The God of Christianity is a God of love, quietly at work at the very heart of creation. But God's presence that we so often desire and sometimes sense remains a mystery, beyond our ability to imagine or know directly. In Romans, for example, St. Paul noted that God's ways are unsearchable. The Church Fathers saw God, at times, as a blinding light, or conversely, as darkness. And in his later days, the great theologian Karl Rahner spoke increasingly of the "incomprehensibility" of the divine.
The Slow Work of God reminds us that God has not left us alone. This book presents short essays suggesting how the divine mystery is revealed in silence and beauty, in graced moments, and in Jesus's life and teaching. Furthermore, at the Eucharist, the Church celebrates in community the divine presence in Word and Sacrament. And the Gospel challenges us to leave behind our false selves, calling us to overcome our differences together.
Rev. Thomas P. Rausch, SJ, is the Emeritus T. Marie Chilton Professor of Catholic Theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He is a member of the Anglican/Roman Catholic Consultation USA and cochairs the Los Angeles Catholic/Evangelical Committee for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
Holy blasphemies refer to those questions about God, faith, and meaning that we often experience but admit to only in the silence of our hearts. Often, and especially when we feel lost or alone, our religious language can seem worn out; few are moved by doctrines or ethical principles. We live in a secular world, without faith, and where graced moments may seem few, especially when so many suffer from poverty, injustice, and violence. The brief chapters in Holy Blasphemies offer the postmodern reader insight into the wonders of creation, the language of faith and spirituality, and an approach to those irreverent questions.
Bullying is not a new problem. Parents have always been dealing with the issue, and success is difficult. I Can Speak Bully explores a less common approach of aggressively trying to understand those who bully. Instead of being told to avoid the problem, turn the other cheek, or fight back, children are given a possible insight into why the bullies may be acting the way they do. Masked by the act of toughness and independence, what the bully really wants is friendship and acceptance. Circumstances we don't know about, and may never know about, make them act out offensively. This book offers the idea that, if we understand that need and try to fill it, try to give them the love and acceptance they deserve, try to understand their language, we may in fact gain a friend.
The Hurt is a book for children that looks at emotional hurts, like hurtful namecalling, and manifests them as an object that takes up space in our lives. It might start small, but if hurt feelings cannot be let go of, the resulting massive Hurt can create serious problems. The book teaches how to ultimately shrink the Hurt and eventually let it go through honesty and reconciliation.
Edited by José Enrique Aguilar Chiu, Richard J. Clifford, SJ, Carol J. Dempsey, OP, Eileen M. Schuller, OSU, Thomas D. Stegman, SJ, Ronald D. Witherup, PSS
