Books that Shaped Us

August Adelman
Oct 15
6 min read

Updated: Nov 12

In October, we discussed books that shaped our spiritual journey (excluding holy texts). Below, you'll find reflections from some of our members on their books, and also a list of the books that were shared during the October meeting.

Want to share about a book that shaped you? Send your reflections and reviews to interfaithgrandriver@gmail.com

We Need to Build - Field Notes for Diverse Democracy by Eboo Patel, 2022

Recommended by: Jay Moore

The question he attempts to address is how can people of differing religions and faiths and languages and cultures come together in peace and make a community that results in the flourishing of all of us? Patel has been down that road, the road of not just socio-political diversity and secular inclusion but also the rocky and steep road of religious pluralism. For more than a couple of decades, he has been in the forefront of creating a vision of how to achieve this. His experience is entirely American but most of his principles apply to the Canadian environment, as well.

This is “a key handbook for navigating the transformative healing - the building - that our world of fracture and disarray so urgently demands.” It is "The essential handbook for every activist ready to move from resisting injustice to rebuilding a world of justice”; “Patel challenges us to defeat the things we don’t like by building the things we do”; “...inspire and train new leaders who nurture pluralism and communities that are welcoming.”

This book meant a lot to me because it reinforced that there is a place for me in an "interfaith world." Since the world is unavoidably diverse and growing more pluralistic then, for the sake of empathy, compassion, peace and justice, we all need to find ways to value each other and live together in peace. And someone like me doesn't have to stand outside established faiths but is able to participate fully in making this world a better place.

The Duncton Chronicles & The Book of Silence, by William Horwood

(1) Duncton Wood (2) Duncton Quest (3) Duncton Found

(4) Duncton Tales (5) Duncton Rising (6) Duncton Stone

Recommended by: Michael Clifton

My chosen book is actually a set of 6 books – two trilogies that make up The Duncton Chronicles and The Book of Silence – in which each volume is about five hundred or more pages in length.

Duncton Wood presents a typical English landscape, with rolling hills, farms, trees, and stones; but in this case, it is a landscape for the adventures of moles. Moles who climb mountains, wage wars, build kingdoms, fall in love, and, most significantly, worship.

The series explores themes of faith, love, and society in an intensely philosophical way, but through an entirely gripping fantasy adventure. Think Lord of the Rings meets Wind in the Willows meets Watership Down. (And, having heard others’ comments, it may compare with Dune in some ways as well; at least in its length and scope over generations of time.)

Central to the stories in these books is the moles’ worship of The Stone. That is their God. Silent, ever present, immovable. It never speaks, but it presents and inspires. It is most perfectly found in stillness of soul, devotion of heart, and in the love between individuals. Its antithesis is a religion of restriction, control, and, ultimately, violence.

The books tell an existential story. As they cover generations of moles, each new story’s leading characters set out on epic, heroic journeys of self-discovery and faith. They have to choose their paths and choose to believe despite obstacles and opposition. In the process, they come to discover the resonance of the Stone that lies within.

For me, the books are a reminder of the spiritual centre of being that is best discovered through a life centred on love and faith. That centre is what my tradition, as a Latter-day Saint, could describe as the nature or essence of godhood, the Light of Christ that is in all things, that emanates from God, the Father, and God, the Son, and that operates on principles of charity and virtue, being both realized and expressed in our thoughts, feelings, and actions.

The books remind me to meditate and pray, and by favouring virtue and charity, to let God work in me rather than working it all out myself.

A New Religious America, Diana L. Eck & The Making of Modern Buddhism, David McMahan

Recommended by: Brice Balmer

Two books have been most interesting and helpful to me as I've worked with Interfaith Grand River and caught a larger sense of what is happening in our region:

Diana L. Eck, A NEW RELIGIOUS AMERICA (Harper SanFrancisco: 2001) gave an excellent picture of how different faiths have encountered North American society and have adapted. North American society is basically Christian and secular, so other faiths need to adapt. Their holidays and times of celebration do no connect wither with Christian holidays nor with the weekly schedule in this hemisphere. It was interesting to see how the traditions changed and adapted to life here. This continues to be an issue for faith groups in our region.
David McMahan, THE MAKING OF MODERN BUDDHISM (Oxford Press, 2009). While Buddhism has adapted to many geographies and ethnicities, David provides a history of Buddhism in North America (primarily). It was interesting to see women have a higher place in Buddhism, meditation and mindfulness become more prominent, and psychotherapy and counseling use theologies/ practices in Buddhism to help clients heal. He also describes "engaged Buddhism". This was helpful not only in IGR but also as I taught the Practicum course at Martin Luther University College and used a text which demonstrated how Buddhist practices could be helpful for psychotherapists.

I continue to read about other faiths which helps me understand people in our region, is helpful to IGR, and opens me to the wider world of faith.

Jakob the Liar, Jurek Becker, 1969

Recommended by: August Adelman

Jakob the Liar, by Jurek Becker is a book about a man living in a ghetto during WW2, who lies to his friends and neighbours about having a radio, feeding them fake news about their imminent rescue to counter the despair that surrounds them. You may have heard of the movie with Robin Williams based on the book – the movie is only superficially similar, and I would not recommend it.

Because the meaning of Jakob the Liar is more than just its surface plot. It is a book that plays with lies – implying that the narrator is also lying to us, maybe for our own good, and that maybe we want to be lied to. When it comes to the Shoah, we are asked if we really want to know what happened, or if we’d prefer a comforting lie, a linear story that ends with good ultimately triumphing.

Jakob the Liar left such an impact on me, because, even though it is a book about hope, it is angry and belligerent and self-pitying. It challenges us with happy endings, alternate endings, endings that mean something, and endings that don’t. It is angry at you for reading it, because what do you think you are possibly going to learn from a story about one little piece of someone’s life? Will you feel redeemed? Cathartic? Is it right that any person’s story should be for you, to eat up like a snack? It is a challenge to the frequent representation of the Shoah as a moral lesson, a tragedy for others to learn from.

Other recommended books

Stupid ways, Smart ways to think about God - Jack Bemporad and Michael Shevack
I Heard the Owl Call My Name - Margaret Craven
The Dawnbreakers - Nabíl-i-Aʻzam
Stories from The Delight of Hearts: The Memoirs of Ḥájí Mírzá Ḥaydar-ʻAlí
Take this Bread - Sara Miles
Pagan Roots: Reclaiming Concepts of the Sacred - Yvonne Aburrow
Dune (series) - Frank Herbert
The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam (series) - Mirza Ghulam Ahmad
Rendezvous with Rama - and other books by Arthur C Clark
Travelling Light: Galatians and the Free Life in Christ - Eugene Peterson
God Loves Laughter - William Sears
The Holy Longing: The Search for a Christian Spirituality - Ronald Rolheiser