SU Victoria

The readers’ and small groups’ guide to getting the most out of Mark Sayers’ The Trouble With Paris. A powerful and transformative look the current culture of media and materialism – and how to follow Jesus through it all.

The (justifiably) best selling book by Australian Mark Sayers takes a good hard look at the media and materialism – the false alternative ‘reality’ they conspire to create and how we are falling for the lie. This book is about ‘following Jesus in a world of plastic promises’ and has been so well-received and widely read it now comes with a participants’ guide for working through it with small groups.

Henri Nouwen believes the spiritual life is a process of turning negatives into positives; of living between two polarities, of embracing darkness and light at the same time. Editor Michael Ford has collated from the works of Henri Nouwen a collection of writings for those practicing or receiving spiritual direction.

Henri Nouwen believes ministers are called to identify the suffering in their own hearts and make that recognition the starting point of their service. It is from the pain of their own wounds that a minister heals others most effectively.
As expected of Nouwen, a perceptive, challenging and heart-opening book.

The Eucharist should be able to open our eyes to the suffering of the world and give us the strength and hope to challenge the structures that shore up injustice world wide.
Margaret Scott’s experience and passion all contribute to an important book that is capable of bringing new meaning and passion and outcomes from our encounters with the Eucharist.

What is prayer?
What difference does it make?
What about unanswered prayer?
Philip Yancey turns his inspired mind and eye to the subject of prayer – that most basic element of Christian life, that proves so difficult for so many to sustain.

‘If the Celtic Church had survived, it is possible that the fissure between Christianity and nature, widening through the centuries, would not have cracked the unity of western man’s attitude to the universe.’
This book provides an understanding of this often misunderstood form of Christianity – an aspect Christianity that could be most beneficial to a natural world that desperately needs our respect and love.

Losing My Religion (Tom Frame):
A ‘beautiful blend of history. Theology and sociology’, his long experience of Christianity within the Australian context gives Frame’s book undeniable credibility. With candor and intelligence he seeks to provide insight and answers regarding Christianity in a nation that seems increasingly ‘Godless’.
An important book for Australian Christians.

A Study of Women in Biblical Worlds: in honour of Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza, these essays bring together the discoveries and discussions of some of the top female theologians as they look specifically at women in Biblical times. A much needed book to balance the oft-given impression by current theologians that women were hardly there at all.

The Handbook that provides practical and simple steps for taking your faith, your family and/or your community closer to a way of being church that emulates the genuinely missional ways of Christ and the early church.
Highly recommended.

Alan Hirsch (with Darryn Altclass) has written a ‘full-blooded and comprehensive call for the complete reorientation of the church.’
Like much of Hirsch’s work, this should be essential reading for Christians and church groups, if only to show a view of Church that seems often to be far closer to the way of Jesus than current Western Christianity.
Highly recommended. Handbook also available.

A most illuminating and gentle book about our tendency to think only ‘perfect’ is truly good. Philip Simons was dying as he wrote this book, and realising in his inimitably intelligent way that as he became weaker, more dependent and less secure about all – he was also finding all the blessings of such imperfections.
A thought-provoking, meditational and often humorous look at our
misunderstanding of ‘perfection’ and ‘imperfection’.
Highly recommended for anyone!

A book on ‘the unexpected love of an untamable God’.
Mark Galli reminds us of the fearsome and passionate side of God displayed through Jesus, and what this means for who we also are to be.

One of the great recent works of theology and very readable.
Martin Borg and N. T Wright converse regarding who Jesus was and what it means for us. Their often very different views allow the reader to see a broad range of possibilities and ideas and the discussion helps one to establish one’s own position. One of the most helpful books on who Jesus was/is currently in print.
Highly Recommended.

A wonderful book by Australian theologian Val Webb. This book
explores the phenomenon of definitions and images that have become inextricably linked with the word GOD – and at ways in which God might be perceived with greater respect for the mystery and the unknown. A highly recommended read for any Christian.