Shopping for God is a very interesting read: Twitchell is Professor of English and Advertising at the University of Florida. I like his style, which is a new notches short of, say, Ann Koulter. But with just as effective a punch, and little irreverence for spice.
Twitchell characterizes himself an apatheist (his term): as one who believes religion and faith are critical ingredients to society and culture, but he doesn't what form-or to use his term, brand--you use.
I'm only a quarter of the way through the book, but he does have some very insightful gems among the dirt. Here's one:
"...with the exception of furniture and major appliances, it is possible to outfit your entire self and home in Christian products--bird feeders to body lotions, luggage to lamps. It has been said that the medieval peasant lived surrounded by such iconography, from the door frames incorporating the cross, to his eating utensil laid out in the shape of a cross, to the cross on the church. We're coming close. Clearly, religiously informed objects are now a part of the modern scene, asserting their place in a multicultural world...
"...the statement is not about belief as much as about an entire lifestyle. The new Christian decked out like a bumper covered with stickers considers his faith not something to exercise on Sundays but something to do in public, in front of you. It's not something to believe in; it's something to wear."
Scazzero's Healthy Church book reads more like a personal testimonial. He describes his journey with his church, where it learned how to dig beneath the surface issues most churches prefer to stay with, and get to the root issues people really need to address. Chapters include:
- Break the Power of the Past
- Live in Brokenness & Vulnerability
- Receive the Gift of Limits
- Embrace Grieving & Loss
2 comments:
Parts of Twitchell's book are plagiarized, including one of the excerpts you quote.
See:
www.gainesville.com/article/20080426/NEWS/757517854/1002/NEWS
and www.dynamist.com/weblog/archives/002769.html
If Twitchell cited another source without attribution, it would not surprise me. I'm almost halfway through the book now, and have noticed several places where it's rather obvious Twitchell hasn't done his homework. I received a failing grade on a college paper once because of sloppy scholarship. I didn't pay attention to my revisions and rewrites, and some of the citations merged with some of my own words. The professor was very conversant with the subject (duh) and the source, and picked up on my sloppiness and correctly failed the paper (school policy).
It's disappointing whenever I read or hear of someone who frankly should know better (Twitchell IS a professor of English, for Pete's sake) thinking s/he stands above courtesy and respect in literary rigor.
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