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Tap into what we’re reading at the WATER office with the following resources.
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.
Askew, Emily and O. Wesley Allen Jr. BEYOND HETEROSEXISM IN THE PULPIT. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2015 (149 pages, $21.00).
For those who are serious about using worship as a justice-seeking teaching and advocacy tool, this volume is a real help. Words matter. Choice of themes, scriptural passages, and ways of letting congregations know that ministers are not neutral add up to necessary techniques for being helpful not harmful, proactive not reactive, and above all, creating a safer, saner, more inclusive world.
Bowman, Donna. PRAYER SHAWL MINISTRIES AND WOMEN’S THEOLOGICAL IMAGINATIONS. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2016 (353 pages, $110.00).
Spiritual practices that people actually engage in make great foundations for theology. This study of creating, using, and letting people know the importance of prayer shawls reflects pastoral theology done well. Surely there are other such practices that would benefit from this kind of elucidation.
Farley, Wendy. THE THIRST FOR GOD: CONTEMPLATING GOD’S LOVE WITH THREE WOMEN MYSTICS. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015 (169 pages, $18.28).
Mechtild of Magdeburg, Julian of Norwich and Marguerite Porte, medieval contemplatives who left deep impressions in the Western spiritual tradition, form the heart of this exploration. Dr. Farley excavates the lives and works of these three women in a church that hardly welcomed them, a world that showed a certain hostility, and yet a Spirit that seemingly called them forth.
Harrison, Kelby. SEXUAL DECEIT: THE ETHICS OF PASSING. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013 (219 ages, $39.99).
A useful study of the ever more complicated matters of passing, closeting, outing, and the like. As sex/gender issues evolve, these questions and the importance of how to approach them justly only increase. Specialized work that will evoke necessary discussion.
Hayes, Diana L. FORGED IN THE FURNACE: AFRICAN AMERICAN SPIRITUALITY. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2012 (228 pages, $17.17).
African American spirituality has many roots. Professor Hayes explores Christian ones, focusing her insightful study on particular thinkers, practitioners, and communities. She illustrates the enormous progress against equally large odds, and the generous contribution of African Americans to a nation that still actively resists their contributions.
Junior, Nyasha. AN INTRODUCTION TO WOMANIST BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015 (152 pages, $21.60).
Womanist scholarship is diverse and disputed in its many strong articulations. Professor Junior lays out the contours of the differences as they relate to biblical scholarship. Created as an introductory text, the nuances here are for a broad audience to ponder and understand.
Read along with it: Smith, Mitzi J. I FOUND GOD IN ME: A WOMANIST BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICS READER. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2015 (312 pages, $31.52).
This is a compilation of primary sources of womanist biblical scholarship. Some of the essays form the basis of Dr. Junior’s analysis.
Kaplan, Roberta and Lisa Dickey. THEN COMES MARRIAGE: UNITED STATES V. WINDSOR AND THE DEFEAT OF DOMA. NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2015 (350 pages, $16.95).
It all started by recognizing the dignity of one couple. With Roberta Kaplan’s defeat of DOMA in the United States vs Windsor case, she, along with countless others, was able to help pave the way for marriage equality nationwide. Weaving her own personal tale of self acceptance in with the life of her client and the case itself, Then Comes Marriage offers a complete, authentic, compelling narrative of a truly remarkable moment in history.
Sabine, Maureen. VEILED DESIRES: INTIMATE PORTRAYALS OF NUNS IN POSTWAR ANGLO-AMERICAN FILM. New York, NY: Fordham University Press, 2013 (320 pages, $35.00).
Taking an intimate look at the portrayal of nuns in films such as The Sound of Music, Black Narcissus, and Dead Man Walking, Maureen Sabine discusses topics ranging from the power struggle between nuns and priests to hidden sexuality in convents. An accessible and engaging read.
Stokes, Jeanette. FOLLOWING A FEMALE LINE. Durham, NC: Words & Spirit, 2015 (157 pages, $20.00).
Jeanette Stokes, founder of the Resource Center for Women & Ministry in the South, writes of her mission to trace the matrilineal line of her family to years before the Revolutionary War. What she finds is a long line of proud and adventurous Scots-Irish women of a strong Presbyterian faith that connects her to a larger pool of relatives in the South. Jeanette’s writing is warm, evocative, imaginative, and makes the reader feel as if they are part of the family. Absolutely running over with nostalgia and love, a great read for any fan of creative non-fiction.
Whitney, Ruth. THE HEART OF JESUS’ TEACHING: THE KEY TO TRANSFORMING CHRISTIANITY AND OUR WORLD. Nevada City, CA: Blue Dolphin Publishing, 2016 (265 pages, $19.95).
Love seems like a simple recipe in a complicated world. But Ruth Whitney lays out a solid and inviting case for it. By her lights, Christians would leave aside the small stuff that divides and unite on the big central message of many religious traditions. Well worth reading and discussing.