c. 2004 Religion News Service
(UNDATED) Several new books mine the rich ores of American religion, examining topics from spirituality at colleges to traditions of the Jewish year. Each volume is distinguished by the attention to detail provided by its author or translator.
In “The Book of Customs (HarperSanFrancisco),” Scott-Martin Kosofsky offers a modernized guidebook to the texts, rituals and liturgies of Judaism. Included is everything from the days of the week to life’s major milestones such as weddings and births. Kosofsky’s work is the first English translation of “The Book of Customs.”
A book designer, he encountered a 1645 edition of the Minhogimbukh, or “Customs Book” 15 years ago while studying Jewish imagery. The volume Kosofsky happened upon was a lavishly illustrated guide written in Yiddish.
Described as something of a hybrid of prayer book and almanac, such books were common in Jewish households across Europe from 1590 to 1890. Kosofsky’s version, debuting this October, updates the book for modern use.
In “The Separation of Church and State (Beacon Press),” Forrest Church, senior minister of All Souls (Unitarian) Church in Manhattan explores the unusual vision of America’s founders for how the sacred and the secular might best co-exist.
Including essays by noteworthy historical figures such as Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and George Washington, Church strives to get beyond current arguments over religion’s role in the public square by returning to these original writings. Separating church and state began when the founders sought to ensure citizens’ right to freedom of worship.
Indeed, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution mirrors much of the language included in assorted statements of colonial rights. “Though new to the annals of statecraft,” Church writes in his introduction, “the American experiment in religious liberty was not without foundation, both in British Common Law and Christian Reformation teaching.”
This collection of essays, edited by Church, will not end arguments over the appropriate role for faith in civic life, but it does offer perspective on the continuing debate.
College students struggling to discover a comfortable spiritual identity will find enrichment and reassurance in “Spirituality 101: The Indispensable Guide to Keeping _ or Finding _ Your Spiritual Life on Campus (SkyLight Paths).” Released this summer, the book includes contributions by students from 30 campuses across the nation. Their essays reflect wisdom, humor, sadness and personal growth.
In the story of his tenure on the baseball team of a New England Catholic college, one student describes his loneliness, alienation and eventual spiritual awakening as the lone Lutheran on the team. Three years of good-natured, but annoying heckling from his Catholic teammates drove him to examine his roots, as a Lutheran of predominantly Swedish descent who was reared on a farm in rural Illinois.
“Having the experience of being different drove me night and day to learn about religion on a grander scale,” writes Dale Johnson II. “I found an immense freedom in being a minority on campus because I was not bound by the same limitations”
In the very next essay, Muslim Shadi Hamid seeks hope in the face of bleak TV images of “endless bloodshed and hatred.” One of those “defining moments” of life came for him during his sophomore year when he yearned for plain cheese pizza in a university cafeteria offering only four pizza pans of pepperoni.
“You can imagine my disappointment because, as a Muslim, I cannot eat pork,” Hamid writes. To his surprise, he soon found himself commiserating with a fellow student who was a Jew.
As the interfaith pair swapped complaints about a cafeteria featuring too many pork dishes, they found common interfaith ground in a world wracked with religious hatred.
MO/JL END
(Cecile S. Holmes, longtime religion writer, is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of South Carolina. Her email address is: cholmes(at)sc.edu)
