Christian readings for discussion
January 15, 2011 11:52 AM
I'm looking for short Christian/theological readings for a weekly group I'm facilitating this semester.
For examples of what I'm looking for, last semester, we read excerpts from Augustine, Athenasius, Gregory of Nyssa, the Divine Liturgy of St. James, Hippolytus of Rome, G.K. Chesterton, David Bentley Hart, C.S. Lewis, and Shane Claiborne. So a really random mix. This semester, I think the group would appreciate a more modern group of readings, but obviously ancient ones would be welcome too.
I would appreciate if the excerpts and essays were accessible online, and would be 20 double-spaced printed pages at most.
Thanks so much!
For examples of what I'm looking for, last semester, we read excerpts from Augustine, Athenasius, Gregory of Nyssa, the Divine Liturgy of St. James, Hippolytus of Rome, G.K. Chesterton, David Bentley Hart, C.S. Lewis, and Shane Claiborne. So a really random mix. This semester, I think the group would appreciate a more modern group of readings, but obviously ancient ones would be welcome too.
I would appreciate if the excerpts and essays were accessible online, and would be 20 double-spaced printed pages at most.
Thanks so much!
Could you tell us more about the audience? Is this a community group, philosophers, English majors, a Church group (what denomination?), undergraduates, graduate students, faculty?
posted by Jahaza at 1:35 PM on January 15, 2011
posted by Jahaza at 1:35 PM on January 15, 2011
It's a group of undergraduate students. We were all in a Christian intentional community-type summer program together and wanted to continue spend time together, so we just get together each week and read whatever theologian each student wanted to read a little bit of. Somehow I have become a facilitator for the group. It's really ecumenical, with everyone from Orthodox to very evangelical. I'm just running out of things to read off the top of my head.
posted by pecknpah at 2:03 PM on January 15, 2011
posted by pecknpah at 2:03 PM on January 15, 2011
I found Here if you need me a good read -- more broad theological questions about life and death (with a bit of an edge) than strictly Christian, though. It's a collection of essays by a woman who became a minister to search-and-rescue teams after the death of her husband.
posted by pantarei70 at 2:16 PM on January 15, 2011
posted by pantarei70 at 2:16 PM on January 15, 2011
Philip Yancey has several books out that make for good discussion material.
posted by lazydog at 5:53 PM on January 15, 2011
posted by lazydog at 5:53 PM on January 15, 2011
The Athanasian Creed
Tertullian's Prescription Against Heretics, especially Chapter 7 with its "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem" is really interesting for discussion of faith vs. reason.
Did you read the bit about the pears in Augustine's Confessions?
Jonathan Edwards's "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God".
Emerson's Harvard Divinity School Address.
Maybe more as I think about it.
posted by Jahaza at 6:27 PM on January 15, 2011
Tertullian's Prescription Against Heretics, especially Chapter 7 with its "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem" is really interesting for discussion of faith vs. reason.
Did you read the bit about the pears in Augustine's Confessions?
Jonathan Edwards's "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God".
Emerson's Harvard Divinity School Address.
Maybe more as I think about it.
posted by Jahaza at 6:27 PM on January 15, 2011
Martin Luther King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail if people haven't already read it before.
posted by Jahaza at 6:28 PM on January 15, 2011
posted by Jahaza at 6:28 PM on January 15, 2011
You'll find a lot of good things in two collections by Richard Foster: Devotional Classics and Spiritual Classics. Each one is an anthology of Christian readings designed for group study--with some discussion questions as well. If you don't want the group to have to buy books, you might still want to pick them up yourself as a guide to good readings--a fair number of them are out-of-copyright and can be found online, if only in an older translation.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 7:56 PM on January 15, 2011
posted by Pater Aletheias at 7:56 PM on January 15, 2011
I'm going to limit myself to complete shorter works, as I don't tend to like excerpts. But the problem with recent theologians is that their stuff is still under copyright and thus hard to get online for free. I think you may have better luck finding a book and running off a few copies of a particular section. This probably falls under fair use.*
How about some readings from the Reformation? The introduction to Martin Luther's Commentary on Galatians? It sets forth, in truly remarkable fashion, the Protestant doctrine of salvation by grace.
The Preferatory Address of Calvin's Institutes is a very interesting historical and theological document, and really gets at a lot of what the Reformers were thinking about, politically speaking.
Similarly, Samuel Rutherford's Lex, Rex is one of the first treatises setting forth a concept of limited government, and it was probably one of John Locke's influences.
Some stuff from a little later on:
Geerhardus Vos' sermon on John 20:16 is really wonderful. It's Chapter 3 in the pdf on that site. That whole book is awesome, but that sermon in particular is fantastic.
You can also probably get good mileage about of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together, though that isn't online yet.
In general though, I think you could get a ton of mileage out of just reading various traditions' creedal documents and comparing them over the summer. For example, you'll note that the Western and Eastern churches--and their various progeny--use different versions of the Nicene Creed. No one's probably interested in rehashing that debate, but understanding the distinctives can be pretty rewarding. Similar things would go for the various Protestant denominations.
This purports to be a list of the creedal documents of just about every major and most of the minor religious traditions active in the US and Canada. I can't vouch for its accuracy, but it's certainly a place to start.
*But if anyone asks, I have no idea who you are.
posted by valkyryn at 8:05 PM on January 15, 2011
How about some readings from the Reformation? The introduction to Martin Luther's Commentary on Galatians? It sets forth, in truly remarkable fashion, the Protestant doctrine of salvation by grace.
The Preferatory Address of Calvin's Institutes is a very interesting historical and theological document, and really gets at a lot of what the Reformers were thinking about, politically speaking.
Similarly, Samuel Rutherford's Lex, Rex is one of the first treatises setting forth a concept of limited government, and it was probably one of John Locke's influences.
Some stuff from a little later on:
Geerhardus Vos' sermon on John 20:16 is really wonderful. It's Chapter 3 in the pdf on that site. That whole book is awesome, but that sermon in particular is fantastic.
You can also probably get good mileage about of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together, though that isn't online yet.
In general though, I think you could get a ton of mileage out of just reading various traditions' creedal documents and comparing them over the summer. For example, you'll note that the Western and Eastern churches--and their various progeny--use different versions of the Nicene Creed. No one's probably interested in rehashing that debate, but understanding the distinctives can be pretty rewarding. Similar things would go for the various Protestant denominations.
This purports to be a list of the creedal documents of just about every major and most of the minor religious traditions active in the US and Canada. I can't vouch for its accuracy, but it's certainly a place to start.
*But if anyone asks, I have no idea who you are.
posted by valkyryn at 8:05 PM on January 15, 2011
Forgot to mention that Lex Rex is only forty-four questions and answers. It's longer than twenty pages, but it should be on the same order of magnitude, and closer to 20 than 100.
posted by valkyryn at 8:06 PM on January 15, 2011
posted by valkyryn at 8:06 PM on January 15, 2011
Also: Annie Dillard's very short essay "The Deer at Providencia" can sometimes generate very interesting discussion. Someone has scanned and posted it in PDF format here.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 8:07 PM on January 15, 2011
posted by Pater Aletheias at 8:07 PM on January 15, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by selfmedicating at 12:26 PM on January 15, 2011