A story that ‘wanted to be told’
After high school, Susanna Compton took a gap year before heading off to university. She turned that experience into her first published book. Her former pastors from Wilmot Mennonite Church in New Hamburg, Ont., Glyn Jones and Susan Allison-Jones, had moved to Botswana with their daughters, where they were involved in Mennonite ministries. With their…
Intriguing novel explores family trauma
Unsettled with her status as a newly retired person, an archivist uses her skills to look into the difficult parts of her own family history. Along the way, she uncovers a shocking event that explains the intergenerational trauma in the family. The experience helps her learn to accept herself and love others more unconditionally. This…
Classics of the Radical Reformation series relaunched
Over the past 50 years, the Institute for Mennonite Studies at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind., has published a series of books making primary works of the Radical Reformation available in English. Herald Press published the first nine volumes between 1973 and 1999, including translations of writings by Anabaptists such as Conrad Grebel, Michael…
Shaped by our essential book
The name Arab Christians use for the Bible translates literally as “The Holy Book,” and they often shorten it to “The Book.” Article 4 of the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective states: “The Bible is the essential book of the church.” What does it mean if we see the Bible as the book…
The world in colour
If the Bible is a story, it is also something more: It’s a book that dares to make an authoritative claim on life. Between the poems and proverbs and parables, a portrait is taking shape of who God is and what exactly God desires. The Bible suggests that to learn to walk with God and…
Overcoming the siren diversions of our digital age
What was your response the last time a good friend asked you how you were doing? If you said with a laugh or a moan, “Too busy,” or just offered an eye roll, this book might be for you. In The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction, author Justin Whitmel…
Spring 2019 List of Books & Resources
Theology, Spirituality Beating Guns: Hope for People Who Are Weary of Violence. Shane Claiborne and Michael Martin. Brazos Press, 2019, 288 pages. Using the image of turning guns into garden tools, Claiborne and Martin explore how destructive gun violence has been and provide hopeful stories of how this carnage could be reduced. They examine how…
2014 Fall list of Books & Resources
Theology, Spirituality Good News: The Advent of Salvation in the Gospel of Luke. Darrin W. Snyder Belousek. Liturgical Press, 2014, 140 pages. As the executive director of Bridgefolk, Snyder Belousek brings together the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition with the Benedictine prayer tradition in looking at what salvation means for life on earth. Snyder Belousek teaches religion at…
Pastor’s first novel invites discussion
William Loewen has written a theological book disguised as a novel. This makes it challenging to classify, but it also opens new possibilities for how it can be used. I would recommend this book for a book club or other group discussion, especially for young adults who are exploring their own spirituality. Loewen, pastor of…
Helping us not to forget
After getting a coffee I sat down to read The Winter We Danced. On the table next to me I noticed a book someone left behind. On the cover was a bold notice stating “2.5 million copies sold.” The book was a contemporary work of fiction re-telling the conquest narrative of America expanding into the…
