Why is it sometimes necessary to search outside of the formal writing of theologians to understand our faith? I am best able to understand the majesty of Christ not when I read Karl Barth, but when I look at the lion, Aslan. I am best able to imagine how evil works not when I read John Calvin, but when I consider the one ring and how it destroyed the life of Gollum. I am best able to grasp the courage of our convictions, not when I read Jurgen Moltmann, but when I see Harry Potter's refusal to be seduced by the power that Voldemort offers him.

The Rock and the Sword: A History of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Kingston, Ontario Brian S. Osborne Heinrich Heine Press at Grass Creek This volume […]

Years ago when I watched the movie Schindler's List, I wondered how a ranking German officer came to be such a courageous man of conscience in saving a thousand Polish Jews from the fate of Hitler's final solution. What propels a person to live out ethical principles when the stakes are so high and the prevailing culture so seductive?

Christian Peacemaker Teams operate around the world, showing solidarity with those in the midst of war and upheaval. They advocate for human rights, speak with extremist groups and preach peace amongst chaos. It was created in 1988. Since then, teams have worked in Iraq, Palestine, Mexico, Haiti, North America and Colombia. Their motto, Getting in the Way, has enabled them to do Christ's work in the world's most heated conflict zones.

The hardest task in this book was picking my Bible. I saw this book sitting on my editor's bookshelf and immediately accepted the challenge. I thought this would be exactly the thing to introduce me to the Bible and help me gain a nice, rounded experience of the different texts.

Chicken Soup for the Christian Woman’s Soul: Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Patty Aubery, Nancy Mitchell […]

My memories of Stanford Reid are not happy ones. As a young teenager at St. Paul's, Ottawa, I remember dismissing the anniversary speaker as tiresome and old. Ten years later, that impression was not remedied when I heard him holding forth at Knox College on the ordination of women, the WCC program to combat racism and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It is with some surprise, therefore, that I found Donald MacLeod's biography of the man to be a very good read (sic).

The Pagan Christ – Recovering the Lost Light Tom Harpur Thomas Allen Publishers There is, it seems, in popular culture a sense that when it […]

The unhealthiest individuals are those who think there is no sin in them. Coming a close second are those who fear or know something is terribly wrong and can't or won't deal with it. Pity both, and pity those around them. The garbage becomes more deeply entrenched, seeping out to poison all systems: the person's own body and spirit, marriage, family, congregation, church, from generation to generation.

I have recently read two great books: Nikos Kazantsakis' St. Francis, which offers us the heights of love with its costly demands upon life, and Peter Balakian's best selling, The Burning Tigris, which in focussing on the Armenian genocide at the beginning of the 20th century offers disturbing testimony of the intensity of human evil and affliction. Based on my experience of these books, I have derived four criteria for measuring the substance and authenticity of spiritual guidance:

In his classic A History of Christian Spirituality, Urban T. Holmes writes "to be spiritual means more than to be capable of receiving God into our lives. It means that we are called to know God… God communicates… and we can receive that communication. How we receive that communication is another question." In Christ Wisdom: Spiritual Practice in the Beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer, Christopher Page delves into those deep questions about how we know God, and how we are known by God and transformed.

‘A committed Christian, a convinced Catholic’ Pierre Trudeau’s deepest secret by Walter MacLean From heights of love to depths of misery Determining the substance of […]

Reginald Bibby is the number one expert on religion in Canada. Restless Churches combines Bibby's reflections on data in the 2001 census with arguments from his recent book Restless Gods: The Renaissance of Religion in Canada (2001) and a modification of some suggestions for ministry presented in his 1995 book, There's Got to be More! Connecting Churches and Canadians.

The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Vol. V: 1935-1942, edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston, 2004.

Keep Your Kids Safe on the Internet, by Simon Johnson. McGraw Hill/Osborne.