If you have ever given a children’s sermon (or listened to one) you realize that although the children’s message is addressed to children, the adults listen in. Children’s messages, with their (hopefully) simplified language, short duration, and (usually) fun approach, appeal to all ages. (This is not to say that adults should have a steady diet of children’s messages only, but rather that they can be a beneficial supplement to sermons.)

The same argument can be made for many children’s books. Fewer (and simpler) words and the addition of pictures make children’s books easier for adults to read than books that are written for adults. (Again, this does not mean that children’s books should be the only literature ready by adults…) Some children’s books even seem to be written more for adults than for children. Why War is Never a Good Idea is a book that falls into this category.

Today's blog entry is not so much a review as it is a plea: I'm looking for some great religious fiction, and I'm hoping the readers of The Daily Voice will give me some great suggestions. More on that in a bit...

Three novels took their place in my backpack during my vacation. First, I read Alive Day: A Story of Love and Loyalty by Tom Sullivan (with Betty White), a recently-released Christian novel about a blind psychiatrist and an injured war veteran. Next, I polished off (in one sitting) the delightfully offbeat Mr. Dixon Disappears, the second novel in the quirky "Mobile Library Mystery" series. I finished up with a political thriller, Sam Bourne'sThe Last Testament, a Davinci Code-ish book with great detail about the religious and political realities of contemporary Palestine and Israel and an intriguing (though far-fetched) archeological context.

Which one can't I recommend? The Christian novel.

I am drawn to books with interesting titles. Four Feet, Two Sandals was a title that immediately made me pick up the book and read it. I was not disappointed. (And then I felt the need to buy it.) This children’s book by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed was inspired by a refugee girl who wondered why there were no books written about children like her.

There are a number of Bible reference books that are essentially dictionaries of biblical names. The most famous of them are probably the two books by Herbert Lockyer, All the Men of the Bible and All the Women of the Bible, neither of which I'd especially recommend to you if you have a good, recent Bible dictionary. Books like these are notorious for lacking the best in contemporary biblical scholarship, and they are usually far from being friendly for progressive leaders.

Fortunately, there's a superb option for those looking for a more recent book that describes every person in the Bible: All the People of the Bible: An A-Z Guide to the Saints, Scoundrels, and Other Characters in Scripture, by Richard R. Losch (Eerdmans, 2008, 578 pp.) This is a reference book I now keep on my "favorite references" shelf.

Since it is Thursday, it must be time for a book review! Today’s review is a 4-for-1 special. Dawn Young (Director of Christian Education for the Louisiana Conference) has reviewed four fiction series for us. These series are all appropriate for book club reading, and Dawn offers suggestions for using each series for this purpose. If your church doesn’t currently have a book club, consider starting one. You can find information about starting a book club here. Although not church-specific, the process is easily adaptable to the church setting. One benefit of reading a series of books is that it spares you the process of choosing a new book every month!

Happy reading and discussing! ~Sally

ATTENTIVE TO GOD: THINKING THEOLOGICALLY IN MINISTRY. Charles M. Wood and Ellen Blue. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2008, 138 pp

You are probably thinking, “Well, I can just skip over this one; certainly a book about thinking theologically isn’t for me.” Which is precisely who this book may have been designed for, those who don’t think theological thinking is for them. And there is much to frighten you away from this book. Begin with the theological pedigree of the two authors; both are professors at seminaries. The topic of theology is generally left to the purview of those that attend seminary, often because those that don’t attend seminary have enough sense to avoid it whenever and wherever possible. Admittedly, the authors intend this work to be for those learning to become theologians and to “empower the people to be in ministry themselves.”

Living the Questions (LTQ)  resources are fairly unique in the world of Christian curriculum. Almost no other publishers have produced resources for the progressive church as ambitiously as has LTQ. Their resources typically are filled with excellent content delivered by some of the top progressive theologians of our time, though until the publication of Dream, far less attention has been paid to presentation. Now, LTQ is trying to find a way to communicate the basics of progressive Christianity to a young adult audience.

Their first young adult resource is call DreamThinkBeDo, and it's actually made up of 4 separate DVDs. The first volume, Dream, is available now; the other three studies are due in late August. Each DVD contains 5 video segments, each 15-20 minutes in length, for use in a small group setting of roughly 45-60 minutes. A 2-page study guide for each session is available to those who register and download the materials (PDF format). 

If you're familiar with the content of other LTQ resources, you're also very familiar with the content in Dream. In fact, you've mostly seen it before, as the video from other LTQ resources has been chopped up, edited, and combined with cool graphics, images, and music to make it more like something a young adult would see on TV. The content from these presenters is always illuminating and interesting, and the imagery is FAR more engaging and interesting to watch than was the case in previous LTQ releases. However, unfortunately the study as a whole is like an arrow that hits one of the outer circles on an archery target—close, but not spot on.

I am not a fan of so-called "life application" Bibles or any curriculum with questions that dive too quickly into a "so what does this text tell us to do/think/believe" mode. The tendency of resources like these is to move the reader toward the right answer, the best application, the One Truth. In contrast, a good curriculum should provide a lot of room for learners to bring their experience to the text, to allow the biblical text to speak on its own terms, and to encourage deep questions to arise and linger.

One curriculum that does this incredibly well is a lectionary-based resource for adults called The Bible Workbench, published by The Educational Center. Although this resource has been around for 16 years, most Christian educators are unfamiliar with it; yet it's one of the best resources available for theologically-progressive congregations.

Suppose you were to sit down and write a lengthy summary of all that you have learned about the Bible, church history, the historical Jesus, and other topics of faith that interest you, but without using any footnotes or citations. Perhaps you would organize your material chronologically, creating chapters for the beliefs you held or developed at times in your life. Or, perhaps you would take a more systematic approach, starting with your understanding of scripture or your theology of God and using that as the jumping off point for all other topics. Whatever approach you would take, it's an interesting intellectual exercise to consider, and an even better one to carry out some day.

Dr. Carl Krieg is one individual who took the time to do this exercise, and the result is the book The Void and the Vision: A Thought-provoking Interpretation of the Gospel of Jesus that Challenges Traditional Belief. Dr. Krieg has taught religious studies at Thiel College, served as a pastor in both the Lutheran Church in America and in the United Church of Christ, and has another book published by Fortress Press. He approached this exercise by putting together a list of commonly asked questions, such as, "Why didn’t everyone who met Jesus believe in him?" and "Do we need one another, or can we go it alone?" Then, he set about answering these questions in a way that is clear and concise yet honest, gentle, personal, and borne out of the fruit of years of scholarly study and reflection.

I can honestly say that I have never heard a song written about the two women fighting over the same baby and King Solomon’s decision to cut the baby in half. (1 Kings 3:16-28) Before I heard the song, “Real Love and the Whole Truth,” I might not have believed that a children’s song could be written about this rather odd story. And yet, Richard Bruxvoort Colligan has managed to write a song that is fun, interesting, appropriate for children and conveys the importance of telling the truth.