Thursday, October 22, 2009

Cleaning out the theological closet: the reading material

So I've been thinking about what I wrote yesterday about cleaning out my clothes closet and realized that, yes indeed, I'm also working on cleaning out my theological closet, partly in thanks to several books that have ended up on my bedside table at the same time.


The first is Dave Dickerson's book House of Cards. I can call him Dave because we're Facebook friends, don't you know. You may remember he's the guy who did the Greeting Card Emergency I posted here for Coming Out Day.

Dave's book is a memoir about working at Hallmark and losing his virginity and there are parts that are laugh out loud funny. Other parts are simply cringeworthy (as well as funny) because he's simply ruthless about exposing himself in all his geeky foibles. But one of the themes in his book is moving from being raised fundamentalist to converting to Catholicism to losing his faith. I think he's very astute in observing what his faith required of him and how it doesn't match up to his own experience and what he sees as true.

Another book that's come to my attention, thanks to the Internet Monk, is called Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical. It's a collection of essays from women on areas of community, worship, education, gender, sex, and identity, and the ones I've read so far have been very good.

Finally, just in at the library is a book I hadn't remembered placing on hold: The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University. A Brown University student enrolls for a semester at Liberty University and writes about his experiences there. I just picked this up yesterday so I have no idea what I will find there.

But there seems to be a theme, here, and I'll be curious in future days to explore a little bit of what I find in my own theological closet from my days growing up Evangelical. I already have a couple of things I know are worn out but still hanging around. We'll see what else emerges. Stay tuned.

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