Congregational UCC Book Group
The CUCC book group meets in the CUCC parlor on the third (or sometimes fourth) Sunday of each month after worship at 12:30 p.m. Those who wish to can bring a bag lunch. All are welcome! Below you'll find some details of upcoming and past meetings, books, and related information.
UPCOMING BOOK GROUP SELECTIONS
My Cousin the Saint: A Search for Faith, Family, and Miracles by Justin Catanoso
When: Sunday, October 26, 2008
Where: CUCC parlor
Info: After learning that his grandfather's late cousin would soon be canonized (declared a saint), Catanoso, a journalist, made several trips to southern Italy, taking part in family feasts and funerals and listening to stories about Padre Gaetano Catanoso's holy life and amazing miracles. Back home again, he researched the American branch of the family founded by his grandfather, Carmelo, Born eight years and half a mile apart, the two young men would take differing paths. Gaetano stayed in Calabria and became a priest; Carmelo emigrated to America in 1903, fathered nine children and rarely spoke of his Italian roots. The book starts slowly, with a barrage of information about the saint, the province of Reggio Calabria and the immigrant experience. A hundred pages in, the writing becomes more personal: Catanoso meets his Italian cousins and begins reflecting on his own experience as a Catholic Italian-American. Informative and thought provoking throughout, the chapters on his brother's bout with cancer are especially poignant. Why, he wonders, would a family saint answer some prayers for healing, but not others? (From Publishers Weekly via Amazon.com.)
PREVIOUS BOOK GROUP SELECTIONS
Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by N.T. Wright
When: Sunday, August 24, 2008 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Info: Why do we expect justice? Why do we crave spirituality? Why are we attracted to beauty? Why are relationships often so painful? And how will the world be made right? These are not simply perennial questions all generations must struggle with, but, according to N. T. Wright, are the very echoes of a voice we dimly perceive but deeply long to hear. In fact, these questions take us to the heart of who God is and what He wants from us. For two thousand years, Christianity has claimed to solve these mysteries, and this renowned biblical scholar and Anglican bishop shows that it still can today. Not since C. S. Lewis's classic summary of the faith, Mere Christianity, has such a wise and thorough scholar taken the time to explain to anyone who wants to know what Christianity really is and how it is practiced. Wright makes the case for Christian faith from the ground up, assuming that the reader has no knowledge of (and perhaps even some aversion to) religion in general and Christianity in particular. Simply Christian walks the reader through the Christian faith step by step and question by question. With simple yet exciting and accessible prose, Wright challenges skeptics by offering explanations for even the toughest doubt-filled dilemmas, leaving believers with a reason for renewed faith. For anyone who wants to travel beyond the controversies that can obscure what the Christian faith really stands for, this simple book is the perfect vehicle for that journey. (From HarperCollins web site.)
The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart by Peter J. Gomes
When: Sunday, June 29, 2008 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Info: Why is the Bible so often used as a tool for division and exclusion? And why are so many intelligent and compassionate people embarrassed to say they find wisdom and comfort in the Bible? In this groundbreaking book, the man Time magazine called one of the seven best preachers in America provides answers to these questions and shows what the Bible says about topics that concern Lis all, including joy, suffering, evil, and goodness. With compassion, humor, and insight, lie gives readers the tools and understanding they need to make the ancient wisdom of the Bible a dynamic part of their modern lives. (From HarperCollins web site.)
Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church Is Transforming the Faith by Diana Butler Bass
When: Sunday, April 20, 2008 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Info: For decades the accepted wisdom has been that America's mainline Protestant churches are in decline, eclipsed by evangelical mega-churches. Church and religion expert Diana Butler Bass wondered if this was true, and this book is the result of her extensive, three-year study of centrist and progressive churches across the country. Her surprising findings reveal just the opposite—that many of the churches are flourishing, and they are doing so without resorting to mimicking the mega-church, evangelical style. Christianity for the Rest of Us describes this phenomenon and offers a how-to approach for Protestants eager to remain faithful to their tradition while becoming a vital spiritual community. As Butler Bass delved into the rich spiritual life of various Episcopal, United Methodist, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian, United Church of Christ, and Lutheran churches, certain consistent practices—such as hospitality, contemplation, diversity, justice, discernment, and worship—emerged as core expressions of congregations seeking to rediscover authentic Christian faith and witness today. This hopeful book, which includes a study guide for groups and individuals, reveals the practical steps that leaders and laypeople alike are taking to proclaim an alternative message about an emerging Christianity that strives for greater spiritual depth and proactively engages the needs of the world. (From HarperCollins web site.)
Christianity for the Rest of Us is a new book in the CUCC Library. Look for it on the book cart in the Fellowship Hall.
A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, catholic, green, incarnational, depressed-yet-hopeful, emergent, unfinished Christian by Brian McLaren
When: Sunday, February 17, 2008 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Book Review by Clifton Karnes: If you think something's gone wrong with Christianity, you're not alone. In A Generous Orthodoxy, Brian D. McLaren leads us on a spiritual autobiography that shows what's right - and what’s tragically wrong - with Christianity today. McLaren, pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in Spencerville, Maryland, comes from an ultraconservative Protestant background. In searching for a revitalized faith that's truly centered on Jesus, he has explored the major denominations and spiritual currents in contemporary society and wound up inventing a movement (the Emerging Church). McLaren sets the tone for the book in the first chapter, “The Seven Jesuses I Have Known,” in which he looks at different versions of Jesus endorsed by conservative Protestants, Pentecostals, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, liberal Protestants, Anabaptists, and liberation theologists. In the end, he suggests that we accept them all, realizing that no single definition of Jesus, or even a combination, can exhaust the meaning of Jesus. While reading the book and viewing Christianity through McLaren’s inclusive eyes, I found myself continually asking what Christianity has lost by pursuing absolute truth, what we’ve failed to learn from each other by our stubbornness, and where Jesus can be found in all this mess. A Generous Orthodoxy may make you laugh and it may make you cry, but you’ll probably look at Christianity differently after reading it.A Generous Orthodoxy is a new book in the CUCC Library. Look for it on the book cart in the Fellowship Hall.
Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy by Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt, and David L. Weaver-Zercher
When: Sunday, January 20, 2008 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Book Review by Ken Sell: Amish Grace is a beautifully written book that conveys the heart, soul and mind of the Amish people in the light of the dreadful attack on ten Amish schoolgirls. It is an intimate look at the Amish practice of forgiveness which is a basic part of their daily lives. While devastating violence visits our world every day, rarely is it greeted with forgiveness and a renunciation of vengeance as was practiced by the Amish. The book narrates the events of the school massacre and the Amish responses which followed, the deep meaning of forgiveness in the Amish faith, and the meaning of forgiveness for us. It was written by three students of Amish history, culture and faith who talked with over three dozen Amish families about the disaster. There are some memorable quotes. At times you are moved to tears and often prompted to reflect on the practice of forgiveness in your own life. Amish Grace was especially meaningful to me because I visited that area of the Amish country just one month after the tragedy and saw where the perpetrator was buried behind the little white Methodist Church in Georgetown. The book is an easy read and is well worth your time.
Amish Grace is a new book in the CUCC Library. Look for it on the book cart in the Fellowship Hall.
The Gospel According to Matthew
When: Sunday, November 18, 2007 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Info: The Gospel of Matthew is concerned with the position of these early Christian churches within Israel, or in its relationship to what we call Judaism. And these are concerns that belong to the time after the fall of Jerusalem. How do these Christian communities, who don't even call themselves Christian, and probably don't even have a consciousness that they're something different than Israel, how do they relate to others who claim to be Israel? And it's very important that Jesus for Matthew is fully a man from Israel. Therefore, Matthew begins his gospel by taking all the genealogy of Jesus; he wanted to show that Jesus was the son of David, and now traces this back to Abraham. For Matthew, Jesus is not the son of David, but he is the son of Abraham. He is truly a man from Israel. And thus Jesus' teaching also is one that is fully in the legitimate tradition of Israel's teaching of the law. So in Matthew, not in any other gospel, we have Jesus saying he has not come to dissolve the law but to fulfill it. And that no part of the law will disappear.... From pbs.orgThe Real Jesus: The Misguided Quest for the Historical Jesus and the Truth of the Traditional Gospels by Luke Timothy Johnson
When: Sunday, October 21, 2007 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Info: Though Johnson insists that he is a quiet scholar reluctant to engage in public polemic, his entrance into this battle is anything but reticent. He launches an attack on presentation of recent historical Jesus research in the popular press directed more at the Jesus Seminar (a group of scholars that has been at the forefront of such research for more than a decade) than at the press itself (pictured as manipulated rather than manipulator). Behind Johnson's dismissive attitude toward the media and his ad hominem attack on Seminar founder Robert Funk lurk three serious questions for readers familiar with the work of Seminar participants, including Funk, John Dominic Crossan, and Burton Mack. The first concerns the place of scholarly debate on issues of public interest; the second, the limitations of history and historical method; and the third, the interrelationship of faith, history, and institution. Despite Johnson's protestations, scholarly work is most often a war of words, a battle of interpretations--and whether in classrooms, scholarly journals, or the popular press, scholars (like preachers) know that massaging the medium is more than half the battle. From Booklist via Amazon.comResources: A debate from a video teleconference featuring Crossan, Borg, Johnson, N.T. Wright, and Deirdre Good. You can find a transcript of that debate here: http://ntgateway.com/xtalk/conversation.html
An email debate between Crossan, Borg, and Johnson that had seven sets of exchanges. You can read that debate here: http://ntgateway.com/xtalk/debate.html
Jesus for the Non-Religious by John Shelby Spong
When: Sunday, September 23, 2007 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Info: Spong, the iconoclastic former Episcopal bishop of Newark, details in this impassioned work both his "deep commitment to Jesus of Nazareth" and his "deep alienation from the traditional symbols" that surround Jesus. For Spong, scholarship on the Bible and a modern scientific worldview demonstrate that traditional teachings like the Trinity and prayer for divine intervention must be debunked as the mythological trappings of a primitive worldview. These are so much "religion," which was devised by our evolutionary forebears to head off existential anxiety in the face of death. What's left? The power of the "Christ experience," in which Jesus transcends tribal notions of the deity and reaches out to all people. Spong says Jesus had such great "energy" and "integrity" about him that his followers inflated to the point of describing him as a deity masquerading in human form; however, we can still get at the historical origin of these myths by returning to Jesus' humanity, especially his Jewishness. Spong so often suggests the backwardness and insecurity of those who disagree with him that his rhetoric borders on the fundamentalist. His own historical and theological reconstructions would be more palatable if he seemed more aware that he too is engaged in mythmaking. From Publishers WeeklyMere Christianity by C. S. Lewis
When: Sunday, August 26, 2007 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Info: Mere Christianity is a book by C. S. Lewis, adapted from a 1943 series of BBC radio lecture broadcasts while Lewis was in Oxford during World War II, and it is considered a classic work in Christian apologetics. The transcripts of the broadcasts, expanded into book form, originally appeared in print as three separate pamphlets: The Case for Christianity, Christian Behavior, and Beyond Personality. The title, Mere Christianity, indicates the intention of Lewis, an Anglican, to describe the Christian common-ground. He aims at avoiding controversies to explain those things that have defined Christianity in nearly all places and times. Lewis restates the fundamental teachings of the Christian religion, for the sake of those basically educated as well as the intellectuals of his generation, for whom the jargon of formal Christian theology did not retain its intended meaning. From Wikipedia.The Faith of a Physicist: Reflections of a Bottom-Up Thinker by John Polkinghorne
When: Sunday, July 29, 2007 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Info: Is it possible to think like a scientist and yet have the faith of a Christian? Although many Westerners might say no, there are also many critically minded individuals who entertain what John Polkinghorne calls a "wistful wariness" toward religion--they feel unable to accept religion on rational grounds yet cannot dismiss it completely. Polkinghorne, both a particle physicist and Anglican priest, here explores just what rational grounds there could be for Christian beliefs, maintaining that the quest for motivated understanding is a concern shared by scientists and religious thinkers alike. Anyone who assumes that religion is based on unquestioning certainties, or that it need not take into account empirical knowledge, will be challenged by Polkinghorne's bottom-up examination of Christian beliefs about events ranging from creation to the resurrection.
The author organizes his inquiry around the Nicene Creed, an early statement that continues to summarize Christian beliefs. He applies to each of its tenets the question, "What is the evidence that makes you think this might be true?" The evidence Polkinghorne weighs includes the Hebrew and Christian scriptures--their historical contexts and the possible motivations for their having been written--scientific theories, and human self-consciousness as revealed in literary, philosophical, and psychological works. From Amazon.com.
Interview: In-depth video interview with John Polkinghorne from meaningoflife.tv
Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son: A Memoir by Kevin Jennings
When: Sunday, June 24, 2007 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Info: When he was just a junior high school boy first getting involved in community politics, Kevin Jennings' local paper, the Winston-Salem Journal, wrote that he could "cause more frothing and fulmination with one letter to the editor than can a rabies epidemic." Jennings would go on to use his talent for political agitation to lead one of the critical social justice movements of the last decade, ultimately establishing a widely influential education organization focused on creating safe schools for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender students. Now, in his memoir Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son, Jennings traces his activist roots to his childhood in the conservative South, where he grew up in trailer parks, the son of a fundamentalist evangelist father, who died when Jennings was eight, and an Appalachia-born mother, who managed to raise Jennings and his four older siblings on what she could earn with a sixth grade education. Noting that his family held the typical attitudes of poor white Southerners of their time, Jennings recalls festooning his room and the family car with the Confederate flag, and remembers that his first political heroes were segregationist governor George Wallace and the Klu Klux Klan. "We saw the battle over integration as a replay of the Civil War," he observes, "of Yankees once again invading our homeland, foisting their alien ideas upon us, using their superior force to compel us to do something profoundly wrong. I hated them for it." Jennings stopped buying into the racial divide after learning to adore his oldest brother's African- American wife, who had initially caused their family so much shame. He recalls starting to recognize society's inequities, observing how sexism affected his mother's ability to make a fair living, while also being both buoyed and dammed by his Southern Baptist upbringing, which extolled suffering for the truth, but excoriated people who are gay. From http://kevinjennings.com/blog/books/mamas-boy-preachers-son/.Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story by Timothy B. Tyson
When: Sunday, May 27, 2007 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Info: "In this outstanding personal history, Tyson, a professor of African-American studies who's white, unflinchingly examines the civil rights struggle in the South. The book focuses on the murder of a young black man, Henry Marrow, in 1970, a tragedy that dramatically widened the racial gap in the author's hometown of Oxford, N.C. Tyson portrays the killing and its aftermath from multiple perspectives, including that of his contemporary, 10-year-old self; his progressive Methodist pastor father, who strove to lead his parishioners to overcome their prejudices; members of the disempowered black community; one of the killers; and his older self, who comes to Oxford with a historian's eye. He also artfully interweaves the history of race relations in the South, carefully and convincingly rejecting less complex and self-serving versions ("violence and nonviolence were both more ethically complicated-and more tightly intertwined-than they appeared in most media accounts and history books"). A gifted writer, he celebrates a number of inspirational unsung heroes, ranging from his father to a respected elderly schoolteacher who spoke out at a crucial point to quash a white congregation's rebellion over an invitation to a black minister. Tyson's avoidance of stereotypes and simple answers brings a shameful recent era in our country's history to vivid life." From Amazon.com.The Last Week By Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan
When: Sunday, April 15, 2007 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Info: "Top Jesus scholars Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan join together to reveal a radical and little-known Jesus. As both authors reacted to and responded to questions about Mel Gibson's blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, they discovered that many Christians are unclear on the details of events during the week leading up to Jesus's crucifixion. Using the gospel of Mark as their guide, Borg and Crossan present a day-by-day account of Jesus's final week of life. They begin their story on Palm Sunday with two triumphal entries into Jerusalem. The first entry, that of Roman governor Pontius Pilate leading Roman soldiers into the city, symbolized military strength. The second heralded a new kind of moral hero who was praised by the people as he rode in on a humble donkey. The Jesus introduced by Borg and Crossan is this new moral hero, a more dangerous Jesus than the one enshrined in the church's traditional teachings. The Last Week depicts Jesus giving up his life to protest power without justice and to condemn the rich who lack concern for the poor. In this vein, at the end of the week Jesus marches up Calvary, offering himself as a model for others to do the same when they are confronted by similar issues. Informed, challenged, and inspired, we not only meet the historical Jesus, but meet a new Jesus who engages us and invites us to follow him." From johndcrossan.com.Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid By Jimmy Carter
When: Sunday, March 18, 2007 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Info: "The crowning achievement of Jimmy Carter's presidency was the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, and he has continued his public and private diplomacy ever since, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his decades of work for peace, human rights, and international development. He has been a tireless author since then as well, writing bestselling books on his childhood, his faith, and American history and politics, but in Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, he has returned to the Middle East and to the question of Israel's peace with its neighbors--in particular, how Israeli sovereignty and security can coexist permanently and peacefully with Palestinian nationhood." From Amazon.com.Letters to a Young Evangelical By Tony Campolo
When: Sunday, February 18, 2007 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Info: "Named by Christianity Today as one of the 25 most influential preachers of the last fifty years, bestselling author Tony Campolo has spent decades calling on readers and audiences around the world to live their faith through committed activism. A tireless crusader for human rights and to the eradication of world poverty, Campolo is a "Red Letter" Christian – he reminds us that when Jesus spoke, he spoke of social justice. But the Religious Right and social conservatives have hijacked His message in the name of Republican politics. They have corrupted the faith by ignoring the true message of Christ and focusing instead on narrow “wedge” issues to win political campaigns. In Letters to a Young Evangelical, Campolo calls on Evangelicals of all ages to reject the false pieties of the Religious Right. With his trademark candor and wit, he offers sage advice to seekers who are trying to live their faith in a modern world which is politically polarized and predominantly secular. He is unafraid to touch on the hot-button topics that divide believers in America and around the world: abortion, gay rights, war, capital punishment, feminism and the environment." From http://www.letterstoayoungevangelical.com/.The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition By Anne Frank
When: Sunday, November 19, 2006 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Info: "This startling new edition of Dutch Jewish teenager Anne Frank's classic diary written in an Amsterdam warehouse, where for two years she hid from the Nazis with her family and friends contains approximately 30% more material than the original 1947 edition. It completely revises our understanding of one of the most moving and eloquent documents of the Holocaust. The Anne we meet here is much more sarcastic, rebellious and vulnerable than the sensitive diarist beloved by millions. She rages at her mother, Edith, smolders with jealous resentment toward her sister, Margot, and unleashes acid comments at her roommates. Expanded entries provide a fuller picture of the tensions and quarrels among the eight people in hiding. Anne, who died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in March 1945, three months before her 16th birthday, candidly discusses her awakening sexuality in entries that were omitted from the 1947 edition by her father, Otto, the only one of the eight to survive the death camps. He died in 1980. This crisp, stunning translation provides an unvarnished picture of life in the "secret annex." In the end, Anne's teen angst pales beside her profound insights, her self-discovery and her unbroken faith in good triumphing over evil." From Publishers Weekly.The Hauerwas Reader By Stanley Hauerwas
When: Sunday, October 22, 2006 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Related: Hauerwas will be lecturing at New Garden Friends Meeting on October 8, 2006 from 5:00-7:00 p.m. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Author Info: "Stanley Hauerwas (July 24, 1940- ) is a United Methodist theologian and ethicist who is currently the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School in Durham, NC. In his career, he has attempted to emphasize the importance of virtue and character within the Church. He has been an outspoken Christian pacifist and has promoted nonviolence, having been mentored by Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder. Hauerwas has also been an opponent of nationalism, particularly American patriotism, arguing that it has no place in the Church. His writings occasionally veer into the area of paleo-orthodoxy, though Hauerwas himself might refute this claim. He has also been associated with the narrative theology movement." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_HauerwasThe Kite Runner By Khaled Hosseini
When: Sunday, September 24, 2006 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Author Info: From the author's web site, "Khaled Hosseini was born in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1965. He is the oldest of five children. and his mother was a teacher of Farsi and History at a large girls high school in Kabul. In 1976, Khaled's family was relocated to Paris, France, where his father was assigned a diplomatic post in the Afghan embassy. The assignment would return the Hosseini family in 1980, but by then Afghanistan had already witnessed a bloody communist coup and the Soviet invasion. Khaled's family, instead, asked for and was granted political asylum in the U.S. He moved to San Jose, CA, with his family in 1980. He attended Santa Clara University and graduated from UC San Diego School of Medicine. He has been in practice as an internist since 1996. He is married, has two children (a boy and a girl, Haris and Farah). The Kite Runner is his first novel." Source: http://www.khaledhosseini.com/.The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right
By Michael Lerner
When: Sunday, April 23, 2006 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Related: Rabbi Lerner will be speaking in Greensboro on April 28-29th. Times to be announced.
Author Info: "Rabbi Lerner, author of the forthcoming The Left Hand of God: Taking Our Country Back from the Relligious Right is not only rabbi of Beyt Tikkun but is also the editor of TIKKUN magazine: A Bimonthly Jewish Critique of Politics, Culture and Society. TIKKUN is one of the most respected intellectual/cultural magazines in the Jewish world, but also one of the most controversial because of its stand in favor of the rights of Palestinians, on the one hand, which locates him in the minds of many as the leader and most prominent spokesperson in the U.S. of Jewish supporters of the Israeli peace movement, and on the other hand, because of his stand critiquing the anti-religious and anti-spiritual biases of the secular Left, insisting that they need to address the spiritual hunger of Americans as equally important to their material needs (he calls this a hunger for "meaning" and says that for many Americans the desire to transcend the individualism and selfishness of the competitive marketplace and connect their lives to higher meaning is as important as any interest in money or things, and that one reason why people who might on purely economic grounds be supporting the liberal and progressive social change movements actually end up supporting the Right is that the Left doesn't have a "politics of meaning"). He is the co-author with Cornel West of a book entitled Jews and Blacks: Let the Healing Begin, and several other books." Source: http://www.tikkun.org/rabbi_lerner/bio.
Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
By Bart Ehrman
When: Sunday, May 21, 2006 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Related: Bart Ehrman will speak on Monday, April 3, 2006 at 7:00 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church of the Covenant.
Author Info: "Bart Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He came to UNC in 1988, after four years of teaching at Rutgers University.
Prof. Ehrman completed his M.Div. and Ph.D. degrees at Princeton Seminary, where his 1985 doctoral dissertation was awarded magna cum laude. Since then he has published extensively in the fields of New Testament and Early Christianity, having written or edited nineteen books, numerous articles, and dozens of book reviews. Among his most recent books are a college-level textbook on the New Testament, two anthologies of early Christian writings, a study of the historical Jesus as an apocalyptic prophet (Oxford Univesity Press), and a Greek-English Edition of the Apostolic Fathers for the Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press).
Prof. Ehrman has served as President of the Southeast Region of the Society of Biblical literature, chair of the New Testament textual criticism section of the Society, book review editor of the Journal of Biblical Literature, and editor of the monograph series The New Testament in the Greek Fathers (Scholars Press). He currently serves as co-editor of the series New Testament Tools and Studies (E. J. Brill) and on several other editorial boards for monographs in the field.
Winner of numerous university awards and grants, Prof. Ehrman is the recipient of the 1993 UNC Undergraduate Student Teaching Award, the 1994 Phillip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement, and the Bowman and Gordon Gray Award for excellence in teaching." Source: http://www.unc.edu/depts/rel_stud/faculty/Ehrman1.html.
Forgotten Truth: The Common Vision of the World's Religions
When: Sunday, March 19, 2006 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Related: Houston Smith will be in Greensboro on March 13-15 (Q&A: March 15, 3:30 p.m., Boren Lounge, Guilford College. Public talk: March 15, 6:30 p.m., First Presbyterian Church).
Author Info: "Huston Smith is Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Syracuse University. For fifteen years he was Professor of Philosophy at M.I.T. and for a decade before that he taught at Washington University in St. Louis. Most recently he has served as Visiting Professor of Religious Studies, University of California, Berkeley. Holder of twelve honorary degrees, Smith’s fourteen books include The World’s Religions which has sold over 2 ½ million copies, and Why Religion Matter which won the Wilbur Award for the best book on religion published in 2001. In 1996 Bill Moyers devoted a 5-part PBS Special, The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith, to his life and work. His film documentaries on Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhism, and Sufism have all won International. awards, and The Journal of Ethnomusicology lauded his discovery of Tibetan multiphonic chanting as an important landmark in the study of music." Source: http://www.hustonsmith.net.
Some Houston Smith Resources on the Internet:
- "The World of Religion According to Huston Smith" Mother Jones magazine interview
"Smith has devoted his life to the study of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism. He believes in them all." Interviewed By Marilyn Snell, November/December 1997 Issue. - "The Psychology of Religious Experience" A transcript from the THINKING ALLOWED Television Series
"Our topic this evening is the psychology of religious experience, and my guest tonight is one of America's great scholars of religious traditions, Dr. Huston Smith. Dr. Smith is a former professor of religion and psychology at MIT. He's the author of the great classic, Religions of Man, which has sold over two million copies, as well as six other books on psychology, religion, and philosophy, most recently one called Beyond the Post-Modern Mind." - "Houston Smith interview from Google Video" (streaming video)
- "Gnosticism and Christianity" (downloadable MP3s)
Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography
When: Sunday, February 19, 2006 - 12:30 p.m.
Where: CUCC parlor
Related: Crossan will be in Greensboro on February 17 (Presbyterian Church of the Covenant - 7:00 p.m.) and February 18 (First Lutheran Church – 10:00 a.m.) lecturing on “The Life and Death of the Historical Jesus and Their Meaning for Today.” Both lectures are open to the public and free.
Author Info: From the lecture advertisement “John Dominic Crossan is a world renowned Jesus scholar and the author of over twenty books on the historical Jesus, four of which have become national religious best sellers: The Historical Jesus (1991); Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (1994); Who Killed Jesus (1995); The Birth of Christianity (1998).”
Some Crossan Resources on the Internet:
- "Almost the Whole Truth - An Odyssey" by John Dominic Crossan
Autobiography from the Westar Institute - "In Search of Paul," Fresh Air Interview, November 24, 2004 (streaming audio)
From the description on the Fresh Air web site, "His new book is In Search of Paul: How Jesus' Apostle Opposed Rome's Empire with God's Kingdom. Crossan looks at the life of Paul, and describes how the most important Christian value is justice. Crossan is professor emeritus of De Paul University, and is considered by some to be the foremost scholar of historical Jesus. His The Historical Jesus is an alternative and fact-based look at the life of Christ." - "A Historical Look at Crucifixion," Fresh Air Interview, April 1, 2004 (steaming audio)
From the description on the Fresh Air web site, "John Dominic Crossan is professor emeritus of biblical studies at DePaul University in Chicago. A native of Ireland, and ordained as a priest in the United States, he left the priesthood in 1969. Crossan is a founding member of the Jesus Seminar, a group of scholars who meet to determine the authenticity of Jesus' sayings in the Gospels. Crossan wrote the books Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, The Historical Jesus and Who Killed Jesus? Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of The Death of Jesus." - "Jesus and Memory," Grace Cathedral, September 24, 2000 (streaming audio)
From the Grace Cathedral web site, "After a lifetime of historical Jesus scholarship, Crossan applied his historical research methods to his own life, only to discover that memory and history do not always coincide. John Dominic Crossan has written over a dozen books on the historical Jesus, three of which have become national religious bestsellers. Our conversation with Crossan promises to offer a deeper understanding of the methodologies, purposes and content of the search for the historical Jesus and his teachings." - "Justice as Love," Unity Church of Dallas, October 23, 2005 (MP3 download)
Notes on Crossan by Paul Davis
John Dominic Crossan is a noted NT scholar. He reads the bible with a careful and critical eye. As a scholar, he is a leader in the Jesus Seminar, the group of NT scholars who meet regularly to debate what in the Bible can be considered actually true as opposed to what the NT authors purport to be true. This is not unlike the present controversy with James Frey, whose Million Little Pieces seem to contain not quite a million facts. JDC is an expert in the biblical languages, and is learned in anthropology and sociology. He simply asks, what in the NT is true, based on what is known about the culture of the time of Jesus? For example, if Jesus was a carpenter, how did carpenters live at that time? How did other reform-minded religious leaders of his day act? He uses the four gospels, period literature (Christian, Jewish, and Roman), early church writings, and tries to come up with a cogent "biography" of Jesus. Not a theological portrait of the Son of God, for that is what the church has done. Who could Jesus have been, given everything we know about that milieu? JDC is politically and theologically liberal, and his writing is suffused with his presumptions, yet he is careful to name his prejudice and to be open to other’s leanings.
JDC can be intense. Most of us have, to a greater or lesser degree, the belief that if the Bible says it, I believe it. Most of us recognize the issues around Jonah being swallowed by a whale, and life goes on. Most of us take as true that Jesus was born in a stable, after his parents were visited by an angel. JDC takes this story apart, looks at what may be behind these details, and names the theological ideas in the details. He is not against theology per se, but feels that theology has to be stripped away to get as close as we can to the "facts" about Jesus. JDC is in a long line of NT scholars seeking to answer, what does the Bible say about Jesus? What do all the data from that period say about Jesus? How do we as careful readers and thoughtful believers put all this together?
Prologue: From Christ to Jesus. "From Christ to Jesus," the title of JDC prologue, is an intentional play on words. We have a strong confessional understanding of who the Christ was/is. But, who was Jesus? Who could Jesus have been, given when and where he lived and died? Crossan (JDC), seeks to strip away theological claims for Jesus, to get at, as Jesus himself asked Peter ("Rocky" in JDC’s translation), Who do you say that I am? JDC sets out his method that draws on written materials from the period, the best social-political analysis available to scholars, and the biblical witnesses. That last term is deliberate: the four gospels give us four different portraits of Jesus. We believers are used to glossing over the differences in details; JDC magnifies those differences, which become for him keys to understanding Jesus. JDC is blunt and sometimes radical, but he is well within the mainstream of biblical scholars, who for the past 100 years in the New Testament and 150 years in the Hebrew scriptures, seek to understand what these texts actually say. JDC will place the four gospel accounts side by side, along with the other sources of information from the time, to come up with a picture of Jesus he says is not influenced by faith claims. This is not, JDC says, a Jesus he likes (this is a common issue, describing Jesus who ends up seeming a lot like the describer) or dislikes.
Chapter 1: Origins of Jesus. Look at "historical" parallels. Octavius, adopted son of Julius Caesar, had strikingly similar language created around his birth to that of the language found in Luke and Matthew. Both were titled, Son of God. Why did history remember the peasant Jesus? Luke seeks to equate Jesus with Moses. Luke also seems to draw parallels with the birth of John (the narratives do have substantial parallels in language, with Jesus superseding John, and drawing on the birth of Samuel to Hannah. John=Samuel, Jesus=David. Matthew seeks to equate Jesus with David. (C.f. the Massacre of the Innocents=the killing of the Jewish children.There are small problems with his analysis. Stating Matthew drew on Josephus, Book of Remembrances, written some 20 years later than Matthew (page 11), is a stretch. Citing the average age of a Jewish male in that century as being 29 years is a misuse of statistics (if one could come up with that datum, average life-span is significantly reduced in populations with high infant mortality, and that if a person survived to age one, that person would likely live for another 40-50 years), just to show that Jesus was a “typical” Jewish male of the period, living a short life, is also a stretch.
His point: Jesus is a big deal, especially given that he certainly was a peasant, a poor person, in an occupied country.
Chapter 2: The Jordan is Not Just Water. A close analysis of the milieu in which John the Baptist and Jesus lived. John was a peasant, and was one of several leaders of rebellious followers who went to the dessert to, perhaps, recreate the entry into the Promised Land of Moses and Joshua. John seems exceptional in that he is remembered rather well and noted by Josephus, a Jewish and yet pro-Roman historian. Other movements were crushed, leaders and followers alike. Not John. Jesus was a follower of John. The Gospels take pains to note that Jesus is superior to John. John and Jesus seem to preach a different message. John is apocalyptic: God will come and put things aright, and folks should withdraw to the wilderness. Jesus is eschatological: he is against the present culture, but he insists that followers stay engaged with that culture. His use of the term, son of man (JDC uses "the child of humankind," a little awkward – the Hebrew term mensch would actually work, though not sure how that reads in Aramaic; Jesus was a "regular person"), indicates that he saw himself not in grand terms, as a great leader, but that he shared with his hearers/followers the same fate. I am amazed at the story that both parallels and predates John's death scene: off with his head in the middle of a banquet as a plot device?
Chapter 3: A Kingdom of Nuisances and Nobodies. JDC gives particular focus to Jesus' understanding of basileia, or rule. It is more like what we would call ethics, or how one should live one's life. Rule is more a process than a place. What is God's rule like and going to be like? He sets down a four-fold typology, using two axes that cross, or four quadrants: time and class distinction. Present and future, the elites class and ordinary people. Jesus is concerned with how ordinary people live in the world now, in a way that they/we live in accord with God's rule. JDC then looks at some of Jesus' teachings. Family does not matter, particularly the authority parents have over their children. Income does not matter. Specifically, he says that blessed are the destitute (as opposed to the working poor). Children are blessed, even in a culture where children were given meaning by their parents (fathers) and could be thought of as literally disposable. God's rule would be like the noxious mustard plant that gathered birds (which ate the crops), akin to kudzu housing locusts. All people would be equal, regardless of other forms of status. Everyone is equal. JDC uses quotes/stories "from Jesus" that have multiple attestations, or more than one or even two sources. He is quick to point out that these were sayings that Jesus' followers remembered, not necessarily what Jesus actually said. In this he follows something that reverses the principle of Occam's Razor: when two explanations are possible to solve a problem, the simplest explanation is preferred. NT scholars use the reverse: if there is some explanation that makes sense for Jesus saying something (follows the theology of the gospel writer, appeals to the crowd, etc.), then Jesus probably did not say it.
Chapter 4: In the Beginning is the Body. Jesus' healings. JDC does not believe Jesus performed miracles, in that Jesus did not/could not alter physical reality. Instead, Jesus altered social reality. Jesus healed illness, a social construct, not the disease, a physical reality. Jesus changed expectations. Look especially at pp 94-95, where JDC gives his understanding of what happened to Lazarus, the "event becomes process" argument. Such an event, to JDC, could not have happened. And, it was absolutely true. Jesus especially altered his society's expectations concerning family – that his own family did not gain advantage as a result of his ministry, as would have been expected. Jesus was itinerant, he was without a home precisely because it was so unexpected. Everything Jesus did, it seems, went against expectations. One obvious question here is, do you buy this argument, explaining away the miracles? It is a dense chapter, filled with fancy footwork, perhaps because JDC senses he is on thin ice.
Chapter 5: No Staff, No Sandals, and No Knapsack. Jesus as Cynic? This was fascinating and new to me, the parallels between Jesus and the Greek philosophy of Cynicism. Jesus as a beatnik, an elder Maynard G. Krebs? Our savior as Dobby Gillis? Yet, how does one resist, and what does one make of Jesus' teachings, the core of which are in the Sermon on the Mount?
Chapter 6: The Dogs Beneath the Cross. This is a careful analysis of the events around the death of Jesus. He begins with descriptions of how crucifixion was used by the Romans, a form of state-sponsored terrorism. The Romans did not invent it, but they used it widely. He then moves to the rather amazing story (heretofore unknown to me) of the death of James the brother of Jesus, who was apparently a powerful person in Jerusalem. If James was this noted, to have gotten mixed up with, and whose death eventually resulted in the removal by Rome of a mighty line of Chief Priests (including Annas of NT fame), then what does this say about Jesus. Particularly in regard to Ch4, where Jesus denies his family? Were Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and "cleansing of the Temple," symbolic actions loaded with meaning and scriptural references, acts that got him killed? Were these events "recalled" later by believers who were searching (Hebrew) scripture for meaning? This chapter is worth the price of admission, in my opinion. It is a detailed look at what could have happened to Jesus, what his followers say happened to Jesus, what the very early church say happened to Jesus. This one quote from p158 is a great summary: "With regard to the body of Jesus, by Easter Sunday morning, those who cared did not know where it was, and those who knew did not care. Why should even the soldiers themselves remember the death and disposal of a nobody? Still, Matthew 27.19 records that Pilate’s wife had troubled dreams the previous night. That never happened, of course, but it was true nonetheless. It was a most propitious time for the Roman Empire to start having nightmares." This is JDC at his best and most troubling.
Chapter 7: How Many Years Was Easter Sunday? P 161 has a nice quote. "Christian faith experiences the continuation of divine empowerment through Jesus, but that continuation began only after his death and burial. Christian faith itself was there beforehand among Jesus’ first followers in Lower Galilee, and it continued, developed, and widened across time and space after his execution. It is precisely that continued experience of the Kingdom of God as strengthened rather than weakened by Jesus' death that is Christian or Easter faith. And that was not the work of one afternoon. Or one year." In the chapter before, JDC says that Easter Saturday, the time between Jesus' death and his "resurrection" lasted far more than one day. It perhaps lasted for 10-15 years. Belief in Jesus evolved (even before he died, a radical thought in and of itself) and continues to evolve. That he died was certain. That he was resurrected is something between an article of faith and accepted fact. JDC argues that resurrection is one way to understand who Jesus was. Paul uses clear language in 1Cor that Jesus was resurrected. But he also uses equally clear language that Jesus appears, to other great worthies in the movement, and to Paul himself. Thus, Paul elevates himself to be a great worthy in the movement. Paul = Peter and the 12. The stories Paul related concern his authority over those in the movement. The stories related in the gospels and Acts also relate to matters of authority, not matters of belief or statements concerning Jesus' physical power. He sees evolution in the various accounts of Jesus' resurrection and appearances. Jesus appears to the two on the Emmaus road, he appeared before to Peter; the Eleven and their companions witness his ascension, then just those who Jesus had chosen witness the ascension. These slight variations represent a shaping of what the community thought. JDC examines Jesus miracle stories and his post-resurrection stories in the same light – they tell us about the early community and little about Jesus himself. JDC gives attention to the feeding stories, including the Last Supper, the fishing stories, Jesus walking on water, and finally the appearances (and to whom) of Jesus at the tomb. The stories differ because the various communities represented by these stories differ in their understanding about Jesus, and particularly about the nature of authority within their community. Are women included as leaders? In Matthew, Luke, and John, Mary is viewed in three slightly different ways, and finally does not understand what is going on. Is this accidental, or instructive? Or, consider the evolution of Thomas, who became a doubter in Luke. Or consider the unnamed woman Mark who anointed Jesus because she saw he was about to die. His disciples never seemed to understand this; she saw it clearly. Where did she go? JDC wonders if in fact she was "Mark".
Epilogue: From Jesus to Christ. JDC presents his biography of Jesus, a poor peasant, rural Jewish Cynic, who gathered a following because of his egalitarian teachings and life-style, and was killed by the political leaders of his day who were afraid of any person who had a group of followers. However, the story, much to the surprise of everyone, did not end there. His followers kept talking about him, kept remembering (and refining) his teachings and actions. These followers themselves were persecuted, but persisted on. The movement, like its contemporary "parent" religion, Judaism, "evolved" and consolidated from a collection of similar people with similar practices to a monolithic, unified Church. Jesus became the Christ, the head of the Church.
This epilogue is well-stated. His suspicions seem prescient of Daniel Brown’s Da Vinci Code. What we want to believe as sorted and settled seems slippery. But, back to Jesus’ question to Peter, Who do you say that I am?