Rowland Memorial Library
The Rowland Memorial Library is located in the church's lower level, but the place to find the newest books is the book cart in the Fellowship Hall. The checkout and return procedures for the book cart are simple. To check a book out, fill in your name and the date on the card in the back of the book and place the card in the black check-out box on the book cart. To return a book, just retrieve the card from the black check-out box, put it back in the book and put the book back on the cart for someone else to enjoy.
» Library books acquired since January 1, 2006
FEATURED NEW BOOK
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
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 will be discussed by the CUCC Book Group on February 17, 2008 at 12:30 PM in the church parlor. Join us! Click here for information on the CUCC Book Group.
PREVIOUS FEATURED BOOKS
Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy
By Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt,
and David L. Weaver-Zercher
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.
The CUCC Book Group is reading Amish Grace in January and will discuss the book at our meeting on January 20, 2008. Click here for information on the CUCC Book Group.
Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann
By Walter Brueggemann
Walter Brueggemann, whose thoughtful and reflective works on the Hebrew Bible have ensured that the term "Old Testament theologian" is not an oxymoron, offers distilled wisdom from his 35 years of teaching in Awed to Heaven, Rooted to Earth. At the seminaries where he has taught, professors traditionally open their classes with prayer - a practice that for some might devolve into a quick nod to convention, but Brueggemann has always presented the opportunity to involve students more intimately in the assigned biblical texts. This marvelous little book of Brueggemann's start-of-class prayers will have readers cheering, especially when he writes that "much public prayer in the church is careless and slovenly, and... what passes for spontaneity is in fact a lack of preparation." (From Publishers Weekly via Amazon.com)
NEW BOOKS FOR 2007
| Author | Title |
| Borg, Marcus and Crossan, John Dominic | The Last Week |
| Bourgeault, Cynthia | Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening |
| Bowden, John | Encyclopedia of Christianity |
| Brown, Raymond E. (editor) et al | New Jerome biblical Commentary |
| Brueggemann, Walter | An Introduction to the Old Testament |
| Brueggemann, Walter | Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth |
| Campolo, Tony | Letters to a Young Evangelical |
| Collins, Francis S. | Language of God, The |
| Griffiths, Bede | Essential Writings |
| Hauerwas, Stanley | The Hauerwas Reader |
| Hill, Jim and Cheadle, Rand | The Bible Tells Me So |
| Hook, Brian S. and Reno, R.R. | Heroism & the Christian Life |
| Idliby, Ranya et al | The Faith Club |
| Jennings, Kevin | Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son |
| Jennings, Kevin | Mama's Boy, Preacher's Son - Copy 2 |
| Keating, Thomas | Open Mind, Open Heart |
| Kimball, Charles | When Religion Becomes Evil |
| Lamott, Anne | Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith |
| Little, Paul E. | How to Give Away Your Faith |
| Lucado, Max | When God Whispers Your Name |
| Main, John | Moment of Christ |
| May, Herbert G. | Oxford Bible Atlas |
| Mays, James L. (general editor) | HarperCollins Bible Commentary |
| McLaren, Brian | A Generous Orthodoxy |
| Myss, Caroline | Entering the Castle |
| Pennington, M. Basil | Centered Living |
| Reese, Martha Grace | Unbinding the Gospel |
| Robinson, James M. | Nag Hammadi Library, The |
| Spong, John Shelby | Jesus for the Non-Religious |
| St. Teresa of Avila | The Interior Castle |
| St. Teresa of Avila | The Way of Perfection |
| St. Therese de Lisieux | Essential Writings |
| Wink, Walter | Transforming Bible Study |
| Wright, N.T. (Tom) | John for Everyone, Part One |
| Wright, N.T. (Tom) | John for Everyone, Part Two |
| Wright, N.T. (Tom) | Matthew for Everyone, Part One |
| Wright, N.T. (Tom) | Matthew for Everyone, Part Two |
| Wright, N.T. (Tom) | Contemporary Quest for Jesus |
| Wright, N.T. (Tom) | Simply Christian |
| Wright, N.T. (Tom) | The Last Word |