Tag: theology

Life is Grace

I am changing my blog’s name to fit the direction I want to take it, and my writing. There will still be plenty of photography, and if anyone should be interested in making a purchase, just click on “Gingerfancy Photography” above the blog header. To read more about why I am changing the name, and how it fits with the past history of the blog, please keep reading. Also refer to the pinned post at the top of the blog, the quote by Frederich Buechner.

Welcome! I’m Barbara and one thing I want to make clear straight away is that I am determined to live a full, generous, and creative life, one filled with love and laughter, despite chronic pain and disability. This is a good time to plug in one of my favorite quotes, by Joseph Campbell:

We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

Continue reading “Life is Grace”

theology and science

I don’t trust a theologian who dismisses the beauty of science or a scientist who doesn’t believe in the power of mystery.

–Bene Brown 

books: 2009

  1. The Eucharist and the Hunger of the World, Monika K. Hellwig
  2. Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews, Paula Fredriksen
  3. The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, Amy-Jill Levine
  4. Fortress Introduction to The Gospels, Mark Allan Powell
  5. Social Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels, Bruce J. Malina and Richard Rohrbach
  6. John, the Maverick Gospel, Robert Kysar
  7. Written that you May Believe: Encountering Jesus in the Fourth Gospel, Sandra M. Schneiders, IHM
  8. The Middle Ages, Morris Bishop
  9. Models of the Church, Avery Dulles, SJ
  10. The Sacred Pipe, Joseph Brown
  11. A New Christian Paradigm: The Making of Post-Protestant Christianity, Ben M. Carter
  12. Jesus and the Quest for Meaning, Thomas H. West
  13. The Church Unfinished: Ecclesiology Through the Centuries, Bernard K. Prusak
  14. Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky
  15. Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, Mark Kurlansky
  16. Jesus as a Figure in History: How Modern Historians View the Man from Galilee, Mark Kurlansky
  17. Paul–A Jew on the Margins, Calvin J. Roetzel
  18. The Spirituality of Paul, Thomas H. Tobin
  19. Navigating Paul: An Introduction to Key Theological Concepts, Jouette M. Bassler
  20. Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt
  21. The Hollow Crown: A History of Britain in the Late Middle Ages, Miri Rubin
  22. Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom, John O’Donohue
  23. The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, Daniel Mendelsohn
  24. Whitethorn Woods, Maeve Binchy
  25. Saxons, Vikings, and Celts: The Genetic Roots of Britain & Ireland, Bryan Sykes
  26. The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
  27. The Rule of Four, Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason
  28. The Children of Henry VIII, Alison Weir
  29. On Hitler’s Mountain: Overcoming the Legacy of a Nazi Childhood, Irmgard A. Hunt
  30. My Life with the Saints, James Martin, SJ
  31. The Monster of Florence: A True Story, Douglas Preston with Mario Spezi
  32. Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter, Thomas Cahill
  33. How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill
  34. Christianity Rediscovered, Vincent J. Donovan
  35. Doors to the Sacred: A Historical Introduction to Sacraments in the Catholic Church, Joseph Martos
  36. The Catholic Myth: The Behavior and Beliefs of American Catholics, Andrew Greeley
  37. The Amber Room: The Fate of the World’s Greatest Lost Treasure, Catherine Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy
  38. No Place Like Home, Mary Higgins Clark
  39. The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History, John Barry
  40. The Last Knight: The Twilight of the Middles Ages and the Birth of the Modern Era, Norman Cantor
  41. Soldier from the War Returning: The Greatest Generation’s Troubled Homecoming from World War II, Thomas Childers
  42. The Basque History of the World, Mark Kurlansky
  43. Catherine the Great: Love, Sex, and Power, Virginia Rounding
  44. Elizabeth and Mary: Cousins, Rivals, and Queens, Jane Dunn
  45. Devil’s Brood, Sharon Kay Penman
  46. Falls the Shadow: A Novel, Sharon Kay Penman
  47. Queen Emma and the Vikings: Power, Love and Greed in 11th Century England, Harriet O’Brien
  48. Time and Chance, Sharon Kay Penman
  49. Dragon’s Lair, Sharon Kay Penman
  50. The Queen’s Man: A Medieval Mystery, Sharon Kay Penman
  51. When Christ and his Saints Slept, Sharon Kay Penman
  52. The Reckoning, Sharon Kay Penman
  53. The Sunne in Splendor: A Novel of Richard III, Sharon Kay Penman
  54. The Year 1000: What Life was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium, Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger
  55. Here be Dragons, Sharon Kay Penman
  56. Walking on a Rolling Deck: Life on the Ark, Kathy Berken
  57. The Civilization of the Middle Ages, Norman Cantor
  58. Mistress of the Monarchy: The Life of Katherine Swynford, Duchess of Lancaster, Alison Weir
  59. Lucia: A Venetian Life in the Age of Napoleon, Andrea D. Robilant
  60. A Venetian Affair: A True Tale of Forbidden Love in the 18th Century, Andrea D. Robilant
  61. The Gift of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels, Thomas Cahill
  62. Restoration London: From Poverty to Pets, from Medicine to Magic, from Slang to Sex, from Wallpaper to Women’s Rights, Liza Picard
  63. The Seville Communion, Arturo Perez-Oerveto
  64. In the Wake of the Plague: The Black Death and the World it Made, Norman Cantor
  65. The Lady Elizabeth: A Novel, Alison Weir
  66. Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot, Antonia Fraser
  67. Blue Iris: Poems and Essays, Mary Oliver

This year’s list is dedicated to some of my favorite fellow bookworms: Aunts Barb and Jo, Emilie, Liz P., Liz H., Roxane S., and Kristine.

But most of all, this list is dedicated to my darling sister-in-law Fran, who shares my intense love of books and often subsidizes my Barnes and Noble habit, and to my mom, who instilled in me a love of the power of words and the magic of language, as well as an intense curiosity about the world around me.