Friday, May 17th, 2013
One of the best books out there on neighborhoods and caring for our neighbors…
Paperback: B-K Books, 2009.
Buy now: [ Amazon ]
Read an excerpt:
Friday, May 10th, 2013
Monday, May 6th, 2013
An excerpt from Ragan Sutterfield’s new book:Paperback: Cascade Books, 2013.
Buy now: [ Cascade Books - 20% Discount ] [ Kindle ]
Watch for our review in our next print issue… (Subscribe now!)
We’ll be giving away 3 copies of this book (and Ragan’s earlier book Farming as a Spirtual Discipline) for the next 3 days!Stay tuned…
Ragan Sutterfield – Cultivating Reality [Excerpt]
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
Friday, March 8th, 2013
Read an excerpt from Alister McGrath’s brand new biography of C.S. Lewis…
Hardback: Tyndale, 2013.
Buy now: [ Amazon ] [ Kindle ]
Wednesday, February 20th, 2013
Wednesday, February 13th, 2013
Our most anticipated new book release this week is:
Paperback: Baker Academic, 2013.
Buy now: [ Amazon ] [ Kindle ]
This is the second book in the Cultural Liturgies Series. The first book Desiring the Kingdom was one of our 2009 Englewood Honor Books. [ Read our Review...]
*** Other Books by James K.A. Smith
Excerpt available through Google Books…
(Sorry, it won’t let us embed the excerpt right now…)
Monday, February 11th, 2013
Pope Benedict XVI announced this morning that he was stepping down…
The last time a Pope stepped down out of the papal authority was in 1415.
Jon Sweeney has written an excellent book on the life and times of Pope Celestine VI, one of the (very few) popes who quit their office:
Paperback: Image, 2012
Buy now: [ Amazon ] [ Kindle ]
A timely Q/A with the author on the book via Amazon.com:
Most people believe that popes serve until death– like the modern popes. Why do you think this story of Pope Celestine V has been somewhat hidden in modern times?
Well, it has been hidden and then not-so-hidden. I mean, there have been novels and plays about a pope who quits. Morris West’s The Clowns of God in 1981 spent twenty-two weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list in hardcover. Clearly, these stories are inspired by Celestine V – since he’s the only one who ever did. But, yes, people today don’t tend to realize what it meant to be pope in the Middle Ages.
What did it mean to be pope, then?
It was quite a different job back then. In fact, it wasn’t a job. It was a divine calling. To quit as pope in 1294, as Celestine V did, was at least shocking, and then treasonous and blasphemous to many. The pope was not simply a spiritual leader. That is a modern idea.
Who was this man who became Pope Celestine V? Where did he come from?
Peter Morrone, a hermit who lived in the mountains. He was in his eighties. He was a simple, simple man, who never desired or dreamed that he might be asked to be pope.
How did you conduct the research for this book?
I first encountered the name of Peter Morrone years ago while writing a book about Francis and Clare of Assisi. I wanted to come back to him again someday. So I was delighted by the opportunity to do that.
I spent two years writing The Pope Who Quit. I traveled to Rome and Naples and many places in between to see the sites for myself. And I spent thousands of hours in the library at Dartmouth College.
Do you think we’ll ever know what truly happened to Pope Celestine V?
No. We know so little for sure about the people of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. For instance, scholars are still debating whether or not Geoffrey Chaucer — author of The Canterbury Tales — ever existed.
Pope Benedict XVI has confirmed that he would not hesitate to relinquish his post if he no longer felt “physically, psychologically and spiritually” up to the job. How do you think that would impact the Church?
Yes, isn’t that amazing!? He said that in a book of interviews published in late 2010. I think that that book embarrassed a lot of the members of the papal curia. They did not like their Pope talking like a Celestine V!
If he were to ever step down, I think it would seriously rock the Church, just as Celestine V’s abdication did long ago. But, that said, it could happen.
Some thought that Pope John Paul II should have stepped down, too, when he was ill. Do you agree?
I don’t know, perhaps so. He certainly was no longer the administrative leader of the Church toward the end of his life. We know that for certain. Neither was Celestine V – and that is primarily why he stepped down.
The difference between the two is that in the television age a pope can lead by spiritual example, on television, inspiring the faithful. In the late thirteenth century, a pope could not lead in that way. A pope had to be strong – or else.
Monday, February 4th, 2013
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013
Excerpt from the new book
Paperback: Princeton Architectural Press, 2012.
Buy now: [ Amazon ] [ Kindle ]
If, as Eric Jacobsen has argued in his recent book The Space Between, churches need to be reflecting on and engaging the built environment in their neighborhoods, then we are going to have to acquire the needed language for doing so. This volume is a helpful guide that propels us forward in the journey of talking about and engaging the built environment in the places we inhabit.
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