The Church After innovation: Questioning our Obsession with work, Creativity and Entrepreneurship – Andrew Root

From Storygraph: In this follow-up to Churches and the Crisis of Decline,leading practical theologian Andrew Root delves into the problems of innovation. He explores where innovation and entrepreneurship came from, shows how they break into church circles, and counters the “new imaginations” like neoliberalism and technology that hold the church captive to modernity. Root reveals the moral visions of the self that innovation and entrepreneurship deliver–they are dependent on workers (and consumers) being obsessed with their selves, which leads to significant faith-formation issues. This focus on innovation also causes us to think we need to be singularly unique instead of made alive in Christ. Root offers a return to mysticism and the poetry of Meister Eckhart as a healthier spiritual alternative.

My Thoughts: This is a fairly academic book. There were some interesting and challenging ideas in here. Some things to keep in mind in my volunteer ministry roles.

Lines of note:

“We need to test that the water washing back into church practice from work isn’t filled with microbes that will give the church dysentery.” (Page 39) That’s an unpleasant image.

3.5 stars.

Devotions – Mary Oliver

From Storygraph: Carefully curated, these 200 plus poems feature Oliver’s work from her very first book of poetry, No Voyage and Other Poems, published in 1963 at the age of 28, through her most recent collection, Felicity, published in 2015. This timeless volume, arranged by Oliver herself, showcases the beloved poet at her edifying best. Within these pages, she provides us with an extraordinary and invaluable collection of her passionate, perceptive, and much-treasured observations of the natural world.

My Thoughts: You can probably tell from my blog tagline that I love Mary Oliver’s poetry. I’ve been reading a poem from this book each morning (off and on) for a couple of years now and finally reached the last page. This won’t be the last time I do this. So not a book read in June, but a book finished in June. 5-stars.

The Flock: First Nations Stories Then and Now – ed. Ellen van Neerven

From Storygraph: This wide-ranging and captivating anthology showcases both the power of First Nations writing and the satisfaction of a good short story. Curated by award-winning author Ellen van Neerven, Flock roams the landscape of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander storytelling, bringing together voices from across the generations. Featuring established authors such as Tony Birch, Melissa Lucashenko and Tara June Winch, and rising stars such as Adam Thompson and Mykaela Saunders, Flock confirms the ongoing resonance and originality of First Nations stories.

My Thoughts: I am trying to include writing from Australian First Nations authors in my reading so I picked this up. As with any collection of stories some worked better than others. Overall I enjoyed this. I do like the short story genre although I don’t read it very often.

Lines of Note:

“A mutual tendency to indulge in period-themed escape fantasies is one of the few things my father and I have always had in common.” (Page 141) This made me giggle. In Stepmother by SJ Norman

3.75 stars.

Entangled Life: The Illustrated Edition – Merlin Sheldrake

From Stroygraph: The more we learn about fungi, the less makes sense without them. They can change our minds, heal our bodies and even help us avoid environmental disaster; they are metabolic masters, earth-makers and key players in most of nature’s processes. In Entangled Life, Merlin Sheldrake takes us on a mind-altering journey into their spectacular world, and reveals how these extraordinary organisms transform our understanding of our planet and life itself.

My Thoughts: My photo reel frequently features various fungi I’ve stumbled across so I was keen to get into this book. The photography is stunning, absolutely breath taking. Sheldrake is totally in to his subject and I love that in a non-fiction author. There is so much to learn about fungi, I did not even realise that the main bit we see (the mushroom) is just the fruiting part of a huge network. Do you know that researchers have used slime moulds in building models to calculate efficient fire escape routes? I loved this so much. 5-stars.

The Ascent to Truth – Thomas Merton

From Storygraph: Merton defines Christian mysticism, especially as expressed by the Spanish Carmelite St. John of the Cross, and he offers the contemplative experience as an answer to the irreligion and barbarism of our times. “For those…curious about mysticism…this is an excellent book” (Catholic World).

My Thoughts: Some nuggets in here, but overall I found this a slog. Lines of note:

“Everything we do in the service of God has to be vitalized by the supernatural power of His grace. But grace is granted us in proportion as we dispose ourselves to receive it by the interior activity of the theological virtues: faith, hope, charity. These virtues demand the full and constant exercise of our intelligence and will. But this exercise is frequently obstructed by exterior influences which blind us with passion and draw us away from our supernatural objective.This cannot be avoided, but it must be fought against by a constant discipline of recollection, meditation, prayer, study, mortification of the desires, and at least some measure of solitude and retirement” (Page 4)

“It is dangerous to talk glibly about the infinite God. It is sometimes dangerous to talk about Him at all, unless talking of Him brings you deeper into His mystery, and finally flattens you into silence in the face of His transcendence” (Page 77)

3-stars.