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I have said many times, about the Bible, that the more you read and study it the more questions it raises and that those that are the most steadfast and certain in their positions are typically the one's who haven't done much digging. The more I 'dig in' to the text of scripture, or the whole amazing, reckless and cosmic story line, the more I find myself in a labyrinth of interpretations and potential ambiguities. The Evolution of God is a book for those who are interested in the 'digging'. Wright digs deep but not where you might expect.

I assumed, unwisely, by the title and the fantastic color choices of the cover that I was going to be reading a very different kind of book. It looked very clinical and self important at the same time. Instead of exploding our minds with succinct presentations of scientific data that show that the idea of God 'evolved' in the human mind, Wright digs into the Old Testament. I mean really deep into the Old Testament. Pointing out the similarities of the Polynesian Hunter Gatherer societies with the hunter gatherers of OT Canaanites. He raises some provoking questions about the possibility of the monotheism of the world three largest religions (Judaism, Islam and Christianity) evolved out of the Pantheon of Canaanites gods. The Yahweh that we now understand seems according to the comparative textual evidence as a fusion of both the god EL (the god of gods) and the God of War: Yahweh. although this is shocking partly because of how it resolves the scattered dual nature of the OT God who has so many names (even in the Hebrew texts themselves) seems to be so violent and waring in the OT and more loving and merciful in the NT through the incarnation of Jesus.

He says a great deal of things that will make your head spin as he pulls you into a winding web of translation, editing and interpretive license that all come along with a modern rational reading of scripture. I love the fact that he is so deeply engaged with the text and is actively wrestling with how exterior forces such as economics, international stability and others have a major impact on the way God is viewed. When it served the consolidation of power to unite behind 'the One True God", Yahweh was left standing in the wake of Israel's great reformer king Josiah. After his men got ahold of the scriptural texts (which where not canonized, yet, beyond the first five books of the OT) the OT takes a decidedly monotheistic turn towards the God of War - Yahweh, who can beat his rival Baal at his own game by raining fire or just simply raining. He shows convincingly during passages from Elijah's life (like the one I just notes where Yahweh and Baal have a steel-cage-to-the-shame battle) that a turning point of political and evolutionary forces swiftly consolidated the nation of Israel out of the Canaanite peoples of Northern Judea (or the Promised Land).

I don't agree with everything he says but he has really forced me to take a larger view of all things related to the scriptures. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in 'digging' but be willing to sort through a few heavy coughing nights before you find the diamonds.

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2009.10.14 13:06

,br> This book is a very interesting look at the reformation and the many offshoots that it has created. The main "Dangerous" idea is that the nature of Protestantism leads to a undoing of power and and doctrine. McGrath closely traces the beginnings of the reformation in the writings of Eramus to Luther, Calvin and the whole lot. He shows, in pretty convincing detailed, how the protestant tendency to define itself in opposition to other groups and sets of beliefs, has led to a fragmentation and the erosion of any structure to serve as a higher an overarching authority.

He walks slowly though the establishment of the Church of England, onward to the present day spread of Pentecostalism throughout the world. His prose is very readable and his historical commentary knits together a wide ranging network of divisions and interconnections between the Protestant church. Although the feel of the book was less dangerous than the cover implied, it still was a worthy scholarly study of how we have arrived at where we are now. Read it...

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2009.09.17 15:56

I have decided that I do not like audiobooks for non-fiction titles. I listened to Eat This Book in 6 hrs on my iPhone but I will have to spend almost that amount of time trying to find the info that I need to use when I need it for a class I am going to teach or message I am going to give. Maybe there is a way to set bookmarks on the iPhone but I couldn't figure it out. That being said:
Eugene Peterson (the translator of The Message) writes with passion about seeing the Bible lived out in peoples lives. Along with painting some fantastic images of our relationship to the Bible, he also gives a firsthand account of how The Message was born in the basement of a little church bible study of Galatians. I am going to have to order the paperback of this book because I was very enlightened by so much of it that I need to pull out my highlighter and page-markers before it gets filed away.
One other note, the book is written for the average person but is so full of scholarly references that you really get the sense of Peterson's depth of reading and knowledge and all of that speaks to his competency as a translator. I have used the Message, almost, exclusively in our Sunday gathering for the last three years and so many people have commented that they are understanding the scriptures for the first time in their lives, which is what he set out to do. This book only made me trust his translation even more and I will most likely never pick up a KJV again!

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2009.02.03 11:46

I have been a devout reader of RIchard Rohr since I first picked up a copy of 'Jesus' Plan for a New World.' The title intrigued me and the content re-shaped my whole understanding of faith, conversion and the deeper dimensions of the spiritual life. You can find some short thoughts I had on it here.
This particular book: Things Hidden : Scripture as Spirituality, proved to have all the hallmarks of Rohr's style and insight. It seems that, while I find myself on the Protestant side of the great divide, most of my favorite theologians are catholic (and monastics as well) I am not sure if that means that I am becoming more catholic in my theology or if we are experiencing a re-formation or re-uniting of the two main halves of Christendom. (No offense to Eastern Orthodoxy but they are less engaged it seems, at this point, in relating outside of their paradigm) For now I think it is the latter rather than the former because most of the writers that grab my attention are not too popular in mainline catholic circles (Anthony DeMello, Gianni Vatimo, Leonardo Boff, John Caputo...) Sometimes I am surprised at how much some of them get away with in the order of criticism from within about the catholic church. Maybe the public image of Pope Ratzinger is not as heavy handed as one might believe? That being said, let me mention what I loved about this book on spiritual reading of the scriptures.
One of the things I like about Rohr is that he putting new language to the faith and along the way revealing some fresh insights into concepts that have become wooden and stale over the centuries since they were originally conceived. Here is a great example:

"Paul frequently uses the expression 'in Christ.' We are saved by standing consciously inside the force field that is Christ - not by getting it right in our private selves... We can't always be correct, but we can be connected. All we can do is fall into the eternal mercy."

His ability to re-voice old concepts (and introduce a few new one's as well) has helped me connect with my own understanding and practice of faith in ways that have stimulated and inspired my journey.
I also like that he weaves a deep knowledge of the way people are now talking about life and themselves into his writings. This makes him very current and his writing stand alongside some of the more popular contemporary 'gurus' while still maintaining a clear connection to the Christian tradition.

"What the Biblical revelation is achieving is basically a very different consciousness, a recreated self, an 'identity transplant' - like a kidney or heart transplant. The text is inviting us slowly, little by little, into a very different sense of who we are."

He also says some helpful things about some core Christian doctrine in new ways that don't violate 'orthodoxy', if you believe in that sort of thing, but shift our perspective in ways that allow us to see these ideas and concepts that were once hidden come to new life:

On Biblical Inspiration:
"Read inspiration primarily meaning that God is slowly evolving the reader's consciousness, so that it can receive an ever-clearer understanding of itself as the beloved of God"
This I love because it helps me understand that inspiration doesn't just mean 'when the Bible was written' but also means 'when it is read and interpreted.'

On The Fall of Man
"The English mystic Julian of Norwich said, 'First the fall, and then the recovery from the fall, and both are the mercy of God.' It is in the falling down that we learn almost everything that matters spiritually. As many of the parables seem to say, you have to lose it (or know that you don't have it) before you can find it and celebrate fittingly (see all of Luke 15)"

There are many other quotes that really grabbed my attention in a way that affirmed thoughts or wonderings that I had already begun to consider and plenty that stretched me into new understandings and ways of making sense of this mystery called faith. If you like Rohr or if you like reading books about the spiritual life voiced in new ways then I suggest you pick up a copy of this book. You will find much to chew on and digest and hopefully little that gives you spiritual indigestion.

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2009.01.24 08:27

Francis Collins is an interesting character. At once a leading geneticist and the man, partially, responsible for cracking and mapping the Human Gnome. In his book, the Language of God, he sets out to articulate why he, as a scientist and believer in God (the Bible, Jesus...) how he reconciles his faith and his commitment to reason. Most of the book is a series of C S Lewis quotes that give theological underpinnings to Collins' arguments against both naturalistic evolution and "God of the Gaps" Intelligent Design. Preferring instead to fuse the main points of both worldviews into what he calls Bio-logos. By fusing both the scientific "bio" (Life) and the spiritual "logos" (word), Collins does a deft job of weaving current evidence with profound philosophical questions. I appreciate his approach and the way he sees both science and faith operating in different systems of meanings and both offering important answers to different kinds of questions. Some questions that science will never be able to address : Why is the universe here? and some that faith is poorly designed to communicate: How did we get here in the first place?
Although there is plenty here that will not doubt infuriate certain fundamental types, I am certain that anyone who reads this book with an open mind will find their positions changed and enriched. Also be prepared for a seriously in-depth explanation of DNA and how it functions within a cell. You also get a lecture tacked on at the end about BioGenetic Ethics if that's your cup of tea!

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2008.09.10 13:31

William Gibson always has his anxious fingers on the surging pulse of our not so distant future. So it has been an exciting ride to read his latest book set, not in the future, but in our current age. The plot weaves its way through some of the fringe uses of technology and is riddled with characters who, in one way or another, have been effected greatly by the collision of high tech and low life. This book had me from the opening chapter as our heroine Hollis meets up with a locative artist to see his latest virtual reality piece on the sidewalk outside of the Viper Room. I was enthralled by the effortless way he reeled me into the story by dazzling me with new technologies and referencing a moment in pop culture that had a large impact on me(the death of River Phenix)

I recommend this book for its brilliant prose and edgy story but I am really struck with its vision of where things are headed in our techno obsessed world. Imagine a day when virtual reality technologies have reached the point when they can fit into sunglasses. Now imagine a world where those millions of mobile virtuality reality goggles are overlaying graphics and even moving video on top of reality. Hook the whole system up to the internet and global positioning satellites and you have a world that will be very odd and customizable. A lot like google earth with all of the plugin features turned on seems to be where our reality is headed. One of the characters early on in the novel makes the statement that "we populated cyberspace and now it has grown so huge that cyberspace is spilling over into our physical world. The internet is unfolding and transforming our experience of reality in ways we could have never predicted"
This idea really stuck with me as one character in the book wakes up to a field of Monet flowers superimposed over her bedroom floor and through the walls so it looks as if her bed were resting in an endless sea of slowly waving impressionist lilies. Imagine all the customizing and cosmetic aspects of our current world unfolding onto our experience of reality itself. You could, with the help of a simple set of sunglasses, live in a world that is completely redesigned to match the cartoon aesthetic of the movie Waking Life. People have been talking for years about fears that internet use was such a private and isolated experience that we were going to become less social. I know think that the kinds of tribal sub-cultures that congregate on the web will gravitate over into the real (or blended reality and digital effects) world of our not too distant future.

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2008.07.30 09:23

The Head trip is a guided tour around your own brain in nice bite size and digestible chunks. Have you ever wondered what happens during deep sleep? or why we sometimes fall into a low level trance when driving the familiar path to our home? By giving his personal observations alongside personal interviews and extensive research on everything from hypnosis to entrainment of brain waves through neuro-feedback loops, Jeff Warren weaves a masterful, if scientifically biased, tour of consciousness. What I mean by scientifically biased is that he is intentionally distancing himself from the average new age 'brain science/kosmic spirituality' gurus that have cropped up lately. By staying close to the research put forward by the world's foremost researchers and only using his personal experiences as a support, the book steers clear of sounding like a self help manual, although I am sure it will be very helpful to lots of interested people. At times the physiology of the body/brain begins to sound very much like a computer system. i am not sure if this is just a simple metaphor because of the proliferation of personal computers of whether the design and architecture of personal computing was imprinted with the blueprints of brain mechanics. Either way, the idea of 'harnessing' each of these various states of consciousness (deep sleep, hypnosis, and more) seems very empowering.
take the story of Thomas Edison who developed a way to tap into the brain's most creative state: The Hypnagogic - that moment right before you fall into a deep sleep. By taking an intentional nap in front of his desk with two small steel balls in each hand. Edison was sure he would wake up as soon as he drifted off and released the balls to smash hard on two metal plates that he set on the floor. As soon as the crash woke him up, he would quickly lean forward an write down what was on his mind. This way of tapping the deep layers of unconscious activity associated with sleep for creative inspiration was also mined by Salvador Dali who devised a similar technique involving metal keys rather than steel balls. Dali would paint whatever image he brought up out of his sleeping mind (this explains a lot about Dali's work!) This technique even has a practical history beyond the invention of the light-bulb. Paul McCartney has said that the song Yesterday (voted by Rolling Stone to be the greatest pop song written so far) came fully formed as he awake from a dream.
The Head Trip is full of interesting applications and explorations for each state that the average person passes through in their head space every day. I can't begin to image a world where this kind of practical knowledge about what it means to be human is taught to children as part of a more holistic educational paradigm. Anyone who wants to see just a small glimpse into the brain-tech future should do a little searching for the concept of Binaural Beats. We may never be the same again!

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2008.02.29 09:14

"Reading the Bible is not an academic exercise, it is a spiritual quest!" - Karen 'Runaway Nun' Armstrong

It takes a great deal of time for the truth to filter out to the masses. This is even more true when the masses are threatened by the truth and build huge walls of defensiveness and denial around their ignorance. For instance, it has been a number of centuries since critical theory has been applied to the Holy Scriptures but it has only been in the last few decades that the masses have had to wrestle with the implications of these new techniques. Often this is understandable given that many truths spend far too lang locked within the language of the academy and are rarely restated in ways that are accessible without a great deal of intellectual investment. Karen Armstrong is among a special group of writers who have a gift for retelling the scholarly and academic perspective on things in a way that make sense to the average person. But even though she has done a great deal of the work for you, reading The Bible will still prove to be a task that requires investment.

As she winds through the multi-layers of Hebrew thought and theological editing of what we call 'The Scriptures' she is assaulting many sacred cows whose blood may spill over those whose minds are closed against new ideas. She walks a fine line of showing tremendous respect and even submission to the scriptures while purging many unhelpful concepts that have embedded themselves within the Christian tradition. What remains after the journey is a richer and more mysterious view of the purpose and value of sacred writings and the ways that history has sharped (and at times obscured) the message contained with The Bible.

If you are interested, like me, in seeing things as they are then this book will be helpful in seeing the scriptures in fresh and historical ways. If you are prone to holding your convictions with an iron fist then you should steer clear and use you time to write a Christian commentary on the final Harry Potter novel.

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2008.02.12 10:16

Pinchbeck is an intriguing figure in the post-everything journalistic hinterlands. At times his writing bristles with an energy as if it was blasted through the complex patterns of a fractal. Crossing the map through many back alley fringes of contemporary and ancient cultures, Pinchbeck really knows how to weave an interesting, if intensely personal tale for our liminal times. It is quite impressive that he is not only able to find academic connections between so many varied sources that all seem to be telling a similar tale of apocalyptic transition and further evolution of the human species, but that he is also brave enough to share so much of his personal baggage as well as insight. It is strange that with so much various bits of experience that get presented in 2012, I seemed to be really moved by one fragment of a line:

The Secret Road to the Open Heart

While I had a time in my journey when I might have argued differently, I am not convinced that long term use of psychedelics is that secret road. I identified with many of his stories of powerful insights coming from the use of LSD and other exotic concoctions such as Ayahuasca but I also felt that he was stretching to make some personal intuitions more universal. The eventual thrust of the book is a narrative account of Daniel's life as he travels around to different shamanic cultures and lets them blow his over intellectualized western mind. Just to make sure that all bases are covered, he also conducts his research in the chaos-city of Burning Man. While I dissagree with him on many points, I do agree with his central thesis that we are in a phase of human development that is causing rapid waves of expanding consciousness that could well change the basic experience of being human. He mentions a few of the potential transformations:

1.Our relationship to and understanding of Space and Time shifting on a scale that brings the psychic realms of spirit and soul into fuller view.
2.The emergence of the intuitive self over and above the ego self and related to that the re-establishment of the female or mother archtype into western culture.
3.The realization of the fully networked self that understands itself completely in relationship to others rather than in opposition to them.

All three of these points have come up a lot lately in my various readings but Pinchbeck does a masterful job of knitting them together into his personal narrative prose. When I finished reading the book, fully amused and uniquely inspired, I found this great discussion between Pinchbeck and the always insightful Douglas Rushkoff. Douglas says somethings during part one of the video that really nails some of the tensions I had with 2012. I am not so sure that the kinds of change we are experienceing will come together so quickly. I am certian that things are speeding up and I can sense many of the transitions that he is talking about but I still can't see how this will all come to a head and crystalize by 2012. Rushkoff also makes some really interesting comments about the Bible and the way that the stories that it contains are the source code for western civilization. if we are beginning to learn how to hack into or realities, then these stories offer us the keys to the kingdom in order to understand how things can be shifted and transformed. For more interesting things from Pinchbeck's online universe Reality Sandwich click here.

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2007.12.10 20:30

A few years ago I read a very interesting book called "A Simpler Way" by Margaret J Wheatley. It was full of the most eloquent prose and divided nicely with lots of striking photos and poetic elobarations on the central idea of how to simply one's life. I was excited to discover that an online learning experience that I am a part of had chosen to read another one of Wheatley's books "Turning to One Another". In short this book is about the lost art of conversation. The most interesting thing is the wonderful questions that she asks throughout the book:

Can we restore hope in the future?
Am I becoming someone I respect?
Do I feel a vocation to be fully human?
What am I willing to notice in my world?

The quiet wisdom that fills each page is quite a treat. The emphasis is on small changes to the ways that we think and act in the world, not on large visions of swift revolutionary change. Again she has peppered the pages with wonderful poetry (some of hers but mostly others). This is the perfect book to begin conversations and life-changing discussions with because it never even approaches the tired road of religious debate but stays on the firm and uniting ground of conversation. Here is a short poem that really grabbed me:

If we were not so single minded
About keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death. - Pablo Neruda

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2007.11.07 07:26

Reveal

It has been quite a long time since I read a book that came from the WillowCreek Association Resource Mill but this one is different. I was told about this book by someone who I trust and was assured that the infomation inside would be relevant and valuable: it was on both accounts. The book is simply a summary of some research that "Super-Mega-Church Willow Creek Community Church commissioned a few years ago. The main thrust of the research was to look deeply into the strategies for spiritual growth and development that were being used at most contemporary evangelical churches and assess if they were effective. I knew the findings were going to be interesting when they opened up with a quote from Jesus teaching in Mark 4 "The Kingdom of God is like a seed that a farmer cast into a field and then went away and forgot about. When He returned it was fully grown and he had no idea how it had grown."
The basic assumption of most church sanctioned spiritual development strategies is this: more involvement in church activities (bible studies, service opportunies, small groups, Sunday services) will stimulate a positive growth pattern in a persons life. Right away in the forward by Super-Mega-Pastor Bill Hybells, it is clear that the findings didn't really support that assumption. In fact most of the findings show something very different than you might expect. Nothing in this book really came as a surprise to me personally because I had already picked up intuitively on the weaknesses of the current 'spiritual growth strategies' that focused too disproportionately on aquiring knowledge and/or purging of certian hot-botton 'sinful' behaviours. What this survey revealed was that the church is only really a launching off point for a healthy spiritual life. A place that can, but doesn't always even realize that they should, help instill some spiritual practices that will aid a person in their ongoing personal growth. As a person grows they can actually become staled by expecting the church to stil be holding their hands and 'feeding' them. What really feeds people as they grow is for them to take the intitiative and begin to reach out and serve others.
It was interesting to hear that all across the USA in the church of various denominations and sizes, 'mature' christians were griping about the same things that I hear from the disgruntled in our community - we need deeper bible teaching, we need more times of connection, we need more clear evidence of successful evangelism.... In the very back of my mind I used to harbor insecurities that maybe they were right and that somehow we just didn't know how to do 'it' correctly, whatever 'it' happens to be. Now I have taken a very deep breath and settled into the fact that people will do almost anything, including shift the focus and try to put you on the defensive, in order not to move on in their own journey.
I have been following Jesus for over twenty years now and, although I have gone through times of intense frustration and confusion, I have never once thought that it was the church's fault. Maybe because before I began to follow Jesus I had already discovered the value of practice. Whether musical practice or spiritual practice that I picked up during the times that I checked out Buddhism, I grew to quickly realize that, ultimately life is what YOU make out of it, not what someone else makes for you. That being said this book is a very reassuring read to anyone who is trying to move this 'way of Jesus' into the future because it helps cut some ties that have allowed tensions and too many needless arguments.
Here in our community we are much further ahead than the massive Willow Creek for two reasons: 1 We went with our gut and didn't need to conduct a national survey to prove that things were wrong with the limited and 'church-dependant' spiritual formation strategies and 2 Because we are small and we can take bigger risks without wasting 180 million dollars.
Stay tuned as I write future blog entries about NPCC's newly constructed strategy for holistic spiritual development. We are just planting flowers of truth, beauty and goodness.

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2007.08.23 17:31

Sex God

Rob Bell is a very gifted communicator and Pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids Michigan. I have had the chance to meet Rob on few occasions and he is quite a bundle of energy and insight. His last Book Velvet Elvis caused a bit of a minor stir among the over religious and his new book Sex God, at least, has a snappy title. The book explores the 'endless connections between sexuality and spirituality' and is a refreshingly open minded and even practical take on the issues of sexuality in our modern culture. Rob always does a great job of both mining the deoths of the scriptures and interfacing them with our lived lives. In this book, the chapter called 'Leather, Whips and Fruit' really touched me. The chapter is mostly about the idea of lust and how it has the power to control our lives. Rob really has great language to describe the contours of lust. The phrase that got me was that lust 'fills so much head space' and how the root word of lust actually means 'filled in the mind'. He then goes on to talk about the struggle with addictions and how the idea that we must face our lusts and addictions head-on with will-power is absurd and unhelpful. He talks about the way to overcome addictions is not to resist and repress but to rechannel that life force and spiritual energy towards something else instead - try loving, maybe!
I would extend nothing but encouragement to Rob, since I see that he has become the target of the Way of the Master ministry that I have commentted on before here and here. They have produced an online rebuttal to one of Rob's Nooma videos. They are pretty rough on him, even making the statement that 'he doesn't look like a christian' . That's most likely a great thing!

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2007.03.30 10:35

How to Stop Smoking the EASYWAY

I have smoked on and off for a number of years and have treid a few different methods of trying to stop. I have tried the patch, the gum, the "i-am-going-to-smoke-so-many-that-i-get-sick-of-them" method and all in vain. Last year I had moderate success with the patch (I stopped for about nine weeks). Still the process was very difficult and I found myself very frustrated and angry most of the time especially the first few days. I remember going through hour long will-power sessions, fighting the urge to run out and buy a pack. I even woke up out of a sound sleep and as I was coming into my mind, I realized I was digging in a trashbag that I had thrown my old butts into and hoping to just get a taste of nicotine. I remember being depressed, especially the first days, about the fact that I was having to give up something that I appeared to love (and also hate at the same time). Well, as you may have already guessed, I decided to read the hugely popular book by anti-smoking guru Alan Carr: How to Stop Smoking the EasyWay. I had sme major doubts that a book could really make the process of quitting smoking any easier but I had seen Ashton Kutcher talking about how he stopped smoking after reading the book and I make it a point to try to follow in Ashton's footsteps (you've been punked, beotch!)
The book was not what I expected at all. It is basically a reverse engineering of the addictive cycle. Most of the book is one long decontruction of the idea that smoking is something that people enjoy. At first I was not agreeing with him on this and for the first 40 pages I kept saying, "No I really do enjoy much about smoking!" But slowly as the book progressed, I really began to open my mind to another way of looking at the "habit". Rather than scaring you with the health or financial reasons for stopping, Carr simply goes to the heart of the issue and helps you see that thinking you enjoy smoking is like "banging your head against a wall so you can enjoy the pleasure of stopping".
It has been two days and I am actually enjoying the process! I do not feel as though I am giving anything up. I feel as though I am being freed from a prison that I had not even realized that I was locked within. I am just as surprised as anyone that I feel this way but I have to say this little book is a very effective aid in rethinking your relationship to addictions. Much of what he says applies to almost anything that you might be addicted to. Not only am I finding it easy to stop smoking but I am really energized and excited about what my life will be like in a few weeks when I will feel the health benifits of not daily breathing poison. I am not down on smokers and I am not going to turn into a self-righteous ex-smoker. I sympathize with addictions and will only seek to love those that struggle with addictions of various forms. But as for me, i know that I will never smoke another cigarette as long as I live and that is not a depressing thought but one that I am rejoicing! YIIIIIIIPPPPPIIIIEEEEE!

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2007.02.23 08:10

How (Not) to Speak of God

I haven't reviewed a book in quite awhile. I have read a few but have not found anything particularly remarkable. I just re-read Peter Rollins book How (Not) to Speak of God. I enjoyed it much better the second time around. Peter is a well versed writer that blends philosophy and rigorous thought with Biblical reflection and a healthy dose of narrative illustrations. There is much to think about in this little book with a cover that looks like someone spilled thier latte on it.
Rather than going through all the ideas that I was intrigued by, I will just highlight the one that proved most helpful to me personally. In a section called "Truth as Soteriological Event", Rollins unpacks the Absolute vs Relative Truth debate by shattering both positions. Looking at 1 John's "Anyone who love's has seen God because God is love", he shows that a proper biblical view of truth is not the Absolute truth position that is based on propositions designed to describe "the real" or "Truth". What he ends up saying is that we only know Truth (God, Love ...) through our relationship to it. So instead of accepting some descriptions of truth that are meant to represent "The Truth" we instead, experience Truth and are therefore transformed by it. This position not only shows the weakness in the absolute/relative debate but also drives a wedge at the core of our Christian obessions with "correct belief". This point, and many other just as profound points, are made in simple language and illustrated like a masterful sage.
I look forward to reading more from this deep thinking Irishman from Belfast!

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2007.01.24 09:58

A Heretics Guide to Eternity

There are so many challenging and spot on ideas in this book that I don't have enough time or energy to disect them all. Let me start by saying that if you care at all about the future of human spirituality and the role that Jesus might play in it, then you must read this book! You can feel Barry Tayor's passion and clarity of thought throughout, although that maybe too much for many to bear.
There has been lots of useless online dialogue about the idea of a follower of Jesus referring to themselves as heretics. Clearly most of these people haven't even read the book since the first section deals clearly with the idea that the label "heretic" is, in the historical practice of the church, not a static concept but a buzz word to marginalize many thoughts and ideas that prove too challenging to our accepted understandings. (See Luther or Gallelio) Maybe the inablility to reconcile with people who think and feel differently is the reason we have a lable like heretic in the first place and I think it is high time for people to stand up and allow themselves to be seen as the "other" or "heretic".
The idea that really grabbed me when reading this book was thinking about the communication of the Gospel in a completely new world. Conceptualizing Jesus as the center of life made sense when the world was thought to have a center (first the earth and then the sun) but in a world of quantum fields and chaos theory, the idea of there being a center to anything lacks sophistication and precision. Barry asks us to see the changing times as an opportunity for the church to change its perspective. I like this idea becasue I think lack of perspective is one of the major weaknesses of the modern church. Maybe a better way of communicating the experience of Christ is more like putting on a new pair of polarized sunglasses. The new lenses filter reality in such a way to allow you to see below the surface of water that would normally be hidden beneath the gloss and shimmer refkecting the sun. There is much in the Gospels that relate to new ways of seeing and restoring sight to the blind.
At the heart of many of the shifts that are addressed in this book is the advancing understandings of just what it means to be human. The cognitive and neurological sciences have pulled back the curtian on so much of the human experience and the church is still trying to squeeze human beings into a straight jacket of dualist tensions like mind/body seperations. To be honest much of Paul's writtings seems, at least on the surface, to reinforce this Platonian view of the human being. How do we rethink what it means to be a spiritual person in a new world of understanding about what it means to be simply human.
It seems that anyone willing, in our day, to rethink these kinds of ideas, is quicly labeled a heretic. It is this lack of faith and intellectual integrity that reinforces the boundary model of the church that prevails. We can't consider the potential human benifits of things like meditation or Yoga because there remains this wedge between the body and the mind, and both of these spiritual technologies assume that there is not a split but a union between body and mind.
I hope that there are lots of people out there who are willing to engage the work of rethinking what it means to have faith in our post-christian age of bricolage spirituality. I have faith that many, like myself, will be encouraged by this book and will continue to explore beyond the established map of Jesus spirituality. I have made peace with my heresy!

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2006.08.29 11:52

Lunar Park

Brett Easton Ellis is a writer that is both respected and hated by the literary world. His first novel Less Than Zero, written as a college assignment, so captured the decadent and hollow life of 80's culture that he shot to the top of the literary A list within months. His next novel The Rules of Attraction mined the same emotionally detached sexual debuachery of college students in a small liberal arts college. His next novel American Psycho is were he turned from the slightly twisted golden boy of postmodern storytelling into the fully twisted writer thought to be taking dictation from the Devil himself. Whether ornot you like his writing (or enjoyed the movies that each of his novels has become) he has talent and can really weave a story out of sentences that often last for half of the page.
Lunar Park is the story of the aftermath of Brett's personal success and emotional failures. The story begins as a very personal blow by blow description of just how far he slipped off the rails of normal. The first fifty pages offer a sometimes unsettling insight into the mind of the writer (for instance he confesses that American Psycho was written by something evil within himself that struggled to reveal itself. It was not a deliberate act as much as it was the by-product of evil parts of himself clawing to the surface) By the time the main plot begins (around page 60) you feel as though the book is going to be a confessional memior and a huge departure from the arms-length irony of his other works. As the plot develops around the writer as he attempts to deal with the death of his uncaring father while struggling to become a father himself. As the pages unfold and the characters are colored in it becomes clear that we are not reading an authentic account of Brett's personal life but rather a surreal psychologically fractured peak behind the curtain of modern suburban family life. Characters morph into one another and the plot includes all the main characters of Ellis' past novels (with a cameo by fellow A-list literatti Jay McIerney of Bright Lights Big City fame).
By the end you are left feeling the writing was a combination of Stephen King and James Frey. The detached and stunted emotional tone of his previous novels is almost entirely gone by the final climax of reconciliation and acceptance. Ellis captures a great deal of the creepiness that underpins modern life and the overlapping roles of father-son-husband-writer with a deft hand and large vocabulary. This book made me think that the best work is still ahead of Ellis and that he was clearing house to make room for much more emotionally engaging work.

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2006.07.27 11:43

Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Imagine waking up from a three week coma to discover that you are fully paralysed except for the ability to blink your left eyelid. Imagine that you still had the sharp intellect that marked your successful life as the chief of Frech Elle magazine. The Diving Bell and Butterfly is the reflections of Jean-Dominique Bauby. Written after he suffered a massive stroke that left him with the rare "locked in" syndrome.
The book is suprisingly uplifting and the skill of the writing weaves a touching tapestry about the human condition. The reflections are a mosaic of personal memories and insightful oberservations about life and the human spirit. At times the tone places you into the anguish and pain without ever feeling the intensity of anger that Bauby states is his only way of keeping himself alive. Very often the reflections are funny and so well written that they get inside your heart and you get a sense of how charming this man must have once been.
The things he remembers and fantasizes about reveal the ways that he is struggling to reconcile the fear and loss that he is determined to face. He recalls a trip to see the appearance of Mother Mary where he mused that about himself being paralyzed as a punishment. He shares, in vivid detail, encounters with a female godess figure that comforts him with her beauty. He makes brutal assesments of the hospital staff that he encounters that prove he has not lost his sharp wit even if it has to be filtered through a clumsy blinking alphabet system of communication.
I would recommend this book as a very interesting and well written account of a man's struggle to remain alive in spirit. Eventhough not many of us experience the reality of "locked-in" syndrome, I also felt that his condition was a relevant metaphor for the way that most of us live our lives at times. Feeling that we have this greater potential that is somehow limited or locked away. We go about looking for the secret talisman to unlock our trueselves. Bauby's writing reminded me that when the spirit is truely alive there is nothing that can hold it back.

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2006.07.27 11:12

Travels in Hyperreality

I have been seeing the name Umberto Eco popping up a lot recently in my studies. An Italian literati and keen cultural observer, Eco is also noted for writing a better version of the Da Vinci Code, years before Dan Brown started buying huge new homes just to store all of his cash in. Travels in Hyperreality is a collection of essays and reflections mostly written during the 80-90's. There is so many brilliant observations and ideas in this little book!
His tone is very engaging and you come away feeling like you have been talking with a person rather than simply interacting with ideas. He comments on a range of topics: Christianity, the media, history, globalization and the changing landscape of sexuality. I really enjoyed his thoughts in Culture as Show Business and Multiplication of the Media. He askes the pointed question why are modern culteral forms more about execution than invention. He sites the disappointment he felt after watching Kubrick's 2001 a Space Oddessy. He make the point that since Star Wars had better technical effects, although the innovations flowed from 2001, it was more celebrated and considered more innovative. He asks why the same isn't true for paintings or other works of art. We tend to still resonate with the Old Masters even though their technical abilities have been trancended by modern painters.
The line seems to be drawn, once again, between high and low culture. In high culture we have a different set of values and our experiences are enriched by the history and ongoing cultural commentary that frames the work. In low culture, things are more plastic and disposable and are therefore judged on more surface related values such as technique and execution. However, once a modern artist has been established and their is discussed and layers with commentary, their work can have lasting impact.
These ideas make me think of Salvador Dali. His work first gained attention more for the technical brilliance of his execution. The content was far too strange and cryptic to have mass appeal but the power of his technique carried him through until his work became firmly established.
In Reading Things, he shows how theories of textual analysis can be applied to visual and thematic elements. He outlines 24 points of textual analysis in the film Casablanca. This list of archtypes and cultural references are full of thought provoking ideas. In a world that is increasingly looking beyond the printed word in its quest for knowledge and meaning, the ability to accurately "read" things is a valuable tool. He says in the prologue, after launching a pointed critique of the paralysis of American intellectualism, that the whole collection of writings were about his field of interest: semantics. I will have to look furhter into what semantics is and how it applies to the tranlating of information into meaning.

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2006.05.17 10:20

The Five Books of Moses

I am teaching a class on the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) and I have been using this book as a source. I read another book by Robert Alter called Canon and Creativity, where he looks at the literary influence that the Jewish scriptures have had on some of the most gifted modern writers : James Joyce, Frederic Nietsche, Herman Melville. Alter's grasp of literary forms really expands the text of the scriptures. The Five Books of Moses is a commentary/translation. His mastery of ancient Hebrew allows the translations to breathe fresh life. Just in the book of Genesis, he rights a great deal of wrongs that poor translations like the King James Version have perpetrated on anti-intellectual Christians for hundreds of years. He unpacks the creation account by referencing the poetic style of the writing (in the ancient Hebrew) and notes that the language used is only used elsewhere in poetic and symbolic writings. The main metaphor and language comes from both the artistic realm of pottery and the engineering realm of archecture. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading the scriptures and would like to dig deeper into the content and depth of the text.

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2006.04.18 14:19

A Short History of Myth

I have been reading up on the role of myth as a way of making meaning in our lives. Jospeh Cambell has written some great indepth studies of various mythological structures throughout the ages and the way that they have given birth to certian worldviews. Karen Armstrong takes a much wider angle view than Cambell by looking at an overview of the idea of myth and its role in certian cultural periods in history. This book is a very good look at the major thrusts of the ongoing developing myths that guide our meaning making. What I really appreciated about the book was the last few pages where she looked at the role of creativity and art to restore a sense of sacred mythology back into modern life. The book seemed to stop short. Just as she was beginning to paint a hopeful picture of a more balanced future that trusts and accepts mystery as much as certianty, it just ends. Maybe she is writing another book about this idea but it seemed blunt to even enter that terrritory without really exploring it. I would like to read a book that begins with her last sentence: "If professional religious leaders cannot instruct us in mythical lore, our artists and creative writers can perhaps step into this priestly role and bring fresh insight to our lost and damaged world.
I have been doing some work lately in refining my own mythological understandings of my own journey. In the writing I am seeing the constant intersection between that which is most personal to me and that which is most universal to all of us. This book has helped me to place my own individual process of creating myth into the context of everyman's journey.
You can also click the image above to see a short bio of Karen "runaway nun" Armstrong.

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2006.03.21 17:43

Irresistible Revolution

The interesting thing about reviewing books written by friends of mine is that I am excited and challenged at the same time. A few months ago I wrote about Velvet Elvis and commented on how Rob had put into words so many things that I had been thinking and studying. Yesterday I read Shane Claiborne's book in one sitting. I could not put it down! I love Shane so much and reading his book was almost like hanging out with him in person(except without the tumbling and fire-breathing!) he makes a great point that ideologies/theologies are not very attractive even if they are true. What brings people to life is life(love) itself. So the book is not purely theological(although he does go into some wonderful biblical reflections on the theology behind his actions) it is much more a memior(not in the James Frey style)
I have heard Shane tell(and been a part of some) these stories but to have them wrapped in biblical reflection was a treat for me. I can identify with him when he says that he gets strange kicks from studying the bible. I realize that not everyone does but for some reason I just love to do it. Shane(like Rob Bell) have been kicking around the same verses and ideas that have been haunting me for the last few years. Knowing the challenging way that Shane has surrendered his life to Jesus, I expected the book to leave me feeling less like a disciple of Jesus. That was not the case, the book left me encouraged that I was already an ordinary radical and well on my way to being an "extremist for love" One of the reviewers fo the book called it "profoundly biblical" and that was really the most impacting thing about the book for me. It forced me to look at the bible while still seeing economics and social responsibility. Here is the opening quote:

"Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the ordinary church member. Courage without love and wisdom is foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier. Wisdom without love and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual. But the one who has love, courage and wisdom moves the world"
- Ammon Hennacy (Catholic activist 1893-1970)

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2006.03.21 17:37

Richard Rohr

I read many more books than I take the time to review on this site. Often because I have to spend time reflecting on the ideas in the book and deciding what I will make of them. This book by Richard Rohr was an exception. Clarity and difficult truth come pouring off of every page. The book is basically a theological study/reflection on the Sermon on the Mount. He clearly identifies the three world orders that control our world: The political order, the economic order and the religious order. He goes into brief but illuminating detail about how Jesus' life and teachings denied the power of these orders and replaced them by proclaiming a new order based on the reign of God that Jesus called The Kingdom of God.
He is challenging all across the board. He takes on the history of the church, catholicism (and he is a practicing catholic, better watch out for Ratzinger!) and the rational denial of mystery. His theology knits together so many constant themes in Jesus teachings and he also humbly reflects on the fact that we have only had 2000 years to sort out the implications of the incarnation. When you really think about it, the incarnation changed all of human history, and it IS pretty arrogant to assume that we already have a full handle on what its implications are.
Its not as though I am saying that God was inadequate in his communication( as John McCarthur misunderstands in his attack on the emergent church) I am saying that when approaching God we must begin with the humility of Paul and recognize that we see through a glass dimly lit. I believe that many aspects of God's revelation have been understood and frankly few have been acted on. Rohr's book seems to take a very modern systems theory approach to looking at the bible. This systems approach reveals some striking elements of revolution and resistance in Jesus life and teachings that can easily be missed when you only see the events and ideas at close range. I feel like Rohr has stepped back and taken a much broader view of the implications of Jesus and has in turn revealed Jesus again in a more complete way.
Recently a wise brother pointed out to me that when Jesus healed the blind man, he didn't see clearly right away. At first he saw people as trees, then he saw walking trees and then he finally saw that he was looking at people all along. This is the way that we approach truth and its implications in our lives. I think there are many people building wooden theologies around trees and completely missing the real truth of people right before their eyes. Click the image to learn a bit more about Rohr and his work.

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2006.03.21 17:35

Douglas Rushkoff

Here is a picture of me with Douglas Rushkoff in NYC. This pick was taken when i went up to NY with Luke and James Prior. Exit Strategy book release party. I have loved everything that Douglas has published. You should check out:
Playing the Future
Extasy Club
Media Virus
Nothing Sacred
Coercion

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2006.03.21 17:31

Anne Lamott

"I started to realize that there was a great hunger and thirst for regular, cynical, ragbag people to talk about God and goodness and virtue in a tone that didn't frighten and upset you, or make you feel that you were doing even more poorly than you'd thought." Anne Lamott

In the article attached to the above image of me and Anne Lamott, she says that it was her little church community in the poorest area of San Francisco that saved her life. I can certianly identify with that thought. My church community and Anne Lamott have both saved my life more than once. In a supreme act of grace, I was given Anne Lamott's book Traveling Mercies at the lowest point in my life. I remember many days that passed by so painfully slow that only Anne's words had the power to nurture my soul. She is so brutally honest and at the same time able to articulate the depths of struggle at the center of any authentic faith journey. I remember when this picture was taken she had just given an hour plus talk about wheat she wanted in a pastor. It was delivered to a national pastor's conference in San Deigo. She was so edgy that many people walked out in a huff. I was also told that right before she went onstage she was told she could not mention certian topics. Her main theme was one of the censored topics. She stuck it out and gave a wondeful rambling and harsh talk. When it was over, their were very few people lingering around by the stage. One person did come well prepared and gave her the embossed leather KJV bible.

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2006.03.21 17:30

Techgnosis

Erik Davis' book Techgnosis is one of the most thrilling rides through our modern tech landscape. It is a history of the spiritual implications of technological advances. Who knew that the technology of books (instead of rolled scrolls) was pioneered by the early Christian church. Who knew that it was the invention of the telegraph that gave us the fear of ghosts. Who knew that the invention of the telephone would bring theories of communists implanting radio chips into people's brains. The book offered a deep analysis of gnostic tendancies in our spiritual tastes. The desire to leave, or transcend, the bodily world for the world of spirit. This seperation of body and spirit has motivated(sometimes unconsiously) many great technological advances.
He spends a great deal of time dealing with the internet, movie special effects and more. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the effects of technology or the twisted history of how spiritual thoughts develop and gain steam. The link attached to his picture is to his great website taht stores a collection of articles, essays and other ramblings. He is a gifted thinker and relevant writer. Stay tuned, I am putting together a long link list of sites that I check regularly for insight, inspiration and fun. Today the world is a happy place for seeward!

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2006.03.21 16:55

Banished from the Kingdom of Oprah

Well James Frey decided to bite the bullet and go back on Oprah live yesterday to confess about the parts of his "memoir" he embellished. It seems that he lied about many extremely pivitol points in the story. He admited that everything that the smoking gun article said was true. Then he went on to mention other aspects fo the story that were false: Lily did not hang herself(he claims she slit her wrists) It makes no sense to me that he would lie about this detail and it makes me feel that she never existed at all. Either that or she existed but he was not as close to her as the book claimed. Either way the whole book has fallen apart in my mind and heart. It is strange because I am still thankful for the experience of reading and believing the book but I will not buy any more of his books. He seemed like such a pussy on the show yesterday. nothing at all like he presented himself in the book. He had a wonderful explanation for his lies meant to incite pity(didn't work with me) He claims he had to remember his past this way in order to cope with overcoming his addictions. That may be true but then tell the millions of people who foudn strength in his "true story" that manipulating truth is the sad and weak way that he needed in order to cope. Don't write a book that continues to present the harsh acceptance of truth and honesty as the way he made it through.
This whole episode about James Frey raises the important question of how little a value our whole society places on truth as an idea. He can write a work of fiction, present it as true, be proved wrong, and still claim that he sees it as true. While at the same time admitting that he lied. That is one complicated version of truth and one that we will all have to navigate more and more in our post-modern condition.
My final thoughts are this: James Frey is one of the most gifted writers that I have ever read and he is also one of the most self decieved people that I have ever seen. May he fidn the courage to embrace the truth no matter what it costs him.

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2006.03.21 16:51

We've Been Punked

I posted a review of James Frey's "memoir" a few months ago and mentioned how much it had touched me. I meant that deeply! So imagine my surprise when I came into the office this week and was told that his story was being questioned on many counts by The Smoking Gun. At first when I went to their site I was skeptical, but after an open reading I was angry. The evidence and direct "off the record" quotes from Frey himself, made a pretty good case. You can check out the article yourself by clicking the image above. I have a few thoughts after watching James Frey on Larry King Live last night.
The book definately would not have touched me as much if it had been presented as fiction. I disagree with Frey when he says that the essential truths of his life aren't in question. The challenge is mostly to his criminal record that was clearly embellished but since his criminal record plays so heavily into the flow and drama of the book, you have to wonder how much else is false. Certianly the criminal record only provides context for the possibly true portions of his story but the book would not have worked without the tension of certian embellished elements. In fact I would go as far as to say that the exclamation point of the whole book(I won't ruin it for those who haven't read it but it's on the last page) the death of a close friend and pivitol character is emeshed with and apparently a result of him serving a three month prison term. If he never spent more than 5 hours in jail then that aspect of the story is completely false and leaves one to ponder if that particular character even existed. Once you start pulling apart the Million Little Lies in this book you get a very different picture of James Frey's life. Striped of the punch of real life, much of the book reads as sadly manipulative and obscene. I have to admit that while I was reading it there were a few points that I thought that this can't be real. But each time I was pulled back in by the fact that it was presented as true and by a major publisher.
How in the world could he have gotten away with it? Watching him on Larry King was interesting. His position was basically a semantic redefinition of the word memoir. At the same time, he admitted the embellishment and also claimed that the story is the essential truth of his life. Watching him reminded me of Pilate caught in the tension between what the Jews were saying about Jesus and his own convictions. He asked "What is truth?" That is an adequate question posed by the whole james Frey affair. I agree with Cliff(who posted in the guestbook-Thanks!) only two people know what is really true James Frey and God. I wish God would chime in his perspective =)

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2006.03.21 16:44

A Million Little Pieces

Truth is the only thing that matters. This book contains truths that are beyond words. I started this book on the plane back from LA and got to the two hundredth page. Last night I picked it up again at around 9pm. I became so engrossed in the story that I could not put it down. Five or six times (at around 3 in the morning) I tried to put it down but simply could not. I was addicted. Addicted to the raw honesty and depth of brokenness. Heartbreak, chaos, victory and devastating pain pour off of every page. This book made me sick, made me cry, made me laugh and made me desperate. It also gave me permission to take a fearless look at my own life. It encouraged me to trust myself and the unspeakable power within. His story is one that I have some degree of connection. having gone through my own addictions His story brought me back to a earlier time in my life. It reminded me of the desperation and sickness. After I finished the last page I cried a tear of heartbreak and hopelessness. I wept for all of the people in the world who are desperate and alone. Then I said a simple prayer of thanks to God that this book and this story exists. I will never for get what it has burned into my being.

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2006.03.21 16:29

Where is Your Faith?

My friend Rob Bell has written a wonderful and insightful look at the spirituality of Jesus. I didn't grow up in the church but I have, for a long time, noticed the huge disconnect between what Jesus was focused on and how Christianity is practiced. Rob has put a fine point on where the church has slipped off course. His metaphors are engaging and rich. His writing style is very conversational and challanging. The truth is that this is the book I would have loved to write but couldn't from my perspective. I have been so excited about following Jesus that I haven't spent much time reflecting on how people get misguided in their journey. Rob has done a fantastic job of pointing out the true nature of faith and the temptation to replace it with certianty. I would suggest this book to anyone who is interested in understanding how Jesus might have looked at the spiritual life. I look forward to his next book or books!

link : comment() : catagory : books posted:2006.03.21 16:21

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