With that in mind, I set out to change my summer reading this year. Instead of novels, sports books or who-done-it mysteries, I wanted to focus on books related to the mystery of faith and God. It has been uplifting and empowering.
Three books are particularly worth mentioning. The first is Biblical Literacy: the Essential Bible Stories Everyone Needs to Know by Professor Timothy Beal. The second is Being Catholic Now, Prominent (North) Americans Talk About Change in the Church and the Quest for Meaning, edited by Kerry Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy’s daughter. And lastly, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas.
Many people today think the stories and lessons of the Bible — particularly the Old Testament — no longer apply in the modern world. How wrong they are. In his book, Professor Beal of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland offers a delicious discourse on how the Bible has influenced culture and continues to do so each and every day.
Many of our everyday sayings come directly from the Bible: “The writing is on the wall,” “salt of the Earth,” and “serving two masters” are only a few.
Beal points out where people read the wrong things into the Bible. For example, the men who wrote the Bible thousands of years ago reinforced the supposed sexual guile of women in various stories. But it would be wrong today to use the Bible as a weapon against women.
Perhaps the most compelling thing about the book is that it is written in a spiritually agnostic way. Beal doesn’t pick sides between Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists or others. He walks readers through essential Bible stories, explaining significances along the way. The book gave me frames of reference to go back into the Bible and understand who is who and what was the significance of this ancient place or that tribe of people.
This book gave me confidence to pick up the Bible and read it more. Some might call it Bible for Dummies, but I bet I am not the only person who gets intimidated reading the Old Testament, even the New Testament.
Being Catholic Now allows 40 current and former Catholics to explain what the Church and their faith means to them. Each vignette is about the length of this column or a little longer. Some are from well known people like actors Dan Akroyd and Martin Sheen and some are compelling reads from people who question the Church and its dogma.
It was interesting to read how other Catholics are grappling with some of the same questions as me.
As for the third book, German Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor and brilliant young theologian who warned the world about Adolf Hitler and the Nazis as early as 1932. He returned from the U.S. not once, but twice, to be in Nazi Germany to help the Jews and others oppose Hitler.
Only two weeks before the end of World War II, Bonhoeffer, 39, was hanged for his role in the failed assassination attempt of Hitler in July, 1944. Bonhoeffer was a courageous and important figure of the 20th century whose story should be more widely known. Not all Germans and not all Christians were complicit or submissive to Hitler and the Nazis.
“If we want to be Christians,” Bonhoeffer wrote from his jail cell, “we must have some share in Christ’s large-heartedness by acting with responsibility and in freedom when the hour of danger comes, and by showing a real sympathy that springs, not from fear, but from the liberating and redeeming love of Christ for all who suffer.”
Though Hitler was defeated, the wickedness of Bonhoeffer’s time has not been eradicated from our time.
Maybe evil will never be totally defeated, but it is good to know that through time and all through the Bible, God’s will and love prevails ultimately. Maybe that’s all I’ve learned this summer. But it’s a good thing to learn and teach my kids.
(Robert Brehl is a writer in Port Credit, Ont., and can be reached at bob@abc2.ca.)
Robert Brehl: Searching for answers in this summer’s reading
By Robert Brehl, Catholic Register SpecialTwo-thirds through, few could argue that 2011 has been a good year. What with global economic turmoil, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, Middle East unrest, famine in Africa, rioting through Britain (and Vancouver), a child-hunting mass murderer in Norway, continued child abuse scandals within the Church, and despair ladled generously at almost any turn.
I am not a pessimist. Really, I’m not. I am not, as Oscar Wilde said, one who when given a choice of two evils picks both.
I am just trying to raise my spiritual and moral understanding during these troubling times. I doubt I am unique; merely an average person. (In fact, I was once described as a schmoe by one of my friends. An apt description, even if it came from an atheist.)
I am no scholar and I am no theologian. I am a husband and a father living in suburbia. But, probably like you, I often wonder why things happen. Why were those innocent little children hunted down and mercilessly killed in Norway? Where was God’s protection? Why can’t we get food to those hungry children in Africa?
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