Recent braille additions

The Last Week: A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus's Final Week in Jerusalem by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan (B2000, 4 volumes): Top Jesus scholars Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan join together to reveal a radical and little-known Jesus. As both authors reacted to and responded to questions about Mel Gibson's blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, they discovered that many Christians are unclear on the details of events during the week leading up to Jesus's crucifixion. Using the gospel of Mark as their guide, Borg and Crossan present a day-by-day account of Jesus's final week of life. They begin their story on Palm Sunday with two triumphal entries into Jerusalem. The first entry, that of Roman governor Pontius Pilate leading Roman soldiers into the city, symbolized military strength. The second heralded a new kind of moral hero who was praised by the people as he rode in on a humble donkey. The Jesus introduced by Borg and Crossan is this new moral hero, a more dangerous Jesus than the one enshrined in the church's traditional teachings. The Last Week depicts Jesus giving up his life to protest power without justice and to condemn the rich who lack concern for the poor. In this vein, at the end of the week Jesus marches up Calvary, offering himself as a model for others to do the same when they are confronted by similar issues. Informed, challenged, and inspired, we not only meet the historical Jesus, but meet a new Jesus who engages us and invites us to follow him.

The Rocking Chair Prophet by Matthew Kelly (B2001, 2 volumes): There is a voice within you. Listening to that voice is the difference be­tween happiness and misery, wonderful memories and heartrending regrets. The Rock­ing Chair Prophet is a transformational story about reclaiming that voice and the unmiti­gated joy that comes from following it. After an unspeakable tragedy devastates his life, Daniel, a thirty-three-year-old sub­urban man, disappears into the mountains. Years later, he reemerges filled with uncom­mon wisdom and other extraordinary gifts. From that day on, people travel from far and wide to meet with Daniel, who sits on his rocking chair, meeting with visitors, and helping them explore their deeply per­sonal questions. These questions lead to a se­ries of epic conversations that traverse life’s quintessential topics: love, suffering, health and well-being, education, work, money and things, spirituality, regrets, depression, ambi­tion, nature, parenting, midlife crisis, choic­es, our hopes and dreams, the meaning of life, and enduring friendship. The Rocking Chair Prophet is a rich explo­ration of life and the human condition. It’s an invitation to rediscover yourself and reorient your life. Matthew Kelly has masterfully wo­ven into the story a piercing wisdom that is thought-provoking on a life-changing scale. It is stunning that one book can have some­thing so meaningful to say on so many topics. This is destined to be a book readers return to time and again, a book that speaks to us anew in every season of life.