We are pleased to offer this list of books recommended by our staff.

This book is a series of ten articles by various authors applying the principles of Viktor Frankl's "logotherapy" to the issue of aging. Logotherapy is a theory and practice of psychology that Viktor Frankl developed while a prisoner at Auschwitz concentration camp. While there, he kept many fellow prisoners alive and thriving by helping them to transcend their circumstances. He encouraged them to live for a responsibility higher than self.

There is a call and yearning in every person to strive for meaning. This is what makes people really human. Frankl's anthropology is very positive and existential. The goal of a logotherapist is to stimulate the will of the person to search for meaning. The therapist simply helps the client see his or her circumstances with new eyes and renewed vision like an ophthalmologist corrects our ability to see.

This meaning that one is called to search does not exist in a vacuum. This search and will for meaning is guided by three distinct yet related pathways to meaning:

1. Through what we give (creative works)


2. Through what we receive from the world in terms of values, virtues, and convictions


3. Through the stand we choose to take in response to circumstances we cannot change

Meaning is gained when a person transcends self and circumstances by devoting themselves to something or someone beyond self.

The book relates Frankl's logotherapy to other schools of thought in psychology and theology. Frankl and Charles Gerkin are compared. Dr. Melvin Kimble applies logotherapy to pastoral counseling. Scott Peterson compares logotherapy with Luther's "theology of the cross."

Every good book will inspire the reader to search for answers to deeper questions. Here are mine:

• How can I as a chaplain foster meaning for the semi-comatose resident?


• How can I inspire a resident to search for meaning who seems to be stuck in despair?


• Does God ever hide meaning from a person as a test of faith?


• Can a person embrace meaninglessness as their discovered meaning of life like the preacher in Ecclesiastes?


• Is it possible for anyone to find meaning to life apart from Christ?

The Church & Homosexuality: Searching for a Middle Ground by Merton P. Strommen, Kirk House Publishers, Minneapolis, MN, 2001.

Merton Strommen is a Lutheran pastor, a research psychologist with a doctorate in educational and clinical psychology and is a "Fellow" in the American Psychological Association. Through this book, he seeks to understand the nature of homosexuality and its implications for the church. Much of what he says is based on literature about male homosexuality because scientific information about lesbians is limited. However, he notes strong similarities. Strommen asserts that the terms "gay" or "straight" are not absolute categories because there is a continuum between the two polarities of heterosexuality and homosexuality. The most widely held opinion on the cause of homosexuality is that multiple factors play a role.

Strommen considers the question of whether or not a homosexual orientation should be considered normal and whether or not a homosexual orientation can be changed. As a Lutheran pastor, he examines the biblical material on homosexuality. He also discusses the gay agenda. His final chapter is devoted to articulating various positions in the church regarding homosexuality.

He writes, "I believe that what is needed is a dialectical approach to ministry that avoids the two extremes and offers an intelligent, well-informed, compassionate response to the difficult questions surrounding homosexuality and the church." I think that Merton achieved his objective and I would recommend this book to anyone who seeks to understand this difficult, emotionally-charged issue.

Faithful Conversations: Christian Perspectives on Homosexuality edited by James M. Childs, Jr., Fortress Press, Minneapolis, MN, 2003.

This volume was commissioned by the conference of Seminary Presidents of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and written by seminary faculty for Lutherans as well as Christians throughout the wider Church. The authors sought to provide a biblical and theological discussion of homosexuality as the ELCA entered a study of the topic and addressed the question of blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of homosexual persons in committed same-sex relationships.

Chapters one and two discuss the Bible and Homosexuality and a Lutheran Reformation perspective on homosexual practice, respectively. Martha Ellen Stortz helps the reader to reflect on Christian sexuality in the context of one's baptism into the Body of Christ. Richard J. Perry, Jr. and Jose David Rodriquez look at homosexuality through the lens of multiculturalism. Daniel Olson invites the reader to consider the ways that we talk about sexuality and the challenges for such a conversation.

I appreciated the authors. efforts to present a fair and balanced approach to homosexuality. This volume is a helpful companion to Merton Strommen's The Church and Homosexuality: Searching for a Middle Ground.