We asked our authors to recommend a book they had read over the past couple of years. Here is what they said:
As a work of climate science fiction, the book gives us a (sometimes comedic and sometimes devastating) glimpse, in real-time, of the not so distant climate dystopia we are heading toward through the unique vantage points of humans and processes all over the world, while also giving us a glimpse of what human ingenuity-as-hope can and should look like in the face of catastrophe. The Ministry for the Future manages to provide a difficult, delicate, and vital balance between doomism and hopeism about climate change. —Melissa Fitzpatrick
A 40-day quest to find spiritual inspirations across major religious traditions, this book serves as a daily guide into life’s greatest wisdoms. My personal favorite is Day 25: Generosity, and I also appreciate the Review and Reflection epilogue for explaining the context in which Muslim community members needed inclusive support. —Patricia Snell Herzog
I have always loved the tracing of objects. De Waal masterfully, and movingly, traces his inheritance of this collection of Japanese miniature carvings. In doing so he gives us an equally extraordinary family history. The prose is lucid and the history both magical and heartbreaking. —Laurie L. Patton
This book opens up a fireworks of human possibilities. Not only does it show how and why the story of development and progress is in dire need of re-thinking. Above all, it demonstrates the amazingly wide-ranging canvas of human creations, and the fact that modern civilization may well be characterized, first and foremost, by a radically limited set of options. Learning from the first 98 percent of human history, it turns out, is well worth it. —Dirk Philipsen
In Patience with God, Templeton Prize winner Tomáš Halík examines the many ways patience is essential for spiritual life in pluralistic societies. Addressing both the necessity for people to have patience with God as they confront the hiddenness of spiritual knowledge and to have patience with other people who have different views on who or what God is (or is not), Halík implores individuals and societies to embrace patience in the face of spiritual uncertainty. His history as an underground priest in Soviet East Germany brings credibility to his call for patience. —Sarah A. Schnitker
I just finished reading The Wager for the second time, and I loved it just as much as when it first came out. It would be hard to say it has much to offer about generosity—maybe that the utter absence of generosity leads to bad things. But I am recommending it because 7 people from different parts of my life have sent it to me over the past year suggesting I’d love it. I certainly didn’t need a copy, but it made clear that they see me and know me well enough to share the perfect book—that felt especially generous. —Suzanne Shanahan
Fall 2024
Part I: Abundant Virtue
Laurie L. Patton
Sarah A. Schnitker
Patricia Snell Herzog
Melissa Fitzpatrick
Dirk Philipsen
Interlude: Generous Eyes, Radical Love
Fr. Martin Lam Nguyen, CSC
Part II: Abundant Vocation
MORE
