Augustine: Conversions to Confessions by Robin Lane Fox, Basic Books, 688 pages, $35
Rare is the spiritual character whose life story is deserving of nearly 700 pages of inquiry. But St. Augustine, the bishop of Hippo in ancient North Africa and author of the 13-volume Christian masterpiece “Confessions,” is certainly among those for whom such a weighty tome is warranted.
And in the hands of English classicist, ancient historian and Oxford University don Robin Lane Fox, all the more so. Such is the power of Lane Fox’s pen that this biography, which begins with Augustine’s birth in 354 A.D., captures our modern-day attention, ignites the imagination and sets the soul stirring.
“Augustine: Conversions to Confessions” is a compelling read as the author unspools the life story of the man whose youth and young adulthood might best be described as debauched (complete with childhood thievery and a concubine in his early teenage years), but whose conversion at 32 and later confessions stand as a cornerstone of Western thought, and a paradigm for sin-to-salvation narrative nearly two millennia later. No trifling undertaking, this is a tome for the erudite spiritualist, or simply the reader with an eye toward elegant historical chronicling. Lane Fox calls Augustine’s “Confessions,” a prayer “from start to finish,” and claims it’s one that “no Christian before or since has equalled.”
A page-turner that might last the whole winter long, come spring you’ll be all the more enlightened. It’s a subtle meditation to the end, one that seeps through painstaking history and mindful analysis. This deeply nuanced portrait has been called “a masterpiece” by early readers. If you’ve ever been drawn to deeper understanding of Augustine or his “Confessions,” this book will fuel certain spiritual flame.
The Tao of Happiness: Stories from Chuang Tzu for Your Spiritual Journey by Derek Lin, Tarcher/Penguin, 144 pages, $15.95
The parable as prescriptive is one of the great paradigms for spiritual teaching, and in “The Tao of Happiness: Stories from Chuang Tzu for Your Spiritual Journey,” as illuminated by Taoist teacher Derek Lin, the lessons are deep and rich and lasting.
It’s a slim volume; all the better for slipping into a backpack or briefcase or big ol’ purse. Lin has thoughtfully curated the teachings of Tzu, one of the great Taoist sages. And, in lucid prose, Lin takes those ancient teachings and reveals their modern-day relevance. Consider for instance, Tzu’s parable of the Shu tree, “its trunk all twisted lumps and knotty bumps; its branches are all bent and crooked. It has no straight runs anywhere that could be used as timber, so carpenters and builders pass by without a second look.”
Here, Tzu introduces the idea that the misfit might be more blessed than first imagined, and its gifts lie deeper within.
“This big Shu tree is no different,” writes Tzu. “You consider it useless, but think about what happens when you plant such a tree in an empty field. Everyone will come to enjoy its shade and rest freely under its shelter. As you have pointed out, no one will ever chop it down, so it will always be around.”
And thus, the truth is revealed of “the quiet strength beyond the understanding of the conventional mind.”
In all, 18 Tao lessons worth close attention.
The Good Book: Writers Reflect on Favorite Bible Passages edited by Andrew Blauner, introduction by Adam Gopnik, Simon & Schuster, 320 pages, $27
Perhaps you like your soulfulness cafeteria-style. A taste of this, a soupcon of that. “The Good Book: Writers Reflect on Favorite Bible Passages” is, delightfully, abundantly, the smorgasbord for you. With 32 writers weighing in on what stirs them most in the Bible, and the brilliant Adam Gopnik igniting gray matter with his thought-stirring introduction, this is one of those marvelous collections you can dip into for a moment’s sustenance, or linger for a long read.
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Convincingly, Gopnik, best known as The New Yorker staff writer, insists that “the Bible remains an essential part of the education of what used to be called the well-furnished mind.” Its stories and poetries might be called on for “guidance through the harsher perplexities of earthly existence,” he writes, or simply because the “fugue of doubt and faith, experienced as argument and art, is the music of our lives.”
You’ll find Tobias Wolff on the Prodigal Son, Kathleen Norris on Deuteronomy, even the good Rev. Al Sharpton on the Book of Psalms. With so many voices coming at the Old Testament, or Hebrew Bible, and the New Testament, this book feels, in the best way, like stepping into a big-tent spiritual revival. Not everyone who writes here is a believer, but all write believably, and the hard edge of their disparate voices put up against each other makes for textured lively reading.
Whether you’re fluent in all things Biblical, these pages will open layers of meaning and draw you deeper into contemplation of the essential questions and quandaries found in its chapters and verse.
Barbara Mahany is the author of “Slowing Time: Seeing the Sacred Outside Your Kitchen Door.” Twitter: @BarbaraMahany