New Books, Films, Databases, and other Resources: September 2013

Before the rise of the Nazi party, Germany, especially Berlin, was one of the most tolerant places for homosexuals in the world. Activists such as Thomas Mann and Albert Einstein campaigned openly for the rights of gay men and women and tried to repeal the law against homosexuality. But that all changed when the Nazis came to power; existence for gay people became fear-filled. Raids, arrests, prison sentences and expulsions became the daily reality. When the concentration camps were built, homosexuals were imprisoned along with Jews and any other groups the Nazis wanted to suppress. The pink triangle sewn onto prison uniforms became the symbol of the persecution of homosexuals, a persecution that would continue for many years after the war. A mix of historical research, first-person accounts and individual stories brings this time to life for young readers. Stories of bravery in the face of inhuman cruelty, friendship found in the depths of despair in the camps and the perseverance of the human spirit will educate and inspire.

Milek and his brother Munio live in a sleepy village in Poland, where nothing exciting seems to happen. They reluctantly do as their mother asks when she asks them to visit their neighbor Anton, knowing that the rest of the village laughs at him because of his strange habits of speaking to animals and only eating vegetables. Things change quickly when war comes to their town in the form of Nazi soldiers searching for Jewish families like that of Milek and Munio. Anton refuses to tell the soldiers where to find them, and then goes so far as to hide the family in his own home, putting his life at risk without a thought. Based on a true story.

This critically acclaimed collection is both a passionate celebration of teaching as a vocation and an argument for rhetoric as the center of liberal education. While Booth provides an eloquent personal account of the pleasures of teaching, he also vigorously exposes the political and economic scandals that frustrate even the most dedicated educators. "[Booth] is unusually adept at addressing a wide variety of audiences. From deep in the heart of this academic jungle, he shows a clear eye and a firm step."—Alison Friesinger Hill, New York Times Book Review "A cause for celebration. . . . What an uncommon man is Wayne Booth. What an uncommon book he has provided for our reflection." —James Squire, Educational Leadership "This book stands as a vigorous reminder of the traditional virtues of the scholar-teacher."—Brian Cox, Times Literary Supplement

Why do many people think religion is subjective? Or symbolic? Or non-rational? This book brings together eighteen important twentieth-century essays on these questions, by authors ranging from Ludwig Wittgenstein to Richard Rorty and Clifford Geertz. The editors show that such questions areboth quite modern and powerfully influential in our Western thinking about religious belief. Moreover, they lead directly into the three most popular theories that attempt to make sense of religion: positivism, functionalism, and relativism. Selecting essays that represent each of these threetheoretical positions, Frankenberry and Penner trace their incoherence and argue for a new method and theory for understanding religious beliefs.

Exploring rarely visited temples and shrines, studying calligraphy and talking with Kabuki actors, Alex Kerr draws on more than 30 years of personal experience in presenting this backstage tour of a Japan that outsiders rarely glimpse.

The subject of intelligent design has been much in the news but is often treated in a piecemeal fashion or one-sidedly. This volume highlights points of agreement and disagreement between two intellectuals on the subject. It's contributors presents his or her position in light of the other's, providing readers with a fair and balanced case.

The letters written by Samuel Beckett between 1929 and 1940 provide a vivid and personal view of Western Europe in the 1930s, and mark the gradual emergence of Beckett's unique voice and sensibility. The Cambridge University Press edition of The Letters of Samuel Beckett offers for the first time a comprehensive range of letters of one of the greatest literary figures of the twentieth century. Selected for their bearing on his work from over 15,000 extant letters, the letters published in this four-volume edition encompass sixty years of Beckett's writing life (1929–1989), and include letters to friends, painters and musicians, as well as to students, publishers, translators, and colleagues in the world of literature and theatre. For anyone interested in twentieth-century literature and theatre this edition is essential reading, offering not only a record of Beckett's achievements but a powerful literary experience in itself.

Basic Chinese Vocabulary features common words and expressions grouped under a broad range of thematic topics. All terms have been specifically chosen to meet the needs and interests of beginning students of Chinese. Organized alphabetically, as well as thematically, this book contains practical vocabulary immediately usable in everyday situations.

Sven Birkertsis the author ofReading Life: Books for the Ages,Readings,The Gutenberg Elegies, and a memoir,My Sky Blue Trades. He teaches at Harvard University and at the Bennington Writing Seminars and is the editor ofAGNI. He lives in Arlington, Massachusetts. InThe Art of Time in Memoir, critic, editor, and memoirist Sven Birkerts examines the human impulse to write about the self. "Memoir is, for better and often for worse, the genre of our times," Birkerts writes. But what makes one memoir memorable and another self-serving? What determines the difference between graceful disclosure and sensational self-exposure? Birkerts argues that the memoirist's strategies for presenting the subjective experience of time reveal the power and resonance of the writer's life. By examining memoirs such as Vladimir Nabokov'sSpeak, Memory, Virginia Woolf's unfinishedA Sketch of the Past, and Mary Karr'sThe Liar's Club, Birkerts describes the memoirist's essential art of assembling patterns of meaning, how the work stirs to life our own sense of past and present. The Art of Time in Memoiris part ofThe Art ofseries, a new line of books by important authors on the craft of writing, edited by Charles Baxter. Each book examines a singular, but often assumed or neglected, issue facing the contemporary writer of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry.The Art ofseries means to restore the art of criticism while illuminating the art of writing.  Of the series, Baxter writes, “The Art Ofseries is meant to restore criticism as an art, with writers examining features of their craft in lively and colorful prose.”“Respected critic Birkerts has written an insightful appreciation of the memoir form, works that occupy a growing . . . place in our literary culture. Analyzing five ways different writers have chosen to transform their memories into coherent narrative, Birkerts discerns the underlying principle of the memoir form: balancing two perspectives by revisiting significant events in the past to discover a pattern in one's present life . . . The appeal of this slim volume lies in Birkert's graceful prose and lucid analysis.”—Publishers Weekly“Respected critic Birkerts has written an insightful appreciation of the memoir form, works that occupy a growing . . . place in our literary culture. Analyzing five ways different writers have chosen to transform their memories into coherent narrative, Birkerts discerns the underlying principle of the memoir form: balancing two perspectives by revisiting significant events in the past to discover a pattern in one's present life. Nabokov, Virginia Woolf and Annie Dillard are what he calls the Lyrical Seekers, who use sensuous apprehension to explore the nature of being. Frank Conroy'sStop-Timeis one of the examples of the coming-of-age memoir, as is Birkerts's ownMy Sky Blue Trades. Fathers and sons, e.g., Paul Auster, Geoffrey Wolff and Blake Morrison, are distinguished from mothers and daughters, e.g., Jamaica Kincaid and Vivian Gornick. Finally, works by Mary Karr and Lucy Grealy are among those illustrating the category of trauma and memory. The appeal of this slim volume lies in Birkert's graceful prose and lucid analysis. Written for the general reader, it artfully conveys the basics of the craft and will be a particular boon to reading groups.”—Publishers Weekly

Greg Garrett journeyed through intense depression and even a suicide attempt into the grace that brought him a life of service to others. This spiritual autobiography can be appreciated by men, women, or teens in its literary style and personal insights of redemptive faith.

"This exceptional book by Charles Cosgrove and Dow Edgerton will be a rich resource for pastors wanting to reach their congregations in a fresh way. Rather than discussing preaching in general or even a specific approach to preaching, it focuses on a new way of engaging the biblical text for preaching."--BOOK JACKET.

Anger plays an essential part in the faith life of all Christians. In the face of a Christianity fi lled with clich's of goodness and light, Holy Anger invites the reader to consider anger as something that can transform a potentially devastating energy into a force that brings about rebirth and reawakening. Anger is not something to be avoided; it is a gift from God.Lytta Basset looks at a number of instances of anger in the Bible. She studies Jacob?'s struggle with the angel, Job?'s reaction to his many tribulations, and Jesus? reminder that he did not come to bring only peace. Basset shows how anger and violence form part of our complex understanding and experience of God. She presents and interprets key moments of ?holy? anger in the Bible, and shows how this anger can result in human goodness and growth.

"This volume outlines a Christian theology that takes worship as its basic framework, as the occasion of not only approach toward God in piety but also separation from God in sin. Drawing on Luther, Calvin, and especially Karl Barth, Matthew Myer Boulton builds a Reformed liturgical theology, maintaining that the God of Jesus Christ if a "God against religion," one who saves human beings from religion by entering it, transforming it, and ultimately ending it."--BOOK JACKET.

"This book is an interdisciplinary study of death in relation to epilepsy and the Dostoevsky aura. Beginning with Frederic Myers' psychology of death, it develops Leopold Szondi's theories of the familial unconscious, paroxysmal pattern, and the bridge as symbol of the transcendent self. Specific attention is devoted to death-bed visions, bereavement dreams, and near-death experiences, as well as the symbolism of cancer and AIDS deaths. A theology of death is constructed from the biblical imagery of joy and the concept of death as a nonrational shock event."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

"Most contemporary young people operate far enough from Moses' moral compass that it never occurs to them that "OMG" ("oh my God," in teenspeak) has anything to do with the Ten Commandments, much less that it breaks one of them.  After all, the phrase is a nearly ubiquitous adolescent throw-away line...Yet Christians should hear the phrase "oh my God" differently.  Youth ministers, parents, teachers--anyone who has ever loved an adolescent--know that "OMG" can be a prayer, a plea, a petition, a note of praise, or an unbidden entreaty that escapes our lips as we seek Christ for the young people we love." from the book Using six lens the authors detail current practices and tease out underlying questions as youth ministry becomes more self-consciously aligned with practical theology. Contributors include:  Kenda Creasy Dean, Mike Carotta, Roland Martinson, Rodger Nishioka, Don Richter, Dayle Gillespie Rounds, and Amy Scott Vaughn.

John Howard Schutz's milestone analysis of Paul's authority shaped a generation of thought about Paul. This insightful work continues to be relevant to Pauline scholarship. The New Testament Library offers authoritative commentary on every book and major aspect of the New Testament, as well as classic volumes of scholarship. The commentaries in this series provide fresh translations based on the best available ancient manuscripts, offer critical portrayals of the historical world in which the books were created, pay careful attention to their literary design, and present a theologically perceptive exposition of the text.

This sequel to Gordon Lathrop's highly successful Holy Things is an exercise in liturgical theology, viewing the activities of worship as a means of defining and discussing the concept "church." It centers on community and assembly to discuss the sacraments. It focuses on ecumenism and inculturation as central test cases for a liturgically derived idea of church.In hopes of invigorating the local church, Lathrop explores the meaning of the term "church," the relationship of the local liturgical assembly and other Christian assemblies (catholicity); the personal and communal character of liturgical assembly; the unity of the churches; the critical principles of liturgy and culture; openness to what is radically other; and liturgical evangelization. Lathrop's work grounds a notion of church that is personal yet communal, universal, but not triumphalistic.

Cyril of Jerusalem wrote about "holy things." He thereby reflected the communion invitation used in his fourth-century liturgy to call people to "taste and see that the Lord is good" (Mystagogical Catecheses).The present times call for strong and healthy symbols that hold people into hope. The Christian communities need a reintroduction into the ways in which liturgical symbols respond to human need. Indeed, Lathrop argues, Christian communities continually need to reconsider the meaning of their liturgies and reform those liturgies toward authentic clarity.In its three parts, this book (1) proposes that an ecumenical pattern or ordo of worship can be discerned which is also a pattern of meaning, (2) discusses the ways in which meaning occurs in the meeting for worship itself, and (3) draws practical conclusions about the organization of that meeting and its importance to current human need.Throughout, Lathrop undertakes to do theology, that is, to say what the liturgy actually says about God.