You can find an amazing wealth of materials in church library book sales. This is rather unfortunate in one sense because the sale of 'old, unread books' is likely occurring to make room for the newest fads and trends of the Christian living genre. In my opinion, these new trends don't hold a candle to the classics - the Henri Nouwens and the Thomas Mertons of the world. What was it someone once said: "If its right, its not new; if its new, its not right." It is fortunate, however because for those who are willing to take the time to wade through the piles, you can find some gems.
Our church was having one of these sales today so Julie and I stopped in after service. We found 9 books for the grand total of $4.50! One that I am especially excited about is called: Meditations with Meister Eckhart. Meister Eckhart was a thirteenth century mystic and theologian who wrote profound mediatations on creation, its fall and its redemption. I plan to read it with my quiet times, so this blog might feature a Meister Eckhart quotation from time to time. You have been forewarned. I'll leave you with one today:
"All hiding places reveal God. If you want to escape God, He runs into your lap. For, God is at home. It is we who have gone out for a walk."
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6 comments:
Don't ya' just LOVE a good bargain??!!
$4.50 - WOW! I'm proud of you guys! And when you consider that any one of those books (or all) may contain material that turns out to be priceless to you....well, good job! I'll look forward to raiding your ever-growing book shelves when we come up this weekend. MomK
Hey yeah-
Bring some of the ones back you already have! :) I would like to have "This Day With the Master" back. What other ones do you have? We'll make a trade - books for VHS tapes, eh?
True enough, I once picked up prayers of Theresa of Avila for about $1.oo. So where are you guys going to church now? and how has your study of the early church related to what you are experiencing on Sunday morning? also I just got the latest copy of First Things in the mail and it has an article about the rediscovering of the early church fathers.
Ha! My disgruntled movers don't have to know about the new purchases, The hope is that all of these books will somehow prepare me for a job that pays decent money and when we move again, we can hire someone.
I know that you can probably find a lot of this stuff on CD Rom or the Internet, but it is just not the same to me. As Harper Lee once said, "I just hate the thought of cozying up on a rainy day with a cup of coffee, a blanket and a laptop." Probably not a convincing argument to a guy who has just moved in 25 boxes of books.
Matt- To answer your question, we are attending Whitefish Bay UMC and enjoying it thus far. They place a great deal of emphasis on the liturgy (in communion, baptism, and new membership) as well as the sacraments. Additionally, they are a great family church, very welcoming. We are excited to get more involved.
I did see the First Things article and read it already. It was great and it concurs with the trends I'm seeing at Marquette. Are you an avid reader of First Things as well?
Regarding the bargain books, I believe I once purchased two Merton books for 5.00 or under. Weren't they once yours? :)
You have a great memory, yes I remeber you getting those books (I don't remember why I let them go) but at least they fell into good hands. Also this last year was my first year of subscribing to First Things, I enjoy it as well, and get lots of form letters and junk mail from conservative Roman Catholic groups wanting money, but hey there are worse causes in the world.
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