Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness Gordon C Stewart Wayne G Boulton Eric Ringham 9781532600654 Books
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Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness echoes the call of the Navajo sage and the psalmist who invited their hearers to stop--"If we keep going this way, we're going to get where we're going"--and be still--"Be still, and know. . . ." Like pictures in a photo album taken from a unique lens, these essays zoom in on singular moments of time where the world is making headlines, drawing attention to the sin of exceptionalism in its national, racial, religious, cultural, and species manifestations. Informed by Japanese Christian theologian Kosuke Koyama, Elie Wiesel, Wendell Berry, and others, the author invites the reader to slow down, be still, and depart from "collective madness" before the Navajo sage is right. Told in the voice familiar to listeners of All Things Considered and Minnesota Public Radio, these poetic essays sometimes feel as familiar as an old family photo album, but the pictures themselves are taken from a thought-provoking angle.
Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness Gordon C Stewart Wayne G Boulton Eric Ringham 9781532600654 Books
This book of short, thoughtful, concise essays is an excellent read. In a time where it's easy for one's head to spin out of control, reading Stewart's contemplative and clear-headed writing can help center you and to find your own voice alongside his. Highly recommended.Product details
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Be Still! Departure from Collective Madness Gordon C Stewart Wayne G Boulton Eric Ringham 9781532600654 Books Reviews
I enjoy reading but have a hard time finding the time (or making time) to read and rarely finish a book. This book is perfect as it is a series of short stories on a multitude of topics that are relevant to our (turbulent) times and to our lives in general. Each story is on a different subject and you can read a little or a lot, or even read the stories out of sequence. It is written with a depth and breadth that you rarely encounter these days. Gordon weaves knowledge from famous philosophers, theologians, poets, authors, educators, the Bible, political leaders, activists, etc. into his own experiences and it makes for a fascinating and thought provoking read. Definitely recommend!
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Be Still! I had the privilege of being part of a large church staff led by Gordon Stewart in the 1990s. His book speaks from the same theological depth I heard from the pulpit in those years. Each essay presents a thought-provoking encounter with our human condition. For me, his words articulate a passion for justice calling all people of faith to wrestle with the complex social and political issues of our day. His use of biblical texts and quotes from a wide range of gifted writers are woven together with Gordon’s rich life experience in a way that makes each essay a provocative encounter.
My favorite Essay was “A Visit with the Deeper Memory.” I read it and then recalled Gordon’s significant contribution to the Minnesota Legal Rights Center as its Executive Director for 8 years. I sensed the depth of his caring heart as he stood with the family in memory of their husband and father. “Blessed are the peacemakers…’Oh, yes’ she says. ‘Bach, Mozart, Beethoven…and ‘Let there be peace on Earth’… the eagle sat still above Doug’s grave at the center of the four corners of the earth.” In this and other essays Gordon opens the “mysterium tremendum” in which we live and move and have our being.
These vignettes are both provocative and informative. They may seem as random thoughts but they are a pattern of a theologian/social commentator's thoughts. whose mind travels down unexpected and interesting pathways. I highly recommend this book to all who enjoy surprising explorations.
I read books on a and this book is perfect for that. Sure, I could just read the book from beginning to end and look at the bottom of the page to see my progress in the book. But I have had more fun reading a piece and then flipping pages or going to the table of contents to look for another interesting one to read. So that little notation about my progress really doesn’t help. And I’ll have to warn you about one other thing. The other notation which tells you how many more minutes you have in a chapter is always wrong. Why? Because it does not measure the time you are going to spend thinking about what you just read before moving on. It will be a lot.
Gordon Stewart speaks to our time. Each chapter in this book is a thoughtful essay that speaks to issues that are as relevant today as when they were written. Gordon is a keen observer, a fine theologian, a person of secular significance and relevance, who has the ability to tweak us where we need to be tweaked. I read and think. "Was that a challenge to me," I ask. "Was that as funny as I thought it was," I wonder. "How will I share that thought with my friends," I think. And I read and think some more. This is not a book to be gulped down. It is to be savored a topic at a time. Buy "Be Still!" and get ready for a thoughtful journey.
These reflections from a seasoned thinker and person of faith came at just the right time! It’s mid-August 2017, just after the racial violence in Charlottesville, VA, and tension as our Narcissistic Sociopath in the White House seemingly threatens nuclear war with North Korea. I can only take so much, disheartened, watching all of this on MSNBC, or reading NY Times commentaries. So reading Gordon Stewart’s musings on a wide variety of topics are balm-like, many have thematic tie-in to our current issues (indeed the “Boogie Man” anxiety essay in the middle of the book) but his reflections broaden my perspective beyond what's immediate.
There is an amusing quote from an Otis Moss III “The church is becoming a place where Christianity is nothing more than capitalism in drag” and the book has several appropriate discussions about Goldman Sachs, the Deepwater Horizon, environmental recklessness via greed.
My own interest was about his topic “For faith and for politics alike there is one overriding question Am I my brother’s keeper? Do my religion and my politics slay or keep my brother/my sister from deadly harm?”
One might rephrase that how did we stray so badly from helping others, to piety rivalry and hurting others (and ourselves)? I have had Paul Tillich and similar authors on my bookshelf for 45 years, and no one addresses why that happened. Neither is that the subject of this book, but at several points Pastor Stewart’s vignettes reflect the consequences of our focus away from WWJD, and into the judgmentalism and piety which dominated
1) with Stewart’s grandfather (married to a WCTU wife) having to sneak over to Uncle Bob’s house for a little port or sherry most nights after dinner;
2) [this one Pastor Stewart missed] but in praising “Jacob Miller’s Amish Rocking Chair” he should know about the terrible shunning and judgmentalism practiced by many Amish here in Pennsylvania against family members.
3) the hostility of the Fundamentalist with the Lyndon LaRouche propaganda (ah, like this week’s news!) ; and
4) his essay about the town bum, Bunny Benson (“I realized that the people of South Paris needed Bunny --- someone to play the role of the community scapegoat—the moral outsider—whose assigned role in town was to make everybody else feel good about themselves”)
“Be Still!” does not hide those drawbacks and failures in "Christianity", nor should it, but the overriding illumination and thoughtfulness throughout the book is edifying in these times when the news has been deeply troubling, much more troubling than is the norm.
This book of short, thoughtful, concise essays is an excellent read. In a time where it's easy for one's head to spin out of control, reading Stewart's contemplative and clear-headed writing can help center you and to find your own voice alongside his. Highly recommended.
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