Library Loot ~ September 18-24

Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions ~ by Rachel Held Evans, 2010

Eighty years after the Scopes Monkey Trial made a spectacle of Christian fundamentalism and brought national attention to her hometown, Rachel Held Evans faced a trial of her own when she began to have doubts about her faith.  Growing up in a culture obsessed with apologetics, Evans asks questions she never thought she would ask.  She learns that in order for her faith to survive in a postmodern context, it must adapt to change and evolve.  Using as an illustration her own spiritual journey from certainty, through doubt, to faith, Evans adds a unique perspective to the ongoing dialogue about postmodernism and the church that has so captivated the Christian community in recent years.  In a changing cultural environment where new ideas threaten the safety and security of the faith, this book is her fearlessly honest story of survival.

On Heaven and Earth: Pope Francis on Faith, Family, and the Church in the Twenty-First Century ~ by Jorge Mario Bergoglio and Abraham Skorka, 2013

For years Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, archbishop of Argentina, and Rabbi Abraham Skorka were tenacious promoters of interreligious dialogues on faith and reason.  They both sought to build bridges among Catholicism, Judaism, and the world at large.  On Heaven and Earth, originally published in Argentina in 2010, brings together a series of these conversations where both men talked about various theological and worldly issues, including God, fundamentalism, atheism, abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, and globalization.  From these personal and accessible talks comes a first-hand view of the man who would become pope to 1.2 billion Catholics around the world in March 2013.

The Day the Crayons Quit ~ by Drew Daywalt, illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, 2013, children's

Poor Duncan just wants to color.  But when he opens his box of crayons, he finds only letters, all saying the same thing:  His crayons have had enough!  They quit!  Beige Crayon is tired of playing second fiddle to Brown Crayon.  Black wants to be used for more than just outlining.  Blue needs a break from coloring all those bodies of water.  And Orange and Yellow are no longer speaking — each believes he is the true color of the sun.  What can Duncan possibly do to appease all of the crayons and get them back to doing what they do best?

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire @ The Captive Reader and Marg @ The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages us to share titles of books we’ve checked out of the library.  Add your link any time during the week, and see what others got this week.

Chenille bedspreads ~ memories are made of this

Dusty Old Thing wrote about Karen Fortny's photo of her mother's chenille bedspread:

"Tradition has it that a young woman from Dalton, Georgia, in the late 1890's, saw an early candlewick spread and set out to recreated it with a more tufted finish.  "Chenille" is French for a hairy caterpillar.  The making of chenille spreads became a cottage industry in Georgia and parts of Tennessee. Many were sold along major roads leading to Florida.  In the '50's major textile companies were making them by machine.   The end of their popularity probably came in the mid '60's.  Travelers to Florida or the Smokies were, by then, going on Interstates."

I was given a chenille bedspread when I married in 1959 and remember seeing them sold on roadsides in Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida.  I still have one on my shelf that's very plain and all white, not nearly as beautiful as this one.  As a teenager, I hated the patterns they left on my skin when I stretched out on my bed to read during the day.  Does anyone else remember these bedspreads?

Monday Mindfulness ~ breathe

"How does one practice mindfulness?

Sit in meditation.

Be aware of only your breath."

— Buddha —

Beginning ~ with the apocalypse, which has already arrived

The Idolatry of God : Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction ~ by Peter Rollins, 2012

The Apocalypse Isn't Coming, It Has Already Arrived

This is the title of the introduction, which is better than the first line of the introduction:  "In popular religious literature, we find a deep fascination with the apocalypse."  Or the first line of the first chapter:  "Whether we look at our own personal history of reflect upon the history of civilization, it is difficult to avoid the sense that we feel a lack in the very depths of our being, a lack that we try to cover over with any number of religious, political, and cultural remedies."  This is on the back cover:

In contrast to the usual understanding of the “Good News” as a message offering satisfaction and certainty, Rollins argues for a radical and shattering alternative. He explores how the Good News actually involves embracing the idea that we can’t be whole, that life is difficult, and that we are in the dark. Showing how God has traditionally been approached as a product that will render us complete, remove our suffering, and reveal the answers, he introduces an incendiary approach to faith that invites us to joyfully embrace our brokenness, resolutely face our unknowing, and courageously accept the difficulties of existence. Only then, he argues, can we truly rob death of its sting and enter into the fullness of life.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.

Wednesday Words ~ quandary

Quandary is a noun (the plural is quandaries), which means a state of perplexity or uncertainty over what to do in a difficult situation.

"Kate is in a quandary."

A few synonyms of quandary are

predicament, plight, difficult situation, awkward situation; trouble, muddle, mess, confusion, difficulty, dilemma.

And then there are these informal possibilities:  sticky situation, pickle, hole, stew, fix, bind, jam.

"Conflicting appointments left us in a quandary."

Have you had any interesting quandaries lately?

Cross-posted on my Joyful Noiseletter blog.

The Complete Gospels ~ edited by Robert J. Miller

The Complete Gospels : Annotated Scholars Version ~ edited by Robert J. Miller, 1994

Presents for the first time anywhere all twenty of the known gospels from the early Christian era, offering a fuller and more fascinating picture of early Christian origins than found in the four canonical gospels alone — or in any other source.  Each of these gospel records offers fresh glimpses into the world of Jesus and his followers, including:

• GOSPEL OF THOMAS reveals that Jesus, contrary to the popular image of him as an apocalyptic preacher of damnation and salvation, was actually a wisdom teacher who taught about the true origins of humankind.
• GOSPEL OF MARY suggests that women held prominent roles in the early church, and provides a startling look at what may have been the first attempts to suppress their leadership.
• SAYINGS GOSPEL Q, the controversial reconstruction of the first gospel used by Jesus' original followers, contains only Jesus' sayings and none of the dramatic stories about his life later told in the New Testament gospels.
• SIGNS GOSPEL is almost entirely a catalog of Jesus' miracles, intended to demonstrate that he was the Jewish Messiah, the Anointed.
• SECRET BOOK OF JAMES relates that immediately prior to his ascension, Jesus imparted a private revelation to James and Peter, which James presents here as a letter.
• GOSPEL OF PETER contains what may have been the original passion narrative later adapted in the New Testament synoptic gospels' accounts.

Four new pieces have been added to this third expanded edition: the three Jewish-Christian gospels and the Greek fragments of the Gospel of Thomas.  Each gospel is translated into lively, contemporary English, recapturing the spirit ofthe original.  Exciting both to read and to hear, this Scholars Version (SV) translation has — as one reader put it — "a vitality that jumps off the page."

A New New Testament ~ edited by Hal Taussig

A New New Testament : A Bible for the 21st Century Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts ~ edited by Hal Taussig, with a Foreword by John Dominic Crossan, 2013

 Over the past century, numerous lost scriptures have been discovered, authenticated, translated, debated, celebrated. Many of these documents were as important to shaping early-Christian communities and beliefs as what we have come to call the New Testament; these were not the work of shunned sects or rebel apostles, not alternative histories or doctrines, but part of the vibrant conversations that sparked the rise of Christianity. Yet these scriptures are rarely read in contemporary churches; they are discussed nearly only by scholars or within a context only of gnostic gospels. Why should these books be set aside? Why should they continue to be lost to most of us? And don’t we have a great deal to gain by placing them back into contact with the twenty-seven books of the traditional New Testament—by hearing, finally, the full range of voices that formed the early chorus of Christians?

To create this New New Testament, Hal Taussig called together a council of scholars and spiritual leaders to discuss and reconsider which books belong in the New Testament. They talked about these recently found documents, the lessons therein, and how they inform the previously bound books. They voted on which should be added, choosing ten new books to include in A New New Testament. Reading the traditional scriptures alongside these new texts—the Gospel of Luke with the Gospel of Mary, Paul’s letters with The Letter of Peter to Philip, The Revelation to John with The Secret Revelation to John—offers the exciting possibility of understanding both the new and the old better.

The ten included with the traditional New Testament books:

• The Prayer of Thanksgiving
• The Gospel of Thomas
• The Odes of Solomon
• The Thunder: Perfect Mind
• The Gospel of Mary
• The Gospel of Truth
• The Acts of Paul and Thecla
• The Letter of Peter to Philip
• The Secret Revelation of John