{"id":278,"date":"2010-06-25T09:20:14","date_gmt":"2010-06-25T09:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/what-im-reading-books-and-more-summer-reading-lists-1.html"},"modified":"2010-06-25T09:20:14","modified_gmt":"2010-06-25T09:20:14","slug":"what-im-reading-books-and-more-summer-reading-lists-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/what-im-reading-books-and-more-summer-reading-lists-1.html","title":{"rendered":"What I’m Reading: Books and More Summer Reading Lists"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\"images.jpeg\"<\/a><\/span><\/span>I was asked by Patheos<\/a> to contribute an answer to the following questions: If you had to choose one book that has most deeply affected your faith life over the past ten years, what would it be?<\/span><\/p>\n

And, what is one book you think every Christian should<\/em> read, but probably hasn’t yet? My response is below:<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n
I first learned of Kathleen Norris in 1998, upon my graduation from college, when my thesis advisor gave me Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith<\/a><\/em>. I lapped it up, grateful for the combination of personal narrative, poetic language, and research about the “scary” words of the Christian faith: blood, atonement, cross. I went on to read everything Norris had written. I learned her history, from a young woman from the Midwest with ministers in the family to an atheist poet in New York City, and then back to the Dakotas and back to her faith.<\/p>\n

But it was a more recent little book of hers, a pamphlet almost, called The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy, and Women’s Work<\/a><\/em>, that shaped my faith most deeply. This series of meditations upon the rhythms of everyday life, quotidian life, helped me to believe that there is significance in changing diapers and reading bedtime stories and wiping the kitchen counters for the fifth time in a day. Although Norris herself remains childless, her reflections helped me find my way into this new vocation of motherhood.<\/p>\n

The book that comes to mind for every Christian to read is Mountains Beyond Mountains<\/a><\/em> by Tracy Kidder. It is the story of Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health<\/a>. It is well written and, as it details Farmer’s work in Haiti, relevant to the current moment. Yet it strikes me as significant for Christians because it issues both a challenge and an encouragement. Farmer is a believer of sorts, although by no means a conventional or orthodox one. And yet his sense that God calls people for specific tasks that will serve and bless others compels him. Beyond that, he understands that individuals will be called to different tasks. For instance, when a wealthy businessman asks if he should sell his business and move to Haiti to serve the poor, Farmer responds with a definitive NO! He sees the work of the businessman who gives generously of his money as equally important as his own work providing medical services on the ground in Haiti. His work is an encouragement to find a vocation — a calling that is life-giving to the self and the community. And it is also a story that suggests individuals who find that vocation really can participate in God’s work of bringing the kingdom among us.<\/span> <\/div>\n


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To
\nread more responses to this question, click here<\/a>. <\/span><\/font><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n
And feel free to post your own response…<\/span><\/font><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was asked by Patheos to contribute an answer to the following questions: If you had to choose one book that has most deeply affected your faith life over the past ten years, what would it be? And, what is one book you think every Christian should read, but probably hasn’t yet? My response is below: I first learned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat I'm Reading: Books and More Summer Reading Lists - Thin Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/2010\/06\/what-im-reading-books-and-more-summer-reading-lists-1.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What I'm Reading: Books and More Summer Reading Lists - Thin Places\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I was asked by Patheos to contribute an answer to the following questions: If you had to choose one book that has most deeply affected your faith life over the past ten years, what would it be? 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Two major life experiences have shaped her writing and her faith\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcaring for her mother-in-law as she battled cancer and welcoming her daughter Penny into the world after she was diagnosed at birth with Down syndrome. Both experiences expanded and enriched her understanding of what it means to be human and to receive each and every person as a gift.\u00c2\u00a0 A graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary, she is the author of Penelope Ayers: A Memoir, and the forthcoming A Good and Perfect Gift (Bethany House). Her essays have appeared in First Things, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Christian Century, ChristianityToday.com, and Bloom, among other online venues.","sameAs":["http:\/\/amyjuliabecker.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/author\/amyjuliabecker"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thinplaces\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}