Interdisciplinary Book and Film Reviews

  Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their             Meaning and Power― And How They Can Be Restored   by Marcus J. Borg Reviewed by   Geoffrey W. Sutton   In Speaking Christian , Marcus Borg offers a new way to experience Christianity free from the strange and often misunderstood phrases that hide the meaning of stories from thousands of years ago. It is the kind of book that can help contemporary Christians appreciate ancient wisdom in a new light. And SpeakingChristian can also help non-Christians understand the differences between Christian spirituality and more recent interpretations of old texts that ignore the metaphors of ancient texts. Borg expresses concern about the misunderstandings conveyed by Christians who do not understand the historical texts. There are two languages spoken by Christians. One linguistic framework focuses on transforming people for the next world and the other focuses on transforming the world in which we live. Borg d

  Unbelievable                                  Why Neither Ancient Creeds     Nor the Reformation Can Produce a Living Faith Today By   John Shelby Spong Reviewed by   Geoffrey W. Sutton ( suttong.com ) Spong provides examples of Unbelievable doctrines of the church and calls for a second reformation. He presents 12 challenging theses as foundational to building a new understanding of the Bible by relying on a more rational appreciation of the metaphorical and meaningful truths of the scriptures rather than the implausible literal interpretations that obscure a meaningful spiritual life. His presentation appears focused on educated adults who have not lost their interest in Christian spirituality but are not satisfied with current presentations of Christianity found in Protestant or Catholic pulpits. He is particularly concerned with the distortion of faith found in those who present simplistic and literal, or near literal, views of creation, biblical violence, and

Vital Friends:                                The People You Can't Afford to Live Without   By Tom Rath Reviewed by    Geoffrey W. Sutton Events like Covid-19, severe illnesses, and disasters remind us of the importance of friends.   Weaving together stories, historical examples, published research, and survey data, Rath makes the case for the importance of close friends (i,e, Vital Friends) to life-satisfaction and productivity. The author organized 14 chapters into four parts. Four appendixes, research notes, suggested reading, and acknowledgments complete this  easy-to-read paperback.   In the six chapters that comprise part one, we learn Rath's point that our culture may have focused too heavily on personal growth to the exclusion of developing relationships with others. In addition to examples from daily life, Rath invokes the research of Gottman to show the importance of positive interactions to marital and individual well-being.   The three chapters of pa

  Notorious RBG      By Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik Reviewed by Geoffrey W. Sutton   Notorious RBG caught my eye when looking for a book to listen to on our recent trip. Of course, her death had a lot to do with making Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life salient. The subtitle, The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg , makes it clear this is a biography. My wife and I liked the book because it gave us insight into this woman’s strength and determination, capacity for love, and her brilliant mind. The authors help us understand how her character and experience enabled her to fight sexism and cancer on a grand scale. Her lifelong love for her husband stands out in a time when so many relationships end badly. We also begin to understand how she could write powerful arguments yet be friends with those having a different worldview like conservative justice, Antonin Scalia.  RBG was a woman who could argue fiercely for her perspective on justice yet keep focus on people who are

THERAPY AFTER TERROR:        9/11, PSYCHOTHERAPISTS,    AND MENTAL HEALTH By     Karen M. Seeley  (2008) Reviewed by   September K. Trent       and   Geoffrey W. Sutton “Everybody’s trauma was so raw. It didn’t matter who you were talking to —relief worker, direct victim, other therapists —you were all the same body in some ways”  (p. 152).  Seeley peppers her analysis of the effects of 9/11 on psychotherapists and the field of mental health with excerpts from pungent and thoughtful interviews. We glimpse the chaos through the eyes of psychotherapists who lived the trauma in their personal and professional lives. On the morning of September 11, 2001, New York therapists are running to the Red Cross shelters to donate their time, psychologists are treating patients who are eyewitnesses to the worst enemy attack on the American homeland, and counselors, themselves victims who lost everything, are trying to counsel others through trauma-colored lenses. Seeley examines the diagn

AMISH GRACE:            HOW FORGIVENESS TRANSCENDED TRAGEDY By    Donald Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt,     & David L. Weaver-Zercher Reviewed by    Geoffrey W. Sutton The horrific slaughter of Amish children attending school in the Old Order Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, garnered international attention in October, 2006. When the Amish responded with forgiveness and reconciliation, people were doubly shocked. Christian teaching and psychological research on forgiveness can appear as sterile narratives until tragedies upend everyday life. The authors of  Amish Grace offer informed readers the kind of details and analyses that allow Christian clinicians and researchers to consider how Christian virtues and psychological research on forgiveness and reconciliation may be integrated. The authors explore the virtues of grace, forgiveness, and reconciliation as they review the Amish response to the tragic school shooting of October 2, 2006 in Nickel Mines, Pennsy

THE NEXT CHRISTIANS:        THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT THE END OF  CHRISTIAN AMERICA By     Gabe Lyons   2010 Reviewed by    Geoffrey W. Sutton How do young Americans perceive Christians? Lyons reports the results of a study he commissioned to "understand the perceptions that sixteen-to twenty-nine-year-olds have about Christians (p. 3)" In the eleven chapters, Lyons explores these findings in the context of anecdotes and other research to suggest changes that appear to occur among Americans who self-identify as Christians. The book is a highly readable report of survey findings likely of interest to anyone following trends in American culture and religion. This book extends Lyon's previous interests reflected in unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity and Why itMatters , which he coauthored with David Kinnaman. I would characterize Lyon's approach as Purpose Driven Research . In the first part of   the book he outlines his case for th