Kathleen Norris presents eighty short chapters, each dealing with a large vocabulary of words important to Christians. Some are scary, some are comforting, some are merely coming from a curious mind, some are intimidating, some confer blessings and grace.
Drawing on her Christian background, but not necessarily a church-qoinq background, Norris attempts to strengthen her own faith through her writings, and to explore facets that may be new to her readers. She blends history, theology, story, and memoir into this book. Each short chapter examines a particular aspect of a Christian lexicon, and in the exploration, Norris comes to a
gradual personal conversion. The author attempts to present religion in a language often called alien and impenetrable, but she also shows the richness of many ancient traditions.
Norris says that she hopes to present these eighty topics “with a proper sense of humility before the great mystery of language, this human venture that
begins with the ear and the tongue and reaches for the stars.” She wants her readers to be aware of recognition, delight, grief, and even distress at they follow her through this remarkable lexicon.
(Thanks to Sr. Irene Hartman OP for this
review.)
