The bread-n-butter of our bookstore business is the sale of used books, and we do a fair amount of scouting around for used books each week. In this section we feature some of the interesting books that we have found in the past week. Generally, we will only have a single copy of these books, so if you want one (or more) of them, you’ll need to respond quickly.

Equal at the Creation:
Sexism, Society and Christian Thought.
Martos and Hegy, eds. Hardback. No DJ. U of Toronto Press. 1998.
Excellent Condition. Clean pages, minimal wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $8]

Today’s Choices for Tomorrow’s Mission:
An Evangelical Perspective on Trends
and Issues in Missions.
David Hesselgrave.
Paperback. Zondervan Academic. 1988.
Very Good Condition. Clean pages. Minimal wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $6 ]

St. Augustine (Penguin Lives Series).
Gary Wills. Hardback. Penguin Books. 1999.
Very Good Condition. Clean pages, minimal wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $5 ]

The NY Times shares an excerpt from
Maggie Jackson’s Distracted:
The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age

http://shiftingcareers.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/attention-must-be-paid/

“Distracted? And how. Beeped and pinged, interrupted and inundated, overloaded and hurried – that’s how we live today. We prize knowledge work — work that relies on our intellectual abilities — and yet increasingly feel that we have no time to think. For all our connectivity, we often catch little more than snippets and glimpses of one another.

The greatest casualty of our mobile, high-tech age is attention. By fragmenting and diffusing our powers of attention, we are undermining our capacity to thrive in a complex, ever-shifting world. Consider the mounting costs of this widespread distraction: …”

Read the full piece:
http://shiftingcareers.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/attention-must-be-paid/

Maggie Jackson. Distracted:
The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age.
Hardcover. Promethus Books. 2008.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $20 ] [ Amazon ]

“Mark McKim approaches systematic theology with the same ecclesial and scholastic concerns that have driven nearly two decades of pastoral ministry.

His work is both careful and precise as it attempts to navigate a systematic approach to theology as contextualized in a secular post-Christendom West. While it takes more than a little while to really delve into the heart of his work—the first eighty-three pages are reserved for three thorough prologues—McKim builds his theology toward his vision of ecclesiology and ethics that are rooted in Jesus’ message about the Kingdom of God. It is to this end that he moves through doctrines of God, Creation, Sin, Christology, and Redemption. Upon this theological base, he envisions the Church as an expression of God’s Kingdom in the world. He sees the lives of believers as communally and ethically moving to express this work of Christ in the middle of the secular society within which Western Christianity finds itself. He concludes with a vision of the eschatological fulfillment of the Kingdom of God that is both coming and at hand. …”

Read the full review:
http://www.theotherjournal.com/article.php?id=342

Mark McKim.
Christian Theology for a Secular Society:
Singing the Lord’s Song in a Strange Land.
Paperback. Wipf and Stock. 2008.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $50 ] [ Amazon ]

“It’s trendy these days to be a locavore — to know where your food comes from, and, ideally, to make sure the source isn’t far from home. Writers like Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver have helped make locavorism the latest thing, but back in 2005, two young journalists hatched an experiment in extreme local eating: For one year, they ate only food produced within 100 miles of their apartment in Vancouver, British Columbia. Plenty, their joint memoir of this adventure, is a refreshing twist on locavore literature. The authors, Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, are saddled with numerous handicaps, among them minimal experience in gardening, a small budget and limited access to grocery stores stocked with indigenous fare. …”

Read the full review:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2008/05/29/AR2008052903515.html

Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon.
Plenty: Eating Locally on the 100-mile Diet.
Paperback. Three Rivers Press. 2008.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $11 ] [ Amazon ]

“Moving Us Toward Better Possibilities.”

A Review of

The Essential Agrarian Reader,

edited by Norman Wirzba.

By Chris Smith.

[ The Essential Agrarian Reader is one of the recommended preparatory books for our upcoming conference on the Church and agriculture. Registration for the conference is now open at: http://www.englewoodcc.com/plough/ ]

The New Agrarian Reader:
The Future of Culture, Community and Land.
Norman Wirzba, editor.
Hardcover. Univ. Press of KY. 2003.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $14 ]
Special sale price!!!
Over 50% off the list price of $30!

Over the last 30 years, momentum has been gathering around a set of specific ideas and practices related to land, food and community that has been called the “new agrarianism.” (I hesitate to refer to this trend as a movement, since Wendell Berry – perhaps the most well-known voice of the new agrarianism – has pointedly detailed his “distrust” of movements). This new agrarianism is summarized well in Norman Wirzba’s introduction to The Essential Agrarian Reader: “As we begin to understand that food is not simply fuel, but is in fact a natural, social, cultural and spiritual product, we will also make the effort to foster the practical conditions necessary to protect and preserve ecological and social health” (16). Of course, we, as communities of Christ’s disciples, are interested in the spiritual aspects of food, but to the extent that we trust that God is redeeming a fallen creation, we are also committed to bearing witness to that redemptive work by discerning a way of life together that promotes increasing degrees of “ecological and social health.”

The literature of the new agrarianism is compromised of two rhetorical streams: the first is the critique of the industrial, or to borrow a term from Ragan Sutterfield, the immanent economy that rapes the earth and tends toward the destruction of humanity and all creation; the second stream is the recommendation of a way of life that fosters the health of humanity and all creation. In the writings of those associated with new agrarianism, these two streams are often tightly inter-woven with one another; however, it will be useful for us to split them apart for the purpose of understanding the dual mission of the new agrarians. (more…)

The bread-n-butter of our bookstore business is the sale of used books, and we do a fair amount of scouting around for used books each week.  In this section we feature some of the interesting books that we have found in the past week.  Generally, we will only have a single copy of these books, so if you want one (or more) of them, you’ll need to respond quickly.

The Cloister Walk.

             Kathleen Norris.  Hardback.  Riverhead Books. 1996.

            Excellent  Condition.  Clean pages, minimal wear.

            Buy now from:  [ Doulos Christou Books $7]

Farm Journal’s Freezing and Canning Cookbook.

Hardcover.  No Dustjacket.  Doubleday.  1973 printing.  

Good Condition. Clean pages. One crack in binding.  Moderate wear.

            Buy now from:  [ Doulos Christou Books $4 ]

People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil.

Scott Peck.  Paperback.   1983.

Good Condition.  Clean pages, moderate wear.

            Buy now from:  [ Doulos Christou Books $3 ]

 “The Salty Wit and Wisdom of a Rural American Christian Pacifist”
A Review of Bill Kauffman’s Ain’t My America.

http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/articles.aspx?article=770&theme=home&loc=b

“ ‘War: What is it good for? . . . I’ll tell you what it’s good for. It’s good for taxes; it’s good for day care; it’s good for year-round schooling; it’s good for the metric system; it’s good for Daylight Saving Time; it’s good for the Interstate Highway System; it’s good for divorce; it’s good for school consolidation and the space program and the IRS. In short, it’s good for nothing that a genuine conservative might cherish.’ This line opens a mere chapter of Bill Kauffman latest book, thereby hinting at the vast wealth of topics awaiting readers considering reading all of Ain’t My America: The Long, Noble History of Anti-War Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism. In it, Kauffman delivers what his subtitle promises—a well-documented, historic account of American conservatives who have resisted empire building throughout the entirety of United States history—but, he provides so much more as well. Reading Ain’t My America will leave one informed, outraged, encouraged, and frequently sore from laughter. …”

Read the full review:
http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/articles.aspx?article=770&theme=home&loc=b

Bill Kauffman.
Ain’t My America.
Hardback. Metropolitan Books. 2008.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $20 ] [ Amazon.com ]

Mike Clawson reviews Debbie Blue’s recent book From Stone to Living Word.

http://emergingpensees.blogspot.com/2008/05/book-review-from-stone-to-living-word.html

“… This book is not so much a linear argument, but rather a series of examples of how to read the Bible as a living document that confounds our idolatrous systems of doctrines and easy answers. In fact, I get the impression that the chapters in this book could have been written as sermons for her church, in that each one of them not only stands alone, but the each also take a particular text of scripture and reflect on how it confounds our expectations about God and tears down the idols of our day to day lives.

If there is any overarching theme of the book it is idolatry, which as Debbie defines it, is pretty much anything that we use to tame life, control the uncertainty of existence, and bring stability to the chaos. …”

http://emergingpensees.blogspot.com/2008/05/book-review-from-stone-to-living-word.html

From Stone to Living Word: Letting the Bible Live Again.
Debbie Blue. Paperback. Brazos. 2008.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $14] [ Amazon.com ]

“Up from Nutrition”.
A review of Michael Pollan’s IN DEFENSE OF FOOD.

http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/19460939.html

“I had the good fortune, upon first moving to Washington D.C. after college, to room with a high-school buddy who had worked his way through George Washington University by waiting tables at a high-end restaurant and who was, by the time I arrived in town, managing the place. As a result, I spent not a few hours hanging around waiters and chefs, people who generally shared my enjoyment of good food and wine. Many of my free moments were passed at my roommate’s restaurant — usually at the bar, maybe reading a book, sipping a Rioja, and munching on duck confit.

It is probably safe to presume that 30 years ago most Americans hadn’t tasted Rioja and duck confit; it is far less safe to presume so today. The United States, long considered by Europeans a culinary wasteland, has in the past three decades become the world’s center for innovative, quality cuisine. And Americans, the evidence seems to suggest, are more concerned than ever before about what they eat.

The success of Michael Pollan’s In Defense of Food is a testament to this. It has sat for weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, proudly proclaiming that Americans are no longer content to nosh on just whatever is placed in front of them, but now actually care about the food that occupies their plates. … ”

Read the full review:
http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/19460939.html

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.
Michael Pollan. Hardcover. Penguin. 2008.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $17 ] [ Amazon.com ]

“Whole Foods and the Sum of Their Parts”

A Review of Michael Pollan’s

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.

By Brent Aldrich.

Michael Pollan.    In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto.
Hardcover. Penguin. 2008.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $17 ] [ Amazon.com ]

The repeated mantra for Michael Pollan’s new book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, is on the cover, the dust jacket, and opens the introduction: “Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants.” Given the complexity of factors surrounding our production, promotion and consumption of food in this country, and the dilemmas of ecology, agriculture, and health they have caused, these concise recommendations are the distilled wisdom of the book and suggestive of the clarity with which Pollan narrates a complicated history of eating. Beginning with the science by which food – that is, unprocessed food – has been replaced by nutrients, then moving through the industrialization of the agricultural process, Pollan eventually presents possibilities which might function as the practical policies for the manifesto, alternatives to ‘nutritionism’ and industrialism in our eating.

The first section of the book is “The Age of Nutritionism,” a chronicle of the ways in which our foods have steadily surrendered to nutrients: carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins. This is described as a reductionary science, with aims to reduce foods to their component parts, and isolate what is good for your health in them. The thinking follows that if the good bits of food can be extracted, they can be reassembled in any healthy variety to better suit our health needs ad infinitum. This is not what has happened since the beginning; see one Justus von Liebig “the father of modern nutritional science” who reduced all plant life to nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium – which are in fact the abundant nutrients in soil, but when isolated to those alone, it ignores a myriad of other chemicals and processes at work, and fails to engineer food that is healthy. This has been the history of nutritionism since. This section is a dizzying look at the claims and disproving of the same in popular isolated nutrient health claims: saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, trans fat, good and bad carbohydrates, omega-3 fatty acids, and the like. (more…)