Featured in our library this Month

By Sue Williams, Library Coordinator

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ADULT BOOKS

The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing & Why by Phyllis Tickle (270.8 Tic)
In this very interesting big picture look at Christian history, Tickle suggests that every 500 years the church cleans out its attic and has a giant rummage sale. She calls our period of history “a time of dizzying upheaval and hopeful promise.” This book makes sense of the chaotic cultural upheaval and religious consequences we face, writes Diana Butler Bass, American historian of Christianity and an advocate for progressive Christianity. Tickle is an Episcopal lay minister and founding editor of the Religion Department of Publishers Weekly.

There Is A God: How the world’s most notorious atheist changed his mind by Anthony Flew (212 Fle)
This popular book is praised by folks like Huston Smith who wrote The World’s Religions and professors of philosophical theology. If you’re like me, you may gloss over some of the more philosophical passages, and then read “The Creation of an Atheist” about Flew’s upbringing in the family of an English Methodist minister. After some 50 years as an atheist, Flew moved into chapter four, “My Discovery of the Divine.”  Another inviting chapter title is “Who Wrote the Laws of Nature?” The book ends with an interesting appendix in which the British theologian N.T. Wright outlines the grounds for claiming that Jesus is God Incarnate. These points are all based on Jewish tradition and understanding in Jesus’ day: the Word of God, the wisdom of God, the glory of God dwelling in the Temple, the law of God and the Spirit of God. These were the ways people spoke of God’s action in the world, Wright observes.

Transforming Church Boards into communities of spiritual leaders by Charles M. Olsen (254 Ols), pub. by the Alban Institute
This author is a pastor who served three Presbyterian churches and gradually turned his full attention to studying and revitalizing church boards and councils. His book offers church board work as a rewarding faith experience for lay leaders, and he gives many fascinating examples. Through meetings, he shows how spiritual growth can be nurtured, community can be built, and the personal stories people tell can create interpersonal connections. “Do not be conformed to this world” (Rom 12:2) leads Olsen to describe a number of cultures that a board might follow. One of his warnings is that a board with a corporate culture might place great emphasis on growth and success, measuring and quantifying everything it does. Such boards run the risk of overlooking the value of people, Olsen writes.
 

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

That’s When I’m Happy by Beth Shoshan (J 1st Bks Sho)

This boardbook has many happy pictures of a young bear along with Mommy and Daddy. The book begins with little bear’s happiness and ends with the family’s happiness.

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When God Gave Us Words by Sandy Sasso, illustrated by Darcy Zoells (J Sas)

Language can be used in negative ways, but here we see the overpowering beauty of words: sung as lullabies, mixed with dance and poetry, mixed with laughter and jokes, mixed with longing or thanksgiving or hopes to become prayers, mixed with imagination to become stories. This beautiful book with gorgeous artwork is a gift to us from Kathleen Oliver. I think you’ll enjoy seeing the unusual way this artist depicts angels!

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Sarah K. Lilythe and the Dream Fairy Lantern by R.J. Cole (J Col)

This book is a creative endeavor of our own Bob Cole who shared a copy with us. It’s the story of two children-- Sarah and Patrick-- visiting their grandparents. An unnamed artist has produced charming pictures to illustrate both real life and the land of dreams---dream fairies, wisdom keepers, pixies, trolls, wizards… “Dream fairies teach us to be playful and fun,” says Grandpa.

 

* Please see our book carts in the Social Hall and one in the Narthex for exciting books for all ages.
* Visit the Chapel Library for children’s and YA books any Sunday by going through the church school rooms. And visit the Library in Lincoln House during office hours all through the week and during coffee hour whenever the sign is hung near the back door of the Social Hall.

Happy reading!