A Syllabus for Reclaiming a Beautiful Faith

Pssst: If you missed the first part of this mini-series, A Syllabus for Reckoning with Your Faith, it’s here.

I mentioned last time that I get a lot of questions about what to read in what might be called deconstruction, but I'm rarely asked what to read when one is reconstructing a faith. This, to me, is just as important because if you’re going to reckon with the bad, you need to also acknowledge the good.

In the same vein as the previous list, many of these books were born between 2011 and now, but not all. Rebuilding a beautiful faith is the work of our lives, and once I understood God was inviting me into the process, these books really helped.

Girl Reading by Magnus Enckell, 1921-1922

The Very Good Gospel by Lisa Sharon Harper
The emphasis on shalom and reconciliation is what makes this book sing. I love the way Lisa Sharon Harper writes, and she does such good work here, digging out the good bones of what a beautiful faith can look like.

Favorite quote: “Shalom is what the Kingdom of God smells like. It’s what the Kingdom looks like and what Jesus requires of the Kingdom’s citizens. It’s when everyone has enough. It’s when families are healed. It’s when shame is renounced and inner freedom is laid hold of. It’s when human dignity, bestowed by the image of God in all humanity, is cultivated, protected, and served in families, faith communities, and schools and through public policy. Shalom is when the capacity to lead is recognized in every human being and when nations join together to protect the environment.”

Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman
Reading this book is like having blinders ripped off your face. Truthfully, Jesus and the Disinherited could go on either list, but I left it here because it’s somehow taking a topic that should shame us (the lack of concern in the American evangelical church with those who are dehumanized in our cultural landscape), and gently, firmly showing us another way. It was also (fun fact) one of Martin Luther King Jr’s favorite books.

Favorite quote: “Jesus rejected hatred because he saw that hatred meant death to the mind, death to the spirit, and death to communion with his Father. He affirmed life; and hatred was the great denial.”

An Altar in the World by Barbara Brown Taylor
If church or even just faith community is hard for you at any point during your reconstruction, I highly recommend BBT’s words on finding God beyond the bounds of where we were taught to find God. I could get lost in this book; it reads like a walk through a magical forest to forage mushrooms, where time and space kind of get goosey. In the best way possible.

Favorite quote: “I am not in charge of this House, and never will be. I have no say about who is in and who is out. I do not get to make the rules. Like Job, I was nowhere when God laid the foundations of the earth. I cannot bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion. I do not even know when the mountain goats give birth, much less the ordinances of the heavens. I am a guest here, charged with serving other guests—even those who present themselves as my enemies. I am allowed to resist them, but as long as I trust in one God who made us all, I cannot act as if they are no kin to me. There is only one House. Human beings will either learn to live in it together or we will not survive to hear its sigh of relief when our numbered days are done.”