September 23, 1998

To focus on spiritual practice means emphasizing the importance of making a deliberate attempt to relate to the sacred. To suggest that people of faith can benefit by paying attention to spiritual practice is hardly a novel idea. But Americans are conditioned to believe in quick fixes, often believing it sufficient to mutter a self-interested prayer or to be part of a religious community or to take solace in the fact that someone else has reported a dramatic encounter with an angel in the morning newspaper.

Frances Perkins knew how difficult life could be. As a settlement-house worker in Chicago, a church worker in Philadelphia and a factory investigator in New York City, she had learned why social legislation was needed and what it took to get it passed.

By Gregory Baum, The Church for Others: Protestant Theology in Communist East Germany. (Eerdmans, 173 pp.)

By John P. Burgess, The East German Church and the End of Communism: Essays on Religion, Democratization and Christian Social Ethics. (Oxford University Press, 208 pp.)

By William J. Everett, Religion, Federalism, and the Struggle for Public Life: Cases from Germany, India and America. (Oxford University Press, 240 pp.)