The Great American Catholic Benedictine Sister Chittister opens for us the universal, eternal meaning of...

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	• The Ten Commandments: Laws of the Heart Sister Joan Chittister Orbis Books, 2006 - 152 pages average customer review:based on 5 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Another great book from Sister Joan

This book is an excellent one on the Ten Commandments. It has an historical part, an explanation and a series of questions about what the commandments mean in our world today. It has the usual insights of Joan Chittister and makes one think hard about what the commandments mean in our world today.

Bringing Biblical Morality into today's world

The Ten Commandments is a concise study of the Ten Commandments, as given to Moses on his first trek up Mount Sinai. Chittister does in only 150 pages what most writers have been unable to do in lengthy tomes. She discusses the commandments from a historical standpoint, attempting to analyze them in light of the culture in which they were written. She gives us a contemporary situation in which we can see how the commandment plays out in today's world. She also gives us pithy snippets for us to meditate on to increase our understanding of each commandment. In doing so, she opens up our understanding of the Ten Commandments, taking them out of "bible-speak" and making them relevant as guidelines that we can use to guide our pathway toward gaining a deeper understanding of our relationship to God and to our fellow people.

If you are interested in gaining a better understanding of our place with God and each other, this book is a very worthwhile read.

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Rethinking What It Means to be Christian

I have never read anything written by Joan Chittister that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed. The Ten Commandments - The Laws of the Heart is no exception. Chittister causes me to re-examine my priorities, the possibilities and the potential. Listen to the following:

"If we fail to rethink what it means to be a Christian, to be a carrier of the Judeo-Christian tradition, in this day and age, the next day and age may be far more stark, exceedingly more threatening, extremely less hopeful, and seriously less spiritual than any we have ever known before. We must rethink what it means to be a moral agent in this society." P. 1.

A champion for the need for inter-faith understanding and collaboration, Chittister pulls no punches in this book. She applies new insights into interpretations of the commandments that have practical application to lives lived amongst the challenges of today.

I heartily recommend this book.

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Not Your Father's 10 Commandments

If I could simply copy even 10 percent of Chittister's latest work here, I am convinced that anyone who got so far as to look up this title would put it right in their Amazon shopping cart and maybe even order extras for friends. With copyright law what it is, I will have to use other means to express my conviction that this is an important resource with unique insights on a topic many of us thought we had "down cold."

First, a word about the book's design and the author's style. Chittister's presentation is marked by logical progression, clarity, and command of the material. As she announces in the introduction, she applies three points of view to each commandment: its meaning in the early Jewish community, current situations to which it applies, and personal considerations aimed at broadening the reader's perspective. She also integrates a brief explanation on differences between Jewish and Lutheran/Catholic naming and numbering systems for the first two and last two commandments, a fact that could cause confusion among readers if it were not addressed.

Throughout the text Chittister returns to the issue of what the Ten Commandments are and are not; for example, they are about "praise, human responsibility, justice, creation, the value of life, the nature of relationships, honesty, veracity, desire, and simplicity of life." They are not about restrictions; they are an adventure in human growth.

I will use the chapter on the fourth commandment (Honor your father and your mother) to illustrate the effectiveness of the author's three-pronged approach. She sums up the theme of Israelite life as an unyielding belief that humans, who are only "slightly lower than the angels," are possessed of dignity, rights, and value. The fourth commandment, Chittister writes, reminds us we are not worlds unto ourselves, demands that we respect the past, and builds perspective into the human race. Today, the fourth commandment calls on us to honor not only parents and children, but also those "who brought you beyond self-centeredness to the decent human self you are today." The 12 reflections that round out the chapter include the concept that each of us gives birth to the next generation "by being either wise or foolish, loving or hostile, arrogant or humble in their presence."

These insights and the others that spill across the pages of "The Ten Commandments" are powerful tools for individuals and groups with a serious desire to embrace discipleship more fully.

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The Great American Catholic Benedictine Sister Chittister opens for us the universal, eternal meaning of the Ten Commandments

Sister Joan Chittister for a generation now has written beautifully about the meaning of our Faith and its practice, in particular the Benedicitne charism. She also recently co-authored the great and necessary work for peace and unity: The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Here in this present substantial and significant volume published by the great Catholic printing house Orbis Books, she opens up for us today the profound and eternal meaning of the Ten Commandments.

Some nowadays fight for public display of the Ten Comandments in order not to have to read them and practice them. Others ask where do you find these commandments listed as such in the Holy Bible. Others attempt to retranslate these commandments to fit their own loopholes and prejudices and permit such extraordinary and sinful horrors as modern warfare and capital punishment.

Sister Joan quietly and thoughtfully simply calls us home to the Commandments, gently and deeply explaining their meaning to us.

You find here each commandment as traditionally written, appending the "Great Commandments" spoken of in the Gospels, to love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all of your might and all of your soul, and your neighbor as yourself.

Each commandment in this fairly thick volume receives its own chapter, clearly entitled to establish themes and perspectives. For instance, the commandment to Honor thy father and thy mother is called The Law of Caring.

The beautiful chapter discussing the commandment so important for our times: THOU SHALT NOT KILL! is entitled The Law of Life. Read it.

Clearly this is a book valuable for every Catholic and everyone to read, to pray, to meditate and to put into practice. It serves as an excellent prreparation for the Sacrament of Reconciliation; it is perfect lectio divina.

Please gift anyone you love with this strengthening and guiding book from the wisdom, eloquence and Faithfulness of Sister Joan. This book is a pillar of our Faith, a place of rest and refuge for our troubled times, a way home once more.

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