In Search of Belief

Rating:
Summary: The Search May Be Over
Review:

This book should come with the warning "Danger- reading this book will energize your spirit". It is scary to have someone so clearly break open the words of my belief. Until I read "In Search of Belief" my creed was just a weekly renewal of my membership in the church. The same as when I recited the pledge of allegiance or boy scout oath. No real deep thought, just go along with the group. But Sr. Chittister has put common sense meaning back into the words of the central prayer of my religion.

Funny thing is I thought I might be alone in my need to reconnect with the creed. That is far from the case. The response to the book has been unanimously positive from the 12 members of a book club where we are devouring it a section at a time.

Rating:
Summary: Validation and Renewal
Review: Altough I am a liberal United Methodist, this book by a Roman Catholic nun has validated and renewed my own beliefs, even as they are being assaulted by the rigid fundamentalist now in our local church's pulpit.

Rating:
Summary: Validation and Renewal
Review: If this book were a stage performance I would be the first to rise to my feet and deliver a standing and lasting ovation! The author is absolutely brilliant! The work is exquisitely enlightening. Incredibly well thoughtout and written I found myself so engrossed I could not put the book down. Though it is the kind of book that you can easily read through, you will be left with the unnerving need to read it a second, perhaps third time, to fully digests its insights. I consider it a "must read" for every Catholic who has ever wondered about the personal relevancy of the Creed's Prayer in today's world. It is, especially, a "must read" for every Catholic woman who has ever felt frustrated by the patriarchical structure of the historic and modern church - or anyone who has perceived themselves as disenfranchised. I thank God for giving us in today's church people like Joan Chittister who shows the kind of courageous spirit, brilliant mind, and irrevocable conviction and bold faith reminiscent of the early church. Truly a CHRISTian work!

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderfully Thought Provoking Work
Review: Once in awhile a book comes along which touches something deep inside your heart and soul. This book is a wonderful journey through the Apostles Creed breaking apart each phrase to study and examine. Prayers too often become automatic. In Search Of Belief breathes new life and modern day sensibility into the Creed of Christianity.

Rating:
Summary: Valuable exercise in maximizing meaning from vocal prayer
Review: There is an often quoted maxim that expresses the fundamental rule of praying as "when you pray, say what you pray," (mentioned in the Pieta prayer book among other places). Some people believe that this translates to a warning not to use traditional prayers, and look down upon those who do. Teresa of Avila describes vocal prayers as a rudimentary practice; the bottom rung that one uses in a path of a spiritual development. The Apostles' Creed is an example of a prayer that many in the Christian tradition have said for over a millennium, but when something is known so well, the danger is that it can be said mechanical and vainly, without much thought. When this application occurs, the Creed is reduced to no more than a poem and ineffectual for the affirmation of faith that it was created to be.

"In Search of Belief" is a personal mediation directed by Dr. Joan Chittister, in which she articulates the meaning that the words of the Apostles' Creed have in her life. She explores the beliefs that she believed the words were meant to imbue to the prayer, based on history of the early church and beliefs that were held by the Jesus' society and the first Christian communities. She draws parallels between the application of these beliefs in Jesus' life time and in early Christian society, and how she has seen them articulated in her own life experiences, and how the modern world calls us to actively implement these beliefs in the modern world.

This is not a book about how you should interpret the Apostles' Creed. It is a book of how she personally interprets it and the responsibility she feels when she says the prayer, because she does not believe that God acts in a vacuum, but that God acts through all his creatures and that we are partially responsible for creating God's kingdom on earth. Chapters which I found particularly insightful were the mediations that analyzed the concepts of Goad Our Father, the sections on the Holy Sprit, the significance of Mary's role model for the Christian faith, suffering, and the implications of Pontius Pilate. The chapters are short, and despite the deep analysis with which each topic is addressed, the writing style is simple, making her exegesis easy to understand and memorable. The book is an excellent format for mediation.

Even if one does not agree with all her interpretations, the book is a valuable exercise in how to find meaning in traditional prayers; it's framework of analysis can be applied to any written prayer. After reading it, it is difficult to mouth another traditional prayer without reflection and meaning, so that all future prayers become more powerful by the learning the insight obtained in this book.


Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: This is raw anti-Catholicism dolled up as prophetic utterance. If you want the inside story on the Creed, buy the universal catechism of the Catholic Church.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointed
Review: This is raw anti-Catholicism dolled up as prophetic utterance. If you want the inside story on the Creed, buy the universal catechism of the Catholic Church.