ethics, by Joseph Sittler (Eerdmans): In an address to the World Council of Churches in 1961, long before ecology was a familiar word, Sittler called for a "Christology of nature." This collection of essays by the late theologian includes that speech and nine other essays from the 1950s to the 1970s.