This book is going to be one on my "read again and again" shelf.. It is the first book in years (if ever) that I was compelled to mark up. It is delightfully written. The author was raised in mainstream American protestant religion, then left organized church membership during her college years. As her career as a poet progressed, and her husband endured some incidents of deep depression, she began to visit Benedictine monasteries close to her home in North Dakota, and discovered the poetry of Judaic/christian scripture. Eventually, she re-joined the Presbyterian church of her grandmother, and was called to preach.

Her book is a series of short, beautifully written essays (none more than 5 pages long) about the 'vocabulary of faith' as she calls it. There are thoughts on there are excerpts on such words as Heresy, Reprobate, Idolatry, Anger, Herod, Hospitality, Orthodoxy, Ecstacy, Trinity, and a host of others.

It is difficult for me to explain how deeply this book affected me, and how personally inspirational I found it. She certainly is well-studied, but it is the poetic insights that she imparts to traditional scriptural and 'doctrinal' terminology that is so gripping. The fact that she manages to weave her personal story into this is almost a cherry on top a huge sundae.

It may not be the book for everyone, but if you are looking for a positive, beautifully written, easy to read book, you will not go wrong with this one. ( )

this book was such a life saver--it came out just as I was falling into deep depression and I bought it in hardcover. KN has such a way of explaining faith as only an adult convert can. I had the pleasure of hearing her speak/read poetry at PTS a few years ago. ( )

Taking a cue from Frederick Buechner, Norris, a former New York City poet, has written a religious dictionary of Grace. This is a great book to thumb through, but unlike her other books, it is topical, a series of short essays. ( )

Although I love Kathleen Norris, there has yet to be a book of hers I have read (The Cloister Walk, Dakota, and now this) that I could give a full five stars to. She always has many wonderful nuggets of wisdom, but they tend to get buried a little between the vast amount of topics covered and the length of her books. This is another example of this. I loved joining her in the process of redeeming these words that had distressed her and trying to make them her own and something palatable. She has a wonderful way of thinking and I really appreciate the diverse background she is in taking on her subjects. ( )