Organizations and Institutions Books

This book not only contains a profusion of photos but also is quite informative. The reader gets a brief biography of the former Cardinal Wojtyla. One learns of the horrors of the Nazi German occupation, "Lolek's" forced labor in a stone quarry, his study for the priesthood, his lifelong interest in ethics, his love of the outdoors (hiking, skiing, canoeing, etc.). He was a quintessential Pole. After assuming the papacy, Pope John Paul II had Christmas dinner at Krakow with old friends.

It is ironic that the Communist authorities underrated him. He was an advocate of all, not just Catholics. He took a lead in ecumenism, becoming a pioneer of Christian unity. He forgave Mehmet Agca, the Turk who shot him. He revived the office of the deacon. He met with countless world leaders, including Fidel Castro. He believed that universities should be places of encounter with Christ. He reached out to people of all ages, and was an active participant in World Youth Days. It is no exaggeration to say that he "always had the personal touch".

This book is candid about controversial issues. It mentions such things as birth control and the death penalty.

There is a list of canonizations and beautifications performed by Pope John Paul II. The best-known saint canonized by this Pope was Father Maxilian Kolbe, canonized October 10, 1982. Father Kolbe had given his life in free exchange for another prisoner at the German death camp of Auschwitz.

Published to coincide with John Paul II's 25th Papal anniversary in 2003, John Paul II: A Light for the World, is a stunningly beautiful tribute to the late pontiff. Rich with gorgeous photography, this beautifully designed book provides an intimate look at John Paul II and a view of the Vatican that is rarely seen outside its walls. The text (masterfully edited by Sr. Mary Ann Walsh) includes selections from the Pope's writings and speeches, essays by friends, scholars, and church leaders, as well as personal recollections that give us a glimpse of the humanity and humor of the man who led the Catholic Church for 27 years.

No doubt that with the passing of John Paul II, publishers will be rushing to slap together "tribute" books. However, I can't imagine a more thorough, beautifully-produced, or inspiring a volume as this. It is the ultimate commemoration of one of the world's great spiritual leaders.

This is perhaps the best picture book of John Paul 11 there is. It was a picture book of the countries that he has visited, and was published just before his twenty-fifth anniversary of his being a pope. This was worth the money. It is wonderful.

"Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: The realities of Online teaching" is a great book for someone who is interested in the possibilities of online education and teaching. Palloff and Pratt offer a lot of great tips and ideas that are very concise and easy to understand. They provide commonsense guidelines in conducting online teaching in a way that is simple to digest, entertaining, and useful to teachers, administrators, or whoever else is interested in the realm of online teaching and education.

I personally liked the way the authors really tried the simplify their views on how to make a successful online teaching experience. Their "Keys to Success" seemed to be very helpful and realistic for many institutions to implement with careful planning.

Another especially helpful idea throughout the book was their tips at the end of some sections. By providing these simple tips it helps readers summarize the section and allows readers to easily review the material after they have read though the book once or twice.

I feel that this book is a "must-have" for people who have some interest in this relatively new and every changing field of online teaching.

Growing numbers of K-12 schools, colleges, universities, and businesses have begun offering online instruction, taking advantage of computer and Internet technologies to deliver instruction once confined to the realm of physical classrooms. Indeed, the Internet, so-to-speak, has become a virtual classroom and community where all kinds of instruction can take place - anytime day or night, anywhere around the world.

Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom offers readers a broad treatment of the issues involved in planning, creating, and carrying out distance education via the Internet. In a concise manner the book introduces the issues, raises many serious questions, and provides many solutions to help meet the educational goals of instructors, their learning institutions, and their students.

The real beauty of the book lies in its effort to motivate instructors and learning institutions to think through the issues for themselves - to evaluate the unique circumstances they face and to encourage them to seek more effective ways of accomplishing their goals. Because each virtual learning experience will be unique, a number of important considerations should be weighed to determine course structure, content, and delivery, such as:

What technologies should be used?
Who will create the course?
Who will own the course material(s)?
How will the course be delivered?
How will assignments, projects, and exams be administered?
How will instructors and students be prepared?
How will student participation be controlled?
How will student behavior be controlled?

Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom does a superb job of fostering community among educators and their students. The authors express the importance of creating learning communities were serious dialogue takes place - dialogue that enhances the learning process and leads to achieving specific educational goals. This book is must reading for online educational course development.

If "the devil is in the details" of online learning, Paloff and Pratt have done an excellent job exploring the promise and pitfalls of distance learning programs. Anyone in the process of designing online courses or programs in higher education should read both this book and their earlier book before they launch a new course or program. Personally, this book helped me avoid several mistakes I otherwise would have made in my first distance learning adventure.

The book looks at both teacher and administrator perpsectives, and understands that both insitutional support and instructor skill are key elements for success. While the authors are genuine advocates for the medium, they understand that interactivity does not equal mouse clicks, and that building learning communities takes skill, practice, and structures. The book is full of very helpful examples, learning constructs, and realistic assessments of distance learning successes and failures.

Chapter 7 alone is worth the price of the book. It outlines a free-market model for a small group ministry. It is a permission-giving model, meaning that it invites church members to start their own groups based on their gifts and callings. The Small Group Ministry runs on a 3-semester basis so that people have the option of switching groups and not getting burned out.

We've been using this model in our congregation for a year now and it's been exciting and fun!

My husband and I belong to a non-denominational church.Our Pastors received the vision for becoming a cell church & went to a cell church conference.The book and information we received were so confusing! THIS BOOK fits our church that really focuses on fellowship and community outreach! Ted Haggards book gave my husband and I an exciting vision of how the cell church could work in our church! Chapter 11 was and still is the foundation from which we built upon after our senior Pastor asked us to head the cell ministry!

Ted Haggard has put together one of the most insightful and challenging books Christian ministry has seen in many years. This book is a very practical manual for ANYONE of any denomination who is starting a church or is looking to improve on an existing church structure. His methods are proven, easy to understand, and will undoubtedly bring a fresh vision for what church life should be like to any reader.

Fr. Nichols' book on the history of the liturgical reform movement is absolutely fascinating. A "must read" for anyone interested in the reform of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. His very insightful analysis of the similarities between the reform movement during the Enlightenment and the recent reform movement is right on target. This book will help to explain what went wrong with the recent liturgical reform without condemning the reforms as illegitimate or even improper. Fr. Nichols also covers the interwar liturgical reform movement, a mystery to most Roman Catholics. All in all, an excellent guide to understanding the current liturgy of the latin rite.

Fr. Nichols also offers excellent advice about how to improve the current liturgical situation in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. This should be required reading for our bishops.

Catholic theologian Aidan Nichols provides an erudite but accessible critical overview of the current state of Catholic liturgy. The news is not good. Yet, with the analysis, Nichols provides practical recommendations for the renewal and restoration of Catholic liturgy. His historical analysis of the liturgical movement uncovers how the roots of much misguided liturgical "reform" lie in Enlightenment assumptions at variance with Christian and Catholic belief. In Nichols' words, the Enlightenment has bequeathed to us modern liturgists whose work is "[a]nthropocentric, moralizing, voluntaristic, didactic, subjectivist" in contrast to the authentic theocentric nature of the liturgy (pp. 28-29). Like all good analysis, this book brings order to the chaos we have experienced.

It is sometimes said that there are more important things to worry about in the Church today than the Liturgy. Frankly, there are not. For, as Aidan Nichols incisively puts it:

"There can hardly be a more important topic than the Liturgy if it really is, as the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council maintained, the source from which the Church's life flows and the summit to which that life is directed."

And, he continues, "Liturgy, evidently, is too important to be left to liturgists." This explains why Nichols, one of contemporary England's most prominent Catholic theologians has published this penetrating analysis of the state of the Liturgy of the Latin ritual church in Catholicism today.

Nichols argues that the Liturgy, both in its official reform following the Council, and in the way it is celebrated at the local level, is seriously deficient and in urgent need of remedy. This argument is based on three assumptions.

The first is historical: that those "who brought about the Second Vatican Council's commitment to the `liturgical renewal', and "those who subsequently worked to give that commitment concrete form" did not pay sufficient attention "to certain ambiguities in the history of the liturgical movement". The most significant ambiguity, Nichols argues, was "that the origins of the liturgical movement lie in the eighteenth century Enlightenment". Liturgical reforms called for by those under the influence of the Enlightenment (radical simplification of the liturgy including its vernacularisation, the celebration of the liturgy `facing the people', etc.) were "imperfect" according to Nichols, as they tended to horizontalise the liturgy, rendering it "first and foremost didactic and edificatory", at the expense of the worship and adoration of God. What Nichols calls the "political phase" of twentieth century liturgical movement (that working for ritual reform after the Second World War), with the noblest of intentions, and indeed the support of many Popes, appears to have unwittingly, or perhaps uncritically, adopted this agenda. The result was that

"...Church authority gave the professionals what almost amounted to a blank cheque, enabling them to redesign the Liturgy in just that inorganic way against which...reflective commentators on the Enlightenment experience...had warned."

Nichols' second assumption is based on anthropology and sociology. He assembles a number of writers from these disciplines (David Martin, Kieran Flanagan, Mary Douglas, Victor Turner, et. al.), to demonstrate that

"liturgists, in Flanagan's words, `managed to back modernity as a winning ticket, just at the point when it became converted into post modernism.'"

In other words, by paying too much attention to what were perceived as the needs of contemporary man (in the 1960s - surely a peculiarly man-centred period of history), liturgical reformers enshrined attitudes and assumptions that contemporary man would himself soon spurn. The inebriation of those entrusted with the postconcilar reform by such anthropocentric ideologies has resulted, according to Catherine Pickstock, a Cambridge scholar cited by Nichols, in a modern Liturgy, which, when compared to the traditional rites, - a "liturgical stammer in the face of the sublime excess of God" - has but a "clear and linear purpose": to be of the (1960s-1970s) age .

The third foundation of Nichols' argument is cultural. Taking the apt dictum of Oxford's Canon Vigo Demant, "When the Church begins to proclaim the Gospel in a secular idiom she may end by proclaiming secularism in a Christian idiom", as his starting point, Nichols decries the secularization and desacralisation of preaching, liturgical Language, translations of Sacred Scripture and other liturgical texts, chants, hymns and songs, iconography and architecture, ministerial posture and gestures, etc..

A good deal of attention is devoted to the twentieth century fashion of celebrating the Eucharist facing the people (versus populum). Scholars now accept that Christian antiquity only tolerated facing the people as an exception to the norm of all facing east, which remains the posture for the celebration of the Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass. The Second Vatican Council did not change this, and, Nichols reminds us, the Holy See has acknowledged the historical priority of facing east in the Roman rite as recently as 1993. This is no merely academic problem. Drawing on the theology of Henri de Lubac, Nichols puts it plainly:

"...a shift in our focus of interest can sometimes symptomise a doctrinal debilitation and hollowness far graver than more obvious errors. I suggest that the concentration on congregation and presider in contemporary eucharistic practice is an example of such debilitation and hollowness, unfortunately encouraged by the versus populum celebration of the Eucharistic Prayer."

There is much more that Nichols could say about his thesis, and there are many further studies he could cite. However his argument is amply demonstrated and supported, and leaves the careful reader, particularly clergy charged with the celebration of the Liturgy, in a quandry: what is to be done?

Nichols suggests a number of possibilities, without perhaps the depth of discussion he affords his overall thesis. The first, "to forestall...any further dose of reform in the same direction as that of the postconciliar one". The second, to ensure "the prayerful, dignified, correct and, where appropriate, solemn celebration" of the new liturgy, including facing east for the Eucharistic Prayer. But he recognises that these are insufficient in themselves, calling for the "reappropriation" of the traditional Latin rite "in modified guise" which would include vernacular readings, an authentic enrichment of texts, and other truly beneficial elements of the postconciliar reform. Nichols suggests a curious role for the Missal of Paul VI, as a type of `source-book' for future development of liturgy. One suspects, given the flaws he has identified in its production, that this is too kind.

Nichols makes one significant error. He describes this book as "...a modest contribution to that debate on the desirability of the `reform of the reform' that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has called for...". It is in fact a work of tremendous importance, which in spite and in some ways because of its brevity, clearly identifies issues that simply must be addressed. And his practical suggestions deserve consideration. Buy it, read it, argue about it, and act on it, because the liturgy is indeed "the source from which the Church's life flows and the summit to which that life is directed".

This book is THE book to own for a pastor or church leader who needs a resource on new member classes. I've seen several approaches described in various places, but nothing until now that brings the numerous concepts together in one cover. In addition to sound advice in the narrative, there are 15 appendices that offer sample forms and outlines for nearly every step of the new member assimilation process.

Lawless has hit a "home run" here -- for me this title is a keeper!

I've known Chuck since he was my grader in Thom Rainer's "Introduction to Church Growth" class at Southern Seminary in the Fall of 1995. During my own M.Div. and Ph.D. work, he became more than a grader. Chuck became my friend.

I'm currently serving as chairman of my home church's Long-range Planning Committee. One area in which we've identified a great need for improvement is in our new member orientation and current member commitment and service. I consider it providential that in researching books to aid in our task, I came across Lawless' work on those very subjects. I read "Membership Matters" over two days, taking copious notes in the margins and underlying liberally.

Few books address membership classes and church member assimilation. Thom Rainer's "High Expectations" called churches to ask more from members as a means of increasing church health and commitment. Lawless' book moves a step further by providing a practical guide for church pastors and leaders to design and implement membership classes, not only to better incorporate new members, but also to inspire older, non-serving members to get involved in ministry service.

Buy this book. Digest it. Discuss it. But more importantly, put its suggestions into practice.

Chuck has done a marvelous piece of work evaluating the processes of successful churches. It is an easy and enjoyable read. Personally used it for a small group discussion and also enjoyed giving it to a friend that is in the process of beginning a church. kudo's Chuck!!!

I, too, read this book by Ms. Furlong some years ago in its galley proofs, no less! In my view, it is even a better intoduction to Merton's life than the Seven Storey Mountain. Read Merton's autobio, by all means, but read Furlong first. She situates Merton in his place and times, and although not a Roman Catholic, is very understanding of the monastic life,discipline and spirituality. Furlong apparently didn't have access to as many primary sources as Merton's later biographer, Michael Mott, but she does a splendid job with what documents she had in hand. She is especially compassionate, and forgiving, with Merton's love affair with his nurse. Mott goes into more detail on this interesting chapter of Merton's life, but it is easy to understand - reading both authors - why it happend and how it gives him an even greater appeal as an authentic American mystic and saint to the rest of us poor Christians. Although this will never be recognized, unfortunately, at the Vatican. Well worth reading as an introduction to the life of a great American Catholic and mystic. Read about Merton in this order: Furlong, Merton & Mott!

For anyone interested in the spiritual development of Thomas Merton, this is an excellent book. Furlong tackles her subject with sympathy and insight. Like Merton, she writes clearly, directly and truthfully. A gem.

I read this book some years ago. I feel in love with the book: from beginning to end. I strongly recommend it to the fun-loving spiritual minded.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was full of both interesting historical information, and interesting information for helping Protestants connect with our Catholic peers and understand them better. It encourages Christians to take the best of both worlds when growing closer to Christ and modeling your life after him. I would definitely recommend it. If you are a Protestant who appreciates some of the different practices of faith in our Catholic brethren, or you're just curious, this is a quick and easy book to read to learn about some of them them. It also encourages the reader to put into practice certain aspects of the Benedictine Rule, from which everyone can learn.

This is a little book. If you exclude things like the Foreword, the Afterword and Notes, it's only 99 pages. But it packs a spiritual wallop.

Evangelical theologian and educator Dennis Okholm offers this spiritual memoir of his pilgrimage into monastic culture in an era when a chorus of evangelical voices are crying out for changes in their branch of the church. Various evangelical writers are arguing: The movement's become stale. It's been hijacked by political operatives. It's turned Christianity into an easy-bake recipe for prosperity. And, where many of these writers wind up trying to take us is back into centuries-old Christian traditions that once were considered exclusively "Catholic." And, when evangelicals said that word in the past, they often sneered.

Don't mistake Okholm's book for one of those angry evangelical books trying to shake up the movement from its foundations, but not offering much of a pathway through the resulting rubble. No, this is a thoughtful, careful, mature memoir from a man who set out through back roads to visit his first monastery in the spring of 1987. He admits that, at the time, he suspected monastic life was a tired old "relic of the Middle Ages."

Instead, he wound up exploring this world for two decades, finding elements of Christianity that were missing in the version of the faith that had been handed down to him.

Kathleen Norris wrote the Foreword to Okholm's book and Norris fans will understand right away that this is a strong vote of confidence in Okholm's voice. He's coming to this particular conversation, in the form of this book, in the same season that Tony Campolo and Mary Albert Darling - also evangelical scholars - are offering us, "The God of Intimacy and Action: Reconnecting Ancient Spiritual Practices, Evangelism and Justice."

Don't pick up this book thinking you'll grab a few tips for a richer life of prayer. There are deeper implications to this pilgrimage, Okholm argues. At one point, he writes to those of us with roots in the evangelical world, "We have become consumers of religion rather than cultivators of a spiritual life; we have spawned an entire industry of Christian kitsch and bookstores full of spiritual junk food that leaves us sated and flabby. As if we believed the infomercial that promises great abs if we just buy the right piece of equipment for $39.95, we think that the secret to being a spiritually fit Christian can be had by finding some secret technique or buying the most recent hot-selling inspirational devotional."

This is dangerous spiritual territory. This is a truly prophetic voice guiding us inward.

And, if you like where Okholm takes you, then you'll want to read "God of Intimacy and Action." If you like that voice, then you'll want to hear more from Norris and her "Cloister Walk," as well.

This isn't a stray drop of rain. It's a refreshing spiritual shower of compelling insights.

It's rare to find find a book that does so many things so well. It is interesting, personal, and engaging. It is thoughtful and well-written. And it is full to the brim with spiritual insights. Read a bit each day, sip it alongside your morning cup of coffee, savor each insight, and you'll find your life just gets better and better. A delight.

Besides acting as a unique and unparalleled historical document of people and a time gone by--one that has never before been seen--this book is filled with some of the most extraordinary photography I have ever seen. It's quite rare to see such a combination of history and art.

Images of faith and holiness are not hard to come buy, but to find historical collections of them is rather rare. Zimbardo does a masterful job in presenting the subject with as little interruption between the viewer and the subject as possible, capturing the spirit of the monks beautifully. In so doing, he transports us to Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain of Eastern Orthodoxy where there exists a world of faith, sacrifice, and holiness that few of us will ever encounter in a personal way. Well worth viewing!

There is a similar collection of photos of Romanian monks under the title "Eikon" that is in print, but very difficult to find.

The story behind these photos makes them all the more awe-inspiring, but their beauty stands alone. Superb photography and design, unique and amazing subject. If you're looking for something new from a photography book, this is it.

This is the kind of book that makes you say 'I wish I had read this before....' The book is very practical and very helpful for young pastors and/or pastors-to-be (semianry students). I wish I had read this before I became pastor of my first church. I bought copies to give to young pastors in our area. Small places have great value in the maturing and development of young pastors!

The authors of this book say that while in some ways seminary trained them for pastoring small-town churches, in other ways it did not. Why not? Because their seminaries assumed a suburban model of doing church. Those models, when transplanted to the small-town environment, just don't work.

The authors both gave into the temptation to treat the small-town church as a smaller version of the suburban church before figuring out that the small-town church isn't just a miniature version of the suburban church. It has its own characteristics and will thrive only when it focuses on being itself, on doing what it does best--intimacy and involvement.

I like the way the authors learned to approach pastoring in the small town as cross-cultural ministry, realizing they had to become students of the local culture, just as missionaries to other countries do. An eye-opener for me was the challenge of pastoring in the "rurban" community, a traditional farm community that is now becoming a bedroom community for commuting professionals. How can a church reach out to include these professionals while also remaining relevant to the farm community? It's a challenge, but a doable challenge. This book also has a good chapter on how to lead the decision-making process in the small-town church. (It's a lot different from in the larger church.) There's plenty of practical wisdom in this one to make it worth a read. As a church consultant, whenever I do a consultation with a small-town church, I almost always give the pastor a copy of this one.

If you are a pastor of a big or small church you must read this book. Very sound biblicaly.

I have this book displayed on my shelf right next to my Northwestern yearbooks because it is prepared in a simlar format. This book methodically and beautifully details the history of Northwestern University through illustrations, historic photographs, and memorable accounts that will keep you interested from start to finish. I particularly appreciated the aerial maps of the campus that appear at the beginning of each chapter. This shows the layout of the campus for the time period covered by the chapter, and truly shows the progress that has been made over the years.

My only complaint is that there were not more pictures of the building of the landfill section of campus. This, to me, is the most fascinating part of Northwestern's history and is now one of the most beautiful parts of campus. In summary, I would like to have seen a few more 'old vs new' photographs. The way it is, there are just enough to tempt the palette. So, it is only natural that, after reading this book, you will be thirsty for more. I hope a next edition will be written to answer that call.

As it is, this is a well-executed account of a terrific university. Happy birthday NU! And thank you, Mr. Pridmore, for this wonderful gift.

Having lived near Northwestern all my life, I thought I knew the history. However, 'little did I know!' This is an extremely well done book, the pictures are priceless as are the narratives. A must have for history buffs and university supporters.

I have very fond memories of the time I myself spent at NU, and this book never ceases to bring them back to mind! This sesquicentennial tribute does it all -- from detailing the history of the school as well as of longstanding Wildcat traditions (i.e., Waa-Mu, Mee-Ow, painting The Rock) to showcasing some of the Evanston campus' most "photogenic" spots. This is definitely a must-have for any NU-loving alum.