NEW YORK — HNP Today occasionally provides suggestions of publications that may be of interest to readers of this newsletter and their friends and colleagues.
The Communications Office welcomes e-mails from readers who would like to recommend a book or periodical and asks that a short description of the material be provided. The themes of the recommendations are Franciscan theology and history as well as topics affiliated with Holy Name Province committees and directorates: evangelization, justice and peace, African-American and Hispanic ministries, communications, wellness and fraternal life.
Below are brief book descriptions provided by various sources:
Care for Creation: A Franciscan Spirituality of the Earth by Sr. Ilia Delio, OSF, Br. Keith Douglass Warner, OFM, and Pamela Wood (Cincinnati: St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2008) is recommended by the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia in their Summer/Fall 2009 issue of the Franciscan Spiritual Center newsletter. According to the publication, “The authors invite us to explore with them the ‘ground of truth’ that is our planet Earth and, across the pages of this very readable text, they offer us the kind of ‘understanding and insight’ that can challenge us to stand with reverence on this ‘holy ground’ that is the home of the family of creation.” Care for Creation was the winner of two awards from the 2009 Catholic Press Association convention in Anaheim, Calif.
Christ the Liberator: A View from the Victims by John Sobrino and translated by Paul Burns (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2001) is recommended by Marc DelMonico of the Franciscan Action Network (FAN). DelMonico said, “Sobrino’s poignant argument for a cogent christology that does justice to the two-thirds of the world that live the reality of victimization and abject poverty deserves to be read by all ministers and committed Christians. It is a remarkable sequel to his earlier work on the historical Jesus: Jesus the Liberator.” In Christ the Liberator, Sobrino brings the full weight of theological methodology to bear on the reality of what Jesus Christ can possibly mean in a world where most humans endure deep-seated structural oppression as a daily occurrence by recognizing the world is fundamentally divided into two types of people: “those who can take life for granted and those who can’t.” Key to this effort is “the articulation of the experience of the resurrection of Jesus in the tradition of Christianity with a “view to the victims,” so that traditional christological and soteriological dogmas might “give up” more of their truth,” he said.
DelMonico, a Ph.D. student in systematic theology at The Catholic University of America and a graduate of St. Bonaventure University and Washington Theological Union, is the Web outreach coordinator for FAN.
Editor’s note: Recommendations of books and publications can be shared with newsletter readers by e-mailing information to communications@hnp.org.