Picks from May 2008
Redeemed: A Spiritual Misfit Stumbles Toward God, Marginal Sanity, and the Peace That Passes All Understanding by Heather King
About the author:
A lawyer turned writer, Heather King is a commentator for NPR’s All Things Considered and a communicant at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Los Angeles. She is the author of the memoir Parched. Her work has appeared in the Best American Spiritual Writing anthologies.http://heather-king.com/
Notes on the book:
After years of sleeping around, working as a waitress, and suffering booze-induced blackouts, Heather King settled into sobriety, marriage, and a financial lucrative but soul-sucking career in a Beverly Hills law firm. As someone who had reached middle age “never believing in much of anything,” she found herself in the last place she thought she’d end up: the Catholic church.Redeemed describes the steps of King’s journey—from finding herself holed up on the couch reading Hermits of the World (and then wondering why she and her husband weren’t having any sex) to dealing with the breast cancer that brought her face-to-face with the Virgin Mary. With the death of her father and the devastation of divorce, she connects with Jesus Christ: “A guy who hung out with lepers, paralytics, the possessed: this is someone I can trust.”
Love Between Women: Early Christian Responses to Female Homoeroticism by Bernadette J. Brooten
About the author:
Bernadette J. Brooten, director of the Feminist Sexual Ethics Project, is Robert and Myra Kraft and Jacob Hiatt Professor of Christian Studies and Professor of Women’s Studies at Brandeis University.In addition to Love Between Women, she has written Women Leaders in The Ancient Synagogue. In addition, she has published articles on Paul and the Jewish Law, Jewish epigraphy, and various topics of ancient Jewish and early Christian women’s history.
Brooten studied German at the University of Portland (B.A. 1971); Roman Catholic and Protestant theology at the University of Tubingen; Talmud and Jewish history at Hebrew University and the University of Tubingen; and the New Testament, ancient post-Biblical Judaism, and early Christian literature at Harvard University (Ph.D. 1982).
http://people.brandeis.edu/~brooten
Notes on the book:
Love Between Women examines female homoeroticism and the role of women in the ancient Roman world. Employing an unparalleled range of cultural resources, Brooten finds evidence of marriages between women and establishes that condemnations of female homoerotic practices were based on widespread awareness of love between women.According to John Boswell’s book, Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality, the Christian tradition was not anti-gay until the late middle ages. Professor Brooten’s book revisits that argument with differing results.
Booten’s book is a very tight and carefully argued presentation of Christian tradition as anti-gay and (especially) anti-lesbian from the onset.
Seven Sacred Pauses – Living Mindfully Through the Hours of the Day by Macrina Wiederkehr, OSB
About the author:
Sister Macrina Wiederkehr, OSB, is an author and spiritual guide. In addition to writing, she travels throughout the U.S. and Canada as a retreat director. In her retreats, seekers are guided through experiences of silence and contemplation, Lectio Divina and faith sharing. Many of her retreat themes come from her writing. http://macrinawiederkehr.com
http://stscho.org
Notes on the book:
Benedictine Sr. Macrina Wiederkehr is a member of St. Scholastica Monastery in Fort Smith, Arkansas. An important component of her spiritual practice involves honoring each day in a mindful and prayful way as it progresses and passes. She offers help for observing what she calls “the seven sacred pauses,” which are daily moments of keeping vigil in concert with the traditional monastic liturgy of the hours.No longer do people stop working in the fields when they hear the Angelus bells sounding in the church steeple calling them to prayer. The hurried, stressful rhythms of modern life make those intentional pauses, and the need to balance work, prayer and leisure, even more important.
