"Our ridiculously fallible language becomes a lesson in how God's grace works despite and even through our human frailty. We will never get the words exactly right. There will always be room for imperfection, for struggle, growth and change. And this is as it should be." With observations like this one, Kathleen Norris, author of Dakota and The Cloister Walk, has again provided a salutary corrective for contemporary Christians in Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith. The book is about how she learned to use religious words, such as "incarnation," "idolatry," and "evangelism." Norris is a feminist, a theological conservative, a sophisticate, and a country bumpkin. And she's one of the few living Christian writers who can be described as truly great.

From Publishers Weekly
When poet Norris (The Cloister Walk) found her way back into church in the early 1980s, she was unsettled by what she calls the "vaguely threatening and dauntingly abstract" vocabulary of the church. Many of the words, like "Christ," seemed to her code words churchgoers used out of convenience when they could not find other words to use. Other words?like "salvation," "conversion," and "dogma"?seemed to Norris to be too abstract to reflect meaningfully her own experience. In this "vocabulary of faith," Norris draws upon her considerable poetic skills to refashion the vocabulary of the church into her own religious vocabulary. In each of these meditations, Norris uses anecdotes and humor to invest these words with fresh meanings. On "Salvation," for instance, she tells the story of an acquaintance who had become relatively successful in a new venture with his business partner. But, when Norris's friend realizes that his partner will go as far as committing murder to succeed, he leaves the partnership and returns home. Norris describes this victory as the beginning of salvation, "to make sufficient," because her friend "realized the road he was on was not sufficient; it could lead nowhere but death." In "Conversion: The Scary Stuff," Norris retells the story of Jacob's wrestling with the angel to demonstrate the struggle we all undergo in seeking the face of God. Norris's lyrical prose rings with clarity and grace as she brings life to her experience of the church's vocabulary. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Best-selling spiritual author Norris (a former LJ reviewer) uses her poet's natural grasp of language to clarify terms like faith, grace, and judgment.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
The vocabulary of faith can act as an opening or a barrier to one's relationship with God. Words like "incarnation," "exorcism," "inheritance," even "belief" sometimes sound like code, with hidden meaning understandable only to those elite faithful who belong to an inner circle of theological comprehension. Kathleen Norris explores dozens of these words, one by one, and in the process opens the doors of faith to seekers at every step on the path of Christianity. Kimberly Schraf presents the essays as if she were telling her own story of faith. Her clear, unpretentious voice glows with confidence and warmth, sharing the joy of the text and the peace of its message. R.P.L. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

From Booklist
Norris has tapped into a widespread and deeply rooted concern with matters of faith. Her highly original and extremely moving books chronicling her return to the church after a 20-year absence, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography (1992) and The Cloister Walk (1996), have become best-sellers, a remarkable feat given their often radical and always poetic approach to Christianity. Here, in her third volume of spiritual musings, Norris once again offers a unique and provocative blend of the personal and the theological, the historical and the contemporary, showing by the very nature of her free-flowing and keenly observant narrative how faith can, and must, permeate every aspect of life. A poet, she is exquisitely attuned to the power of language; a writer of great candor, she admits that Christianity's vocabulary of "scary" words was a major factor in her leaving the church, a barrier, she realized, she had to dismantle. She accomplishes that feat by working her way through an entire lexicon of significant and mysterious terms, using each as the focus of a spiritual meditation. Following her own private line of inquiry, she begins with eschatology, the Antichrist, and silence, then moves on to inheritance, exorcism, and perfection ("one of the scariest words I know"), displaying, in each instance, unfailing lyricism, sharp wit, and splendidly intuitive interpretational skills. Belief is a process, she writes, "a relationship like a deep friendship, or a marriage," its size, contours, and demands unknown and unending, and absolutely essential to a compassionate life. Donna Seaman

Book Description
From Kathleen Norris, the author who "writes about religion with the imagination of a poet" (Chicago Tribune), comes this unusual, accessible, and profound investigation of Christian faith. Taking as her starting point the "scary words" that can intimidate and distance us from our religious heritage--words like judgment, faith, dogma, salvation and sinner, Norris blends history, theology, storytelling, etymology and memoir to help us reflect on their meanings. Always entertaining, and thought provoking, Norris awakens us to the possibility of belief. Through this exhilarating journey, readers will come to know more about the gradual conversion and the daily struggle for faith that Norris described in her bestseller The Cloister Walk. Amazing Grace will grant an illuminating perspective on how we can embrace ancient traditions and find faith in the contemporary, everyday world.

From the Publisher
9 1.5-hour cassettes

FROM THE PUBLISHER

From Kathleen Norris, the author who "writes about religion with the imagination of a poet" (Chicago Tribune), comes this unusual, accessible, and profound investigation of Christian faith. Taking as her starting point the "scary words" that can intimidate and distance us from our religious heritage — words like judgment, faith, dogma, salvation and sinner, Norris blends history, theology, storytelling, etymology and memoir to help us reflect on their meanings. Always entertaining, and thought provoking, Norris awakens us to the possibility of belief. Through this exhilarating journey, readers will come to know more about the gradual conversion and the daily struggle for faith that Norris described in her bestseller The Cloister Walk. Amazing Grace will grant an illuminating perspective on how we can embrace ancient traditions and find faith in the contemporary, everyday world.

FROM THE CRITICS

Boston Globe

A unique and glorious voice.

San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle

One of the most eloquent yet earthbound spiritual writers of our time...frequently irreverent and funny...She makes us converts to her simple faith.

Publishers Weekly

When poet Norris (The Cloister Walk) found her way back into church in the early 1980s, she was unsettled by what she calls the "vaguely threatening and dauntingly abstract" vocabulary of the church. Many of the words, like "Christ," seemed to her code words churchgoers used out of convenience when they could not find other words to use. Other wordslike "salvation," "conversion," and "dogma"seemed to Norris to be too abstract to reflect meaningfully her own experience. In this "vocabulary of faith," Norris draws upon her considerable poetic skills to refashion the vocabulary of the church into her own religious vocabulary. In each of these meditations, Norris uses anecdotes and humor to invest these words with fresh meanings. On "Salvation," for instance, she tells the story of an acquaintance who had become relatively successful in a new venture with his business partner. But, when Norris's friend realizes that his partner will go as far as committing murder to succeed, he leaves the partnership and returns home. Norris describes this victory as the beginning of salvation, "to make sufficient," because her friend "realized the road he was on was not sufficient; it could lead nowhere but death." In "Conversion: The Scary Stuff," Norris retells the story of Jacob's wrestling with the angel to demonstrate the struggle we all undergo in seeking the face of God. Norris's lyrical prose rings with clarity and grace as she brings life to her experience of the church's vocabulary.

Francine Prose - Elle

It's hard to imagine less off-putting or pious writing about religion than this sublimely commonsensical lexicon of words and concepts that, as Norris explains them, have rarely sounded less frightening — or quite so simple to understand.

Michael Milburn - The New York Times Book Review