Here is a space where I will periodically leave notes about books and interesting articles I am reading, usually with a link to the source.
What Chuck is Reading June, 2023
1) The Greatest Prayer: Rediscovering the Revolutionary Message of the Lord's Prayer
By Crossan, John Dominic
I have two disadvantages when trying to pray the Lord’s Prayer. First, I have recited it (which is not to say having prayed it) thousands of times in my life. It is so familiar that I no longer feel any of its force or strangeness. Second, even though it feels familiar, it is very strange. But I do not know how to grasp its strangeness. Every line leaves me wondering what has been said. It is full of so many ambiguous and frankly weird things (Father? debts? daily bread? leading into temptation? etc. etc.).
Crossan is one of the leading New Testament scholars of our time, and I have benefited from his knowledge in the past. So when a casual Amazon search turned this up, I immediately ordered it. It is shockingly illuminating for me. With Crossan’s scholarly viewpoint, and from his deeply faithful (though quite unorthodox) reading of the gospels, he shows how the prayer is embedded in the Jewish prophetic tradition. This is a tradition of God’s desire that we do right by our fellow humans as a way of being faithful to God. They are two sides of the same coin. Rather than religious ritual and sacrifices at the Temple, “let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I have not gotten farther than this in the book, but it has already turned my head around when I pray “Forgive us our debts,” “give us this day,” and “deliver us from evil.” This is what spiritual writing should do, it should shift the ground we thought we were standing on and make us see ourselves and others anew.
To those who worry about reading such an unorthodox writer, I say: Throw out your skepticism of his skepticism. Read him like you might read Rumi, a very unorthodox Muslim with deep insight. Let Crossan unsettle you. Let him be a prophet calling to your sleeping soul.
2) Arthur Brooks in the Atlantic magazine on having a fulfilling career:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/05/career-advice-happiness-know-thyself/674087/
Essentially, Brooks says: Give up on the idea of a career and even on the idea of success. Think more about caring for others and about doing good work. Caring for others gives the meaning, and doing good work embodies the meaning in your life. Best is to do good work as a way of caring about others.
Brooks is a well known psychologist who writes a column for the Atlantic magazine about how to have a good life (first hint: don’t seek happiness, seek meaning). This short commencement speech at the Catholic University of America is an easy to read summary of perhaps ten of his contributions to the series. But beware, it is so easy to read that it will seem that you understand it without recognizing the radical change he is prescribing for your life (see also the Lord’s Prayer book).