What are you reading?
What books are you reading right now that help you theologically/devotionally/to improve your sense of humour/intellect/sense of rest/whatever? Or perhaps "Dating for Dummies"?! I'm reading "Deconstruction in a nutshell" by John Caputo, "Brendan" by Frederick Buechner and about to start "A spirituality of the road" by the late, great South African missiologist, David Bosch (which reminds me: all going to the South African Missiology Society's conference this weekend (Steve?) - I hope it goes well). I also listen to Abbot Christopher Jameson's "Finding Sanctuary" fairly regularly.
The Caputo book is an exposition of a conversation with Jacques Derrida and is introducing me to the concept of deconstruction - which I'd previously thought of as "destruction" or "suspicion" - in other words, taking something and breaking it down until nothing left to show that the way it's presented is merely a power play. However, I'm now understanding deconstruction as hospitality, responsibility, justice - "openness to the incoming of the 'other'".
"Brendan" is by one of my favourite authors, Frederick Beuchner. It's a fictionalised account of St Brendan the Navigator who came a few generations after St Patrick in Ireland and is mostly known for his semi-legendary quest to the Isle of the Blessed. I used a multimedia installation from the UK at Change Agents last year called "Set Sail" which is about setting sail into the unknown with God.
The David Bosch book is our introduction to mission at Nieu Communities, talking about a way to engage our world with integrity - like one beggar telling another where to find bread.
"Finding Sanctuary" is a book written after the surprise success of the BBC program "The Monastery" in which 5 modern British men spent 40 days and 40 nights in a Benedictine Monastery in England to see if monastic life has anything to offer contemporary men. Turns out it does!
- Roger Saner's blog
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read, reading, to read
"Crazy Horse" by Mari Sandoz, the story of the Lakota mystic warrior.
"The prophetic Imagination" by Walter Brueggemann.
"No boundaries" by Ken Wilber.
"A short history of almost everything" by Bill Bryson.
Due in :
Joseph Campbell's "The masks of God".
Starhawk's "Truth or Dare: Encounters with power, authority and mystery".
Mircea Eliade's "Shamanism: Archaic techniques of ecstacty".
read, reading, to read, wish i hadn't read...
Haha... somewhere in the great cosmos our thoughts must have crossed Roger - I've just answered your question and more in detail here.
Nice to see some overlaps in authors!
Me too
A short while before reading this, I posted up my most noteworthy books for 2007 on my blog! This is getting frightening...
Specifically 'spiritual', I found both Trevor Hudsons 'Invitation to the Abundant Life' and Margaret Silfs 'Roots and Wings' very helpful in bringing abstract ideas into hardcore practice. A lot of books discuss things on the thinking/abstract level but few actually help in practically being with and experiencing God-as in, what do I do when I find myself in quietness (or not) before God without falling yet again into cerebral Bible analysis and study... How do I actually experience and encounter God for real? Hudson, in particular, has very practical, very invitational, very relevant 'to do's' that have transformed my engagement with God and thus also my engagement with the world.
Rediscovering South Africa theologians + challenging novels
During the holidays, I read John de Gruchy's Being Human and Albert Nolan's Jesus Before Christianity, which reminded me how rich our theological heritage here is. de Gruchy's is more of a spiritual autobiography, looking at his influences and journey, while Nolan's is a compelling account of what Christianity would look like if it was just based on Jesus and the gospels. Recommend them both.
I'm generally more interested in novels than theology though. After being in quite an escapist phase, I've been rediscovering challenging novels.
I read Life of Pi, which you really have to finish to appreciate its genius. Yann Martel, the author, argues that since we can't prove God exists or doesn't exist, we should just choose the better and more interesting story.
Also read The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russel, which looks at a Jesuit mission to the first aliens discovered. It's a challenging book that reminded me of Shusaku Endo's Silence, which was about missionaries in Japan, in the way it makes you question your assumptions. She particularly challenges the way we credit God for everything good and blame ourselves and the devil for everything bad, as well as our belief that when things go wrong it's because we messed up. Not as good as Silence, but worth reading.
And read Night, by Elie Wiesel, about the holocaust, which was terrifying in the way it showed how his Jewish community kept believing the best and disbelieving the worst, right up until they reached the gas chambers.
And The Light Ages, by Ian McLeod, an urban mythology about an industrial revolution, which questions how much things ever really change and whether the cost is worth it.
And The Cross of Centuries, a collection of speculative short stories about Jesus, which was actually quite disappointing, apart from Dostoevski's The Grand Inquisitor, which is an amazing extract from The Brothers Karamazov. Still, fiction teaches us to imagine what could have been, and it's interesting to imagine what Jesus would have been like if he hadn't died at the cross, or had incarnated into a stoner community, etc, even if I didn't always agree with their depictions.
Currently reading: The End of Silence by Karen Armstrong, about women and the priesthood, which I somehow missed when I was reading everything I could about Christianity and sexism a couple of years ago, and waiting for my wife to finish American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, who I am in awe of after reading Neverwhere last year.
Gareth, I've got The God Delusion waiting for you when you're ready to try it. I really enjoyed it.
delusionally grateful
thanks buddy - will have to meet up for a coffee first to make the transaction. Pretty solid reading list you have there! I must look up de Gruchy's 'autobiography' work - i've read a few of his theological ones. I should also explore Gaiman some - i recnetly enjoyed Good Omens which he co-wrote with Terry Pratchett.
Let me know if/when you are around.
G
the book obsession
I'm reading:
Channelling by Jon Klimo (again)
The Upanishads (well, two volumes at least)
The Eye of Spirit by Ken Wilber
Integral Spirituality by Ken Wilber
Integral Psychology by Ken Wilber
A Survey of Buddhism by someone unspellable...
Edgar Cayce (a collection of his work)
The Human Being by Walter Wink
Postmodernity's Transcending by I can't remember...
The New Spirituality by Gordon Lynch
The Field by Lynne McTaggert
Experiencing God's Power Today by Smith Wigglesworth
The Secret Message of Jesus by Brian McLaren
The Last Word and the Last Word After That by Brian McLaren
Several blogs...
Imajica by Clive Barker
One or two others...
Envoy
büchwurm alert
Sheesh dude no wonder you never answer the phone.
In future, please include the page you are on. Starting a book, or placing it on a pile, does not mean you have read it. I mean, Imagica (just vol 2) alone took me almost 6 months!
I want numbers, measurables, P&L. ;)-
the commonality factor
Out of all books mentioned (about 32, excluding my own) I have only read 2. My overlap then is at about 6%.
So the commonality factor is low, and therefore the diversity factor high.
I'd say that this is a good thing, a definitive move away from much of the aped culture (sorry apes, its just a figure of speech) we tend find in religious communities.
Heterodox Rovers 3, Orthodox United 0.
page # police
Nic,
I'll have finished 3 of them by the end of today :)
I'm only around page 125 of Imajica though...
Envoy
Elo elo elo wots goin on ere then?
How do you find time to finish 3 books in one day? In addition to being an up and coming triathlete, planting an entire sacred tribe, preparing the baby room, spending oodles of time at Fresh Stop, attending philosophy lectures, and running a cartography business?
Should I be suspicious?
sleep deprivation & caffeine therapy & cheating
Nic,
Clearly you haven't discovered the wonders of sleep deprivation yet. What do you normally do between 2am and 5am? Ok, I know you occassionally lie awake but in the royal sense other sleep (unless they're out and about drinking and cavorting in a worldly sense that is, naturally, the correct thing to be doing). So that's at least 3 extra hours in my day.
Caffeine therapy is also important. Especially between the hours of 2am and 5am.
The other thing I bear in mind is relevance of things in the text. Some authors spend a few chapters making up pages so that they can be published. It's important to identify those pages and then "read lightly".
Oh, then of course caffeine therapy becomes immensely important in the hours of 2pm to 5pm. It seems that the shadow side to being awake early means wanting to sleep then. So... drink more caffeine and you can keep going :)
Envoy
skimming and visions
Envoy, despite your short attention span, I sense a prime opportunity for you here to get involved in Joels prophecy (2:28); sleep deprivation being a common technique of ecstacy.
Oh yes I forgot, you're expecting a little addition in a few months. You'll be fine - I see visions aplenty ahead.
Curently reading
Well some of them are displayed on my blog, but others not. I've been reading Edmund White's biography of Jean Genet, and "Christianity reborn: the global expansion of evangelicalism in the 20th century" edited by Donald M. Lewis because I just got a notice saying the library wants it back yesterday and I've been frantically making notes
My Shelf
I'm currently reading:
Karl Barth's Evangelical Theology
Henri Nouwen's Gracias: A South American Journal
Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe
Roger - I'd love to hear more of your opinion on Buechner's book. What catches you about his writing?
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