Books

The Christian Travellers' Guides: France, Britain, Italy, Germany

Reviewed by F.T. Long

Contents - Aug 2001 - Buy a copy now Editorial: The Assumption of Our Lady: 15 August - Michael Gilchrist Melbourne's new Archbishop receives Pallium from John Paul II - AD2000 Report News: The Church Around the World After 14 years: why does AD2000 continue? - Michael Gilchrist Denver Archdiocese: the future of Catholicism - David Scott US bishops implement papal teaching on Catholic universities - Charles E. Rice Appreciating the Mass: a successful new publication - Fr Robert Egar PP Australian scholarship for African priest Letters: Balanced presentation (letter) - Denis O'Leary Letters: BEC success stories (letter) - Errol P. Duke Letters: BECs not new (letter) - John Barich Letters: Radical feminists (letter) - Dr T.R. White Letters: Statement of Conclusions (letter) - Mark Power Letters: Orthodox seminary (letter) - Paul Chigwidden Letters: Finding more priests (letter) - Theo Silvas Letters: Evolution/Original Sin (letter) - John Schmid Letters: Vatican II 'ambiguities' (letter) - George F. Simpson Letters: Choosing life (letter) - Mark Whybrow Letters: St Thomas Aquinas (letter) - Valentine Gallagher Letters: Generous response (letter) - Fr Stephen B. Muchemwa Letters: Mass leaflet (letter) - Stephanie McClarty Letters: Correct statement (letter) - Elizabeth Carr Books: Genetic Turning Points, by James Peterson - Bill Muehlenberg (reviewer) Books: The Cross of Anzac, by Tom Johnstone - Mark Posa (reviewer) Books: Hail, Holy Queen: The Mother of God in the Word of God, by Scott Hahn - Catherine Sheehan (reviewer) Books: Learning to Pray, by Julie Keleman - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: The DNA of God: Newly Discovered Secrets of the Shroud of Turin, Garza-Valdez - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: The Christian Travellers' Guides: France, Britain, Italy, Germany - F.T. Long (reviewer) Events: Victorian Thomas More Winter School 2001 in Ballarat, 3 - 5 August 2001 Events: Cardinal Lustiger to visit Australia, 6 August 2001 Events: Second National Chesterton Conference, 30 Sept - 1 Oct 2001 Reflection: Clerical celibacy: Giving ourselves up completely to God and the people He loves - Fr Dennis W. Byrnes PP

THE CHRISTIAN TRAVELLERS' GUIDES: To France, To Britain, To Italy, To Germany
General Editor Irving Hexham
(Zondervan/HarperCollins 2001, 240pp approx, $29.95 each. Available from AD2000 Books)

For those wanting to know a nave from a narthex or the ambulatory from the apsidial chapel, these are the books for you.

In what is clearly a labour of love, general editor, Irving Hexham, feels obliged to confess that these most accessible guidebooks grew from serious study undertaken by himself and his colleagues (he is professor of religious studies at Calgary in western Canada) and financed by his university and the Canadian Government.

Hexham prefaces each with a short explanation. These guidebooks, he writes, are "designed to awaken an awareness of Europe's Christian heritage among evangelical Christians, although we hope all Christians and others who are simply interested in Christianity will also find them useful".

He is as good as his word. While having a somewhat Protestant flavour in parts - principally in the introductory histories - Hexham is at pains to emphasise the cultural and artistic highpoints of all denominations.

His approach is straightforward and consistent throughout: a concise, informative history lesson, followed by an examination of the country's music, art and architecture, then an alphabetical listing of the country's important religious sites and, finally, a glossary of religious terms.

Interspersed throughout are pen-portraits of significant figures, e.g., John Ruskin, Julian of Norwich, Donatello, Galileo, Hildegard von Bingen, Martin Niemšller, Georges Bernanos and Charles Péguy; and self-contained capsules of information on subjects from the Carolingians and the Glastonbury myths to the Thirty Years' War and the Enlightenment.

These are streamlined volumes from which all extraneous material has been discarded and they are pitched at a specific but growing audience.

F. T. Long is a Melbourne Catholic writer.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 14 No 7 (August 2001), p. 18