I highly recommend the mysterious and lovely poem “For the Pilgrim a Kiss” all 3 parts!

The Inner Landscape of Beauty | John O’Donohue’s Poems [Speaking of Faith from American Public Media]

John O’Donohue was an Irish poet and philosopher beloved for his book Anam Cara–Gaelic for ’soul friend’–and for his insistence on beauty as a human calling and a defining aspect of God. I sat down with John O’Donohue in our studios last fall.

As you know by now, if you have read even the first page of this issue, the theme is changes in our relationship to ourself. Since this year, I will celebrate six decades of aging, I have resolved to be more curmudgeonly. Therefore, aside from this introduction, there will be no further discussion of the theme in this article. Instead I propose to offer you some suggestions for political reading in preparation for the impending elections.

As I have aged, (oops, a slip on my promise – I’m getting forgetful) my enjoyment of history has only waxed. Therefore, when the book Founding Faith: Providence, Politics, and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America by Steven Waldman (Random House; 2008; $28.00) came to my attention, I leapt on it. And devoured it. And it was a very tasty treat indeed. Much is discussed these days regarding the religious attitudes of the framers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Were they Christians? Did they see the United States as a Christian country? Was separation of church and state to be a wall or the skin between two lovers? Waldman provides us with biographical sketches of all the major players. The sketches focus on their religious inclinations – the major influences, the changes that occurred over their lives, the ambiguities they struggled with, the inconsistencies in their thought, word, and deed. They become people who, like you and me, grapple with the questions of faith and morality and human frailty and divine action and inaction. He stirs these sketches into the crucible that was the local and state politics, the Continental Congress, the Revolutionary War, and international relations facing the 13 American colonies at the end of the 18th century. Waldman, who is founder of BeliefNet.com, approaches the work with no agenda to develop, only the question to answer (my wording, not his). “How did a nation founded by religious bigots and separatists become a nation dedicated to free religious expression?” It is a profoundly important read, if for no other reason than its glimpse into how people of differing and often conflicting viewpoints can come together to create something more dynamic and strong than any one could craft of their own resources.

Fast forward to the early years of the 21st century, to a time occupied by what some have dubbed the “culture wars.” Who are the people reaching across the divides of our making to those on the other side to find the common ground and continue building on that dynamic and strong foundation we have inherited? One of the names must certainly be Jim Wallis whose latest book is The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post-Religious Right America (HarperOne; 2008; $25.95). This book is in some ways, a travelogue of Wallis’ encounters with people across the country as he has attended workshops, made speeches, and met with students, lay people, pastors, and religious and civic leaders. Starting with a reminder of the great changes that can be wrought in the joining of a passionate faith with compassionate concern – William Wilberforce ending slavery in the British empire, and American abolitionism, child labor laws and civil rights – he leads us into the landscape of contemporary political issues. On the role of government in pursuing the common good, on immigration, on poverty, on stewardship, on life, Wallis recounts the stories he has been told and the events he has observed to describe the confluence of effort from left and right, conservative and liberal, all the corners of the culturewar playing field. This is a remarkably hopeful book.

Because I try to walk in the way of Jesus, how could I not spot a title like How Would Jesus Vote: A Christian Perspective on the Issues by James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe (Waterbrook; 2008; $16.99). I include it, however, to say what I have never said in this column; this is a terrible book. Through bad logic, reiteration of stereotype, fear-mongering, and profoundly bad Biblical scholarship, we are guided to such conclusions as: Jesus’ top two economic concerns would be “honoring private property” and “do[ing] what we can to create an atmosphere that encourages work” (probably concerns since he didn’t seem to have either of them); that Jesus would support the death penalty because it upholds man’s dignity (besides, where would He be without it?); and that Jesus’ concern for immigrants would be expressed by us protecting ourselves. The positive outcome, however, is that I started researching the Hebrew words we translate as “strange(r)” and “foreign(er)” and “alien.” There are at least four words with distinct differences masked in the translation rather like the Inuit words for “snow.” It’s a much more insightful activity than finishing this book.