Book News

Laughter might truly be the best medicine if it can encourage friendly conversation between Christians and atheists. That was Andy Bannister’s goal when he wrote The Atheist Who Didn’t Exist.

Desiring a Better Country: Forays in Political Theology by Douglas Farrow (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 192 pages, softcover, $29.95)

As Douglas Farrow’s Desiring a Better Country: Forays in Political Theology arrived on my desk, I was in a conversation about whether we still live in a nation state or a corporate state. If in a corporate state, what does this say about democracy and the role left to us, the citizens of international free trade agreements? Are we just spectators to the drama being played out between Greece and the European Union?

If God truly has a sense of humour, He would probably enjoy reading the Tomics Collection book by Tom Gould.

Tomics are weekly “religious funnies” published by The Catholic Fellows, a lay ministry that fosters men’s spiritual fellowship. Every Friday, their website features a new comic strip inspired by Scripture readings, lives of the saints or Catholic teaching.

Seeds of the Word: Finding God in the Culture (Word On Fire, hardcover, 275 pages, $24.95).

The teen vampire series Twilight has at least one thing in common with the prolific 20th-century Catholic writer and monk Thomas Merton — they both have a part in teaching us about God in the culture.

In the moments before Jennifer Zobair converted to Islam, she had one pressing question for the imam, about a verse in the Quran that seemed to give husbands permission to beat their wives.

3 Moments of the Day by Christopher S. Collins, S.J. (Ave Maria Press, 138 pages, softcover $17.60).

Prayer is a conversation with God — but are we delivering a one-way monologue? It can sometimes be difficult to hear God in prayer. However, 3 Moments of the Day presents a refreshingly simple, straightforward method to help us encounter God not only in prayer but throughout the day. 

The Canny Scot: Archbishop James Morrison of Antigonish, by Peter Ludlow (McGill-Queens University Press, 352 pages, hardcover, $34.95).

For those of us interested in how Church social action really happens, Peter Ludlow has written a fascinating, accessible, full-length biography of Archbishop James Morrison, one of the most important Canadian bishops of the 20th century.

While many men spend time in their man cave drinking beer and watching sports, Todd Stahl would rather pass his time in male solitude with devotions and self-reflection.

Irish Beth Maddock says she gets a lot of calls from God late at night or early in the morning. It is during these quiet hours of the night she “downloads” the ideas God plants in her mind.

The Man Who Learned to Walk Three Times by Peter Kavanagh (Knopf Canada, hard cover, 257 pages, $29.95).

In a poem by the English poet Ted Hughes, a hawk contemplates its physical form: “It took the whole of creation to produce my foot, my each feather; now I hold creation in my foot.”