7 Literary Books Our Church Read Together for 2019 - 2020 [Apostles Reads]
In 2016, when I read the wonderful Reading for the Common Good: How Books Help Our Neighborhoods and Churches Flourish by C. Christopher Smith, I was at the same time preparing to move to a new state and minister within a new church family. Brian and I felt strongly that our role as the new Rector and wife needed to be first as guests in a place that, while new to us, was a community where, within and without Church of the Apostles, Christ's kingdom was alive and active. We wanted to enter with an appropriate curiosity to the stories of life, love, and loss in southwest Connecticut. At the same time, we knew we'd need to cultivate conversations that would help us find kindred spirits. It's this sort of solution that Reading for the Common Good helped me imagine. While reading and discussing a wide range of excellent books wasn't the only way I began to build relationships in Fairfield County, it certainly was one of the most delightful.
My husband gets a lot of credit for trusting my idea (as he's done so many times in the last 30+ years). From the broad idea for churches to read good books together generated in Reading for the Common Good, I customized the details to fit our needs and context. For one thing, we've added a liturgical slant - reading one book per liturgical season informed by the broad themes of each season. Our very first book to read together for Advent 2016, we read Shusaku Endo's Silence (which prompted a somewhat unintentional group initiation!) and then swung to the verbose and jubilant essays and poems of G. K. Chesterton for Christmastide. That's a kind of intellectual athleticism (and maybe gracious response to the new Rector's wife) only the most open-minded readers embrace.
I'm happy to look back on our fourth year reading together and see that the Apostles Reads group has been up to the challenge. We started the year with the gentle parable Joshua by Joseph Girzone. We couldn’t have known when we gathered for a Twelfth Night celebration that included caroling at the top of our lungs and listening to one of our church members recite T.S. Eliot’s classic poem “Journey of the Magi” the prophetic weight to the familiar line “A hard time we had of it”. During Lent, we kept track of Bilbo’s journey from his front door while our entire globe began an arduous trek through the pandemic. We became homesick in our own homes and wondered what Sabbath rest looks like during so much atrocity. Who better to ask than Abraham Joshua Heschel’s recollection of this gift handed from one exiled people to another.
As I look back on the year, the themes of exile and home, journey and escape, peace breaking and peacemaking provided a literary counterpoint to the pendulum we found ourselves swinging between turbulence and exhausted apathy. Perhaps this is the greatest gift the liturgical calendar gives us - a steady rhythm of fasting and feasting, celebration and penitence, lament and resurrection year in and year out. All of this works together to keep us company while we put one foot in front of the other toward our forever home.
In case you’re curious, here are the general guidelines we follow in selecting the book titles:
Many of our titles will be selected from what's widely understood as classic books or authors, whether that's in a technical or colloquial sense.
Many of our titles will be selected from books and authors that have been awarded for their literary merit within the larger publishing arena.
While we love new books and encourage each other to be aware of good books that have been newly released, for the sake of growing in our understanding of the context in which we live, worship, and work we'll veer toward older, established works rather than newer releases.
All of our books will acknowledge the reality of common grace, most will carry implicit theological themes, a couple will be based on explicit theological themes.
We value all genres of literature and will work toward including a noticeable variety of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, short story, biography, and essays each year.
We value reading outside of our tradition as a form of hospitality toward people, places, and customs different than our own experience.
We value literacy for all ages and will, once or twice a year, read something that is suitable for all ages.
I thought you might enjoy seeing the titles we chose and a few notes from our discussions.
I'd also love to hear any suggestions you have for our future reading.
Through the Whole Liturgical Year
Moments & Days: How Our Holy Celebrations Shape Our Faith
By Michelle Van Loon (NavPress, 2016. 240 pages)
Amazon | IndieBound | Hearts & Minds Booksellers
"Michelle Van Loon helps us treasure our time as a gift and a spiritual responsibility, and God as faithfully present in all our moments and days.
People rarely slow down to experience their days, and so they feel rushed through life even as they begin to suspect that life lacks significance. By introducing (and reintroducing) us to the feasts and festivals of the Bible, as well as the special celebrations of the Christian calendar, Moments and Days restores a sacred sense of time throughout our year, enriching our experience of each "holy day" and enlivening our experience of even the most "ordinary time."
Micro Review: in 2019, our congregation was welcomed to share a building with a large synagogue in our city. They had more room than they needed and we had no place to call our own. We’ve been amazed and delighted by the sweet relationship we’re enjoying with our Jewish friends. Right around this time I discovered Michell Van Loon had written ab took in 2016 that feels custom-fit for Church of the Apostles right now. Throughout the year, we’re reading selections from Moments & Days: How Our Holy Celebrations Shape Our Faith by Michelle Van Loon. By introducing (and reintroducing) us to the feasts and festivals of the Bible (still celebrated by our Jewish neighbors), as well as the special celebrations of the Christian calendar, my hope is that Moments and Days will help us enter each season and celebration more fully at Church of the Apostles and as neighbors to our friends at Rodeph Sholom!
Advent
Joshua: A Parable For Today
By Joseph F. Girzone (Scribner, 1995. 288 pages)
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"Rooted in a scrupulously accurate reading of scripture, Joshua is a profoundly moving, deeply inspiring book that no reader will ever forget.
Sometimes it happens. After two thousand years, the human race may be given a second chance.
When Joshua moves to a small cabin on the edge of town, the local people are mystified by his presence. A quiet and simple man, Joshua appears to seek nothing for himself. He supports himself by working as a carpenter. He charges very little for his services, yet his craftsmanship is exquisite. The statue of Moses that he carves for the local synagogue prompts amazement as well as consternation.
What are the townsfolk to make of this enigmatic stranger? Some people report having seen him carry a huge cherry log on his shoulders effortlessly. Still others talk about the child in a poor part of town who was dreadfully ill but, after Joshua’s visit, recovered completely.
Despite his benevolence and selfless work in the community, some remain suspicious. Finally, in an effort to address the community’s doubts, Joshua is confronted by the local church leaders.”
Micro Review: One of our group members recommended this title and I thought it fit well for our Advent selection. Several of the group had already read the book years ago and I enjoyed hearing their experience reading it then and now. (Some beautiful stories!) Joshua, the Christ-figure, is as deeply compelling to me, the reader, as he is to the townfolk surrounding him in fictional Auburn. Add to that the plotline about befriending his neighbors in the local synagogue and this was the perfect read for our congregation right now.
Christmastide
"Journey of the Magi", a poem by T.S. Eliot.
By T.S. Eliot
I never get tired of this poem and was so grateful for a thespian in our church community reciting "The Journey of the Magi" for us during a delightful Twelfth Night party for our church families and friends. The poignancy of that poem grows on me more as I hear it out loud in ways that reading it alone can't accomplish.
Epiphany
Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters
By Annie Dillard (Harper Perennial, 2013. 176 pages)
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"Here, in this compelling assembly of writings, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Annie Dillard explores the world of natural facts and human meanings."
Micro Review: While the reviews from our reading group were decidedly mixed with most not enjoying the essays. It’s so good for me to hear other’s perspectives. I realized as I listened to their feedback that Annie Dillard (at least in this collection of essays) isn’t really hospitable to her readers. Much of her noticing comes across as detached in ways that can leave a reader feeling alone with their questions. While I still love her writing - her ability to craft sentences with so much precision - I also realized that some of what I initially loved about this book, in particular, didn’t hold up as well in the light of my friends’ experience. (You can read a bit from my friend Walter here: https://chainsgone.com/blog/three-kinds-of-books-three-reviews)
Here’s what I wrote after my first reading back in 2010: Dillard is one of those authors who looks, really looks at the world, and then writes it in a way that's both poetic and pragmatic. The art and the science of the universe. A writer who throws out sentences like I have been reading comparative cosmology. And then a beat later, a sentence like The mountains are great stone bells; they clang together like nuns.
I love that. I'd like to write like that.
This collection of essays could be considered a collection of noticing. Trekking cross-country with her husband to experience an eclipse: I saw, early in the morning, the sun diminish against a backdrop of sky. I saw a circular piece of that sky appear, suddenly detached, blackened, and backlighted; from nowhere it came and overlapped the sun. ("Total Eclipse")
Winsomely comparing her new church experience (Catholic mass) to historically grand, but oft' misguided arctic expeditions: ...nobody said things were going to be easy. A taste for the sublime is a greed like any other, after all..." ("An Expedition to the Pole")
Some people I know think of her essay "Living Like Weasels" to be an almost mandatory text for those living in conflict about calling: The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into that pulse.
The truth is, next to the holy Scriptures, the other words I think I should be memorizing are Annie Dillard's. Of all the words in this book, the ones I find most affirming in my current life as a crafter of corporate worship services are these most brilliant gems of Dillard-words from "An Expedition to the Pole" :
On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.
...and this...
A high school stage play is more polished than this service we have been rehearsing since the year one. In two thousand years, we have not worked out the kinks. We positively glorify them. Week after week we witness the same miracle: that God is so mighty he can stifle his own laughter. Week after week, we witness the same miracle: that God, for reasons unfathomable, refrains from blowing our dancing bear act to smithereens. Week after week Christ washes the disciples' dirty feet, handles their very toes, and repeats, It is all right -- believe it or not -- to be people.
Who can believe it?
Lent
The Hobbit: Or There and Back Again
By J.R.R. Tolkien (Mariner Books, 2012. 300 pages)
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A Sacramental Life category: Friends
Apostles Reads season: Lent
A great modern classic and the prelude to The Lord of the Rings. Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.
"A glorious account of a magnificent adventure, filled with suspense and seasoned with a quiet humor that is irresistible . . . All those, young or old, who love a fine adventurous tale, beautifully told, will take The Hobbit to their hearts." - New York Times Book Review
My review in 3 or more words: adventurous | heartwarming | classic
Other great reviews:
The Hobbit: a review by my friend Walter Wittwer via Chains Gone
We haven’t been able to meet for our discussion yet which makes me even more grateful for Walter’s astute and authentic observations. For example, this little concluding gem of a sentence: “A little like people I know. Some days you want to give them a big hug and other days you want to…..not give them a hug.”
This book quoted on Goodreads.
One of my (many) favorites:
“There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Eastertide
The Sabbath (FSG Classics)
By Abraham Joshua Heschel (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 144 pages)
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"Elegant, passionate, and filled with the love of God's creation, Abraham Joshua Heschel's The Sabbath has been hailed as a classic of Jewish spirituality ever since its original publication-and has been read by thousands of people seeking meaning in modern life. In this brief yet profound meditation on the meaning of the Seventh Day, Heschel introduced the idea of an "architecture of holiness" that appears not in space but in time Judaism, he argues, is a religion of time: it finds meaning not in space and the material things that fill it but in time and the eternity that imbues it, so that "the Sabbaths are our great cathedrals."
Micro Review: This was a re-read for me in order to follow along with Englewood Review of Books’ Lenten online reading group. I facilitated one of the sessions. You can see my questions for Chapters 7-9 here.
Here’s an excerpt from my reflection following the first time I read the book (back in 2015):
“Even though I'd always meant to read it because Abraham Joshua Heschel is quoted by almost every author I've ever read (usually from this book), I'll admit it was seeing an image of the cover art that finally got me to purchase the book. The prints of wood engravings by Ilya Schor on the cover and at the beginning of each chapter provide an elegance to Heschel's graceful words about the beauty of Sabbath time to Jewish faith and life. Heschel's words are poetic (at times, even, mythical) which I found captivating enough, but especially so when paired with his daughter's prologue to the book which explained in more day-to-day (week-to-week, rather) terms of what a Sabbath practice looked like in her father's home.
Beautiful.”
Pentecost
An American Lament
By Repentance Project
In the turmoil of relentless racial injustice highlighted in the early 2020 public imagination by the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd prompted us to change our pre-determined book for Pentecost to this 7-week study from Repentance Project. The American Lament study was originally created for churches to use as a group study during Lent (I’ve referenced it often in the Lent Daybook devotional posts the past few years). The organization wisely recommend that people of faith not wait until Lent to dive into the rich reflections and resources in their curriculum. Our group expanded beyond our typical reading community to include a couple dozen people from Church of the Apostles, representing a variety of experience and perspective on the issue of systemic and individual racism in the United States. Our hope was to listen, learn, lament, and live differently in response to the study. Yes, some of the conversations were awkward and frustrating but it felt like we all grew a little bit (or a lot) closer to the cross of Christ where justice, repentance, and reconciliation is rooted. I highly recommend this curriculum!
Ordinary Time (Summer)
Cry, the Beloved Country
By Alan Paton (Scribner Book Company, 2003. 320 pages)
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A Sacramental Life categories: Apostles Reads | Family | Peace & Justice
Apostles Reads liturgical season: Ordinary Time (summer)
"Cry, the Beloved Country" is a beautifully told and profoundly compassionate story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set in the troubled and changing South Africa of the 1940s.
The book is written with such keen empathy and understanding that to read it is to share fully in the gravity of the characters' situations. It both touches your heart deeply and inspires a renewed faith in the dignity of mankind. "Cry, the Beloved Country" is a classic tale, passionately African, timeless and universal, and beyond all, selfless.
My review in 3 more words: challenging | emotionally inspiring | reflective | slow-paced
The story is exquisite, rich, sad, and joyous and Zulu priest Stephen Kumalo has become one of my all-time favorite novel characters. I loved being able to re-read with our Apostles Reads community and, especially, for the insight and personal experience our South African friends Etienne and Beth Maree were able to contribute to the conversation.
This book quoted on Goodreads.
One of (many) favorites.
“The tragedy is not that things are broken. The tragedy is that things are not mended again.”
― Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country
Ordinary Time (Autumn)
Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery
by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah (IVP Books, 2019. 224 pages)
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A Sacramental Life categories: Apostles Reads | Peace & Justice | Church
Apostles Reads liturgical season: Ordinary Time (autumn)
You cannot discover lands already inhabited. Injustice has plagued American society for centuries. And we cannot move toward being a more just nation without understanding the root causes that have shaped our culture and institutions. In this prophetic blend of history, theology, and cultural commentary, Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah reveal the far-reaching, damaging effects of the "Doctrine of Discovery." In the fifteenth century, official church edicts gave Christian explorers the right to claim territories they "discovered." This was institutionalized as an implicit national framework that justifies American triumphalism, white supremacy, and ongoing injustices. The result is that the dominant culture idealizes a history of discovery, opportunity, expansion, and equality, while minority communities have been traumatized by colonization, slavery, segregation, and dehumanization. Healing begins when deeply entrenched beliefs are unsettled. Charles and Rah aim to recover a common memory and shared understanding of where we have been and where we are going. As other nations have instituted truth and reconciliation commissions, so do the authors call our nation and churches to a truth-telling that will expose past injustices and open the door to conciliation and true community.
My review in 3 or more words: ecclesially-essential | challenging | historically-foundational
This book quoted on Goodreads.
One of my (many) favorites:
“Where is hope if not in a land covenant with the God of Abraham? We have been trained to read the Scriptures, especially the Old Testament, incorrectly. We have been taught to put ourselves in the place of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We read the Old Testament as if the United States it eh chosen people of Israel. But in the Old Testament narrative, Americans would be the citizens of the pagan nations. Hope for the United States does not emerge from being the promised and chosen people like the Jews, but instead, we take our hope from how God treats the other nations in the biblical narrative.
The hope for the United States comes from a God who was willing to negotiate with Abraham over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. The hope for the United States comes from a God who pulled Rahab out of the city before he destroyed Jericho. The hope for the United States comes from a God who said to Jonah, "Should I not be concerned" when he protested that God had sent him to prophesy to the pagan city of Nineveh. The hope for America does not come from a land covenant with God - it comes from the character of God. And the character of God is not accessed by our exceptionalism but through a humility that emerges from the spiritual practice of lament.”
― Soong-Chan Rah, Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery
Hiawatha and the Peacemaker
By Robbie Robertson, illustrated by David Shannon (Harry N. Abrams, 2015. 48 pages)
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Born of Mohawk and Cayuga descent, musical icon Robbie Robertson learned the story of Hiawatha and his spiritual guide, the Peacemaker, as part of the Iroquois oral tradition. Now he shares the same gift of storytelling with a new generation.
Hiawatha was a strong and articulate Mohawk who was chosen to translate the Peacemaker's message of unity for the five warring Iroquois nations during the 14th century. This message not only succeeded in uniting the tribes but also forever changed how the Iroquois governed themselves--a blueprint for democracy that would later inspire the authors of the U.S. Constitution.
Caldecott Honor-winning illustrator David Shannon brings the journey of Hiawatha and the Peacemaker to life with arresting oil paintings. Together, Robertson and Shannon have crafted a new children's classic that will both educate and inspire readers of all ages.
The hardcover version includes a CD featuring a new, original song written and performed by Robbie Robertson.
My review in 3 or more words: historically-well-told | gorgeously-illustrated | adventurous | relationally-inspiring
I loved pairing this book with Mark Charles and Soong Chan-Rah’s sobering Unsettling Truths (above) so that the kids at Apostles could enter the conversation about peace and justice for the indigenous people who owned and cultivated the land we all live on today.
A couple of my favorite pages:
Here's the list of books we've read so far this liturgical year, and the ones we're planning to read for 2022.
Advent & Christmastide - Light Upon Light: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany by Sarah Arthur
Epiphany - Babette's Feast by Isak Dinesen
Lent - Eastertide - Between Midnight and Dawn: A Literary Guide to Prayer for Lent, Holy Week, and Eastertide by Sarah Arthur
Lent - How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe by Thomas Cahill + Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie dePaola
Easter - A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (w/ kids)
Pentecost - Be the Bridge: Pursuing God’s Heart for Racial Reconciliation by Latasha Morrison
Ordinary Time - At the Still Point: A Literary Guide to Prayer in Ordinary Time by Sarah Arthur
Ordinary Time: Summer - Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling by Andy Crouch
Ordinary Time: Autumn - Half the Church: Recapturing God's Global Vision for Women by Carolyn Custis James
2022
Advent - Peace Like A River by Leif Enger
Christmas - The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
Any suggestions?
Also, if you could invite your church to join you in reading one book for this year (with the above criteria), what would YOU choose?
p.s. This post contains affiliate links because I'm trying to be a good steward, and when you buy something through one of these links you don't pay more money, but in some magical twist of capitalism we get a little pocket change. Thanks!