For May: The Practice of the Presence of God

Although May's selection was written by a monk in medieval France, I suspect that we would all benefit from reading it. Using the mundane, Brother Lawrence calls us to a realization that God is a part of all of life, and we have a choice of acknowledging Him or not.

Take your time reading through this slender collection of musings, letters, and notes, but finish by May 28th to join us for a discussion of The Practice of the Presence of God!

April Fiction Choice

In case you haven't seen the bulletin yet, the choice for April has been made; and we are reading Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. Alan Paton was a South African who grew up in the areas where the book is set, but he wrote the book while on a trip to study the correctional facilities of Europe and the United States. Cry, the Beloved Country is Alan Paton's first novel.

If you will not be able to make it to our discussion, or you'd just like to begin mulling on the book before our meeting, you might think about the answers to this list of questions.

March 2010 Book

In anticipation of the coming church retreat, we have decided to read D.A. Carson's most recent release - Scandalous: The Cross and Resurrection of Jesus. In this book, Dr. Carson examines five passages of scripture to help us undersand why God would save us by sending His son to die on a cross.

The book is about 170 pages long and is available for purchase at the book table before or after services. Whether or not you're planning to hear Dr. Carson speak next month, please join us for the reading of Scandalous!

February Reading

This month's discussion will be on the novel Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor. Flannery O'Connor is best known for her short stories, but she also wrote two novels, of which this is the first. It was published in 1952.

Wise Blood is on the short side (about 120 pages), so we hope you will find time to read it before our discussion! The discussion will be held on February 26 at 7:30 pm.

Spring 2009 - C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy

For February, March, and April 2009 we will be reading C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy beginning with "Out of the Silent Planet" followed by "Perelandra" and "That Hideous Strength".

In OSP, take a look at these elements:

* How does Lewis handle the comparison of the moral natures of the races, both terrestrial and alien? Make a list of the traits of each and see if they fall into patterns. Do you see any relationships between the alien natures? How do the humans look?

* How does Lewis' science fiction compare with the various eras of sci-fi? Does he compare well to Jules Verne? H.G. Wells? Isaac Asimov? Arthur C. Clarke? Robert Heinlein? Are you distracted by some of his scientfic "errors" or were you impressed by his insights for the his era of history?

* How does Lewis compare with the Roddenberry and George Lucas worlds?

* Go over some of Ransom's initial reactions to the aliens of Malacandra and compare them to his latter views of the aliens. Can we learn anything about human sociology from this? try to think of an example of when you were wrong about a person from an initial impression.

* What is Lewis' view of the spiritual vs. physical realms? How do they interact?

* What/who was the most interesting alien character? Why?

* Do you think a 21st century remake could be possible without doing irreparable harm to the storyline, given some of the advances in science?

------ Perelandra ------- Vol. 2

Looking back at Ransom’s time on Malacandra in the previous novel, how do you now see his role unfolding? Was he a part of history unfolding? How about Weston?

Compare Perelandra to Malacandra and Thulcandra. How do these worlds compare? What about their relative ages? How do these worlds compare to what we know about Mars, and Venus and our own Earth?

What are your impressions of the Green Lady? How well does Lewis capture the pre-fallen or unfallen state of grace & nature?

The Green Lady refers to the gaining of knowledge as growing older. Does she fear this? How does the pace of growth affect her view?

What is her relationship with Maledil? How does she accept His will? Describe this.
How does Ransom change over his time on Perelandra?

Looking at the big picture of the siege of Thulcandra and how it has affected or not affected the other worlds we have seen so far, how can you see from Scripture the natural and supernatural battles unfolding?

Is Lewis too enamored with nature? Is he really looking at creation correctly? How well does he capture the unbroken line between the natural and the supernatural on Perelandra as it contrasts with the broken line on Thulcandra?

Go back to the battle with Weston. Compare and contrast with other fights or battles in other novels or in the movies/television.

Is there a relationship between royalty and holiness?

Why did Lewis focus so much on the Green Lady in most of the book? When the King arrives, her role is altered (as a character) a bit. Do you agree? Is she diminished? What does their relationship look like?

January 2009 non-fiction title - Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Doris Kearns Goodwin, presidential historian, finished this work in 2005. With our new president being a great fan of Abraham Lincoln, I thought that we could learn a lot from this look back at an aspect of his administration that was not as well known by most students of history. It is as much a study of personalities and of the interaction of individuals as it is of the concept of leadership itself. Choose one chapter on part I, and then proceed to part II, since this is such a long book for a book club. Upon request, we can re-visit this in the summer.

Citylife Bookclub December 2008 - "Bring Your Own Fiction"

For December 2008 we will be reading on our own. Choose a work of fiction, something with a redemptive theme, and read that for this month. If you want to share your choice or comment on one, go right ahead. {January 2009 will be a non-fiction month}