Introducing the SSUC Library collection

Why?

“Read more books.”

Step through the door of SSUC’s Library & Lounge, the inviting room to your right as you enter church, and that is the exhortation you see on the poster above the bookcase on the far wall. It’s unambiguous in what it wants of you: to crack the covers of the books there to be found. But…

Why? Why bother? Why read these books, all about religion-and-such?

Karen Swallow Prior offers an answer.  

It comes in a writing of hers—she being research professor of English and Christian culture at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina—for Religion News Service; it was posted on February 7th. Now, it’s true that her reflection arises out of, and tackles the kerfuffle current in America regarding the banning of books, especially those in school libraries. But her reasoning is widely applicable. Read this foreshortened version of her essay, and you’ll see for yourself.

She begins by admitting she’s less concerned with what’s being read—it was a Tennessee school district’s aversion to the award-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, Maus,that prompted her jotting—than this: what’s most important “is that you read.

“This has always been true. But in this digital age in which we are assaulted all day long, to deleterious effect, by images, music, pop-up ads, headlines, clickbait, TikTok videos, Facebook videos, Instagram videos, cat videos, dog videos…taking time to read is more important than ever….

“…[R]eading literature doesn’t just inform us in the way a newspaper article does…. Rather, reading literature forms us.”

[A brief pause here: Dictionary.com defines “literature” as, “Writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays.” Our Library is chock-a-block with “literature”.]

“How does reading form us? Philosophers, critics, cognitive scientists, and book lovers, have been answering that question, in many different ways, for thousands of years. I think in our current context—one in which reading good words, and reading them well, is rarer and rarer, whether because of our own choices or circumstances beyond our control [think pandemic restrictions]—there are some new, or newly important, answers.

“Reading literary texts requires and cultivates attentiveness. It requires and cultivates patience. It produces questions, challenges, understanding, delight, growth. This is because words require interpretation, artfully used ones especially so. We are living in a time marked by perhaps nothing more than impoverished abilities of interpretation. …[Consider] our inability to correctly interpret one another, our words and ideas. […]

“Literature—in ways that pictures and videos don’t—requires us to interpret, because letters are symbols. They must be interpreted, or they are but squiggly lines on the page. The critical thinking inherent in the simple act of interpreting letters into words that form ideas is part of the very basis of modern civilization. […]

“To put it most generally and succinctly, the form of literature inherently promotes critical thinking by requiring an interpretation. Books ask readers to consider things…. Learning to read well requires reading that challenges us, requires us to pay attention, ask questions, wonder, and think. […]”

So it is, if Karen Swallow Prior is right, that, in her words, “reading literature forms us”. Which would explain why spiritual seekers, certainly—we who are ever striving to become our own best selves—should, and should want to, access the SSUC Library’s collection: read, and grow.

The collection—of about 700 books, of ideas—explores religion, church, spirituality, theology, faith, doubt, values, beliefs, Jesus, God and gods, and all such things. These are writings to be pored over and pondered, weighed and wondered about. And valued. 

The classics are present and accounted for, everything from The Confessions of St. Augustine to Martin Buber’s I and Thou. There are works written by such luminaries as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Northrop Frye, Abraham Heschel, Albert Schweitzer, Paul Tillich, and Simone Weil. Others will acquaint you with such great church figures as John Wesley and Hildegard of Bingen. There are plays—The Trial of God by Elie Wiesel, and Lucas Hnath’s The Christians. Progressive Christianity pioneers like Jack Spong and Lloyd Geering penned still other of the volumes. Consider Karen Armstrong’s The Case for God, but also Richard Dawkins’ refutation in The God Delusion.

On the shelves you’ll come upon the Iona Abbey Worship Book, Bible atlases, an eco-foods guide, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, self-help books, including lots on loss and grieving by the likes of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, even Nancy Steeves’ doctoral thesis. There’s fiction, too: challenge yourself and read Nikos Kazantzakis’ controversial The Last Temptation of Christ, and Putting Away Childish Things, the novel that, as one reviewer put it, “flows out of Marcus Borg’s life.” There are books about the Earth Charter, LGBTQ concerns, the Dead Sea Scrolls, fundamentalism, myths and mythology, bullying, preaching, sexism, the labyrinth, mid-life crises, evolution, Christmas, human rights and humanism, feminist theology, Buddha, Islam, justice, the parables, prayer, Christian ethics, Celtic wisdom, parenting, sin, eternal life, shamanism. Whoa, catch your breath.

Discover The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot; read how Jesus became Christian, and also God; see why No Man is an Island; explore The World of Anne Frank; join in The Battle for God, or play Hide and Seek with God, or go along with SSUC’s Clair Woodbury Looking for God; go In Search of Paul; learn how to love nature; spend The Last Week with Jesus; get acquainted with the Middle East; ask, Can We Trust the New Testament?; ask also The Great Questions of Life; meet The Pagan Christ; find faith, peace, the right words, your way home, and your religion. Why, You Can Teach Yourself Philosophy of Religion. And this litany of authors, titles, and topics, only scratches the surface!

Along with handfuls of DVDs and videos, all this is waiting to be browsed and borrowed; what’s not to be circulated are the slim number of reference works. Everything has been ordered and shelved, arranged by author, from A (Abbott, Deborah) to Z (Zuckerman, Andrew). Book-borrowing has been made as easy as can be: you’ll find lists, both by author and title, in a binder atop the first of the two tallest bookcases; as well, these can be accessed on the Library’s webpage (ssucedmonton.com/library), so you can pick and choose what you’ll want right from home. Simply sign out the books using the in-and-out form—it’s in the same binder; later on, please be sure to note on the form the date you return the items you’ll have borrowed, and place them in the basket atop the second of the taller bookcases. It’s pretty much grab and go!

So, please, get going!

Ellen & Ken Fredrick