At the end of August, we will launch yet another opportunity for faith formation: a study of The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus by Peter Gomes. Gomes was the Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard, where he also served as Plummer Professor of Christian Morals. Having already written a couple of bestselling books on how to be a faithful and intelligent reader of the Bible, Gomes commented,
“Now I write another Bible book, with the radical suggestion that we use the Bible to go beyond the Bible and embrace that to which it points: the gospel, or the good news. In a time when it is easier to write about doom and gloom than about hope and promise, I suggest that Jesus came into the world not as a Bible teacher directing us back to the text, but as one who proclaimed a realm beyond the Bible. He proclaimed his good news against the conventional wisdom of his day, taking up with unacceptable people and advancing dangerous, even revolutionary, ideas, nearly all of which remain to be discovered and acted upon.”
Bill McKibben called it “a very important book,” and he added
“From his strategic post at the crossroads of many traditions, Gomes shows the only real way forward for American Christendom. And he does it with a depth of fierce and sometimes angry hope that’s new even for the finest preacher in the land.”
We can all use a good dose of fierce and sometimes angry hope, and so we invite friends and members of the congregation, as well as neighbors, to join us for a series of conversations about this book (you may also call it a book group; please borrow or purchase your own copy of the book). Thomas Kleinert will serve as the convener of two groups, one meeting in his study on Tuesday evenings at 5pm, starting on August 29, and the other on Wednesday mornings at 9am, starting on August 30, also in his study. The book has about 240 pages, and current plans expect the groups to meet weekly, about ten times, until the end of October/early November.
Please register to receive additional updates via email, and direct any questions you might have to Thomas.