Thursday, July 28, 2005
Imaginative Reading 6: Norris and Lamott
Today’s seminar discussion covered two provocative books: Dakota by Kathleen Norris and Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott. The discussion was lively and a number of difficult questions were raised.
One participant raised this question in our discussion of Dakota: How do we exegete a place?
Many of the participants brought their experience (and plenty of delightful anecdotes) of pastoring in rural and urban congregations to the discussion about what makes rural spirituality unique and distinct from urban spirituality. Important differences included pace of life and human relationship to environmental factors of seasons and weather. Participants compared the anonymous nature of urban communities to the highly personal nature of rural communities. There is a sense in small towns that you must be very careful about how you relate to each other because “you have to live with them.” Community relationships are framed in much longer terms – even by generation, instead of just a few years like in communities where residents are more transient.
With this kind of life as a backdrop, Norris addresses different sorts of spiritual issues than, for example, Anne Lamott, due to the very nature of her place.
After the morning break, the conversation moved to one of my favorite books, Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott. One issue her book brings up, especially among church types, is the difference between Lamott’s vision of spirituality and life, and the way things are often framed in the church.
One participant put it this way, “she says things we know are true, but we can never say.” The very roughness that makes her book one a pastor must recommend with caution also gives it a sense of authenticity that is hard to achieve in conventional church fashion. It seemed participants were trying to parse out ways they could bring the honesty and humanness that makes Traveling Mercies so resonant to their sermons and pastoral care in an appropriate manner. “There is not one character in this book that is like me,” one participant said, “and that’s what makes it so much fun.”
Both of these books included conversion stories and seemed to bring up issues of pastoral care – what sorts of people are in the congregation that need to be ministered to? What people are outside the congregation that need to be ministered to? How is this best accomplished?
(7-22-05)
Interdisciplinary Application • Preaching • Reading • (0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink