| | Books quoted in Connections
Authors' names — B C-D-E
F-G-H-I-J K-L-M
N-O-P-Q
R-S T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z
Topics--
|
|
Authors and titles--
|
|
Bible's meaning for today
Church
Effects of cultural change and generational differences
Effects of personality differences
Methodism, United and otherwise
Non-Christian religions
Jesus
Spiritual growth, guidance,
and journeys
(Also see Barbara's list of the books that have been most
important for her spiritual journey, in the August
2002 Connections.)
Spiritual discernment for church decision-making
War
Worship
|
|
Allen, Joseph L. - War:
A Primer for Christians
Armstrong, Karen - The Great Transformation:
The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions
Artress, Lauren - Walking a Sacred Path:
Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool
Baab, Lynne M. - Personality
Type in Congregations
Bandy, Thomas G. - Kicking Habits
Bass, Diana Butler - Christianity for the Rest of
Us: How the Neighborhood Church Is Transforming the Faith
Bass, Diana Butler - The Practicing
Congregation: Imagining a New Old Church
Beaudoin, Tom - Virtual Faith: The
Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X
Borg, Marcus J. - Jesus:
A New Vision
Borg, Marcus J. - The Heart of Christianity
Borg, Marcus J. - Meeting
Jesus Again for the First Time
Borg, Marcus J. - Reading
the Bible Again for the First Time
Borg, Marcus J. and John Dominic Crossan - The Last Week: A
Day-by-Day Account of Jesus's Final Week in Jerusalem
Bourgeault, Cynthia - The Wisdom Way of
Knowing: Reclaiming an Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart
Boyd, Malcolm & J. Jon Bruno - In
Times Like These: How We Pray
Bradshaw, Paul - Two Ways of Praying
Budde, Michael J., and Robert W. Brimlow, eds. - The
Church as Counterculture
Cartledgehayes, Mary - Grace: A Memoir
Case, Riley B. - Evangelical and Methodist: A Popular
History
Cobb, John B. - Reclaiming the
Church: Where the Mainline Church Went Wrong and What to Do About It
Cobb, John B. et al - The American
Empire and the Commonwealth of God
Cousineau, Phil - The Art of Pilgrimage: The
Seeker's Guide to Making Travel Sacred
Cousineau, Phil, editor - The
Way Things Are: Conversations with Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life
Crossan, John Dominic - A
Long Way from Tipperary: A Memoir
Crossan, John Dominic - God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then
and Now
Crossan, John Dominic and Marcus J. Borg - The Last Week: A
Day-by-Day Account of Jesus's Final Week in Jerusalem
Dawn, Marva J. - Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down
Diamond, Rick - Wrestling with God
Dick, Dan R. - Vital Signs: A Pathway to
Congregational Wholeness
Easum, Bill, and Thomas G. Bandy - Growing
Spiritual Redwoods
Eck, Diana - A New Religious America
Elliott, Richard F., Jr. - Falling in Love with
Mystery: We Don't Have To Pretend Anymore
Elnes, Eric - Asphalt Jesus: Finding a New
Christian Faith Along the Highways of America
Falk, Richard A. et al - The
American Empire and the Commonwealth of God
Fowler, James W. - Stages of Faith: The
Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning
Friedman, Thomas L. - The Lexus and the Olive
Tree
Godwin, Gail - Evensong
Good, Jack - The Dishonest Church
Griffin, David Ray et al - The American
Empire and the Commonwealth of God
Harris, Sam - The End of Faith:
Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
Hedges, Chris - War Is a Force That Gives Us
Meaning
Hendricks, Obery M., Jr. - The Politics of
Jesus
Holthaus, Gary - Wide
Skies: Finding a Home in the West
Holthaus, Gary - The Unauthorized
Bible
Howell, James C. - Servants, Misfits, and
Martyrs: Saints and Their Stories
Johnson, Luke Timothy - Scripture and
Discernment
Keller, Catherine et al - The American
Empire and the Commonwealth of God
Kenneson, Philip D. - Life
on the Vine: Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit in Christian Community
Killen, Patricia O'Connell - Finding
Our Voices: Women, Wisdom, and Faith
Lawrence, Wm. B. et al - Connectionalism
Lester, Andrew D. - The Angry Christian and Coping with
Anger
Levine, Amy-Jill - The Misunderstood Jew
McClain, George D. - Claiming All Things for
God: Prayer, Discernment, and Ritual for Social Change
Marty, Martin E., and Appleby, R. Scott, eds. - Fundamentalisms
Observed
Meyer, Chuck - Dying
Church, Living God: A Call to Begin Again
Morgan, David - Icons of American
Protestantism: The Art of Warner Sallman
Morgan, David - Visual Piety
Morris, Danny E., and Charles M. Olsen - Discerning
God's Will Together
Mouw, Richard - Uncommon Decency
Norris, Kathleen - Amazing Grace
Palmer, Parker J. - Let Your Life Speak
Peck, M. Scott - In Search of Stones
Porter, Thomas W., ed. - Conflict
and Communion
Richey, Russell E. et al - Questions for the
Twenty-First Century Church
Richey, Russell E. et al - The
People(s) Called Methodist
Ricker, George M. - What You Don't Have To Believe
To Be a Christian
Rieger, Joerg - Methodist and Radical:
Rejuvenating a Tradition
Rieger, Joerg - Christ and Empire: From Paul to Postcolonial Times
Rohr, Richard - Hope Against Darkness: The
Transforming Vision of Saint Francis in an Age of Anxiety
Saliers, Don E. - Worship Come to Its Senses
Schaller, Lyle E. - Discontinuity
and Hope: Radical Change and the Path to the Future
Smith, Huston - The Way
Things Are: Conversations with Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life
Smith, Huston - The World's Religions
Spong, John Shelby - Why
Christianity Must Change or Die
Spong, John Shelby - The Sins of Scripture
Sprague, C. Joseph - Affirmations of a Dissenter
Taylor, Barbara Brown - Leaving Church
Thangaraj, M. Thomas - Relating to Other
Religions
Thompson, Marjorie J. - Soul Feast: An
Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life
Tickle, Phyllis - Rediscovering the Sacred
Wallis, Jim - God's
Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It
Ware, Corinne - Discover Your Spiritual Type
Webb, Val - In Defense of Doubt: An Invitation to
Adventure
Webb, Val - Like Catching Water in a Net:
Human Attempts to Describe the Divine
Wills, Dick - Waking to God's Dream
Wink, Walter - The Powers that Be: Theology for a New Millennium
Wuthnow, Robert - Growing Up Religious
|
 | The Bible's meaning for
today
|
God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now, by John
Dominic Crossan (HarperSanFrancisco, 2007
|
 |
| Crossan, a leading
historical-Jesus scholar, discusses what the remains of documents, coins,
and buildings tell about the Roman Empire, the matrix in which
Christianity originated. Crossan also gives his views on how Jesus, Paul,
and the other earliest Christians actively resisted the Empire's
all-pervasive effects, and how today's Christians need to be resisting
empire as it appears in today's world. Read more in the August 2007, September 2007,
and October 2007 Connections. |
 |
Christ and Empire: From Paul to Postcolonial Times, by Joerg
Rieger (Fortress, 2007)
|
| Rieger, a professor of systematic theology at
Perkins School of Theology, describes the influence of the Roman Empire on
early Christianity and discusses what this means for Christians today. He also describes how several prominent theologians
through the centuries have addressed or failed to address the subject of
empire's influence. The August 2007, September 2007,
and October 2007 Connections include
quotes from this book. |
The Unauthorized Bible: Selected Readings, by Gary Holthaus (BW
Press, 2003)
|
 |
| This tiny but powerful and beautifully written book is Holthaus's idea of what
selected parts of the Bible might be like if the Bible were written today. The
February
2004 Connections describes it. To buy a copy, click
here. |
 |
Like Catching Water in a Net: Human Attempts to Describe the
Divine, by Val Webb (Continuum, 2007)
|
| Lay
theologian Val Webb observes that deities described in prescientific terms
no longer engage people in this age. Thus many have left their religious
tradition because they found its portrayals of God unbelievable and their
church, synagogue, or mosque offered no other ways to talk about the
sacred. Webb includes numerous quotes about God, from many centuries and
many traditions. Read more about her thought-provoking book in the February
2008 Connections. |
The American Empire and the Commonwealth of God: A Political,
Economic, and Religious Statement, by David Ray Griffin, John B. Cobb
Jr., Richard A. Falk, and Catherine Keller (Westminster John Knox, 2006)
|
 |
| The four authors
of the essays that make up this book—three Christians and a Jew—say we
live in a time that is without precedent in two respects. First, one
empire—ours—is on the verge of becoming truly global, with no borders.
Second, it is on a trajectory toward self-annihilation through
human-caused climate change. The authors believe this situation is bad for
America, Americans, and the world. They therefore oppose it and advocate
what they consider a better alternative. You can read some of their views
in the September 2007 and October
2007 Connections. |
 |
The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the
Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love, by John Shelby Spong
(HarperSanFrancisco, 2005)
|
| Spong discusses the ways in which Bible texts condoning
violence and portraying God, human beings, and the universe in outdated
and misleading ways have led to abusive treatment of our planet and of
each other. Read a brief description on page 4 of the February
2006 Connections, and more in the March
2006 issue. |
Why Christianity Must Change or
Die: A Bishop Speaks to Believers in Exile, by John Shelby Spong (HarperSanFrancisco,
1998)
|
 |
| Retired Episcopal
Bishop Spong writes about what he sees as the silent majority of people
who find it increasingly hard to remain church members and still be
thinking people. He believes that if we want the church to survive, we
must start presenting authentic Christian belief in terms that make sense
to today's people. Read more in the March
2001 Connections. |
The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a
Life of Faith, by Marcus J. Borg (HarperSanFrancisco, 2003)
|
 |
| As in his earlier books, Borg writes here about
the earlier way of seeing Christianity and the emerging way. In the May
2004 Connections I discuss what he says about his ability to be
nourished by traditional worship, and his feeling that the main purpose of
worship is to furnish what Celtic Christianity called "thin
places." |
 |
The
Powers that Be: Theology for a New Millennium, by Walter Wink
(Galilee/Doubleday & Augsburg Fortress, 1998)
|
| This book is
essentially a condensed and simplified version of Wink's series of 3
books about what the King James Version of the Bible calls "the
principalities and powers." It's a powerful book that I wish all
churchgoers would read. I mentioned it briefly in the March
2001 Connections, and in the May
2001 issue I summarized Wink's description of the 5 main
worldviews that he finds represented in Western history. |
Reading the Bible Again for the First Time
(HarperSanFrancisco, 2001, by Marcus J. Borg
|
| Like others of Borg's books, I found this one helpful in
seeing how to relate Christian faith to today's world. See the May
2002 Connections for more. |
Falling in Love with
Mystery: We Don't Have To Pretend Anymore (out of print), by
Richard F. Elliott, Jr.
|
 |
| Elliott, a retired UMC clergyman from South Carolina,
writes about the great separation he finds in our culture, between
religion and reality. I quote him in the February
2003 and March 2003 Connections.
The book is out of print but you can get it, complete and free, from
Elliott's web site, www.fallinginlovewithmystery.com.
|
|
|
| Ricker is the retired pastor of University UMC in Austin,
Texas. I write about his book in the February
2003 and March 2003 Connections. |
Affirmations of a Dissenter (Abingdon,
2002), by C. Joseph Sprague
|
 |
| Sprague is a United Methodist
bishop. Read my discussion
of his brave book in the April
2003 Connections. |
God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It
Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It (HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), by Jim
Wallis
|
 |
| Wallis, the evangelical Christian editor of Sojourners
magazine, points out that many of the issues we think of as secular rather
than religious are the issues to which Jesus and the Old Testament
prophets gave the most attention. He urges Christians to become informed
and speak up about these issues in ways that he doesn't see either of the
main U.S. political parties doing effectively. Read more about Wallis's
views in the July 2005
Connections. |
|
The church
|
 |
Asphalt Jesus: Finding a New Christian Faith Along the Highways of
America (Wiley/Jossey-Bass, 2007)
|
| Eric Elnes, an Arizona UCC
pastor, left Phoenix on Easter in 2006, leading a group walking to
Washington, DC. Their aim was to foster conversations along the way, about
what it means to be progressive Christians in an age of fundamentalism.
They found thousands of people who welcomed them and shared their hunger
for relationship and conversation, including many "spiritually
homeless" people who identified themselves as Christian but felt so
alienated from the faith community that they no longer actively
participated in any such community. In the January
2008 Connections and at www.CrossWalkAmerica.org
you can read more about what Elnes heard on his 2006 walk and about
CrossWalk America , the organization he cofounded to host the walk. It is
committed to changing the face of Christianity in America to one that
recognizably reflects Jesus's core values of love of God, neighbor, and
self—a more compassionate and inclusive face than the one often shown by
news media and some of the most visible Christian leaders. |
Vital Signs: A Pathway to Congregational Wholeness, by Dan R.
Dick (Discipleship Resources, 2007)
|
 |
| Dan Dick reports here
on a study of more than 700 United Methodist congregations in North
America. He discusses the 15 main criteria that he found determined each
congregation's vitality. Read more about his findings in the May
2007 Connections. |
 |
Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church Is
Transforming the Faith, by Diana Butler Bass (HarperSanFrancisco,
2006)
|
| American Protestantism scholar Diana
Butler Bass describes her findings from a three-year study of fifty vital
mainline Protestant congregations. She found them experiencing new
vitality through innovative use of ten traditional Christian practices:
hospitality, discernment, healing, contemplation, testimony, diversity,
justice, worship, reflection, and beauty. Read a discussion of
two of these in the February 2007 Connections,
and of three others in the March 2007 issue.
The March issue also includes a discussion of the way in which she
contrasts custom and tradition in an earlier book, The
Practicing Congregation (Alban Institute, 2004) |
 |
Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, by Barbara Brown Taylor (HarperSanFrancisco,
2006)
|
| Taylor,
an Episcopal priest, tells why she has recently stopped being a pastor of
local congregations but has not left her relationship with the church. An
important motivation for her move was her continuing to see members
feeling pressured to believe official doctrine that didn't match their
experience of God or the world. Read more in the October
2006 Connections. |
The Dishonest Church, by Jack Good (Rising Star Press, 2003)
|
 |
| Good, a United Church of Christ pastor,
bemoans churches' failure to let their members know what most pastors know
about the Bible's origins, Christian history and doctrine, and recent
discoveries about the earthly life of Jesus. For more about this powerful,
easy-to-read book, see the February 2006
and March 2006 Connections. |
 |
Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for
Meaning, by James W. Fowler (HarperSanFrancisco, 1981/1995)
|
| Fowler describes
what he sees as six stages of faith, deriving his theory partly from the
findings of other scholars who have identified stages of life based on
biological growth, development of moral judgment, and other factors. The November
2005 Connections discusses how these stages may show some
ingredients the church needs to provide, especially in worship services. |
 |
The End of Faith: Religion,
Terror, and the Future of Reason, by Sam Harris (W.W. Norton, 2004)
|
| Harris, a neuroscientist who has extensively
studied Eastern and Western religions and spiritual disciplines, believes
our technical advances in weapons have made our religious differences
dangerous for our survival, and he finds that unlike other areas of life,
in religion we require no evidence to support our beliefs. On page 1 of
the December 2005 Connections you can
read a brief account of his main points. |
Conflict and Communion: Reconciliation and Restorative Justice at
Christ's Table, Thomas W. Porter, ed. (Discipleship Resources, 2006)
|
 |
| This
is a collection of essays about conflict resolution and restorative
justice, which the authors distinguish from retributive justice. The
connection between Holy Communion and conflict resolution is much less
apparent to me than to these authors, and some of them use more church
jargon than I prefer to read, but the book raises very important questions
and introduces readers to useful methods of conflict resolution that I was
glad to have brought to mind. Read more about the book's content and some
questions and implications it raised for me, in the July
2006 Connections. |
Reclaiming the Church: Where
the Mainline Church Went Wrong and What to Do About It, by John B.
Cobb, Jr. (Westminster John Knox, 1977)
|
 |
| Cobb believes mainline churches have become
marginal. Read why, and what he suggests we need to do about it, in the July
2004 Connections. |
 |
Dying Church,
Living God: A Call to Begin Again, by Chuck Meyer (Northstone
Publishing, 2000)
|
| Meyer,
who died in a 2000 car wreck, was an Episcopal clergyman in Austin, Texas.
His book is funny, and some Christians will probably consider it
unacceptably irreverent. "If you like the status quo, get all gushy
over the Atonement and the Blessed Virgin Mary," says Meyer,
"and you think the Church is the one thing that will never
change," this book is likely to make you angry. However, it says some
things I believe churchgoers need to hear and think about. Its format and
style would make it ideal for a church group to read together and discuss.
For more about it, see the March
2001 Connections. |
Growing Spiritual Redwoods, by William M. Easum and Thomas G.
Bandy (Abingdon, 1997)
|
| Church observers don't all agree
with all of Easum and Bandy's conclusions (or with anyone else's, of
course) about what we need to be doing, but these authors' observations
about how today's church and world differ from yesterday's, and thus about
what this means for whether people are likely to respond to what we offer,
seem very important for all church members to be aware of. I could give
this book only a quick mention in the August
1999 Connections, but it's easy reading and definitely worth
it. |
Kicking Habits: Welcome Relief for Addicted Churches, by
Thomas G. Bandy (Abingdon, 1997)
|
| This is a book
whose message I belive every church member needs to hear and help the church to act on.
The first step we need to take if we want to start thriving, in Bandy's view, is
admitting that many of our familiar church practices are not required by God.
Then, he recommends, we need to use a process deliberately designed to reveal
new ways in which God may be calling us to be the church. The process would
feature prayer, open conversation within the church and outside of it, and
focusing on scriptures that tell about people receiving new insights and
callings from God. More about the book is in the April 1999 Connections.
|
 |
Servants, Misfits, and Martyrs: Saints
and Their Stories, by James C. Howell (Upper Room Books, 1999)
|
| Howell's discussion
of the church's misfits was what I found most interesting about this
book, maybe because I'm a misfit and not a saint or a martyr. Read about
the God-inspired, creative oddballs who threaten the church's status
quo, in the February 2000 Connections.
|
Waking to God's Dream: Spiritual Leadership
and Church Renewal, by Dick Wills (Abingdon, 1999)
|
|
| After years of trying to persuade God to bless his good
ideas, says United Methodist pastor Dick Wills (now a UMC bishop), he finally saw that God
wanted him to simply join God in what God was choosing to bless. In this
thought-provoking book, Wills describes how he tries to give more
attention to the Holy Spirit than to the institutional church system,
while still being in the system. More from his book is in the July
2001 Connections. |
Evangelical and Methodist: A Popular History, by Riley B. Case
(Abingdon, 2004)
|
 |
| Riley Case, an
Indiana United Methodist clergyman and longtime activist in the unofficial
Good News movement within the UMC, writes about the history of that
movement and what he sees as the UMC's need to return to the populist
evangelicalism of early American Methodism in order to renew the church
and reach today's people as effectively as early Methodism reached the people
of its day. See the January
2005 Connections for more about his book. |
|
Effects of
cultural change and
generational differences
|
Discontinuity and Hope: Radical
Change and the Path to the Future, by Lyle Schaller (Abingdon, 1999)
|
 |
| Schaller sees signs of hope in the changes
that some church members see as signs of collapse. Find out why in the April
2001 Connections. |
The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization,
by Thomas L. Friedman (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1999)
|
| Friedman, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is Foreign Affairs columnist
for the New York Times and was formerly its bureau chief in Beirut and
Jerusalem. He is writing about the tension he currently sees, between the
ancient forces of culture, geography, tradition, and community, and the new
system of globalization that has integrated capital, technology, and information
across national borders and created a single global market. He believes that
institutions and individuals who keep acting as if today's global forces don't
exist have little hope of continuing to play significant roles in the world. I'm
afraid a lot of our churches are in that category, so I believe we need to give
serious consideration to the views he and others are expressing about this
subject, whether or not we agree with them. See the October
1999 Connections for more. |
 |
Re-Discovering the Sacred: Spirituality in America, by Phyllis Tickle
(Crossroad, 1995)
|
| Here the longtime Religion Editor of Publishers Weekly
writes about the effects of what she calls recent trends toward
do-it-yourself spirituality. See the page-one box in the January 1998 Connections. |
Virtual Faith: The Irreverent Spiritual Quest of Generation X,
by Tom Beaudoin (Jossey-Bass, 1998)
|
| This book is especially helpful because its author is a
member of the generation he's writing about. A brief excerpt is at the end
of the October 1998 Connections. |
|
|
Personality Type in Congregations: How to Work with Others
More Effectively, by Lynne M. Baab (Alban Institute, 1998)
|
| Some of us want silence in worship but others hate it. Some of
us want to hug and talk to those around us in worship services, but including
that makes others of us want to stay home. Some want to know the concrete
details of day-to-day church operations, but others focus more on long-range visions and goals. Some want harmony at any cost, but others want
to analyze and talk about all sides of issues even if it reveals strong
disagreement.
Baab reminds us how important it is to take these differences into account in
planning church activities and in reacting to other members' preferences. See
the box on page 1 of the September 1999 Connections
for a little more. Much better, read this book or others on similar topics. |
Discover Your Spiritual Type: A Guide to Individual and
Congregational Growth, by Corinne Ware (Alban Institute, 1995)
|
| If you're turned off by theological terms like apophatic
and kataphatic you probably won't like this book, but I found it
quite interesting, and its message is important. UMC pastor Steve Langford's way
of covering the same subject, which I describe in the September
1999 Connections, uses language that more church members will
relate to. |
|
Evangelical and Methodist: A Popular History,
by Riley B. Case (Abingdon, 2004)
|
| Case, a leading conservative voice
in the UMC, wants it to recover what he sees as the Wesleyan emphasis on
reaching the common people and on changing hearts. See the January
2005 Connections. |
Methodist and Radical: Rejuvenating a Tradition (Abingdon,
2003), Joerg Rieger and John J. Vincent, editors
|
 |
| The church is best
shaped and transformed not from the top down but from the bottom up, by
perspectives from the margins of society, and the margins are often where
God is at work. That’s the view Methodist theologians Joerg Rieger and
John J. Vincent and other Methodists from around the world present in this
provocative book. Read more about it in the August
2004 Connections. |
Questions for the Twenty-First Century Church, Russell
E. Richey, William B. Lawrence, and Dennis M. Campbell, editors (Volume 4 in the
series United Methodism and American Culture; Abingdon, 1999)
|
 |
I've found all four books in this series interesting. (The others
are listed above and below.) A few of their articles are a bit tedious unless you like statistics
and details of history better than I do, but I found nearly all of
the articles in Questions for the Twenty-First Century
Church very interesting, challenging, and
significant. I wish every United
Methodist would read it.
Especially important and especially readable, in my view, are the articles in it
by Thomas E. Boomershine and M. Garlinda Burton, about the need to communicate
through today's media and to consider the world rather than church insiders our
main audience. In the page-one boxes of the June
1999 and May
1999 issues I mention some of Burton's main
points, and the body of the June 1999 issue covers a Boomershine talk whose
contents were essentially the same as the contents of his article. |
Connectionalism: Ecclesiology, Mission, and Identity,
Russell E. Richey, Dennis M. Campbell, and William B. Lawrence, editors (Volume
1 in United Methodism and American Culture; Abingdon, 1997)
|
The People(s) Called Methodist: Forms and Reforms of Their Life, William
B. Lawrence, Dennis M. Campbell, and Russell E. Richey, editors (Volume 2 in United
Methodism and American Culture; Abingdon, 1998)
|
| These two books will probably have more interest for United
Methodists who participate directly in the UMC organizational system of
appointments, conferences, and such, than for those whose main or only
involvement is as a lay member of a local congregation. However, what these
books are saying is important for all of us, as what happens in the system
affects every congregation and every member whether we realize it or not. In the
July 1998 Connections I quoted briefly from these two books along
with Richey's Early American Methodism (Indiana University Press,
1991) and The Methodist Conference in America (Kingswood/Abingdon,
1996). |
| In the July 1998 Connections, about John Wesley's
view of Christian conference and the help it might offer in resolving
controversial issues in today's church, I also mentioned these books I had
found informative. |
| A Wesleyan Spiritual Reader, by Rueben P. Job (Abingdon,
1997) |
| Unity, Liberty and Charity: Building Bridges Under Icy
Waters, Donald E. Messer and William J. Abraham, editors (Abingdon,
1996) |
| Wesley and the People Called Methodists, by Richard
P. Heitzenrater (Abingdon, 1995) |
| Wesley and the Quadrilateral: Renewing the Conversation,
by W. Stephen Gunter, Scott J. Jones, Ted A. Campbell, Rebekah L. Miles,
and Randy L. Maddox (Abingdon, 1997) |
|
|
 |
The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious
Traditions, by Karen Armstrong (Knopf, 2006)
|
| Armstrong writes about the insights
of the Axial Age, in which "the great world traditions that have
continued to nourish humanity came into being: Confucianism and Daoism in
China; Hinduism and Buddhism in India; monotheism in Israel; and
philosophical rationalism in Greece." She believes we have diluted
our religions' most valuable insights today and replaced them with a
religiosity that too often harms rather than helps. Read about these
timeless insights in the July 2007 Connections,
and see whether you think today's Christians need to put more emphasis
on them. |
A New Religious America: How a "Christian Country" Has
Become the World's Most Religiously Diverse Nation, by Diana L. Eck
(HarperSanFrancisco, 2001)
|
 |
| Eck, a United
Methodist who heads Harvard's "Pluralism Project," tells
how membership in non-Christian religions has increased in the U.S.
in recent decades, and explains her view that this change is the
biggest challenge today's church faces. The January
2002 Connections reviews the key points of Eck's book,
and the October 2001
issue refers briefly to Eck's findings. |
 |
Relating to People of Other Religions: What Every Christian Needs to
Know, by M. Thomas Thangaraj (Abingdon, 1997)
|
| Thangaraj
is a Christian who grew up in India among Hindus and now teaches at
Candler School of Theology, a United Methodist seminary. He reminds
readers of the many scriptures that refer to the variety God has
created. His book has an especially helpful discussion of what he
considers the most common ways in which Christians regard other
religions. This book is easy reading and would be a good basis for
talking about the subject in a church group. Read more about it in the December
2001 Connections. |
The World's Religions, by Huston
Smith (HarperSanFrancisco, 1986)
|
 |
| The December 2001 Connections quotes
from this classic book. |
 |
The Way Things Are:
Conversations with Huston Smith on the Spiritual Life, edited and with
a preface by Phil Cousineau (University of California Press, 2003)
|
| In this collection of essays by Smith and
interviews with him, taken from various points in his long career, he
speaks about his understanding of what religion is—"the search for
the Real, and the effort to approximate one's life to it. He
discusses the different ways in which people understand and describe the
Absolute, and he bemoans the influence of what he calls
"scientism" on modern thinking. Read some of Smith's views on
these subjects in the February
2005 Connections. |
|
|
The Politics of Jesus: Rediscovering the True Revolutionary Nature
of Jesus' Teachings and How They Have Been Corrupted, by Obery M.
Hendricks, Jr. (Doubleday/Three Leaves, 2006)
|
 |
| Hendricks is an ordained elder in the African Methodist
Episcopal Church, a professor at New York Theological Seminary, and past
president of the oldest African American theological institution in the
U.S. This is a very compelling book, and it's in a welcome non-academic style. It
says some things I think the church and all of us who are Christians need
to take to heart. Read about some of these in the March
2008 and April 2008 Connections. |
The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus's Final Week in
Jerusalem, by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan (HarperSanFrancisco
2006)
|
 |
| I refer to this eye-opening book in the
August
2007 Connections in giving examples of how Jesus actively opposed
the Roman Empire. |
 |
The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish
Jesus, by Amy-Jill Levine (HarperSanFrancisco, 2006)
|
| Levine, a Jewish New
Testament scholar, feels that if we ignore Jesus's Jewishness and his
Roman Empire setting, we miss the challenge in much of what we read in the
gospels. Read more of her views in the October
2007 Connections. |
Icons of American Protestantism: The Art of Warner Sallman,
David Morgan, editor (Yale University Press, 1996) - July
1999 Connections
|
Visual Piety: A History and Theory of Popular Religious
Images, by David Morgan (University of California Press, 1998) - August
1999 Connections
|
| These two books of David Morgan, a Lutheran and chairperson of
the art department of Valparaiso University, seem written mainly for an academic
audience, but I found them fascinating. Morgan reveals the aggressive marketing
that caused Sallman's painting Head of Christ, which is in many of our church
buildings as well as our heads, to become accepted by many Christians as if it were an actual photo
of Jesus. These books are eye-openers about why visual images seem essential to
many Christians but turn many others off. The books also make important points
about our dangerous tendency to picture Jesus as Anglo-American. |
|
|
In Times Like These: How We Pray, by
Malcolm Boyd and J. Jon Bruno (Church Publishing, 2005)
|
 |
| I found this book about prayer, by two Episcopal
priests, a welcome change from most other books I come across on this
subject. It's a collection of pieces by a diverse group of authors,
describing the wide variety of ways in which they experience prayer. Read
about it in the January 2006 Connections. |
 |
The Wisdom Way of Knowing: Reclaiming an Ancient Tradition to
Awaken the Heart, by Cynthia Bourgeault (Jossey-Bass, 2003)
|
| Bourgeault,
an Episcopal clergywoman, writes about the Wisdom tradition. It has been
part of all major religions, including Christianity, since their
beginnings, but is unknown to many Christians. She observes that this
tradition's "nuts and bolts of transformation" are essentially
the same in all religions: surrender, detachment, compassion, and
forgiveness. Read more about this ancient tradition, its vision of God and
the world, and its potentially life-transforming spiritual practices, in
the May 2005 Connections. |
 |
Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian
Spiritual Life, by Marjorie J. Thompson (Westminster John Knox, 2005)
|
| Thompson, an ordained
Presbyterian minister, gives helpful guidance for traditional spiritual
practices: spiritual reading, various forms of prayer, corporate worship,
fasting, self-examination and confession, spiritual direction, and
hospitality. I especially appreciated her comments about times when we
find corporate worship a source of frustration rather than fulfillment. I
included a brief mention of this book on page 1 of the May
2005 Connections. |
Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual
Tool, by Lauren Artress (Riverhead Books, 1995)
|
 |
| This intriguing book
tells about a practice used in Christianity and other religions for
centuries, which has been rediscovered by many Christians as a way of
what Artress, an Episcopal clergywoman, calls "body prayer."
Read more about it in the September
'03 Connections. |
In Search of Stones: A Pilgrimage of Faith, Reason and Discovery,
by M. Scott Peck (Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster, 1995)
|
| Through his account of a trip he and
his wife made to ancient sites in Britain, Peck tells readers what he
has learned about himself and his faith. Some of his descriptions of
physical changes that come with aging are a little too explicit for my
taste, but they also reassured me that I'm not alone in experiencing
such changes and that life can go on in spite of them. As a frequent
traveler I especially appreciated his many observations about travel and
its relation to the spiritual journey. Because I happen to be the same
personality type as Peck, my annoyance at his apparent arrogance and
self-absorption kept reminding me to beware of similar tendencies in
myself. All in all, I found this a fascinating look at the searches and
journeys, physical and spiritual, that I believe are essential parts of
growing as a Christian.
For Peck's thoughts about being called, see the box on page 1 of the May
2000 Connections. |
 |
The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker's
Guide to Making Travel Sacred, by Phil Cousineau (Conari Press,
1998)
|
 |
| Cousineau sees
pilgrimage as a powerful metaphor for "any journey with the purpose
of finding something that matters deeply to the traveler." I found
his book intriguing as I thought about both the spiritual journey and
the many geographical ones I've taken. You'll find more on this subject
in the January 2001 Connections.
|
|
Growing Up Religious: Christians and Jews and Their Journeys
of Faith, by Robert Wuthnow (Beacon Press, 1999)
|
| Wuthnow, director of the Center for
the Study of American Religion at Princeton University, tells what he
observed from interviewing so-called ordinary people about their religious
beliefs and practices. Everyday practices in homes, he finds, have much
more influence than what happens in church or what religious leaders say.
Ways in which families observe holidays--especially Christmas--have
surprisingly strong influence. If he's right, what does this say about our
Christmas customs? Read about it in the December
1999 Connections
. |
Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, by Kathleen Norris
(Riverhead/Penguin Putnam, 1998)
|
 |
| Norris, a poet and a Presbyterian laywoman, is a Baby
Boomer who grew up active in the church, dropped out and felt quite
turned off by it for years, then returned to very active participation.
I've quoted from this book in the February
1999 and November 1998 Connections. |
Two Ways of Praying, by Paul Bradshaw (Abingdon, 1995)
|
| I found Bradshaw's discussion of the differences between
what he calls cathedral prayer and monastic prayer helpful and
interesting. See the January 1999 Connections. |
Uncommon Decency, by Richard Mouw (InterVarsity, 1992)
|
| Here the president of Fuller Seminary writes about getting
along together. In the August 1998 Connections I quoted his
comments about priestly and prophetic roles. |
Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation, by
Parker J. Palmer (Jossey-Bass, 2000)
|
 |
| A Quaker tells how his view of the Quaker saying "Let
your life speak" has changed over the course of his life. He urges us
to listen for what God wants us to make of our lives, rather than to try to
copy anyone else or to listen to society's call. More of his views are in
the May 2000 Connections. |
|
Evensong, by Gail Godwin (Ballantine, 1999)
|
| This novel about an Episcopal clergy couple looks at the
subjects of God's call and church life in a thought-provoking way while
keeping the reader engrossed in its plot. I've quoted one of its
characters in the May 2000 Connections. |
Finding Our Voices: Women, Wisdom, and Faith (Crossroad, 1997),
Patricia O'Connell Killen
|
| This book doesn't apply only to women, but to anyone longing
for God but not being fed by the Christian heritage as they find it in
their church. Killen calls this "standing by a river, dying of
thirst," which I used as the theme of the November
2002 Connections. |
The Angry Christian: A Theology for Care and Counseling (Westminster John Knox, 2003) and Coping
with Your Anger: A Christian Guide (Westminster, 1983), by Andrew D. Lester
|
| The first of these 2 books is designed mainly for
counselors, but it includes some useful pointers for angry people too.
The second book focuses on ways to deal with one's own anger.
Suggestions from both of them are in the June
2003 and July 2003 Connections.
|
Wide Skies: Finding a Home in the West, by Gary Holthaus
(University of Arizona Press, 1997)
|
 |
| At first glance this
stunning book of personal essays seems to be only an account of travels in the
western U.S., the people the author encountered there, and the author's
deep concern for the natural environment. But it's about much more.
Holthaus gives readers a compelling account not only of geographical
travels and natural beauty, but also of his spiritual journey,
in a way that is always beautiful but often wrenching as well. An
unforgettable book for me. Read more about it in the August 2003 Connections.
|
Grace: A Memoir, by Mary Cartledgehayes (Crown, 2003)
|
 |
| Cartledgehayes, a United Methodist clergywoman, tells how
she came to realize her call to ordained ministry and describes her
experiences with the ordination process, seminary, her first pastorate,
and the challenges she faced as a woman in a field where many men and
other congregation members thought women didn't belong. She uses
language and frankly describes feelings and experiences that some church
members will consider taboo for clergy, but her very well written book
is one of the most compelling I've read in a long time. See the August
2003 Connections. |
Wrestling with God, by Rick Diamond (Relevant Books, 2003)
|
 |
| In this intriguing book, Diamond speaks mainly to
non-churchgoers, especially to those in younger-than-baby-boom
generations, but he expertly describes the Christian spiritual journey
in a way that readers of all ages will find unusually potent. I was
distracted by his use of capitalized masculine pronouns to refer to God
throughout the book, but the book's many valuable features far outweigh
this drawback. For more, see the August
2003 Connections. |
 |
In Defense of Doubt: An Invitation to Adventure, by Val Webb
(Chalice, 1995)
|
| I found this book by a lay theologian very helpful in its
presentation of process theology, and very reassuring in its description
of the spirals, nudges, and uncertainties of the spiritual journey. I
say more about it in the August 2003 Connections. |
Hope Against Darkness: The Transforming Vision of Saint Francis
in an Age of Anxiety, by Richard Rohr (St. Anthony Messenger Press,
2001)
|
 |
| We often replace real faith with
religious group-identity, says Rohr, turning Christianity into reactive
tribalism. And the cross has become our company logo instead of
something we're transformed by. Read more about Rohr's book in the
August 2003 Connections. |
 |
The Ascent of a Leader: How Ordinary Relationships Develop
Extraordinary Character and Influence, by Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol,
and Ken McElrath (Jossey-Bass, 1999)
|
| This book is mostly too corporation-oriented and
mega-church- oriented for my taste, but I found its discussion of
vulnerability quite pertinent to the spiritual journey, and very
thought-provoking. You'll find a little more about this in the August
2003 Connections. |
|
|
Scripture and Discernment: Decision Making in the Church, by
Luke Timothy Johnson (Abingdon, 1996)
|
| Johnson, a former Roman Catholic monk and priest who was a
professor at Emory University's Candler School of Theology when he wrote,
feels that the church's claim to be a community of faith often isn't
reflected in its actual communal life. Our decision-making, Johnson says,
shows more about what we really believe than do our official rules,
rituals, or public statements. Read more in the April 1998 Connections. |
Discerning God's Will Together: A Spiritual Practice for the
Church, by Danny E. Morris and Charles M. Olsen (Upper Room Books,
1997)
|
| Morris and Olsen give specific suggestions for practicing
discernment in church meetings. "People are weary," these
authors find, "from church business as usual, from church gatherings
that do not connect with the deeper meanings of their life and
faith." See the March 1998 Connections for more. |
Claiming All Things for God: Prayer, Discernment, and Ritual for
Social Change, by George D. McClain (Abingdon, 1998)
|
| McClain, the former director of the Methodist Federation
for Social Action, gives some helpful pointers about using discernment in
meetings. See the box on page one of the September
1998 Connections. |
 |
War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, by Chris Hedges
(Anchor/Random House, 2002)
|
| Hedges
is a seminary graduate and award-winning journalist who has covered
numerous recent wars. I wish his analysis of the meaning and
characteristics of war were being discussed in all churches. Read more
about this thought-provoking book in the May
2008 Connections. |
War: A Primer for Christians, by Joseph
L. Allen (SMU Press, 1991/2001)
|
| As I said in the March
2002 Connections, this book by a professor of Christian ethics
gives a good summary of the just-war tradition and other ways in which
conscientious Christians have responded to war. |
Worship Come to Its Senses, by Don E. Saliers (Abingdon,
1996)
|
| Saliers, a professor at Emory University's Candler School of
Theology, a United Methodist Seminary, finds that awe, delight, truthfulness,
and hope are too often missing from our worship and thus need to be restored.
For more about this book, see the March
1999 Connections. |
Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for
the Turn-of-the-Century Culture, by Marva J. Dawn (Eerdmans, 1995)
|
| Some comments about this book are in the
February
1999 Connections. |
|
