Cecile Holmes
Cecile Holmes is an author at Religion News Service.
All Stories by Cecile Holmes
Scholars cast critical eye on Graham’s legacy
By Cecile Holmes — March 21, 2008
c. 2008 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Ecumenist, prophet, peacemaker. Friend of presidents and queens. Evangelical powerbroker who was sometimes too closely tied to politicians. Each description applies to Billy Graham. An official 1991 biography by William Martin called America’s foremost evangelist a “Prophet With Honor.” The editors of a new book largely agree, but not […]
Books trace real and imagined history of Christmas
By Cecile Holmes — December 18, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The origins of the first Christmas are complicated. Establishing their historical authenticity is probably impossible, but then, that’s not the real point of Christmas, according to the authors of three new books on the holiday. In “The First Christmas,” leading scholars Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan explore […]
Books trace real and imagined history of Christmas
By Cecile Holmes — November 30, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The origins of the first Christmas are complicated. Establishing their historical authenticity is probably impossible, but then, that’s not the real point of Christmas, according to the authors of three new books on the holiday. In “The First Christmas,” leading scholars Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan explore […]
Books show how to give thanks beyond Thanksgiving
By Cecile Holmes — November 14, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) It’s been 386 years since grateful Pilgrims invited local Indians to join them for a three-day feast in the autumn of 1621, sowing the seeds for what we now know as Thanksgiving. And while giving thanks may not be as fashionable now as it was then, experts say it […]
Book probes poetry’s power to stir the soul
By Cecile Holmes — November 7, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Poetry is that unusual combination of words with the power to move, delight, nurture and transport us beyond the here-and-now. It can also nourish our souls, say the authors of a new book celebrating how poetry can kindle the spiritual in attentive readers. “Poetry slows us down, it asks […]
Author’s Odyssey Takes Her to Slave Cemetery
By Cecile Holmes — July 18, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service CHARLESTON, S.C. _ From early adulthood, a yearning for soul connections pushed China Galland beyond her parochial school education in Dallas and her ancestry in East Texas. Eventually her searching took a circular path, bringing her back to where she began. She recounts that odyssey in her newest book, “Love […]
New Book Brings Together 10 Years of Thoughts on Faith, Meaning
By Cecile Holmes — March 21, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) A new book based on interviews from the PBS program “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly” finds a spiritual hunger beneath the secular veneer of modern culture, with many searching for something beyond the material world. “The Life of Meaning” (Seven Stories Press, $29.95, 448 pp.) was edited by the show’s […]
New Book Brings Together 10 Years of Thoughts on Faith, Meaning
By Cecile Holmes — March 20, 2007
c. 2007 Religion News Service (UNDATED) A new book based on interviews from the PBS program “Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly” finds a spiritual hunger beneath the secular veneer of modern culture, with many searching for something beyond the material world. “The Life of Meaning” (Seven Stories Press, $29.95, 448 pp.) was edited by the show’s […]
A Big Book Explores Big Faith in a Big State
By Cecile Holmes — December 8, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) If you go looking for faith in the Lone Star State, travel slowly or you might miss the turns that take you deep into the heart of Texas. There you’ll find religious diversity as wide and varied as a summer Texas sky. Such a world awaits readers of the […]
New Books Sew Faith, One Stitch at a Time
By Cecile Holmes — August 25, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Books espousing the Zen-like benefits of knitting, crocheting and quilting abound as enthusiasts for the sewing arts praise their similarity to prayer and meditation. The new titles highlight a growing movement linking faith and the sewing arts, one offering practitioners the opportunity to bring spirituality out of houses of […]
Jordan’s Sites Require Protection From Tourists
By Cecile Holmes — July 7, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Biblical history flows through the nation of Jordan, from the cave where Lot is said to have lived after his wife turned into a pillar of salt to the archaeological park where many believe John the Baptist baptized Jesus. Abraham passed this way as he traveled from Mesopotamia to […]
Excerpts From Books on Founding Fathers’ Faith
By Cecile Holmes — June 30, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The authors of these three new works view the founders of the United State _ especially George Washington _ as men of faith. But after exhaustive research, they see that faith as being personally understood and lived out in different ways in the founders’ private lives and public statements: […]
Faith of Our Fathers: New Books Explore Convictions of Nation’s Founders
By Cecile Holmes — June 30, 2006
c. 2006 Religion News Service (UNDATED) America’s founders were principled men who struggled with their personal convictions in crafting the structures and documents ensuring the nation’s tradition of religious liberty, according to three new books on the founders’ faith. Two of the books _ “Washington’s God: Religion, Liberty and the Father of Our Country” by […]
NEWS FEATURE: Book Asks: What Kind of Civil Religion Will We Have?
By Cecile Holmes — August 20, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (UNDATED) In her new book “Broken We Kneel: Reflections on Faith and Citizenship” (Jossey-Bass), Diana Butler Bass calls believers to examine U.S. actions and policies in light of Christian teaching and tradition. As the nation’s two major political parties try to link ideologies and presidential candidates to having the right […]
NEWS FEATURE: Lynne Hinton’s New Novel Tells a Darker Story
By Cecile Holmes — August 14, 2004
c. 2004 Religion News Service (UNDATED) An odd alliance between a widow and her husband’s illegitimate adult daughter emerges from the tangled emotions at play in Lynne Hinton’s newest book. Love, loss, infidelity, betrayal, grief and suffering all come into play in the popular writer’s novel, “The Last Odd Day” (HarperSanFrancisco). In this slim volume, […]
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