Religion: Christianity
"I am stockpiling antibiotics for the Apocalypse, even as I await the blossoming of paperwhites on the windowsill in the kitchen," Anne Lamott admits at the beginning of Almost Everything. Despair and uncertainty surround us: in the news, in our families, and in ourselves. But even when life is at its bleakest--when we are, as she puts it, "doomed, stunned, exhausted, and over-caffeinated"--the seeds of rejuvenation are at hand. "All truth is paradox," Lamott writes, "and this turns out to be a reason for hope. If you arrive at a place in life that is miserable, it will change." That is the time when we must pledge not to give up but "to do what Wendell Berry wrote: 'Be joyful, though you have considered all the facts.'" In this profound and funny book, Lamott calls for each of us to rediscover the nuggets of hope and wisdom that are buried within us that can make life sweeter than we ever imagined. Divided into short chapters that explore life's essential truths, Almost Everything pinpoints these moments of insight as it shines an encouraging light forward. Candid and caring, insightful and sometimes hilarious, Almost Everything is the book we need and that only Anne Lamott can write.
Lamott has chronicled her wacky and (sometimes) wild adventures in faith in...the wonderful Grace (Eventually). (Chicago Sun-Times) In Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith, the author of the bestsellers Traveling Mercies and Plan B delivers a poignant, funny, and bittersweet primer of faith, as we come to discover what it means to be fully alive.
Readers of all ages have followed and cherished Anne Lamott's funny and perceptive writing about her own faith through decades of trial and error. And in her new book, Help, Thanks, Wow, she has coalesced everything she knows about prayer to these fundamentals. It is these three prayers - asking for assistance from a higher power, appreciating what we have that is good, and feeling awe at the world around us - that can get us through the day and can show us the way forward. In Help, Thanks, Wow, Lamott recounts how she came to these insights, explains what they mean to her and how they have helped, and explores how others have embraced these same ideas. Insightful and honest as only Anne Lamott can be, Help, Thanks, Wow is the everyday faith book that new Lamott readers will love and longtime Lamott fans will treasure.
Justice, even divine justice, is concrete. It addresses flesh-and-blood persons and the systems, structures, and conditions under which they live. God's vision of abundant human living is not restricted to the spiritual realm but extends even to our material circumstances. But in today's complex economy, what specific changes to public policies and institutions could lead to a just economy?
In The Way of Abundance, economist and minister Edith Rasell examines Old and New Testament teachings on economic justice in the context of the ancient economic systems and circumstances they addressed. Drawing on the biblical narrative and on research from the social sciences, Rasell examines three eras--the ancient Israelites' settlements in Canaan, the time of the monarchies, and first-century Palestine--and describes the transition from a non-monetized, subsistence-based economy to a commercial one with wage labor, product markets, and a surplus that benefited a tiny elite. But across this vast expanse of time and economic transition, the Bible called for a just economy. And its vision of economic justice can be a vision for justice seekers today. The book concludes with specific public policy proposals and personal practices that would move contemporary society closer to the Bible's economic vision.