Poetry
Autumn Testament, by James K Baxter: Baxter was a New Zealand poet whose faith compelled him to embrace poverty and participate in a mixed community of Maori and white people called “Jerusalem”. By the time he wrote Autumn Testament, just prior to his death (in his forties), the community had faded and so had his sense that he needed to “climb a ladder” towards God. He remained poor, he continued to live in a smaller community, he retained his relationships with the poor around him, and he become more receptive to the grace and mercy of God. His poetry is simple, like talking, and filled with Maori words and phrases. The poetry is laced with humour, pathos, and daily human tasks, and doesn’t take itself too seriously: "I think the Lord on his axe-chopped cross / Is laughing as usual at my poems." It is so beautiful.
Psalms, by Ernesto Cardenal: Life-altering poetry from this Nicaraguan priest, a friend of Thomas Merton. Cardenal fashions the Psalms, the ancient prayer book of Israel, Jesus and the Church, into a modern setting, complete with praise, petition and lament. Oh, the lament! I have spoken on the scandal and beauty of lament a lot lately, but these Psalms get to the heart of lament in a way I have never been able to accomplish. The language is stripped of religious sentimentality (not that the Psalms were written with that, but we have attached it to the biblical language) to the point where even I thought, “Maybe this goes too far?” No, it doesn’t. It expresses the pain of the corruption, the disappearances, the hopelessness felt by the people in opposition to ruthless dictatorships. But, as with the biblical Psalms, it ends with praise, with the great “And yet…” that reorients us towards the ultimately victorious kingdom of God.
Theology
Stations of the Cross: A Latin American Pilgrimage, by Dorothee Soelle: A series of essays concerning the poor throughout Latin America by a brilliant practitioner of liberation theology. These essays are convincing in their social, political and cultural story-telling, in their prioritising of the plight of the poor, in their calling-out of the powers and principalities that the Western Church has frequently ignored or idolised. This was written in the 1990’s but is still so important for us to grasp today.
Whiteman’s Gospel, by Craig Smith: A very helpful introductory work for people trying to get their head and heart around how the Church has poorly presented the Gospel to the First Nations people. Smith, a Navajo man and a Christian, writes very charitably but also very honestly, explaining how the Gospel does not and never has “belonged” to the white man, yet this, he says, is the prevailing understanding within much of the Native community. The theology he presents is very evangelical, but the suggestions he makes for repentance and change are more radical, though very sensible.
In the Parish of the Poor, Writings from Haiti, by Jean-Bertrand Aristide: A letter and three sermons from Aristide, before he was made the first democratically elected President in Haiti’s history (and before a military coup ousted him again and sent him into exile, from which he has only recently returned). It is a powerful appeal for a theology of liberation, a theology and and ecclessiology that provides an option for the poor. Aristide and his congregation stood up to incredible pressure, beatings, arson, jailings, torture and murder in their resistance to the tyrannic regimes of Haiti in the 80’s and 90’s. His letter is a call to others who are facing similar struggles. And it is all based in love.
Non-Fiction
The Political Economy of Agriculture and the Social Economy of Local Sustainable Agriculture in Kansas City, by Laura Cardwell: An extremely helpful dissertation by my friend Laura, who examines the state of profit-driven farming in America today, with reference to the Government policies, economic theory and technological determinism which has brought it to this point. In short, agriculture has become a business for producing profit, at the expense of the production of good food or health or sustainable ecology. Laura suggests a move towards a social economy in agriculture which puts public needs ahead of private rights. She backs this up with a case-study of CSA’s in Kansas City which are operating according to this philosophy, and suggests a number of policy advances which could help make this financially and culturally attainable on a broader scale. It is a clear case to me, though bottom line profits and wasteful convenience are awfully hard opponents to overcome.
Spiritual Transformation and Prayer
The Communion of Love, by Matthew the Poor: So difficult to sum this up in a short paragraph. Matthew the Poor is an Egyptian Coptic monk who spent decades in the wilderness. He has written here a number of chapters focusing on the spiritual life of love and union with God. His chapters on Reading the Bible, Unity in the Body, and especially Repentance (which I re-read every day for a week) are among the most beautiful and powerful I have ever encountered.
Abide in Love, by Ernesto Cardenal: An interesting book of meditations on love, written by the Guatemalan poet while a novice monk under the tutelage of Thomas Merton. The meditations assert that everything is love: gravity, evolution, the way animals interact, all of our ways of being. It is all love, though often it is misdirected love, unsatisfied love. Everything, Cardenal claims, works according to God’s loving will except sin, which is the imposition of human will. But even our sin is just love spent in the wrong way. The meditations contain a way of thinking that is similar to de Chardin’s view of divine evolution, as well as the true mystic’s emphasis on the knowledge of love above all theology. Love is Cardenal’s theology. It is good, but honestly a little repetitious, not seemingly written to be shared but for the author to reflect upon.
Novels
London, by Edward Rutherfurd: A massive 800+ tome that details the narrative history of the city of London from before the Roman occupation to the present day. The story follows multiple fictional (but realistic) families as their fortunes wax and wane and as their descendants intertwine to form new families. Major events of London’s history are captured as the story runs through ancient, medieval, renaissance, Victorian and modern times. The characters are taken from royalty, peasantry and East End squalor. It honestly took me about 300 pages to really get into it, but once I did I could hardly put it down. Very, very fun.
Fantasy/Sci-Fi
The Return of the King, by JRR Tolkien: Re-reading for a discussion group I am in called Eucatastrophe, wherein we explore the writings of Tolkien for the presence of unlooked for joy, hope and beauty. My friend Renee from the group said that in a time when we can’t travel, getting back into these pages is like journeying through old, beloved lands. Couldn’t agree more.
Scripture
Mark
Jonah
1, 2 Thessalonians
1, 2 Timothy
Titus
Colossians
Philemon
1, 2 Peter
