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Title: The Serenity Prayer: Faith and Politics in Times of Peace and War by Elisabeth Sifton ISBN: 0-393-05746-1 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: America: A Spiritual Topography
Comment: Easy reading is damn hard writing. The name of the writer who made that observation escapes me but he could easily have been talking about Elisabeth Sifton's THE SERENITY PRAYER, the author's moving, tender memoir of her father theologian Reinhold Niebuhr. In this beautifully written book on the origin of her father's most well known (and widely circulated) words, Sifton provides us with a Rosetta Stone for deciphering some of the most important political and historical events of the twentieth century. Events that inspired men and women like her father to dedicate their lives to the fight against facsism and a world free of bigotry, prejudice, and injustice. Whether standing up to the anti-communist hysteria of McCarthy era America, the oppressive, totalitarian government of the Soviet Union or the insane nuclear weapons programs of both countries, Niebuhr and the circle of activists and intellectuals who were drawn to his side were people who put principles above personalities. As a consequence, Sifton's father found allies in every nook and cranny of the American (and global) political and cultural landscape. Christians, Jews, East, West, Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, Southerners, Northerners, black, white, wealthy, poor, Niebuhr's followers and supporters cut across traditional class, color, gender and religious lines.
Unlike other chronicles of this era in American history that use important battles, summits, documents, elections, trials, discoveries, etc. to launch their stories from, Sifton utilizes a nondescript prayer her father delivered at the Heath Church in a quiet town of the same name in Western Massachusetts as the back drop for her narrative. This beucolic New England village where the Niebuhr's spent their summers is the canvas upon which Sifton paints her vivid images and memories of childhood, her father, and the causes he, and, in fact, their entire family, devoted their lives to. A colleague in attendance at the sermon and deeply moved by the prayer asked him the origins of the words and where he might find them. Niebuhr said they were his and responded to this request by simply handing his friend his notes with the prayer written down on them. Eventually the prayer made its way to a (then) fledgling group called Alcoholics Anonymous. AA asked Niebuhr's permission to use his words as a staple of their spiritual "fellowship." Not believing anyone can "own" the words of a prayer anymore than one can own the sea or the air, the great theologian said yes again; and the rest is, as we say, "history".
What Sifton gives us in THE SERENITY PRAYER is an intimate biography of a man who was, arguably, the greatest theologian of his generation, but what she gifts us is a spiritual topography of our nations soul. She accomplishes this by artfully weaving the story of the Serenity Prayer, her father's rich intellectual life and community and world history into a single riveting narrative. This literary device, if you want to call it that, allows us to see how world events can effect the lives of ordinary citizens as well as how the myraid and seemingly innocuous choices we make on an almost daily basis--what philosopher John Shotter calls 'the cultural politics of everyday life'--ultimately shape our world and the outcome of history. Had this exceptional title been published at any other time in our secular nation's short history it, no doubt, would have been highly critically acclaimed and prominently displayed, along with other intellectual and religious nostalgia, on a tall shelf in the back of book stores. However, given current events taking place at home and abroad the author's message is not just an important one, it is a timely one.
THE SERENITY PRAYER offers us more than an insightful look back at our past, it provides us with a road map for our future. I pray we have the courage and wisdom to use it.
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Title: Credo by William Sloane Coffin, James Carroll ISBN: 0664227074 Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press Pub. Date: 01 December, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: My Name Is Bill: Bill Wilson--His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous by Susan Cheever ISBN: 074320154X Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 01 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Hope Dies Last: Keeping the Faith in Difficult Times by Studs Terkel ISBN: 1565848373 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: 03 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith by Marcus J. Borg ISBN: 0060526769 Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: The Spiral Staircase : My Climb out of Darkness (ARMSTRONG, KAREN) by Karen Armstrong ISBN: 0375413189 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 02 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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