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The value of any book that the purports to be a guide to spiritual growth lies as much in its content as it does in the power the background the author brings to the task. Dr. Winer's book shows us the vast panorama of the life of Moses. This is a subject whose appeal is so strong that it merits revisiting. But what makes the "Ten Commandments for Success" unusually worth reading is the distillation of experience as physician, neurologist, psychiatrist, family head and spiritual leader that Dr. Winer uses to bring a vital contemporary relevance to that well-known story. Early on Dr. Winer acknowledges that each of the "commandments" he offers the reader (if strictly followed) is as useful in building worldly success as it is in building spiritual maturity. He does not apologize for this. Rather, he sees that obedience, empathy, diligence, fidelity, vision and the others, however they may be applied to a secular experience are essential if one is to grow into the "new creation" modeled on Jesus. Using Moses as a type of Jesus, Dr. Winer highlights aspects of his life and makes them contemporary with a variety of tools. He, for example, often uses themes and experiences in his own life. He also quotes from such diverse personalities as Lincoln, Franklin, and John Arnott. With these tools he defuses the remoteness of the Moses experience and brings it within the grasp of anyone who seriously ponders spiritual things. And while rewarding for anyone, the book is particularly valuable to those who are called to congregational leadership whether that leadership is in church foundation or for one who is, "... a doorkeeper in the House of the Lord." Readers will find this young Philadelphia physician's style both clear and attractive. He uses a seemingly endless variety of ways to reduce heretofore ponderous and weighty spiritual matters to refreshingly bite-sized paragraphs. In fact, this may be the only real flaw of the book. Some of the paragraphs are so distilled that it is possible to wonder if the author deliberately tried not to overburden the reader with things considered too obvious. However, all too often the reverse is true and one wishes for an occasional "time out" to reflect on the tightly-packed nature of the text. On balance it is a book worth not only a second reading but a permanent place on the shelf with Thomas Merton, C. S. Lewis, and Hannah Hurnard. There is a great deal more to this book then its 160 pages would suggest.
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