Rating: 
Summary: a mind most open
Review: In her other books, Kathleen Norris has written about the life journey that took her away from home, to Bennington College in Vermont and then to New York City, as she became a poet and lived in the eminently secular literary world; then back to the Great Plains of South Dakota, where she began attending her Grandmother's church and gradually found herself drawn to the Christianity she had forsaken many years before. In this book she tries to do exactly what she describes above, take individual words that she found, and many others still find, off putting from the Biblical and Christian lexicons and reconcile herself to their meanings, however harsh or judgmental or intimidating they may seem. She does this in a series of very brief essays--about 80 in less than four hundred pages--covering such words as : Dogma, Heresy, and Pentecostal. Between the number of topics she covers and the very personal reflections they provoke, no one will agree with everything she has to say, and many will disagree with most of it. But she brings two extremely important qualities to the task : humility and skepticism. .... People of faith are commonly caricatured as people whose minds are closed to all but their own beliefs. Kathleen Norris exemplifies the fact that quite the opposite is often true, that faith often comes to those whose minds are most open, to both doubt and possibility. ....
Rating: 
Summary: A model of reflection for adults re-turning to religion
Review: Norris's wide-ranging and carefully written account elicited my respect and admiration for the endeavor, although I am a bit troubled by the too easy equation of faith and Christianity (or religion) throughout the book. Yet it is an account of a return to Christianity, and reportedly, a faith of any kind, so I am understanding of the "beginner's" tone to it all. At the outset, Norris describes her effort with the analogy of an infant and writes of "rudiments of words" forming in her response to the language of Christianity (page 2). "Religion came to seem just one more childhood folly that I had to set aside as an adult," Norris continues. "In my mid-thirties, however, it became necessary to begin to reclaim my faith." And later, on page 169 she writes, "faith is still a surprise to me, as I lived without it for so long." What I find surprising is how someone with such obviously well-honed reflective skills seems to be implying that she lived without faith prior to the return to Christianity. It just doesn't seem likely, at least from my perspective as a seeker with a similar spiritual story . Must experience be Christian to be faith-filled? God, I believe, is present in all of life, and faith experiences within or outside a particular tradition (even prior to affiliation or return) provide a "surplus of meaning" which religions never fully capture, I suspect. Religions do help illuminate experience in a particularly helpful way, so they can be useful partners in the journey of personal transformation, helping us to discern God's presence as the "hidden wholeness" (Merton) in those times when we thought we were without faith. Maybe Norris will reflect on this aspect in the future for those readers who sense that if a return to church (or religion) is not also a return to the world of profane experience, then it may seem cloistered indeed. What Norris may find in such an effort, to borrow a phrase from Caroline Myss, is just how "richly guided" our lives have been at all times. Now that is truly amazing grace.
Rating:
Summary: perfect for lenten readings
Review: Kathleen Norris does not claim to be a theologian or a Biblical scholar. She shares the renewal and continuing growth of her faith in short vignettes. This is love story; a book about a woman falling in love with God, loving her husband more, and finding love with the Benedictines and her Presbyterian congregation. I have read and reread this book. I am reading it for the fourth time and also reading the Bible, Julian of Norwich, and Emily Dickenson along with it. Norris is a mystic for our time.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting; very interesting
Review: My response is as much to the other comments about this book. I am currently halfway through the book, and am positively loving it. I am always eager to listen and learn from others' personal relationships with God. I notice that there is a great split in the reviews; people either love the book or hate it. It seems to me, in an extremely simplistic sense, that there are two sorts of Christians reading the book. There are those who are open to interpretation and a rather ecumenical, liberal faith, and those who are so traditional and fundamental that they are unable to appreciate any variance from the mainstream. This sort of thinking can only build stronger walls between "real" Christians and the rest of us. Who is to say that Norris' relationship with Christ is in actuality the "road to hell"? Widen the circle; allow for diversity so the Christian community can truly exist as the Body of Christ. The right hand really hasn't any business slapping the left. The book is elegant and full of spiritual gems; Norris is a modern mystic to be celebrated.
Rating:
Summary: A Journey of Faith
Review: Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith is a poetic dictionary--A Christian's lexicon and guide to the journey of faith. In her newest book of essays Kathleen Norris shares her own particular Methodist-Presbyterian-Benedictine conversion story. Every bit as much a page turner as the latest Grisham novel, Norris's book drew me in. Like an addict who can't get enough, I raced through the pages unable to stop and savor each image and story. Now I await the leisure to return, pencil in hand, psalter and prayerbook beside me. It has been said that the true measure of ones inclusion in a group is a vocabulary test. Norris helps us pass the test by breaking open the words of faith. Amazing grace, indeed, that brings a poet's voice to the telling of the story of faith.
Rating:
Summary: Finding grace in a "dictionary"
Review: Kathleen Norris explores the language of faith that often puts people off or leaves them feeling estranged. Her meditations are not definitions of grace, faith, sin and so forth, but in what was for me a suprisingly spiritual way, she brings the vocablary that puzzles and confuses even regular church attenders up the the present time and present words and concepts in a manner that can have meaning and resonance. She uses personal experience and stories that allow the reader to relate and identify.
Rating:
Summary: A Tool for Reflection
Review: For people who believe that faith is always a work-in-progress, an on-going process, this book is a wonderful tool for reflecting upon a wide variety of issues. The reader does not necessarily have to agree with Kathleen Norris's philosphy to appreciate that she has a wonderful knack for expressing that philosophy in a way that makes us think about and examine our own.
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Summary: I Know That Word, But What Does It Mean?
Review: Certain words that are commonly used in religious talk, particularly words which express faith, can be very rich in meaning. For people outside of the faith, the use of such words can make a person feel confused or excluded. Perhaps this is why Kathleen Norris' Amazing Grace, the follow up to The Cloister Walk is so helpful. Norris defines words that are commonly used in faith, words such as salvation, grace, and Church. She also tackles less known words such as Lectio Divina and asceticism as well as words that can be controversial such as unchurched, orthodoxy, "organized religion" and heresy. Her definitions are not Webster like, nor do they reflect the opinion of an organized Church per se, but are based on reflection and an attempt to incorporate these words into her own spiritual life. She also includes a few essays which offer interesting perspectives on faith. Like Cloister Walk, this book is filled with personal anecdotes a swell as reflections upon people who have entered Norris' life and have either knowingly, or unknowingly, touched her spiritually. The book flows and is an easy read, and can be read in a few sittings or reflectively. It is also a book that favorite sections can be read again and again, which seems to be a strength of Ms. Norris' books. The depth of Norris' spiritual insights is also apparent as readers of Dakota and Cloister Walk will recognize. In many ways I saw Amazing Grace as a work in which Ms. Norris is confident in her own spiritual expertise, and shows maturity in her relationship with God which should be a goal for all believers.
Rating:
Summary: A poet uses religious words
Review: Kathleen Norris uses religious terms in this autobiographical work detailing a spiritual journey. Through use of the terms, the author is able to spiral through issues of societal and personal importance in a deceptively easy-going manner. The author's way of letting the reader enter into the work is masterly. She became a lay preacher of necessity when a small congregation of which she is a member sought to keep the church open for services as a new pastor was sought. She was told that as a poet she could function in the post. She felt that as a relatively new adherent to the religious way she was not a good choice, but she could hardly refuse in the sense that the community had to be maintained. She came to feel that poems were finished pieces of work, but sermons were ongoing, more of a matter of process and implicitly, in her case, growth. Use of humor prevents the work from becoming maudlin. Hard and careful explication creates a realistic and intelligent result. There is much in the book concerning monasticism which has bearing on the religious practice of an individual believer.
Rating: 
Summary: beautifully written but disappointing
Review: Kathleen Norris's love of the English language makes her often a joy to read. Her stories are often riveting, and some of her chapters are spectacular. Amazing Grace often left me sad, though, since Norris's understanding of Christianity, Scripture, and religion are so modified by her own desires. This is an interesting book about religion, and much of it is very good, but unfortunately large parts of it are not true. Norris seems to like the idea of religion in general (leaning toward Christianity, but finding other religions more or less equally true), but she has a lot of "escape hatches." Particularly since she sees no need for Scripture to be "literally" true, but rather poetically true--apparently just a guide to religious experience--she can explain away the hard passages. But without the hard passages, the beautiful ones lose their power also. Without the beautiful ones--for example, eternity, grace, and God's absolute holiness--Christianity isn't worth the work. Because indeed Christianity is not a "pretty" religion that's always fun, with converts always getting along in perfect harmony and experiencing full joy and wonderful lives. But without hard truths like the damnation sin deserves, grace is meaningless. It was odd to see a Buddhist quoted about his feelings about John 14:6 (Jesus' assertion that He is the only way to God, He is the truth, and He is the life). A Buddhist has by definition rejected John 14:6, and thus his feelings about its "niceness" are irrelevant. Similar "all religions have the same meaning and the same ultimate end" passages appear throughout the book. But religions are not all the same; they contradict each other on the most important points, and insisting there's no big difference between them is saying it doesn't really matter whether or not a religion is true. Christianity isn't about calming our troubled psyches with charming music and religious gatherings; it isn't even about how we define words (although that is important). But it is about truth-and the truth is that Jesus Christ has offered us truly amazing grace, forgiveness to cancel even the greatest sins we have done. This book takes the reader only partway, and that may be a valuable service as long as the reader doesn't stop only partway but takes the next step. The next step is to read what the Bible itself says. Start with what it says about Jesus. He's not at all the way you've pictured Him, if you've never read the Bible for yourself. (If you haven't read the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, start with one of them.) For one thing, Jesus had no sympathy for organized religion that avoided truth, failed to love people, and justified its followers' own pet sins. He got in trouble with religious leaders because He showed love and forgiveness to very sinful people (prostitutes, tax collectors who cheated innocent citizens, etc.). In fact, the religious leaders were the ones who got Him killed-which should say something about how far from a vaguely spiritual "all religions are equal" He must have been!
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