I’m looking for a book.
Each month we host an online book discussion in the Barclay Press Conversation Café. We haven’t selected the book for November yet, but we have selected the topic—poverty. I’d like something current (published within the past couple of years). I want to feature a book that stimulates a change in thought and action—not just something that describes the problem. It should be more proactive than something that just rips the welfare system apart. The book needs to be “Christian” enough to capture universal truth such as the virtue of compassion and the power of selflessness. And it needs to be relevant and discussable.
Jesus gives a lot more attention to the poor than what most churches do. Christian publishers would do well to be more like Jesus.
Each month we host an online book discussion in the Barclay Press Conversation Café. We haven’t selected the book for November yet, but we have selected the topic—poverty. I’d like something current (published within the past couple of years). I want to feature a book that stimulates a change in thought and action—not just something that describes the problem. It should be more proactive than something that just rips the welfare system apart. The book needs to be “Christian” enough to capture universal truth such as the virtue of compassion and the power of selflessness. And it needs to be relevant and discussable.
Jesus gives a lot more attention to the poor than what most churches do. Christian publishers would do well to be more like Jesus.
posted by Dan McCracken at 8:43 PM
2 Comments:
Hey Dan,
I'm not sure it's "Christian" enough for a Barclay Press book discussion, but check out my review of "Mountains Beyond Mountains" on my blog.
http://greggsgambles.blogspot.com/2005/09/mountains-beyond-mountains-review.html
I would recommend The Poor are the Church, a book based on interviews with Fr Joseph Wresinski by Gilles Anouil, available from Twentythird Publications, Amazon or directly from the Fourth World Movement.
From the publisher's blurb: "Fr. Wresinski relates what he has learned about poverty, oppression and social isolation. He traces the development of the Fourth World Movement which urges us to give priority to the poorest among us. He challenges us to fundamentally change our relationship with the poor and reminds us that when the Church is understood as separate from the poor, it is no longer truly the Church."
Fr. Joseph grew up in a very poor family and writes about poverty from the perspective of "my people." It includes some of the most profound and provocative thinking on poverty I've ever encountered.
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