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GOD'S POLITICS: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get it
Jim Wallis
HarperSanFrancisco,
416 pp., $24.95

Did you feel conflicted while voting in last November's election? Jim Wallis, activist and founder of Sojourners magazine, makes a compelling case for why Republicans and Democrats are both off course, and urges a return to a "moral center."

"The real question is not whether religious faith should influence a society and its politics, but how." It's time to take back our faith, he believes—from politicians who love to say how religious they are but who ignore the poor, and from liberal secularists who want to banish faith from public life.

With the image of God in every person as his litmus test, Wallis tackles myriad issues: the poor ("pushed … off the agenda"), war (in Iraq, "wrong from the start"), AIDS/HIV (treatment and prevention are a "moral imperative"), homosexuality ("gay civil and human rights must also be … defended"), and abortion (Democrats need to take a more respectful approach to the issue). A personal God, he writes, demands public justice as an act of worship.

Wallis supplements his chapters with his sermon texts, letters, speeches, and columns.

IN SEARCH OF SACRED PLACES: Looking for Wisdom on Celtic Holy Islands
Daniel Taylor
Bog Walk Press,
171 pp., $19.95

Daniel Taylor, a Bethel University professor and author (The Myth of Certainty), describes himself as a tough sell when it comes to shrines and sacred places. Nevertheless, he sets off on a spiritual pilgrimage to the island of Iona in Scotland and other nearby places, believing that "the journey itself is as important as the place."

Unlike the early pilgrims, however, his pilgrimage involves a lot of luggage, seven family members, and a decrepit rental van that "has to be experienced to be understood"—like everything that is holy, he says with characteristically dry humor.

Taylor intersperses interesting snippets of historical pilgrimages with his own narrative. Pilgrimage raises intriguing questions: Do we experience the sacredness of a place, or do we experience merely our desire that a place be sacred? How do we take the pilgrimage experience back home with us? Taylor's takeaways are still, small voices: "Simplify," "Risk," "Focus," "Release."

He discovers two truths: "Those unprepared for the sacred are unlikely to experience it," and "any experience of the holy enlarges one's capacity to experience it again."

Although Taylor believes that if you haven't ever been in the vicinity of the sacred, "no description of the experience will ever be satisfactory," he makes delightful attempts.

THE NAKED SOUL: God's Amazing, Everyday Solution to Loneliness
Dr. Tim Alan Gardner
WaterBrook Press,
224 pp., $13.99

In a world of cell phones, instant messaging, and chat rooms, "Doesn't it seem bizarre that while we're fully connected with the world we're also more alone?" asks Dr. Tim Gardner (Sacred Sex), counselor and co-director of Marriage Makers.

God designed us to find satisfaction in "naked soul" or authentic relationships, Gardner believes. Yet this requires trust and risk. The road away from loneliness can be "confusing, uncomfortable, even painful."

Gardner unpacks what God-honoring relationships look like, and how to avoid those that are not. We fail because we are afraid; we fail because we are innately selfish; most importantly, we fail because we are sinners. To succeed in relationships, he says, we must confront our true selves, let go of our need for security, and truly learn to love God.

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June 2005, Vol. 49, No. 6