As I reflect on ten years of ministry at Covenant Church, I return to a favorite question that I have put to many of you over and over again: What are you reading? I call to mind the wheelbarrows full of books I’ve read, the ideas they put forth, the discussions that ensued, and, most importantly, the ways they changed my living.
The great Unitarian ethicist James Luther Adams is reported to have quipped that he believed in salvation by bibliography. Sometimes I feel like that. (If you’re ever looking for me and can’t find me, try, in order: my home library, my office library, Brazos Bookstore, the Fondren Library, the Montrose library, Half Price Books…) I have spent a good deal of my life with the writings and ideas of others, joining in a great company of theologians, storytellers, and poets sharing their questions and observations. So just for fun, I thought I’d offer my top ten books of these ten years of ministry. Each of these books has been something I’ve read and reread, and a few of the authors have become my teachers and friends. Here goes:
A Case for God by Karen Armstrong – This book strikes me as a perfect example of scholarship in the service of compassion. Reading the book was like taking a divinity school course; finishing it, I was left with the persistent question of the real effects of my religious practice.
A Feminist Ethic of Risk by Sharon Welch – Welch’s move from an ethic of control to an ethic of risk (and its constituent elements of storytelling, playfulness, witness, and resilience) strikes a deeper chord with me than any work of ethics I have ever read. This book is foundational to my theology.
A Geography of Childhood: Why Children Need Wild Places by Gary Nabhan and Stephen Trimble – This book shaped my thinking on children’s need for time outdoors; it also evoked many memories of my own early relationships with the non-human world (Kailua Bay, the Koolau range, and my backyard).
In the beginning…Creativity by Gordon Kaufman – A dense but extraordinary text written near the end of Kaufman’s theological career. The Prologue, “The Word ‘God,’” is worth the price of admission, offering both an historical survey and a number of relevant options for the present moment, each one informed by an evolutionary view of the cosmos and the natural world.
Living Buddha, Living Christ by Thich Nhat Hanh – An open-hearted appreciation of two great teachers and traditions, encouraging mindful, compassionate living in the here and now. I think I read this book once a year.
The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America by Louis Menand – A vibrant intellectual history of American pragmatism. Though there are dozens of excellent volumes on theological pragmatism, Menand’s blending of ideas, history, and personal narrative is irresistible.
Moby Dick: or, The Whale by Herman Melville – What can I say? I love Melville so much that I read big chunks of his prose aloud to anyone who will listen. There are too many themes to mention, too many characters to name, but above all Melville deals with the deep ambiguity of existence. We talked about this book for an entire weekend at the men’s retreat. But we were just getting started…
Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us by Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Parker – The book reminds us that all theology must answer to lived experience. Brock and Parker share from their stories and the experiences of women with whom they have worked, critiquing the ways that religion still supports and sanctions unspeakable violence. This may be the only work of theology that has ever made me weep.
The Sacred Depths of Nature by Ursula Goodenough – This book is something of a sacred text to religious naturalists. Goodenough’s combination of hard science (she is a cellular biologist at Washington University in St. Louis) and personal meditation is deeply affecting. While Goodenough is a nontheist, her brand of religious naturalism leaves room for many; she’s more Mary Oliver than Richard Dawkins.
The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative by Thomas King – In the wry voice of indigenous wisdom, King raises deep questions about how we tell stories and why. His prose is painful and prophetic, and his primary concern, offered in the form of a call and response, still haunts me. ”Need a different ethic?” he asks. ”Tell a different story.”
My question this week, then, is the same as always: What are you reading? What books have most influenced your thinking and living over the past few years?
With a bow to readers and writers everywhere. And with aloha,
J
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January 12, 2012 at 12:35 pm
Steve Braun
I have loved Marcus Borg since being introduced to him through Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time in the mid 90′s. His newer work, Heart of Christianity, seems to me essential reading for 21st century Christians. More recently he and JD Crossan have had wonderful books they have co-written. I, like you, need nature for spiritual nurture. I am contemplating starting a website around nature haiku which I write for a number of reasons including it being a practice for my spirit. I’ll have to check out some of the books you mention…my sister, Beth Braun, has found a good church home there. I am from Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC.
January 12, 2012 at 6:17 pm
Jeff N.
Steve, it’s nice to see your post. Your sister is a wonderful person.
I want to mention John Updike’s Rabbit, Run, which I haven’t read recently but had a great effect on my faith when I was a young man. In that novel, Jack Eccles, is a young Episcopal minister who is experiencing a crisis of faith. The way Updike handles the subject of religious faith was very engaging to me 30 years ago, and it still is. There’s great stuff in this book about lots of things besides faith, but faith is a big part of it — conversations between Eccles and older ministers, and between him and his parishioners, that helped me appreciate the mysteries associated with faith, and provided comfort that I wasn’t alone in my own faith struggles.
Right now, I’m reading Debt: The First 5,000 Years, by the anthropologist David Graeber. It’s a great read, with explicit and implicit theological elements. It makes a persuasive case that most human activity is based on community, not competition, and against the idea that debt is part of a natural or divine order. Instead, it’s a creation of the state that makes the existence of political rulers possible. If there were no such thing as debt, there could be no taxes and the ruling class could not get and keep power. It also argues that the great world religions developed at the point in the history of our civilizations that the idea of debt also arose. I’m not finished yet, but the book’s ideas are exciting and a lot of fun to consider.
January 12, 2012 at 7:36 pm
jeremyrut
From Vince Maggio via e-mail (posted with permission):
My readings list would be legion, though I’m not a frequent reader. Going back to my early teen years when a Mother Superior introduced me to a pamphlet entitled “The Baltimore Catechism”. I was told that in answering the question, “Who tells us all we need to know about God?”, the answer is, “The Catholic church tells us all we need to know about God.” I knew something about Jesus, and I answered, “Who told Jesus?” This was easy for her to respond to that because of her theology, but that question bugged me. When I retired over 25 years ago I began a more serious study of theology. There was the Jesus Seminar Bible, “The Five Gospels”. Then followed Bishop Spong’s “Why Christianity Must Change or Die”. I have read all of his 6 or so books. Marcus Borg’s works are in my library, as are those of John Crossan. I took to reading the sacred works of other faiths as well; with emphasis on the Buddhists. I also refer to my 11 versions of the Bible! I’m still on my faith journey, but my readings are slowing as my faith becomes more meaningful. I am active in The Foundation for Contemporary Theology, and that relation provides me with a means to read, hear & meet some of the modern theologians. Jesus developed a “Way”, and we can, too!
January 13, 2012 at 2:30 am
larryjones
I have been able to read many books since my daughter bought me a Kindle some 8 months ago. This has liberated me from smaller type, which I can no longer read. The book that struck me the most and most deeply of late has been “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” by Rebecca Skloot, a wonderful writer in the realm of science. She spent ten years researching, interviewing and writing this book and it is now internationally acclaimed. It is the sad but true story of a poor Black woman who died of cervical cancer in 1951. Her cells, unlike any others at the time, continued to grow very agressively. They were named HeLa cells, based on her name, and have been and still are the cells used in innumerable research projects which have led to the polio vaccine, our knowldege about the dangers of smoking and a host of other highly significant scientific breakthroughs. Unfortunately Ms. Lacks’ family could never afford health insurance and still cannot. There are some “religious” scenes with her extended family which seem strange to our liberal tradition, yet are so authentic. This is the most gripping book I have read in years. You must read this book if you have an interest in race relations, science, or the depths of human existence and searching.
I just finished “The Narrative of the Life of Franklin Douglass,” by Franklin Douglass. In this brief book I came to understand in a new and deeper way the horrors of slavery, as well as the grossest form of religious hypocracy.
I am now reading “The Lemon Tree, an Arab, a Jew and the Heart of the Middle East,” by Sandy Tolan, This is a heavily researched book; a novel, yet absolutely true to the facts, according to the author. So far, this book has only confirmed my conviction that the only viable solution to the Israel/Palestine “problem” is a single secular state, which I fear will not happen in my lifetime.
January 13, 2012 at 11:52 am
jeremyrut
From Bill Colburn via e-mail (posted with permission):
Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for this week’s blog subject matter. It’s been a treat reflecting back on all the books over the years that have impacted my life. Although, at the moment, I feel something of a Philistine on this subject having just recently relished this young adult novel, The Hunger Games. Can’t wait to see the movie. However, on a more serious note, here’s a sampler of just a few memorable works:
1. The Passover Plot by Hugh Schonfeld. Written back in the sixties, I came across this work as a teenager, and it’s probably the first thing I ever read that questioned biblical literalism. I can even recall being frightened by its implication that everything the church had been teaching me might not be literally true.
2. Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism by John Shelby Spong. This is the first of Spong’s works I ever read, and what a comfort it was to a young man coming to accept being gay. Whenever I come across someone just coming out who’s struggling with what organized religion has taught him all his life, this is the book I recommend. I’ve read every single work by Spong since then and they’ve been a joy.
3. A History of God by Karen Armstrong. This is the book that started my adult study and exploration of what do we really know about the bible and the early church, an exploration I’ve continued with works by Elaine Pagels, Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, A.N. Wilson and others.
4. Robert Caro’s superlative biographies of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power, Means of Ascent, and Master of the Senate. Much more than a standard biography, each work is a grand study of the use of political power, and what’s more, they read like novels. Caro’s research is so meticulous it takes him years to finish each work. His description in book one of how hard life was in central Texas before the advent of electricity is so vivid, you completely understand what it meant to that area when the young congressman LBJ helped to bring about electrical power. Caro’s next installment, The Passage of Power, is due this May and I eagerly await its arrival.
5. John Irving’s The World According to Garp. This book completely shook up what I understood a novel was supposed to be. Its cultural satire, its short story within the narrative, the book had one invigorating touch after another. My second favorite Irving is A Prayer for Owen Meany. Unfortunately, Irving’s works since then pale in comparison to these two.
Jeremy, this is just the start. I might continue tomorrow, but right now I have to run. Take care,
Bill
January 14, 2012 at 4:49 pm
Carl Gregg
Thanks for this post. For me, there’s what I loved in 2011 (http://bit.ly/sQjmaJ), what I’m currently reading, which is a lot about the Didache for my current sermon series (http://bit.ly/xdI6mw), and what I’d like to be reading, which is to get back to Jung’s Red Book (http://nyti.ms/zQnQqa).
February 1, 2012 at 3:43 am
Stephanie
I happened upon this post and had to chime in, as I had the privilege of many pb&j lunches with James Luther Adams (or JLA, as we called him) when my office at Harvard Divinity School was right beside his small, book-filled-to-the-brim home. He could barely get around physically by that time (the early 1990s), but he still read and wrote daily, and was always eager to discuss his latest reads. Terrific list, Jeremy, and happy reading!