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Sarah Masters reviews the audiobook

The Great Divorce

C.S. Lewis's 1946 book The Great Divorce continues to spotlight the author’s genius for fable and allegory. Robert Whitfield is the narrator of the audio version of this unabridged edition, and Whitfield brings to life the story of the main character, not coincidentally a writer as well, who hops a bus that is destined to travel through Heaven and Hell.

In this 3-CD set, descriptions of sin and temptation are discomfiting in their familiarity and Lewis brilliantly holds up for close examination the consequences of daily behavior.

The main character meets through his epic journey many supernatural beings. In his first encounter, for example, the writer converses with a Spirit who murdered in life, repented, and was saved, and a Ghost who cannot fathom why “he is damned and the other is not.” Their actions and words resonate and cause the writer to intensively reconsider his concepts of good and evil.

As is well known to chaplains, Clive Staples Lewis (1898 - 1963) is considered by some to be the most influential Christian writer of his day.

Completed: 2003
Running Time: 180 Minutes
Distributor: HarperAudio, Unabridged Edition

If you are interested in purchasing this audiobook, you can do so at www.hartleyfoundation.org. The cost of the 3-CD series is $22.00.

Sarah Masters is the Managing Director of the Hartley Film Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to cultivation, support, production and distribution of the best documentaries and audio meditations on world religions, spirituality, ethics and well-being.

Book Review

Rev. Dale Pracht reviews

Speaking to Silence: New Rites for Christian Worship and Healing

Books (as well as other forms for communicating) are best understood when placed in their larger context. Specifically for this review it helps to know that Rev. Janet S. Peterman has written from her long faith journey among Lutherans, ministering in urban settings where experiences with Baptist and Pentecostal churches have added new understandings of celebration. She writes out of pastoral encounters where too often the Church has not provided guidance for its ministers; it has been silent.

The primary faith tradition that has formed my life has been Baptist. While our worship and pastoral care come in a variety of forms, generally these tend to be informal and with limited ritual. But with new experiences of ministry and worship among the more formal varieties of Christian worship, I have grown to appreciate and to incorporate ritual into designated times of worship. Now I am being challenged by this author to consider how “ritual is uniquely capable of bringing a word from God in the context of real and sometimes desperate human needs.” She argues for a place for ritual in pastoral care, and then provides twenty-one rituals addressing a wide range of situations as a beginning point.

Titles of the groupings for the rituals give some hint of their breadth:

Rituals Signs of New Life and New Community
Making Holy What Has Been Violated
Rituals for Recovery
Rituals of Blessings in the Presence of Death

With permission to adapt the rituals (with proper credits included on any printed copies), the book becomes far more than theory. It is practical.

This book is also a reminder that excellent pastoral care rarely results from simplistic application of sets of words and actions to every similar circumstance. Pastoral care is best provided by people who can listen to understand the needs present, who can draw from a wealth of resources and who can fearlessly adapt and tailor. To this end the author includes not only the wealth of her own rituals, but a concluding section on how to create one’s own new rituals and worship materials.

This book moves we Christian pastoral caregivers forward in our effort to speak to the silence that so often surrounds difficult life circumstances. It is a welcome addition to this chaplain’s resource bookshelf.

Peterman, Janet S., Speaking to Silence: New Rites for Christian Worship and Healing, Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, 2007, 195 pp.

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