Coming Soon: One-Night-Only Reading Groups

Read a book in advance, enjoy dinner, and discuss until we finish. The commitment is simply to read a book and prepare for an evening of discussion with lovely people over delicious food and lively conversation geared toward understanding and being formed in the Christian life. Wonderful stuff!

Groups are limited to around 12 people each to provide the right context for conversation. If we get enough interest, we will schedule more--so RSVP at the link if you're interested! Of course, please forward this to anyone in the Brown/RISD community you think might be interested.

Please respond here.

Group reading Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz.

• The Book: This science fiction classic discusses the relationship between knowledge, order, violence, religion, and social collapse. An order of monks is established to safeguard all scientific knowledge in the aftermath of global nuclear war and widespread hatred of scientific learning. It raises serious questions about whether human beings know too much and gain too much power, what the role of religion is for education and counterculture, and the potentially cyclical nature of human folly.  It also presents puzzles to do with ignorance and faith. 

• Why: Beyond the book's quality and status as an influential novel, it is a great read for our times. Rather than nuclear war, our times are plagued by worries of AI cataclysm and environmental apocalypse. As Christians, we should reflect on our potential role in these developments and in their potential aftermath, as well as our continuing relationship to scientific knowledge, learning in general, and our engagement with culture. 

• When: December 18, 6:30 PM-Closing Time.

• Where: Location details upon RSVP. Transportation available.

Group reading Fujimura's Art and Faith: A Theology of Making

• The Book: This short and rich book discusses the meaning of creative work in light of the theological implications of the creation, fall, redemption, and restoration described in the Bible and experienced across redemptive history. It provides insights on work, creativity, suffering, and the role of imagination in faith. 

• Why: Fujimura is perhaps the world's greatest living Christian artist. His work has received critical recognition for over three decades. Touted by the likes of Martin Scorsese, Rowan Williams, Ellen Davis, and Miroslav Volf, Art and Faith helps us think more clearly and deeply about how to intentionally integrate Christianity and art. 

• When: TBD, likely January or February

• Where: A home near campus. Location details upon RSVP. Transportation available.

Great Things Already Happening

Group Reading Lewis and Athanasius

• 6-week reading group in the heart of Brown’s campus with undergrads, medical students, doctoral students, postdocs, and recent doctoral grads

• Reading Lewis’s The Abolition of Man and Athanasius’s On the Incarnation

• Shared lunch hour, prayer, discussion, and fellowship between students across Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox congregations.

Group Reading Four Spiritual Novels

• 10-week reading group co-sponsored by the Catherine Project and hosted by Central Congregational Church.

• Reading Greene’s The Power and the Glory, O’Connor’s Wise Blood, Baldwin’s Go Tell It On the Mountain, and Robinson’s Gilead

• Mix of postdocs, young professionals, medical fellows, and retirees.

• Shared meals, fellowship, prayer, and discussion of difficult texts.