On My Kindle

In another 48 hours, I will be delivering out-of-town friends to overnight destinations and preparing to sleep for a long, long time. I doubt that I'll write anything much between now and Monday; there's still a lot to do, there's a potential for a major change in the service, and Michelle arrives late tomorrow afternoon ~ which means nonstop conversation ahead!  My dear friend Carol arrives as well, but she's staying with friends, so we have to wait a bit longer for our actual encounter.

In the meantime, I'm about to settle in for a little reading and I thought that I'd record what's in active status on my Kindle at the moment:

Resilience, by Elizabeth Edwards.  I'm reading it since she, too, lost a son and then discovered that she had breast cancer.  A lot of other bad things happened to her, too, and she died knowing that her husband had completely failed her and their children.  I'm finding the book oddly disjointed, which is not surprising, I suppose, although it seems that an editor might have taken things in hand.

An Ignatian Pathway, by Paul Coutinho, S.J.  I'm not sure I'm even past the introduction yet, so I have nothing to say about this one.

The Monks of Tibhurine, byJohn Kiser. I loved the movie, and I'm glad I saw it first, as the visuals have stayed with me and help to fill out the book.  I'm fascinated by the monks' interactions with their Muslim neighbors, and by the Algerian history of which I knew nothing. 

Church and Countryside, by Tim Gibson.  I came across this title when I was doing some online research on the concept of the rural church.  I'm not very far into it, but I was grateful to discover that others have begun to explore and analyze the unique potential for contribution by small churches whose congregants have intentionally chosen rural and small town lives.

Christ, The Sacrament of Encounter with God, by Edward Schillebeeckx, O.P.  I've heard of Schillebeeckx, but never read him.  Last week his name came up in a series of lectures on suffering to which I was listening; he is apparently a great proponent of the value of narrative.  In fact, I would venture to say that he has had a huge impact on another person I know.  This might have been the only book of his available on Kindle; at any rate, it's the one I bought.

So there you have it, the eclectic reading interests of a Presbyterian pastor, immediately pre-ordination: breast cancer, grief, Ignatian spirituality, interfaith engagement, the contemplative life, the rural church, and Christology.

I wonder what the list will look like a year from now!