I picked up a book on ministry last night and threw it across the room in frustration. It was an old one written by a clergy couple who were so nice and so predictable and so, so, so boring.
I am so tired of the buzzwords, the earnestness, the cliches, the tired tropes, the piety. Aughughggghhhhughh.
I’m looking for books that have edge and realness and humor and gravitas and deep theological reflection.
I am not interested in memoirs right now. I have ready way too many, and there has to be another way to talk about God than by talking about ourselves. I love a good clergy memoir but I’ve had my fill of reading about the finger that points to the moon. I want to read about the moon itself, by someone who is authentic.
Not hip.
Not cool.
Authentic.
For the record, Haven Kimmel writes the kind of thing I love.
For the record, Eugene Peterson never gets old for me.
For the record, Mark S. Heim is the level of theological depth I now need.
For the record, I hated The Alchemist. I threw it in the pool after finishing it.
For the record, I think Anne Lamott is an emotional vampire of her child and although I adored Operating Instructions and Traveling Mercies, I found her subsequent works to be not merely immature but downright cringe-inducing.
For the record, I wish Sara Miles would write more books.
For the record, I really enjoyed Pastrix and believe me, I’ve read every other memoir you probably would recommend.
For the record, it does discredit an author of a book on ministry for me to learn that they are liars and hypocrites.
For the record, I have greatly enjoyed the work of philosopher Alain de Botton and others this past year and probably should just avoid clergy-authored books for awhile.
But my summer reading time is coming up and I want to be excited, not trepidatious and thinking, “Oh God, I’ve read this same stuff a million times before” every time I start a new book on the practice of ministry or spirituality.
For the record, books on ministry that make no reference at all to pop culture are highly suspect to me.
What would are YOU living in? My world includes the Kardashians and boxing matches watched by more people on one night than have attended church all year in my own denomination.
For the record, I do have a good stack of books on social justice and history and culture.
That’s all for now. Thanks for listening.
Thank you, Vicki!
I continue to be inspired by Jon Snow:
http://www.amazon.com/John-Snow-The-Impossible-Vocation/dp/B00RWQRS5U
and by Richard Beck, especially by his book “Unclean” and his writings on Stringfellow:
http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com
Totally agree. I find Andy Root meets your requirements. Lately I mostly read the Wash Post and LA Times 🙂
Re: “…believe me, I’ve read every other memoir you probably would recommend.” Okay, that caught my breath short. There’s a memoir I read ages ago but cannot find again. It was a woman living by the sea or ocean for a year (I know, a lot of those), but she was on a sabbatical from graduate school in philosophy. Ring any bells? Bueller? Anyone, anyone? [Hmmm. Nothing’s coming up… and of course I was being hyperbolic as usual! I hope you remember it. – PB]
The most heart-expanding book I’ve read in the past year is Far from the Tree by Andrew Solomon. It’s a commitment, but it’s also a great book to read one chapter at a time. A book full of both scholarly wisdom and empathy.
Hmmmm…..You probably have tried her already, but I liked Lauren Winner’s “Still” and am enjoying “Wearing God”–what I’ve found interesting is that she seems to write very much from where she is at that moment, which can be very powerful (but also sometimes very cringe-y when you read her earlier stuff).
For a non-clergy specific memoir/bio that is very theologically powerful, I love “Mountains Beyond Mountains” (re: Dr. Paul Farmer by Tracy Kidder).
[I did like “Still” and “Mountain Beyond Mountains.” I haven’t read “Wearing God” but will take a look at that. – PB]
This looks like a great comment list to follow. I hope you find what you are looking for, and I’ll happily follow along. My top recommendation (if you haven’t already read it) is Michael Pollan’s A Place of My Own. He tackles setting up a writing retreat for himself by looking at the history of architecture and architectural movements, questioning the desire for solitude in today’s society, trying to make sense of feng shui principles in picking a site, and lots of glorious techie details about building a single-room structure. I also have a slew of compilations of short essays about food and cooking (How to Cook a Wolf by MK Fischer, anything by Laurie Colwin, Comfort Me with Apples: Considering the Pleasures of the Table by Joe Fiorito, etc.).
PS: I didn’t explain myself well. I found A Place of My Own to be tremendously helpful in thinking about myself as an individual in community, both physical and historical. I collect good writing about food because of the reflection on communion and caring in community as well. This may very well not be the sort of theological reflection you are hungering for, but I always think about incarnation and community when I think of your teachings. Being an embodied person in the ministry was never something I thought much about until reading your words on it. None of the texts above are structured as theological texts, but in going over my shelves, they reminded me of your ministry. [Oh, wow, I am truly honored. Do you know what? I LOVE and collect food writing, too! I had never really thought about why, or how that relates to ministry. I will definitely get Michael Pollan’s book and some others you mention. Thank you!- PB]
Great! I was worried I’d come off as being trivial and was a bit abashed after posting. 🙂 For the food list, I’d rewrite to put Fiorito first. From the Amazon snippet: “A rich buffet of diverse short essays, Comfort Me With Apples is about the appetites of the soul as well as the body.” [I’ve read all of Ruth Reichl’s books at least twice. – PB]
not a big religious reader but read marilynne robinson’s (love her fiction) essays in ‘death of adam’ a couple years ago — tough reading for me! pretty sure I didn’t take it all in, and definitely snarky (which may be on the plus side?). but here I am – two years later – still thinking ’bout things.
I saw on Twitter (hi, stalker here..!) that you were reading Meister Eckhart – I wonder if you’re familiar with Dorothee Soelle? She was writing from the 60s through to about 2000 and died in 2003, but her _The Silent Cry_ is a really powerful book about mysticism and social justice and how they go together. _Christ the Representative_ (1967) made me cry and buy it instantly in seminary.
It’s out of print, but if you’re into novels, William Horwood’s _Skallagrigg_ is something i keep going back to – about disability and a quest for meaning and freedom (VERY dated language about disability – but if you can get past that it’s astonishingly powerful).
Sorry if you wanted to rant without being given a host of book recommendations!
I think Sara might be thinking of Anne Morrow Lindbergh, A Gift From the Sea. It is truly lovely.
Along the lines of “I’m sure you already read it….”
Kate Braestrup has a beautiful trio of memoirs which I really adored.
I just read Stanley Hauerwas’s memoir “Hannah’s Child” which was really powerful in the aftermath of the end of my marriage as it was very candid about his devastating marriage to a woman with serious mental health issues.
I enjoy reading ministerial memoirs, but I also love reading pastors in fiction. I get a kick out of author’s attempts to figure out what makes us tick. 🙂
Not much to suggest but just wanted to add my endorsement of anything Sara Miles, and How to Cook a Wolf. Living where I live, I held my breath a little giving Take This Bread to a friend so it’s so nice to see Miles mentioned here.
I can’t resist a good book thread, and I resonate so deeply with what you are longing for in your current reading. I’m looking forward to more recommendations here.
The newest thing that’s stuck with me is Walter Brueggemann’s “Reality, Grief, Hope.” While I disagree with his comparison of 9/11 to the destruction of the temple (I think we haven’t actually experienced collapse yet), his case for the way prophetic ministry must pierce the ideology and denial by presenting the truth of real people and real lives is really compelling for me.
If you like Eugene Peterson, I recommend Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic.” It’s comforting to realize that he had the same pastoral frustrations we do, back in the 1920s. He was very involved in justice work, too.
Two suggestions:
(1) Anything by Jeffrey Kripal — perhaps as a starting point “The Serpent’s Gift: Gnostic Reflections on the Study of Religion”
(2) Abigail Tarttelin, “Golden Boy: A Novel”
Reflecting further, I think you would love everything Mark Yaconelli has written.
Late to the party here, and not by a minister, but Marilynne Robinson’s GILEAD is beautiful, as are its less ministry-focused companions HOME and LILA.
Older, but a continuing joy: Sara Maitland, A Big Enough God, a Feminist’s Search for A Joyful Theology. Happy Reading!