Academy #42 Required Reading

Reading assignments from faculty of Academy #42 held at Camp McDowell at Nauvoo, Alabama. Books are added when received from faculty presenters. Please check back frequently for new book additions.

Session One: January 23-28, 2023

 Attentiveness to the Word – Juan Carlos Huertas

Group A: Select one book from both groups A & B
1.  Abide: Keeping Vigil with the Word of God by Macrina Wiederkher
2. Things Hidden: Scripture As Spirituality by Richard Rohr

Group B: Select one book from both groups A & B
1.  Unsettling the Word: Biblical Experiments in Decolonization ed. Steve Heinrichs
2. This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley

Traditions of Christian Spirituality – Amy Oden

    1. Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of Christian Faith, by Richard Foster. HarperOne, 2001.
    2. To Pray and To Love: Conversations on Prayer With the Early Church by Roberta Bondi. Fortress Press, 1991.

Session Two: April 24-29, 2023

Hebrew Spirituality – Rabbi David Horowitz

  1. God Was in this Place and I, I Did Not Know, by Lawrence Kushner
  2.  The Message of the Psalms, by Walter Brueggemann

Spiritual Disciplines – Larry Peacock

  1. Openings – A Daybook for Saints, Sages, Psalms and Prayer Practices by Larry J. Peacock.
  2. An Altar in the World, by Barbara Brown Taylor

Session Three: August 7-12, 2023

Liturgy & Spirituality – Don Saliers

  1. Worship Come To Its Senses by Don E. Saliers (OSL Publications)
  2. The Three-Year Banquet: The Lectionary for the Assembly by Gail Ramshaw, Fortress Press

New Testament Spirituality: Shively Smith

  1. Sermon on the Parables by Howard Thurman
  2. Listening to the Spirit in the Text by Gordon D. Fee
  3. Suggested optional Reading, Howard Thurman’s essay, “Jesus: An Interpretation,” in Jesus and the Disinherited,  (first chapter of book)

Session Four: October 16-21, 2023

Roman Catholic Spirituality – Chris DeSilva

  1. Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship by Gregory Boyle, SJ
  2. The Crucible of Racism: Ignatian Spirituality and the Power of Hope by Patrick Saint-Jean, SJ

Spirituality and Embodiment – Molly Vetter (choose two of the four options below)

  1. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teaching of  Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
  2. Praying With Every Heart – Orienting Our Lives to the Wholeness of the World (Kindle version for $9.99) (Oregon: Cascade Books, 2021)
  3. Earth-honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key, by Larry L. Rasmussen (Free Audiobook with Audibles trial)
  4. Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto, by Tricia Hersey

Session Five: January 22-27, 2024

Prayer and the Art of Discernment – Roberta Bondi

  1. To Pray and To Love: Conversations on Prayer with the Early Church by Roberta Bondi
  2. Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott

Orthodox Spirituality – Fr. John Mefrige

  1. The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology by Igumen Chariton.
  2. Suggested optional reading: The Way of a Pilgrim: and The Pilgrim Continues His Way by R.M. French (translator)

Session Six: April 8-13, 2024

Protestant Spirituality – Jerry Webber

From the list below, please choose 2 books you have not read previously:

  1. Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
  2.  The Kingdom Within: The Inner Meaning of Jesus’ Sayings by John A. Sanford
  3.  Meditations of the Heart by Howard Thurman
  4. The Spiritual Life by Evelyn Underhill

Spirituality and Ways of Healing – Grace Imathiu

  1. This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley

  2. Trauma and Grace, 2nd Edition: Theology in a Ruptured World by Serene Jones

Session Seven: August 5-10, 2024

Christian Spirituality in the Global Context – Bishop Hee-Soo Jung

  1. Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banares by Diana Eck

  2. The New Faces of Christianity, Believing the Bible in the Global South by Philip Jenkins

Spiritual Leadership in Local Faith Communities – Valerie Lomax Jackson

  1. Another Way: Living and Leading Change on Purpose by Stephen Lewis, Matthew Wesley Williams, & Dori Baker

  2. This Here is Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories That Make Us by Cole Arthur Riley

Session Eight: November 11-16, 2024

Sustaining Our Life in Christ: A Rule of Life – Mary Earle

  1. Soul Feast: An Invitation to the Christian Spiritual Life by Marjorie Thompson
  2. At Home in the World: A Rule of Life for the Rest of Us by Margaret Guenther
  3. Beginning Again: Benedictine Wisdom for Living with Illness by Mary C. Earle (Rule of Life for Living with Illness – OPTIONAL for anyone who may need it)

Bearing Witness to the Reign of God in the World – Luther Smith

  1. Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Brueggemann, by Walter Brueggemann (Fortress Press).
  2. Hope Is Here! Spiritual Practices for Pursuing Justice and Beloved Community, by Luther E. Smith Jr. (Westminster John Knox Press); the book will be available on November 7, 2023; pre-orders are now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, WJKbooks.com, pcusastore.com, and several other online bookstores.