Pacific Island Books
Spirituality, New Age, Relationships and Religion


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Spirituality, New Age, Relationships and Religion


Collision Crossroads: The Intersection of Modern Western Culture with the Christian Gospel edited by John Flett. ISBN 095820120X. Recommended retail price $10.

Brace yourself for impact. The seemingly long straight roads of Christendom have turned into the sharp corners and dangerous intersections of modern Western Culture - and Western Christianity is asleep at the wheel. We have driven for too long and find ourselves unable to keep our eyes on the road or our hands on the wheel.

In response to the danger of this situation, the Gospel & Culture movement began. It is an attempt to alert Western Christianity to the soporific nature of Christendom and to wipe that sleep from our eyes; to apply the brakes on our accommodation to society and to negotiate our way safely through the collision crossroads of modern Western culture.

This booklet serves as an introduction to this Gospel & Culture movement and gives the reader an on-ramp to a wider debate, which surely is the future of Christianity in the West. Soft cover, 88 pages. Published in 1998.


Covenant Makers, The: Islander Missionaries in the Pacific, edited by Doug Munro & Andrew Thornley. Recommended retail price $14.

The Christian Gospel was first announced in the Pacific by missionaries from Europe. However, within two to three decades of this announcement, the young Christian communities of the Islands were sending out their own missionaries. In the 150 years after 1820, over 1200 Pacific Islanders served as Christian missionaries. Many of them were the ‘pioneers’ in the places to which they were sent. In this book, published in the 30
th year of Pacific Theological College, authors of both European and Islander background examine the very significant work, impact and influence of these Pacific Island Missionaries – The Covenant Makers. The book is edited by Doug Munro and Andrew Thornley, who have had an active and long-standing interest in the field of Pacific history. Stories of Cook Islanders, Hawaiians, Samoans, Solomon Islanders, Tahitians, Tuvaluans, and others’ ministry throughout the South Pacific. Soft cover, 321 pages.


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Feng Shui For Relationships by Gerry Heaton. Recommended retail price $17.

The questions most frequently asked by those who attend Gerry Heaton’s courses are to do with relationships. Here the author of the bestselling Feng Shui for Australians explains how the application of Feng Shui principles can solve specific personal problems and dramatically improve relationships. After introducing the reader to the history and philosophy of this ancient art in a simple, easy-to-understand way, he deals with different kinds of relationships – with family, friends and neighbors, work colleagues and clients – before focusing on sexual relationships. He provides fascinating case studies, describes various cures, and concludes with a wonderful chapter on love ceremonies.

Fen Shui for Relationships shows us how we can achieve harmony and balance in our relationships by straightforward and practical actions. There is nothing vague about the author’s approach. There are specific solutions or cures to specific problems, for example, changing the color scheme in a bedroom to improve a sexual relationship – these cures actually work, as the case studies amply demonstrate! But I have to ask. What evidence is there that mirrors can trap the “energies of people that use them” or that incense wafted in front of the mirror will cleanse it of these energies? But still if you believe in this stuff, this book will enchant you. Soft cover, 176 pages.


Footsteps in the Sea: Christianity in Oceania To World War II by John Garrett. ISBN 2820200687. Published by the Institute of Pacific Studies. Recommended retail price $22.

What happened in the Pacific as imperial twilight led to great changes in Christian missions and the emergence of self-governing Island churches with distinctive local leadership and style?

Protestants?  Roman Catholics? Anglicans?  Faith Missions?  Adventists?  Latter Day Saints?

These questions are answered in a graphic narrative, introducing Islanders and mission leaders and showing how Christianity became adopted into local cultures and interacted with traders and colonial administrators.

The role of women, Islander and expatriate, is also explored in this sequel to the same author’s “To Live Among the Stars: Christian Origins in Oceania,” which has been called “standard for a generation.”

John Garrett, a Fellow of the Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific, has lived and worked in the Island Pacific for almost a quarter of a century.  He is a Research Associate of the Pacific Theological College, Suva, and a former communications director of the World Council of Churches, Geneva.  “Footsteps in the Sea” is the product of seven years of travel and research in the region. Soft cover, 514 pages. Published in 1992.


Frames of Mind: A Public Philosophy for Religion & Cultures by Harold Turner. ISBN 0958201234. Recommended retail price $21.95.

Before we can solve our mounting social problems in Western society we must examine our response to the three basic questions found in all cultures and religions:

What is reality made of?
How does the universe relate spirit and matter?
How can we know the truth about these things?

Inside the book’s back cover is a foldout of diagrams of images of the options here examined that you will find helpful. These answer questions such as whether we are mere drops in the Ocean, lonely Pebbles on life’s beach, or part of a large living Network of ongoing relationships.

Despite the 16th century scientific revolution we have continued the ancient Greek mistake of separating mind from matter, the spiritual from the physical.

But since the mid-19th century dramatically new relational ways of thinking about the universe have been opened up by pioneers like Faraday, Maxwell and Einstein. Others such a Buber, Macmurray and Polanyi in philosophy and Karl Barth in theology have done the same for our relationships to one another and to the transcendent realm.

This new relational ‘frame of mind’ ranging between atoms and God offers a soundly earthed modern philosophy. The fate of Western culture depends on our response to these new answers to the basic questions.

Harold Turner is retired from university teaching of theology and religious studies in three continents. He is the author of numerous books and scholarly papers on religion. Soft cover, 304 pages. Published in 2001.


Inspiration Shakes the World by Philip & Richard Logan. Published by Hazard Press. ISBN 1877270199. Recommended retail price $18.95.

Inspiration is the quantum leap beyond our logic, memory, and IQ intelligence. Without inspiration we would have no science, invention, philosophy, religion, or creativity. Pessimism, cynicism, and despair would dominate our thinking and our lives.

With a far-reaching purpose, which we can tap into, inspiration instills optimism and courage in us, and with it we can break out of difficult problems.

Looking forward into the future, if we want to improve our quality of life, and make a better world, we will become even more dependent on inspiration.

This book takes the reader on a journey through time. It presents the writings of the world’s leading movers and shakers. Those whose works, ideas, inventions and writings have in some manner shifted our world for the better.

The authors, Philip and Richard Logan, are brothers who live in Auckland, New Zealand. They have had a lifelong interest in psychology, philosophy, religion, history, and science. Being generalists in a world that encourages specialists was not easy for them. The authors both enjoy overseas travel and they have visited many of the places mentioned in this book. Both of them have taken time out to research different projects. They were, as Joseph Campbell would say, “following their bliss.” For them, writing and living this book has been a very long, but very interesting journey. Soft cover, 232 pages. Published in 2002.


Island Churches: Challenge and Change by Makisi Finau, Teeruro Ieuti and Jione Langi. Published by the Institute of Pacific Studies. ISBN 9820200776. Recommended retail price $18

This collection, introduced and edited by Dr. Charles Forman, relates the history of three churches in the Pacific. Jione Langi describes the Methodist Church in Rotuma, exemplifying church establishment in the Pacific. Teeruro Ieuti examines new missions that have challenged the Kiribati Protestant Church, indicating societal interests and concerns about these new religious groups. Makisi Finau explains the Maamafo'ou Movement, a break-away group from the Free Wesleyan Church in Tonga, illustrating change from traditional forms of worship.

This collection offers valuable insight and recommendations from Pacific Islanders who are not only observers of, but also participants in, their respective churches. Soft cover, 222 pages. Published in 1992.


Laughter of Providence edited by Harold Turner. ISBN 095820120X. Published by Deep Sight Publishing. Recommended retail price $14.94.

The book's title derives from a friend's remark that "if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans." Harold Turner's plans for a quiet academic existence in England must have left Providence smiling in view of these quite unexpected encounters in store for him. A long life of teaching and travel has brought the author into unsought relationships with religious groups being harassed or persecuted within Western societies. Surprisingly, the 20th century has been the great century of religious persecution. We deplore this elsewhere, but don't want to know about it in our own allegedly tolerant countries.

These autobiographical stories tell of personal involvement in helping to defeat attacks by the British and the European Parliaments. Other stories move from Moral Rearmament in the 1930s to working with a Rastafarian Member of the New Zealand Parliament on legal issues raised by the killing of a Rastafarian leader.

The author's research on African independent churches aided their transition from rejection to acceptance by the mainline churches. The little-known and complex story of the rise and fall of apartheid among the Afrikaner Churches in South Africa was gathered during his policy of bridge-building rather than boycotting.
We have here an unusual case study for the Deep Sight Trust's critique of Western Culture.

Harold Turner is retired from university teaching of theology and religious studies in three continents. He is the author of numerous books and scholarly papers on religion. Soft cover, 160 pages. Published in 2001.


Moving Between Times: Modernity and Postmodernity: A Christian View by Brian Carrell. ISBN 0958201218. Recommended retail price $15.95.


Something powerfully disturbing has been happening to Western society, particularly over the final decades of the 20th Century. Like hidden movements of the tectonic plates deep within the earth, the once familiar shape, substance and values of Western culture have shifted markedly. This has brought with it a liberating release of energy and opportunities, but also much pain and insecurity.

Alvin Toffler describes this change as “a hinge of history”, while Mikhail Gorbachev has observed: “humankind stands at a watershed.” The repercussions of this for society in general, but especially for the Christian Church, are profound. Moving Between Times explores the nature, origins and impact of modernity and postmodernity, the two paradigms that constitute these unseen dynamic forces, and describes how this upheaval will affect both the spiritual landscape of the 21st century, and our place in it. Drawing on the wide range of material now available from observers of these contemporary moods andmovements, this book suggests changes the Church may need to consider. Soft cover, 184 pages. Published in 1998.


Polynesian Missions in Melanesia: From Samoa, Cook Islands and Tonga to Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia by Marjorie Tuainekore Crocombe and others. Recommended retail price $10.

European missions to the Pacific Islands are well recorded. but most missionaries in the islands are, and almost always were, Polynesians, Melanesians and Micronesians. This fascinating book contains the stories of Polynesian missionaries to Melanesia, written by Polynesian missionaries themselves or by descendants of missionaries.

The book contains chapters on some of the very first and most famous Polynesian missionaries in Melanesia, as well as on later missions to the present time. Soft cover, 144 pages.


Prophets of Melanesia edited by Garry Trompf. Published by the Institute of Pacific Studies. ISBN 9820200075. Recommended retail price $10.

What is a prophet? The answer does not come so easily. A hundred years ago most scholars would have quoted from the relevant parts of the Old Testament and sewn up the matter from there; today the great wealth of ethnographic commentary makes the task of definition so much harder. Probably the most useful way of defining prophets and prophetesses is in terms of their message. They are vehicles of the remarkable utterances we call prophecies. Here are six essays that try to answer this question. Soft cover, 162 pages. Published in 1986.


Return To Mountain: Tai Chi Between Heaven and Earth by Delores LaChappelle. ISBN 187727030X. Published by Hazard Press. Recommended retail price $24.95.

On my way to visit Dolores LaChapelle last week I stopped to wander barefoot among the late March snow patches near Coal Bank Pass. On my path I met a rock. It had a blue hue on one end and an orange hue on the other. The rock communicated to me Dolores’ gift of integrating the intellect (blue) and the intuition (orange). She unites the wisdom of the third eye and the power of the tan tien, the energy centre below the navel. Through her life story and her writing, Dolores translates this primal vision for our collective community.

Dolores is a visionary of indigenous understanding. She uses her direct relationship with her body and the land as a guide for what is real. She is an artist of movement and balance who embodies the concepts of deep ecology, where the inner and outer environments meet in a thriving and sustaining relationship. Tai Chi, skiing, writing, and seeing are her tools for expressing this understanding.

The free spirit Dolores makes her home in Silverton, Colorado, the only place flat enough in San Juan County to house a community. It is in the vertical landscape of the mountains, where gravity demands constant collaboration, that Dolores finds much of her inspiration.

I am deeply grateful for the understanding Dolores offers to our world. When we dance and sing, think and see in the rhythm of wild nature, the whole cosmos celebrates. I thank her for the nourishment of our friendship and for walking the path before us. Her vision is as real and enduring as the colorful rock I found.
– Katrina Blair, author of Local Wildlife

Jodi Harper Nute became the model for the project. We felt very lucky to be able to work with her because of her background, ability, and beauty. At the time she was very busy creating the Avalanche Café in Silverton and now she is married and she and Chris are about to have their second child. Jodi graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1992 with a degree in Biological Aspects of Conservation, a course created by Aldo Leopold. When we began this project she had already been studying Tai Chi with Dolores for several years. Participating in the photographs over the course of four seasons involving these three very diverse people was a special time that will always be cherished but will never happen again.

John Marshall became involved in this complex project through a simple conversation with his neighbor across the street, Dolores. He had the jeep and the knowledge of special places in the surrounding mountains. The difficulty of getting three people who had no spare time together in remote spots high in the mountains, all above 9,000 ft, sometimes over 13,000 ft, with the right weather, the right light and the right film was close to overwhelming. Sometimes it worked. “If I just could have had three cameras and two assistants and redone every other session, life would have been beautiful.” Soft cover, 207 pages. Published in 2002.


The Roots of Science: An Investigative Journey Through the World’s Religions by Harold Turner. ISBN 0958201226. Published by Deep Sight Publishing. Recommended retail price $25.

Science from the Greeks, law from the Romans, religion from the Hebrews - so runs the popular stereotype. This new search shows how Greeks tried for science, but failed because of their theology. Tribal cultures, such as Maori, Zulu and Sioux, could not even try for science. The great civilizations and the Asian religions produced impressive technologies, but never science.

The Hebrew people had to borrow their technologies and produced no science. They did, however, produce a worldview that both enabled and required science. Their radical de-sacralization of space, time and matter, and of social structures, represents one of the great cultural revolutions in history, and was expressed in the contrast between temple and synagogue. When this was developed within Christian Western Europe, science as we know it arose in the 16th century. Dr. Turner sets out the historical origins and essential cultural basis of science, and rediscovers the sixth century John Philoponus as the greatest theoretical physicist before Newton. This absorbing and important work breaks new ground to uncover the historical roots of science. It deserves a wide readership. Soft cover, 204 pages. Published in 1998.


Secrets of Love, The by Sally Taylor Jensen. ISBN 1877270415. Published by Hazard Press. Recommended retail price $29.95.

How is the love in your life?

• Are you living your dream? Is there closeness, magic and romance? Is the sex wonderful and satisfying?
• Is your relationship a struggle? Has it become painful, boring or stuck? Are you having communication problems?
• Do you want love but it’s just not happening? Have you been hurt in love or given up on love? Are you feeling lost or disillusioned about love?

Finding and keeping love in your life is achievable. This book aims to show you how, with
• practical ideas for increasing the romance, fun and fulfillment in your relationship, and in your sex life
• new ideas about how to confront the challenges of communication, commitment and conflict
• guidance with that difficult question of whether to stay in or leave a relationship.

Love is not about luck, and it’s certainly not always easy. This book offers insights into the arts and attitudes of love that can lead to whole new dimensions of love in your life.

Whether you are happy or hurting in love, there is something in this book for you. You can win in love, and you can start now! Soft cover, 296 pages. Published in 2003.


Signs for a Messiah: The First and Last Evidence for Jesus by Rollan McCleary. ISBN 1877270377. Published by Hazard Press. Recommended retail price $39.95.

Was Jesus a dissident Essene, a Magician, a Cynic teacher? Did he die on the cross, as many believe, or did he marry the Magdalene and die in France or India? Many of the modern quests for the truth about Jesus have resulted in increasing doubt and skepticism about him. Biblical claims that the earthly brother of James was born of a virgin and was the promised Messiah are now seen by some as only late adaptations of a growing faith. Is new information or any certainty possible here?

Signs for a Messiah suggests that it is. This is a wide ranging study of Jesus but with special emphasis on one form of evidence, the oldest and most recent: the signs the Magi knew but which have eluded scholarly inquiry for two millennia due partly to a hostility from ecclesiastical and scientific establishments only now beginning to weaken. Before the Gospels were written something in the skies was a first witness to Jesus and his destiny. Finally these signs can be known. They are illuminating and with much unexpected modern relevance since even the Magi, who understood the significance of the Bethlehem star and the era that it heralded, lacked the wider, sometimes remarkably precise and revealing picture available today with augmented data.

As this unique study reveals and explains the enlarged picture includes factors such as astronomy’s newcomers, the asteroids, and the so-called Arabic Parts (mathematically derived sensitive points of a horoscope). These are combined in statistically improbable patterns of significance at the time of Jesus’ birth. Beyond the original pattern for a Messiah it can be seen that at Christ’s nativity the asteroid James suitably conjuncted his “Part” of the Brothers. We also find that the asteroid Eternity conjuncted his “Part” of the Father, that the asteroids Maria and (the virgin associated) Vesta made conjunction in aspect to his “Part” of the Mother while the asteroid Magdalena stood in tense opposition to his “Part” of Marriage. But even these historically and theologically suggestive indications comprise only a small element within a dynamic, revealing pattern that worked accurately for Jesus’ life and registers vividly for Christ issues to this day.

The wisdom of the Magi has been found. A door has been opened to an understanding of Jesus that is both clearer and more mysterious than current interpretations. It becomes easier to appreciate who Jesus was and what he was actually like. The Magian knowledge that once troubled “all Jerusalem”, retains an unsettling, revolutionary dimension. It might still prove a source for prophecy also. An amazingly turgid book that will appeal to masochists.

Rollan McCleary was born in London, England. After graduating in European languages and history from London University he worked in recording and broadcasting in Paris. He then spent over a decade in Asia, traveling widely but living mainly in Hong Kong where he taught. He also studied South East Asian drama at Fine Arts University, Bangkok. Rollan emigrated to Australia in 1987. A citizen of Australia and Ireland Rollan currently lives in Melbourne. As a writer he has composed poetry and drama, the latter broadcast on the ABC but his main concern has been with religion and philosophy. His The Expansion of God [SCM 1981/Orbis1982] about the indigenization of Christianity in Asia was a critical success. Rollan is also a qualified astrologer who since the mid eighties has periodically consulted, lectured and written on the subject, especially in The Australian Astrological Monthly Review; but his main interest in the subject, as in the current book, remains research. He has recently obtained a doctorate in religious studies from Queensland University in Brisbane, Australia and has just finished writing a commentary on the Nicene Creed. Soft cover, 448 pages. Published in 2003.


Song of the Stone by Barry Brailsford. ISBN 0958350205.  Published by StonePrint Press. Recommended retail price $24.

Song of the Stone is the true story of five remarkable journeys. This pakeha historian and archaeologist was invited into realms of ancient and sacred knowledge long thought lost. Song of the Stone describes his fascinating odyssey into the world of the wisdom keeps of Aotearoa and the North American Indian peoples. It takes us on the great journey to open once again the trail of the stone across the Southern Alps. Only then could the oldest of the sacred lore be shared in Song of Waitaha.

We travel to the Red Earth of North America and on a great journey to twelve Indian Nations, to the ancient standing stones of Europe, to Stonehenge, Iona, New Grange, and to those who honored stone long before the building of the pyramids. The last journey was the one within himself. The hardest of all. Hard cover, 192 pages. Published in 1999.

Note from Paddy: I am not usually into the paranormal, prophecy and other touchy feely woowoo stuff but this book is very different. It projects great sincerity and emotion. Well worth the read. Extraordinary stuff.


To Live Among The Stars: Christian Origins in Oceania by John Garrett. ISBN 2825406929. Published by the Institute of Pacific Studies.  Recommended retail price $22.

This wide-ranging account gives the first full story of Catholic and Protestant origins in the Pacific Islands, a vivid survey, described a “standard for a generation.”  The narrative beginning in Guam and Tahiti, takes the reader finally to the shores of New Guinea, as the sacrifice of thousands of people, most of them Islanders, unfolds.

“To Live Among The Stars meets a long-felt need for a general history of Christianity in the Pacific Islands.  The story it tells is of great importance for understanding that part of the world.” Professor Charles W. Forman, Yale University. Soft cover, 412 pages. Published in 1985.


Where Nets Were Cast: Christianity in Oceania since World War II by John Garrett.  ISBN 9820201217. Published by the Institute of Pacific Studies. Recommended retail price $22.

This third volume of The History of Christianity in Oceania describes the exposure of island churches to brutal interlopers in World War II.  The war foreshadowed the twilight of the missionary and colonial eras.  Independent churches broke free, as did island states.  Christian leaders – men and women – contributed to the processes of change.  In the 1960s the ecumenical and charismatic movements affected the life of the major churches.  The World Council of Churches and the Second Vatican Council produced a ferment of unity, transformation, and social concern.  Outbursts of ecstatic revival and many new religious movements brought forms of renewal and self-expression attuned to Islanders’ cultures and languages.

This sequel to To Live Among The Stars and Footsteps in the Sea traces “the larger issues in church history – the very different traditions represented, the thrust toward ecumenism in the later post-war years, the interplay of mission with the social and political identity of the island people, and the heroic examples found in the thumbnail sketches of the lives of dozens of missionaries and island church leaders.”  Francis X. Hezel, SJ

John Garrett, of the Pacific Theological College, Fiji, and the Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, has traveled in Oceania, Europe, and North America for thirty years to study Christianity in the region.  He is a Christian Minister and former communications director of the World Council of Churches.  His work has brought him into close touch with Protestants, Catholics and Anglicans in many parts of the world. Soft cover, 499 pages. Published in 1997.


Wisdom of the Four Winds by Barry Brailsford. ISBN 0958350299. Published by StonePrint Press.  Recommended retail price $55.

Barry Brailsford, MBE, M.A.(Honors), the highly acclaimed author of Song of Waitaha, Song of the Stone and the Chronicles of the Stone, now brings us Wisdom of the Four Winds.

Prophecy, written in the stars, opened the way for his journey. Weaving words of hope, he once again touches deeply into our lives to nurture and provide with path cards born of a unique tide. Ancestors from many lands speak within these pages. Voyaging out of Africa and Europe, Asia and the Americas thousands of years ago, they carried knowledge bound in universal truths to a remote and distant shore – to Aotearoa (New Zealand). Thus was the sacred kept secure until called by the stars to shine once more. It offers its magic to all who journey in spirit with Wisdom of the Four Winds.

50 exquisitely illustrated Wisdom Cards, 8 x 14 cm, plus two spare blank cards. Handsome 280 page, case bound, full color book of readings and guidance to the cards. Published in 1999.


Your Soulmate is Calling by Russ Michael. ISBN 187716190X. Published by Hazard Press. Recommended retail price $19.95

“Michael is one of the world’s leading experts on helping people find their soulmates. This comprehensive, easy-to-read book tells you everything you need to know to find your soulmate. It is a ‘must’ for anyone remotely interested in soulmates.” - Richard Webster

Your Soulmate is Calling is the ultimate how-to book for anyone searching for their soulmate in life. Russ Michael is the author of the bestseller Finding Your Soulmate, now published worldwide in nine major languages. In this new book Michael shares many proven techniques for materializing the lover of your dreams right here into your life! He has done it, many thousands of his other readers have done it, and you can do it too! It is easy, it is proven, and it is all right here! In plain English, Michael describes how we all have “memory nodules” that link us all together through past generations of soulmate relationships. Through conscious desire we can activate the connections and bring to us the soulmate who is out there, waiting for us, somewhere, right now! Wherever he or she is, whether you are heterosexual or gay, you can bring him or her to your waiting arms. The power is in us all: all you need to do is find out how! Discover for yourself how you can create a truly blissful soulmate marriage. Your soulmate is calling you! A book for every home, for all age groups.

Dr Russ Michael is the author of twelve self-improvement books. He is a former professional US basketball player, published songwriter, television host of his own series (The Mysteries of Life), and has taught psychology at the University of Humanistic Studies in San Diego, California. In 1984 he was awarded the distinguished Bronze Halo Award by the Southern California Motion Picture Council for his contribution as an author, lecturer, philanthropist and humanitarian. Soft cover, 141 pages. Published in 2001.


See below for links to related books


Aim High Fly Fast: How to Create a Wonderful World for Yourself and Others by Camtu N. Pham

Dalai Lama Story, The : The Making of a World Leader by Andrew Crowe

Faith, Hope, Love & Laughter: How They Heal by Paul Kraus

Inheritance of Hope,The : John Hunt, Apostle of Fiji by Andrew Thornley translated into Fijian by Tauga Vulaono

Long, White and Cloudy: In Search of a Kiwi Spirituality by John Bluck

Religions of New Zealanders edited by Peter Donovan


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