December 20, 2017
Keri L. Day, associate professor of constructive theology and African American religion, suggests two books that she recommends reading together: James H. Cone’s The Cross and the Lynching Tree (Orbis Books, 2011) alongside M. Shawn Copeland’s Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being (Fortress Press, 2009).
Keri Day talks about the purpose of theology, and how she hopes to shape the next generation of Christian leaders to deepen their love of God and neighbor.
Mary K. Farag, assistant professor of early Christian studies, recommends Instruction Concerning a Spiteful Monk. Attributed to St. Pachomius, it teaches readers to recognize one another as “the image of God.” An English translation can be found in Armand Veilleux, Pachomian Koinonia, vol. 3 (Cistercian Publications, 1989).
Hanna Reichel, associate professor of Reformed theology, recommends that every student of theology read Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet (Merchant Books, 2012), a treatise originally published in 1929 about calling and discernment.
“At Princeton, we had precept groups—we’d engage text and debate. That gave me confidence to have those conversations anywhere.”