On the Shelves features book recommendations from Princeton Seminary faculty and staff to help alumni/ae choose books that contribute to their personal and professional growth.

Kristin Emery Saldine, minister of the chapel

A History of Celibacy: From Athena to Elizabeth I, Leonardo da Vinci, Florence Nightingale, Gandhi, & Cher, by Elizabeth Abbot (Scribner, 2000). Throughout world history celibacy has been a key element of human existence. This overview of the religious, social, and political forms of celibacy provides necessary background for contemporary discussion and the renewed interest in celibacy.

The Wildest Place on Earth: Italian Gardens and the Invention of Wilderness, by John Hanson Mitchell (Counterpoint, 2001). Devotees of that grand mid-19th-century American concept of wilderness and its enduring influence in art, literature, and spirituality will be surprised by Hanson’s intriguing corrective: humans desire wildness not wilderness, and wildness is as close as our own backyard.

Martin Tel, C.F. Seabrook Director of Music

Full Circle: A Proposal to the Church for an Arts Ministry, by Nena Bryans (reprinted privately and available from the author, Nena Bryans, 302 Spencer Road, Devon, PA 19333). Wise and practical insight that should stimulate the church to reignite its artistic imagination—which, other than in music, has been much neglected by the Protestant church—by embracing an all-arts ministry. This book, originally published by the Schuyler Institute for Worship and the Arts in 1988, has long been unavailable, but remains fresh and necessary for today.

SING! A New Creation (CRC Publications, 2001). This new green hymnal has recently been added to the Miller Chapel pew racks. Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Methodists have for years had supplemental hymnals for their traditions, and this fills that need for the Reformed and Presbyterian traditions. A balanced collection of contemporary hymns and choruses and global songs, as well as liturgical songs from the Iona and Taizé communities, the hymnal has an emphasis on the psalms. By not capitulating to the dictates of any single faction (or aesthetic sensibility) in the church, it holds forth the possibility of greater unity in worship.