flying.farther

About two hours before I left from home, at the end of this last Christmas break, a brother of mine asks me if I have some books to recommend. Admittedly I was shocked - He didn’t read much last time I checked. I checked again, yep, still not much of a reader. Right. So he wants a book or two to read? Now this is a challenge. I can’t overwhelm him, but he is asking for a book. It has to be at a high school reading level, but still call him deeper. The language needs to be simple, but maintain his curiosity. Over all, I am unsure as to what he really thinks theology is. I just hope he isn’t expecting wrote memory with the “objectivity” of Grudemn or Erickson, but in pill form.

With the help of Halden and some others in the book business, I decided on two books: Mere Discipleship by Lee Camp (think Yoder but in easier language) and Simply Christian by N. T. Wright (think Mere Christianity but for Christians).

Hopefully this will get him thinking about his goal to fly and build planes through the air force and the theological implications of the Christian life. Then again, theology is so much bigger than designing bombs, and so ultimately, I am looking for conversational books that will draw him deeper into thinking critically/theologically about his life now and in the future. I think Camp and Wright fit that well. I just hope it sticks.

Does anyone else have other suggestions? I’m still somewhat at a loss. This seems like a particularly hard audience to find a good book for.

Ha! The semester is over for me, as of… ten minutes ago. One word I would use to describe it? Ugh. Academically I’m doing good, but still, sometimes a semester is just kinda lame, then again, it might have something to do with Ph.D. applications and personal circumstances going to hell. Anyways, I’m done. Woo hoo!

Now for Christmas break, I’m planning on reading these books:

For the Life of the World by Alexander Schmemann
The Violence of Love: The Pastoral Wisdom of Archbishop Oscar Romero Translated by James R. Brockman, S.J.
Romero: A Life by James R. Brockman
State of Exception by Giorgio Agamben, trans. by Kevin Attell
Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty by Carl Schmitt, trans. by George Schwab
The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World by Elaine Scarry
Eschatology and Hope by Anthony Kelly
Christian Critics: Religion and the Impasse in Modern American Social Thought by Eugene McCarraher

Any suggestions?

I could spend hours looking at and living in these libraries. Preeeetty.

I suppose I’m forming an informal series on intense personal pain. I’ve got three other posts here, here and here.

As I try to work out faith and life, I keep finding holes and flaws in American Christianity and so I attempt to fill the gaps or correct the theological warping. Some ways I change are through theological constructions and seeking out the conclusions (which is more often than not, other people). But there are also works outside of Christian theology where one can find rest.

Finding places of rest cannot be underestimated. Some places are between the hurting human and the divine, but there are also other places that deal with the situation of pain but are reflections by humans on these human experiences and sometimes may indirectly lead us back to the divine.

I have found some rather helpful, “current” works and figured I would mention a couple of them for the benefit of those who are searching who are likewise in pain. But by all means, anyone with a suggestion please leave a comment.

In the middle of this past August, Kenneth Branaugh’s Hamlet was finally released on dvd and I got myself a copy. I was already a huge fan of the play and this movie’s interpretation ever since high school, but now I find this work incredibly helpful, especially disc 1. Father murdered by the brother. Brother now becomes king and very quickly marries widowed queen. Son Hamlet is also rejected by Ophelia, while he reals from the parental problems and whether or not Hamlet will take revenge. And in all this, Branaugh does an excellent job.

Kaddish by Leon Wieseltier is nearly 600 pages of mourning, in all its fluctuating manic glory. You can pick it up and start reading almost anywhere and put it down whenever you want. There is no push to read an argument or finish a plot, but instead to see that the fellow anguished exist in highs and lows as well. This is Jewish grief expertly written. And all the heartache aside, Wieseltier tells some really good history stories within the text, as he searches his Jewish tradition.

And there is always some melancholic music. I suggest Brahms Cello Sonatas.

Edit: If you, the reader, have any suggestions for something fairly theological, but still half way accessible, by all means leave your suggestions.

I wrote a book list for a friend of mine awhile back. It turns out that he wants a little more theology and that Cavanaugh’s Theopolitical Imagination is really giving him a lot to chew on. The argument is simple, but the implications are vast.

Anyways, I figured if one was curious and willing enough to brave some theological language, I recommend these following books for those who’s world has been turned upside down by Cavanaugh. The thing is, while his book tears down one’s relationship to the world, it doesn’t build up much of an idea of the church beyond the metaphor about the body of Christ, hence some of the books I’m recommending to now begin the constructive task of imagining what Christianity should look like.

Torture and Eucharist. This is if you really want to give Cavanaugh a shot, and I think you would if Theopolitical Imagination really did do a number on you. Cavanaugh spends more time in Torture and Eucharist on the church, mainly because the book is bigger, still its good times. And it’ll keep you busy; its not so much harder to read, just bigger.

If you want something to screw your head around farther than you thought it could go, try Jürgen Moltmann’s Theology of Hope and The Crucified God. He writes… well, there is a specific name for it, but its basically a flow of thought style. He is repeats himself in a spiral like way, reviewing and expounding on points multiple times. The language might be a stretch but if you can work up to it, it’ll blow your mind. Certainly he isn’t perfect, or even the best to voice what he does, but its still, importantly, rather accessible. It’ll give you the future back instead of leaving it all to those dispensationalists with the left behind series. Moltmann will realign how the church should orient itself with a Christological dialectic - a suffering Christ and hopeful, resurrected Christ. Welcome towards moving to a real eschatology, just don’t stop with Moltmann.

Griffith on Terror will continue to work with Cavanaugh on how messed up the nation-state is.

God is Not will also continue that sort of thing, but cover more topics than just nationalism and so you’ll see more implications of what it means to be about the church.

Hauerwas’ A Community of Character will help one envision what relationships in the church ought to look like.

Bonhoeffer’s Ethics, while unfinished will just keep the themes already established moving.

Those books are quite a bit bigger than the stuff I previously recommended. Also some are more language intense, but they’re all worth it. I also have a bit of a solution for the harder books to follow, theological dictionaries: Essential Theological Terms, Handbook of Theological Terms, and Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms all work fairly well. Choose your poison, or drink from each one if you want. I own all three and they helped a great deal when I “started.”

The summer is nearly done, so I figured I’d post the list of my summer readings. There is still time left, and I plan on at least, starting and finishing Davita’s Harp by Chaim Potok before class starts (and if it has been anything like the previous Potok books, I’ll do that in a day - delicious I tell you).

My summer readings (2007):

Not for Class:
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
The Promise by Chaim Potok
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
The Gift of Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks (this isn’t worth a rereading for all sorts of reasons)
The Book of Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, Jr.

Class: Theology and Torture
Anamnesis as Dangerous Memory by Bruce Morrill
Guantánamo: What the World Should Know by Michael Ratner and Ellen Ray
Myths America Lives By by Richard T. Hughes
On Christian Theology by Rowan Williams
The School of Americas: Military Training and Political Violence in the Americas by Lesley Gill
The War on Terrorism and the Terror of God by Lee Griffith
Torture and Eucharist by William Cavanaugh
The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World by Miroslav Volf

Class: Roger Haight’s Christology
Dynamics of Theology
Jesus Symbol of God
The Future of Christology

I finished this morning The Promise, sequel to The Chosen, by Chaim Potok. I also began it last night as well. I pulled an all nighter, reading through the novel in one sitting - I haven’t done that in years. Call it a problem, after all my sleep schedule is rather screwy now, but it was delightful. Kinda like eating the forbidden chocolate cake, for those who love that kind of sweet (I’m not actually a big sugar fan, believe it or not, but I think the analogy is apt).

Anyways, the sequel lived up to its older sibling. It seemed to embody what a sequel is supposed to be: the continuation of the story that doesn’t even give the reader pause. Some themes were revisited in varying amounts, others were new, but it was the same growing people.

I’m also a fan of The Chosen and The Promise for the academic life. The protagonist does theology, but it isn’t Christian theology, and yet because of the link between Judaism and Christianity, they feel some what like kin. I love the familiarity and the difference.

But more than that, I’m tremendously attracted to the lessons for academics, most specifically towards the lesson on empathy. This is not some run-of-the-mill “we saw a car wreck and feel sad,” or even, “look at this economically depressed group of people and see how they survive in solidarity,” but rather, this is empathy on a divine scale that transcends what some call empathy (which is really pity for ones they perceive as less fortunate) to a true revolution in one’s being and how they relate to those relationally closest, as well as those far.

Danny at the end of The Chosen leaves his environment with an extremely sensitive heart - a tzaddick’s heart for the world - and in The Promise we see this academic who takes in the mentally distressed boy and, at the same time, comes to marry the boy’s cousin because she sees and experiences the depth of a tzaddick’s heart - a heart that breaks for everyone, those both near and far. Danny’s heart is proven to be a tzaddick’s heart by the close people around him - those are the true judges of the state of someone’s heart - as Reuven says near the end, Danny would never hurt you, unless its for your good. Not his good.

I think I’ll read this book again, much like I return to The Chosen over and over again. Its nearly, if not actually, scripture.

A friend of mine some weeks ago asked me for a book list. In fact, he said, “Just give me a list, I don’t care whats on it, I just need to start reading again.” Well, I didn’t take him too literally, but I did come up with a book list for the lay person. These books are generally rather readable and well written, but more importantly, could be interesting instead of boring theology.

1. Risks of Faith by James Cone. This book is from a prof here at Union and is actually my go-to book for exposing someone to black theology or maybe even liberation theology in general. Its very readable, and spans Cone’s career as it is a selection of essays, but the text also hits at what Cone is known for, starting “Black Liberation” theology. The work will get you/or keep you thinking on race, gender, poverty - you know, the important things.

2. Myths America Lives By by Richard T. Hughes. While at times I do have some criticisms about the work on certain points (and I may or may not agree entirely with his conclusion, hint, probably not), this book is very readable and hits at the general heart of what the hell really is going on with what we believe as American Christians. Once thats all sorted out, we can finally address if we really should be believing any/some/all the myths.

3. Theopolitical Imagination by William T. Cavanaugh. This book is short and expensive (read here, the publisher is being a jerk), but damn worth it if you can keep up. I would recommend Torture and Eucharist by Cavanaugh, but thats denser and bigger. Theopolitical Imagination may be one of the biggest stretches in terms of reading accessibility on the list, but in this case, that shouldn’t matter - struggle through this book five times if you have to (though I don’t see it being nearly that hard to understand, I think most people could understand it well enough with one reading and some discussion) - just read the damn book. It changed me in such a fashion that my whole theological world-view will never be the same. Ever.

4. God Is Not: Religious, Nice, One of Us, An American, A Capitalist edited by Brent Laytham. This collection has a good spread of essays on negative theology (negative theology is saying what we know God not to be) which in this case strikes at the very nature of what we assume God to be, and sometimes, we assume wrongly. Hence this book.

5. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. Possibly one of the funniest books I’ve ever read and I would often times find my self laughing out loud quite often, but also at times is incredibly well researched, in fact if I were teaching a Gospels class or intro to New Testament, I would use excerpts from this book.

6. Dracula by Bram Stroker. The book is riveting and I love the style, but also it is incredibly mature in how it deals with corruption and death. Rather astute I think. One of the most interesting things of note is what happens when a vampire dies - they sigh in peace, in fact, its not a horrible death at all. The vampires are finally allowed to rest and the evil is purged - they become people again in a very real sense. Perhaps we should look at our enemies like this - that there are people underneath all that evil, except we don’t need to use the violence. I used to not be a vampire fan, and I’m still not really, but this book I really like and it seems to have all sorts of theological ideas.

7. Anything by Dorthy L. Sayers, particularly the Lord Peter Wimsy Stories, they’re good mysteries.

8. Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther by Roland H. Bainton. This work is one of the definitive biographies on Luther by a very respected historian, but it is also incredibly readable and personal. In fact, any good reformation class in college that I’ve seen uses this book as one of the big texts. Its just that good.

9. Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman. Brilliant, just brilliant and it was written in 1984…ish.

10. The Kingdom of God is Within You by Leo Tolstoy. Something to get ya thinking about pacifism, it certainly did me, and it should also be noted that this book had a large impact on Martin Luther King Jr. and Ghandi. You know, some of the real, successful people.

11. The Orthodox Way by Bishop Kallistos Ware. Here is a well written introduction to Eastern Orthodox Theology, well, some of Eastern Orthodox Theology. I’m not sure they’re quite as unified as they say they are. Nevertheless, Ware puts forth clearly certain Eastern Orthodox views that I found rather valuable during my freshman year in college.

12. Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology by Rosemary Radford Ruether. If you want to put your toe into feminist theology, this would be one of the works to start with. Apparently it is also still one of, if not the only, feminist systematic theology text written (this means that the book deals with the typical categories of theology - the nature of the text, method, language, humanity, Christ, evil, eschatology and a few others that are brought up by feminists). Even if you don’t agree with a large majority of feminism, or are even someone who reacts to feminism negatively, if you haven’t read this book, you can shut up or give this book your open mind. Why? Because this is one of the biggest voices for the past 20 years and this is one of the texts for theological feminism.

I found a book meme that I kinda like and its nice to have a little something in the blog until I post on Volf later.

1. One book that changed your life:
Theopolitical Imagination by William Cavanaugh. Its always the small things that change our worlds.

2. One book you’ve read more than once:
The Chosen by Chaim Potok.

3. One book you’d want on a desert island:
Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

4. One book that made you laugh:
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. This is hands down the funniest book I’ve ever read.

5. One book that made you cry:
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.

6. One book you wish had been written:
Those other stories that the author of the Gospel of John alludes to.

7. One book you wish had never been written:
So many choices! There was a debate between Grudem and Eldredge, but then John Piper’s Desiring God won out.

8. Book(s) you’re currently reading:
Dynamics of Theology by Roger Haight and Anamnesis as Dangerous Memory by Bruce Morrill.

9. One book you’ve been meaning to read:
Exclusion and Embrace by Miroslav Volf. I’ve been putting if off for years, well that and Between Cross and Resurrection: A Theology of Holy Saturday by Alan Lewis.

10. Now tag five people:

No. If you’ve been meaning to update your blog, here is your opportunity. If you don’t have a blog, and want to respond, leave a comment (Yes, I ripped this last one off from Chris).

Alright theoblogosphere, I’ve got a little challenge of my own (however it is not nearly as demanding as Halden’s recent one). I’m looking at taking a few classes here at school over the summer - primarily reading classes, and I get to pick the topics. Well, I’m going to address torture for my social ethics MA thesis (or at least I’m planning on it right now and it might look a little something like this: I. Why American Christianity is inclined to accept torture; II. Critique American Christianity; and III. Produce a better theology which A. Fills the holes in the church and B. Talks about what a healthy church can do to respond). With that in mind I’m hoping to use one of these reading classes to help me get a leg up on research and forming a better outline. So, does anyone have any good books to recommend other than William Cavanaugh’s Torture and Eucharist for me to read this summer?