A David Duncan Appetizer Sampler

books:


	• God Laughs & Plays; Churchless Sermons in Response to the Preachments of the Fundamentalist Right David James Duncan Triad Books, 2007 - 264 pages average customer review:based on 19 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Too Powerful to Express in Words

I only read this book because David James Duncan is on my list of very favorite authors, I wouldn't otherwise have picked up the book because of the title or subtitle. What a gift it turned out to be! I found it to so powerful that I am unable to describe it in words, I can only feel the concepts as they resonate within me. I will share a sample quote.

"America's spiritual vocabulary-with its huge defining terms such as 'God,' 'soul,' 'sacrifice,' 'mysticism,' 'faith,' 'salvation,' 'grace,' 'redemption'-has been enduring a series of abuses so constricting that the damage may last for centuries. Too many of us have tried to sidestep this damage by simply rejecting the terminology. The defamation of a religious vocabulary cannot be undone by turning away: the harm is undone when we work to reopen each word's true history, nuance, and depth. Holy words need stewardship as surely as do gardens, orchards, or ecosystems. When lovingly tended, such words surround us with spaciousness and mystery the way a sacred grove surrounds us with cathedral light, peace, and oxygenated air. When we merely abandon our holy words, and fail to replace them, we end up living in a spiritual clear-cut."

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thought provoking

This book is a series of essays and short stories that showcase an excellent writer's passions for nature and the environment, and against fundamentalist religions. It contains the author's first story (written in first grade, with his adult commentary), and perhaps the finest short story I've ever read about how the death of his dog briefly showed him the door to heaven. The essays are a mixture of inclusive spirituality and pro-environment politics. Some will embrace him, and others reject his politics. But read the two short stories if nothing else - pure poetry in prose format.

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Gore Tex Mystic

I am presently reading Brothers K at long last, and River Why has been my favorite novel since the age of 12. I read "God Laughs and Plays" like a starving man eats a steak. Twenty years after River Why, Duncan, in all his travels, musings, lost fish, lost time, lost loves, general quirkiness, whatever... is still gripped by wonder. Duncan's voice is that of clean water, a child's joy. This is an imperfect book, not every chapter is perfect. But the majority are mind-blowing, challenging, beautiful constructions that are not to be missed. This is a man who in his 50's finds joy in the same places my 4-year old does... in the dirt, wet-wading, being seized by some new incarnation of holiness. This is a dangerous book... Thank God.

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A David Duncan Appetizer Sampler

God Laughs and Plays is a collection of essays, interviews, rants and musings by David James Duncan. They are scattered over a time span between October 2002 and the present.

I'm not sure I like the subtitle, because Duncan has issues with lots of different parts of Christendom; the Seventh-Day Adventists in his family for their unwillingness to believe anyone is going to heaven but them, the Catholics for excommunicating Origen and not canonizing Duncan's hero Meister Eckhart, the Protestants for dividing the body of Christ into a large number of small denominations, the evangelicals for enlisting God as a foot soldier in their political battles, the charismatics for using God as a way to get rich, and any Christian not already mentioned for not fully appreciating the other religions of the world.

What rocks about God Laughs & Plays? Duncan has a great wonder at nature, which he expresses unabashedly, unashamedly and beautifully. He slips in unexpected words at unexpected moments, as when he referred to a mystical experience as a detonation. He overlooks the censoring of one of his books. He helps angry environmentalists get over themselves. He seeks to love people with whom he's passionately angry. He admits that he has had environmental complaints with other administrations besides the G. W. Bush administration.

What stinks about God Laughs & Plays? Species self-loathing issues. He is fully persuaded that man is a plague, a cancer on the planet. Everywhere man has entered wilderness he has wrecked it. As I read this book, I remembered the Robert Heinlein quote...

There are hidden contradictions in the minds of people who "love Nature" while deploring the "artificialities" with which "Man has spoiled 'Nature.'" The obvious contradiction lies in their choice of words, which imply that Man and his artifacts are not part of "Nature" -- but beavers and their dams are. But the contradictions go deeper than this prima-facie absurdity. In declaring his love for a beaver dam (erected by beavers for beavers' purposes) and his hatred for dams erected by men (for the purposes of men) the Naturist reveals his hatred for his own race -- i.e., his own self-hatred.

What else stinks about God Laughs & Plays? Not giving his targets a chance to defend themselves. He seems to be clearly on the pacifist side of the pacifist/just war fence, but he doesn't address the possibility of either Operation Desert Storm or Operation Iraqi Freedom being just wars. He doesn't mention how Saddam Hussein gamed the Oil-for-Food program, or the corruption of the United Nations. So you should take the rants against U. S. military involvement with a grain of salt.

You may not like everything in God Laughs and Plays, but on the other hand, you may find some things you really like. I did, hence the four stars even with the negative comments

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Critical Thinking in Religion

Too often the thought of critically thinking about religion is equated with blasphemy. David James Duncan provides a healthy environment to think, question and explore the cherished traditions of Christianity and opens the mind to walk in spiritual inquiry inclusive of other religious journeys.

The author successfully portrays his deep desire to know "The God", but isn't limited by the playing field deemed "appropriate" by Evangelical dogma.

If Evangelical dogma is your boundary for spiritual meaning then you might not want to read this book. However, I recommend that you do because you might expand your experience of knowing God, and learn to seek him - life - love - supreme power - more actively and earnestly.

I don't agree with some of his positions, but what makes the book effective is that you know from the beginning of the first chapter that you're not excluded from the exploratory journey of experiencing truth just because you disagree. A novel concept for dogmatic literalists.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

The most important book on religion this year, perhaps this decade. -- The Literary Spirituality Review

In this multiple award-winning and bestselling diagnosis of the contemporary American spirit, David James Duncan suggests that the de facto political party embodied by the so-called Christian Right has turned worship into a self-righteous betrayal of the words and example of the very Jesus it claims to praise. In a bracing and often hilarious response to this trend, God Laughs & Plays offers churchless sermons, stories, memoir, conversations, and cosmological reflections that scorn riches and embrace the poor; bless peacemakers, not war-makers; celebrate creation, diversity, empathy, playfulness and beauty; and insist that Divine Mystery is indeed mysterious and compassion is literally compassionate. The spiritual kingdom described by Jesus, this unusual book reminds us, is located not "in the Sky" or beyond a disastrous future, but within us, to be sought and embodied in the here and now.

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Spiritual Life and Destiny
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The Principles of Learning and Behavior: Active Learning Edition ...
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Christ-Centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon
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The Sermon on the Mount: The Key to Success in Life
Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure
Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship

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