Book Recommendation

I don't recommend a lot of books on the blog, even though I tend to read quite a number of different ones.  One of the better ones recently that I recommend is "Bad Religion" by Ross Douthat.  It is more or less a history of 'religion' in the United States since about World War II, although it reaches back quite a bit.  It is current and ties a lot of things together in a thoughtful way.

Personally, to me, it reads a lot like my life....yup, did that, and that, went to those, attended those, yup - watched that, as I would kind of shake my head at some of my foolishness.

The subtitle is 'a nation of heretics' or something like that so if you are easily offended or so entrenched in what you think, maybe you won't like it - because not too many come off unscathed.  But if you wonder about Penn State, you wonder about the increasing division in the country, you wonder about the decline of America, or maybe you are one of those who sees the parallels between America and pre-exhilic Israel - this book will give you some things to think about.

Fundamentally it is a call back to orthodoxy - or at least that is what I got out of it and that has been kind of in our hearts through this 'dark night of the soul' we have been going through.

Maybe I could start a line of jokes:  "If you think that you have all the answers - then you might be a heretic" - Sounds like the old 'you might be a red neck' jokes.

Anyways, it's a great read that emphasizes the mysteries of the faith:

"What defines orthodoxy from heresy....is a commitment to mystery and paradox...."  Maybe that will 'wet your whistle' along with the quote below that I was surprised to see in a church bulletin last Sunday.

It's available on your ibook / kindle, etc. for a very reasonable price.

Blessings.

Dave

"Thus orthodox Christians insist that Jesus was divine and human all at once, that the Absolute is somehow Three as well as One, that God is omnipotent and omniscient and yet nonetheless leaves us free to choose between good and evil.  They propose that the world is corrupted by original sin and yet somehow also essentially good, with the stamp of its Creator visible on every start and sinew.  They assert that the God of the Old Testament, jealous and punitive, is somehow identical to the New Testament's God of love and mercy.  They claim that this same God sets impossible moral standards and yet forgives every sin.  They insist that faith alone will save us, yet faith without works is dead.  And they propose a vision of holiness that finds room in God's kingdom for all the extremes of human life - fecund families and single-minded celibates, politicians and monastics, queens as well as beggars, soldiers and pacifists alike."  Ross Douthat, Bad Religion