Syllabus 2006 – 2007

The Clowns of God, Morris L. West September 11, 2006

What would happen if the members of the Roman Curia discovered that the Pope was about to publicly state that he had received a private revelation that the world was about to end? Pope Gregory XVII claims to have received a private revelation of the end of the world – an apocalypse coming not in some distant future but at any moment. Is he a madman, as his cardinals suspect, a mystic, or a fanatic grasping for an unholy power? (Amazon)

Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, Barbara Brown Taylor November 6, 2006

A widely acclaimed preacher, Taylor draws on her homiletical skills in this finely crafted memoir with a simple plot: an Episcopal priest exhausts her inner resources, first in an urban church and then in a small country parish; she changes jobs, struggles and finds renewal. Such a synopsis, however, does not do justice to Taylor’s literary style in this rich evocation of her lifelong love affair with God. (Publishers Weekly)

A Thread of Grace, Mary Doria Russell December 18, 2006

Mary Doria Russell’s extraordinary and complex historical novel opens with a group of Jewish refugees being escorted to safe-keeping by Italian soldiers. They have barely laid their heads to rest when news is received that Mussolini has just surrendered Italy to Hitler, putting them in danger yet again. This opening sequence is a grim foreshadowing of the heart-breaking journey these characters will experience in their struggle for survival. (Amazon)

A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance - Portrait of an Age, William Manchester February 5, 2007

Manchester’s marvelously vivid popular history humanizes the tumultuous span from the Dark Ages to the Renaissance. (Publishers Weekly)

The Short Day Dying, Peter Hobbs March 5, 2007

Charles Wenworth, 27, apprentice blacksmith and Methodist lay minister, begins this journal so that he doesn’t waste the small details of his life. In 42 sections, some lengthy, a few only one page, Wenworth writes about the hardships and dangers in nineteenth-century village living. (Amazon)

Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense, N.T. Wright April 16, 2007

Why is justice fair? Why are so many people pursuing spirituality? Why do we crave relationship? And why is beauty so beautiful? N. T. Wright argues that each of these questions takes us into the mystery of who God is and what he wants from us.

American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation, Jon Meacham May 14, 2006

In his American Gospel, Jon Meacham provides a refreshingly clear, balanced, and wise historical portrait of religion and American politics at exactly the moment when such fairness and understanding are much needed. Anyone who doubts the relevance of history to our own time has only to read this exceptional book." (David McCullough, author of 1776)