Book Reviews by Dr. Vost
June 17, 2010 - Peggy Bowes' The Rosary Workout
My hat is off (and workout gear on) for Peggy Bowes' The Rosary Workout - an unlikely and unparalleled combination of beads of prayer with beads of sweat. The author has put together a very well-structured, methodical, easy-to-follow, and result-producing program incorporating cardiovascular training with prayerful meditation through the rosary. The book includes specific week-by-week routines for people at beginner, intermediate, and advanced fitness levels and it includes background material and how-to information on how to pray the rosary and why we should. Readers will enhance their knowledge and love of both the rosary and effective exercise, and will be chomping at the bit to put both into practice at once. I heartily endorse The Rosary Workout to men and women, young and old, beginner and advanced in physical or spiritual training.
(Peggy and I are in the midst of crafting the
plan for a DVD series incorporating the messages and methods of both her
The Rosary Workout and my Fit for Eternal Life, with plenty of
practical, step-by-step, how-to advice and demonstration for men and
women, teens and seniors, strength and cardio training, body and soul.
Any thoughts or suggestions?)
5/31/10 - Patrick Coffin's Sex Au Naturel
Sex Au Naturel
What the Book is About and Why It’s so Good
(A Review of Patrick Coffin’s Sex Au Naturel)
by Kevin Vost, Psy.D.
My first inclination was to entitle this review Joie de Vivre, borrowing from Patrick Coffin’s use of French phraseology, but I wanted to be sure to keep his own catchy and totally on target title front and center. His book builds upon Pope Paul VI’s encyclical of 1968, Humanae Vitae (On the Regulation of Human Life). That letter proved ever so controversial and divisive within the Church, and as for outside, well, I recall for example, that atheist Ayn Rand chose the title “Of Living Death” for her review of it. Patrick, though, shows how Humane Vitae is indeed all about joy of life, about experiencing the true joys of the bodies God gave us, and most especially that marital bliss that can bring forth joyful new human lives.
The central focus of Sex Au Naturel is an explanation of the Catholic Church’s teaching on contraception, and, as his subtitle makes clear, “What It Is and Why It’s Good for Your Marriage.” In telling us about the nature and the truth of this teaching on contraception, Patrick places it within the context of Church teaching on sexuality as a whole, including the theology of the body, and within the context of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the one from whom this teaching flows.
I was very impressed with how comprehensively Patrick addresses all the relevant theological, historical, scriptural, biological, sociological, psychological, and spiritual issues in a book of 134 pages. I certainly closed this book feeling educated and inspired and also equipped with a guide to a host of recommended readings and resources for further study and reflection. (And perhaps it goes without saying that Patrick, being Patrick, peppers his pages of words of wisdom with plenty of wit and panache!)
Patrick writes in 2010, with 42 years of subsequent history revealing the prophetic wisdom of Humanae Vitae. Though history has shown the sad results of a world that largely ignored or scorned its message, that message can still bring joy and life to those who would heed its lessons of “sex au naturel” today.
So, here in a nutshell is how he manages to tell us so much, so efficiently, so well. In eleven short chapters Patrick takes us through the history of Humanae Vitae (the “Little Encyclical that Could”) and its reception, the history of the Catholic Church’s (and indeed all of Christianity’s consistent until but recently) stance against contraception, the clear scriptural message regarding contraception (hence the unified Christian stance pro-conception and contra-contraception for so long), the grounding of the Church’s teaching in natural law (much enjoyed by this Thomist), the myth of the dangers of the “population explosion,” and the pitfalls and potentially hazardous emotional, spiritual, and physical side effects of many forms of contraception and sterilization, and of the Planned Parenthood (“Planned Barrenhood” per Patrick) view of life (or perhaps more accurately, the prevention thereof).
He presents as well as the oh-so-positive side of love that is open to life, showing the profound difference between contraception and Natural Family Planning. (In fact, just a few weeks ago, I saw a prominent Catholic and politically conservative television host debating a prominent priest on the subject contraception. The host had no clue about the difference and he showed no signs of hearing me yelling at the screen that he needs to read Patrick’s book!) So thorough is Patrick’s approach that he also shows how human sexuality as God created it reflects the love of the Trinity .
Patrick also reveals how he himself was not so impressed with (or educated about) the Church’s teaching on contraception, until he came to understand its depth, beauty, and wisdom by studying it over time. The wisdom displayed in this teaching strikes a personal chord in me as well.
Though I spent the first 19 years of my own married life outside the Church, considering myself an atheist, I gradually came to see the true moral and practical wisdom of many of its teachings even before I returned to the Church. For examples, seeing our second son in utero during an amniocentesis made clear to me in a fraction of a second that abortion is the willful killing of an innocent human being; being immersed for a time in the negative effects of artificial manipulation of male hormones through anabolic steroids led me to question the medical prudence of artificial manipulation of female hormones through non-medicinal use of “The Pill;” seeing, as a psychologist, the ill-effects on the psychology and behavior of an exploding number of children being raised without a father made me aware of the folly of the “sexual revolution,” as well as the wisdom of that ancient commandment (the first to address man’s responsibility to man) to “honor your father and your mother,” implying that both, barring death, are central to the life of a child.
OK, I digress. The themes in Sex Au Naturel are so central to human life that they lead off in many important directions, but they also all lead back to love, to joyous, fruitful marriages, and to God. This book makes clear the profound wisdom and beauty of the Church’s reasoned (and divinely inspired) teachings on human sexuality, all the way down to its unabashed pro-life and anti-contraception stance, regardless of the blowing of cultural winds of the last 80 years or so since the Lambeth Conference opened the door to contraception and closed the door to sex au naturel within much of the Christian world. I heartily recommend this book to all Catholic, indeed all Christian, well, let’s make that just plain all married couples who would be open to learn about all that their marriage could be and all of the joy that it might bring into the world.
This review was written as part of the Catholic books reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Sex au Naturel .
Jason Evert - Theology of His Body and Theology of Her Body
2/9/10 --
Robert P. Lockwood’s A Guy’s Guide to the Good Life: Virtues for Men
(Servant Books, 2009)
A Manly Book Review by Kevin Vost, Psy.D.
This is definitely a book for guys. In the author’s own words, it addresses that eternal question for men, “What the hell am I doing with my life?” And though our author goes to Scripture and Dante and the lives and sayings of saints and popes for some very profound answers, he shows how those answers apply to real men living in today’s world. That’s why we’ll read of baseball, basketball, football, golf (for other guys – not the author, or this reviewer), cars, ice cold beers, cheeseburgers, the “Philadelphia Steak Hoagie” (an intriguing sandwich made of bologna, eggs, and cheese), of mall-walkers, old men hanging out in cafes, older ones in nursing homes and unmarked graves, pretty little waitresses, teeny boppers and their belly buttons, the Old Man, wives, mothers and daughters and sons and grandchildren, and on and on and on of the stuff of our daily lives on this earth.
The book is about the virtues too. Virtues derive from the Latin word vir for man. They are what perfect men and make us more “manly” in the sense of being a more fully functioning human being crafted in the image of God. (Surely women can too have virtues, but that is another book.) Each chapter addresses one of the four cardinal (prudence, fortitude, temperance, justice) or theological virtues (faith, hope, charity). Mr. Lockwood examines them from various angles and comes up with some pretty pithy and memorable insights for men.
On prudence, for example, that practical wisdom that seeks out true good in our daily lives, noting men’s roles in our degenerating culture, Lockwood writes, “Prudent men are stand up guys when the rest of the world is sitting down.” He notes as well that it is up to us to take charge and change the culture. “Fortitude is our recognition that we must live the essential Christian understanding and do what we can to make it happen in our world.” Temperance is the virtue that helps us reign in and change ourselves, and justice means “knowing that we not only define ourselves by our basic beliefs but act in concert with them.”
It happens that I’m writing this review right after my first Catholic Men’s Conference, an awesome virtue-inspiring event in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. This is just the kind of book to fan the flames of inspiration and keep them burning. There is a growing genre (somehow “genre” doesn’t sound right in reviewing a book for guys), anyhow, there are a lot of books out there now for the growing number of men who are recognizing that to be a real man – a proud protector and defender of women, children, the elderly, the weak, the unborn, and the Church, they must strive for manly virtues, not just while in church, but where they live, and work, and play, and maybe even where they go for a beer or two. These men will find A Guy’s Guide to the Good Life a reliable weapon in their arsenal (and good read as well).