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Book
Reviews
Those of you who were readers of THE MIX, will
remember the excellent reviews which appeared each month on the back page.
“One of the authors of these reviews was Professor Tim O’Hearn.
Tim has generously agreed to continue with these reviews, the first three
of which appear below. Again we’ll all have a ready selection of
presents when Christmas and the birthdays of friends come around as well as a
personal guide as to what is worth reading”!
To read earlier book reviews click HERE
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Wendy M Wright, The
Essential Spirituality Handbook, Missouri, Ligouri Press, 2009,
ISBN: 978-0-7648-1786-1,278 pages, endnotes and further reading
at each chapter’s end, $26.95.
This is a worthwhile book for anyone who is seeking further
information and/or inspiration. The book is a “handbook” in every
sense of the word. It deals with understandings of “spirituality”
within the Catholic tradition, favouring the sense of God (the Holy
Spirit) as the end and the process of our lives. Wright provides
exemplary depth to aid the understanding of the Catholic tradition
of the Church’s long list of great and devout spiritual writers and
thinkers, references for the reader to follow up with in-depth study
of these writers, and a way that makes their insights relevant
today. She devotes an extensive treatment of the many ways people
throughout the centuries have found their preferred means for
spiritual growth, all ways that could be used by the modern reader.
The reader would come away from this excellent and relatively cheap
book with a sound understanding of the Catholic tradition of prayer,
ways of considering what spirituality means within a Catholic
context, what the relation is between spirituality and action,
multiple ways of praying, and loads of further reading to follow up
on the many writers and saints that she refers to in the main body
of the text. This is an important book for individuals who might be
unsure of the wealth of spiritual thinking within our tradition;
for those who might want to have a sound reference for further
thinking; for libraries; and for all who profess to know something
about spirituality, whether in the pub or elsewhere.
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