Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary Of Faith

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Summary: This provides an experiential definition of words of faith.
Review: This is a wonderful book to help you define your own vocabulary of theological concepts.

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Summary: Classic religious terms are explained in ordinary language
Review: This book contains two memorable stories. The first deals with being a Member of the Body of Christ even when you don't care for the other person sharing your pew. And there is a memorable answer to the question," What can one do if one finds it impossible to affirm certain tenets of the Creed?"

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Summary: Comforting -
Review: like a sweater to wear on a faith journey!

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Summary: A wonderfully honest book.
Review: Norris does an astonishing job of bringing life and light to the vocabulary of "God talk." She is insightful, poetic, and, most of all, dead honest.

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Summary: A treasure of meditations on how words work with faith
Review: One of the problems I have with many books on religion, and nonfiction in general, is that one can often get the whole argument of the book from just reading the introduction. Not so this one. Rather it is a series of short essays -- meditations really-- intimately drawn from a life rich in experience and fellowship. Each meditation is centered on a word or phrase that makes up what Norris calls the "Vocabulary of Faith". Many of these words are heavily charged. Words like salvation and sin, that are frequently used to separate rather than to unite. But Norris brings to each of these meditations the comfort of one who has experienced both the hurt that these words can engender and the healing that comes from surrender to the shared experience that lies behind the words.

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Summary: This book brought me comfort and delight
Review: This book found its way to me during a stressful time in my life. I was expending an enormous amount of energy trying to do something to end the strife in my small Presbyterian church. Our congregation was deeply troubled and divided and my efforts were proving completely futile. Kathleen Norris' book was a great comfort to me. Her voice is calm and reassuring. Her writing is beautiful. She understands the complexity of faith. She helped me hold on to mine in a difficult time.

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Summary: WOW!!!!
Review: I read this book to see what someone else had to say about the faith of a Christian. All I can say is WOW. I have shared passages with non-christian friends and christian friends alike. They all were touched by Ms. Norris' words. I have this listed on my webpage as a must have book. God Bless Mrs. Norris.

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Summary: Amazing Grace speaks to the heart and mind
Review: Trying to talk about faith is like walking through a landmine - each step, each word has the potential of setting off a powerful explosion. Amazing Grace scrapes off the malignant mantle that has come to surround the vocabulary of faith. After such a working over, one would expect a bland and sanitized list of words. Fortunately for the reader, this expectation is very much disappointed, because these newly re-examined words appear as powerful weapons of change and redemption.

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Summary: read it!
Review: Once again Kathleen Norris has written a book that recognizes the sacred in everyday life. The brief essays and anecdotes that she offers are colloquial and universal. The points of view offered are stimulating and unusual in today's jaundiced view of religion. This book gently invites you to stand on your head.

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Summary: Amazing Grace how sweet -how profound- the words!
Review: Don't wait for the paperback. Buy it in hardcover right now! The wonderful thing about this book is that now that I've read it I don't have to just wait for the next Norris book to feed me. I can read this one cover to cover or select sections like "Belief, Doubt and Sacred Ambiguity" over and over again. How important it is for each of us to tell our stories as Norris does so effectively, but more important to use a process of theological reflection as Norris does with depth, with humor, with grace. I recently did an alphabet of spirituality -- no where as profound as Norris -- but the process was similar and a helpful spiritual tool. Norris' insights fed my own process