Christian Literature & Book Reviews
Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life - Kathleen Norris
By Riverhead Hardcover
In Acedia & Me, Kathleen Norris intertwines the story of acedia with her own as she uses the travails of her own life to explain battles with the spiritual ailment spoken of by the monastic figures whose own disciplined prayer life she had begun to emulate. Acedia is lethargy of the spirit that paralyzes one's soul and drastically affects the prayer life of the individual. It is often written of as an affliction of the devil upon those who have devoted their lives to Christ so to sew doubt and destroy their life of prayer. Falling into a category that is neither sloth nor depression, acedia is one of those facets of life that defies attempts to define it.
The author's approach to have us understand how acedia affected her life is to live her life. She leads us on a journey that draws upon her involvement in the ancient discipline of Christian prayer, her husband's hostility to the adoption of this Catholic intrusion on their lives, and the ebb and flow of their own lives. Acedia is revealed not through diagnosis but through a shared process that, like time itself, can only be defined through the experience.
Acedia & Me is certainly not a book for everyone. There is no real cure given; no 10 steps to conquering acedia. Anyone who appeals to the drivel of pop psychology will likely never experience acedia. It is the ailment of the spiritual pilgrim who seeks an intimate experience with the Divine. And Acedia & Me is a roadmap to the pitfalls one may fall prey to on the journey.
A Love for Life: Christianity's Consistent Protection of the Unborn
By Dennis DiMauro Wipf & Stock Publishers
Beginning with the most ancient sources, DiMauro mines both Scripture and Christian tradition to bring together all the elements of a view on life that challenged the "culture of death" existing in the pagan Roman Empire and triumphed over it. The author points out how the pro-life position was the consistent Christian view throughout the patristic, medieval, and Reformation periods among all Christian traditions and only weakened in recent times as some within the Church have forsaken the historic morality of Christendom for one more amenable to the newly emerging "culture of death" of our own times.
The author also points out that the division among Christians on this issue is much overplayed. Most of the "pro-choice" support is within the rapidly disappearing "mainline" churches of the West. It is elsewhere that Christendom is on the rise and there the pro-life position is dominant. Given the mainline churches retreat on a whole host of issues, it can be effectively argued that they merely represent the lapsed faith of dying churches.
It might be helpful if every pro-choice politician read A Love for Life before commenting on the "diversity of opinions" within Christianity on the abortion issue. It will probably not change their minds - their views are clearly formed without any Christian source - but it might give them pause before they make clearly insupportable claims. Whatever may be their reasons for supporting abortion, they cannot blame it on Christ.
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