Cries From the Heart [Paperback]

Johann Christoph Arnold (Author), Darryl Strawberry (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1999

Cries from the Heart answers a specific hunger millions share - a longing for a personal connection to the divine. In times of crisis, all of us reach for someone,or something, greater than ourselves. Some call it prayer. Others just do it. For many, it's often like talking to a wall. People are looking for assurance that someone hears them when they cry out in their despair, loneliness, or frustration. The last thing they need is another book telling them how to pray or what to say, holding out religion like a good-luck charm. So instead of theorizing or preaching, Johann Christoph Arnold tells stories about real men and real women dealing with adversity. Their difficulties - which range from extreme to quite ordinary and universal - resonate with readers, offering a challenge, but also comfort and encouragement. People will see themselves in these glimpses of anguish, triumph, and peace.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Arnold (Seeking Peace) recounts numerous stories from his work as a pastoral counselor to demonstrate the power of prayer. Arnold tells these anecdotes to demonstrate how meaning in life is often found during times of despair and suffering. Each story, he says, "shows that courage is rarely won without despair, that joy is often yoked with pain, and that faith is seldom reached without struggle and doubt." In the chapter on "Searching," a woman named Sybil recounts her early rejection of God and the hell of drug use and prostitution she spiraled down into, all the while still searching for God. After her experience at a Christian retreat center, where the retreat leader read aloud the same passages from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov that had caused her to question God in the first place, she "embraces a new thought: it is not God who torments the innocent. It is Sybil...." Arnold concludes from this story that all Sybil's rebellious acts, whether she realized it or not, were unspoken prayers that God finally answered. Other stories in the collection retell the pain of a mother whose small child has died, the hopelessness of a drug dealer languishing in prison, and the pain of a woman whose family has fallen apart. Through each of these tales, Arnold tries to demonstrate the old adage that "God works in mysterious ways." Although the stories are sometimes moving, Arnold's brief interpretations of them are not profound and fail to teach lessons that cannot be found elsewhere in a livelier form. (June)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Arnold's book, Cries from the Heart offers the reader a wonderful insight into the compassion and sensitivity that are the hallmarks of the Christian faith tradition. Many of the anecdotal materials discovered in the book will find an echo in the hearts of its readers. Slowly and with much difficulty, we all learn how the cries of the human heart, no matter where we are on the spectrum of faith, are much the same. As we reach out to others with the soothing balm of Christ's message and call, we rediscover the deep secret that we are all children of the Father who can rejoice in the love and compassion of Jesus Christ. -- Most Rev. Alex J. Brunett, Archbishop of Seattle

Cries from the Heart is nourishment for the soul, plain and simple. Gliding effortlessly and powerfully between timeless principles and timely personal applications of those principles, Arnold reminds us that our won lives are God's Word made flesh, again and gain, and again. Even in the worst imaginable circumstances, each of us can choose to turn to God in sincere prayer and suffer together with Him rather than alone. What I always admire about Arnold's writing is that he does not pander to our desire to escape suffering, but rather helps us to mine the spiritual gold within the depths of it. -- Bo Lozoff, Director, The Human Kindness Foundation

Cries from the Heart is written by someone who knows heartache-and what life is like on the other side. By teaching us to pray, and how to trust prayer, Arnold embraces our despair and restores our confidence. -- Rev. Donna Schaper, author, Shelter for the Spiritually Homeless

Cries from the Heart takes us deep into the inner recesses of life the spiritual struggle of prayer and faith. Because it touches the cries of all our hearts-cries for meaning, love, peace and compassion-and leads us further along to the God of life, it offers a simple but profound gift, a word of hope. -- John Dear, Fellowship of Reconciliation

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Product Details

• Paperback: 226 pages
• Publisher: Plough Publishing House (May 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0874869803
• ISBN-13: 978-0874869804
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,502,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Challenging and Moving, November 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cries From the Heart (Paperback)

This book stimulated and challenged me to look at my prayer life more closely. A wonderful book full of a great deal of wisdon.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who hasn't cried from their heart?, January 5, 2002

By 

Alice Calonga (Ellenville NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cries From the Heart (Paperback)

This book is one of my favorites by J. Christoph Arnold. The stories are all about real people that suffered extreme pain and heartache. It helped me reflect on the heartaches in my own life that I never thought I would overcome. Christoph Arnold has an uncanny way of reaching people through his books in such a simple and profound way, that he reaches our souls with his words. I have recommended this book to everyone I know!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is his best so far lets see what comes next., July 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cries From the Heart (Paperback)

I have read a lot of Arnold's books and they are all very powerful but this is the best one yet. It causes you to think of where prayer is in ones own life. And encourages you to go deeper in your persuit of prayer. Arnold uses the wisdom of many people to illustrate a point. Everyone should read this book.