Saturday, January 10, 1998

Religion in the media: a look at recent books and magazines

The Dallas Morning News

BOOKS

"Stalking Elijah," by Rodger Kamenetz ($22, HarperSan Francisco). This is the latest hot book in the Jewish Renewal movement. For those who are trying new ways to instill an ancient passion into Judaism, Kamenetz is, so to speak, a patron saint. One of his earlier books, "The Jew in the Lotus," was an exploration of Buddhism and what that belief system offered to modern Jewish thinking. This time, he's searching in modern Judaism itself, thought well outside the mainstream, for techniques that achieve the connection to the transcendent that he earlier identified in Buddhist tradition. He finds a few. And he finds an interesting cast of characters; the leades of Jewish Renewal are a fascinating lot. Reading about them raises the question, "What is a rabbi?" These days, the word mostly means seminary credentials. But before the word was tied to a diploma, "rabbi" simply meant "teacher." Kamenetz tracked down some rabbis with unorthodox credentials who, nonetheless, seem to be pretty good teachers.

--Jeffrey Weiss

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"The Book of Wisdom" ($21.99, Multinomah). Pretentious title, no? Even "A Book of Wisdom" would have been an ambitious claim. But this is not a bad effort. A team of editors has culled more than 550 pages of sayings, short essays and speech excerpts. You've got Aeschylus on handling adversity and Bertrand Russell on love and Beatrix Potter on being a good citizen. The selections are arranged in sections; among them, succeeding with money, coping with life's hurts, saying and doing the right thing, enjoying a relationship with God, ending well, and several others. The book is indexed by author -- and as the index runs 23 pages, you know the editors have cast a wide net. There may in fact, be more wisdom out there somewhere, but this is a worthy compilation

--Jeffrey Weiss

MAGAZINES

Emerge (January), a news magazine for black Americans, looks at "Rev. Henry Lyon's Unholy War." The polemic by the Rev. Robert M. Franklin argues that the "National Baptist saga demands black clergy be cut from a new cloth." The report suggests seven directions or practices for more diligent stewardship.

--Robert Plocheck

American Heritage (January) adds background to the debate about Internet control with a look at failed attempts at censorship. Contributing editor Bernard A. Weisberger says Anthony Comstock, for who the Comstock Laws on mail censorship are named, became ridiculous because "he could not distinguish among the really vile trash, harmless titillations and genuine art." Another article on the Irish Famine chronicles the demographic shift that was the first major impact of Catholicism on U.S. culture.

--Robert Plocheck

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(Writers are staff members of The Dallas Morning News. Write to them in care of: the Religion Section, Dallas Morning News, Communications Center, P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, Texas 75265.)

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