The Scholars, or Team Purple, include those who engage with creation care through scholarship: intellectual, theological understandings of creation care.
Some might be interested in hearing and understanding the philosophical and intellectual ideas of creation care, including land sustainability, use of chemicals and pollution, species protection, global racism and the impact on the Global South, and climate change. This group may bring in speakers, panels, discussion groups, or read books or view movies for discussion.
Scroll down for info on current and upcoming book and film studies, and to sign up for a mailing list to get the Zoom link for upcoming meetings!
Book Study – Wednesday, April 3, 2024
During Lent, join Team Purple in reading Wild Hope: Stories for Lent from the Vanishing by Gayle Boss. The book begins with a reading for Ash Wednesday and then has 4 short (1–3 page) readings per week until Holy Week; then there is a daily reading, for a total of “25 stories of imperiled animals and those devoted to them.”
Then, we’ll meet after Easter, on April 3 at 6:30 p.m. to discuss what we’ve read, in person in the Sojourners Room or on Zoom. (See below to request the Zoom link.)
Book description from the Gayle Boss website:
“‘Lent,’ at its root, means ‘spring,’ a time for our stiff hearts to thaw and open to a fuller compassion. From polar bears to pangolins, animals magnificent, delicate, and intricate are vanishing at a rate faster than at any time in Earth’s history. In Wild Hope, vivid stories of 25 of these wild ones wake in us wonder—and grief at what they suffer on a planet shaped by human choices. Their stories also wake in us a wild hope that from all this death and ruin something new might rise. The promise of Lent is that something new will rise. In fact, as their stories attest, that Wild Hope is already loose in the world.
“Twenty-five original woodcuts by award-winning illustrator David G. Klein convey the magnificence and beauty of each creature.
“Read an excerpt at Paraclete Press.”
Book Endorsements:
“Gayle Boss writes vividly of wild creatures as expressions of God’s own self—and of God’s own suffering. What better subject for Lent? Here’s a compelling way to wake into a deeper compassion and to meet there the One who transforms suffering into something unimaginably new. That’s the wild hope of all creatures!”
Richard Rohr, OFM, author, founder, The Center for Action and Contemplation
“Wild Hope is the only book whose table of contents alone gave me chills. Gayle Boss yearns to show us that we live in a miracle. This is a beautifully elegant, deeply excellent book, pursued by grace on every page, in every stunning illustration.”
Carl Safina, ecologist, MacArthur Fellow, NYT best-selling author of Beyond Words and Becoming Wild
Have you joined our Team Purple Facebook group yet?
Sign up for the Team Purple email list, and you’ll receive the Zoom link for this and notification of future upcoming meetings when they become available!