April 2009

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Believing Again : Doubt and Faith in a Secular Age Roger Lundin

"Believing again" after what? Roger Lundin's wide-ranging book starts from the familiar premise of a "disenchanted modernity." Whether or not you entirely buy that thesis, you'll profit from Lundin's probing account of thinkers at the "threshold of faith"—Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville, and Czeslaw Milosz, among others—who "may not proclaim Christian truth as vigorously as the theologians might wish" but who point beyond themselves to the source of our hope.

Giants : The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln John Stauffer

Shake a tree and a bunch of books about Lincoln will fall on your head. Amid this surfeit, a few volumes are especially worth seeking out. One is John Stauffer's about the former slave and the onetime frontier lawyer, enemies who became friends and banded together to change their nation for the better. Subtle, keenly perceptive, and blessedly concise, Stauffer's narrative isn't based on a gimmick. The parallels he draws between Douglass and Lincoln are real—and illuminating. This book began as part of a larger project on interracial friendship, Stauffer tells us, and I hope that comes to fruition.

A Community Called Taizé : A Story of Prayer, Worship and Reconciliation Jason Brian Santos

Jason Brian Santos has written what reads like a book-length blog that might be called, "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Taizé." Chatty, practical, and animated by a winsome spirit, the book is aimed chiefly at young readers who might be dreaming about traveling to the Protestant monastic community in France, a pilgrimage that millions like them have already taken. Santos combines personal narrative, theological reflection, and travel-guide details. His easygoing manner will grate on some readers and charm others—few will remain neutral—but the story he has to tell is definitely worth telling.

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