Jesus Never Said, “Tolerate One Another, As I Tolerate You”
The Saint Thomas Book Club will continue discussing Jim Wallis’ God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It. This semester we will wrestle with a challenging question: Are we truly loving as Christ did, or are we merely tolerating one another?
In the next session, we will cover the remaining chapters of this book:
- October 2: Part VI: Spiritual Values and Social Change (343-374)
Join our lively bunch at 10 am in the South Room.
My hope for this semester is to challenge our notions of Christian love, as we explore topics of religion, politics, science, gender roles, and inter-faith dialog. Other selections include (not in exact order):
The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions (Marcus J. Borg, N. T. Wright)
Two great Bible scholars (one, a liberal; the other, a traditionalist) engage in debate, presenting two significantly different versions of who Jesus was, what he taught, and what he did.
From Wild Man to Wise Man: Reflections on Male Spirituality (Richard Rohr)
From Chapter One: “…in our western culture and even in our religious tradition we have few guides to lead us deeply into the full male journey and almost no mentors who have been there themselves and come back to guide us through. We are longing for believable mentors on every stage of the male journey.”
The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: And Other Stories from a Child Psychiatrist’s Notebook — What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love, and Healing (Bruce D. Perry)
Child psychiatrist Bruce Perry provides stories of trauma and transformation through the lens of science, revealing the brain’s astonishing capacity for healing. Perry dramatically demonstrates that only when we understand the science of the mind can we hope to heal the spirit of even the most wounded child.
Race Matters (Cornell West)
West’s influential book analyzes moral authority and racial debates concerning skin color in the United States. He questions matters of economics and politics, as well as ethical issues and spirituality, and also addresses the crisis in black leadership.
Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others (Barbara Brown Taylor) — expected publishing date April 2019, hopefully
In Holy Envy, renowned Christian preacher and author Taylor continues her spiritual journey, contemplating the myriad ways she encountered God while exploring other faiths with her students in the classroom, and on field trips to diverse places of worship.
