Here's what we are thinking in terms of our discussion of Christianity after Religion.
For the week of May 21 - May 27: The Beginning and Chapter 1
For the week of May 28 - June 3: Chapters 2 and 3
For the week of June 4 - 10: Chapters 4 and 5
For the week of June 11 - 17: Chapters 6 and 7
For the week of June 18 - 24: Chapters 8 and 9
Starter questions will be posted on Mondays.
I haven't gotten to chap. 2 & 3 yet, but I love this book so far. There is so much promise here and yet the author is realistic. I especially was interested in the part in Chapter 1 about author Anne Rice (of vampire books fame), who first converted back to her Catholicism and then now recently left the church, but kept her faith. Her reasons cited in the book were sort of where I've been with my Lutheran faith over a span of many years. (see page 20)
ReplyDeleteI see a great hunger in many people for more depth in their spiritual lives without the constraints of the Creeds and dogmas. I see people wandering around broken, lost and uncertain because of hateful things that have happened to them in church. They, including myself, long for a community that is open and loving and giving, one in which they can actually experience the Love of the Divine within themselves and see it in action in others. They want to be on fire with Spirit in order to do the work they are called to do. (purpose) They want to be a part of the healing of Mother Earth and engaged in a positive way with the great social and political issues of our world today.
Many of us are tired of feeling helpless and hopeless. I am waiting to read in this book some positive answers to the questions that face churches today. Can the church be real? Does it even want to be? Can pastors and lay people face up to the recent scholarship that reveals the chinks and cracks in the armor and rigidity of present-day "Christian" beliefs? It will be interesting indeed to see what Bass has to say.