Trinity Church Summer Reading Recommendations

The Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III 12 Steps to a Compassionate Life, by Karen Armstrong

May 2012

Armstrong is charting the way to a genuinely interfaith spirituality. This is an inspiring and also practical guide to a way of living based on the core teachings about compassion in the great traditions. Its a book Muslims, Jews, and Christians could study together.

The Wisdom Jesus, by Cynthia Bourgeault

Faith is a new way of seeing everything. Bourgeault explores the contemplative awareness that she sees to be the core of what Jesus taught. This book, which is also about the journey of prayer, opens up fresh ways of understanding the relevance and urgency of Jesus new way of living.

Questions of Truth: 51 Responses to Questions About God, Science, and the Bible, by John Polkinghorne
Need some help putting faith and science together? There are lots of good books, but this one is brief and to the point. You can skip around to find a thoughtful, balanced response to just about any question in this area. Written by a famous physicist who at the peak of his career became an Anglican priest.

Against Atheism: Why Hitchens, Dawkins, and Harris Are Fundamentally Wrong, by Ian Markham
Many have asked me for a relatively brief, succinct book answer the arguments of the recent string of atheists. This is a fine one by the dean of Virginia Theological Seminary.

The Impact of God, by Iain Matthew

Not for everyone, this little book draws on the teachings of St. John of the Cross to take us deeper into God than almost anything Ive encountered. I keep re-reading it.

Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet, by Bill McKibben

One of the key voices of our time in the struggle to protect our endangered planet, McKibben has written another clear and inspiring tract for the times. We need to listen to him.

The Rev. Bill Rich Jerusalem: The Biography, by Simon Shebag Montefiore
How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the center of the world and now key to peace in the Middle East? Montefiores gripping narrative reveals its many incarnations, bringing alive every epoch and character in its three thousand year history. He illuminates the sanctity, identity, and political complexities of this city dear to Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

Unprotected Texts: The Bibles Surprising Contradictions about Sex and Desire, by Jennifer Wright Knust
An erudite, yet down-to-earth approach to the wide range of attitudes in the Bible to such important and controversial issues as: gender roles, premarital sex, homosexuality, the body, monogamy, and sexual desire. Knust, a BU professor, brings compassion as well as the best modern scholarship to matters that Christians struggle with every day.

I Speak for Myself: American Women on Being Muslim, edited by Ebrahimji and Suratwala
Muslim American women are subject to endless discussions regarding their role in society, their veils, their identity, their patriotism, their womanhood. Yet the voices of Muslim American women themselves are rarely heard. In I Speak for Myself, 40 American women under the age of 40 share their lives as Muslim Americans. Despite commonalities, their voices and messages are distinctively different.

The Meaning of the Bible, by Douglas A. Knight and Amy-Jill Levine.

In this lively, fresh introduction to the Scriptures shared by Jews and Christians, two preeminent biblical scholars, combine their passion and expertise to examine not just what the Bible says but what it means. Through their eyes we see anew the Bibles literary brilliance, moral profundity, historical settings, and implications for the faith and future of Christians and Jews.

The Cross and the Lynching Tree, by James H. Cone

The cross and the lynching tree are two emotionally charged symbols for African Americans. Using the witness of black artists, writers, and preachers, Cone explores these symbols and their interconnections for black folk. Though both represent the worst human beings can do, they also highlight a thirst for life that refuses to let the worst determine our final meaning.

The Rev. Ann Stevenson Knowing Jesus in your Life, by Carol Anderson and Peter Summer
Many of us are comfortable with praying to God. We get the work of the Holy Spirit, blowing like the wind through our lives, presenting us with opportunities, sending us messages, leading us along pathways that lead us into fuller life; but praying to Jesus or seeing him as a companion on the way can be a bit of a challenge. This simple, short book speaks plainly about befriending Jesus and opening ourselves to this relationship that puts flesh on God. It was imperative for Jesus that his disciples understood that he had come from the Fatherthat he and the Father were onethat if they had seen him, they had seen the Father. If we want to know what God is like, we need to know Jesus, the word God spoke to us, not in a book, but in the flesh.

The Jesuit Guide To (Almost) Everything: A Spirituality for Real Life, & Between Heaven and Mirth, by Father James Martin
Any of you who fortunate enough to attend the forum when Father Martin was our guest speaker know that not only is he a man of Godhe could also be a stand-up comic. He writes convincingly of the Saints who loved God, and could laugh at some of lifes peculiarities and their own. Joy is one of the spiritual gifts and it has very little to do with fickle happiness. Joy is a deep reservoir of love and gratitude which sustains us even in times of sorrow. In The Jesuit Guide To (Almost) Everything Father Jim distills the Ignatian exercises in a way that makes them accessible for those who cannot take a month apart for an Ignatian retreat. Using his own spiritual journeyfrom college fun-loving fellow to financial man to fun-loving Jesuit Priesthe shares the fruit of his experience as he sought Jesus, who already had found him and who has already found us, if only we can apprehend that. After reading anything of Father Martins, you will be better off spiritually by the end of it than you were at the beginning.

Handling Sin, by Michael Malone

This is a beach book, a chaise lounge book, a laugh out loud book by a North Carolinian writer, Episcopalian, Professor at Duke, winner of an Emmy for being the head writer of the soap opera, One Life To Live, and dear friend. It is a romp with a dysfunctional family that includes

Raleigh Hayes, his wife Aura and their two teenage daughters and his father, Early Hayes, a retired Episcopal priest who lost his parish when he had an adulterous affair. The elder Rev. Hayes has escaped from the hospital and run off with a young African-American woman to New Orleans. He has left instructions for Raleigh that he must go on a quest to find missing things (like his half-brother whom he hasnt seen in five years and who may still be in prison). If Raleigh doesnt complete his charge, he will be X-ed out of the will. If he does complete it, he stands to inherit a bundle he never knew his Dad had. THIS IS NOT FOR EVERYONE. The seven deadly sins are there and there is evidence of the seven sacraments as well, and there is some racy (not obscene) language involved. It may get you started on a Michael Malone jag.

This Republic of Suffering, Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust (President of Harvard University).
On the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, this is an excellent way to learn of the grief, deep heartache, and tragedy of War, particularly war, where we kill our ownthe kind of war that still rampages through too many countries around the world. After reading it, which you may have to do in shorter stints, you will be astounded that we continue to find wars for young men and women of every generation to fight on our behalf. This is a work of extraordinary historical scholarship. Accessible to all; but we must have courage to face this brutal period of our common life as Americans, even those of us who have adopted this country.

Louise Packard, Director of Trinity Boston Foundation Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canadas Quest to Change Harlem and America, by Paul Tough
Paul Tough profiles Geoffrey Canada and the work of the Harlem Childrens Zone, an effort to provide a neighborhood-based holistic system of supports for children growing up in poverty. It is a good and inspiring read, and the Harlem Childrens Zone has prompted a new look at place-based social programs and the federal block grants of the Promise Neighborhoods Initiative.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander
Legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that although Jim Crow laws have been eliminated, the racial caste system it set up has remained. She also describes how racial control now functions through the criminal justice system. The facts are hard to ignore. Almost one in ten young black men are behind bars.

The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore

In Baltimore, two children named Wes Moore grew up fatherless and in poverty. One is serving a life sentence in prison and the other, the author of this book, is a Rhodes Scholar, veteran, White House Fellow and banker. This is a moving account of what made the difference.

The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity, by Jeffrey Sachs
Jeffrey Sachs writes that At the root of Americas economic crisis lies a moral crisis, the decline of civic virtue among Americas political and economic elite.Without restoring an ethos of social responsiblity, there can be no meaningful and sustained economic recovery. As the Occupy movement has given us a new awareness of income inequality, Sachs explores what must happen for us to change course.

A Hope in the Unseen, by Ron Suskind

This is the true story of an African-American high school senior who grew up in southeast Washington, DC, and overcomes extraordinary odds to go to Brown University. It is not a new book, but its message is powerful and compelling.

The Rev. Patrick C. Ward Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, by John ODonohue
What does beauty have to do with the life of the spirit? How does beauty differ from mere prettiness? Are considerations of beauty frivolous in a world of conflict and crisis? ODonahue, the late Irish poet, monk, and theologian offers a series of reflections on beauty in art, music, literature, and nature. He understands beauty as an invitation to feel, think and act in new ways. The short meditations in this book have helped refresh my own understanding of, for example, of what we are all doing together in liturgy.

Soldiers Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point, by Elizabeth Samet
West Point is worlds away from anything in my own experience, and like many who have never been in the military I am prone to all kinds of assumptions about soldiers. Elizabeth Samet left Yale to teach literature at West Point, and her reflection on that experience, on cadets responses to some of my own favorite novels and films, surprised and challenged me in the best possible way.

Invisible Romans, by Robert Knapp

Most of our knowledge of ancient Rome consists of our knowledge of its elites, its 1%. Knapps book is a well-researched and very readable account of everyday life in the Roman Empire. While not explicitly religious history, Knapp cites Pauls letters as some of the most vivid accounts we have of what it was like to be just folks in the ancient world, the world in which our faith was born.

American Savior, by Roland Merullo

What if Jesus came backnot only to live among us, but to run for president of the United States? And what if he began his campaign in a town that looked a lot like Springfield, Massachusetts? Merullos novel is narrated as a backwards glance by a campaign communications worker. Its funny and suspenseful while offering thoughtful insight into the person of a loving Savior who confounds both right and left alike.

Revelations: Visions, Prophecy, and Politics in the Book of Revelation, by Elaine Pagels
Revelation is one of the most opaque books in the Bibleso much so that some, including Luther, did not believe it had a place in the holy scripture. Pagels here unveils Revelation and renders its strange hallucinatory imagery relevant to questions of power, politics, and oppression that are as current in our own epoch as they were in the time of John of Patmos.

Trinity Churchs Art and Architecture Tour

You cant take this house of God to the beach or download it onto your Kindle. But do take the chance this summer to read the building we know as our common home. Few parishioners have actually taken a tour of the sanctuary, an experience that will change forever how you encounter this space on any given Sunday. Youll be shocked at how much youve been missing. I was. Youll want to show it off to all of your friends! Tour schedules available on our web site and in our shop. Parishioners get in free!
Trinity Church in the City of Boston 206 Clarendon Street, Boston, MA 02116 617-536-0944 www.trinitychurchboston.org