Christian Encounters: John Bunyan - Book Review

In his preface to Christian Encounters: John Bunyan (Thomas Nelson; ISBN: 978-1-59555-304-1), Kevin Belmonte speaks of his youthful intoxication with the Christian writer’s “simply wrought cadences” and “vividly conceived characters”, as well as his mastery of imagery “that has inspired writers from Thackeray to C. S. Lewis”. Both in his preface and in his prologue to this succinct, but informative, biography Belmonte describes the many acknowledgements that have been paid over the ages to Bunyan’s key work The Pilgrim’s Progress.

Aware of the pivotal role played by biographers in helping to establish the role of any great craftsman, Belmonte pays full tribute to John Brown, whom he notes to be “[p]erhaps Bunyan’s most assiduous biographer”. In fact, the acknowledgement that he gives to Brown’s work might very well apply, albeit it to a smaller format, to Christian Encounters: John Bunyan: “The impression one gets when leafing through his handsome [perhaps one should say, in this case, modestly framed], carefully documented work is that of a man who has undertaken his own pilgrimage—seeking to recover, as much as can be done, all of the sights, sounds, and settings that shaped John Bunyan.”

Those who have had troubled lives themselves are likely to empathize with the many difficulties that plagued Bunyan’s life, including his imprisonment, during which time he wrote his great masterpiece. Extremely well sourced and referenced, Christian Encounters: John Bunyan  is a more than adequate introduction to, and overview of, the writings of one of the great men of faith, who, despite many a trial and tribulation, has, nevertheless, across countless generations managed to inspire many a flagging spirit to renew the fight against earthly temptations and travails.Just how the semi-schooled son of a tinker came to write one of the most influential books in the entire pantheon of English literature provides the gist of Belmonte’s biography. Exploring Bunyan’s life and times from his birth in 1628, till his death in 1688 (for which a detailed timeline is given in the appendix to the text), Belmonte reveals all that is necessary to know about the core factors that contributed to the creation of the enduring masterpiece, including Bunyan’s many bouts of depression, to which so many creative thinkers succumb.

Kevin Belmonte holds a B.A. in English Literature from Gordon College, an M.A. in Church History from Gordon-Conwell Seminary, and a second master’s degree in American and New England Studies from the University of Southern Maine (Portland). Following the earlier publication of his outstanding biography William Wilberforce: A Hero for Humanity (Zondervan/HarperCollins, 2007), Belmonte received the prestigious John Pollock Award for Christian Biography. For six years, he also served as the lead historical consultant for the major motion picture Amazing Grace.

[My thanks go to renowned online publisher, Norm Goldman, for his inclusion of this review on his http://www.BookPleasures.com website.]   

PersonaliTrees: Let the Human Spirit Awaken in the Presence of Trees / Joan Klostermann-Ketels. Forres - Book Review

This photographic essay is both enchanting and intriguing, while simultaneously leaving one asking for more. In her afterword, Klostermann-Ketels describes how this book came to be:

In August of 2009, a violent hail and wind storm decimated parts of the beautiful greenbelt area around Pine Lake in Iowa where many of these pictures were taken. The trees and the messages they conveyed about their lifetimes (and ours) were lost forever, or would have been if they had not been captured in photographs. The sadness was overwhelming as I had come to consider these spirits my friends.

PersonaliTrees (Findhorn Press; ISBN: 978-1-84409-191-1) is, therefore, a record of loss, but also of joy, of past experiences as well as the potential for new growth. It was Jung who suggested that trees, when seen in dreams and imaginings, were friendly creatures, willing to assist the human psyche to reconnect with itself. One need only think of the Ents in Tolkien’s mystical masterpiece The Lord of the Rings to know in whom one can place one’s trust. However, to project one’s own feelings onto natural objects might not be the best way to go.

 that is meant to pertain to such a feeling, does not always gel. No doubt each reader will be able to identify the picture and quotation to which he or she can most closely relate, but this work could have offered far greater insight into, and encouraged much deeper appreciation of, the trees that Klostermann-Ketels depicts.

The emotions range from the positive, such as “happy”, “joyous” and “elated”, to the negative, including “weary”, “frightened” and “irresponsible”. Though some of the trees seem to express such emotions in the way in which their branches have grown, or in the way in which their trunks have developed, others do not. (But then, perhaps, my imagination is not as active as is that of the author – to my loss, I’m sure.) I would also have liked to know how Klostermann-Ketels decided on how to arrange the different emotions throughout the text. At the moment there appears to be no logical order involved, with, for example, “anchored” being followed by “speechless”. Perhaps the author intended our ramble through her text to be as serendipitous as a walk through the woods…

The quotations themselves do not always seem to be applicable to the photographs which they accompany, though they are clearly meant as some form of “caption”. Only a few relate to trees at all, which I found to be a pity. What I would have loved to have seen is a description of how Klostermann-Ketels saw the trees that she photographed reflecting the emotions to which she links them.

Currently, PersonaliTrees is a relaxing and exploratory text, which could easily be transformed into a work for youngsters, encouraging their creative recapturing of the spirit of the trees. It currently holds potential, in a slightly reworked form, as a source of inspiration for adult movement and self-expression classes as well. In brief, the dynamism is present, but the direction has still to be found.

[My thanks go to renowned online publisher, Norm Goldman, for his inclusion of this review on his http://www.BookPleasures.com website.]   

Christian Encounters: Jane Austen / Peter Leithart - Book Review

In this theologically grounded non-fiction approach to one of the leading English novelists of the 19th century, Leithart reveals his appreciation of the mastery of the drawing room milieu by this pre-eminent literary historian of manners. Her insight into her characters was remarkable for the times in which she lived. So universal are they that they live on till this day, featured in countless television and film remakes, prequels and sequels. In his introduction to Christian Encounters: Jane Austen (Thomas Nelson; ISBN: 978-1-59555-302-7), Leithart stresses that “the whole point of an Austen novel is to record the ironic discrepancies between surface and reality, to express social masks as masks.” He provides a brief overview of “Janeia”, the plethora of publications and reworked versions that have stemmed from Austen’s most notable works: Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Mansfield Park, and Sense and Sensibility. Leithart attributes the perennial appeal of Austen’s work to her minimization of contemporary references, which lends her novels a sense of timelessness.

Leithart asserts that, in this relatively brief biography of 153 pages, he has attempted to reveal the many different sides to Austen’s character. His holistic portrayal of the novelist is an attempt “to depict accurately the depth and sincerity of her Christianity, as well as her Anglican discomfort with religious emotion, but without losing sight of the other sides of her complex character—her playfulness, her satiric gift for ridicule, her ‘waspishness’, her rigid morality.”

Leithart’s conversational and colloquial style renders this biography a gentle introduction to the world and writings of this Regency novelist. Though his approach highlights the Christian aspects of the writer’s work and life, his approach is not at all polemic, as he emphasizes the humanity and humaneness breathing forth from her accurate portrayals of small town and rural middle-class and landed gentry life at the start of the 19th century.

Christian Encounters: Jane Austen should find a wide readership among all those interested in the author’s work, as well as among those who are interested in the faith aspects of this author’s life and works.  Christian Encounters: Jane Austen is well researched, and contains many excerpts from other works about Jane Austen, as well as extracts from her own correspondence. As a distinguished author and theologian in his own right, Leithart is well positioned to have written such an informative biography. In addition to the main text of this book, he also includes an annotated alphabetical listing of Austen’s family, friends and neighbors, lists the characters in Austen’s novels, and notes the sources on which he draws.

[My thanks go to renowned online publisher, Norm Goldman, for his inclusion of this review on his http://www.BookPleasures.com website.]   

Sculpting the Heart: Surviving Depression with Art Therapy / Joyce White - Book Review

Joyce White, author of Sculpting the Heart: Surviving Depression with Art Therapy (AuthorHouse; ISBN: 978-1-4343-2066-7), holds that “[e]veryone can doodle and scribble their way to wellness and joy. By climbing up, up, up, to fun, self-love, and up to the angels that want to hug us with creative possibilities.” White is a Christian and a keen believer in helping oneself to emotional health through any creative way that one can, whether it be art making, journaling, writing poetry, or countless other means of positive self-expression.

White explores the importance of dreaming, and provides a number of exercises which we can use to heighten our senses. She encourages us to live in the moment, and stresses the importance of letting the symbols around you choose you. Quoting leading experts on art and a number of religious leaders, White encourages us to believe in the healing capacity of meaningful activity. She produces a number of her creations on her computer, whereas others she does by hand. And she makes clear that you don’t have to be an expert. As White writes, “Spontaneous imaging does not require talent, time or planning ahead. Anyone can draw on the computer.” She finds a use for many different objects, even going so far as explaining how all paper can be recycled to make Paper Mache projects. (As someone who tends to discard a lot of paper, I need to take that one to heart!)

Skilful in a number of different media, White has the insight, gained from personal experience, to realize how art can lift one out of depression. She provides a self-quiz which allows one to work out whether one is suffering from the symptoms of depression. And she makes no bones about her coming from a line of depressives—she freely tells of how, despite suffering from bouts of depression, her family as a whole has been able to grow with joy and love. Not that she comes from an untroubled family background—far from it, as her parents were divorced for many years, but even so, as she readily admits, she was able to give them both care during their last days on earth, comforting and nursing them in the comfort of her own home.

Sculpting the Heart: Surviving Depression with Art Therapy is filled with numerous full-color photographs of White’s own clay and other work. The text radiates joy, and should inspire anyone who has ever had the slightest yen to start experimenting with any material which can be molded to give voice to one’s spiritual search for meaning.

[My thanks go to renowned online publisher, Norm Goldman, for his inclusion of this review on his http://www.BookPleasures.com website.]   

In the Footsteps of Dracula: A Personal Journal and Travel Guide / Steven P. Unger - Book Review

The Introduction to Unger’s travelogue describes the work as follows: ‘In part, In the Footsteps of Dracula: A Personal Journal and Travel Guide [World Audience; ISBN: 978-1-935444-53-4] is a memoir for the armchair traveler, with pictures and descriptions of every site that is closely related to either Bram Stoker's fictional Count Dracula or his real historical counterpart, Prince Vlad the Impaler. The memoir is divided into sections that first follow in the footsteps of the fictional Count Dracula, and then in the footsteps of Vlad the Impaler from his birth to his death and burial, Part V, titled "Nuts and Bolts: A Practical Guide to the Dracula Trail". "Nuts and Bolts" includes an itinerary for the entire Dracula Trail, with recommended lodging and restaurants; as well as detailed transportation directions and the cost for traveling from one location to the next in sequence. The Dracula Trail begins and ends in London for the English portion and in Bucharest for traveling in Romania.’

Clearly, this book is extremely well organized and logical in its presentation. It is also extremely well written – the reader is swept along for the ride through the relatively unspoiled Romanian countryside, while the exploration of English sites takes place at a slightly more leisurely pace, in keeping with Bram Stoker’s research orientation. Steven describes his intention with this work as that of ‘stripping away the layers of myth about Count Dracula and Prince Vlad the Impaler to find the reality within’.

Steven’s close familiarity with the text of Dracula enables him to compare elements of the novel that are incongruous with the Transylvanian reality, due to Bram Stoker never having visited the area of which he wrote in such glowing mythical terms. Throughout this guide, he quotes relevant parts of the novel that tie in with his personal observations of the unfolding landscape – definitely enough to entice the avid reader back to savor the original source once more.

The detailed description of Vlad Dracula’s rule on the Wallachian throne serves, in blood-drenched style (accompanied by appropriate authorial warnings of the graphic nature of such text), to contextualize the legend of Dracula. Though the references to graveyards, churches and historic ruins abound, due account is also taken of the exploitation of the Dracula legend by the tourism industry in both England and Romania. Not that the author himself does not benefit from such enterprise, as he avails himself of the hospitality of numerous hotels and bed and breakfast establishments. Though giving full praise where such is due, as with the Bed & Breakfast Coula in Sighişoara, which he rates as ‘hands down my favorite place to stay in my favorite town in Romania’, he also does not hesitate to advise about those that he finds to be not so appealing.

In the Footsteps of Dracula is filled with full color photographs of the people and places that Unger encounters on his travels. From the quaint fishing village of Whitby, where the novel Dracula was conceived and partly written, to the rugged Carpathian montane landscape surrounding the Borgo Pass, the site of Count Dracula’s ‘vast ruined castle’, Steven captures the essence of his environs. By identifying key components of the photos, which he relates to Bram Stoker’s text, their contents take on special significance and meaning for the reader. In his depiction of multiple Romanian street scenes, Steven encapsulates the medieval other-worldly feel of such towns as Tărgovişte and Sighişoara through which he travels. His inclusion of numerous photographs of young people garbed in Gothic attire, most of whom were captured while attending Whitby’s annual Gothic Festival, will no doubt also appeal to the younger reader.

[My thanks go to renowned online publisher, Norm Goldman, for his inclusion of this review on his http://www.BookPleasures.com website.]   

Christian Encounters: Saint Patrick / Lois Henderson - Book Review

In his introduction to Christian Encounters: Saint Patrick (Thomas Nelson; ISBN: 978-1-59555-305-8), Jonathan Rogers debunks the countless legends that have arisen around the life of the revered saint. Noting how comic some of those legends are, Rogers refers to the nineteenth-century Irish poet Aubrey de Vere’s description of their predominant characteristics as being those of “brightness and gladsomeness”. However, Rogers also finds that “Patrick’s comic reversals can seem cruel to modern sensibilities”. Even when the humor is obvious, Rogers points out that the point of the tale might be obscure.

Rogers regrets that the historical record pertaining to Patrick’s life is so brief, largely coming from two autobiographically inclined documents that, together, are fewer than twenty pages in length, namely his Confession and his Epistle to the Christian Subjects of the Tyrant Coroticus. This biography of the life and times of Patrick compares the legends surrounding Patrick with the historical facts that are known about the period in which he lived, as well as the biographical details that can be gleaned from his own writings. He also uses the legends of Patrick to illustrate and give color to the few facts that are known about the saint.

Concluding the biography with appendices containing Patrick’s previously mentioned writings, as well as annotations to the various chapters, Rogers proves himself a sound chronicler of the Christian faith, as well as a raconteur of note. This lively text should appeal to both youngster and adult alike, and should serve as a welcome addition to any home, school or college library. Rogers’ discursive style takes the form of an ongoing dialogue with the reader. Evidence of such a style can be seen in the following excerpt from Christian Encounters: Saint Patrick: “Perhaps we shouldn’t make too much of that [Patrick’s disclaimer of his knowing the true God at the age of sixteen]. It is not unusual, after all, for a teenage boy to reject the faith of his parents. On the other hand, it is possible that young Patrick didn’t know the true God because neither his father the deacon nor his grandfather the priest knew the true God.” 

The logical way in which Rogers presents his material can be seen in the signposting that he uses, such as his concluding Chapter One with an acknowledgement that he will return to the discussion of Patrick’s childhood sin “in a later chapter”. By providing such guidance to the reader, Rogers achieves coherence in the text which adds to the fluency and ease with which he expresses himself. Indeed, he appears to be totally at home with his subject matter, making Christian Encounters: Saint Patrick both an enjoyable and an informative read. Small wonder that Rogers writes so competently, as he holds a Ph.D. in 17th century literature from Vanderbilt University.

Concluding the biography with appendices containing Patrick’s previously mentioned writings, as well as annotations to the various chapters, Rogers proves himself a sound chronicler of the Christian faith, as well as a raconteur of note. This lively text should appeal to both youngster and adult alike, and should serve as a welcome addition to any home, school or college library.

[My thanks go to renowned online publisher, Norm Goldman, for his inclusion of this review on his http://www.BookPleasures.com website.]   

Sonnets for Sinners: Everything One Needs to Know about Illicit Love / edited by John Wareham - Book Review

John Wareham’s anthology of sonnets, Sonnets for Sinners: Everything One Needs to Know about Illicit Love (Welcome Rain Publishers; ISBN 10: 1-56649-959-3: ISBN 12: 978-1-56649-959-0) covers the range of amoral yearnings that have been present in the heart of (wo)men from the days of the great bard, William Shakespeare, himself up to present-day e-mail missives. Though the fears pertaining to such emotions in days of yore were more likely to relate to public exposure in the street (or playhouse), nowadays the ever-present vulnerability of such affairs is more likely to relate to having to ward off hackers on the Internet. Indeed, much salaciousness is added to this volume by John Wareham’s reworking of the (not-so-secret) love lines penned by such dethroned role models as Tiger Woods and South Carolina’s Mark Sanford, not to mention that he hardly leaves the dignity of the royal family intact, including lines penned by Prince Charles (in ecstasy) and Princess Diana (in lovelorn wrath).

Ranging from “attractions”, through “fevers”, “lamentations”, “farewells”, “endings” and “epiphanies”, Sonnets for Sinners covers the range of emotions from the onset of sensual intoxication with the aspiration towards a fruitful dalliance with the object of attraction, to its reworking in the form of a more profound transformation achieved by a spiritual awakening resulting from the internalization of such feelings. John Wareham accompanies each of the sonnets that he includes in his anthology with a witty and insightful exposé of love’s intricacy and ramifications, as well as a critique of the metaphors, imagery and structure of each poem. Each exploration of a poem (and poet’s) worth as an addition to the literary genre is concluded with an attempt at a pithy aside, much as one can imagine might be expressed when lovers such as these exit a social gathering (such as “Great fun, yes! But, oh, what about tomorrow!”).

Just sufficient background information is provided to elucidate the stance taken by poets of previous generations. Though the sonnets largely reflect heterosexual love, John Wareham is also sensitive to “the love that dare not speak its name”, including “Shame” by Alfred Douglas, for whose attentions Oscar Wilde, the renowned late Victorian/Edwardian playwright, paid so dearly.  The author also explains those literary allusions contained in the poems, with which the modern-day readership might not be familiar, such as those relating to Leda and the Swan and the unrequited love between the Nobel-Prize winning poet William Butler Yeats and Maud Gonne, an ardent Irish nationalist. 

     

A small volume to be treasured, though clearly brought out in time for Valentine’s Day (as even the imprint is worded accordingly), this little gem could, likewise, make an excellent anniversary gift for long-standing lovers.

[My thanks go to renowned online publisher, Norm Goldman, for his inclusion of this review on his http://www.BookPleasures.com website.]