General-Order

I am a landscape photograper, like Mr. Varjabedian is, but not as good. His photographs are some of the best I have ever seen in my entire life, even better than Ansel Adams. This book is about "Los Hermanos Penitentes," or the Penitent Brothers, a Catholic lay brotherhood that was founded because of a lack of preists in New Mexico. The Brother's activities have always been very secret, but have been aggrandized by the early white settlers in the region. Mr. Wallis' text illuminates and fully explains this unusual brotherhood. I highly, highly reccomend this book to anyone interested in the history of New Mexico or, anyone who appreciates fine black and white photographs.

David Lonsdale is a longtime veteran of Ignatian spirituality, having been involved for 40 years in the teaching and formation of adults in this consummate tradition. With the wisdom of years, Lonsdale captures in this introduction the essence of Ignatian spirituality, especially according to the more accurate understanding obtained in the light of 1960's scholarship. According to this renewed understanding, discernment of spirits occupies a central place in Ignatian spirituality--indeed, argues Lonsdale, in Christian spirituality itself. "It is not always recognized that discernment lies at the heart of Christian spirituality," he says (p. 89).

In order to define "discernment," there is no better authority to cite than Lonsdale himself. He writes:

...Discernment of spirits in everyday life involves us in a process of sifting our daily experiences by noting and reflecting regularly on our affective responses to God and to life and its events. It means noting, for example, situations and events in which we experience joy or sorrow, peace or turmoil, attractions or revulsions, an opening out to others or a narrowing in on ourselves, a sense of God's presence or absence, creativity or destructiveness. The purpose of observing and reflecting on these patterns of responses is that they deepen our sense of ourselves and they can show us where, for each of us, our Christian path lies, where the Spirit of God is leading (p. 95).

Discernment thus becomes the touchstone of sanctification and locates the basis for moral action in the intimate communication between the Holy Spirit and the soul. Hence, the allusion to Jesus' words in the book title, "Eyes to See, Ears to Hear."

The motif of discernment allows us to understand in terms of a unifying theme the various aspects of Ignatian spirituality discussed in the book. For example, when Lonsdale examines Ignatius' life in the opening chapter, "Images of Ignatius," we are made to understand that Ignatius travelled an atypical path in his spiritual life. Ignatius pursued his quest for holiness outside the structures of the traditional religious orders. Consequently, it was almost inevitable that he should develop a spirituality of discernment in order to map with some assurance his path to God.

In successive chapters, Lonsdale expounds Ignatian spirituality in a pattern of enlarging meaning. He begins by delineating the image of Jesus and of the Trinity in Ignatius' soul. He describes the characteristic features of Ignatian prayer--dispelling traditional misunderstandings--and then clarifies the genuine meaning of the Spiritual Exercises as well as the distinctive practice of Ignatian spiritual direction. He examines Ignatian spirituality embodied in the Jesuits and contextualized in the institutional Church. He underscores the special congruence between Ignatian spirituality and the condition of lay Christians, which is marked by autonomy. Finally, he delves into current issues in Ignatian spirituality, such as rigidity, adaptation, and inculturation, thereby casting new light on these issues in relation to Christian spirituality in general.

Some insights are especially helpful in the area of spirituality. He identifies the true purpose of spiritual direction as well as the potential for its abuse:

...The term 'spiritual direction' often has unhappy and off-putting associations in many people's minds. It can evoke images, for example, of an authoritarian priest-confessor clandestinely telling penitents what to do and demanding more or less unqualified obedience....These and other associations are, to say the least, distasteful to people who believe in personal freedom, open discussion, consensus, and democracy and who reject authoritarianism and exploitation in any form. In the recent revival of Ignatian spiritual direction it has had to be made clear that the director does not have an authoritarian or any kind of manipulative role; it is not the director's function to hold the directee in a relationship of dependency or to persuade the directee into a particular course of action, much less to impose his or her own convictions or 'way' on another person. The director is there to facilitate growth through discernment (p. 142).

He defines the reality of personal vocation in terms of discernment:

...It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that this process of finding and being faithful to one's own personal path of discipleship within the Christian community is simply a matter of once-for-all decision from which the rest flows as it were automatically....More commonly the process of following out a personal calling has a cyclic rather than a linear shape. It is a question of constantly rediscovering God's love in the different circumstances of life, and constantly re-expressing our responses to that in the concrete choices we make (p. 150).

He expresses the newfound understanding of obedience in the Ignatian tradition:

...For Ignatius, in order to be effective, the collaborative relationship of authority on the one hand and obedience on the other presupposes on both sides a willingness to work together in discernment. It is not a matter of one person in authority telling another what to do without reference to that person's gifts and inclinations, and demanding unquestioning 'blind obedience' (p. 167).

He acknowledges the inherent limitations of foundational charism and fingers the dangers arising from an uncritical approach:

...One of the reviewers of the first edition of this book pointed out that it was not critical of Ignatius nor of the spirituality that derives from him. It is a point well made. I wrote the book with some enthusiasm for Ignatian spirituality and with an attitude of generosity towards Ignatius and his life and writings. I was disposed to place a good construction on his words and actions and on the founding events and texts and to interpret them in a favourable and helpful light. The reviewer's remark, however, does highlight a very important issue: there are dangers for devotees of a particular tradition of spirituality in endorsing it, if their enthusiasm is unreflective or insufficiently critical (pp. 206-207).

Thus Lonsdale describes a path to God in which truth--the truth of a life lived in discernment--is consistent with Christian spirituality.

Fortune's Warriors is an incredibly insightful look into a growing industry that will only increase in relevance with our world's uncertain future. The subject is former military veterans, most of them coming from Special Operations units of western countries, that hire themselves out to foreign goverments.

The general population, largely ignorant on the subject, would quickly label them as mercenaries, but for the first time I've ever seen in any book, the author takes a hard analytical look at exactly what that term really means in comparison to the images it conjures when formulating world opinion.

A mercenary could very well be a sociopathic criminal thrill seeker, looking for a way to satisfy a delusional urge. In this day and age, however, he's more likely to be a former professional soldier, helping to stabilize a region and protecting non-government aid organizations to distribute needed supplies and medical care to war torn areas of the world. The mercenary could very well be a professional soldier within a western military force, such as the French Foreign Legion. If anything, this book shows that the word mercenary does not have a cut and dried definition.

This particular industry ranges from companies that simply compile risk analysis reports on various areas of questionable stability, to former soldiers who train foreign militaries, all the way down to the Private Military Coporation, who will come in to fight your war for you, provided you are recognized in the international community as a legitmate goverment.

The book also talks about the troubled history that these security companies have with different parts of the UN, and how regulation and policy that might be set by the UN requires a closer look.

The book is full of real world examples, most of them taken from the tragic and war torn Sierra Leone. It describes how a South African based Private Military Company called Executive Outcomes was able to come in and assist the government in surpressing an extremely violent and brutal rebel movement. The rebels had tortured civilians, cutting off villager's limbs was almost a form of recreation for them, and EO managed to come in and restore order in a matter of weeks. The villagers welcomed them in the streets, and even the usually pacifist NGO workers had to acknowledge their positive presence. The true tragedy of the story lies in the protests made through the UN, and EO had to leave, which plunged the country right back into chaos.

In a more uncertain world where western militaries are spread more and more thin, this subject deserves much more attention then it recieves. In many cases, the men who are Fortune's Warriors could very well be their only hope.

Gendered Voices is a book that will change your whole outlook. It is investigative journalism and medieval history tied up in a very informative package. Revealing the deliberate biographical twisting of women's lives by men so that one size fits all and that size is exactly what is culturally expected is the topic of this beautifully written book. For anyone seriously interested in the lives of women medieval mystics and medieval religious movements in general, this book is an absolute necessity. The twisting and fabrication of hagiographies into a male acceptable gruel without texture or flavor has misrepresented and belittled the lives of these fascinating women. This book helps set the record straight.

Unravels the root causes of poverty, terrorism and war. A must read for all those who want to understand the world and how the Western elite have manipulated the world economy and geography to create pseudo-slavery under the guise of "freedom". A must read for all those who love true freedom and human dignity.

Fifty years after his death members of the Bruderhof communities (which he founded) chose those excerpts of Arnold's talks and writings, which they felt, were the most moving and relevant to them personally. This selection became the manuscript for God's Revolution, which Plough later published. Orbis Press has also just come out with another fine book entitled Eberhard Arnold / Writings Selected that readers of this book should look at. It is part of their Spiritual Masters series.

Anyone who shares my passion for the Gospel and Ignatius of Antioch can't afford not to have this book in their personal collection. His mastery of the inner meanings of the Gospel are unparralleled. For anyone caught in the tumultuous seas of Biblical Literature, this book is the lighthouse that will guide you to truth.

A short book of just over 40 pages but really great into to these insects! Each page has a big color photo of the cricket/grasshopper being discussed and the opposing page has text about it. The book is broken out into where you're likely to find the particular critter: desert, fields/meadows, woods, your house. Pictures are good and the text is interesting - often caught myeslf saying, "huh. I didn't know that." It might be written more for school kids but this 30+ year old kid learned a bunch :)

This is a comprehensive study of what the author asserts is an unacknowledged genre - the alcoholism movie. Norman K. Denzin is best known for his writings in addiction studies, including 'The Alcoholic Self' [1987], and 'The Alcoholic Society: The Alcoholic Self and Its Recovery' [1993]. Where this book differs from his other work is in its synthesis of methodologies -from cultural studies, historical sociology, psychoanalytic film theory - in addition to social psychology. It places the notion of 'subjectivity' centre stage in arguing that cinematic representations offer multiple possibilities of identification and dis-identification to the viewer. This is a model that allows interactivity:- it is both reflective and generative of everyday social being and social consciousness. In this way, Denzin puts Raymond Williams' 'structures of feeling' to good use.

The Hollywood alcoholism films analyzed span the period 1932-1990. Its start is not arbitrarily chosen as it marks both the death throes of Prohibition and the ascendance of Hays Code production constraints on Hollywood depictions. This typifies, as Denzin sees it, deep-rooted ambivalence and contradictions in American attitudes to alcohol. From the repeal of Prohibition through to the 1960s, the 'Lost Generation' of alcoholic writers-turned-Hollywood-screenwriters influenced cinema representations. The leitmotif of hard drinking in their literary works has been written about extensively(see 'The White Logic: Alcoholism and Gender in American Modernist Fiction' John W Crowley 1994), yet contemporaneous film fictions are less well addressed. Denzin's 'Shot by Shot' redresses the balance by meticulous scrutiny of movies as film texts per se. Through solid scholarship and thorough research, he maps the trajectory of the genre from anti-alcohol through AA influenced illness concept to contemporary dysfunctional family theory.

The section on the 'double standards' in representations of female screen alcoholics is astutely handled, as is the Lacanian based section 'The Cracked Mirror and the Alcoholic Self'. The most compelling argument Denzin has however lies in the insistence on the legitimacy of an 'alcoholism genre' in cinema. The common strategy of attributing cinema texts to genres other than alcoholism ( e.g. 'Harvey' and 'Arthur' as light comedy, 'Lady Sings the Blues' as biopic) operates as a form of denial, and parallels the lived experience of alcoholics and their families. Indeed Denzin cites the use of Hollywood alcoholism films in re-hab treatment centres - used to facilitate the individual's rupture of denial, and their own self-attribution as alcoholic. If anything, Denzin could have developed this a little further through differentiation in both lived experiences and representations of ruptured denial - the slow dawning of identification as well as the epiphanic moment of realization.

Denzin's examples are well chosen and justified: redemption narratives, popular fictions and film biography. One wonders what Denzin would make of some of the cinema releases since the book's publication. Redemption and recovery certainly do not figure in such films as 'Leaving Las Vegas' (1995) or the explosively powerful British film 'Nil by Mouth' (1997). . Non-American cinema is sadly outside the scope of Denzin's book - and one of the best British interdisciplinary books, 'Images of Alcoholism' (British Film Institute 1979) is now out-of-print. The shift of focus from the cultural studies mainstays of age/race/class/gender to wider representations of 'attribute' will no doubt ensure that others will follow Denzin's lead in re-evaluating the alcoholism film genre.

This book is a brilliantly researched work of great significance to the literature of 20th century housing in Europe. Part of four great housing movements of the 1920's including Vienna, Frankfurt and Berlin along with Amsterdam, together they tell an important story of housing by and for people. One of the best parts of this book is the guide at the end which shows all of the most important projects on a map with detailed information about each including the number of units, the architects and the housing society responsible for each. This will be come a classic in its field.