Reading
Books I am in, books I have been through, and books I mean to get to.
Reading now
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DominionHow the Christian Revolution Remade the World
Listening to this one on audio. I'm honestly shocked at how much of it is new to me. Either I wasn't paying attention in school, or the formative history of how we got here was left out of the curriculum. Holland would probably say it wasn't left out so much as hidden in plain sight.
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The Ode Less TravelledUnlocking the Poet Within
One from my wife's library. I'm reading it as a deliberate exercise for mind and spirit in the age of AI. Nothing is truly unaided, but some work should still pass through my own hands. It's like my jiu-jitsu practice: I learn from masters, but I still have to do the rolling. Inspired by Malcolm Guite, I'm working through it slowly, taking Fry at his word that anyone can learn the craft, and writing poems for myself and as prayers.
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Galahad and the GrailMerlin's Isle: An Arthuriad, Book 1
The physical book alone is a marvel: paper, binding, printing, everything. It's taking me a while, because I'm following (and enjoying) Guite's advice to read it aloud. It turns out I like ballads, which I did not know until now, and it's what sent me to Stephen Fry's book on poetry. It's also a fun one to trade verses on with your children, if they're old enough to read along.
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Putting on the Mind of ChristThe Inner Work of Christian Spirituality
I picked this up after reading Cynthia Bourgeault and hearing her recommend it. There is a lot to chew on here, and I'm moving slowly. It's the kind of book I don't want to form opinions about too quickly. I'm only a quarter of the way in, and he's still laying the groundwork for his thesis.
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Open Mind, Open Heart
I knew Keating mostly secondhand, through Cynthia Bourgeault and others, so I wanted to go back to one of the founders of Centering Prayer. It is remarkably approachable, and I'd call it required reading for anyone curious about the world's contemplative traditions, and all the more for Christians. It offers a practice that deepens prayer, and out of that prayer, a steadier commitment to service and to following the way of Christ.
Read
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Liturgies of the WildMyths That Make Us
I first listened to this one, read by Shaw himself, which is a treat. Now I'm going back through it slowly in print. The "wild" in this site's name owes something to it, and to the books like it that treat myth and the imaginal as real: not ideas about the world, but things you can actually meet. It was, and still is, a real inspiration. I come back to it to re-center when the crushing weight of the dominant narrative becomes too much. It's a reminder that we must be active participants in the re-enchanting of the world.