New Flannery O'Connor Biography

Chris Smith at the Englewood Review of Books has posted a review of Brad Gooch's Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor.

Joy Williams has a review in the New York Times as well: "Stranger Than Paradise."

October Faith & Culture

The next JB Faith and Culture meeting will be Thursday, October 30, at 7pm at Joseph-Beth.

There is no meeting for September.

Dear Church is a series of letters from a former emergent church staffer to the global church she's not always sure she wants to be a part of. On a personal level, Sarah's story awakens the sometimes M.I.A. voice of the twenty-somethings who are distancing themselves from conventional expressions of religion. But, thanks to discussion questions that can be used for personal or group reflection, this book is much more than just one person's story. On a global level, Dear Church invites every person to engage their own disappointments and share in Sarah's story—the story of journeying through disillusionment and back again.

Sex and Religion

Boston University religion professor Donna Freitas has written a new book on campus culture, Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance and Religion on America's College Campuses. The August 2008 issue of Christianity Today offers a review by Lisa Graham McMinn, "A Safe Place to Talk About Sex," as well as an interview with Freitas, "Zipping It."

The articles haven't yet been posted to the web, but the Religion New Service has an interview as well.

Joseph-Beth stocks Christianity Today, and can place a special order for Sex and the Soul (e-mail to special order), a $24.95 hardcover from Oxford University Press.








Lauren Winner's Real Sex: the Naked Truth About Chastity is another excellent title on sexuality and the Christian faith. JB usually keeps the title in stock.

July Faith and Culture

Our July Reading Group pick is Jean Vanier's Befriending the Stranger. It's a $15 paperback, and we have it in stock at a 10% discount at Joseph-Beth.
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From Eerdmans.com:

In Befriending the Stranger Jean Vanier reflects on who we are and how we build our communities amid the violence and corruption of the modern world.

Through six meditative pieces based on Scripture, Vanier opens up God’s invitation to us to create new places of belonging and sharing, of peace and kindness, where each person is loved and accepted. The renewal of the church and the unity of Jesus’ followers will come, writes Vanier, as we serve and befriend the poor and unwanted in our societies, and as we learn to live with our own poverty and loneliness.

Originally given as talks at a retreat in Latin America for people immersed in assisting the disabled, Vanier’s reflections will be welcome words for all who seek to live out God’s love.

Englewood Reviews

The Englewood Review of Books is a new regular web publication from a church lately associated with "New Monasticism." They review titles of religious interest as well as general titles with an economic/environmental/social justice bent. Do check out their work.

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove recently published a book on how the Church can (and in some cases is) transcending racial lines to become the people "of one blood" that apostolic Christianity calls it to be. It's called Free to be Bound: Church Across the Color Line, and you can read a review from the Englewood Review of Books here. Joseph-Beth has not carried the title yet, but you can special order it by e-mailing here.







Englewood has also posted a review of The Essential Agrarian Reader, edited by Norman Wirzba. You may recall Dr. Wirzba's wonderful Living the Sabbath, which was a recent reading group selection. Joseph-Beth regularly stocks this title, and you can reserve it for 3 days via e-mail.








Finally, here is the ERB treatment of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food, a popular and regularly stocked title.

June: Being Consumed

The pick for June is William Cavanaugh's Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire. It's a $12 paperback, and we have it in stock at a 10% discount at Joseph-Beth.

I'm a great fan of Cavanaugh's work, and this book is only115 pages - thin, but it'll make us think!

From the publisher:

Should Christians be for or against the free market? For or against globalization? How are we to live in a world of scarcity? William Cavanaugh uses Christian resources to incisively address basic economic matters — the free market, consumer culture, globalization, and scarcity — arguing that we should not just accept these as givens but should instead change the terms of the debate.

Among other things, Cavanaugh discusses how God, in the Eucharist, forms us to consume and be consumed rightly. Examining pathologies of desire in contemporary "free market" economies, Being Consumed puts forth a positive and inspiring vision of how the body of Christ can engage in economic alternatives. At every turn, Cavanaugh illustrates his theological analysis with concrete examples of Christian economic practices.

You can find some of Cavanaugh's articles at the Catholic Anarchy website.

We'll meet to discuss the book at Joseph-Beth on Thursday, June 26th at 7pm.

Faith & Writing at Calvin College

John Wilson of Books and Culture offers a report.