Faith in the Family: Honoring and Strengthening Home and Spirit [Paperback]

Dale Salwak (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 2001

"Faith in the Family: Honoring and Strengthening Home and Spirit," is a celebration of the ties that bind and a refreshing look at how much families have to offer children and adults alike. Dr. Salwak successfully combines captivating storytelling with spiritual insight to create part history, part story, and part advice for reaping the rewards of family life. His advice throughout the book is firmly grounded in Judeo-Christian traditions and yet presents a wide range of other teachings on family and kinship, including the insights of other great writers, from C.S. Lewis and Henri Nouwen to William James and Duong Van Mai Elliott. The book is filled with suggestions for embracing the power and joy of our family connections. The book offers a precious gift to all of who want to build families on a foundation of love and affirmation. This is a must read book for all who cherish and honor the importance of the family.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

We may imagine that a life spent in contemplative prayer or living in a monastery are sure-fire paths to spiritual enlightenment. But according to his book Faith in the Family, Dale Salwak (Wonders of Solitude, The Power of Prayer) believes one of the most effective spiritual practices available is caring for and protecting the strength of your family. "The family is both a looking glass and a pillar, giving us at once the best chance to see ourselves clearly and to receive love and affirmation we need to survive in a dangerous world," Salwak explains. "Strength in the family leads to strength in the spirit, and a strong spirit engenders a strong family. The two cannot be disconnected without injury to both."

Salwak is not a pie-in-the-sky orator looking for a return to the family values of a bygone era. Nor is he a right-wing zealot blaming liberal lifestyles for destroying the sanctity of family. Instead, he is more likely to wag his finger at rampant consumerism that turns parents into working slaves. Or at the obsession with electronic stimulation--such as video games and television--that entertain rather than enrich children. ("Many children spend more time with television than with their fathers," he writes.) Or a at culture that has little respect or resources for the care of elderly family members. "For many of us, the demand of taking care of our elders is the first real test of character."

Most of the time, Salwak writes like a kindly godfather who sits at your kitchen table amidst all the dust bunnies, homework papers, soccer gear, macaroni dinners, ailing grandparents, and parental fatigue and passes no judgment. He doesn't offer much specific advice. Instead, he tells a story about his sister-in-law Betty who discovered her brother was gay only when he was dying of AIDS, and the courage it took from both siblings to overcome the distance between them. Or he'll tell about the time that his father built him a bookcase and how seen and treasured he felt. Or he'll quote a local rabbi, Robert Coles, Carl Jung, or Maya Angelou and suddenly all your household priorities fall into place like a deck of freshly shuffled cards. For families who are seeking their true north, Faith in the Family is a compass well worth investing in. --Gail Hudson

Review

A readable, thoughtful book . . . part literary reminiscence,philosophical wisdom and spiritual encouragement, Salwak was a warm and gentle way . . . -- San Gabriel Valley Tribune, March 24, 2001

Covers most of the relevant themes of family life, from marriage and children to aging. [Salwak] finds great joy in telling stories of people's lives. -- Los Angeles Times, March 24, 2001

Overflows with practical advice. . . . Salwak is thoughtful and insightful, weaving together tales . . . with powerful imagery. Truly an essential read. -- Citrus Clarion, March 14, 2001

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: New World Library (March 30, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1577311604
• ISBN-13: 978-1577311607
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,231,061 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gotta have faith, March 21, 2001

By 

"paperboy_2000" (West Covina, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Faith in the Family: Honoring and Strengthening Home and Spirit (Paperback)

It was with reservations that I began reading Faith in the Family, Citrus College English Professor Dale Salwak's latest effort. I am not a churchgoer, and I am a former Salwak student, two prejudicial factors for any would-be objective reviewer.

By page 18, however, Salwak's firm grasp of the English language, storytelling ability and messages about family values and faith struck a cord within me.

Stories from the author's own life, as well as from a variety of people with diverse backgrounds, illustrate what families can offer to children and parents alike. These lessons are reinforced with scripture passages and quotations from notable novelists, poets and biographers to provide the reader with a subsequent understanding of the importance of familial relationships.

Salwak is thoughtful and insightful, weaving together tales of his youth with powerful imagery and clarity. He possess the uncanny ability to recollect the feeling of what it was like to be a child, lacking experience but full of curiousity.

In one particularly moving passage, the reader is taken back to the author's earlier years to illustrate an important lesson he learned about giving thanks for the lives of his family.

Faith in the Family is arranged into nine chapters, each touching on a different aspect of family life. The need for connection in the family, caring for and teaching children, respecting and relating to our own parents and other subjects are explored, always relating back to the book's central theme of "honoring and strengthening home and spirit."

The overarching spirituality and religious tones in the book are not crammed down the readers' throats. Rather, the inherent insights were carefully collected, then constructed and compassionately pieced together to appeal to readers from all walks of life.

The book overflows with practical advice and should be passed around by family members to share in its wonderful wisdom.

In the midst of the Information Age, with school shootings and political sex scandals topping the news, there is a definite need for Faith in the Family. Salwak shows readers through experience the indispensability of family, and the nature of the book itself -- part history, part story and part advice -- allow the reader to examine their own relationships and form their own interpretations of its guidance.

Truly an essential read, Faith in the Family's advice offers a "how-to" approach to help reap the rewards of family living.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Things We Wish We Could Say, March 23, 2001

By 

Noelle Franzen (Claremont, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Faith in the Family: Honoring and Strengthening Home and Spirit (Paperback)

Dale Salwak's "Faith in the Family" is a refreshing, reasurring and wonderful book. Not only does Dr. Salwak incorporate Christian values to everyday living, he provides a sense of right and honorable behavior even for non-Christians. I believe that everyone can not only read this book, but apply it to living a fufilling, fruitful and meaningful life. I had the great opportunity to take one of Dr. Salwak's classes at Citrus College, and this book was a great reminder of the substantial influence he had on me as an English student and as a Christian living in a secular world. Not only does the book say so many things people really think, but so many things so few of us say. It is a book that you cannot put down, in fact, I read it in about three hours. Dr. Salwak makes incredibly valid points about reading, education, and the influence of media in children's lives, and how that affects them in the long run, and brings up common sense ideas about family, marriage and faith. I highly reccommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good read, inspirational or otherwise. I am definitely passing it on to all of my freinds and family. Thank you Dr. Salwak for taking the time to write this much needed and appreciated book. I only wish I had the oppurtunity to take another of your classes.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Splendid, inspiring memories, April 6, 2001

By 

John C. Sherwood (Union City, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Faith in the Family: Honoring and Strengthening Home and Spirit (Paperback)

For decades, magicians the world over have known Dale Salwak as a fellow performer, one of the most well known of Neil Foster's students and, ultimately, a primary instructor for the world-famous Chavez School of Magic. In addition to having written a number of books on magic, Dale teaches the Chavez method in California, and supervises the school's home-study course and its worldwide distribution. Outside of the world of performing, Dale's "other job" is as a literary biographer and literature professor. He teaches English at Southern California's Citrus College and has taught courses and conducted seminars on biblical history and literature for more than 25 years. In that role, he has written 17 books on various contemporary literary figures as well as served as editor of "Wonders of Solitude" and "The Words of Christ," both published by New World Library. In "Faith in the Family" (246 pp.), Dale tells amusing, poignant stories from his own family life that illustrate what families offer children and parents alike. Among the many examples of exemplary individuals, Dale has included eight pages devoted to his personal memories of Neil and Jeanne Foster. We were proud and honored to be approached by Dale to look over his original manuscript pages regarding Neil and Jeanne, and to serve in an advisory capacity. We were moved by the material and wholeheartedly endorse it as a splendid testament to the memory of a couple revered in the magical fraternity and beyond. Those in the conjuring profession who had the privilege of knowing Neil Foster in his lifetime know well that he regarded the "magic of life" as far more important and vital than the magic that he created on the stage, or helped other magicians to create. For him, *people* and *responsibility* were far more magical. We hope that you will join us in that memory and support Dale Salwak in this worthwhile project! -- John C. Sherwood, MysteryVisits.com