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Every month we will discuss a new book selection on Fridays, 10:30 a.m.- noon. Participants are invited to stay for lunch.
Cost: $10 for lunch; books make be purchased on your own or at the center.
When Christ began his ministry, he asked, "Who do you say I am?" Clerics and religious scholars over the ages have given a variety of answers. Based on a collection of published lectures, this work features a Fordham theology professor explaining their answers in an overview. Intellectual without being academic, Johnson’s essay keeps the question of Jesus in mind, in rational, existential, and spiritual explanation of perspectives of Christ over the centuries.
In medical school, Paul Farmer found his life’s calling, to cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who needed them most. Kidder’s account shows how one person can make a difference through an understanding of the interaction of politics, wealth, social systems, and faith, when one is dedicated to the philosophy that “the only real nation is humanity.”
The fictional character Mack receives an invitation to journey to God in this best-selling novel. Mack represents everyman who wrestles with the question, “Where is God in a world filled with unspeakable pain?” The reader will identify with the heartache, the humor, the reluctance, and the surprises that the journey provides.
In December 1875, the steamship Deutschland left Germany bound for America. On board were five nuns, exiled by a government ban on religious orders, hoping to begin their lives anew in Missouri. Their journey would end when the ship ran aground in the mouth of the Thames and all five drowned. Hansen tells their story, but also that of the poet and priest Gerard Manley Hopkins, and how the shipwreck moved him to write a grand poem, a revelatory work read throughout the world today. Combining tragedy at sea with the seeming shipwreck of Hopkins’ own life, Hansen weaves two interrelated story lines into a novel.
To register for any of these discussions, call 412-835-3510, x112 or e-mail spiritancenter@juno.com.
Fridays, 10:30 a.m.- noon. Participants are invited to stay for lunch.
Cost: $10 for lunch; books make be purchased on your own or at the center.
The book's central theme, derived from a Baltistan proverb, rings loud and clear. "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger," a villager tells Greg Mortenson. "The second time, you are an honored guest. The third time you become family." Three Cups is one man's efforts to address poverty, educate girls, and overcome cultural divisions. Three Cups won the 2007 Kiriyama Prize for nonfiction.
Beginning with Merton’s early life and conversion, his entry into the Abbey at Gethsemane, and his fame as an author, Forest explores Merton’s increasing search for solitude, his emergence as a prophetic voice of peace and social justice, and the fascinating dialogue with other religions that continued until his death in 1968. Forest enhanced this work with an extensive collection of Merton photographs.
What happens on the beach is brutal, and it braids the fates of a 16-year-old Nigerian orphan (who calls herself Little Bee) and a well-off British couple--journalists trying to repair their strained marriage with a free holiday but who should have stayed behind their resort's walls. The tide of that event carries Little Bee back to their world, which she claims she couldn't explain to the girls from her village because they'd have no context for its abundance and calm. But she shows us the infinite rifts in a globalized world, where any distance can be crossed in a day--with the right papers--and "no one likes each other, but everyone likes U2." The reader comes to realize that one has to give up the safety one assumes as his birthright if one decides to save the girl gazing through razor wire, left to the wolves of a failing state.
Robert Coles first met Dorothy Day over thirty-five years ago when, as a medical student, he worked in one of her Catholic Worker soup kitchens. He remained close to this inspiring and controversial woman until her death in 1980. His book, an intellectual and psychological portrait, confronts candidly the central puzzles of her life: the sophisticated Greenwich Village novelist and reporter who converted to Catholicism; the single mother who raised her child in a most unorthodox ”family”; her struggles with sexuality, loneliness, and pride; her devout religious conservatism coupled with radical politics. This intense portrait is based on many years of conversation and correspondence, as well as tape-recorded interviews.
To register for any of these discussions, call 412-835-3510, x112 or e-mail spiritancenter@juno.com.
| Spiritan Center Contact Information | |
| Mary Ann Nicholls, MLS, M Div., Director | |
| 6230 Brush Run Road | |
| Bethel Park, PA 15102 | |
| Phone: | 412-835-3510, x112 |
| Email: | spiritancenter@juno.com |
