Hello, beautiful souls. Let’s start a wisdom Thread. You’ve heard plenty from me about what I’m reading and learning, now it’s your turn!
What books have you found yourself absorbed in this past summer? (they don’t have to be spiritual books) Is there a favorite quote you can share? Did you experience something this summer that has changed you in some way? A piece of insight or wisdom gained?
I’ve been diving into some works on deconstructing harmful ideas within Christianity: A New Kind of Christianity (Brian McLaren), Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God (Brian Zahnd), and Out of the Embers (Brad Jersak). All three are making me want to do cartwheels.
In my femininist pursuit, The Chalice and the Blade (Riane Eisler), as well as The Feminine Face of God (Sherry Ruth Anderson and Patricia Hopkins) have been helpful guides.
But by far my favorite thing I’ve read is Carol Lynn Pearson’s volume Finding Mother God: Poems to Heal the World. Thanks to you, Colette, for highlighting her work in a post—I’ll never be the same! 💖
Anni, that’s an amazing stack of books! I love Brian McLaren. His writing has been so healing for me. His writing was the first that made me feel normal about the doubts and struggles I had with Christianity. I’ll have to look up the rest of these books, they look great! And of course, Pearson’s poems are so healing as well. ❤️
I have read a few of James Herroit fictional stories about a vet working in rural northern england around the 1940s. They are brillant, witty, with great observations about the humans he interacts with. I have also been learning about internal family systems which I'm finding fascinating.
I read the book "The Once and Future Sex" by Eleanor Janega and found it so fascinating to look at women's roles in medieval Europe; both how some of those early ideas about women shaped thought today, but also how some of them have changed. For instance, the idea that women cannot work outside of the home feels like it should be a stereotype out of The Middle ages, but it would have been completely foreign to them because women were always working and their value was being able to work (and possibly bear children). It's easy to overlook the work that women did because they often were lumped in under their husbands or brothers or fathers businesses and thus you only really hear about them in the historical record when their male relatives pass away and they're left doing the business on their own as a widow or spinster. Which means that the movie "A Knight's Tale" was being accurate when it portrayed the woman blacksmith who had taken over the business after her husband passed away. Women were often working right alongside their spouses or male family members at whatever trade they did. Super fascinating!
That is so interesting! I friggin love reading history!! Oh, how we easily forget and assume the culture we live in is all that there is, forgetting how much our history has influenced just about everything! I think ignoring or not taking the time to learn history (and from different perspectives) is dangerous. It makes us more vulnerable to repeat mistakes and remain stuck in unhelpful ideologies.
I’ve been diving into some works on deconstructing harmful ideas within Christianity: A New Kind of Christianity (Brian McLaren), Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God (Brian Zahnd), and Out of the Embers (Brad Jersak). All three are making me want to do cartwheels.
In my femininist pursuit, The Chalice and the Blade (Riane Eisler), as well as The Feminine Face of God (Sherry Ruth Anderson and Patricia Hopkins) have been helpful guides.
But by far my favorite thing I’ve read is Carol Lynn Pearson’s volume Finding Mother God: Poems to Heal the World. Thanks to you, Colette, for highlighting her work in a post—I’ll never be the same! 💖
Anni, that’s an amazing stack of books! I love Brian McLaren. His writing has been so healing for me. His writing was the first that made me feel normal about the doubts and struggles I had with Christianity. I’ll have to look up the rest of these books, they look great! And of course, Pearson’s poems are so healing as well. ❤️
Return to love; it is not up to you what you’ll learn, but it’s up to you if you’ll learn through pain or joy ❤️
Yes! So true.
I have read a few of James Herroit fictional stories about a vet working in rural northern england around the 1940s. They are brillant, witty, with great observations about the humans he interacts with. I have also been learning about internal family systems which I'm finding fascinating.
I LOVE James Herriot! His books were literally some of my favorite books to when I was a kid. ❤️
I never read them til last year but we grew up watching the BBC series based on them. I'm amazed they made it to the USA
I read the book "The Once and Future Sex" by Eleanor Janega and found it so fascinating to look at women's roles in medieval Europe; both how some of those early ideas about women shaped thought today, but also how some of them have changed. For instance, the idea that women cannot work outside of the home feels like it should be a stereotype out of The Middle ages, but it would have been completely foreign to them because women were always working and their value was being able to work (and possibly bear children). It's easy to overlook the work that women did because they often were lumped in under their husbands or brothers or fathers businesses and thus you only really hear about them in the historical record when their male relatives pass away and they're left doing the business on their own as a widow or spinster. Which means that the movie "A Knight's Tale" was being accurate when it portrayed the woman blacksmith who had taken over the business after her husband passed away. Women were often working right alongside their spouses or male family members at whatever trade they did. Super fascinating!
That is so interesting! I friggin love reading history!! Oh, how we easily forget and assume the culture we live in is all that there is, forgetting how much our history has influenced just about everything! I think ignoring or not taking the time to learn history (and from different perspectives) is dangerous. It makes us more vulnerable to repeat mistakes and remain stuck in unhelpful ideologies.