Summer Reading
March 21st, 2007 » posted by Sarah
I know it’s going to be a good summer if by the end of the school year I have a big stack of books waiting. This promises to be a very good summer.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it means to ‘do good work’ in the world. It’s hard to spend more than a few minutes on Duke’s campus without realizing that this community of students is passionately interested in attacking some of the hardest and most pressing issues in the world: hunger, poverty, genocide, homelessness, access to healthcare, and fair wages among them.
At the same time, it’s hard to open a newspaper or magazine without coming across an ad for some product that includes a tie-in to a good cause as part of its purchase price. Part of the profits generated from each purchase will go to saving the environment, furthering research on a cure for breast cancer, or distributing anti-retroviral medicine in Africa, just to name a few examples.
So, I’m thinking about ‘consumption’ and ‘choice’ and how those things shape our response to the call to love God and our neighbors. I’ve gathered some interesting-looking books, including Jeffrey Sachs’, The End of Poverty; Moritz Thomsen’s, Living Poor and The Farm on the River of Emeralds; Samuel Wells’, God’s Companions; John le Carre’s, The Constant Gardener. I’m still tracking down some other titles and looking for more suggestions.
Of course, come July 21st, all other reading will have to wait until I’ve finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It is summer, after all.
Blessings,
Sarah+