Grawemeyer Awards

Every year the University of Louisville, in conjunction with Louisville Seminary, gives awards to outstanding books in five areas.  This year’s winner in religion is Eboo Patel for his memoir Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim, the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation.

Patel was born in India to a Muslim family and immigrated to Chicago as a child. As a teenager, he struggled with what he saw as a lack of religious pluralism in America. His experiences prompted him to launch a movement in 1998 called Interfaith Youth Core, an organization that helps young people build cooperative relationships among youth of different faiths.

Not only is Patel’s book in the library collection, but the previous four winners are too: Honest Patriots: Loving a Country Enough to Remember Its Misdeeds by Donald Shriver Jr. (2009); Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics by Margaret Farley (2008); Blood Done Sign My Name by Timothy Tyson (2006); and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (2006).

Check to see if which are checked out by clicking the title.

Practicing Christian Community: An Annotated Bibliography (Part 4)

Click for Part 1, Part 2, or Part 3.

Part 4: Our Larger Community: The Unity of All Creation

Other books enlarge our community perspective to encompass the earth and all creation. In 1959, Teilhard de Chardin’s The Phenomenon of Man cast the cosmic Christ in evolutionary terms as the hyper-personal Omega Point, in whom an all-enveloping noosphere of human relationships culminates. A later disciple, Thomas Berry, dreams of a time when we abandon our assault against the conditions of our earthly existence and renew our participation in the grand liturgy of the universe. Jurgen Moltmann applies his theology of the Trinity to promulgate an ecological doctrine of creation, in which the creation is embedded within the community relationship of the Triune God.  In the seventh of eight essays, Wendell Berry critiques Christianity’s negative influence on the survival of creation. Norman Wirzba proffers a biblical correction in The Paradise of God that calls upon humanity to be servants of God’s creation.

Berry, Thomas. The Dream of the Earth, Sierra Club Books, 1988.

Berry, Wendell. Sex, Economy, Freedom and Community: Eight Essays, Pantheon Books, 1993 (chap. 7).

Moltmann, Jurgen. God in Creation: A New Theology of Creation and the Spirit of God, Fortress Press, 1993.

Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre. The Phenomenon of Man, Harper & Row, 1959.

Wirzba, Norman. The Paradise of God: Renewing Religion in an Ecological Age, Oxford University Press, 2003.

Practicing Christian Community: An Annotated Bibliography (Part 3)

Click here for part 2.

Part 3: Living in the World with a Sense of Christian Community

The books here provide a theological basis for practicing Christian community in the world, as well as guidance on making such practices relevant in our lives. The cited chapters in the Bonhoeffer and Merton classics discuss how the mystical body of Christ can be transformed into a body that is both visible and active in today’s world. In Being Consumed, William Cavanaugh reflects on how Christians, as members of this visible body, can practice alternative lifestyles in a world of scarcity. Jean Vanier offers important insights from the L’Arche communities, such as the recognition of our common brokenness and loneliness and the need to live together in a spirit of mutual trust, respect and humility. Evelyn and James Whitehead analyze the theology behind the spirituality of Christian community and provide practical suggestions for developing an effective ministry of community formation.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship, Macmillan, 1959 (chaps. 29 & 30).

Cavanaugh, William. Being Consumed, William B. Eerdmans, 2008.

Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation, New Directions, 1962 (chaps. 9 & 10).

Vanier, Jean. Community and Growth, Paulist Press, 1989.

Vanier, Jean and Hauerwas, Stanley. Living Gently in a Violent World, IVP Books, 2008.

Whitehead, Evelyn Eaton and Whitehead, James D. Community of Faith: Strategies for Crafting Christian Communities, iUniverse, 2001. (Partner library at Blessed John XXIII University Center)

Practicing Christian Community: An Annotated Bibliography (Part 2)

Click here for the introduction and part 1.

Part 2: Life in Christian Communities

These books describe the practices followed in some actual communities of faith. Bonhoeffer’s enduring little classic, Life Together, tells of communal life in an underground seminary at Finkenwalde, Germany, during World War II. Books by Larry Crabb and William Willimon examine the potential support local churches can offer their members as communities of faith—Crabb from a general Christian viewpoint, Willimon from a specifically Methodist perspective. Henri Nouwen and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove speak of their experiences with intentional Christian communities—Nouwen from living in the L’Arche Daybreak community with intellectually disabled adults in Toronto and Wilson-Hartgrove from working with a variety of communities coming out the New Monastic movement in America.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together, Harper, 1954.

Crabb, Lawrence. The Safest Place on Earth: Where People Connect and Are Forever Changed, Word, 1999. (Republished as Becoming a True Spiritual Community: A Profound Vision of What the Church Can Be, Thomas Nelson, 2007.)

Nouwen, Henri. The Road to Daybreak: A Spiritual Journey, Doubleday, 1988.

Willimon, William H., Why I Am a United Methodist, Abingdon Press, 1990.

Wilson-Hartgrove, Jonathan. New Monasticism: What It Has to Say to Today’s Church, Brazos Press, 2008.

Practicing Christian Community: An Annotated Bibliography (Introduction & Part 1)

The following is an introduction and part 1 of a bibliography for an 8-week course that will be taught this fall called “Practicing Christian Commmunity.”  The library’s own network coordinator, and this blog’s most frequent contributor, Rafael Ubico, will be teaching the second section of the course — “Practicing Christian Community Outside the Church” — following section one — “Practicing Christian Community Within the Church” — taught by Ross Loomis.  Section one meets Wednesdays October 14 through November 4.  Section two meets November 10, 17, 24, and December 1.  7:00 pm to 8:30 pm.

Introduction

The Northern Colorado Faith Library at FUMC offers a good selection of books on the practice of Christian community. These books can help us understand the state of community life in contemporary society, learn from life as practiced in communities of faith, carry a sense of Christian community into the world, and envision our place within the unity of all creation. They range from 20^th century classics by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Buber, Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to more recent works by such important contemporary religious writers as Thomas Berry, Wendell Berry, Jurgen Moltmann, Parker Palmer, M. Scott Peck, Jean Vanier, and William Willimon.

A list of suggested books currently held in the NCFL on practicing Christian community is presented below. Some brief comments are offered on the general subject coverage they provide. Any of these books afford useful background reading in preparation for the classes to be given on this subject at FUMC this Fall. (Note: One book is identified as a holding of the NCFL partner library at Blessed John XXIII University Parish. FUMC readers are welcome to check out books from this library.)

Part 1: The Current State of Community Life in Society

This group of books deals with the loss of community life in society and the obstacles that need to be overcome for its recovery. The two Wendell Berry novels depict the breakdown of rural community life in the fictional town of Port William, Kentucky. Between Man and Man presents five classic Martin Buber essays on the existential struggle to maintain I-Thou relationships among people in contemporary society. Two chapters in Parker Palmer’s book deal respectively with the paradoxes that community life presents and with the risks, myths and forms of modern community life. In The Different Drum, Scott Peck explores the characteristics and awards of true community life and shows how such communities can still emerge in today’s conflicted world and contribute to personal wholeness.

Berry, Wendell. Hannah Coulter: A Novel, Shoemaker & Hoard, 2004.

Berry, Wendell. Jayber Crow: A Novel, Counterpoint, 2000.

Buber, Martin. Between Man and Man, Macmillan, 1965.

Palmer, Parker J. The Promise of Paradox: A Celebration of Contradictions in the Christian Life, Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2008 (chaps. 3 &4).

Peck, M. Scott. The Different Drum: Community-Making and Peace, Simon & Schuster, 1987.

Story time with Bev!

STORYTIME FOR CHILDREN AND PARENTS

Bev Halperin will be leading a story time in the church library this school year.   Yes, of course your children will love these stories, but you parents, let us tell you that you will too. Bev Halperin does not mess around.

Bev will host story times the first and third Wednesdays of the month, at 11:35 am.  Mark these dates on your calendar:

Oct. 7 & 21

Nov. 4 & 18

Dec. 2 & 16

Jan. 6 & 20

Feb. 3 & 17

Mar. 3 & 24

Apr. 7 & 21

May 5

Come enjoy Bev’s favorite stories (soon to be yours!) and check out from the library some of our new children’s books to take home.

Cavanaugh: Church as Emergency Responder

Dr. Cavanaugh, in his book Torture and Eucharist, uses the example of an organization called COPACHI, which later became the Vicariate of Solidarity, one of the Catholic church’s responses to torture during the Pinochet regime in Chile, to describe what the church looks like in the world.

Those involved in COPACHI and the Vicaría often spoke of them as a “response to an emergency;” we might consider this as a characterization of the church itself.  This is perhaps what it means to say that the church does not occupy a fixed space; the church always has a responsive character.  This is not to suggest that the Pinochet regime and the Vicaria were exceptions to the normal functioning of the state and church.  If Walter Benjamin’s thesis of history as “state of emergency” is correct, then the church is always located as a “response to emergency” until the Lord comes again.  Eschatology is always in tension with history.  This is the church’s story.  It is not reactive in the sense that the church is defined and located by the state, or by other narratives external to its own.  Opposition to the powers and principalities of the world is written into the very narrative of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ which is commemorated in the Eucharist. (273)

Much of Torture and Eucharist is concerned with clarifying just what the church is in the world.  It’s not just an institution, says Cavanaugh, because the church is not responsible to keep its own gears turning, to figure out how to avoid extinction.  We are gift, and we are nourished on the gift of the Eucharist.  How else could we have stuck around so long?

We’re not an institution, but we’re also not just a mystical body here to satisfy the spiritual cravings of a culture.  The church is not just anything.  The church “confuses” categories, says Cavanaugh.  It is political and religious.  It is earthly and heavenly.  It is here and not here.  As a foretaste of the Kingdom of God, it is “already and not yet.”  Therefore our activity in history is political, actual — not opaque — and also responsive, or responsible.

Don’t forget to come hear Dr. Cavanaugh himself say all this better than I have, and more, Sunday at 7:00 pm when he speaks on torture.  Come at 1:30 pm and hear him speak on consumerism as well.  1005 Stover St. Fort Collins, Colo., 80524.

Faith and Economics Revisited

Back in March we were so giddy about William Cavanaugh’s visit that we posted this bibliography on faith and economics.  Well, that was a very Spring thing to do — jumping the gun — and we’ve recollected ourselves and put together another bibliography that has several of the older recommendations along with a slew of new books we’ve recently acquired.  Our hearts are still quickened in expectation, but we’re older, wiser now.  See for yourself.

FAITH & ECONOMICS

241.68 DEG

DeGrote-Sorensen, Barbara. ‘Tis a gift to be simple: embracing the freedom of living with less. Minneapolis: Augsburg, c1992.

Note: DeGrote-Sorensen’s life after choosing simplicity. A family’s perspective. Includes scriptures on the topic.


241.68 JOH

Johnson, Kelly S. The fear of beggars: stewardship and poverty in Christian ethics. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Pub, 2007.

Note: Why can’t Christian ethics tell us whether or not to give to beggars? Johnson recovers a rich theological tradition related to begging, economics and mendicants to help us understand the role of poverty in Christian faith.


248.4896 FOS

Foster, Richard J. Money, sex & power: the challenge of the disciplined life. San Francisco: Harper & Row, c1985.

Note: A practical mediation by the modern father of spiritual discipline.


261.832 SCH

Food & faith: justice, joy and daily bread. Denver, CO: Living the Good News, c2002, 2006.

Note: Michael Schut contributes and edits a remarkable collection of essays all relating food and faith. Chapters end with excellent questions for group discussion. Contributors include Wendell Berry, Vandana Shiva, Elizabeth A. Johnson and Thomas Moore.


261.85 CAV

Cavanaugh, William T. Being consumed: economics and Christian desire. Grand Rapids, Mich: William B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 2008.

Note: Cavanaugh’s book is perhaps the most concise and thoroughly theological answer to consumerism that exists (we haven’t yet read Pope Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate).


261.88 DAV

Davis, Ellen F. Scripture, culture, and agriculture: an Agrarian reading of the Bible. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Note: Some say it’s just Wendell Berry plus the Bible. That alone would be great, but Davis points further to heretofore missed but essential connection between people, God and land in the Hebrew scriptures.


261.88 HOR

Hore-Lacy, Ian. Responsible dominion: a Christian approach to sustainable development. Vancouver: Regent College Pub, c2006.

Note: Hore-Lacy goes beyond environmental concerns that tend to focus on wilderness, and frame human existence in negative terms, by suggesting a uniquely Christian way of living in the world under the heading “responsible dominion.”


277.3083 CLA

Claiborne, Shane. The irresistible revolution: living as an ordinary radical. Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, c2006.

Note: Claiborne shows what happens when a group of people allow Jesus’s teachings to shape their behavior. For one, they throw a lot of money of a building.


306.0973 BER

Berry, Wendell. Sex, economy, freedom & community: eight essays. New York: Pantheon Books, c1993.

Note: Everything Wendell Berry says is inescapably particular and tenaciously relevant. At the core of his writings is a vision of economic and social shalom matched only by the Hebrew prophets.


306.3 McK

McKibben, Bill. Deep economy: the wealth of communities and the durable future. New York: Times Books, 2007.

Note: McKibben, a frequent contributor to Christianity Today as well as several well known publications, is considered an authority on economies that engender communities.


330.1 SCH

Schumacher, E. F. Small is beautiful: economics as if people mattered. New York: HarperPerennial, 1989, c1973.

Note: A classic on alternative economics.


332.024 HAM

Hamilton, Adam. Enough: discovering joy through simplicity and generosity. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, c2009.

Note: From the author: “Enough is an invitation to rediscover the Bible’s wisdom when it comes to prudent financial practices. In these pages are found the keys to experiencing contentment, overcoming fear, and discovering joy through simplicity and generosity.”


332.024 SCH

Money & faith: the search for enough. Denver, Colo: Morehouse Pub Co, 2008.

Note: Schut edits and contributes to another great collection of essays. This time they connect faith and money. Includes essays by Sallie McFague, Jean-Bertrand Aristide and Leonardo Boff.


338.1 WIR

The essential agrarian reader: the future of culture, community, and the land. Washington, D.C: Shoemaker & Hoard, 2004, c2003.

Agrarian approaches to living are gaining attention, especially among those of religious ilk who comprehend their faith in the context of a particular place. The book’s editor, Norman Wirzba, teaches theology at Duke Divinity School.


338.10973 SAL

Salatin, Joel. Holy cows and hog heaven: the food buyer’s guide to farm friendly food. Swoope, Va: Polyface, c2004.

Note: Salatin is a conservative evangelical at the forefront of sustainable agriculture. This book is for those of us who want to buy good food.


363.7 WIL

Wilkinson, Loren. Caring for creation in your own backyard: over 100 things Christian families can do to help the earth. Ann Arbor, Mich: Vine Books, c1992, 1997.

Note: Maybe you are not ready to become a farmer, but you’d like to do something with “your own backyard.” Intermingled are profound insights on Christian theology and caring for Creation.


630.68 SAL

Salatin, Joel. You can farm: the entrepreneur’s guide to start and succeed in a farm enterprise. Swoope, Va: Polyface, c1998.

Note: If you’re considering beating your Blackberry into a plowshare, this is your book. Salatin shoots straight about the realities of farming. Includes a great chapter on his arming philosophy that begins with the Incarnation of Christ.

Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea, By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Reviewed by Rafael Ubico

By the time I read Three Cups of Tea it had sold over 3 million copies, been on the New York Times Bestsellers List for 125 weeks, and was still ranked second among non-fiction paperbacks. It was thus with some trepidation that I began the book, thinking no serious book could be this popular. It proved to offer a captivating account of how one person’s dedication, vision, persistence and courage can make a dramatic difference in an under-served region of the world.

Three Cups of Tea tells of Greg Mortenson’s work building schools in the northern mountainous regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan from 1993 through 2003. These pursuits began with a promise to the people of the remote village of Korphe, Pakistan. After barely surviving and then losing his way while descending the treacherous K2 Mountain, Mortenson stumbled into Korphe.  He was offered such kind hospitality that he promised to return to build a school for its children.

After many circuitous twists, the Korphe School was completed in December 1996. Word quickly spread throughout the region of Mortenson’s intention to build more schools. His program soon kicked into high gear. By 2009, more than 90 schools had been established, educating over 34,000 children, 70% of them girls.

The book does not depict Mortenson as an unblemished saint. His tendency to over-manage, his reluctance to acquire adequate staff and office space, and his long non-communicative periods in his Bozeman, Montana, basement are all described. His blunderings into encounters with the Taliban and with competing gangs of opium smugglers receive similar attention.

The book’s title derives from guidance given Mortenson by Haji Ali, the nurmadhar of Korphe, who told him always to take time for three cups of tea. With the first cup, he will be a stranger; with the second, an honored guest; and with the third, a member of the family.  In this spirit, Mortenson, the son of Lutheran missionaries, has shown that Americans and Asian Muslims can work together with mutual respect and admiration.

NORTHERN COLORADO FAITH LIBRARY WINS INTERNATIONAL AWARD, ANNOUNCES FIRST TWO CONGREGATIONAL PARTNERS

Great big news!  News — great and big!  Great!

Northern Colorado Faith Library is the winner of the 2009 Outstanding Congregational Library award!  The award is given by the Church and Synagogue Library Association, an international organization.

Read the press release.

The release also announces the second piece of our big news: two new partners in the NCFL network of faith libraries: Our Savior’s Lutheran (ELCA) Church Library and Blessed John XXIII University Parish (Roman Catholic) Library.  We are thrilled about the possibility of serving a broader group of people through these partnerships.  If you are from a congregation that may be interested in learning more about our network of libraries, let us know.

Meanwhile, new items continue to be added, and thanks to a generous donation, we have been able to expand our fiction; history; grief & loss; and faith & ecology collections, as well as our periodical subscriptions (we’re up to 10).  The books and DVDs are arriving now!

Speaking of generous donations, a supporter gave us funds for a second computer, which we have installed in the study room.  Now you don’t have to bring an electronic notebook to browse the Internet, check e-mail, or study online.

For more about us, check out our our new Homepage.