Hello All,
We met at Jo Ann Abegglen's home on Thursday, March 31st and had a wonderful evening of sharing and even talked about some books we have been reading. Here is the complete list from those who were there. Only a few books from this list were shared.
MARLENE MATHESON
The Doors of Faith by Terryl Givens
The latest book by Givens started as a series of lectures sponsored by the Humanities college at BYU, an effort to encourage students to choose faith. Though only 115 pages long, it is very dense reading. Givens quotes multiple scholars on each page, from 3rd century theologians to contemporary novelists. This book continues Givens’ themes that the restoration is actually just that, closer to the early church teachings than any other faith. But it also is a plea for readers to recognize the beauties of the gospel, and to be willing to put in the spiritual work to come to know and love our Savior, to open the doors of faith.
It is divided into four chapters: “A Willing and Witting Discipleship,” “The Nature of God and Human Origins,” “Awful Woundedness,” and “Worlds without End.” Some favorite quotes, buy chapter:
Chapter 1 “A Willing and Witting Discipleship”
“The fragility of our predicament is necessary to foster flourishing. Only when incomplete souls encounter a world of unpredictable novelty are we forced to engage that world with creativity and risk.”
“Anything short of a fervent love for Jesus Christ, any belief structure that is not predicated on a profound and personal response to him—a living, trusting response—is sure to fail us in the end.”
“To open the doors of faith is to multiply possibilities, to give all options their due, to reclaim a child’s open-eyed delight in a world ever full of surprises we could not possibly anticipate. . . The absolute worst thing we could do, in the aftermath of discoveries that challenge our faith or shatter our comfortable world, is to retreat into an even more protected shelter. . . It is helpful to begin with a healthy dose of epistemological humility.”
“God has consistently affirmed your agency and created the conditions for its exercise. Cultivate that power.”
Chapter 2 “The Nature of God and Human Origins”
Joseph’s first vision “Their creeds were an abomination: “Note, first of all that this was no condemnation of other Christians; it was an assessment of certain codified statements of belief.”
Restoration teaches that God made us so we could grow. He loves us. “Yet God chooses to love us. And if love means responsibility, sacrifice, vulnerability, then God’s decision to love us is the most stupendously sublime moment in the history of time.”
Early theologians believed in a premortal existence. Talmudic sources say the angel Gabriel brings spirits to enter their bodies. The angel stays with them in the womb until time for birth, preparing the spirit for life. Just before birth, “the angel reaches out and presses its finger against the baby’s lip.” We still have this indentation above our mouth. “’Hush’ it whispers to the stirring child, ‘now you must forget.’”
“Joseph’s restoration of the truth about our identity and our participation in premortal councils tell us this important fact: We are not helpless victims of fate, cast ignominiously upon the shores of a hostile world. We participated in those decisions that led to this very earth’s creation. . . . We are collaborators, long-time pupils working under conditions and covenants in which we actively and knowingly—wittingly – participated.”
Chapter 3 “Awful Woundedness”
“We only know Christ—really know him—to the extent that we know what his love for us cost him . . . We know him by his wounds as he knows us by ours.” P. 60
“. . . why some Saints flourish in the midst of life’s challenges while others ‘dwindle in unbelief.’ These are the only two options before you. These were the only two options open to Adam and Eve. You find a place of comfort and security, and you stay here—safe but in stasis, happy but fragile. Or you make the choice to enter a fraught field of dissonance and uncertainty and you adapt creatively as you go along.”
“To open the doors of faith is to commit to a stance of radical epistemic humility.” P. 69
“We should welcome challenges to our faith as an opportunity to reshape our understanding of God, his nature and his activity in the universe.”
“Nor does a testimony forged without cost survive first contact with the forces of entropy and chaos that assault us outside the walls of Eden. That is the point.” P. 74
We need interdependence. “Heaven is no less and no more than sanctified individuals thriving in sanctified relationality.”
“Perhaps the first sin, the original sin, is only in our refusal to fully acknowledge, to own, to concede our inevitable error, and embrace the task of change. . . Sin was meant to be educative, not damning.” P. 81
“The gift of Christ, in his language, is reconciliation to God, a coming to complete harmony and unity in love and forgiveness.” P. 82
“We are all broken; we are all wounded. Our Heavenly Parents recognize our condition and have not left us comfortless. We have a restored knowledge of the most loving, empathic, and feeling God in religious history. . . Our work is to participate with Christ in the healing work that such faith can inspire us to enact—upon each other and upon a hurting world.” P. 85
Chapter 4 Worlds without End
“if we embrace the gospel willingly as well as wittingly, we can perceive the full beauty of God’s face and will never forsake him.” P. 89
“No more powerful force than love exists in the universe, and it draws us onward. That is one reason why faith must be a choice. God wants our assent freely given.”. p. 91
“If life is a school, then we must trust the schoolmaster. . . I think the Lord is telling us to trust that he loves us beyond imagining, that he can shape our hearts and desires in such a way that our ruling love will guide us to where he is. The key is repentance, but repentance in this scheme means the continual reeducation of the heart. “ p. 99
“Hope is not complacency. We have to bring Christ’s work of at-one-ment to fruition by living lives of commitment and exertion and teachability.”
“develop a voracious appetite for the feast already laid before you. Be open to an abundant life which beckons through the doors of faith. . . . enlarge your heart and mind. Enlarge your trust, your faith, your hope.” P. 112
Coffin Road by Peter May
In his latest mystery set in Scotland and the Outer Hebrides, award-winning author Peter May spins a tale about three disparate cases that may or may not be linked...
On the remote Isle of Harris in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, a man washes up on a deserted beach, hypothermic and completely disoriented. He has no idea who he is or how he got there. The only clue to his condition is a map of the island showing a desolate, ancient path called the Coffin Road. With a sense of dread and no clear idea what lies at the other end, he knows he must follow the trail if he has any hope of discovering his identity.
Meanwhile, homicide detective George Gunn makes the rough ocean crossing to a remote, sea-battered lighthouse on a rock in the northern Atlantic, twenty miles west of the Outer Hebrides, to investigate a brutal murder. Despite its isolation, the tiny island has seen its share of tragedy: more than a century earlier, three lighthouse keepers disappeared, never to be seen or heard from again. And now there is a new tragedy, and Gunn must figure out what happened.
At the same time, a teenage girl lies in her Edinburgh bedroom, desperate to discover the truth about her father's death. Two years after the discovery of the pioneering scientist's suicide note, Karen Fleming still cannot accept that her father would willingly abandon her. And the more she discovers about the nature of his research, the more she suspects that suicide had nothing to do with it.
Gathering Moss by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Living at the limits of our ordinary perception, mosses are a common but largely unnoticed element of the natural world. Gathering Moss is a beautifully written mix of science and personal reflection that invites readers to explore and learn from the elegantly simple lives of mosses.
In this series of linked personal essays, Robin Wall Kimmerer leads general readers and scientists alike to an understanding of how mosses live and how their lives are intertwined with the lives of countless other beings. Kimmerer explains the biology of mosses clearly and artfully, while at the same time reflecting on what these fascinating organisms have to teach us.
Drawing on her diverse experiences as a scientist, mother, teacher, and writer of Native American heritage, Kimmerer explains the stories of mosses in scientific terms as well as in the framework of indigenous ways of knowing. In her book, the natural history and cultural relationships of mosses become a powerful metaphor for ways of living in the world.
About the author
Robin Wall Kimmerer is Distinguished Teaching Professor at the SUNY College of Environmental and Forest Biology and the founding Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. She is the author of the bestselling Braiding Sweetgrass.
Someday Soon by Debbie Macomber
Fun romance story about a widow who falls in love with a handsome mercenary. Heartthrobs and happy endings!
MARYANN STEVENS
LIZ ORTON
Endurance —by Alfred Lansing
The Boys In The Boat —by Daniel James Brown
The Wright Brothers—by David McCullough
A Man Called Ove—(language) by Fredrik Backman
The Rithmatist— by Brandon Sanderson
GERI CHRISTENSEN
THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig
This was an interesting and intriguing book about what happens when we are able to find out how regrets actually turned out in real life. I found this to be a thoughtful book and well-written. I enjoyed it because it made me think about my own life and how I often regretted things that I couldn't change, anyway. I would give it 3.5 stars.
MRS. POLIFAX AND THE SECOND THIEF by Dorothy Gilman
This is the ninth book in the Mrs. Poilifax series and takes place on the island of Sicily. Mrs. Polirax is sent for by her favorite CIA partner, John Sebastian Farrell, who has become involved in a sinister plot and needs Mrs. Polifax and all her skills, experience and karate know-how to extricate him. The is plenty of adventure and excitement and even a little romance as Farrell meets his match in Kate Rossiter, another CIA operative.
THE THURSDAY MUARDER CLUB AND THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE by Richard Osman
These are two very delightful mysteries that are solved by a group of Seniors living in a very posh and upscale retirement community. They are entertaining and fun to read. I would give each book 3 stars.
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