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Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, is perhaps the best-known proponent of using meditation to help patients deal with illness. (The somewhat confusing title is from a line in Zorba the Greek in which the title character refers to the ups and downs of family life as "the full catastrophe.") But this book is also a terrific introduction for anyone who has considered meditating but was afraid it would be too difficult or would include religious practices they found foreign. Kabat-Zinn focuses on "mindfulness," a concept that involves living in the moment, paying attention, and simply "being" rather than "doing." While you can practice anything "mindfully," from taking a walk to cleaning your house, Kabat-Zinn presents several meditation techniques that focus the attention most clearly, whether it's on a simple phrase, your breathing, or various parts of your body. The book goes into detail about how hospital patients have either improved their health or simply come to feel better despite their illness by using these techniques, but these meditations can help anyone deal with stress and gain a calmer outlook on life. "When we use the word healing to describe the experiences of people in the stress clinic, what we mean above all is that they are undergoing a profound transformation of view," Kabat-Zinn writes. "Out of this shift in perspective comes an ability to act with greater balance and inner security in the world." --Ben Kallen
Book Description
“Happy 15th birthday to one of the great classics of mind/body medicine! More than any other, Full Catastrophe Living is the book that enabled Americans to discover the inner life. This book has brought peace of mind to hundreds and thousands of people and healed countless lives. This is your chance to let it heal yours.”
–Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D., author of Kitchen Table Wisdom
It is everywhere around us. Even worse, it gets inside us: sapping our energy, undermining our health, and making us more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and disease. Now, based on Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s renowned mindfulness-based stress reduction program, this groundbreaking book shows you how to use natural, medically proven methods to soothe and heal your body, mind, and spirit. By using the practices described within, you can learn to manage chronic pain resulting from illness and/or stress-related disorders…discover the roles that anger and tension play in heart disease…reduce anxiety and feelings of panic…improve overall quality of life and relationships through mindfulness meditation and mindful yoga. More timely than ever before, Full Catastrophe Living is a book for the young and the old, the well, the ill, and anyone trying to live a healthier and saner life in today’s world.
Customer Reviews:
Mindfullness.......2007-09-28
My boss suggested this book. He was correct that it would help me manage a personal crisis.
The Feeling Good Handbook.......2007-09-16
this is an awesome book to help those with anxiety,depression or someone expeiercing stress related problems . I only wish i had it sooner.
Meditation does not have to mean sitting still.......2007-07-28
Being mindful is a well-known technique for lowering stress. Jon Kabat Zinn has the experience to show us how this is done. I really liked this book and his descriptions.
However, as a person with ADD, the idea of trying to sit still for 45 minutes and quieting my mind seemed impossible. But after his explanations of walking meditation and using yoga as meditation I could see myself meditating.
This book is a classic and rightly so. Well worth your time (for reading and trying the techniques) and money (for the book, and if you use yoga for the accessories).
WONDERFUL!.......2007-07-19
I echo what others have said, it opens up a new way of thinking about life. All of it-the good and bad. How you relate to the world as a whole, and the possibilities that awit you. It's not magical and "out there" but rather down to earth and user-friendly.
Doesn't matter your religion/lack of religion. It integrates very well with my Christian faith.
This book lets you consider things at your own pace and doesn't force anything on you. It deals with your reality and success isn't defined as being 100% happy all the time. Are you sad? Deal with that. Are you scared? That's ok. Are things going well? Great, now we can move onto new things from here.
I also have "where ever you go, there you are". As a biologist I feel this one is more intriguing but they both have a place.
A remarkable book.......2007-07-03
This is an extraordinary work, which will be of immense value to those suffering pain or grave illness. Its value lies in very practical, repeat practical, advice based on clinical practice and experience which have benefited many. It is original and pathbreaking. Above all, it holds out hope to those who may have abandoned it.
Customer Reviews:
The second volume of a trilogy.......2006-12-14
In this superb novel the linguist Jeremy Cook (introduced in the mystery novel, "Double Negative," 1980), is hired by a marriage-counseling firm, the Pillow Agency, which "embeds" linguists in the homes of couples with troubled marriages, the theory being that so much marital strife is due to faulty communication. Jeremy's instructions are to follow the steps enumerated in the "Pillow Manual" he is issued, but he finds he has to fall back on his own training and good nature to keep things afloat. It is not necessary to have read "Double Negative" to enjoy this installment, but it is always satifying to know more of the background of the characters when encountereing them for a second time. The third title in the series, "The Error of Our Ways," was published in 1997. Obviously Carkeet was not pressured to keep Jeremy Cook constantly beofre the public, but the novels are all the better for that.
Understated comic genius.......2001-06-09
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The Full Catastrophe is as compelling and potent as a mystery, despite the fact that the "detective" in this case is linguist Jeremy Cook, and he bumbles through several well-meaning attempts to discover what the "horror" in the Wilson's marriage is. Carkeet's wit is intoxicating, yet he manages to take a back seat to the characters and let the day-in-the-life story unfold with perfect pacing. I can't ignore the probable similarities between Jeremy Cook and Carkeet, but one thing marks a clear distinction: Jeremy knows nothing about marriage until Carkeet unveils it to him.
How can someone so smart be so naive?.......1999-08-17
David Carkeet is known more for his young adult fiction, but I find him a very satisfying author of light adult fiction that carries a running intellectual thread. The characters are not so quirky that they are contrived nor so stereotypical as to be completely predictable; unfortunately they do demonstrate the suspicion that a higher education does not guarantee success in any endeavor. The ironies are not particularly inspired but part of the charm of this and also his "Double Negative" is the way events unfold with an unremarkable inevitability. I enjoy this book. I put it in the category of Patrick Dennis.
Laughs on every page!.......1997-05-12
Linguist-in-residence Jeremy Cook returns for an unlikely debut as live-in counselor to a couple trying to fix their sputtering marriage. There are laughs on every page in this entertaining dissection of holy matrimony. Jeremy moves in with the prosperous Wilsons and tries his best to get beneath their language, to analyze the "horror at the core" of their relationship
Hilariously inventive!.......1997-03-03
A live-in linguist tries to save a marriage - a comic gem. Highly recommended
Average customer rating:
- Contemporary fiction at its best
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The Full Catastrophe
Daniel Paisner
Manufacturer: Writers Club Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Contemporary
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ASIN: 0595010180 |
Book Description
The world is too much with Terence Bander, a once larger-than-life Hollywood icon, who worries his best years are behind him, and that the very stuff of those years (his kids, his ex-wives, his agent, the downward course of his no longer legendary career) is conspiring against him.
The world is not nearly enough with Alex Pimletz, a going-nowhere obituary writer for the Boston Record-Transcript, who worries his life has passed him by, and that he will never be caught in the same currents that move everyone else.
Bander, on an impulse, guides his car off a cliff along the Maine coast, hoping to emerge from his presumed death a richer man with no money or prospects but at least a bottomless serving of possibility. Pimletz, on a whim, is hired to complete the "fallen" icon's memoirs, and the assignment emerges as his first piece of possibility in a long while.
The Full Catastrophe, the darkly funny second novel from New York Times best-selling author Daniel Paisner, mines the rich territory between hope and despair, fame and infamy, whim and recklessness. In the hands of one of the more prominent "ghost-writers" in publishing, The Full Catastrophe offers pointed note-and-comment on the merchandising of our movie stars, politicians and business leaders, and the vagaries of our popular culture.
Customer Reviews:
Contemporary fiction at its best.......2000-11-28
This book is dark and funny and contains more hip pop culture references than Dennis Miller at the top of his game. I found Paisner's other novel, Obit, in the library a few years back - and I've been waiting for a follow-up ever since. The writer gets inside of each character's head in a very compelling way, quickly bringing the reader into the narrative. The characters are at once deep and easy to understand, a strange mix that somehow works. There are sequences throughout the book that delve into the various players' streams of consciousness that are simply brilliant. This is among the best contemporary fiction I have read in quite some time - and I recommend it wholeheartedly.
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The full catastrophe
Tracey Leonard
Manufacturer: Hodder Headline Australia
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Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: 0733611168 |
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Full Catastrophe Living
Jon Kabat-zinn
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Kabat-Zinn, Jon
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ASIN: B000GQWDQC |
Product Description
TWO BOOKS * YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND WOMEN AND MEN IN CONVERSATION. * THE FULL CATASTROPHE.
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Full Catastrophe
William Lee Cdydr 1041 Ellis
Manufacturer: YELLOW DOG RECORDS
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
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ASIN: 6307939559 |
Book Description
In his classic study The Masks of God, Joseph Campbell conducted us on a fascinating global tour, showing how the seeds of myth grew in a similar fashion throughout the history of civilization. Before Campbell there was Sir James George Frazier who, in The Golden Bough--his pioneering study of magic, relgion, and folk custom--demonstrated how world mythologies exhibit "the effect of similar causes acting alike on the similar constitution of the human mind in different countries and under different skies." Now, in Beyond the Blue Horizon, eminent astronomer E.C. Krupp guides us expertly through a bewildering maze of cultures and civilizations--from the stone age to the present day--making clear that while the skies of these diverse peoples may vary, they speak nearly the same language. Beyond the Blue Horizon is a treasure trove of myths, legends, and stories in which people have, through the ages, attempted to understand the cosmos and its meaning for humankind. Collecting an astonishing amount of lore between the covers of a single book, Krupp explains why our ancestors were so intrigued by the heavens, and what their celestial stories meant. Readers will learn, for example, that many cultures saw a rabbit--rather than a man--in the moon, and that this moon-rabbit, as a symbol of sacrifice and rebirth, is a cousin of our own Easter Bunny; that to our ancestors, an eclipse challenged the stability and integrity of heaven and thus threatened order and life on earth; that the magical sleighride and chimney antics of Santa Claus echo the ancient journeys of shamans and witch doctors; that our "dog days" of July and August originated in Roman times with the summer appearance of Sirius, the Dog Star; and that the contemporary stories of UFOs reveal the mystery and meaning the sky still holds for us as we approach the twenty-first century. Of course, there is much, much more that will delight and intrigue; even readers familiar with world mythology will find plenty that is new and strange in Krupp's rich panorama. An epic, authoritative, and cross-cultural exploration with over 150 illustrations, Beyond the Blue Horizon tells how all civilizations searched the sky to understand to universe--and our own place in it.
Customer Reviews:
Extensive.......2002-07-07
Krupp has written a book that is comparable to Frazer's Golden Bough and Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces. He traces the evolution of sky myths from cultures around the globe. Krupp does an excellent job of capturing the meaning and beauty of these stories, and pieces them together in a well-crafted narrative.
Really Facinating Book..........2000-03-28
Beyond the Blue Horizon: Myths and Legends of the Sun, Moon, Stars, and Planets, is a very interesting and amazing read-- it confronts many possibilities of the place outside our blue sky, and gives the reader something to think about for long after the last page is read. Not only is this book worth reading for the pure fun of it, but it teachs you things that may come in handy at dinner table conversation. Facinating is the word that comes to mind... the myths about the stars and planets can sometimes be good bedtime stories, and over all, this book keeps you wanting more.
Book Description
Fifteen years ago, Prince Rupert and Princess Julia saved the Forest Kingdom from the long night of the Blue Moon. In the aftermath they were heroes.
Now Hawk & Fisher are tough cops in the crime-torn city of Haven. The last thing they need is a reminder of who they once were.
But the Blue Moon is threatening to rise again. The Forest Kingdom needs their heroes again.
They need Rupert and Julia. What they'll get is Hawk and Fisher.
Praise for Blue Moon Rising:
"Delightful fantasy."-New York Daily News
"This fantasy adventure is one readers will savor and enjoy for a long time to come."-Rave Reviews
"Really stands out from the crowd...Breathes new life into an old story."-Science Fiction Chronicle
And Hawk & Fisher:
"Intrigue and magic...an interesting and well-conceived blend." -Science Fiction Chronicle
Customer Reviews:
You'll never please everyone.......2004-03-07
But in this case, the only thing that did not please me about "Beyond the Blue Moon" was that it ended. I've heard a lot of praise for "Blue moon Rising", the prequel to the Hawk and Fisher series, but I came upon that book only shortly before "Beyond the Blue Moon". My Hawk and Fisher were in Haven and this seemed like a truly worthy send up of the two dealiest individuals in fantasy writing. My only regret is that Green isn't filling in a few more blanks in the lives of Hawk and Fisher in Haven. I honestly can't get enough of them.
let's see more of these two........2003-09-08
I read the Hawk and Fisher books before I ever knew "Blue Moon Rising" existed, I found it in a used book store and felt like I struck gold. These books are witty, fun, well written, and thouroughly enjoyable, (and it must be said that bad guys getting thier just deserts is always a good thing even if it is just fiction.) Beyond the Blue Moon was not quite as good as Blue Moon Rising, but that's rather like saying that a T-bone isn't as good as a ribeye steak. I think Mr. Green has lots of room to work with Hawk and Fisher, I don't see those two settled down on a little backwater farmstead raising kids and chickens.
Seriously disappointed.......2003-07-23
I adored "Blue Moon Rising". It was moving, unsual, and had that real sense of myth that the best fantasy works have. "Beyond the Blue Moon", whether in comparison to its predecessor or considered on its own, is trite.
Hawk/Rupert's brother, King Harald of the Forest Kingdom, has been murdered and his Champion comes to Haven to bring back the legendary Rupert and Julia (Fisher) to solve the crime and set all to rights. This immediately establishes this book as a Hawk and Fisher story, which is a problem. While the Hawk and Fisher stories are good for what they are, for me the feel of those books just doesn't fit with the atmosphere established in "Blue Moon Rising". If you want mythic power, emotional power and character insights, you won't find them here. And the whole "We're Hawk and Fisher, we don't take nuthin' from no-one and we're so devoted to each other" shtick is wearing pretty thin by now.
Anyway, Hawk and Fisher destroy half of Haven as their going away present to the city they hate and travel to the Forest Kingdom incognito to solve Harald's murder. Cue a witless succession of cliches, smart aleck conversations, return of old characters, and an overly heavy dollop of religion before the book ends. But worse than the lame and overly lengthy storyline is that ending. EVERYTHING is resolved, tied up, explained, married off, killed off or buried. By the time Green is done with "Beyond the Blue Moon", nothing is left. There's no more room for further stories in the land he created. And I think that's sad.
So why two stars? Some people like their favourites series to end this way, and may have no fault to find whatsoever. I'm not one of them.
Blergh..........2001-12-19
The heading says it all really... I have read and reread blue moon rising more times than i can count, and would easily call it one of my favourite novels. Naturally, i was excited when i heard of the coming sequel, and rushed to read it when it came out. I was bitterly disappointed. It was like a rushed effort to get all the characters together for a badly thought out adventure that ends like a bad scooby doo movie. Properly done, this could have been a great novel and it had some great ideas. As it is, i almost felt like weeping from disappointment when it was over. Avoid at all costs.
Funny, different and interesting.......2001-07-29
I have not read blue moon raising, before I read Beyond and did not even know it excisted before I read the other reviews. It stands perfectly well on its own and I might still read the blue moon raising.
For mee the best part of this story is the humor in it. Its quite as funny as the Taltos books of steven Brust, probably one of the most funny sci-fi writers around. The story itself is also good, not to much of the stuff you think will come (the aint-I-smart-I-knew-what-would-happend stuff). The story is also quite refreshing in its ability to discuss many of the philosophical questions around gods, interference and free will. There are obviosly hidden references to much and to many historical people here. At the same time the plot itself is good again without falling into to much black and white trap as many fantasy novels tend to do. I also like his gutsy women, its a lot of girlpower in this book.
For the humour I give it a five, for the inventive story behind the story I give it a four, for the story itself a three, all in all a quite good four.
Customer Reviews:
Jak's universe gets bleak.......2004-08-22
3.5 stars rounded down to 3.
A couple years after Duke of Uranium frat boy archetype Jak Jinnaka is happily ensconced at the Public Service Academy causing trouble with his buddy Dujuv. Upon receiving a message from his ex-girlfriend he trots off to the rescue.
However, he quickly finds out that his ex-girlfriend princess wants nothing to do with him and is in fact a cold-hearted, manipulative murderess grasping for power while making a harem of her personal guard. By happenstance he enrages her by stopping an assassination attempt and is shipped out to Mercury to be kept out of her clutches.
In Mercury, Jak involves himself in helping the down-trodden miners who are being placed under the thumb of a crimelord who is quickly monopolizing the entire planets mining industry. In order to do this he is forced to make a very hard choice with an "ally" that may destroy his friendships.
We have really two different stories in this book. Both of them provide good background on the universe. The Aerie section of the book is the best, where Jak's innocence is peeled away layer by layer by the cold machinations of his ex-girlfriend. Jak's more noble actions on Mercury, including the hard choices he has to make just aren't written quite as well.
In the end Jak's growth is summed up nicely by his ex-girlfriend who lets him know nothing much has changed on Mercury despite his efforts, and his teacher who lets him know that he is just the kind of heartless person they need for the service. The universe pushes Jak around a lot here, he survives it but is greatly changed, a lot wiser, a lot more knowledgeable, and a lot less happy.
On the whole pretty good.
Serviceable and Promising Entry.......2003-12-21
I whipped through John Barnes' A Princess of the Aerie, which is the second installment of the adventures of Jak Jinnaka, Boy Spy of the Future! (Okay, I made up the boy spy tag, but essentially that's what he is.) It was all right for a quick lightweight read, although I'm not really down with the cover artist's insistence on making Jak look like Jerry O'Connell.
In this latest outing, Jak and his good pal Dujuv get shanghaied, more or less, by an erstwhile friend of theirs and end up dropping in on Mercury to bust up an evil cartel. The requisite amount of sex, kung fu fighting, and intrigue follows.
This is an okay series. It's set about 1500 years or so in the future and has a bit of a hard science edge. (Folks aren't whipping throughout the galaxy on hyperspace drives, and humanity still hasn't clawed its way out of the solar system, or at least not on a regular basis.) We now have alien neighbors camped out on Pluto as a result of a nasty interstellar war in which the Rubahy shipped into the outer reaches of our neighborhood and started bombarding the inner planets with small rocks going along at a hefty percentage of lightspeed. This went on for fifty years or so, until we finally punted a doomsday device into their nearby system and whipped their sun into a nova. Whereupon the previously hidden Galactics descended upon both sides and rebuked everyone jointly for genocide. They'll reach a decision in a coupla hundred years on which race to exterminate.
In the meantime, life goes on, and between the settled inner planets and the two major orbital clusters, the Hive and the Aerie, there are enough competing interests to provide for continual jockeying for position, although the people of Jak's time abide by the Wager and Nakasen's Principles, and these keep them from nuking each other in fits of pique. (The odd assassination or "accident" here and there is acceptable.)
Fairly good stuff, although in some respects Jak is more of a bystander in this book and Duj gets the bulk of the character development. The third installment is already out and features much greater growth on Jak's part. So far, this series is a weird balance of action, post-modern heroics, libertarian musings, crypto-cabals, and amoral politics. It bears watching.
Better than the Duke but not as Good as the King.......2003-08-13
The Jak Jinnaka series is getting better; not that it was bad at first, (I have yet to read anything by John Barnes that was less than very good) but "A Princess of the Aerie" is a bit better than the first novel in the series, The Duke of Uranium, and the third novel, In the Hall of the Martian King is the first one that rises to five stars.
While all three of these semi-comic space operas are enjoyable, Barnes really hits his stride with the third novel. But the first two, albeit not Barnes' best, are very enjoyable, and I would recommend reading them in order.
No, I won't summarize the story here; other reviewers have already done that at least as well as I could, probably better, so why be redundant?
AuthorZone.Com Book Review.......2003-07-24
Chances are the future of mankind will be very much as is depicted in this very powerful futuristic work of fiction!
It will leave you breathless and wishing you lived for another 2000 years!
Candide All Over Again.......2003-05-19
A Princess of the Aerie is the second novel in the Jak Jinnaka series, following The Duke of Uranium. In the previous volume, Jak, his tove Dujuv, and the Rubahy warrior Shadow on the Frost have freed both the future Duke of Uranium and Princess Shyf from their captors. Moreover, a minor society reporter, Mreek Sinda, happened to record some of the kidnapping while covering the concert and added to the story to produce a documentary on his exploits which had little correspondence with reality, but was nonetheless very popular. This success put her into the big time, but her subsequent efforts have all been duds. Hoping that lightning will strike twice in the same spot, Sinda haunts his life, checking with him every now and then, looking for another good story.
In this novel, Jak and Dujuv have pulled another incredibly ignorant stunt, so they have been called to the Dean's office for a chewing out. Since this is a familiar procedure, neither one is too worried, but the Dean makes a special effort this time to understand Jak's reasoning for taping the Venerian Joy Day orgy and selling the tape to his fellow students. Even though the students are now impressed by the Venerians, the Venerians are spitting mad. Treaty negotiations between the Hive and Venus have not gone well since the tape distribution was discovered.
The Dean observes that Jak compulsively ignores any directions given to him and just ad libs everything. The Dean believes that Jak needs to develop some discrimination about following or not following directions. Also, the Dean believes that Jak needs to absorb a great deal of ethnographic information or he might well end up with a war named after him. To accomplish these goals, the Dean requires Jak to repeat Solar System Ethnography until he earns top rank in the class and to then do the same in Advanced Ethnography. Moreover, Jak must submit a proposal for a Junior Task in which the directions are vague, the goals are unclear, and the situation requires interaction with non-Hive personnel with different goals. Dujuv's Junior Task is to assist and protect him.
After discussing the stupidity of the assignment with Dujuv, Jak returns to his quarters to find a message from Princess Shyf waiting for him on his purse. She asks for Jak, Dujuv, and Dujuv's former demmy Myx to come to Greenworld for an unspecified but confidential task. She has made reservations for them on the Hive battlesphere Up Yours and has requested CUPV duties for them so they will have something to do while traveling. She suggests that he show the message to his Uncle Sib, which Jak does. After some discussion, Jak decides to go and his friends also agree to go along.
After they reach Greenworld, they are told that the message is a hoax. However, Jak and Dujuv are offered an opportunity to sign up for the Royal Palace Guard and only later do they learn that the RPG is a stud service for the princess. Of course, they are quite willing to participate after the conditioning takes hold.
Once again, Jak displays his almost total ignorance of the real world and his elders are not giving him much guidance. He hasn't got a clue as to the situation, but one shock after another manages to bypass his aversion to learning and strike at his primitive survival instincts. By the end of the story, Jak actually appreciates the ethnographic info he has been studying. Pain has a way of facilitating learning and he gets a lot of pain -- physical, mental, and emotional -- in this story.
I was beginning to think that Jak is an anti-hero, providing lessons by counter-example, and that he was going to get maimed or killed before learning to tie his shoes, so to speak. While having a lot to learn, Jak may be finally giving in to the universal conspiracy to teach him things he doesn't want to learn. However, don't expect too much in the sequel; Jak could easily revert to his default setting: sweathog.
I still can't decide if I really like this series or not, but I am definitely going to read the sequel. It is almost like witnessing a gory accident; one cannot just pass by without looking.
Recommended for Barnes fans and anyone else who enjoys reading about a young dolt consistently shooting himself in the foot by opening his mouth, yet instinctively doing the right thing to get out of trouble.
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- Social history of Early New England popular religion
- Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgement
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Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England
David D. Hall
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
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Binding: Paperback
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Many Thousands Gone: The First Two Centuries of Slavery in North America
ASIN: 0674962168 |
Book Description
This book tells an extraordinary story of the people of early New England and their spiritual lives. It is about ordinary people--farmers, housewives, artisans, merchants, sailors, aspiring scholars--struggling to make sense of their time and place on earth. David Hall describes a world of religious consensus and resistance: a variety of conflicting beliefs and believers ranging from the committed core to outright dissenters. He reveals for the first time the many-layered complexity of colonial religious life, and the importance within it of traditions derived from those of the Old World. We see a religion of the laity that was to merge with the tide of democratic nationalism in the nineteenth century, and that remains with us today as the essence of Protestant America.
Customer Reviews:
Social history of Early New England popular religion.......2006-03-03
In Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment, David Hall makes a strong case for defining popular religion in early New England as an interdependent endeavor influenced by both clerical and lay forces. Hall analyzes the relationships of the clerical and lay populations at the book market, in the meetinghouse, and during the performance of rituals. He asserts that these locations act as significant social and religious intersections in which the clergy and the lay population must negotiate their differences. The consensuses they reach are often unstable and must be renegotiated, but this seems to be the major impetus behind Hall's work: Popular religion is about negotiation, market competition, meetinghouse parleys, and arbitrated ritualism.
The final chapter of the novel is a treat of sorts - selections from and analysis of the diary of Samuel Sewell. Sewell's writings bring Hall's book together in the words of a real person who lived in Early New England. I recommend this book for its intelligence, clarity, and unique subject matter.
Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgement.......2000-05-05
Hall uses the popular religion of early New England to argue that for clergy and lay people alike religion was a part of everyday life, and although the clergy and lay people's religious interpretations of events could differ their choices of interpretation were limited by their shared culture. Hall argues that the vast majority of the early New Englanders shared a common middle class background and a common religious background influenced by the Reformation. Both the clergy and lay people agreed that it was especially important for each person to be able to read the Bible on his own. But, the power to read the Bible also gave lay people the confidence to have interpretations of the Bible that differed from those of their ministers. The belief in wonders, supernatural events or extraordinary events (earthquakes, meteors, etc.), was a remnant of their Elizabethan culture. Both clergy and lay people attributed religious meanings to wonders, with the clergy sometimes writing popular books detailing wonders. The popularity of these stories encouraged the printing of wonder books not written by clergy as well. By the later 1600's, the clergy were increasingly attributing wonders to explainable natural events, but with the self-confidence gained by their literacy lay people still often gave religious significance to natural events. Their shared culture made universal literacy extremely important, but literacy empowered lay people to disagree with clergy sanctioned interpretations of Scripture. This empowerment of the lay people went so far as to have them feel confident enough to disagree with their ministers over the issue of sacraments, particularly baptism and the rites of the Last Supper. This confidence also gave lay people the ability to break rituals, such as confession, weddings (dancing even though it was prohibited), and sickness (relying on doctors and folk medicine instead of only on prayer).
Books:
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- I Should Be Extremely Happy in Your Company: A Novel of Lewis and Clark
- In Another Place, Not Here
- In Defiance of Painting: Cubism, Futurism, and the Invention of Collage (Yale Publications in the History of Art)
- Indulekha
- Jane Austen's Charlotte: Her Fragment of a Last Novel
- L'Immoraliste (Folio)
- Le Pere Goriot
- Lorna: The Ark (Lorna)
- Loyal Subject (German Library)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Making Common Sense Common Practice, Third Edition: Models for Manufacturing Excellence
- Dog Years: A Memoir
- Tutankhamun: His Tomb and Its Treasures
- A History of the County of Essex: Volume IX: The Borough of Colchester
- An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life
- History: Fiction or Science
- Colorado Nature Almanac: A Month-By-Month Guide to the State's Wildlife and Wild Places
- ABCs of AIDS prevention: Uganda has been widely recognized for its successes in stemming the AIDS cr
- XEROX AMERICAN SAMURAI
- How Do You Spell Haagen-Dazs
Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life
Guided Mindfulness Meditation (Guided Mindfulness)
Mindfulness for Beginners
Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness
The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness (purchase includes audio CD narrated by Jon Kabat-Zinn)
