Book of the Week

Throughout the course of my graduate studies I read an inordinate number of books, articles and essays regarding the human diet, agriculture and what we have come to know as the “food industry.”  Perhaps one of the most readable treatments of complex interrelated subjects comes from Michael Pollan.  His book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, navigates the narcissism of nutritionism succinctly.  In an over-saturated world of nutrition facts, ingredient lists, and marketing trends, Pollan comes to a simple solution.  His mantra, “eat food, not too much, mostly plants.”  The statement is perhaps as profound as it is simple.  Behind the concise phrase Pollan elaborates on just what food is in an industrialized food era.  Once one determines what food is, and what it is not, then choices need to be made about quality and quantity.  Pollan’s research pushes him toward a heavily plant based diet as his message clearly states.  If you are looking for a well-researched, lucidly written guide to relieve confusion and laborious hours of accumulated label reading, then Pollan’s manifesto is just the tool to empower you.

Book of the Week

On Tuesday, January 12, 2010, the shifting of tectonic plates along the Enriquillo-Plantain Garden Fault led to seismic activity registering 7.0 on the Richter scale and shaking the the island nation of Haiti.  Specifically, the capital city of Port-au-Prince, located just 10 miles from the earthquake’s epicenter, was shattered.  This event left unspeakable physical destruction in its wake, loss of human life and a nation in chaos.  As history well attests to, natural disasters of any magnitude lead to inevitable questions about faith and life.  More specifically, in religious circles, they lead to questions about God, God’s existence and presence.  Natural disasters are not the nascence of these questions but rather a catalyst to their intensification and urgency.  It is in this moment of intense urgency for answers that I offer the book of the week.

Gary Stern, a journalist for the Journal News (his blog can be found at LoHud),  recently interviewed a number of religious leaders across the spectrum of world religions to survey how each one specifically interpreted natural disasters and God’s role therein, if any.  He published his findings under the title, Can God Intervene? How Religion Explains Natural Disasters.  The most recent major natural disasters at the time of publication were Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the Tsunami of 2004 (he devotes the entire first chapter to the Tsunami).  The second chapter is an historical survey of religious interpretations of natural disasters.  He also devotes attention in that chapter to the narrative of the flood story in Genesis and some time to the book of Job.  The remainder of the book consists of snippets from his interviews and his conclusions.

From the introduction, Stern writes, “What I have concluded myself is that this book offers a tremendous amount of wisdom from many of the top religious minds in the United States.  I appreciate their willingness to tell me what they believe, what they cannot believe, and what they can never know” (p.10).  Some of those interviews across the religious spectrum include names such as Harold Kushner, Tony Campolo, Dr. James Kone, Dr. Sayyid Syeed, Imam Yahya Hendi, Dr. Arvind Sharma, David Silverman and many others (43 total).  As the past week is a testament to, there are any number of religious and non-religious interpretations of natural disasters.  Stern’s study is a fair and wide-ranging survey of the cacophony of voices that may accompany the occurrences of such events.

Book of the Week

This week I commend Raymond P. Scheindlin‘s The Book of Job to all those interested in studies on this portion of scripture.  This book is a translation and introduction with notes to the biblical book of Job.  Scheindlin provides a lengthy but helpful introduction to the story in just under fifty pages.  The layout of the story is easy to follow and one does not get bogged down in verse numbers or notes as when reading from a study bible etc.  This is helpful in that it allows one to consider the text for some time without immediately being drawn to the translator’s comments.  With regards to notes, there are about sixty pages worth at the end of the translation.  Whether one agrees with Scheindlin’s translation or notes in every matter is another issue, but the book is recommended, especially to those looking for an unhindered reading of the text in one sitting.

Book of the Week

This week I started using Sam Hamilton-Poore‘s Earth Gospel: A Guide to Prayer for God’s Creation (Upper Room Books, 2009).  The book functions as a day-by-day, week-by-week prayer guide and it is littered with prayers, scripture passages, hymns, reflections and blessings centered around God and creation.  The introduction lays out the structure of the book and some possible methods for reading and using it.  A word from the introduction regarding prayer is in order here, “Prayer and action are not two separate matters for Christians; how we live is informed and shaped by how we pray and how we pray is informed and shaped by how we live.” (Introduction, p.10)  Not only is this book a daily prayer guide, it serves as a de-centering text.  It seeks to de-center our anthropocentric misconceptions about God, creation, and our relationship with both.  This book will serve as an important theo-centering reminder for all who partake of it; centering the reader not only on God, but what is important to God – – creation.

Set me free, O God,

from my empire-prison

of human self-importance.

Help me to serve you and your creation

with energy intelligence, imagination, and love.

– – from Week One, Friday, Midday – Prayer (Earth Gospel, p. 45)

Book of the Week

In the following, I hope to begin a trend of highlighting at least one book that I am currently reading or have read recently.  This week, I recommend Peter Rollins‘ The Orthodox Heretic: and Other Impossible Tales.  Rollins has gathered a collection of potential parables, ranging from original works to contemporary appropriations of biblical parables, as well as parables from other traditions.  Along with each tale Rollins offers a short “commentary,” to aid the reader in discerning some of the possibilities for interpretation and incarnation.  A word of caution to the reader/hearer; these words may move you to action and hence turn these impossible tales into parables.  These are stories that hold the potential to empower the hearer.  But “hearing” the tale is not enough, as Pete articulates, “The parable is heard only when it changes one’s social standing to the current reality, not one’s mere reflection upon it.” (Rollins, Intro., xii)  So as I see it, this book can provide some stories for thoughtful reflection about the nature of one’s role in society, or it may function in a parabolic manner leading to a conflicted incarnation of the challenges raised and act as the catalyst for change in the audience’s milieu.