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Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Book Discussion: The Chocolate Cake Sutra
The Chocolate Cake Sutra, by Geri Larkin, is a fun and nuanced look into the lifestyle and actions that lead to a "Sweet Life." Larkin writes as a Jesus-friendly Buddhist and her prescriptions sound familiarly scented not only with "Sweet Life," but with the Abundant Life offered when we live in harmony with the Spirit and act in ways that incarnate the kingdom of God.

You can find a review here .

The prologue and introduction are full of fodder for growth and an interchange of ideas. Let's start with the story Larkin tells of a "young man named Eugene who was desperate to find a truly holy person with whom he could study." After much searching, Eugene eventually happens upon a guy in woods who works for a hot-shot holy woman called Jaya, who has an incredible reputation for what she can do for her students' spirituality. It takes Eugene taking three years and many near-death experiences to even gain admittance into Jaya's complex, where he is instructed to wait in the shrine room. Eugene is told it won't be long before Jaya is able to meet with him.

So Eugene waits. But he really has to pee.

"'I have to go to the bathroom,'" Eugene says to Jaya's assistant.
"'You have to stay in the shrine room.'"

Eugene sure waits his best, and at last, hours later, he aims at a corner of the shrine room and pees like nobody's business, whereupon he is dragged away by two acolytes, with the largest bellowing,

"'How dare you!'"

"'You show me a place that isn't holy, and I'll pee there!'"

"'He stays'."

"It was Jaya."

1. What is your reaction to this approach to the holy?
2. What can communities of Christian disciples learn from this story that can be applied to worship?

In her introduction, Larkin isn't afraid to deal a significant blow (or is it constructive criticism?) to her celebrity crush, on a serious count of spiritual arrogance.

Larkin writes, "The Interview was about a movie he had just directed. It was about Jesus Christ. As a card-carrying Buddhist, I have have always been moved to tears by the last hours of Jesus. Even as I write, I can barely fathom the depth of love and compassion for the people harming him. It is the best love story ever." Larkin goes on to describe the situation that sparked her accusation:


My crush was responding to criticisms of his interpretation of the story...As I remember it, the interviewer asked how he would respond to someone criticizing his film.
A pause. 'I'd forgive them.'
Oh, no. The arrogance in his voice told me he had it wrong. It was that 'I'm-better-than-you tone that gives me the goose bumps because it's the same tone that says 'You don't get God because he's ours.'


3. What is it like for you to read about a non-Christian pouring her heart out over her love of Jesus? What feelings and ideas come up for you?

4. What is your sensibility about what differentiates self-perceived spiritual accuracy from self-deceived spiritual pride?

5. What's your favorite story or quote in the book so far?








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posted by Jemila Kwon at 2:47 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 2 comments
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Book Discussion - The New Christians Week 2
In The New Christians, Tony Jones explores attributes of the emergent movement. One of the largest components of the movement is its focus on community. People and the cultures we abide in are part of our lives and affect our faith journey. These are not things to be shunned by emergents, but embraced as part of who we are. Two of the aspects of this focus on community include -

- Emergents see God's activity in all aspects of culture and reject the sacred-secular divide.
- Emergents believe that an envelope of friendship and reconciliation must surround all debates about doctrine and dogma.

How do these cultural approaches to faith differ or affirm what you have experienced in the past?

What are the benefits or dangers of placing relationships before dogma?

Do you see these descriptions as helping or hindering "evangelism"?

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posted by Julie at 5:55 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 2 comments
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Book Discussion - The New Christians
Sorry for the delayed book discussion this month, I've been kinda out of touch online since my son was born a month ago. But it's the summer, so laid back is all good right? :)

Anyway our book club selection for this month is Tony Jones' The New Christians. If you don't know Tony is the national coordinator of Emergent Village and so is in a great position to tell the story of this new movement called the emerging church. And telling that story is just what he does in this book. From its beginnings as a young leaders attempt to do generational ministry, The New Christians describes the formation of emergent, its main influences, and the ways it has manifest over the years.

So as we start this discussion I want to ask a few basic questions -

- how aware are you of the emergent movement and its history?

- what manifestations of the movement have you encountered?


Much has been said regarding differences of opinions as to what the "real" version of emergent is. Some say that Tony's perspective is just one of many. Given that emergent isn't a denomination, but an organization and conversation, such differences are perhaps to be expected. In light of that, did the story of emergent told in The New Christians resonate with you or did it seem outside your particular experience? Do you think emergent will ever be a cohesive group or is the diversity present in the movement something to be valued and upheld?

Next week we will explore some of the characteristics of the new Christians that are described in the book, but I hope that we can explore the larger issue of the movement as a whole this week.

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posted by Julie at 5:12 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 9 comments
Monday, June 16, 2008
Looking for God -- Part Two
by Nancy Ortberg

One of the best parts about Nancy's book for me has been her simple style of clearing out clutter -- spiritually speaking. For example, she tells the story of a woman named Babs, who gave a kidney to a friend of a friend who happened to desperately need one. A friend of a friend. Not her mother, child or sister. Not her best friend or even her favorite childhood babysitter. A friend of a friend needed a kidney and Babs said, Yes. Nancy writes, "Love is such a difficult word to define. Except when a kidney is involved." ( 127)

Another place where Looking for God calls us to act, instead of talk about beliefs and consider potential actions is in her story about when Shane Claiborne visited her church and asked everyone to give up their shoes so he could distribute them to homeless people that evening. Her co-worker clarified the invitation: "Shane is not telling you to go home and then next week bring back a pair of shoes to donate; he is saying right now." (79)

These two illustrations got me thinking: What if we were as impulsive about simple, bold acts of kindness as we are about impulse purchases of snacks and caffeinated drinks? Or what would happen if we impulsively gave away something of value to us every time we impulsively act NOT in accord with our values -- like when we snap at someone we love or let our vision of abundant life get sucked up in the vacuum of surviving day-to-day to-dos?

I appreciated Nancy's chapter on CouldaWouldaShoulda, in which she tells a heartbreaking story about a woman with little money, two kids facing terminal illness and a husband who just left and what Nancy almost did to organize assistance and blessing for this family. A spirit-fire brainstorm of inspiration didn't become incarnation, because the list with all the ideas kept getting shuffled and covered with other papers and priorities until it got thrown out and the vision lost. I could so identify! I have so many wishes to be a conduit of grace and so often inspiration turns into procrastination that trails off into...nothing but lost good intentions that breed a feeling of guilt and paralysis. I wonder, is our habit of forgetting to act while our intention is fresh off the press a piece of what feeds our cynicism, our gnawing suspicion that we can't make an important difference in other's lives or the world?

1. What keeps you from acting on your best intentions?

2. What kind act will you undertake right now?

3. What sacrifice will you make this week for someone who isn't personally important in your life?

4. What habit would most help you create a life open to inspiration and grounded in follow-through actions? (A will-do list for the day that ONLY includes important, rather than urgent goals? A question for the day? A walk past the homeless shelter?...)


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posted by Jemila Kwon at 3:51 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 4 comments
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Book Discussion: Looking for God by Nancy Ortberg
Week One

I have truly been enjoying this book about life in God opening up afresh. Nancy has a wonderful voice and it's easy to connect with her and uncover insights with her in a way that's inspiring, convicting and simple without being boxy or formulaic. And this from a woman who is from an evangelical orientation. It is rare that I feel connected with God without too many abrupt interruptions when I read books by evangelical writers, so this is high compliments for Nancy and the one who breathes in and through her work. I appreciated both Nancy's references to life full with days parenting young children as well as her chapter devoted to work as a valuable avenue for loving God and living an abundant, dynamic life. On page 27 she argues biblically for why we ought to have sermons on men cooking, based on John 21 where Jesus cooks breakfast for the disciples. I like that view of godly manhood.

On page 14 Nancy says, "The power of gratitude is breathtaking and centering. It is along the lines of nuclear power."

1. What inspires in you breathtaking gratitude?


Nancy talks about watching her grandmother make homemade jell-O and writes of the molds, "Molds are rigid, predetermined boundaries that create shape but leave no room for movement." (29)

2. If molds didn't exist, what shape would you be?

3. Without molds, what ways would you move freely as a lover of God?


Nancy discusses the issue of wanting to trade callings with someone else and how this is something that gets under Jesus' skin when the disciples get into a dynamic of, "Well what a about him?" Nancy describes an experience of feeling jealous of a fellow speaker and how she handled that. (30-32)

4. Describe a time you wanted to trade lives or callings with another person.


5. What obstacles stand in the way being aligned with your Life in God?


On page 62, Nancy discusses the gift of ordinariness. She says of enjoying the ordinary,
it gives us a sense of purpose even in the mundane, a kind of freedom that releases us from the need to be important -- a need that can weigh us down and sink us into our own pitiful selves. Ordinary gives a peace and joy and centeredness that turns us toward God and builds him deep inside of us.

6. What is your most cherished ordinary time?





7. What will you do today to celebrate WHAT IS in your life?




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posted by Jemila Kwon at 8:18 AM ¤ Permalink ¤ 4 comments
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Week 3
In continuing our discussion of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I want to turn to the obstacles that often stand in the way of our choosing to eat sustainably. While it can be easy to read about how other people switched to organic or local food habits, making that transition in our own lives can prove to be a challenge. I have not fully made that transition, but I have learned to do what I can. What I discovered along the way were that there are a number of common obstacles (or excuses depending how one looks at it) that I had to overcome. These included -

1. Information - I had to discover what was good to eat and where I could find it.
2. Cost - I had to adjust how and what I ate in order to pay the full price of the food I was eating.
3. Time - I had to be willing to sacrifice convenience in order to grow, make, and eat sustainably.

In reading Kingsolver's account, the time issue seemed to be the most all consuming factor. Not everyone can grow all of their own food. But they did discover that by putting their own effort into the process they saved significant amounts of money over the course of the year. For them it was all about developing a different perspective and making it work.

What obstacles stand in your way? Are they too big to overcome? What has helped you overcome them?

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posted by Julie at 5:44 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 6 comments
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Week 2
"Take a minute to study this creation – an imaginary plant that bears over the course of one growing season a cornucopia of all the different vegetable products we can harvest. We’ll call it a vegetannual ..."

As Barbara Kingsolver and her family embark on a year of living off the land, they realize that they will be eating whatever the land is offering at that particular time of year. If the asparagus are in season, you eat a lot of asparagus. And for the times of year when the land isn't offering up much food, you prepare ahead by freezing, drying, and canning the harvest grown for just that reason. In December one didn't go to the grocery story and buy a tomato that was picked unripe in South America, shipped thousands of miles in refrigerated storage, and made to look red with ethylene gas that doesn't taste like much of anything. No they ate the fruits of their own garden that had ripened naturally and they had taken the time to preserve for the winter. They ate a much better tasting tomato and didn't waste the transportation gas and refrigeration energy to get it either.

But eating food in season from local sources is not the norm for most Americans. Kingsolver writes, "It had felt arbitrary when we sat around the table with our shopping list, making our rules. It felt almost silly to us in fact, as it may now seem to you. Why impose restrictions on ourselves? Who cares?" Kingsolver advocates the pleasures and ethics of seasonal eating, but she acknowledges that many people would view this as deprivation "because we've grown accustomed to the botanically outrageous condition of having everything always."

Do you believe that American society can—or will— overcome the need for instant gratification in order to be able to eat seasonally? How does Kingsolver present this aspect in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle? Did you get the sense that she and her family ever felt deprived in their eating options? How can eating seasonally be seen as a spiritual discipline?

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posted by Julie at 12:27 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 4 comments
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Week 1
Today we start our discussion of Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Telling the story of her family's experiment at being locavores for a year, this book turns one's thoughts to the food we eat. Kingsolver and her family chose to move to an area where they could connect with the community and the land. Their goal was to grow or raise most of their own food and get the rest as locally as possible. In essence, they took the plunge to put into practice their commitment to sustainability, family, and community. Personally, this was one of the most engaging books I read this past year. I enjoyed her storytelling ability to chronicle their day to day adventures and struggles and still manage to be engaging as they detailed the ecological, economic, and justice reasons for why they chose to do this.

In her own words -
"This is the story of a year in which we made every attempt to feed ourselves animals and vegetables whose provenance we really knew . . . and of how our family was changed by our first year of deliberately eating food produced from the same place where we worked, went to school, loved our neighbors, drank the water, and breathed the air."

For more information about the book and eating local, check out the book's website at www.animalvegetablemiracle.com.


To kick off our discussion, I have a few questions -

- Have you ever considered where your food comes from or done the research to find out?

- Is eating healthy, ethically, and humanely a priority for you as a Christian?

- What do you know about sustainability and eating locally?

I look forward to our discussion this month as we use this narrative to explore these issues.

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posted by Julie at 11:33 AM ¤ Permalink ¤ 8 comments
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
The Year of Living Biblically Week 3
The Year of Living Biblically is a humor-filled, yet fantastic entry point into a discussion of biblical interpretation. Hopefully you've been enjoying the book! Even if you haven't read it, here are a few questions to get at how interpretation shapes our lives:

1. What's one contemporary issue about which you have changed your mind?

A) Did experience cause you to reexamine your biblical understanding or did your biblical understanding cause you to reshape your approach to the issue?

2. What do you think is the most commonly misunderstood/misinterpreted bible passage?

A) What are your feelings toward people who hold this view with which you disagree?
B) What do you think is the best way of approaching touchy yet important topics with others of varying persuasions?

3. What do you think is the most damaging or dangerous widely-held misunderstanding about the bible as a whole or a specific scripture, in your opinion?

4. What has been the most life-giving practice/belief/way of being in the world you have gleaned from the bible?

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posted by Jemila Kwon at 5:53 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 5 comments
Monday, April 07, 2008
The Year of Living Biblically Week 2
1. What does it mean to live biblically?

A.J. Jacobs shares the insight he gets on biblical interpretation from Steven Greenberg, the first out-of-the-closet gay orthodox Jewish Rabbi:

"The whole Bible is the working out of the relationship between God and man," says Greenberg. "God is not a dictator barking out orders and demanding silent obedience. Were it so, there would be no relationship at all. No real relationship goes just one way. There are lways two active parties. We must have reverence and awe for God and honor for the chain of tradition. But that doesn't mean we can't use new information to help us read the holy texts in new ways...Never blame a text from the Bible for your behavior. It's irresponsible. Anybody who says X,Y and Z is in the bible -- it's as if one says, 'I have no role in evaluating this.'"


2. What ways have you experienced a happy cooperation between mind and Spirit in the Word coming to life for you?

3. Have you ever used "the bible says..." as a cop out when you didn't actually believe what you were saying?

4. What, in your opinion is the healthiest way we can approach biblical texts with which our spirits deep down cannot agree, at least in terms of a traditional interpretation of the passage?




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posted by Jemila Kwon at 6:43 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 4 comments
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Upcoming Book Discussions
As you might have noticed, we recently posted the list of upcoming books for our Emerging Women book club discussions. Thanks for the input many of you have given and the interest in participating in a variety of ways in these discussions. We tried to select a variety of options that represent different genres and opinions. I hope these books can lead us into some meaningful discussions. So over the next few months we will be reading and discussing -


  • May -
    Animal, Vegetable, Miracle
    by Barbara Kingsolver



  • June -
    Looking For God
    by Nancy Ortberg



  • July -
    The New Christians
    by Tony Jones



  • August -
    The Shack
    by William P. Young



  • September -
    The Chocolate Cake Sutra
    by Geri Larkin



    • If anyone is interested in leading part of the discussion on any of these books, just let us know! I'm looking forward to the discussions.

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    posted by Julie at 2:30 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 5 comments
    Monday, March 31, 2008
    Book Discussion: The Year of Living Biblically
    by A.J. Jacobs

    "My quest is this: to live the ultimate biblical life. Or more precisely, to follow the bible as literally as possible." So begins A.J.'s year-long sojourn, which he has made into a funny, informative and thought-provoking book. You can learn how You too can live biblically, see before and after pics of A.J's hair (see if you agree he resembles the unibomber,) and view a link on How to be good at at A.J's website.

    At the project's start, A.J. decides to get himself some good biblical studies resources. Upon walking into a Bible bookstore, a sales clerk offers A.J. some advice, as he points to a suggested bible, which is, "designed to look exactly like a Seventeen magazine: An attractive (if long-sleeved) model graces the front, next to cover lines like, 'What's your spiritual IQ?" Open it up and you'll find sidebars such as 'Rebeca the Control Freak.'"

    "This one's good if you're on the subway and are too embarrassed to be seen reading the Bible,' says Chris, [the sales clerk] It's an odd and poignant selling point. You know your in a secular city when it's considered more acceptable for a grown man to read a teen girl's magazine than the Bible." (p 9)

    This interchange caused me to think about this quandry/opportunity:

    1. What does it mean to be unapologetic and open about our humble walk with God when so often we feel ashamed and very apologetic about certain aspects of our religious "families of origin." and the dogmas that often supplant life in the Spirit? What can we claim from our origins that abides in light, love and truth in place within our spirits where deep calls unot deep? And what could it look like when we let that Light shine?

    On page 39 A.J. writes:

    ...one of my motivations for this experiment is my recent entrance into fatherhood. I'm constantly worried about my son's ethical education. I don't want him to swim in a soup of moral relativism. I don't trust. I have such a worldview, and though I have yet to commit a major felony, it seems dangerous.
    I thought it was funny to observe that A.J. actually agrees with fundamentalists about relativism, even though this is the view he espouses. I wondered,

    2. Is there an alternative to relativism and absolutism?

    3. Have you wrestled with "what to tell the children," either in your family or spiritual community? I am curious particularly in areas of sex, salvation and evangelism how your own journey/ambiguity or ambivalence impacts what you say, avoid saying or otherwise communicate to a younger generation.

    4. What approach do you take to instilling, offering, modeling and otherwise helping nurture young disciples, whether they are your own children or spiritual children you feel are entrusted into your care in friendship and/or ministry?





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    posted by Jemila Kwon at 12:17 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 11 comments
    Wednesday, March 26, 2008
    A Room of One's Own - Week 4
    As we wrap up this month's discussion of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, I want to turn to the question of expectations and costs. Woolf constantly seeks to understand what exactly it is society (popular opinion) expects from women. It is easier to understand why women are the way they are if one understands the constraints on who they are allowed to be. She quotes a common opinion on what was suitable for women writers - "female novelists should only aspire to excellence by courageously acknowledging the limitations of their sex." While she was shocked that such a statement came from 1928 and not 1828, it is one we still hear today.

    In the church especially we are used to there being certain expectations and limitations for women. Even when the church or group is egalitarian, those assumptions regarding what is suitable still exist. Often if a woman writes a book it is assumed to be a book for women, even if the spiritual themes are broader than that. I've come to expect that if there is women present in a line up of conference speakers I can almost guarantee that she will be speaking on social work in urban settings, AIDS in Africa, or overcoming sexual abuse, eating disorders, or being a lesbian and not anything strictly theological or from the Bible. Not that most of those things are bad topics, just that they are "acceptable" topics for women to address.

    Yet to move beyond those expectations comes at a cost. Woolf presents an interesting perspective -
    Moreover, in a hundred years, I thought, reaching my own doorstep, women will have ceased to be the protected sex. Logically they will take part in all the activities and exertions that were once denied them. The nursemaid will heave coal. The shopwoman will drive an engine. All assumptions founded on the facts observed when women were the protected sex will have disappeared—as, for example (here a squad of soldiers marched down the street), that women and clergymen and gardeners live longer than other people. Remove that protection, expose them to the same exertions and activities, make them soldiers and sailors and engine–drivers and dock labourers, and will not women die off so much younger, so much quicker, than men that one will say, ‘I saw a woman to–day’, as one used to say, ‘I saw an aeroplane’. Anything may happen when womanhood has ceased to be a protected occupation, I thought, opening the door.

    Much has been said of the costs of women finding equality. Lifestyles and family structures have changed and often women are made to bear the full guilt of the vicissitudes of those changes. Women and men have had to make sacrifices and surrender their pride. Women have been maligned and ridiculed. We have been accused of seeking power when all we want is to be ourselves. We still in the church are subject to harsh criticisms, asked to be quiet (in the name of unity of course), and told our passions are unimportant. Pushing expectations comes at a cost.

    So I ask. What expectations do you see in play? How can they be challenged? What costs have you had to pay? Are the costs worth it?

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    posted by Julie at 4:13 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 4 comments
    Tuesday, March 18, 2008
    A Room of One's Own - Week 3
    As we continue our discussion of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, I want to turn to the issue of families. I first want to fully acknowledge that this isn't an issue for every women nor should it have to be. I completely respect the multitude of ways women choose to live and work in this world and the reasons why many desire to not have kids. I don't want anyone to feel excluded from this conversation either, but the issue of the ability of women to have children and do something like write surfaces in Woolf's writing and is a huge issue for some women.

    In her questioning the lack of resources of a women's college, Woolf (writing in the 1920s) wonders how things would be different if our foremothers had been out making money and receiving an education instead of bearing and raising child after child. What different memories and opportunities would women now have? But then she surmises that such questions are meaningless because we then wouldn't exist at all. The assumption is that one can't be a mother and write (or teach, or make money, or be intellectual). These days (amidst much controversy still) women have far more opportunities to work and some men are (rightly imho) stepping up to their fair share of parenting responsibility, but nevertheless women still bear the majority of the childrearing load. As Woolf would say, it's hard to have the time, privacy, and money to write with children underfoot. And it is a choice that women still struggle with. Family or career? Or both? Woolf saw the choice basically as an either/or, but others obviously have challenged that dichotomy.

    My favorite challenge came from the writer Margaret Atwood in her poem Spelling (I blogged through it regarding these issues here, here, and here). In the poem she addresses the very issue of women choosing between children and writing. She choose to do both and saw both as a way for women to have a voice and participate in the act of creation. While she acknowledged the intense struggles of choosing both, she also thought that to deny women either creative outlet was an act of violence. As a working and writing mother I tend to agree - even though I face struggles every day. This is what is working for my life, but I know each of us faces something different.

    So where do you fall on these issues? How have you made both work? Or why did you choose one path over another? I'd love to hear your stories.

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    posted by Julie at 2:56 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 5 comments
    Tuesday, March 11, 2008
    A Room of One's Own - Week 2
    Our book selection for this month's discussion is Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. This week I want to look at the idea presented in the title of the book. Woolf's suggestion is that for a woman to be able to write (have the time, energy, space, resources) she needs a room of her own and money. Her suggestion is an endowment of 500 a year (which today of course wouldn't pay for one month's rent, but I'm sure someone could come up with a sum that accounts for inflation) which would allow women the opportunity and the time to write without the constraints of funding the habit through backbreaking work. The room is for privacy and sufficient uninterrupted periods to concentrate.

    Woolf sees the numerous books that men (some who, as she puts it, "have no apparent qualification save that they are not women") have produced and the vast amounts of resources that in her day had been set aside to develop the life of the mind for men. She wonders why women have been denied these same opportunities. Why must the women's colleges scrimp and save? Why is it so much easier for the men to get an education and find the resources to write? She wonders at how many more books by women we would have or how much better the ones we do have would be if women had privacy and resources.

    Over the last century much has changed in the world. Women often have equal access to educational opportunities, but I continue to hear ongoing conversations about how much more difficult it is for women to write. One of the very first conversations on this blog involved why it is easier for men to blog. And the question of why aren't we seeing emerging books by women is asked on a fairly frequent basis. Is Woolf correct - do we just lack the time, privacy, and resources? (I have to laugh at that because my writing this discussion post has been interrupted a few times by my toddler asking me to taste the food she is making in her toy kitchen...). How do you respond to Woolf's assertions? Do they hold truth? How do they apply today?

    And on a more personal note... Why do or don't you write (blog...)? How does it work for you? When do you find the time?

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    posted by Julie at 1:42 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 7 comments
    Tuesday, March 04, 2008
    A Room of One's Own - Week 1
    This month for our book discussion we are going to do something a little different. In the past we have focused on books of a mainly religious nature, but this month we are turning to a classic in the world gender issues - Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own. First published nearly 80 years ago, Woolf's book has defined for generations of women the struggles women often face in the academic and intellectual world.

    I first read this book early in college in a Women Writer's class (an elective of course). At the time I was a good little conservative complementarian who thought any argument for women's rights was feminist and therefore evil. The irony of the fact that I was a woman getting an education and therefore benefiting from the rights people like Woolf fought for completely eluded me. I was more than willing to accept the gifts of the early feminists (the right to vote, have a job, own property, have a bank account, get an education) while condemning the very philosophy that granted me those rights. I read the book with very different eyes a decade later. I understood Woolf arguments and frustrations better, and I marveled at how her dreams and predictions for the future have played out.

    But before we delve into the content of the book, I would like to hear about your experiences with early feminist writers. Have you encountered Woolf before? In what contexts and mindsets? Have you ever studied the lives of the women who fought for basic rights for women? Have such stories been encouraged in your life or hidden?

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    posted by Julie at 2:35 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 6 comments
    Tuesday, February 26, 2008
    Book Discussion Forever & Ever, Amen by Karol Jackowski
    Well, one problem with being a book lover and the mom of a toddler is that books suddenly disappear when you are about use them, and so this post isn't going to have any quotes. I hope if you've had a chance to dip into the book you've found some gems of your own, and please feel free to share any that inspire you!

    In the latter part of the book, Karol talks about the breakup of the old order, with its imposition of sameness, at the cost of individuality and the voices of the sisters. She describes the crisis of community that occurred when after years of oppression, the freedom to dissent suddenly arose, causing the foundations of friendship, sisterhood and solidarity to be shaken, and the cost both of that oppression, and the pain of its lifting after being normative for so long.

    1. Where is your community at in the process of valuing the voicing of its members, even when it means the loss of uniformity?

    2. What is your community doing or not doing to foster an environment where people are/feel loved and safe enough to stretch beyond comfort zones to include the Other, even when the other is the person in the next seat or pew?

    3. Describe a time you took a risk and voiced a dissenting opinion about theology, community or spiritual life? What was it like?

    4. Describe a time you did not voice a dissenting a opinion, but felt one? What was it like?

    5. Describe a time when someone else's dissenting opinion felt threatening to you? What was it like?

    6. What is your heart's urgent prayer for the church/God's people?

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    posted by Jemila Kwon at 7:46 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 5 comments
    Tuesday, February 19, 2008
    Book Discussion Forever & Ever, Amen by Karol Jackowski
    One of the main themes that emerges in this book is the issue of blind obedience. We have suffered so much for being/not being blindly obedient to our churches, to theologies, to authorities who come in the name of God, be they spiritual or political. I love Sister Karol's voice because she offers a third way: that of sensing the voice of God in our authorities and in ourselves, our peers and those whom we influence as authorities.

    Karol Jackowski writes,

    "It's not that I didn't believe sister Beatrice's [her superior] voice was the of God -- I did. But I also believed that we too speak with the voice of God, and listening to what we had to say was an important part of being obedient." (p 149)

    And,

    "Nothing is more deadly to the holy spirit of community that silencing the divine voice of i
    ts members, because it's then that we silence the voice of God." (p150)

    1. What has been your experience with blind obedience?

    A. Are you by nature a white sheep who tends to follow blindly, even to the slaughter?
    B. Are you a black sheep who tends to buck anything that smells faintly like authority?

    2. What ideas do you have for how we can listen to the voice of God in all people? What practices and methods of discernment help root you and your community, if you have on, in the Spirit as you seek to listen to the voice of God in authority, in yourself and in all who travel side by side or in your care on the path?

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    posted by Jemila Kwon at 6:06 AM ¤ Permalink ¤ 5 comments
    Wednesday, February 13, 2008
    Book Club Update
    Our book discussion of Forever and Ever, Amen will resume next Tues -- I have been simply trying to keep my head above water this week.

    I would love ideas and suggestions from all you about how to go at this discussion and future ones so as many as possible feel engaged and interested. What kinds of questions are on your heart that you'd like to see explored through our book discussions? What, if anything, is preventing from engaging with the books and ideas? Would you like a break from book discussions for a while to focus on the interviews of emerging women instead? This is a safe place, so any feedback is very welcome.

    Thank you all for being you, for your beautiful questioning hearts, for being about God's being in the world!

    --Jemila

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    posted by Jemila Kwon at 9:56 AM ¤ Permalink ¤ 2 comments
    Wednesday, February 06, 2008
    Book Recommendations
    I recently had the opportunity to review two new books by women that I wanted to mention to the community here.

    First from well known speaker Nancy Ortberg is Looking for God: An Unexpected Journey Through Tattoos, Tofu, & Pronouns (Tyndale, March 2008). Consisting of series of essays, this book explores the diverse ways we can encounter God and be moved to serve him. My review is here.




    Then there is Susan McLeod-Harrison's Saving Women from the Church: How Jesus Mends A Divide (Barclay Press, Feb. 2008). This book explores the ways in which the church has hurt women and the biblical hope that can be found instead. My review can be found here.




    I appreciated both books for their unique perspectives. Neither book is written just for women, but I found that authors' have messages that can reach out to women. Just wanted to pass on the info - enjoy!

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    posted by Julie at 1:33 PM ¤ Permalink ¤ 6 comments