Adult Education

Read this Book

Owl Room | Various Facilitators

June 1                                                                                                     

Ancient Christianities: The First Five Hundred Years by Paula Fredriksen (Jim Copland)

In this new book published by Princeton University Press, scholar Paula Fredriksen, distinguished visiting professor in the Department of Comparative Religion at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, traces the evolution of early Christianity—or rather, of early Christianities—through five centuries of Empire, mapping its pathways from the hills of Judea to the halls of Rome and Constantinople.

June 8                                                                                                     

Discernment: A Path to Spiritual Awakening by Rose Mary Dougherty (Rev. Carole duBois)

I was introduced to this book while participating in a course in Spiritual Direction. Rather than provide strict instructions for how to hear God’s leading, the author explores the unique ways God is at work in each human heart and life. This quote is a nice summary: “I wanted to facilitate [people’s] claiming of the ways they had come in touch with wisdom in their own lives. I wanted to assist their exploration of the gift of their experience as a vehicle for facilitating that knowing in others.” Dougherty leans on the Christian tradition, but not exclusively. She also includes wisdom from non-Christian worldviews.

June 15

Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson (Wendy Moeller)

The family saga recorded in the book of Genesis is well known, not only to Christians, but to peoples of all faiths and of none. In this book by Marilynne Robinson (author of the popular Gilead novel series which was presented several years ago in Summer Read This Book), Robinson powerfully shares her “consideration of the profound meanings and promise of God’s enduring covenant with humanity” as she guides us through her glimpses into the family drama of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Sarah and Hagar, and their descendants.

June 22 

Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (Winston Dixon)

Few books in recent decades have had the continuing impact of Dr. Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning—the classic best seller now considered to be one of the most important contributions to psychiatry since the writing of Freud.

In it, Dr. Frankl gives a moving account of his life amid the horrors of the Nazi death camps, chronicling the harrowing experience that led to his discovery of his theory of logotherapy. A profound revelation born out of Dr. Frankl's years as a prisoner in Auschwitz and other concentration camps, logotherapy is a modern and positive approach to the mentally or spiritually disturbed personality. Stressing human's freedom to transcend suffering and find a meaning to his life regardless of his circumstances, it is a theory which, since its conception, has exercised a tremendous influence upon the entire field of psychiatry and psychology. Here, Dr. Frankl not only describes the genesis and development of logotherapy but also explains its basic concepts, and in this revised and enlarged edition, has included a new chapter, entitled "The Case for a Tragic Optimism," in which he updates theoretical conclusions of the book. The result is an invaluable work by one of the world's preeminent psychiatrists.

June 29

All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley (Stacey Griffith)

Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every year. But only a select few have unrestricted access to every nook and cranny. They’re the guards who roam unobtrusively in dark blue suits, keeping a watchful eye on the two million square foot treasure house.

Caught up in his glamorous fledgling career at The New Yorker, Patrick Bringley never thought that he’d be one of them. Then his older brother was diagnosed with fatal cancer, and he found himself needing to escape the mundane clamor of daily life. So, he quit The New Yorker and sought solace in the most beautiful place he knew.

To his surprise and your delight, this temporary refuge becomes Bringley’s home away from home for a decade. We follow him as he guards delicate treasures from Egypt to Rome, strolls the labyrinths beneath the galleries, wears out nine pairs of company shoes, and marvels at the beautiful works in his care.

Bringley enters the museum as a ghost, silent and almost invisible, but soon finds his voice and his tribe: the artworks and their creators and the lively subculture of museum guards—a gorgeous mosaic of artists, musicians, blue-collar stalwarts, immigrants, cutups, and dreamers. As his bonds with his colleagues and the art grows, he comes to understand how fortunate he is to be walled off in this little world, and how much it resembles the best aspects of the larger world to which he gradually, gratefully returns.

July 6

The 5,000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World by W. Cleon Skousen (Dick Betts)

For many years in the United States there has been a gradual drifting away from the Founding Fathers original success formula. This has resulted in some of their most unique contributions for a free and prosperous society becoming lost or misunderstood. Therefore, there has been a need to review the history and development of the making of America to recapture the brilliant precepts which made Americans the first free people in modern times. In this book, discover the 28 Principles of Freedom our Founding Fathers said must be understood and perpetuated by every people who desire peace, prosperity, and freedom. Learn how adherence to these beliefs during the past 200 years has brought about more progress than was made in the previous 5,000 years.

July 13

Our Trespasses: White Churches and the Taking of American Neighborhoods by Greg Jarrell (Rev. Laura Wood)

Our Trespasses uncovers how race, geography, policy, and religion have created haunted landscapes in Charlotte, North Carolina, and throughout the United States. How do we value our lands, livelihoods, and communities? How does our theology inform our capacity—or lack thereof—for memory? What responsibilities do we bear toward those who have been harmed, not just by individuals but by our structures and collective ways of being in the world?

Abram and Annie North, both born enslaved, purchased a home in the historically Black neighborhood of Brooklyn in Charlotte in the years following the Civil War. Today, the site of that home stands tucked beneath a corner of the First Baptist Church property on a site purchased under the favorable terms of Urban Renewal campaigns in the mid-1960s. How did FBC wind up in what used to be Brooklyn—a neighborhood that no longer exists? What happened to the Norths? How might we heal these hauntings?

This is an American story with implications far beyond Brooklyn, Charlotte, or even the South. By carefully tracing the intertwined fortunes of First Baptist Church and the formerly enslaved North family, Jarrell opens our eyes to uncomfortable truths with which we all must reckon.

July 20

If You Want to Walk on Water, You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat by John Ortberg (Gayle Hardy)

Deep within you lies the same faith and longing that sent Peter walking across the wind-swept Sea of Galilee toward Jesus. In what ways is the Lord telling you, as he did Peter, "Come."

John Ortberg invites you to consider the incredible potential that awaits you outside your comfort zone. Out on the risky waters of faith, Jesus is waiting to meet you in ways that will change you forever, deepening your character and your trust in God. The experience is terrifying. It's thrilling beyond belief. It's everything you'd expect of someone worthy to be called Lord. The choice is yours to know him as only a water-walker can, aligning yourself with God's purpose for your life in the process. There's just one requirement: If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat.

July 27

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt (Marianna Dunn)

What happened to young people in the early 2010s?

The Anxious Generation offers an explanation by telling two stories. The first is about the decline of the play-based childhood, which began in the 1980s and accelerated in the ‘90s. All mammals need free play, and lots of it, to wire up their brains during childhood to prepare them for adulthood. But many parents in Anglo countries began to reduce children’s access to unsupervised outdoor free play out of media-fueled fears for their safety, even though the “real world” was becoming increasingly safe in the 1990s. The loss of free play and the rise of continual adult supervision deprived children of what they needed most to overcome the normal fears and anxieties of childhood: the chance to explore, test and expand their limits, build close friendships through shared adventure, and learn how to judge risks for themselves.

The second story is about the rise of the phone-based childhood, which began in the late 2000s and accelerated in the early 2010s. This was precisely the period during which adolescents traded in their flip phones for smartphones, which were loaded with social media platforms supported by the new high-speed internet and unlimited data plans.

The confluence of these two stories in the years between 2010 and 2015 is what I call the “Great Rewiring of Childhood.” Few of us understood what was happening in children’s virtual worlds and we lacked the knowledge to protect them from tech companies that had designed their products to be addictive. 

For this reason, we ended up overprotecting children in the real world while under-protecting them in the virtual world.

or

Raising Passionate Jesus Followers: The Power of Intentional Parenting by Phil Comer (Marianna Dunn)

Are You Parenting Intentionally? For Christian parents, there is no greater joy than seeing their children learn to walk with the Lord. And there is no greater fear than that their children will walk away from God.

In Raising Passionate Jesus Followers, Phil and Diane Comer bring hope and practical help to parents, using Scripturally gleaned, time-tested guidelines as well as stories from their own lives. This book is a manual for parents to turn to as they embark on their God-given quest of raising the next generation of passionate Jesus followers.

August 3

The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels by Janet Soskice (LeeAnn Smith)

Agnes and Margaret Smith were not your typical Victorian scholars or adventurers. Female, middle-aged, and without university degrees or formal language training, the twin sisters nevertheless made one of the most important scriptural discoveries of their time: the earliest known copy of the Gospels in ancient Syriac, the language that Jesus spoke. In an era when most Westerners—male or female—feared to tread in the Middle East, they slept in tents and endured temperamental camels, unscrupulous dragomen, and suspicious monks to become unsung heroines in the continuing effort to discover the Bible as originally written.’

August 10

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (Patrick Ryan)

Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

August 17

Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart by Brian McLauren (John McQuade)

For the last quarter-century, author and activist Brian D. McLaren has been writing at the intersection of religious faith and contemporary culture. In Life After Doom, he engages with the catastrophic failure of both our religious and political leaders to address the dominant realities of our time: ecological overshoot, economic injustice, and the increasing likelihood of civilizational collapse. McLaren defines doom as the “un-peaceful, uneasy, unwanted feeling” that “we humans have made a mess of our civilization and our planet, and not enough of us seem to care enough to change deeply enough or quickly enough to save ourselves.”

Blending insights from philosophers, poets, scientists, and theologians, Life After Doom explores the complexity of hope, the necessity of grief, and the need for new ways of thinking, becoming, and belonging in turbulent times.

August 24

Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus: The Spiritual Biography of Rock and Roll by Greg Laurie (Elaine Berberich)

From Pastor Greg Laurie, author of Johnny Cash: The Redemption of an American Icon and Steve McQueen: The Salvation of an American Icon, comes, which traces the journeys, rise, fall, and sometimes the redemption of famous entertainers who were brought to their knees–a great place to lookup and finally meet their Maker. Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus examines wretched excess, self-absorption and miraculous redemption; the book is a raw, sensitive, and unforgettable journey of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and sweet salvation.

Author Greg Laurie traces the lives of rock stars and entertainment figures and legends who wallowed in the decadence of both the high life and low life, as they alternately experienced Heaven and Hell on Earth. He travels with them into their demonic abysses and joyfully chronicles their ultimate ascension to their prodigal moments. Lennon, Dylan, Alice, and Jesus chronicles the birth of rock and roll in the mid-1950s to today, giving the book an all-encompassing study of pop music history.

Through his personal memories, coupled with his carefully crafted observational research, Greg Laurie not only looks deeply into the hearts and souls of these unusual people but bids the reader to join him on a spiritual journey down the secluded halls of the music industry with the individuals who crafted modern-day masterpieces. More importantly, every reader will find a deeper sense of God’s presence, even in times of loneliness and desolation.