NCR Book Club

HOLY WARRIORS: A MODERN HISTORY OF THE CRUSADES
By Jonathan Phillips
Published by Random House, $30

In July 1993 I stood on the battlements of the Crac des Chevaliers, the 800-year-old fortress of the crusader knights who had planted themselves in northern Syria, between Turkey and Lebanon, to control the flow of goods and people in every direction.

RADICAL, RELIGIOUS, AND VIOLENT: THE NEW ECONOMICS OF TERRORISM
By Eli Berman
Published by MIT Press, $24.95

Wags will say that Eli Berman has written a study of religious terrorism with, well, the religion left out. Up to a point, Berman would agree, for he upends many popular notions in this highly readable book.

He asks: In what ways are they religious?

The 2009 book Holiness and the Feminine Spirit: The Art of Janet McKenzie, edited by Susan Perry, features McKenzie’s religious art accompanied by essays by noted contemporary women writers. In the following excerpt, Boston College theologian M. Shawn Copeland reflects on the life of St. Josephine Bakhita, a Canossian Daughter of Charity, who is depicted in a portrait by McKenzie.

On Oct. 1, 2000, John Paul II canonized Josephine Bakhita, a Sudanese woman, freed slave, Canossian Daughter of Charity, “flower of the African desert,” “patron of Sudan,” and, by her own self-designation, “a daughter of God.” Janet McKenzie’s oil painting of Bakhita suggests a sentry, a woman composed, fiercely and lovingly guarding the children of her native Darfur. While her biographer focuses on Bakhita’s practice of the virtues of humility and meekness, McKenzie depicts courage, fortitude and hope -- virtues Bakhita surely needed throughout her life.

WORKING IN THE SHADOWS: A YEAR OF DOING THE JOBS (MOST) AMERICANS WON'T DO
By Gabriel Thompson
Published by Nation Books, $24.95

What does it mean to work in the unknown America where millions toil under the shadow of prosperity? Journalist Gabriel Thompson found out during a year of working alongside the invisible poor -- American citizens and immigrants who endure backbreaking work, low wages and nonexistent benefits. He worked for a few months each in the lettuce fields of Arizona, in a poultry processing plant in Alabama, and in the kitchen of a large New York City restaurant, all jobs that are typically done by either immigrants or America’s rural poor.

THE SEARCH FOR MEANING: A SHORT HISTORY
By Dennis Ford
Published by the University of California Press, $16.95

Over the course of our lives, we inevitably ask the question “Why?” Whether we seek to understand the purpose of our sorrows and joys, or whether we wonder if we will have any lasting significance, we all desire to understand the meaning of life. In his book, Dennis Ford, author of Sins of Omission: A Primer on Moral Indifference (Fortress Press), provides a helpful introduction on classic and contemporary approaches to meaning for those interested in this enduring human quest.

One woman's encounter with the Haitian people

When Margaret Trost was suddenly widowed at 34 and left with a young son, she never imagined how her grief would entwine her with the people of Haiti and their suffering.

Trost’s search for meaning in the face of spiritual devastation led her from her comfortable American life to a Haitian mission trip in 2000. Trost established a charitable foundation that, prior to the earthquake, was feeding 7,500 meals a week to children in Port-au-Prince. It helped hundreds more to go to school.

PARIS AND HER REMARKABLE WOMEN: A GUIDE
By Lorraine Liscio
Published by the Little Bookroom, $19.95

One of the great joys of traveling the world is discovering the people in it. Two new books put the traveler’s focus on extraordinary individuals.

WE SIDE WITH THE MORNING: DAILY PRAYERS TO THE GOD OF HOPE
By William Cleary
Published by Sorin Books, $15.95

Anyone who has perused current book catalogs from religious publishing houses is aware of the questions surrounding the practice of prayer. Many persons of faith have apparently reassessed their traditional spiritual practices and found them wanting.

In light of a more contemporary worldview and its effects on religious thought, our long-held image of God as a patriarchal tribal deity (or a God “we can pinch”) is no longer credible. Feeling awkward in addressing a God behind “the cloud of unknowing,” many find themselves unsure of how they should pray. “How can we speak to a God who is not a ‘person’ -- a God who may or not be affected by our prayers?”

Put simply: “Does it make sense to pray?” If so, “how do we pray in a way that is true to our changed religious perspectives?”

As a result of this shift in religious imagination, many seem to be simply abandoning word prayers altogether and replacing them with nonverbal contemplation and/or spiritual disciplines found in other cultures.

The Wanderers by Henry A. Garon. Orbis (Maryknoll, N.Y., 2009). 151 pp., $16.

Read together, the books written by Susan R. Holman and Deacon Henry A. Garon and edited by Joseph A. Heim provide a sort of a miniseries on Christian perspectives of homelessness and poverty around the world.

In The Wanderers, Garon has written a refreshingly realistic book about ministering to the homeless of New Orleans. A Catholic deacon, father and husband, he provides short stories about the street people he has met and the experiences he has had while volunteering at Ozanam Inn. The inn is a homeless shelter located near the heart of New Orleans' business section and owned by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

HOPE IN AN AGE OF DESPAIR
By Albert Nolan
Published by Orbis, $18

I’ve read enough of Gandhi, Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King Jr., the Dalai Lama, John XXIII, Thich Nhat Hanh, John Paul II, Daniel Berrigan and Thomas Merton to hear the call for personal, national and global conversion to nonviolence.