Recommended religious and spiritual books

Tentatively scheduled books
for the upcoming months

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Note:

We feel that these books should be of interest to everyone:

• Those who follow a conservative Christian belief system should find the books helpful when proselytizing. It is important to know what Christians from other faith traditions, religious liberals, and secularists believe and why they believe it.
  
  
• Agnostics, Atheists, and other secularists should find the books helpful because they may increase their understanding of their own beliefs, and those of various organized religious traditions.
  
  
• Everyone may benefit from these books because they combat with reason the high levels of sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, hatred and mistrust of Atheists, religious intolerance, etc. in the North American culture and the rest of the world.

Previous months' recommendations

Current month's selection

2013-September's selection

Amazon.com's book description:

A Convenient Hatred chronicles a very particular hatred through powerful stories that allow readers to see themselves in the tarnished mirror of history. It raises important questions about the consequences of our assumptions and beliefs and the ways we, as individuals and as members of a society, make distinctions between "us" and "them," right and wrong, good and evil. These questions are both universal and particular.

2013-October's selection

Polebridge Press' book description:

Progressive Christianity is not new. It has been around for two hundred years or more. But the anger and disappointment of those who have encountered it only recently is palpable: 'Why weren't we told?' This international collection of cameos and articles on the themes and issues addressed by progressive Christianity is a response to that cry.

2013-November's selection

Some editorial reviews:

• Sarah Hulcy: "A wonderful, biting, incisive 'Cultural Arsonist's Literal Reading of The Bible' in plain English, with terrific descriptions of the Old Testament God and the New Testament God (somewhat different individuals...); very tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic and pointed, dedicated to Christopher Hitchens and Thomas Paine, both of whom would, I believe, really enjoy this book! I know I did.  Having a sense of humor is required to enjoy this book."
  
  
• Bill Baker: "This is hilarious!  Joe Wenke gives a nod to Mark Twain as he looks at the Bible with fresh eyes and with the pen of thinking comic. I know there will be those who will get out their pitchforks and light their torches and see Joe Wenke out, but as for me - someone who went to a Quaker high school and had religion each year and was one course shy of having religion be part of a dual major as an undergraduate, Joe Wenke's YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING is refreshing and should be a part of any library, especially a church library.
  
  
• Christopher Rudolph of The Advocate: "Born the oldest of 11 children in a strict Catholic household, comedian Joe Wenke, a self-proclaimed 'trisexual,' dissects the Bible and asks questions that many never thought or dared to ask. Example: If the Wise Men were so wise, why did they get lost? How big was Noah's Ark and who cleaned up after the animals? [It's a] radically funny book that examines how ludicrous parts of the Bible are when taken literally. Bonus, ...transgender model Gisele graces the cover."

2013-December's selection

Neil J. Kressel, "The Sons of Pigs and Apes: Muslim Antisemitism and the conspiracy of Silence"

Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store. $18.67 plus postage in paperback & $16.17 in Kindle format

Some editorial reviews:

• "A lucid, compelling, and much-needed account of how the crucial issue of antisemitism in the Muslim world is currently being minimized, downplayed, obfuscated, and in many cases completely ignored in much of the Western world. This book should be required reading for decision makers, opinion molders, and not least ‘experts’ in academia, who have been particularly complicit in this policy of silence."—Robert S. Wistrich, director of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism and author of A Lethal Obsession and From Ambivalence to Betrayal
  
  
• “All religions and cultures suffer from sources that preach hate against the ‘other.’ Throughout history some have, tragically, practiced what their sources preached, while some have sought to dismiss or even counteract the hateful words of their sources. In this book, Neil Kressel shows how extremists within Islam, many in leadership roles, have exploited some of their hateful sources to preach and practice a virulent form of antisemitism. Read this book and judge for yourself.”—Alan M. Dershowitz, author of The Trials of Zion
  
  
• “While parts of this book make me uncomfortable, I must admit that it represents, rather sadly, what many of my coreligionists think.”—Khaleel Mohammed, Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies, San Diego State University
  
  
• “Kressel handles one of the hottest topics in the world carefully, calmly, and coolly. He explains the dangers of Muslim antisemitism while destroying the many excuses for it that are so often offered—and shaming those in the Muslim world or in the West who downplay these modern forms of the oldest, and one of the bloodiest, hatreds in world history.”—Elliott Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern Studies, Council on Foreign Relations

2014-January's selection

Reza Aslan, "Zealot: The life and times of Jesus of Nazareth"

Read reviews or order this book safely from Amazon.com online book store. $16.20 plus postage in paperback & $16.81 in Kindle format

Amazon.com book description:

"... Sifting through centuries of mythmaking, Reza Aslan sheds new light on one of history’s most influential and enigmatic characters by examining Jesus through the lens of the tumultuous era in which he lived: first-century Palestine, an age awash in apocalyptic fervor. Scores of Jewish prophets, preachers, and would-be messiahs wandered through the Holy Land, bearing messages from God. This was the age of zealotry—a fervent nationalism that made resistance to the Roman occupation a sacred duty incumbent on all Jews. And few figures better exemplified this principle than the charismatic Galilean who defied both the imperial authorities and their allies in the Jewish religious hierarchy.

Balancing the Jesus of the Gospels against the historical sources, Aslan describes a man full of conviction and passion, yet rife with contradiction; a man of peace who exhorted his followers to arm themselves with swords; an exorcist and faith healer who urged his disciples to keep his identity a secret; and ultimately the seditious “King of the Jews” whose promise of liberation from Rome went unfulfilled in his brief lifetime. Aslan explores the reasons why the early Christian church preferred to promulgate an image of Jesus as a peaceful spiritual teacher rather than a politically conscious revolutionary. And he grapples with the riddle of how Jesus understood himself, the mystery that is at the heart of all subsequent claims about his divinity.

Zealot yields a fresh perspective on one of the greatest stories ever told even as it affirms the radical and transformative nature of Jesus of Nazareth’s life and mission. The result is a thought-provoking, elegantly written biography with the pulse of a fast-paced novel: a singularly brilliant portrait of a man, a time, and the birth of a religion."

Originally written: 2008-MAR-16
Latest update and review: 2013-AUG-01
Author: B.A. Robinson

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