On Saturday October 25, Englewood Christian Church will host a conversation on The Church and Race.
Our guest speaker will be Dr. James Lewis. James is Professor of Theology and Ethics at Anderson University School of Theology. In 1994, he received his PhD in theology and ethics from Duke University, where he studied under Stanley Hauerwas.
When: Saturday October 25 – 9AM-Noon
Where: Englewood Christian Church, Indianapolis
57. N. Rural St
Cost: Free!
We hope that you can join us for this important conversation!
Questions?
Contact the church office: 317.639.1541
or englewoodcc [ at ] indy [dot] rr [dot] com
A Review of
New Book of Festivals and Commemorations, by Philip Pfatteicher.
By Chris Smith.
New Book of Festivals and Commemorations. Philip Pfatteicher. Hardcover. Fortress. 2008. Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $30 ] [ Amazon ]
The task of compiling an ecumenical calendar of saints is no small one. I myself have been working on such a project for over a year. Thus, I was eager to take a look at the work the Philip Pfatteicher has presented in his New Book of Festivals and Commemorations. Pfatteicher states in the preface that his aim in this book is “in a modest way, to provide a draft of . . . a common calendar, reflecting the present Lutheran and Episcopal calendars, but also moving beyond them, proposing … a creative adaptation as an encouragement to the churches to consider the value of a broad and ecumenical calendar of holy days and holy people “ (xii). Toward this end, Pfatteicher takes a multi-tiered approach to developing such a calendar. The foundational tier of the calendar are the primary holidays of the Christian year, which are known as “Solemnities” to the Roman Catholics, “Principal Festivals” to the Anglicans/Episcopalians and “Greater Festivals” to the Lutherans. This group of holidays include Christmas/Nativity, Epiphany, Easter and Pentecost. The second tier is the minor holidays of the Romans calendar that are known as “Feasts”. These days include celebrations of the Apostles and All Saints Day. One the third tier, we find the lesser remembrances that the Roman Catholics call “Memorials.” The fourth tier is comprised of the “optional memorials” from the Roman calendar. On the fifth and final tier are the celebrations of “post-reformation” saints, which given Pfatteicher’s approach, as described above, are largely drawn from the Lutheran and Episcopal traditions. Unfortunately, even after fleshing out all five of these tiers, there are some days Pfatteicher’s calendar on which no saint is celebrated. It would seem that there is no shortage of saints that could be celebrated, and indeed even the two older ecumenical calendars or saints (that of Wilhelm Löhe and that of the GermanEvangelicalLutheranChurch) that are provided as references in the appendices cover every day of the year.It seems a more natural rhythm to celebrate a particular saint (or holiday or group of saints) every day.
A Review of
Sacramental Life:
Spiritual Formation Through THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. by David DeSilva.
By Mark Eckel.
Sacramental Life:
Spiritual Formation Through
THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. David DeSilva. Paperback. IVP. 2008. Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $15 ] [ Amazon ]
From time to time during my professorial days at Moody Bible Institute, I would attend an Episcopalian church close by my house. I did this because I felt like such a sinner taking communion there. In that denomination, partaking of the bread and wine is a very kinesthetic experience (e.g. physical movement is required). One had to stand and walk down the middle aisle in front of everyone. Kneeling at the altar, the sacraments were given to you by another without your help. Returning to my seat, the thought repetitiously came to my mind, “I am a sinner saved by grace. I am a sinner saved by grace. I am a sinner…” Often I would stop after the first four words. Physical activity dictated that I be physically, visibly reminded of my status before God. Most Evangelicals have an autonomous, individualistic approach to communion: we take the elements ourselves as they are passed. I need the bodily movement to remind me that I do nothing of myself without His aid.
And so DeSilva says, “We might like to think of ourselves as our own masters, which is prized among our cultural ideals . . . we seek to preserve the illusion of running our own show” (53). What is so profound about Sacramental Life is just that kind of direct application.DeSilva hits me where I live with words from The Book of Common Prayer impacting every movement of life.
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 PROMISE: ETHICS IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD. Vernard Eller. Hardcover. Doubleday. 1970. First Edition.
Very Good condition. Clean pages, Moderate wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $8]
Creative Disobedience: Dorothee Soelle. Paperback. Pilgrim Press. 1995. Very Good Condition. Clean pages, minimal to moderate wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $7]
Time on the Cross:
The Economics of American Negro Slavery.
RW Fogel and Stanley Engerman .
Paperback. Little, Brown. 1974 Printing.
Good/Fair condition. Moderate highlighting. Moderate wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $4]
Phyllis Tickle’s newest book, The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why, arrived yesterday. At 172 pages, this small but elegant volume (aren’t all Tickle’s books elegant?) both informs and disappoints. Tickle takes on the daunting task of reviewing the major turning points or ‘Great’ events in the life of the Christian church. Her contention is that every 500 years or so the church goes through a ‘great’ transformation.
Counting back from the present, the Great Reformation took place about 500 years ago — 1517 to be exact. Prior to that, The Great Schism occurred when the Eastern and Western churches split over icons and statues. Five hundred years earlier, Gregory the Great blessed and encouraged the monastic orders which would preserve the Christian faith through the Dark Ages. Of course, 500 years before that, we’re back in the first century and the time of the apostles. Today, Tickle contends, the church in in the throes of The Great Emergence.
But, the Great Emergence is not just religious. It is also cultural, technological, and sociological. Of course, context shaped each of the other ‘great’ church transformations as well, and this time is no different. …
Matthew Sleeth: The Green Bible focuses the reader on the vast amount of scripture that deals with God creating, sustaining, and commanding us to maintain the world. The format of verses highlighted in green allows the reader to easily find relevant scripture. What is God’s first commandment to mankind? It is now printed in green. We are to placed on earth to protect and care for the garden. This charge, found in Genesis 2:15, has no time limit. It hasn’t run out. We live in an era when environmental questions abound. What should we do about water or fuel shortages? How should we help refugees displaced by flood or drought? The answers can be found in the Bible.
Not only is The Green Bible a tool for finding God’s operating instructions for earth, it is an example of how everything we do can model stewardship and sustainability. Care has been taken in the manner of printing and binding The Green Bible, which reflects the understanding that there is no “away.” Everything we use will eventually return to our closed system of food, water, and air–even our Bibles.
Question: Most of us think of science as a virtuous or noble profession and view scientists as people motivated purely by the pursuit of knowledge—in and of itself. From where does this idea originate and how did it come to dominate our ideas of the sciences?
Steven Shapin: If, indeed, we do think this—and the extent to which we do is becoming an interesting question—the origin of the sentiment is classical. The Greeks believed that human beings innately desired knowledge and that the pursuit of knowledge was virtuous in itself. In Christian conceptions of Nature as God’s Book—on a par with Scripture—the study of Nature had the power of moral uplift, ennobling those who pursued natural knowledge. Moreover, we have to appreciate that it was only in fairly recent times that scientific research became a job, ultimately paid for by the State or by industry. For the great majority of scientists before the twentieth century, scientific inquiry was more a calling than an occupation: the normal historical state of affairs was for the scientific practitioner to be an amateur—however competent—doing it for love and not money.
Scientific Life:
A Moral History of A Late Modern Vocation. Steven Shapin.
Hardcover. U. of Chicago Press. 2008.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $23 ] [ Amazon ]
For some time now, I have wanted to dive into a book by the iconoclastic philosopher and cultural theorist, Slavoj Zizek. I have read a number of pieces online by or about him, but hadn’t gotten around to reading one of his books. So, when his newest book Violence was released by Picador this summer, I jumped at the chance to read and review it.
Before I examine the content of the book, allow me a few words about Zizek’s style which I had heard was fast-paced and eccentric. There was hardly a page of this book on which Zizek’s arguments weren’t punctuated by an illustration from history, philosophy, literature or film. At one point in the book’s epilogue, he flows from an examination of the Stalinist revolution in Russia to an example from an Agatha Christie story to an analogy from quantum physics. Zizek also has an uncanny ability to find unexpected points from which to view the subject at hand – which is undoubtedly why this book was sub-titled “Six Sideways Reflections.” A prime example of Zizek’s peculiar perspective is the anecdote with which he begins the book:
There is an old story about a worker suspected of stealing. Every evening as he leaves the factory, the wheelbarrow that he rolls in front of him is carefully inspected. The guards can find nothing. It is always empty. Finally, the penny drops: what the worker is stealing is the wheelbarrows themselves (1)”
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.
With Justice For All. John Perkins. Hardcover. Regal Books. 1982 Printing.
Very Good condition. Clean pages, Moderate wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $7]
New Eyes for Reading: Biblical and Theological Reflections
By Women From the Third World.
Pobee / Von Wartenberg-Potter, eds. Paperback. Meyer-Stone Books. 1986. Good Condition. Mostly clean pages, minimal wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $5]
Making Peace in the Global Village. Robert McAfee Brown.
Paperback. Westminister Press. 1981 Printing.
Very Good condition. Clean pages, Minimal wear.
Buy now from: [ Doulos Christou Books $5]
