Religious Books

The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming

Henri J. M. Nouwen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 93 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A pricelss book 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent life changing book. Presents the core truth of the Christian Gospel in a way that touches everyday attitudes and struggles. A book so personal and touching you may find that Nouwen is addressing your own unique circumstances. I certainly did. You may find yourself thinking about a new way to live. This book changed my life.

Editorial Review:

The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming is a spiritual adventure story. A chance encounter with a poster depicting a detail of Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son set in motion a chain of events that enabled Nouwen to redefine and claim his vocation late in his life. In this book, which interweaves elements of art history, memoir, Midrash, and self-help, Nouwen brings the parable to life with empathic analyses of each character. Nouwen's absorption in the story (and the painting) is so complete that the father's challenge to love the son, and the son's challenge to receive that love, become Nouwen's own. And Nouwen's writing is so clear and his tone is so appealingly frank and humble that readers--no matter how far from home--will find hope for themselves in the prodigal peace Nouwen ultimately achieves. --Michael Joseph Gross

The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican

Benjamin Blech, Roy Doliner

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Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Five hundred years ago Michelangelo began work on a painting that became one of the most famous pieces of art in the world—the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Every year millions of people come to see Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling, which is the largest fresco painting on earth in the holiest of Christianity's chapels; yet there is not one single Christian image in this vast, magnificent artwork.

The Sistine Secrets tells the fascinating story of how Michelangelo embedded messages of brotherhood, tolerance, and freethinking in his painting to encourage "fellow travelers" to challenge the repressive Roman Catholic Church of his time.

"Driven by the truths he had come to recognize during his years of study in private nontraditional schooling in Florence, truths rooted in his involvement with Judaic texts as well as Kabbalistic training that conflicted with approved Christian doctrine, Michelangelo needed to find a way to let viewers discern what he truly believed. He could not allow the Church to forever silence his soul. And what the Church would not permit him to communicate openly, he ingeniously found a way to convey to those diligent enough to learn his secret language."—from the Preface

Blech and Doliner reveal what Michelangelo meant in the angelic representations that brilliantly mocked his papal patron, how he managed to sneak unorthodox heresies into his ostensibly pious portrayals, and how he was able to fulfill his lifelong ambition to bridge the wisdom of science with the strictures of faith. The Sistine Secrets unearths secrets that have remained hidden in plain sight for centuries.

The Lost Painting

Jonathan Harr

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Total reviews: 23 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

An Italian village on a hilltop near the Adriatic coast, a decaying palazzo facing the sea, and in the basement, cobwebbed and dusty, lit by a single bulb, an archive unknown to scholars. Here, a young graduate student from Rome, Francesca Cappelletti, makes a discovery that inspires a search for a work of art of incalculable value, a painting lost for almost two centuries.

The artist was Caravaggio, a master of the Italian Baroque. He was a genius, a revolutionary painter, and a man beset by personal demons. Four hundred years ago, he drank and brawled in the taverns and streets of Rome, moving from one rooming house to another, constantly in and out of jail, all the while painting works of transcendent emotional and visual power. He rose from obscurity to fame and wealth, but success didn’t alter his violent temperament. His rage finally led him to commit murder, forcing him to flee Rome a hunted man. He died young, alone, and under strange circumstances.

Caravaggio scholars estimate that between sixty and eighty of his works are in existence today. Many others–no one knows the precise number–have been lost to time. Somewhere, surely, a masterpiece lies forgotten in a storeroom, or in a small parish church, or hanging above a fireplace, mistaken for a mere copy.

Prizewinning author Jonathan Harr embarks on an spellbinding journey to discover the long-lost painting known as The Taking of Christ–its mysterious fate and the circumstances of its disappearance have captivated Caravaggio devotees for years. After Francesca Cappelletti stumbles across a clue in that dusty archive, she tracks the painting across a continent and hundreds of years of history. But it is not until she meets Sergio Benedetti, an art restorer working in Ireland, that she finally manages to assemble all the pieces of the puzzle.

Told with consummate skill by the writer of the bestselling, award-winning A Civil Action, The Lost Painting is a remarkable synthesis of history and detective story. The fascinating details of Caravaggio’s strange, turbulent career and the astonishing beauty of his work come to life in these pages. Harr’s account is not unlike a Caravaggio painting: vivid, deftly wrought, and enthralling.
". . . Jonathan Harr has gone to the trouble of writing what will probably be a bestseller . . . rich and wonderful. . .in truth, the book reads better than a thriller because, unlike a lot of best-selling nonfiction authors who write in a more or less novelistic vein (Harr's previous book, A Civil Action, was made into a John Travolta movie), Harr doesn't plump up hi tale. He almost never foreshadows, doesn't implausibly reconstruct entire conversations and rarely throws in litanies of clearly conjectured or imagined details just for color's sake. . .if you're a sucker for Rome, and for dusk. . .[you'll] enjoy Harr's more clearly reported details about life in the city, as when--one of my favorite moments in the whole book--Francesca and another young colleague try to calm their nerves before a crucial meeting with a forbidding professor by eating gelato. And who wouldn't in Italy? The pleasures of travelogue here are incidental but not inconsiderable." --The New York Times Book Review


"Jonathan Harr has taken the story of the lost painting, and woven from it a deeply moving narrative about history, art and taste--and about the greed, envy, covetousness and professional jealousy of people who fall prey to obsession. It is as perfect a work of narrative nonfiction as you could ever hope to read." --The Economist


From the Hardcover edition.

Buddhist Art and Architecture (World of Art)

Robert E. Fisher

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A well organized introductory text 4 out of 5 stars.
18 of 18 people found this review helpful.

Fisher's book offers an accessible, well-organized overview of both the evolution and meaning of Budhist art and architecture for the uninitiated. Never having studied Buddhism or Asian History prior to a recent trip to Southeast Asia, I found the balance between general explanations of subject matter and geographic breakdown useful. Returning to the book upon return, it was clear that most of the major, recurring symbols observed (Budha's subduing of the Mara, other meditative and teaching postures, the sometimes uneasy juxtaposition of Hindu and Budhist structure and symbols, etc.) were mentioned in this survey.

The narrative is clear, if occasionally dry. The photographs are not, however, ideally located to match their corresponding texts, and it would have been helpful to have included in the captions a note about where the given object was located (rather than having to wade through a paragraph at the back of the book that does not even list the citations numerically). Still, the book is well indexed and the illustrations are well chosen.

Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God

Sybil MacBeth

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Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Praying in Color 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book offers a very creative way to use simple drawing materials and doodling as a form of prayer. Using color, shape, and lines makes it easy to stay engaged in prayer, whether on behalf of others or for oneself. The finished product is a visual reminder of the prayer.

Pretty Much Awesome.. 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This book is good.. i mean really good.. (Hey everyone, come look at how good this book is)!.. i love it.. its very creative.. and im not.. so its fun.. and its cool to look at old prayers you drew.. sweet..

No More Prayer Blues 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

In meetings or in church I doodle constantly. It helps keep me focused. This book has bought a new dimension to prayer and doodling. As soon as I received this book I started to put it into practice. I spent over 15 minutes colour praying for my 29yr old son and it was a time of great joy and rejoicing. I've found that these visual prayers stay with me through the day so that I'm beginning to understand more what it is to pray without ceasing.

Editorial Review:

With paper and markers, you will draw closer to God.

Thousands of people have already discovered this truly simple, transformative spiritual practice. Now this companion to the surprise bestseller Praying in Color provides the perfect journal to help you experience a whole new way of talking with God--by "praying in color."

Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire

Rita Nakashima Brock, Rebecca Ann Parker

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

When Rita Brock and Rebecca Parker began traveling the Mediterranean world in search of art depicting the dead, crucified Jesus, they discovered something that traditional histories of Christianity and Christian art had underplayed or sought to explain away: it took Jesus Christ a thousand years to die.

During their first millennium, Christians filled their sanctuaries with images of Christ as a living presence in a vibrant world. He appears as a shepherd, a teacher, a healer, an enthroned god; he is an infant, a youth, and a bearded elder. But he is never dead. When he appears with the cross, he stands in front of it, serene, resurrected. The world around him is ablaze with beauty. These are images of paradise—paradise in this world, permeated and blessed by the presence of God.

But once Jesus perished, dying was virtually all he seemed able to do.

Saving Paradise offers a fascinating new lens on the history of Christianity, from its first centuries to the present day, and asks how its early vision of beauty evolved into one of torture. In tracing the changes in society and theology that marked the medieval emergence of images of Christ crucified, Saving Paradise exposes the imperial strategies embedded in theologies of redemptive violence and sheds new light on Christianity's turn to holy war. It reveals how the New World, established through Christian conquest and colonization, is haunted by the loss of a spiritual understanding of paradise here and now.

Brock and Parker reconstruct the idea that salvation is paradise in this world and in this life, and they offer a bold new theology for saving paradise. They ground justice and peace for humanity in love for the earth and open a new future for Christianity through a theology of redemptive beauty.

"Only rarely is a single book an event. This book is such a rarity. Rita Brock and Rebecca Parker show that solid scholarship can be expressed with passion and literary grace as they recover the beauty of an earth-loving Christianity lost for a thousand years beneath dry creeds and formulae and poisonous myths of sacralized violence."
—Professor Daniel C. Maguire, author of A Moral Creed For All Christians

"Every Christian theologian and preacher should read this book and be profoundly challenged."
—Professor James H. Cone, author of Malcolm & Martin & America

"Saving Paradise challenges us to recover an ancient world view which is life transforming and earth affirming. It reminds us of a biblical perspective which does not reserve paradise for the dead, but invites the living to find grace, justice, peace and compassion--here and now--amid the jangling discords of violence and war. It may mark the beginning of a paradigm shift in contemporary Christian understanding and interfaith dialogue."
—Reverend James A. Forbes, Jr., President and Founder of the Healing of the Nations Foundation, Senior Minister Emeritus of the Riverside Church of New York City

"The message of Early Christian art is about God's miraculous intervention in the daily lives of Christian believers. How then did Christianity become a religion of finitude and guilt rather than one of promise and celebration? Brock and Parker ran with the evidence, showing us the importance of art, ritual, devotional practices, and liturgical space for early Christians. This tangible past transformed their research and led them to see that paradise in this world lies at the heart of Christianity."
—Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, author of Dictionary of Christian Art

"This powerful, unprecedented, and compelling book brings real Christianity out of the shadows. It lights up the religious roots of American society at a time when progressives need to challenge conservative politicians who use Christianity as a false prop for their ideology."
—George Lakoff, author of Don't Think of an Elephant!

Hebrew Illuminations 2009 - A 16-Month Wall Calendar

Adam Rhine

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Editorial Review:

The ancient and enduring spirit of Jewish tradition comes alive in the Hebrew Illuminations 2008-2009 wall calendar. Jewish artist Adam Rhine has created ornate, highly detailed Judaic paintings in watercolor and acrylic. Each work is crafted to honor the infinite nobility of the Lord, and to visually bring forth His energy within different combinations of overlapping shapes, rich colors and intricate patterns. The sheer elegance of their construction conveys wisdom and ideas. This unique calendar features the first six letters of the Hebrew alphabet plus 10 new illuminations of significant Jewish concepts, such as Ner Tamid (Eternal Light) and Neshamah (The Jewish Soul). Adam Rhine's highly detailed Judaica paintings combine modern palettes and aesthetics with the influence of medieval illuminated manuscripts.

Imagine: A Vision for Christians in the Arts

Steve Turner

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Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Imagine art that is risky, complex and subtle!Imagine music, movies, books and paintings of the highest quality!Imagine art that permeates society, challenging conventional thinking and standard morals to their core!Imagine that it is all created by Christians!This is the bold vision of Steve Turner, someone who has worked among artists--many Christian and many not--for three decades. He believes Christians should confront society and the church with the powerful impact art can convey. He believes art can faithfully chronicle the lives of ordinary people and equally express the transcendence of God. He believes that Christians should be involved in every level of the art world and in every media.Yet art and artists have not always been held in high esteem by conservative Christians. Art rarely seems to communicate clear propositional truth, rarely deals with certainties and absolutes. And the lifestyles of artists too frequently seem at odds with the gospel. So the arts have often been discouraged among Christians.Throughout this stimulating book, however, Turner builds a compelling case against such a perspective. He shows that if Jesus is Lord of all of life and creation, then art is not out of bounds for Christians. Rather it can and should be a way of expressing faith in creatively, beautifully, truthfully arranged words, sounds and sights.This stirring call is must reading for every Christian who has been drawn to the arts or been influenced by them.

Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling

Ross King

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Total reviews: 85 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Almost 500 years after Michelangelo Buonarroti frescoed the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, the site still attracts throngs of visitors and is considered one of the artistic masterpieces of the world. Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling unveils the story behind the art's making, a story rife with all the drama of a modern-day soap opera.

The temperament of the day was dictated by the politics of the papal court, a corrupt and powerful office steeped in controversy; Pope Julius II even had a nickname, "Il Papa Terrible," to prove it. Along with his violent outbursts and warmongering, Pope Julius II took upon himself to restore the Sistine Chapel and pretty much intimidated Michelangelo into painting the ceiling even though the artist considered himself primarily a sculptor and was particularly unfamiliar with the temperamental art of fresco. Along with technical difficulties, personality conflicts, and money troubles, Michelangelo was plagued by health problems and competition in the form of the dashing and talented young painter Raphael.

Author Ross King offers an in-depth analysis of the complex historical background that led to the magnificence that is the Sistine Chapel ceiling along with detailed discussion of some of the ceiling's panels. King provides fabulous tidbits of information and weaves together a fascinating historical tale. --J.P. Cohen

Icons and Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church (Guide to Imagery Series)

Alfredo Tradigo

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Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

An icon (from the Greek word "eikon," "image") is a wooden panel painting of a holy person or scene from Orthodox Christianity, the religion of the Byzantine Empire that is practiced today mainly in Greece and Russia. It was believed that these works acted as intermediaries between worshipers and the holy personages they depicted. Their pictorial language is stylized and primarily symbolic, rather than literal and narrative. Indeed, every attitude, pose, and color depicted in an icon has a precise meaning, and their painters--usually monks--followed prescribed models from iconographic manuals.
The goal of this book is to catalogue the vast heritage of images according to iconographic type and subject, from the most ancient at the Monastery of Saint Catherine in the Sinai to those from Greece, Constantinople, and Russia. Chapters focus on the role of icons in the Orthodox liturgy and on common iconic subjects, including the fathers and saints of the Eastern Church and the life of Jesus and his followers. As with other volumes in the Guide to Imagery series, this book includes a wealth of color illustrations in which details are called out for discussion.