Tag: religion

Dissolved by Sara Blaedel and Mads Peder Nordbo

- Michelle Leave a comment

Fans and critics both agree that Sara Blaedel is the queen of crime fiction in Denmark and after reading her latest stand alone novel, Dissolved, I couldn’t agree more.  Blaedel excels at taking mundane village life, which has been historically simple and idyllic, and turns it on its head with chaos and crime.  At the start of Dissolved, life is pretty quiet in Tommerup, Denmark, one of the many small towns where residents don’t feel the need to lock doors or take many safety precautions.  Everything changes when a young mother, Charlotte Laursen, suddenly and mysteriously disappears one morning after leaving the gym.  The entire town is shaken to its core.

Chief Superintendent Liam Stark and Superintendent Dea Torp are called by Charlotte’s husband after her young disabled son is left at school and he tells them that she would not disrupt his routine by neglecting this duty.  Early suspicions are on her husband, as a likely suspect, as he was the last person to see her before she disappeared.  But suspicion soon dissipates when another person turns up missing the next day.  The second victim is gone, but a ominous note is discovered that mentions Charlotte’s abduction the day before.  Stark and Torp quickly realize they may have a serial killer on their hands.

One by one, each day brings another disappearance of someone in the small village.  Every disappearance brings a clue in the form of a note which has investigators baffled.  It becomes clear that the notes are religious in nature and correspond to the Ten Commandments.  In the eyes of the serial killer, each victim has violated one of the commandments and it is the killer’s job to seek revenge, making the victim pay for committing a sin.  Stark and Torp, along with their police team, race against time in an attempt to stay one step ahead of the killer.  Their objective is to try and identify persons in the village who the killer thinks violated the next commandment and try to get to them before the killer finds them.  As the disappearances hit closer to home, no one in the village is immune.  Nearly everyone is on edge, knowing one of the victims who disappeared.  After a lucky break, Stark and Torp know exactly what is in store for the nearly 10 victims who have disappeared.  They stumble upon video footage which shows the detectives definitive evidence of their possible fate.  It is a race against time, not only to stop the disappearances, but to try to find the victims and save them from a watery grave.

If you gravitate toward Scandinavian crime and are looking for a shorter read, Dissolved is a title you may want to check out.  It has all the hallmarks of Nordic crime from one of the best selling authors in Denmark.  Dissolved  has a eclectic group of villagers – some likeable and some not – as well as an intricate plot that combines a serial killer who is consumed by religious thought.  Just under 250 pages, this stand alone novel takes you on a nail-biting journey with the knowledge that someone else will disappear and you are unable to stop it.

I love smart Scandinavian crime fiction and Dissolved is another title that does not disappoint.  I enjoyed the villagers’ differing personalities and their close knit community.  Adding the Ten Commandments as the killer’s motivation also kept the plot interesting.   When the killer’s twisted motivation is finally revealed, all the pieces fall into place.  One small critique is that the plot wrapped up a little too quickly but that aside, I am happy to recommend Dissolved.

Religion: Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility Topic of the Month

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Every month, our Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility team puts together a list of resources on a certain topic. The topic for December is religion. Descriptions provided by the publisher or website.

Web Resources:

Navigating Religious Diversity in the Workplace  – This is a blog written by the Intuit Blog team, last updated in 2023, about the social responsibility of making sure everyone feels included and respected in the workplace.

6 Tips for Navigating Your Religious Needs at Work  – This article is from The Muse.

Religious Landscape Study – The Pew Research Center conducted these studies: ‘The RLS, conducted in 2007 and 2014, surveys more than 35,000 Americans from all 50 states about their religious affiliations, beliefs and practices, and social and political views.’

Animated Map Shows How Religion Spread Around the World (2:35) – This is a video on YouTube put together by Business Insider:  ‘Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam are five of the biggest religions in the world. Over the last few thousand years, these religious groups have shaped the course of history and had a profound influence on the trajectory of the human race. Through countless conflicts, conquests, missions abroad, and simple word of mouth, these religions spread around the globe and forever molded the huge geographic regions in their paths.’

All Major Religions Explained in 6 Minute: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism (6:14)

Juvenile Book Recommendations:

Who Believes What? Exploring the World’s Major Religions by Anna Wills

In today’s multicultural cities and interconnected world, understanding different belief systems can help kids appreciate the differences of people they see every day, or people who live on the other side of the globe. This book introduces readers to the five major world religions by population: Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam.

Each mini-section opens with a fully illustrated spread representing one religion. Designed in a search-and-find style, the illustrated spreads are busy, bright, and jam-packed with details that show people worshipping among symbolic places, rituals, and objects. A text spread follows, pulling out details from the illustrated page and providing further information about the history, festivals, places of worship, celebrations, religious leaders, and gods of each religion.

Front matter gives broader overall context about religion and each featured belief system, making this a comprehensive go-to resource for introducing religion and global cultures. – Owlkids

_____________________

Free for You and Me: What Our First Amendment Means by Christy Mihaly

It’s a free country! But what does that mean? Find out the five liberties protected by the First Amendment. Vivid examples from history and everyday life demonstrate the meaning of freedom of religion, speech, and the press, and the rights to assemble peacefully and to petition the government. – Albert Whitman & Co.

_____________________

Celebrating all Religions by Abby Colich

Our communities are stronger when we come together and take time to understand, support, and celebrate one another. In Celebrating All Religions, readers will learn the importance of acceptance and empathy as they relate to different religions and how to practice these in their daily lives. Social and emotional learning (SEL) concepts support growth mindset throughout, while “Grow with Goals” activities and “Mindfulness Exercises” at the end of the book further reinforce the content. Vibrant, full-color photos and carefully leveled text engage young readers as they learn more about empathy and inclusion. Also includes sidebars, a table of contents, glossary, index, and tips for educators and caregivers.

Celebrating All Religions is part of Jump!’s Celebrating Our Communities series. – Jump!

_____________________

The Kids Book of World Religions by Jennifer Glossop

By gaining a greater understanding of the cultures and beliefs of people around the world, children build respect and tolerance for the differences that make each of us unique. With objectivity and accessibility, this title in the Kids Book of series looks at the histories, scriptures, places of worship, religious leaders, gods and major festivals that are the foundations of many of the world’s religions. Features a glossary and an index. – GoodReads

_____________________

A Faith Like Mine: a Celebration of the World’s Religions . . . Seen Through the Eyes of Children by Laura Buller

A perfect book for children and parents to read together, A Faith Like Mine uses revealing photography and detailed personal accounts to give unique insight into the diversity of religious faith as experienced through the lives of children across the world.

– Information on widely practiced faiths, as well as less common spiritual beliefs
– Compares festivals, sacred books, places of worship and holy days
– Includes maps, religious calendars, profiles of spiritual leaders and more
– A celebration of the world’s religions through the eyes of children – GoodReads

_____________________

Understanding the Nonreligious by Cynthia Kennedy Henzel

Understanding the Nonreligious examines the diverse set of people who hold no religious beliefs. In addition to atheist or agnostic, they have a variety of ways to label themselves, as well as opinions on how to find fulfillment in life and what values to hold. Features include a glossary, references, websites, source notes, and an index. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO. – ABDO

YA Book Recommendations

What if I’m an Atheist? A Teen’s Guide to Exploring a Life Without Religion by David Seidman

Can you have guidance without God? This thoughtful, one-of-a-kind guide offers answers to all of your questions about atheism and nonbelief.

Have you ever wondered what religion and belief means for your life? Maybe you believe in nothing at all. Does that mean you’re an atheist? What does atheism even mean? Regardless of the religious background you grew up with, it’s natural to question what you believe…or what you don’t. Establishing your views about religion and spirituality is part of becoming an individual, but outside pressures can make it tough to know what is right for you.

What If I’m an Athiest? offers a thoughtful exploration of how atheism or the absence of religion can impact your life. From discussing the practical significance of holidays to offering conversation starters and tips, this guide is an invaluable resource about religion, spirituality, and the lack thereof.

This compassionate, nonjudgmental guide includes peer interviews featuring both religious and atheist teens and provides a safe space to find answers to the questions you may not want ask out loud, so you can decide what you believe—or don’t—for yourself. – Simon & Schuster

_____________________

Religion in Contemporary Society

Religion is on the decline in the United States, as the religiously unaffiliated segment climbs to more than 25 percent of the overall population. This is likely due to demographic shifts, but it may also be influenced by factors such as mass migration from rural to urban areas and the advancement of isolating technology. Additionally, many are discouraged by what they consider outdated stances and exclusiveness of many religions. Given these changes, what place does religion have in contemporary society? Can it adjust with the times? Diverse experts in the field tackle this timely topic for interested readers. – GoodReads

_____________________

Living with Religion and Faith by Robert Rodi

Looks at how the LGBTQ community is viewed by religions around the world and how some faiths have accepted them. – GoodReads

_____________________

Your Freedom, Your Power: a Kid’s Guide to the First Amendment by Allison Matulli

A nonpartisan, unbiased look at the First Amendment and how it informs our daily lives, this book clearly explains the fundamentals of American politics to middle grade readers.

The First Amendment grants kids and every other citizen five monster privileges: freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press,
freedom of assembly, and the right to petition the government. If the First Amendment is everywhere in their lives, shouldn’t kids know more about it? Yes!

In Your Freedom, Your Power, middle grade readers get a focused look at their freedoms and rights through the lens of this all-powerful First Amendment. The book engages children in learning more about their country and their rights and responsibilities. Each section will answer key questions readers may have thought about like: Do I have the right to protest at school? Can I be punished at school for something I say on social media? Why can’t I wear whatever I want? Can I text whatever I want? While answering these questions and explaining fundamental legal concepts every kid should know, Your Freedom, Your Power shares the fascinating stories behind some of the most important legal cases and social movements that have affected kids’ lives and rights. – Hachette Book Group

Adult Book Recommendations

Waking Up: a Guide to Spirituality without Religion by Sam Harris

For the millions of Americans who want spirituality without religion, Sam Harris’s latest New York Times bestseller is a guide to meditation as a rational practice informed by neuroscience and psychology.

From Sam Harris, neuroscientist and author of numerous New York Times bestselling books, Waking Up is for the twenty percent of Americans who follow no religion but who suspect that important truths can be found in the experiences of such figures as Jesus, the Buddha, Lao Tzu, Rumi, and the other saints and sages of history. Throughout this book, Harris argues that there is more to understanding reality than science and secular culture generally allow, and that how we pay attention to the present moment largely determines the quality of our lives.

Waking Up is part memoir and part exploration of the scientific underpinnings of spirituality. No other book marries contemplative wisdom and modern science in this way, and no author other than Sam Harris—a scientist, philosopher, and famous skeptic—could write it. – Simon & Schuster

_____________________

World Religions: the Great Faiths Explored and Explained by John Bowker

Baffled by Buddhism? Confused by Catholicism? Mystified by Mysticism? Discover everything you need to know about the world’s major religious faiths.

A compelling and insightful guide for uncovering and understanding a variety of the world’s major religions, this book is the perfect gift for thinkers, borrowers, religious studies and philosophy students.

Learn new and profound information about a variety of faiths. In this educational guide, you’ll find:

– A chapter devoted to each of the major world religions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
– Lesser-known religions and belief systems are covered, offering a comprehensive overview of faith.
– Detailed illustrations and annotated works of art, and a timeline of religious history.

Discover the world’s major religions and other faiths from both the ancient and the modern world through this insightful guide. Explore over 450 classic works of religious and devotional art. With sacred texts, epic imagery, key beliefs and religious artifacts, this educational guide is perfect for libraries, classrooms and the bookshelves of those who simply love learning. – Dorling Kindersley

_____________________

The Religions Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained

This definitive guide explores all the faiths from around the world.

Together with the five main religions of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, there is a diverse range of newer faiths to ensure a compelling and comprehensive read.

From the key concepts of ancient beliefs to the ground-breaking ideas at the heart of modern faiths, religious history is chronicled in a universal timeline. This provides a global perspective on the origins and events contributing to the growth and spread of spirituality, and the position of religion in society today. Influential religious leaders, including Mahatma Gandhi, Saint Paul, and Al-Ghazali, are introduced in depth and detail, alongside important quotations. Modern alternative beliefs are investigated in the wider context of their political, social, and cultural climates.

Part of DK’s award-winning Big Ideas series that has sold in excess of seven million copies, The Religions Book explains the trickiest of subjects in the most easily accessible format, using inspiring infographics and illuminating images alongside simple and straightforward text.

Compelling and accessible, this is the perfect guide for students of religious study, or anyone interested in the ideas of ancient and present-day faiths and religious philosophies. – Dorling Kindersley

_____________________

Concise History of World Religions: an Illustrated Time Line

The Concise History of World Religions continues the Concise History series with an authoritative and comprehensive take on major religions and lesser-known faiths of all times and nations. No other text combines the illustrations expertise of National Geographic with the historical focus on faiths—large and small—across the world. Up-to-date scholarship offers a unique global perspective on the history of faith in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Oceania, and Africa and the Middle East. This is religion presented as history, in the objective manner in which the National Geographic Society excels. Lavish illustrations illuminate the faithful, their houses of worship, and the articles and artifacts of faith. From the great cathedrals to the colorful robes of Buddhist monks to horrors of the Spanish inquisition to the astonishingly intricate paintings of the Hindu gods, the illustrations tell as much of the story as the text.

There is nothing else quite like National Geographic’s special Concise History series: the time line format combines geography, chronology, and subject area in one complete, but easy-to-understand grid. The 80 timelines with their more than 3,500 entries, plus short articles and feature spreads make it the perfect quick-dip reference; 110 sidebars amplify the illustrated time lines and highlight monuments of faith, words of religious transcendence, and lives of piety and sacrifice; 50 feature essays explore in detail the origins, development and influence of faith; 325 images document all aspects of the religious experience, from architecture and icons to exemplary individuals and acts of devotion; and quotes throughout chapters are drawn from prayers and sermons that embody the religious attitudes of each era. – GoodReads

_____________________

The Meaning of Belief: Religion from an Atheist’s Point of View by Tim Crane

Contemporary debate about religion seems to be going nowhere. Atheists persist with their arguments, many plausible and some unanswerable, but these make no impact on religious believers. Defenders of religion find atheists equally unwilling to cede ground. The Meaning of Belief offers a way out of this stalemate.

An atheist himself, Tim Crane writes that there is a fundamental flaw with most atheists’ basic approach: religion is not what they think it is. Atheists tend to treat religion as a kind of primitive cosmology, as the sort of explanation of the universe that science offers. They conclude that religious believers are irrational, superstitious, and bigoted. But this view of religion is almost entirely inaccurate. Crane offers an alternative account based on two ideas. The first is the idea of a religious impulse: the sense people have of something transcending the world of ordinary experience, even if it cannot be explicitly articulated. The second is the idea of identification: the fact that religion involves belonging to a specific social group and participating in practices that reinforce the bonds of belonging. Once these ideas are properly understood, the inadequacy of atheists’ conventional conception of religion emerges.

The Meaning of Belief does not assess the truth or falsehood of religion. Rather, it looks at the meaning of religious belief and offers a way of understanding it that both makes sense of current debate and also suggests what more intellectually responsible and practically effective attitudes atheists might take to the phenomenon of religion. – Harvard University Press

_____________________

Seven Types of Atheism by John Gray

When you explore older atheisms, you will find that some of your firmest convictions—secular or religious—are highly questionable. If this prospect disturbs you, what you are looking for may be freedom from thought.

For a generation now, public debate has been corroded by a shrill, narrow derision of religion in the name of an often vaguely understood “science.” John Gray’s stimulating and enjoyable new book, Seven Types of Atheism, describes the complex, dynamic world of older atheisms, a tradition that is, he writes, in many ways intertwined with and as rich as religion itself.

Along a spectrum that ranges from the convictions of “God-haters” like the Marquis de Sade to the mysticism of Arthur Schopenhauer, from Bertrand Russell’s search for truth in mathematics to secular political religions like Jacobinism and Nazism, Gray explores the various ways great minds have attempted to understand the questions of salvation, purpose, progress, and evil. The result is a book that sheds an extraordinary light on what it is to be human. – MacMillan Publishers

We Are On Our Own: A Memoir by Miriam Katin

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Miriam Katin was born in Hungary during World War II. She doesn’t remember much about the war except that this war reminded people of other wars and that other wars were going to also come. War was expected, intruders to the land were a given, and upheaval was just how she lived. Her young childhood was a jumble.

In an attempt to gather all she remembers, she wrote We Are On Our Own, a memoir about a mother and her daughter’s survival in World War II. Miriam writes and illustrates the story of her and her mother’s escape from the Nazis in Budapest, Hungary from 1944-1945. It’s compiled from her memories, her parents’ memories, as well as whatever primary source material she could find.

Miriam’s father was off fighting for the Hungarian army when she and her mother were forced out of their home. Desperate to survive, the two faked their deaths and fled to the countryside on foot with few possessions. Miriam was understandably confused and distraught about what was happening: where is her beloved dog, Rexy, after all? He would never leave her. Disguising themselves as illegitimate child and peasant servant woman, the two manage to stay steps ahead of the German soldiers. Miriam’s mother managed to hold onto hope that her husband would survive and that they would one day all be reunited.

Miriam was only a toddler when her world dissolved. Her childhood memories were fragmented, full of chocolate, forests, snow, strange men, and the noise and brutality of war. This memoir is her way of gathering those fragments and forming something that makes sense. Besides their physical crises, Miriam and her family go through a crisis of faith. The two contemplate God, His decisions, and why He would allow devastation and destruction across the world. This is a constant crisis for the two and for many other survivors of the Shoah/Holocaust. Miriam merges her broken pieces into a beautifully told story of her childhood innocence amidst unbelievable violence.

New Nonfiction: Uncultured by Daniella Mestyanek Young

- Claire Leave a comment

One of my favorite aspects of my job is purchasing books for the 200s section of our nonfiction collection–Religion. The number of memoirs and essay collections about people’s religious experiences are vast, passionate, and endlessly fascinating.  

I recently purchased Daniella Mestyanek Young’s memoir Uncultured. Young’s story details her childhood in the religious cult, The Children of God, also known as The Family, and the extreme lengths the community goes to to mold their followers into fervent, unquestioning believers. 

The memoir is anything but light as Young describes the seemingly endless physical and sexual abuse that the leaders of The Family claimed was “godly discipline and love.” The child abuse that is described in Young’s story is abundant, making the book difficult to read at times, but also quite straightforward. Young conveys the details of her traumatic upbringing in a very to-the-point manner, only veiling the most gruesome details for her own privacy. 

When Young turned fifteen, she escaped The Children of God. She moved to Texas to live with a half-sister (of which she has many, due to the sharing of women amongst male cult members), enrolled in high school (her first time in “Systemite” school), finished college, and eventually joins the military and works her way up to a role as an intelligence officer. 

At the end of her time enlisted, Young reckons with her life and choices in a way that she hasn’t been able to before. She originally joined the military to find another community to belong to and a group with a shared goal to work towards. Without realizing it, she essentially joined another cult-like group. Just as in The Children of God, the group mentality and abuse of women were integral to the functionality of the system.

Uncultured is clear-cut and determined: Young responsibly takes her readers through the painful but necessary revelations of a global group that has claimed a faith that allows women and children to only exist in service of perverse men. Eye-opening is just one word to describe this exposé on religious cults and the human destruction they ensue. 

This title is also available in large print.

 

American Cult edited by Robyn Chapman

- Stephanie Leave a comment

What could you give an impromptu speech on with no time to research? This is a question that was debated much among my friends. My answer: cults. Well, anything true crime related, but specifically cults. Imagine my delight when I found American Cult: A Graphic History of Religious Cults in American from the Colonial Era to Today edited by Robyn Chapman sitting on the new graphic novel shelves at the library! I couldn’t wait to give it a read.

American Cult is edited by Robyn Chapman and is compiled by numerous artists who each dedicate a section of the book to a different cult. All in all, 18 different American cults are dissected in this anthonology. The introduction discusses how readers have to take a human approach to the people who were sucked into these movements/cults – We need to treat them with ‘50% empathy and 50% justice’. Some of the chapters are pretty straightforward, while others take a wrap-around approach and really force readers to think about the difference between cults and religion. Each chapter is short – working to avoid the sensational information that was portrayed in the tabloids, but at the same time, the chapters don’t go very deep into the histories. Think of this book as sections of short histories designed to get your appetite wet and to give you enough information to do research on your own! Some of the cults presented may be somewhat controversial regarding whether or not you personally think they are a cult, but it’s a good read.

The content of this book starts in the late 17th-century with mystics that followed Johannes Kelpius in the woods outside of Philadelphia all the way to NXIVM and its leader Keith Raniere in present day. This book definitely focuses more on the more current American cults, but I was surprised to find mention of a couple cults that I had known nothing about. For example, did you know that Louisa May Alcott’s father dragged their whole family into a supposedly utopian sect called the Fruitlands? Also did you know that the Cheesecake Factory chain was founded by a member of Sufism Reoriented, a cult still running in California? There were so many random facts that I learned while I was reading this book that caught me off guard, so much so that I actually took notes! I was definitely left with more questions than answers at the end of this book, but luckily I’m in the right place to answer my questions!

Cultish by Amanda Montell

- Claire Leave a comment

Okay, language lovers–You have to add Cultish to your to-read list! Amanda Montell’s explorative work weaves together several interviews and primary accounts of people who have been entrapped by the linguistic power of, yes, cults, but also of organizations like Crossfit or multi-level marketing schemes. With each former cult member and cult-like group that Montell examines, she picks apart the diction that is used to isolate and persuade potential followers–and how saturated our society is with this linguistic phenomenon. 

She begins by discussing the heavily debated difference between religious groups and cults. It turns out that even incredibly well-researched academics cannot narrow down criteria that technically distinguishes one from the other. One difference that has been pointed to, though, is the age of the organization or faith-based group. Christianity, Islam, and Judiasm are ancient and that passage of time grants a respect to organized religions that newer organizations do not have. They do, however, still use language that makes individuals feel special and eventually creates a divide between them and those outside the group. Cults, Montell argues, do this as well and then some. 

What sends cults and cult-like groups into territory that alarms most people in ways religion doesn’t is the way they warp language. A commonality amongst all the groups that Montell examines is how they expand the standard definition of words in the English language to fit their needs. The end result is believing in a shared language that is fundamentally different from the vernacular our society uses to function together, which is ultimately divisive. 

Montell also debunks and demystifies the idea of “brainwashing,” explaining that it is incredibly unlikely for so many minds to be overtaken by buzz-words, mantras, and glossolalia against their will. For one’s mind to become complacent in what we colloquially refer to as “brainwashing” they must already be in a state of mind where they want to be controlled and validated. There is a “charisma” that cults have, Montell argues. They make people feel safe and not alone, which is attractive to most and is the reason why so many people get caught up in cultish groups. 

As someone who loves words and how powerful language is, I hung onto every word of Cultish. There is an incredible variety to Montell’s research, which provides an approachable reading experience that allows you to put it down and pick it back up without disrupting the narrative flow. I could write many more paragraphs about her findings and arguments, but I will leave you all with this sliver of insight into this riveting book. I cannot recommend this enough! 

This title is also available as a Book-on-CD. 

 

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

- Claire Leave a comment

If you, too, are interested in all things true crime I recommend Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. 

In the last couple months, a few television series were released that depict the dangers of extreme and fundamental religious faith, most notably Netflix’s docuseries Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey and Hulu’s adaptation of Under the Banner of Heaven. Amidst my viewing of these revealing and disturbing episodes about Fundamental Latter Day Saints, I felt it necessary to read Krakauer’s narrative exposé of the gruesome murders of a mother and her baby at the hands of her brothers-in-law. Ron and Dan Lafferty, the brothers who committed this evil act, rooted their reasoning in their Mormon Fundamentalist faith, and more specifically in some of the incredibly dark and violent origins of the religion. 

Krakauer situates his book somewhere in-between a history lesson about Latter Day Saints and a journalistic account of this double homicide. His reports are researched and informed by several interviews, notably from Dan Lafferty (one of the murderers). What I found to be particularly captivating about the book are the interviews leading up to the murders of Brenda and Erika Lafferty, and how Krakauer weaves them together with the historical narrative of the Mormon Church. So many of the Lafferty friends and family members knew that the brothers were planning to “remove” Brenda and her baby from this world, but no one stopped them. The “why” to this question is what ultimately fuels Krakauer’s book. 

Though I would not use this book for academic research about the modern LDS church–none of the historical information is explicitly his own, nor is he himself Mormon–Krakauer’s examination of how damaging religious faith can be when it is blind and unrelenting is superbly executed. 

Krakauer proves to be an expert non-fiction writer who can illuminate reality without supplementing fact with fabrications. I highly recommend Under the Banner of Heaven if you are in any way interested in true-crime, or if you are falling down the rabbit hole of religious-extremist media coverage like myself. 

 

Straight off the Shelf: To My Beloveds: Letters on Faith, Race, Loss, and Radical Hope by Jennifer Bailey

- Anna Leave a comment

“For them, [radical] hope was and is not the same thing as optimism. It is not a feeling nor a desired future state that is the substance of our longings. Hope is the everyday practice of believing that the material conditions of the world can be better and that we have the capacity to bring about that change in the here and now.” 

For this next blog in the “Straight off the Shelf” series, I have selected a new book from our religion section entitled To My Beloveds: Letters on Faith, Race, Loss, and Radical Hope by Jennifer Bailey. Without further ado, let’s learn a bit more about the author and her first book.

Reverend Jennifer Bailey is an ordained minister and public theologian, as well as a renowned social activist who studies and speaks on the intersection of religion and public life. On top of dedicating many years to working in nonprofit organizations, she has also helped found two major institutions: (1) the Faith Matters Network, a womanist-led organization helping to provide spiritual resources to community organizers, faith leaders, and activists; and (2) the People’s Supper, which hosts thousands of dinners across the country in an effort of bringing people together to engage in constructive conversations about important issues. Additionally, Bailey has been named one of the 15 Faith Leaders to Watch by the Center for American Progress and is an Ashoka Fellow, Nathan Cummings Foundation Fellow, Aspen Ideas Scholar, On Being Fellow, and Truman Scholar.

In her debut book, Bailey presents her readers with an epistolary work exploring how hope can be found in the face of racial and social injustice, down the avenues of grief and loss, and when the “cold and slow creep of hopelessness” enters into your thoughts and mind. From the letter entitled “As She Lay Dying” written to a motherless child, to “Who Will Take Care of My Baby?” written to those contemplating suicide, to “You are Beautiful. You are Brave” to a mother with a child in her belly, this book touches on the ways in which grief, loss, and despair can be “composted” into hope, courage, and purpose through activism and leadership work. Throughout these “love letters,” Bailey touches on the three major pillars comprising the foundation of radical hope:

  • Memory as an antidote to death
  • Imagination as a pathway to resurrection
  • Living as a testament to the possibility of the present

Drawing from both scripture and the powerful words of Toni Morrison, Bailey gives her “beloved” readers the means to find radical hope in their lives, even in the midst of life’s greatest struggles, pains, and heartaches.

I hope you enjoyed learning a bit more about this new title! If it piqued your interest and/or you would like to read more about spiritual activism, here are some similar books in our library collection:

Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy by Rachel Ricketts

Written by spiritual activist and attorney Rachel Ricketts, this book considers the intersection of spiritual activism with racial justice and white supremacy and guides readers through how they can engage in this kind of advocacy. Here is a brief description from the publisher:

“Do Better is a revolutionary offering that addresses racial justice from a comprehensive, intersectional, and spirit-based perspective. This actionable guidebook illustrates how to engage in the heart-centered and mindfulness-based practices that will help us all fight white supremacy from the inside out, in our personal lives and communities alike. It is a loving and assertive call to do the deep—and often uncomfortable—inner work that precipitates much-needed external and global change.”

Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair by Duke Kwon and Gregory Thompson

Written by an evangelical pastor and the executive director of Voices Underground, an organization dedicated to preserving the historical truth of America’s racial history, this title considers how white churches can and should respond to racial injustice, as well as how reparations can start being made. Here is a brief description provided by the publisher:

“A compelling theological and historical case for the American Christian church’s responsibility to repair its racial rift with Black brothers and sisters. Kwon and Thompson examine attitudes of white supremacy, bring to bear the Bible’s teachings on repentance and restitution, and present concrete and creative ways to make reparation at the local level.”

White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity by Robert P. Jones

Author of The End of White Christian America, Robert P. Jones takes a deep look at the manifestations of white supremacy throughout the history of several sects within the Christian church and considers their complicity in racial injustice. Here is a brief description provided by the publisher:

“As the nation grapples with demographic changes and the legacy of racism in America, Christianity’s role as a cornerstone of white supremacy has been largely overlooked. But white Christians from evangelicals in the South to mainline Protestants in the Midwest and Catholics in the Northeast have not just been complacent or complicit; rather, as the dominant cultural power, they have constructed and sustained a project of protecting white supremacy and opposing black equality that has framed the entire American story.

With his family’s 1815 Bible in one hand and contemporary public opinion surveys by Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in the other, Robert P. Jones delivers a groundbreaking analysis of the repressed history of the symbiotic relationship between Christianity and white supremacy. White Too Long demonstrates how deeply racist attitudes have become embedded in the DNA of white Christian identity over time and calls for an honest reckoning with a complicated, painful, and even shameful past. Jones challenges white Christians to acknowledge that public apologies are not enough accepting responsibility for the past requires work toward repair in the present.

White Too Long is not an appeal to altruism. Drawing on lessons gleaned from case studies of communities beginning to face these challenges, Jones argues that contemporary white Christians must confront these unsettling truths because this is the only way to salvage the integrity of their faith and their own identities. More broadly, it is no exaggeration to say that not just the future of white Christianity but the outcome of the American experiment is at stake.”

For Small Creatures Such As We by Sasha Sagan

- Callen Leave a comment

We all deserve holidays, celebrations, and traditions. We all need to mark time. We all need community. We all need to bid hello and goodbye to our loved ones… All our best rituals are a kind of performance about what we need or want most.

Sasha Sagan is the daughter of renowned cosmologist Carl Sagan and writer Ann Druyan, which gave her a uniquely scientific upbringing. Her parents focused on teaching her the wonders of the universe and the powers of critical thinking and the scientific method. When she became a parent, Sagan and her partner had to decide what philosophies and beliefs they wanted to teach their own child, and the result of that decision is her book For Small Creatures Such As We.

Sasha Sagan is presenting a secular worldview,  but is not hostile to religious perspectives. She expresses a warm curiosity and appreciation for the history of religious traditions around the world, and seeks to capture the spirit of religious rituals and festivals in her own life. Accordingly, she focuses each chapter on an aspect of life which has given rise to rituals in different religions: birth, coming-of-age, the changing of seasons, marriage, death, and more. She outlines how different traditions have celebrated these events, and offers meditations on their meaning alongside potential adaptations for secular or personal rituals. At its core, though, Sagan is urging us to really feel and celebrate the magic of being alive, however it works for us as individuals.

I enjoyed this book for the poetic descriptions of what living is, and I was moved by how honestly she talked about loving, losing, and grieving her father. I also thought she gave meaningful perspective on a lot of traditions and rituals that run through our lives. I came away feeling enlightened about the traditions that have shaped my life, and empowered to craft rituals that would add meaning to my own marking of time.

No matter your belief system, I think if you’re looking for a meditative read on how the sacred meets the everyday, there’s something in this book for you.

New Religion Titles at Eastern

- Anna Leave a comment

Looking for a new religious title to read? Here are some books that hit the shelves at our Eastern Branch in January, February, and March. If any of these titles interest you, you can use the links below to place a hold in our catalog, or you can always give us a call to put one on hold for you. The following descriptions were provided by the publisher.

Centered: Trading Your Plans for a Life that Matters by Jason Brown 

This riveting story of a top-earning NFL center and his family who walked away from it all to follow God’s call to alleviate hunger as farmers–a life they knew absolutely nothing about–illustrates the sacrifice and ultimate reward of obedience to our heavenly Father even when it doesn’t make earthly sense.

NFL lineman Jason Brown had everything he could ever want. He was the highest-paid center in the game, lived a life of luxury, and was cheered on by millions of people every week. Then, in 2012, Jason heard a call from God that changed everything. Jason turned his back on an incredibly successful career in football to pursue a new dream: ending hunger. But through third-party mismanagement and bad luck, Jason lost most of his savings from the NFL–the same money he’d planned to use to start his new career. He desperately needed the miracle that soon came.

Today, Jason and his family run First Fruits Farms in Louisburg, North Carolina, a state where one in four children don’t know where their next meal will come from. Since 2014, the Browns have donated more than 1.6 million servings of fresh produce to their community. Their motto: Never stop giving. Never stop loving. Never stop growing.

With powerful and deeply personal insight, Centered is an inspiration to embrace the joy of following where God leads–no matter how crazy it sounds.

Crazy Happy: Nine Surprising Ways to Live the Truly Beautiful Life by Daniel Fusco

Is it crazy to want a happy life? The host of Jesus Is Real Radio and Hillsong Channel’s Real with Daniel Fusco unlocks the happiness we long for in the most famous teachings of Jesus and the apostle Paul.

Dissatisfied with your life? Yeah, most of us have been there. There’s no shame in wanting to be happy, but real satisfaction often eludes us. At best, what fleeting happiness we find tends to dribble away in never-ending debts, stressful deadlines, and mindless scrolling. At worst, it’s chased away by anxiety, depression, or fallout from our selfishness.

Here’s the truth: whether we hunt for happiness in parties, bars, the workplace hustle, or even in church pews, we’ll wind up shortchanged. Why? Because we don’t see our lives as beautiful.

But God wants something better for you—happiness so real this world might think it’s too good to be true.

In Crazy Happy, Daniel Fusco unpacks fresh connections in two of the Bible’s most familiar passages—secrets of happiness that can really, truly, honest-to-goodness change things. If you stick around for the ride, you’ll find the kind of God-given beauty that can change your life for good—even in our sometimes-crazy world.

Faith After Doubt: Why Your Beliefs Stopped Working and What to Do About It  by Brian D. McLaren

From the author of A New Kind of Christianity comes a bold proposal: only doubt can save the world and your faith.

Sixty-five million adults in the U.S. have dropped out of active church attendance and about 2.7 million more are leaving every year. Faith After Doubt is for the millions of people around the world who feel that their faith is falling apart.

Using his own story and the stories of a diverse group of struggling believers, Brian D. McLaren, a former pastor and now an author, speaker, and activist shows how old assumptions are being challenged in nearly every area of human life, not just theology and spirituality. He proposes a four-stage model of faith development in which questions and doubt are not the enemy of faith, but rather a portal to a more mature and fruitful kind of faith. The four stages—Simplicity, Complexity, Perplexity, and Harmony—offer a path forward that can help sincere and thoughtful people leave behind unnecessary baggage and intensify their commitment to what matters most.

Folkloric American Witchcraft and the Multicultural Experience: A Crucible at the Crossroads by Via Hedera

Witchcraft and magic in America is an inherently multicultural experience and the folklore of our ancestors from every country converges here at a crossroads. It’s a complicated history; one of uncertainty and fear, displacement and enslavement, merging and migration. Our ancestors may not have agreed on how they saw the world or the magic that inhabits the world, but they shared a very real fear of Witches. Hags, Devils, charms and spells; witchery is rooted in our deepest superstitions and folklore. The traditions of people and their cultures stretch and intersect across the country and this is where the unique traditions of American witchcraft and magic are born.

As practitioners seek to revive and reconstruct the paths of our ancestors, we’ve begun to trace the interconnected roots of witchcraft folklore as it emerged in the Americas, from the blending of people and their faiths. For multiracial practitioners, this is part of our identity as Americans and as witches of this country. Folkloric American Witchcraft and the Multicultural Experience is an exploration of the folklore, magic and witchcraft that was forged in the New World.

The Gravity of Joy: A Story of Being Lost and Found by Angela Williams Gorrell

“My vocation was supposed to be joy, and I was speaking at funerals.”

Shortly after being hired by Yale University to study joy, Angela Gorrell got word that a close family member had died by suicide. Less than a month later, she lost her father to a fatal opioid addiction and her nephew, only twenty-two years old, to sudden cardiac arrest. The theoretical joy she was researching at Yale suddenly felt shallow and distant—completely unattainable in the fog of grief she now found herself in.

But joy was closer at hand than it seemed. As she began volunteering at a women’s maximum-security prison, she met people who suffered extensively yet still showed a tremendous capacity for joy. Talking with these women, many of whom had struggled with addiction and suicidal thoughts themselves, she realized: “Joy doesn’t obliterate grief. . . . Instead, joy has a mysterious capacity to be felt alongside sorrow and even—sometimes most especially—in the midst of suffering.”

This is the story of Angela’s discovery of an authentic, grounded Christian joy. But even more, it is an invitation for others to seize upon this more resilient joy as a counteragent to the twenty-first-century epidemics of despair, addiction, and suicide—a call to action for communities that yearn to find joy and are willing to “walk together through the shadows” to find it.

The In-Between Place: Where Jesus Changes Your Story by Kat Armstrong

Jesus’ journey to the woman at the well in Samaria offers insights and hope for women today to make peace with the past, find hope in the present, and step into the future.

God wants us to move toward the goodness He has planned for us. But what do we do when challenges stop our forward momentum? What’s the next step when we fall into a pit of despair with the determination knocked right out of us?

On his way from Judea to Galilee, Jesus traveled through Samaria, a broken place everyone knew to avoid. In Samaria he stopped in Shechem, where evil had gained such a foothold of power that it eventually reigned. Yet the place once condemned as somewhere no one wanted to visit—let alone hang out in for a while—was the location of one Samaritan woman’s most hope-filled encounter with the Savior.

The In-Between Place offers deeply important insights to anyone who feels stuck and can’t see a way forward. It is for the person who feels that if she looks left, her face will be scraped by an immovable boulder, and if she looks right, she’ll see nothing but hard to handle. It’s for the person who feels lost and is not sure she is worth the effort to be found, for the person who feels overlooked and unfulfilled. Because sometimes Jesus saves our greatest spiritual breakthroughs for our in-between places.

Win the Day: 7 Daily Habits to Help You Stress Less & Accomplish More by Mark Batterson

The New York Times bestselling author of Chase the Lion reveals seven powerful habits that can help you tackle God-sized goals by turning yesterday’s regrets and tomorrow’s anxieties into fuel for a better today.

Too many people delay, downsize, or shrug off their dreams just because they don’t know where to start, but playing it safe doesn’t account for the massive cost of a life not fully lived. Win the Day is the jump-start you need to go after your goals, one day at a time. You’ll discover how to:

1. Flip the Script: If you want to change your life, start by changing your story.
2. Kiss the Wave: The obstacle is not the enemy; the obstacle is the way.
3. Eat the Frog: If you want God to do the super, you’ve got to do the natural.
4. Fly the Kite: How you do anything is how you’ll do everything.
5. Cut the Rope: Playing it safe is risky.
6. Wind the Clock: Time is measured in minutes; life is measured in moments.
7. Seed the Clouds: Sow today what you want to see tomorrow.

As Batterson unpacks each of these daily habits, you’ll see how simple it is to pursue them with focus and dedication—not someday down the road, but now. Transform your perspective of a single day and you’ll discover the potential waiting to be grasped at the beginning of each new sunrise.