The Wisdom Jesus Transforming Heart and Mind—a New Perspective on Christ and His Message by Cynthia Bourgeault
Looking anew at Jesus and approaching the gospels as though for the first time, Cynthia Bourgeault, a student of Thomas Keating, is a masterful guide to Jesus’s vision and to the traditional contempla- tive practices you can use to experience the heart of his teachings for yourself.
Shambala, 2008, 223 pp., paperback $16.95
Paul among the People The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time by Sarah Ruden
This book looks at the letters of Paul against the background of ancient Greek and Roman literature, especially the bawdy and comic works that biblical scholars tend not to know. Quaker scholar and Poet Sarah Ruden translates passages from these works and sets them beside famous and controversial passages of Paul. Using the early texts to explain important words, ideas, customs, and institutions, she shows what Paul was likely reacting against and trying to say on such subjects as pleasure, homosexuality, women, slavery, the state, and love. She makes Paul real in his own world.
Pantheon, 2010, 214 pp., paperback $14.00
God of Surprises by Gerald Hughes
A classic of spiritual direction since it was first published in 1965. Hughes adapts Ignatian spiritual exercises to guide the reader through encounters with the human Jesus. Though easy to read, these exercises slowly and steadily take the reader through hard places, with some humor and much insight. The book is designed to find “buried treasure” in the spiritual lives of those disillusioned with the strictures of conventional Christianity. Each chapter has a series of exercises and thought tasks to help the reader understand what the ideas expressed may mean in his or her own life.
Eerdmans, 2008, 163 pp., paperback $18.00
Saving Paradise How Christianity Traded Love of this World for Crucifixion and Empire by Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker
During their first millennium, Christians filled their sanctuaries with images of Christ as a living presence—as a shepherd, teacher, healer, or an enthroned god. He is serene and surrounded by lush scenes, depictions of this world as paradise. Yet once he began to appear as crucified, dying was virtually all Jesus seemed able to do, and paradise disappeared from the earth. Saving Paradise turns a fascinating new lens on Christianity, from its first centuries to the present day, asking how its early vision of beauty evolved into a vision of torture, and what changes in society and theology marked that evolution. It also retrieves a Christianity that the world sorely needs today.
Beacon Press, 2009, 576 pp., paperback $27.50
37
QUAKERBOOKS AUTUMN 2011
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76