This book made me nervous, but also had me excited. My Franciscan community has studied and reflected on cosmic theology and eco-spirituality this past year in preparation for our general chapter this month. Through it all, there was for me a need to maintain a sound doctrinal understanding of our faith as Roman Catholic religious.
Written by Sheldon Fernandez, Catholic Register Special,
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African Saints, African Stories: 40 Holy Men and Women by Camille Lewis Brown (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 145 pages, softcover, $14.95).
With good reason, the continent of Africa is often at the centre of Catholic debates pertaining to world affairs and global politics. The haunting shadows of the Rwanda genocide and present realities in places like Darfur and Congo are a constant challenge to the Christian conscience and test the boundaries of our own charity.
With the Catholic Church refusing to ordain women or even entertain the idea, feminists and the church have entered into a longstanding non-meeting of the minds. Because of this deadlock, dialogue has turned to monologue, a sad reality reflected in the pages of Feminist Theology with a Canadian Accent, a collection of 19 essays by Canadian feminist theologians and scholars.
The missionary tradition in the Catholic Church is centuries old. Missionaries left their own homelands to do good works and spread Christianity in far away places — most notably Africa, Asia and Latin American countries. Not all missionaries went to the poorer countries of the Third World. They figure prominently in colonial history in the North as well. In our country, missionaries had quite an impact on aboriginal peoples, as we were recently reminded during Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s apology to residential school survivors.
American Saviour: A Novel of Divine Politics by Roland Merullo (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, hardcover, 320 pages, $27.95).
In American Saviour Jesus Christ appears to a TV news reporter and announces His intention to run for president of the United States. Jesus has been reborn of a woman, a Navajo this time, and studied in India, Tibet and Nepal. He is cool with premarital sex, down on those who condemn it and spends quite a lot of his campaign in California, which he calls “the area of enlightenment.” He talks of “karmic weight” and other New Age concepts. He is not here to save all humanity but to save the United States of America. At one point He refers to the Jews as “my people then.” Apparently Americans are the chosen people now.
Arts & Entertainment 
African Saints, African Stories: 40 Holy Men and Women by Camille Lewis Brown (St. Anthony Messenger Press, 145 pages, softcover, $14.95).
Feminist Theology with a Canadian Accent, edited by Mary Ann Beavis, Elaine Guillemin and Barbara Pell 
American Saviour: A Novel of Divine Politics by Roland Merullo (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, hardcover, 320 pages, $27.95).
