Writings, Reviews, Cultural Criticism
In the forward to What Is America? A Short History of the New World Order, Ronald Wright points out that his book arises from the final chapter of an earlier work, A Short History of Progress. There, he planted the seeds of a simple thesis with far reaching consequences. It is his latter book which expands upon these consequences.
Clear Heart Open Mind is a reflection on the Tibetan meditative practice of Chenresig. Those who follow my blog or are aware of my sometimes hyper-rational predilections may wonder why I’m reviewing a book about mystical practices. I beg your indulgence.
The election of Barack Obama has been accompanied by a mood of optimism: America (and the whole world for that matter) might at last enjoy some respite from the reactionary politics of George W. Bush and his caterwauling coterie on the extreme right.
While conservative Christians are hostile towards atheists, Harris laces his book with such invective against Islam and reaches such extreme conclusions that there must be at least a few Fundie preachers who take secret delight in his writing.
In light of the recent publication of John Shelby Spong’s Jesus for the Non-Religious, I thought it might be fruitful to revisit some of the debates which Spong’s work has provoked.
Published by the University of Toronto Press, this collection of essays and interviews considers pedagogy in the context of higher learning. The University of Toronto”s official motto is “velut arbor aevo,” a snippet from a poem by Horace which suggests the image of a tree filling out and taking root.
This is a collection of pieces by Islamic women living in the United States. Their stories reflect a diversity of experience—from growing up within the tradition-laden strictures of immigrant families, to afro-american women who are children and grandchildren of Nation of Islam founders.
In his book about the emergence of Islam as a global presence, Ali A. Mazrui opens with a question that is apt to raise eyebrows. He begins with the Toynbean theory of challenge and response—in the case of the Roman empire, it failed to find creative responses to the challenge of emergent Christianity.
This is a book which should have begun with its epilogue. It is at the end that Marcus Borg makes clear what is at stake for a twenty-first century treatment of the historical Jesus and why it matters.
Although the title of Edward Shorter’s book suggests a discussion of erotic desire, in fact, Shorter offers a book about erotic desire of a particular sort – the desire to eroticize every last inch of our bodies. His project is to trace what he believes is the inexorable trajectory of human sexuality to embrace “total body sex,” to engage all our senses in a fuller exploration of opportunities for pleasure.
I first read Aldous Huxley’s The Devils of Loudun while riding a bus to Ithaca, N.Y. during a high school music trip when I was 15. Returning to the book more than 25 years later, I have made several discoveries.
Professor Harold Wells, who teaches Systematic Theology in Toronto at Emmanuel College, has written a big book with a simple message: The Christic Center: Life-Giving and Liberating (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2004). In fact, the message appears clearly in the title.
On Sunday, we went to West Hill United Church which holds itself out as a “progressive community of faith.”