Faith & Culture Books

New Flannery O'Connor Biography

2009-03-09T05:43:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-23T10:15:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-18T12:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-16T19:02:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-29T12:13:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

John Wilson of Books and Culture offers a report.

The Third Jesus

2008-05-10T15:38:00.000-07:00

Carl Olson of Ignatius Insight critiques Deepak Chopra's Third Jesus.

Of course, we carry the title at Joseph-Beth.

Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

2008-05-09T15:18:00.000-07:00

Scot McKnight of Jesus Creed offers a reflection on Coetzee's dark novel on South Africa.

Amish Grace

2008-05-07T13:08:00.001-07:00

David Neuhouser of the Englewood Review of Books has posted a review of Donald Kraybill's Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. This is a book on the aftermath of last year's Amish school shooting in Ohio.

You can, of course, pick up a copy at Joseph-Beth. I recommend you call ahead at 859.273.2911
so we can hold the title for you and avoid disappointment.

May 2008: The Illumined Heart

2008-05-05T09:35:00.000-07:00

Hey folks, I had to quickly amend this month's selection to something we already had in stock. I'm really excited about reading The Illumined Heart by Frederica Mathewes-Green. Mathewes-Green is a prolific cultural commentator, with work appearing on NPR, in the Washington Post, Books & Culture, Sojourners, First Things, and Beliefnet, among others.

She's written several books on spirituality, and has a warm, light-hearted style. Visit her website, Frederica.com, for more details. I read her commentary on an Eastern Christian prayer tradition, the Canon of Saint Andrew, and found it deeply challenging.

From Publisher's Weekly:

"Frederica Mathewes-Green, whose books on Eastern Orthodoxy have popularized ancient Christian practice for a modern audience, beautifully underscores the importance of following the precedent of the earliest Christians in The Illumined Heart: The Ancient Christian Path of Transformation. Too often, she argues, contemporary Christians bend to the "confusing winds" of change, subordinating Christian tradition to popular ideas. (So stubborn is she in her claim for the superiority of ancient wisdom that she offers an unusual disclaimer at the outset: "I hope not to say anything original. If I do, ignore it.") Mathewes-Green thoughtfully reflects upon how 21st-century Christians can incorporate early spiritual practices, such as continuous prayer, spiritual direction, fasting and communal worship."

I'll be excited to discuss how this book opens our thinking toward ancient Christian perspectives, and how that contrasts with Christianity as it exists in the American religious climate.

The book is a 12.95 paperback, and after a 10% discount for reading groups, that's $11.66. The book is in stock at Joseph-Beth now, and we'll meet to discuss it on Thursday, May 29th at 7pm at Joseph-Beth. Post a comment or e-mail if you have any questions!

Anne Lamott on the Colbert Report

2008-05-05T09:26:00.000-07:00

Religious author Anne Lamott recently appeared on Stephen Colbert's show. If you've heard of her at any point, this short interview seems a good introduction. We do carry her books at Joseph-Beth.

For those who know me, you'll know that posting this video does not imply endorsement of Ms. Lamott, or her religion...! (h/t: American Papist)

Three Generations of Evangelical Politics

2008-04-27T19:11:00.001-07:00

On this week's Speaking of Faith program from American Public Media, Krista Tippett conducts a live interview with three noted Christian leaders in "Three Generations of Evangelical Politics."
She speaks with

Charles Colson, a former Nixon crony and founder of Prison Fellowship and the author of many books, most famously Born Again.
Greg Boyd, a Baptist pastor and author of Myth of a Christian Nation (one of our reading group selections)
Shane Claiborne, co-founder of The Simple Way, author of the popular Irresistible Revolution: Confessions of an Ordinary Radical, and recently of Jesus for President.

You'll find Boyd and Claiborne's books at Joseph-Beth, as well as Colson's God and Government (most of the time).

Fieldwork

2008-04-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

Mark Walhout offered an enjoyable review of Mischa Berlinski's novel Fieldwork in the January/February issue of Books & Culture. Check out the web version here. Of course you can find it in paperback at Joseph-Beth.

We already know "whodunit" in this murder mystery - the question is rather why the anthropologist shot the missionary...

You can find an interview with the author as well on his website here.

The Year of Living Biblically

2008-04-26T07:51:00.000-07:00

Ben Witherington reviews the popular title at his blog.

Why I Love Flanney O'Connor

2008-04-26T07:48:00.001-07:00

I originally wrote this piece for a series at Ben Myers' Faith and Theology blog.

Flannery O’Connor was a Roman Catholic fiction writer from Georgia, USA. I love her because her disturbing, macabre stories capture my imagination for the God who is always creating and redeeming the church and the world.

Her stories are often violent, and her characters unsympathetic. There are country-folk and urbanites, intellectual atheists, and pious bigots. However, they stop just short of being caricatures as I realize that they are so much like me. O’Connor invites us to thank God that we are not like the Pharisee who is thanking God for not being like the publican. It is in this realization that the character’s moment of grace and judgment will become my own.

Revelation comes to O’Connor’s protagonists in unexpected and sometimes violent ways, freeing them (and us) from pretensions and self-deceptions. Her stories turn on the fact of the Incarnation, and on a strong sacramental principle: God acts in and through his creation. Through acts of violence and visions of the grotesque, O’Connor depicts the wrath of God moving upon the ungodly—and the ungodly sure do look a lot like me!

In the story “Revelation,” a pious and judgmental woman is sitting at a doctor’s office, pondering the South’s social hierarchy and her own rightful place in it. Suddenly she is attacked by a hysterical teenager who screams at her, “Go back to hell, you old warthog!” The woman realizes this to be a message from Jesus, and she asks him later: “how am I a hog and me both?” In response she receives a purgative vision and observes that even the virtues of the righteous are burned away.

In her visions of costly redemption, O’Connor teaches powerfully that all our righteousness is indeed as filthy rags, but that God is not content to leave us to our own devices, and will shake us awake rather violently if necessary. Bizarre events become movements of grace by an unseen God who wants us to know the truth about ourselves. O’Connor’s characters rarely find salvation, but salvation often comes to get them—and us.

In O’Connor’s stories, the love of God is tender, self-giving and determined, and it is because of this that it is also wrathful. O’Connor thus helps us to see, perhaps happily, that “even the mercy of the Lord burns.”

The Shack

2008-04-26T07:38:00.000-07:00

The Internet Monk, Michael Spencer, offers a review and recommendation for William P. Young's The Shack, a new fiction title.

This has been selling pretty well at Joseph-Beth.

April Staff Picks

2008-04-26T07:05:00.000-07:00

What to Eat
Marion Nestle
$16.00 paper

This book takes the confusion out of the grocery store.

Tokens of Trust: An Introduction to Christian Belief
Rowan Williams
$16.95 hardcover

Written with warmth and pastoral concern by one of the contemporary Church's best scholars, this attractive hardcover would be a great read for someone open to the Faith, with a particular "intellectual" emphasis.

Mass of the Early Christians
Mike Aquilina
$13.95 paper

This is an excellent introduction to ancient Christian worship for non-specialists, Protestants and Catholics alike. Check out a full review by Baptist religion professor and blogger Darrell Pursiful, and another at Christian Book Reviews.

Glittering Images
Susan Howatch
$7.99 mass market

This is a gripping work of psychologically driven and theologically-informed fiction. When a young cleric in 1930s England is sent to investigate the suspicious home life of an up-and-coming bishop, he finds much more than he bargained for when he discovers a new love interest in the episcopal household and finds himself wrestling with his own demons.

Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places: A Conversation in Spiritual Theology
Eugene Peterson
$18.00 paper

This is the most beautiful theology book I've read - the kind of book that should be re-read at least every couple of years. Check out an interview with Peterson here.

Staff Picks at Joseph-Beth are discounted 10% off the list price, and 20% off for Gives Back members.

The Great Mortality

2008-04-26T06:10:00.000-07:00

The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time, by John Kelly. HarperCollins, 2005. 364pp. Avail. in paperback.

John Kelly’s history of the Black Death is carefully researched and eminently readable. The first chapters examine the origins of the plague and discuss how it was transmitted from fleas to humans and carried across Europe by black rats and international trade. The scientific discussions are well-written for a lay audience, giving the reader a good understanding of how and why the plague spread as quickly as it did. The work is fast-paced and rich with anecdotes about medical practices of the middle ages and the reflections of those who lived through it – or did not.

I find Kelly’s account of medieval anti-Semitism to be particularly challenging. It is a sad fact of Church history that very soon after the separation of church and synagogue that debate gave way to vitriol and violence between the Jewish communities of the Diaspora the increasingly Gentile Christian churches. Teachers and leaders on both sides were threatened by the other because of the competition for converts (or reverts), and several church Fathers stand guilty for supporting or even encouraging violence against Jews as “Christ Killers.”

It’s preachy life-lesson time.

As a result of this culture in Christendom, anytime something disastrous happened to Christian Europe, it was certainly the fault of the Jews. Pope Clement VI condemned the killings as well as the hysteria and imputation of collective guilt upon which they were based, but this seemed to matter little. Holy Week pogroms were a traditional observance for Christian Europe, which would reach their height in the Final Solution of Nazi Germany.

Because of this shameful and inexcusable history, I am increasingly convinced that any observance or remembrance of Jesus’ execution must be made in the wider context of the New Testament witness, which insists that the Church must bear these wounds in its own Body. Jesus came to suffer, and so the Church must suffer. Jesus did not seek vengeance, and neither may the Church that bears his name. This is a question of what we consider the Church to be, at its very foundation. It is a suffering body like that of Jesus, or it is nothing that has anything to do with God or his Christ.

Further, any notion that Jews then or Jews now have some kind of group complicity in the events surrounding Jesus’ execution is just stupid. For whatever else it might say, the New Testament is convinced that God wanted it to happen, and that it would have happened one way or another.

Finally, anti-semitism is stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The other life lesson? Man cannot and God does not guarantee the health and survival of any civilization. All of the accomplishments we pride ourselves on, and the progress we hope to make as a cohesive society can be rolled away pretty quickly. Ultimately, remembering how the 14th Century saw mortality rates around 30% or as high as 50% during these various plague outbreaks makes me far more grateful for the people in my life who aren’t dying of something.

I Work at a Bookstore

2008-04-25T07:57:00.000-07:00

Joseph-Beth Booksellers in Lexington has begun a customer rewards program, called "Joseph-Beth Gives Back."

The cost up front is $25 per year, which is immediately handed back to the customer in the form of a $25 coupon to be used at the Bronte Bistro (the JBB Cafe, which is a full-service restaurant), and the benefits include

A $10 coupon for every $200 you spend in the bookstore
A $10 coupon for every $200 you spend in the Bistro
A 30% discount on all JBB hardcover bestsellers
A 30% discount on select new CD and DVD releases
A 20% discount on Staff Picks and Book Club picks
A free breakfast, lunch or dinner entree in the Bistro during the month of your birthday
Exclusive member-only events and discounts throughout the year

And finally, it's called the "Gives Back" program because it helps the bookstore's Community Partners. 1% of all membership purchases are donated back to one of these Partners - your choice:

The Woodford Humane Society
The Lexington Children's Theatre
The Lexington Arts & Science Center
WEKU, the NPR Classical Music station
Operation Read, the local adult literacy program

If you regularly shop at JBB, I think you'll want to sign up. Do me a favor as well - if you do sign up, when the bookseller at the cash register asks if you've heard about our rewards program, say yes, and that I told you about it. Give my initials, KDP, so I'll get credit for sending you.

Your questions and comments are welcome. If you have specific questions or comments about the religion section, I'm always happy to hear those as well - I'll do something about them as I can. Also, our booksellers are always very happy to place special orders for a title you want, but that we don't have in stock, or usually carry. There's no charge for a special order, no pre-payment, and no obligation to buy. That way you can hold a title in your hand, look it over, and make a decision before handing over money for it.

Creation and Kingdom

2008-03-09T08:13:00.000-07:00

Creation and Kingdom:
A Discussion on Everyday Christian Ethics

Joseph-Beth Booksellers
Sunday, March 9th at 4pm

Does living in the suburbs make it harder to follow Christ? How is care for the Creation related to the right worship of God? How can believers offer the blessings of God's reign to their neighbors? How can the lessons of Christian history teach us to care for others? Join us for a panel discussion with noted local authors on diverse ways of following Jesus and serving others in contemporary life. Topics will include

* Care for creation
* Sabbath keeping
* Christian hospitality
* Poverty and Christian Mission
* Urban ministry
* Suburban spirituality

Participants will include

Dr. Christine Pohl is Professor of Church in Society at Asbury Theological Seminary. She is the author of Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition and co-author of Living on the Boundaries: Evangelical Women, Feminism, and the Theological Academy. Dr. Pohl has extensive experience in urban ministry, and specializes in Christian Social Ethics.

Lisa Samson is an author of "grown up" inspirational fiction. Her newest book is Embrace Me, and her 2007 Quaker Summer was named one of Publishers Weekly's "Best Books of the Year." Her other recent titles include Hollywood Nobody, Straight Up, Club Sandwich, and The Living End. She wrote Justice in the Burbs: Being the Hands and Feet of Jesus Wherever You Live with her husband Will.

Will Samson is a doctoral student of sociology at UK, and recently the co-author of Justice in the Burbs with his wife, Lisa. Will's particular interests include social justice and ethics, mountaintop removal, and local food production.

Dr. Norman Wirzba is presently Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown College, and will be Duke Divinity School's Professor of Theology, Ecology and Rural Life in the fall. A Christian theologian focusing on the doctrine of Creation and agrarian philosophy, Dr. Wirzba is most recently the author of Living the Sabbath: Discovering the Rhythms of Rest and Delight and The Paradise of God: Renewing Religion in an Ecological Age. He has written several articles for the Christian Century, and is the editor of Art of the Commonplace and co-editor of the Essential Agrarian Reader.

Kyle Potter will moderate the discussion. He oversees the Religion section at Joseph-Beth and holds an M.Th. in Applied Theology. Kyle's research interests include Christian mission, hospitality, and monasticism.