All of the books we recommend are available for the borrowing from the Carol Murdock Scinto Library in the WATER office. Check out librarything.com for our complete collection. We are grateful to the many publishers who send us review copies to promote to the WATER community.
Brock, Rita Nakashima and Gabriella Lettini. Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury after War. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2012 (176 pages, $24.95).
A poignant examination of the devastating power of war on the human mind and spirit, Soul Repair is heartbreakingly beautiful. The authors build a momentum of emotion through personal stories of soldiers and their family members showing the destructive impact of war. Readers finish Soul Repair with heavy hearts and clear insight on war.
Cheng, Patrick S. Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology. New York, NY: Seabury Books, 2011 (176 pages, $24).
Patrick Cheng’s introduction to queer theology pains a broad portrait of the roots and scope of queer theology, making it an excellent resource for undergraduate study.
Chittister, Joan. Happiness. Grand Rapids, MI and Cambridge, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2011 (225 pages, $20).
In her customary accessible style, Joan Chittister offers a compassionate and thorough exploration of the search for, meaning of, and expressions of happiness in varied religious traditions. This is a refreshing alternative to the mainstream rhetoric of positive thinking and money will make you happy.
Ellison, Marvin M. Making Love Just: Sexual Ethics for Perplexing Times. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2012 (176 pages, $18).
Marvin weaves many wise voices, including his own, into a ‘liberating method of ethical discernment’ resulting in new and necessary conversations. An important contribution with a deft touch.
Freitas, Donna. SEX AND THE SOUL: JUGGLING SEXUALITY, SPIRITUALITY, ROMANCE, AND RELIGION ON AMERICA’S COLLEGE CAMPUSES. Cambridge, England and New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008 (328 pages, $24.95).
Interviews with diverse college students shed light on current sex and spirituality on campus featuring V-cards, purity pledges, hook-ups, and the rare sexual sage. Compiled data and personal narrative make for a thorough account. Much work to do in this arena to encourage safety and a healthy integration of sex and spirit.
Harris, Melanie L. and Kate M. Ott. Faith, Feminism, and Scholarship: The Next Generation. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan (224 pages, $90).
Community-based, sisterist work brings complex questions, twenty-first century global analysis, and a strong commitment to justice. The field is truly in the best of hands!
Kraemer, Ross Shepard. Unreliable Witnesses: Religion, Gender and History in the Greco-Roman Mediterranean. Oxford, England and New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2011 (344 pages, $74).
With many of the same questions that propelled her early groundbreaking work, Ross Kraemer marshals three decades of scholarship and knowledge to a technical reexamination of questions of gender and religion in early Judean and Christian texts. This well researched and highly annotated work will provide a rich resource for feminist historians and textual scholars.
Morris, Wayne. Theology without Words: Theology in the Deaf Community. Hampshire, England and Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2008 (192 pages $39.95).
Not feminist per se, but a very useful way of understanding the ways in which the deaf community is creating its own theology. Much to learn about how language and symbols work, about how resourceful people are when it comes to faith.
Rupp, Joyce. The Cup of Our Life: A Guide to Spiritual Growth. Notre Dame, Indiana: Ave Maria Press, 2012 (192 pages, $16.95, revised edition).
This fresh edition awakens the soul and brings the reader closer to her/his higher power by using the cup as a symbol to connect the worldly self to the deeper soul self. With inclusive language for the divine, this book is for those who have experienced life’s pain or troubling events i.e., all of us.
Scholz, Susanne. Sacred Witness: Rape in the Hebrew Bible. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2010 (288 pages, $35).
Through a strong feminist lens, Scholz uses both popular and ignored texts from the Hebrew Bible to examine society’s standards when defining rape. She sees biblical texts as a “sacred witness” to the universal harm of rape then and now. She asserts, “The way things are is not the way they have to be”.