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| 2010 Bible Reading Guide |
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| Dear Friends:
Wow! So far this year has been one to remember in terms of faith and religious dialogue in our nation and in our world. We are in the middle of one of the most polarized and contentious times in our history and the materials coming out of the publishing world reflect our current discourse. From a groundbreaking study of religious tolerance in America by Robert Putnam and David Campbell to a history of the notion of Heaven by Newsweek's Lisa Miller to a fictionalized account of the life of Muhammad by Deepak Chopra, religious thinkers and writers are addressing the issues that dominate our discussions and conflicts today.
Below is a list of 12 titles that represent some of the thought-provoking and insightful reading that is available to you this fall. This list is by no means comprehensive, but we think it is a good starting point for civilized discussion in the traditionally contemplative fall season.
If any of you come across titles that are not included in this list, but that you believe should be included in MassBible's list of recommended books, let us know. We will send out another list of reading suggestions as Advent and the Christmas holidays progress.
In the meantime, enjoy!
-- Mike
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American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us
Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell
Hardcover - $30.00 - Simon and Schuster, 2010
America has experienced three seismic shocks, say Robert Putnam and David Campbell. In the 1960s, religious observance plummeted. Then in the 1970s and 1980s, a conservative reaction produced the rise of evangelicalism and the Religious Right. Since the 1990s, however, young people, turned off by that linkage between faith and conservative politics, have abandoned organized religion. The result has been a growing polarization-the ranks of religious conservatives and secular liberals have swelled, leaving a dwindling group of religious moderates in between. At the same time, personal interfaith ties are strengthening. Interfaith marriage has increased while religious identities have become more fluid. Putnam and Campbell show how this denser web of personal ties brings surprising interfaith tolerance, notwithstanding the so-called culture wars.
Click Here for Description and Ordering
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A House for Hope: The Promise of Progressive Religion for the Twenty-First Century
John A. Buehrens & Rebecca Ann Parker
Hardcover - $25.95 - Beacon Press, 2010
"To make hope something more than just another four-letter word we all need some positive evidence, which is just what this solid and well-crafted book supplies. Bombarded as we are by so much sound and fury from the religious right, we also need a credible voice from the often-ignored progressive wing of American religion, which is also what this work gives us."
-Harvey Cox, author of The Future of Faith
Click Here for Description and Ordering |
The Greatest Prayer: Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message of the Lord's Prayer
John Dominic Crossan
 Hardcover - $24.99 - HarperOne, 2010
An expert on the historical Jesus, Crossan provides just the right amount of history, scholarship, and detail for us to rediscover why this seemingly simple prayer sparked a revolution. Addressing issues of God's will for us and our response, our responsibilities to one another and to the earth, the theology of our daily bread, the moral responsibilities that come with money, our nation-states, and God's kingdom, Crossan reveals the enduring meaning and universal significance of the only prayer Jesus ever taught.
Click Here for Description and Ordering
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Heaven: Our Enduring Fascination with the Afterlife
Lisa Miller
 Hardcover - $25.99 - HarperOne, 2010
A groundbreaking and accessible history of heaven-from the earliest biblical conceptions of the afterlife to the theologians who frame our understandings to the convictions and perceptions of everyday people.
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God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions that Run the World -- and Why Their Differences Matter
Stephen Prothero
 Hardcover - $26.99 - HarperOne, 2010
In Religious Literacy, Prothero demonstrated how little Americans know about their own religious traditions and why the world's religions should be taught in public schools. Now, in God Is Not One, Prothero provides readers with this much-needed content about each of the eight great religions. To claim that all religions are the same is to misunderstand that each attempts to solve a different human problem.
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The Friends We Keep: Unleashing Christianity's Compassion for Animals
Laura Hobgood-Oster
 Paperback - $19.95 - Baylor, 2010
Today we find ourselves in an anomaly in human history: many of our lives are empty of animals. We have pets and sometimes watch documentaries on Animal Planet, but few of us really know how other species on our planet live today. And as Laura Hobgood-Oster reveals, many are not living very well -- sadly, not very well at all.
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Out of Babylon
Walter Brueggemann
 Paperback - $15.00 - Abingdon Press, 2010
Walter Brueggemann-a scholar, a preacher, a prophetic voice in our own time-challenges us again to examine our culture, turn from the idols of abundance and abuse, and turn to lives of meaning and substance. Click Here for Description & Ordering
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The Future of Faith
Harvey Cox
 Paperback - $15.99 - HarperOne, 2010
New in paperback from MassBible's 2010 Harrell F. Beck Lecturer.
The Future of Faith is a major statement and a hopeful look at a movement that is surfacing within Christianity and other religious traditions by one of the most revered theologians today.
Click Here for Description and Ordering
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Muhammad: A Story of the Last Prophet
Deepak Chopra
Hardcover - $25.99 - HarperOne, 2010
Rooted in historical detail, Muhammad brings the Prophet to life through the eyes of those around him. A Christian hermit mystic foretells a special destiny, a pugnacious Bedouin wet nurse raises him in the desert, and a religious rebel in Mecca secretly takes the young orphan under his spiritual wing. Each voice, each chapter brings Muhammad and the creation of Islam into a new light. The angel Gabriel demands Muhammad to recite, the first convert risks his life to protect his newfound faith, and Muhammad's life is not a myth but an incredible true and surprisingly unknown story of a man and a moment that sparked a worldwide transformation.
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Putting Away Childish Things: A Tale of Modern Faith
Marcus J. Borg
 Hardcover - $25.99 - HarperOne, 2010
In Putting Away Childish Things, Marcus Borg weaves his insightful teachings on Christianity into a new form-fiction.
It is an engaging way for readers to learn about the important issues dividing Christians today. Along the way, we join with the characters to ask the hard questions such as what does the Bible really teach? Who is Jesus? What is the nature of faith today? Click Here for Description and Ordering
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The Bread of Angels: A Journey of Love and Faith
Stephanie Saldana
 Hardcover - $24.99 - Doubleday, 2010
A gorgeous, romantic memoir of a young woman's year in Damascus, where she studied the Muslim Jesus, fled to an ancient desert monastery to heal her past, and unexpectedly found herself in love with a French novice monk.
Stephanie Saldana is a recent graduate of Harvard Divinity School.
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The Story of Christianity, Volume I: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation (Revised and Updated)
Justo Gonzalez
 Hardcover - $25.99 - HarperOne, 2010
In this fully revised and updated edition, the lauded church historian Justo GonzÁlez tells the story of Christianity from its fragile infancy to its pervasive dominance at the dawn of the Protestant Reformation. The Story of Christianity, volume 1, relates the dramatic events, the colorful characters, and the revolutionary ideas that shaped the first fifteen centuries of the church's life and thought.
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"I have always imagined that paradise will be some kind of library."
Jorge Luis Borges
Michael Colyott
Resource Director
Massachusetts Bible Society
(617) 969-9401
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