Fall is here, daylight savings arrives this weekend, and the “Fall Classic” (aka the World Series) is actually worth watching this year. It’s 3-2 Cleveland, but I’m hoping the Cubs win it all, even if some people believe it would be a sign of the apocalypse — Go Cubs, Go!
Can you imagine the scene in Chicago if the Cubs win? What will happen to long-suffering Cubs fans and their psyches if later this week they wake up and they’re no longer lovable losers?
Speaking of belief, faith, the impossible, etc., here are a few book recommendations for your reading pleasure (and/or stimulation):
- True Believer by Eric Hoffer — Finally got a hold of a copy of this classic work of social analysis from 1951. It’s topic: the existence of mass movements and the mind of “fanatics.”
- Voice of the Eagle: The Heart of Celtic Christianity translated by Christopher Bamford — I’m reading this translation of John Scotus Eriugena’s homily on the prologue of John’s Gospel (that’s John 1:1-18) as part of an assignment for my spiritual direction training program. Love it! I’ve always found it hard to identify with the fourth Gospel, but the work of this Celtic theologian is making it more accessible to me.
- The Beginning of Desire: Reflections on Genesis by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg — I’m a big fan of this Jewish scholar’s way of reading and interpreting Scripture. A gold mine of non-traditional (for me) insights into the first book of the Bible.
- Naked Spirituality: A Life with God in Ten Simple Words by Brian McLaren — This author has become, for some, a lightning rod for criticism of the ’emerging church,’ but I enjoy his work because he has a way of calling attention to ideas and practices that have for whatever reason become stale. Readable, approachable, digestible.
- The Fate of Gender: Nature, Nurture and the Human Future by Frank Browning — Just got this title via interlibrary loan. We live in a gendered world, but what that means in different cultures and societies around the globe is becoming more and more fluid. Food for thought.
