Book Club
The first rule of Book Club is...everyone can talk about it.
The second rule of Book Club is... everyone is welcome.
After that there are no rules.
Book Club is a very simple thing. We choose a book and then read it bit by bit and chat about what we have read once a week. This group is open to all who wish to come - you do not need to be a member of the church (or any church for that matter!) to join.
Our next session will be in the fall. There is a ladies book study currently running, see the front page for information on this program and its temporary location. Notes and net links will be posted here from time to time. If you have any suggestions please pass them along. See the "About Us" page.
Directly below is information about some of our previous studies. Notes and links follow further down this page. Happy Reading!
- Spring 2010 was, The Misunderstood Jew, by Amy-Jill Levine. This was a challenging book that provided much food for thought.
- In fall 2009 we read Julie Kinkaid's book "Overturning the Tables: Consumerism, Children and the Church." We took a sobering look at media culture and its connection to our consumer culture. To learn more about this book check out Julie Kinkaid's blog. Clicking the book cover below will also get you there.
- Our spring 2009 book was The Shack. The group really enjoyed our discussions. Clicking on the book cover below will take you to www.theshackbook.com
We talked about the exponential increase in advertising culture over the past few decades. This was most simply demonstrated when we did a quick survey of which ads people remembered from childhood. Older members struggled to remember ads that were targeted directly to them. Younger adults struggled to limit the number of ads they spoke about. And this trend has only become stronger.
Dove has an interesting commercial that speaks to this.
Onslaught
It is important to be able to talk to your kids (or maybe for your own information) about media and how the media constructs messages. A good resource is the Media Awareness Network. A quick resource is the "Key Concepts in Media Literacy" by John Pungente SJ. Further down the page Dan Blake expands on the issue of constructing meaning in media.
We also discussed our consumer culture. A great resource that looks at the physical systems involved is "The Story of Stuff"
Parents are an important link in passing along this consumer culture. The CBC radio program "Ideas" has a good program on the benefits and pitfalls of purchasing "educational toys." It talks about how the values of consumer culture have infiltrated many different parenting choices. The series is called The Hurried Infant.
Our final meeting will be this week - more updates soon.
Book Club Notes
There were several interesting themes that arose in our discussions: relationships, the nature of God, forgiveness, and suffering. Below are some resources related to those things. The phrase that got the most discussion in our group was when God would say, "I am especially fond of..." The idea of God being especially fond of every unique person is a core teaching of Christianity.... from the Song of Faith, "God is Holy Mystery and Wholly Love"
Some of our other discussions...
Relationships: we are all connected with others in some way and one has an effect on the other. We talked about different models of relationships.... ie.
- Circle of connected people
- Web of connected people
- Two who are equals
- Person to a Group
- Person to themselves
- Person to the world
- Families
- Friends
- Business
- Education
In The Shack, there is an interesting exploration of how God is relational within the Trinity.
The other theme is that of suffering. The question of how to deal with suffering has vexed humanity for a long time. In particular, we want to know why God allows suffering, or how God heals suffering.
Two classic books on suffering are Victor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" and Harold Kushner's, "Why do bad things happen to good people?". Some information on their work is below.
An interview with Rabbi Harold Kushner
A link to a page detailing some of the work of Victor Frankl
Author Phillip Yancy has a good discussion on the subject of suffering here.
We also talked a lot about forgiveness.
Forgiveness depends on many different factors. Simon Wiesenthal wrote about one of his experiences when he was a concentration camp prisoner during World War II. Following his recounting of the experience, and his own thoughts on forgiveness, Wiesenthal invited others to join in a discussion. The essays are thought provoking and provide an interesting survey of the different approaches and understandings of what forgiveness means. You can read a bit about the book The Sunflower by clicking the hyper-link.
A classic Christian story of forgiveness is the story of The Prodigal Son (found in the Bible in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 15). An interesting meditation on this story is, The Return of the Prodigal Son, by Henri Nouwen.
