Editors' picks

Christian Century, March 14, 2001

Crucible of War, by Fred Anderson: This detailed account of France and Great Britain's global war for empire during the 1750s and 1760s transforms one's view of the origins of the United States. Events and attitudes in the colonies, Anderson shows, were decisively defined by the aims and unintended consequences of this imperial struggle.

The American Revolution, it turns out, was not so much a political turning point as a belated complication of empire building. The Story of Christian Spirituality, Gordon Mursell, general editor (Fortress Press), is an accessible and lavishly illustrated introduction to the Christian spiritual tradition. The wide-ranging essays--from the early church to the present--are interspersed with side-bars that treat persons and movements and offer samples of selected texts. A browser's delight geared for the non-specialist reader. David Berlinski is a gifted novelist who also writes about mathematics. In Newton's Gift (Free Press), he draws an elegant portrait of Isaac Newton and his scientific discoveries that will captivate even those who are more curious about, than proficient in, math. Berlinsky is a thoroughly engaging and sensitive guide to Newton's "soul-shattering world view." 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. It's a reliable and lively encyclopedia.