Post by What Hat on Nov 5, 2012 19:13:58 GMT -5
Voting rules
Vote for as many books as you please, but please vote only for those books which you are willing to read and discuss. You can vote for every book if you like, or just one.
Any book which reaches a certain threshold in votes (I'm thinking 6 or 7 votes) will be considered for discussion.
DD, Scott Ross and I will choose the three books from all those that reach the threshold.
The remaining books which reach the threshold will roll forward to the Summer nomination thread which will start in a month or two.
Books which don't reach the threshold will be dropped from further consideration.
The Books
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
In Donald Miller's early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.
Without Sin: The Life and Death of the Oneida Community by Spencer Klaw
Without Sin chronicles the rise and fall of nineteenth-century America's most succesful experiment in Utopian living: New York's Oneida Community (1848-1880). Founded by the charismatic Christian Perfectionist John Humphrey Noyes, this remarkable society flourished for more than thirty years as a unique world where property was shared, men and women were equals, sex was free and open, work was to be joyous, and pleasure was felt to be "the very business that God set Adam and Eve about.
Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God by Paul Copan
A recent string of popular-level books written by the New Atheists have leveled the accusation that the God of the Old Testament is nothing but a bully, a murderer, and a cosmic child abuser. This viewpoint is even making inroads into the church. How are Christians to respond to such accusations? And how are we to reconcile the seemingly disconnected natures of God portrayed in the two testaments?
In this timely and readable book, apologist Paul Copan takes on some of the most vexing accusations of our time, including:
God is arrogant and jealous
God punishes people too harshly
God is guilty of ethnic cleansing
God oppresses women
God endorses slavery
Christianity causes violence
and more
Copan not only answers God's critics, he also shows how to read both the Old and New Testaments faithfully, seeing an unchanging, righteous, and loving God in both.
The Christ is Not a Person: The Evolution Of Consciousness And The Destiny Of Man by J.C. Tefft
Why are we born? For what purpose are we here?
The longer we are unaware of what is taking place within us of "what drives us and what can liberate us from the bonds of egocentric behavior" the longer we allow what the Buddha called the sorrow of life to hold sway. The sorrow of life is the sum and consequence of our total identification with the world of self.
The word Consciousness means something more than what the mind of self thinks, imagines, or conceives. Awareness in Pure Consciousness is an awareness that is beyond self. Contrary to traditional thinking, the so-called unseen, unknown world is nothing more than Consciousness of which we are unaware. Unawareness in Consciousness has been evolving into Awareness in Consciousness since before time began.
The author of this work comprehensively sets forth a meaning of ancient scripture that likely has not been advanced to you before. He demystifies ancient legends and myths so that the essential truth of ancient teachings shines through. Using ancient scripture as a guide, he insightfully explores a growing conscious awareness that has emerged within mankind over the last few thousand years.
A must read for anyone looking to discover the deeper meaning of ancient scripture beyond a literal interpretation of the words.
The Family by Jeff Sharlet
They insist they are just a group of friends, yet they funnel millions of dollars through tax-free corporations. They claim to disdain politics, but congressmen of both parties describe them as the most influential religious organization in Washington. They say they are not Christians, but simply believers.
Behind the scenes at every National Prayer Breakfast since 1953 has been the Family, an elite network dedicated to a religion of power for the powerful. Their goal is "Jesus plus nothing." Their method is backroom diplomacy. The Family is the startling story of how their faith: part free-market fundamentalism, part imperial ambition, has come to be interwoven with the affairs of nations around the world.
The Shack by William P. Young
Mackenzie Allen Philip's youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant THE SHACK wrestles with the timeless question: Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain? The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him.
The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
What if your life was upended in an instant? What if your spouse or your child disappeared right in front of your eyes? Was it the Rapture or something even more difficult to explain? How would you rebuild your life in the wake of such a devastating event? These are the questions confronting the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, a formerly comfortable suburban community that lost over a hundred people in the Sudden Departure. Kevin Garvey, the new mayor, wants to move forward, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized neighbors, even as his own family disintegrates. His wife, Laurie, has left him to enlist in the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence but haunt the town’s streets as “living reminders” of God’s judgment. His son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a crooked "prophet" who calls himself Holy Wayne. Only his teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she’s definitely not the sweet "A" student she used to be.
Vote for as many books as you please, but please vote only for those books which you are willing to read and discuss. You can vote for every book if you like, or just one.
Any book which reaches a certain threshold in votes (I'm thinking 6 or 7 votes) will be considered for discussion.
DD, Scott Ross and I will choose the three books from all those that reach the threshold.
The remaining books which reach the threshold will roll forward to the Summer nomination thread which will start in a month or two.
Books which don't reach the threshold will be dropped from further consideration.
The Books
Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
In Donald Miller's early years, he was vaguely familiar with a distant God. But when he came to know Jesus Christ, he pursued the Christian life with great zeal. Within a few years he had a successful ministry that ultimately left him feeling empty, burned out, and, once again, far away from God. In this intimate, soul-searching account, Miller describes his remarkable journey back to a culturally relevant, infinitely loving God.
Without Sin: The Life and Death of the Oneida Community by Spencer Klaw
Without Sin chronicles the rise and fall of nineteenth-century America's most succesful experiment in Utopian living: New York's Oneida Community (1848-1880). Founded by the charismatic Christian Perfectionist John Humphrey Noyes, this remarkable society flourished for more than thirty years as a unique world where property was shared, men and women were equals, sex was free and open, work was to be joyous, and pleasure was felt to be "the very business that God set Adam and Eve about.
Is God a Moral Monster?: Making Sense of the Old Testament God by Paul Copan
A recent string of popular-level books written by the New Atheists have leveled the accusation that the God of the Old Testament is nothing but a bully, a murderer, and a cosmic child abuser. This viewpoint is even making inroads into the church. How are Christians to respond to such accusations? And how are we to reconcile the seemingly disconnected natures of God portrayed in the two testaments?
In this timely and readable book, apologist Paul Copan takes on some of the most vexing accusations of our time, including:
God is arrogant and jealous
God punishes people too harshly
God is guilty of ethnic cleansing
God oppresses women
God endorses slavery
Christianity causes violence
and more
Copan not only answers God's critics, he also shows how to read both the Old and New Testaments faithfully, seeing an unchanging, righteous, and loving God in both.
The Christ is Not a Person: The Evolution Of Consciousness And The Destiny Of Man by J.C. Tefft
Why are we born? For what purpose are we here?
The longer we are unaware of what is taking place within us of "what drives us and what can liberate us from the bonds of egocentric behavior" the longer we allow what the Buddha called the sorrow of life to hold sway. The sorrow of life is the sum and consequence of our total identification with the world of self.
The word Consciousness means something more than what the mind of self thinks, imagines, or conceives. Awareness in Pure Consciousness is an awareness that is beyond self. Contrary to traditional thinking, the so-called unseen, unknown world is nothing more than Consciousness of which we are unaware. Unawareness in Consciousness has been evolving into Awareness in Consciousness since before time began.
The author of this work comprehensively sets forth a meaning of ancient scripture that likely has not been advanced to you before. He demystifies ancient legends and myths so that the essential truth of ancient teachings shines through. Using ancient scripture as a guide, he insightfully explores a growing conscious awareness that has emerged within mankind over the last few thousand years.
A must read for anyone looking to discover the deeper meaning of ancient scripture beyond a literal interpretation of the words.
The Family by Jeff Sharlet
They insist they are just a group of friends, yet they funnel millions of dollars through tax-free corporations. They claim to disdain politics, but congressmen of both parties describe them as the most influential religious organization in Washington. They say they are not Christians, but simply believers.
Behind the scenes at every National Prayer Breakfast since 1953 has been the Family, an elite network dedicated to a religion of power for the powerful. Their goal is "Jesus plus nothing." Their method is backroom diplomacy. The Family is the startling story of how their faith: part free-market fundamentalism, part imperial ambition, has come to be interwoven with the affairs of nations around the world.
The Shack by William P. Young
Mackenzie Allen Philip's youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever. In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant THE SHACK wrestles with the timeless question: Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain? The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him.
The Leftovers by Tom Perrotta
What if your life was upended in an instant? What if your spouse or your child disappeared right in front of your eyes? Was it the Rapture or something even more difficult to explain? How would you rebuild your life in the wake of such a devastating event? These are the questions confronting the bewildered citizens of Mapleton, a formerly comfortable suburban community that lost over a hundred people in the Sudden Departure. Kevin Garvey, the new mayor, wants to move forward, to bring a sense of renewed hope and purpose to his traumatized neighbors, even as his own family disintegrates. His wife, Laurie, has left him to enlist in the Guilty Remnant, a homegrown cult whose members take a vow of silence but haunt the town’s streets as “living reminders” of God’s judgment. His son, Tom, is gone, too, dropping out of college to follow a crooked "prophet" who calls himself Holy Wayne. Only his teenaged daughter, Jill, remains, and she’s definitely not the sweet "A" student she used to be.