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GOD REVISEDHow Religion Must Evolve ina Scientific AgeGuengerich, GalenPalgrave Macmillan (240 pp.)$25.00 | May 28, 2013978-0-230-34225-5A pastoral look at what “God” meansin the face of modernity.Guengerich, senior minister of NewYork City’s All Souls Church, has livedat two opposite ends of the religious spectrum. He was raisedas a conservative Mennonite but is now a pastor in the liberalUnitarian Universalist denomination. As a young man, hecame to the conclusion that the biblical God of his youth wasa myth and a farce. However, he soon realized that religion stillhad a role to play in his life and the lives of others. In the UnitarianUniversalist Church, he found an outlet for his views.In this work, Guengerich proposes a nontraditional outlookon religion and faith in the modern scientific age. The authorunequivocally rejects the idea of God as a supernatural being.In his view, modern science shows that there was no creator ormover of the universe, and reason and logic disprove the divinityof God as put forth in monotheistic Scriptures. However,he still proposes a “God,” defined as “the experience of beingconnected to all that is—all that is present, as well as all thatis past and all that is possible.” As such, he writes, each of us is“the face of God in this world,” a tremendous responsibility tobe lived out in community. Despite his commitment to reason,Guengerich relies on the mystical and mysterious to sell hisconcept of God. “Faith is something no one fully understands,”he writes. “It peers into the realm of mystery and transcendence….Faithis a commitment to live with the belief that lifeis a wondrous mystery.”Guengerich enriches his book with specific human elementsdrawn from his pastoral career, making it accessibleand even evocative. However, he is simply following in thefootsteps of thinkers across time who yearned for spiritualitybut rejected the world of the spirit. (The publisher of thistitle is at booth 1557.)UNREMARRIED WIDOWA MemoirHenderson, ArtisSimon & Schuster (288 pp.)$25.00 | Jan. 7, 2014978-1-4516-4928-4Journalist Henderson chronicles herpassionate but unlikely romance andmarriage to Miles, a fighter pilot whofit the stereotype, “American by birth,Texan by the grace of God.”In 2006, Miles’ helicopter crashed in bad weather, and therewere no survivors. They had met three years earlier in Tallahassee,when he was still in training. A recent college graduate, she hopedto travel and become a writer. A chance meeting at a bar led to animmediate attraction, and soon they were commuting back andforth on weekends between her Florida apartment and his, nearFort Rucker. He was politically conservative and a regular churchgoerwho joined the military after 9/11. The author describes herselfas a vehement opponent of the Iraq War, a young liberal “more NewAge-light than Biblical.” When Miles was reassigned to Fort Bragg,they decided to live together. The author describes the difficultiesof her life, as he was frequently reassigned, and she could only findminimum-wage jobs and felt little in common with the Army wivesshe met. Despite this and his frequent absence on deployment,the growing bond between the two was deepening. She called hermother for help, describing her frustration and posing the questionof whether she was wasting her education. When her motherasked, “Do you love him?” her reply said it all: “I love him more thananything.” They married in March 2006, and he deployed to Iraq inJuly. Henderson writes movingly of his poignant, last letter to her, tobe delivered should he be killed. She recounts how he urged her topursue her dreams and relates her struggle to do so, despite her grief.A MAJOR NEW COLLECTIONOF MODERN COMMENTARY,from scholars, historians and Civil Warbuffs, on the significant events ofTHE CIVIL WARIncludes essays fromesteemed contributorssuch as Ken Burns,Stephanie McCurry,Adam Goodheart,Edward Ayers, andmany more, coveringevents beginning withLincoln’s presidentialvictory throughthe EmancipationProclamation.Hardcover • 456 pages • ISBN: 978-1-57912-928-6 • $27.95Also available as an ebook.Available wherever books are sold.PUBLISHED BY BLACK DOG & LEVENTHAL; DISTRIBUTED BY WORKMAN PUBLISHINGDISUNION_Kirkus_rev.indd 14/19/13 7:05 AM| kirkus.com | nonfiction | bea special supplement | 27