I found this a very helpful guide back to the Christian church, myself. Not couched in "charismatic" or "evangelist" language, it is down to earth and really provided a sense of peace while reading it.
(from the back cover)
Struggling with her return to the Christian church after many years away, Kathleen Norris found it was the language of Christianity that most distanced her from faith. Words like "judgement," "faith," "dogma," "salvation," "sinner"--even "Christ"--formed what she called her "scary vocabulary," words that had become so codified or abstract that their meanings were all but impenetrable. She found she had to wrestle with them and make them her own before they could confer their blessings and their grace...
(from the back cover)
Struggling with her return to the Christian church after many years away, Kathleen Norris found it was the language of Christianity that most distanced her from faith. Words like "judgement," "faith," "dogma," "salvation," "sinner"--even "Christ"--formed what she called her "scary vocabulary," words that had become so codified or abstract that their meanings were all but impenetrable. She found she had to wrestle with them and make them her own before they could confer their blessings and their grace...
An intelligent, sometimes quirky, often moving, always fascinating take on a variety of subjects both sacred and profane . . . With her lucid luminous prose, hard-headed logic and far-reaching metaphors, Norris has brought us the cloister at its most alive. SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
