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St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Chapter 12-13
These two chapters end the final “Station” of the book, titled “Redeeming Life and Death.” The chapters explore the concepts of “mercy” and “love” that are a core part of Jones’ definition/description of God.
Chapter 12: Mercy
This chapter reflects on the concept of mercy that Jones’ struggled with in relation to her mother.
Chapter 13: Love
This chapter focuses primarily on Jones’ father after her mother’s death.
No class next week (3/15).
This spring we will explore the Gospel of John – class will resume on 3/22.
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Chapter 10-11
With these two chapters we begin the final “Station” of the book, titled “Redeeming Life and Death.” The chapters each are named for the four pillars that define her understanding of God: breath, justice, mercy, and love.
Chapter 10: Breath
In this chapter, Jones describes her daughter’s near death experience due to an allergic reaction, her serious bout with cancer, and her introduction to yoga.
“Instead of imagining our world as a collection of isolated, bounded selves that bump into one another, we are better served by recognizing all the physical and emotional ways in which we are connect, in our dazzling, wonderful, fraught differences…It also allows us to see God not as another object, distinct from us, bt as the air, the flow, the spirit, the life force that moves between us and through us.”
Chapter 11: Justice
In this chapter, Jones discusses her appointment as president of Union Theological Seminary and the challenges it brought her.
For next week: Read chapters 12-13
(No class on March 15.)
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Chapter 9
This final chapter in Station III is titled “Forgiveness.” In it Jones weaves together the two challenges she struggled with at the same time – her divorce and the execution of Timothy McVeigh. In both cases, she found her anger at times overwhelming her, even while she wanted to be more like her sisters and more forgiving. She eventually found the words of Howard Thurman, as well as the influence of her sisters, her ex-husband, and even her young daughter to help her move toward forgiveness.
Here is a quote from Jones that I think sums up her understanding of Thurman’s words and the need to offer forgiveness:
“The hatred that we believe shields us is the hatred that kills us. And—caught in this very human, very fearful state of being—it is almost impossible to see that choosing life, not death, requires letting those warm blankets of hate fall off our shoulders. That’s what forgiveness is. To forgive is to let go of what weighs us down so that we are freed to do the work of love in the world. Freed also to let ourselves be loved.” (p. 204)
For next week: Read chapters 10-11
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Chapter 7-8
These two chapters are in the next section: “Station III: Hatred and Forgiveness.” Think about why she tells these stories in this section.
Chapter 7: I Once Was Found but Now Am Lost
In this chapter, Jones tells about her trip to India and her extreme illness.
Chapter 8: Hatred
This chapter focuses on the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and her response to it.
For next week: Read chapter 9
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Chapter 6
This chapter focuses on Jones’ experience with her teenage boyfriend, Freddy and that aftermath of his death. As in the previous two chapters in this section, she connects this experience with a theologian—in this case, the Liberation Theologian Gustavo Gutierrez.
The story of Freddy reveals two important aspects of Jones’ theology: her understanding of the afterlife, and her commitment to social justice (especially with regard to poverty).
Let’s first focus on Freddy:
Afterlife:
Social Justice and Liberation Theology:
Liberation Theology understands the primary message of the Bible to be that God desires freedom from oppression for all people, with the exodus being a foundational story. There are many types of Liberation Theology, but they all argue that Christians have an obligation to work to overcome all types of oppression, including economic, political, social, etc. This should be done through changing structures (including political) that perpetuate oppression. When the current Pope talks about the “preferential option for the poor,” he is expressing this kind of theology. Gustavo Gutierrez was a catalyst for this movement in the 1970s, which began in Latin America.
For Feb. 16: Read chapter 7-8.
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Chapters 4-5
Thee chapters come from the next “station” of the book called “Destiny and Freedom.” How do you think these chapters connect to that theme?
Chapter 4: Kierkegaard on the Playground
This chapter uses the scene on the playground when Serene loses her mother’s watch to explore that challenges her mother faced. Serene later found Kierkegaard’s description of “despair” as a way to understand her mother.
While the previous chapter focused on Serene’s mother, this focuses on her father, starting with his response to her outburst about the swimming pool.
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Chapters 2-3
Chapter 2: Buried Treasure
This chapter focuses on Jones’ understanding of John Calvin’s theology and the impact it has had on her life, her view of her family, and her view of America.
Chapter 3: Original Sin(s)
This chapter is difficult to read, as it describes experiences that lead to Jones’ recognition of the profound impact and existence of sin. She uses her grandfather, Dick Jones, and the role of her own family in racist acts and attitudes, to wrestle with the idea of sin and grace.
No class next week (Annual Meeting).
For Feb. 2: Read chapters 4 – 3.
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Intro and Chapter 1
Introduction
On p. v, Jones writes, “Finding your core stories and then reflecting on their greater significance is theology.”
Jones identifies her six core beliefs on pp. xvi – xx.
Chapter 1: Prairie Theology
How does she characterize the basic “prairie theology” of the Disciples of Christ on pp. 4-6?
The two family members Jones focuses on in this chapter are her grandmother Idabel Seitz Jones and her grandfather Dick Jones.
For next week: Read chapters 2 – 3.
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Schedule
This winter we will read Call It Grace: Finding Meaning in a Fractured World, by Serene Jones.
Date Chapters to be discussed
Jan. 12 Introduction and chapter 1
Jan. 19 Chapters 2 – 3
Jan. 26 Annual Meeting – no class
Feb. 2 Chapters 4 – 5
Feb. 9 Chapter 6
Feb. 16 Chapters 7 – 8
Feb. 23 Chapter 9
Mar. 1 Chapters 10 – 11
Mar. 8 Chapters 12 – 13
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Chapter 12-13
These two chapters end the final “Station” of the book, titled “Redeeming Life and Death.” The chapters explore the concepts of “mercy” and “love” that are a core part of Jones’ definition/description of God.
Chapter 12: Mercy
This chapter reflects on the concept of mercy that Jones’ struggled with in relation to her mother.
- According to Jones, how is mercy different from forgiveness? (Think about her summary Bryan Stevenson’s quote on p. 266: “It is most potent when it is least expected and when it fall upon the undeserving. To have mercy upon someone is to simply release him or her from punishment.”)
- How is God’s mercy different from human mercy?
- Why do you think Jones’ mother confessed to Serene regarding her affair?
- What was your reaction to the “second eulogy”? How did it help Serene?
Chapter 13: Love
This chapter focuses primarily on Jones’ father after her mother’s death.
- What did you think of this ending? Did it help you think more about God as love? Why or why not?
- Here are a few things that Jones’ father says in the last chapter – what do you think of his comments?
- “God is love, but not love as we know it. God’s love is God’s.” (p. 304)
- “How can we, fools that we are, pretend to know ultimate reality?” (p. 305)
- “God comes to us, even though we can’t reach God…That’s love. It’s all we can say. We can only call it love.” (p. 305)
No class next week (3/15).
This spring we will explore the Gospel of John – class will resume on 3/22.
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Chapter 10-11
With these two chapters we begin the final “Station” of the book, titled “Redeeming Life and Death.” The chapters each are named for the four pillars that define her understanding of God: breath, justice, mercy, and love.
Chapter 10: Breath
In this chapter, Jones describes her daughter’s near death experience due to an allergic reaction, her serious bout with cancer, and her introduction to yoga.
- What do each of these events have to do with “breath”?
- The other three pillars are likely aspects of God you might list, but breath might not be. Why is it so important to Jones?
- What are some stories and images in our tradition that connect God to breath?
- The theologian Jones discussed in this chapter is Luce Irigaray, who influenced Jones’ view of God and breath. Here are a couple quotes that describe her view (pp. 234-5):
“Instead of imagining our world as a collection of isolated, bounded selves that bump into one another, we are better served by recognizing all the physical and emotional ways in which we are connect, in our dazzling, wonderful, fraught differences…It also allows us to see God not as another object, distinct from us, bt as the air, the flow, the spirit, the life force that moves between us and through us.”
Chapter 11: Justice
In this chapter, Jones discusses her appointment as president of Union Theological Seminary and the challenges it brought her.
- What does “justice” have to do with the challenge of addressing the crumbling infrastructure of the seminary?
- What inner conflicts did Jones experience as she sought to deal with the problem?
- Why was it so important to her to preserve and protect the institution?
- What is the theological insight that this experience gave her?
For next week: Read chapters 12-13
(No class on March 15.)
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Chapter 9
This final chapter in Station III is titled “Forgiveness.” In it Jones weaves together the two challenges she struggled with at the same time – her divorce and the execution of Timothy McVeigh. In both cases, she found her anger at times overwhelming her, even while she wanted to be more like her sisters and more forgiving. She eventually found the words of Howard Thurman, as well as the influence of her sisters, her ex-husband, and even her young daughter to help her move toward forgiveness.
- Why is forgiveness so difficult for Jones? When has it been hard for you to forgive?
- Do you think it would have been as difficult for Jones if these events had not been occurring at the same time? Are there other elements in her life that made it hard for her to forgive?
- How do you think being a parent helped her learn to forgive and be less angry?
- What words of Thurman’s did you connect with?
Here is a quote from Jones that I think sums up her understanding of Thurman’s words and the need to offer forgiveness:
“The hatred that we believe shields us is the hatred that kills us. And—caught in this very human, very fearful state of being—it is almost impossible to see that choosing life, not death, requires letting those warm blankets of hate fall off our shoulders. That’s what forgiveness is. To forgive is to let go of what weighs us down so that we are freed to do the work of love in the world. Freed also to let ourselves be loved.” (p. 204)
For next week: Read chapters 10-11
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Chapter 7-8
These two chapters are in the next section: “Station III: Hatred and Forgiveness.” Think about why she tells these stories in this section.
Chapter 7: I Once Was Found but Now Am Lost
In this chapter, Jones tells about her trip to India and her extreme illness.
- Why did she go to India? What was she looking for?
- Much of this chapter feels very negative—what were the positive aspects of her experience in India?
- How does her experience make her question the believe in God’s grace?
- What was your reaction to the description of her near death experience?
- Why did she feel she was experiencing a mystical emptying of the self? How was this different from her normal approach to religion?
- What do you think she means by the title of the chapter?
Chapter 8: Hatred
This chapter focuses on the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and her response to it.
- Do you remember your own reaction to this event? Why/how was Jones’ different?
- How are the reaction of Jones and her sisters different from what their father had taught them?
- In the speech that Jones recounts at the end of the chapter, she leaves open the question of what it means to be a person of faith. What did you think of how the speech ended?
- After the speech she observes, “I’ve almost become an atheist, I thought for a moment. And I wasn’t afraid. And in the years to come, I would realize the fine line between the two, atheism and divine vision, nothingness and the holy. I would realize, because of Timothy McVeigh, that the divine is more complex than anything the human mind can grasp.” (p. 173)
For next week: Read chapter 9
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Chapter 6
This chapter focuses on Jones’ experience with her teenage boyfriend, Freddy and that aftermath of his death. As in the previous two chapters in this section, she connects this experience with a theologian—in this case, the Liberation Theologian Gustavo Gutierrez.
The story of Freddy reveals two important aspects of Jones’ theology: her understanding of the afterlife, and her commitment to social justice (especially with regard to poverty).
Let’s first focus on Freddy:
- What were your reactions to her relationship with him? Have you had a similar experience in your own life/family?
- How did Jones’ feel when she was around Freddy’s friends? Have you ever had to “code-switch” in a similar way?
- How does Jones understand the role of poverty in Freddy’s death?
- What do you imagine might have happened if Freddy had lived?
Afterlife:
- How did Jones experience Freddy after his death?
- What kind of “afterlife” did she feel existed?
Social Justice and Liberation Theology:
Liberation Theology understands the primary message of the Bible to be that God desires freedom from oppression for all people, with the exodus being a foundational story. There are many types of Liberation Theology, but they all argue that Christians have an obligation to work to overcome all types of oppression, including economic, political, social, etc. This should be done through changing structures (including political) that perpetuate oppression. When the current Pope talks about the “preferential option for the poor,” he is expressing this kind of theology. Gustavo Gutierrez was a catalyst for this movement in the 1970s, which began in Latin America.
- Why did this theology resonate so much with Jones?
- How did she connect this perspective with Freddy?
- How did all of this impact her decision to attend seminary and go to India?
For Feb. 16: Read chapter 7-8.
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Chapters 4-5
Thee chapters come from the next “station” of the book called “Destiny and Freedom.” How do you think these chapters connect to that theme?
Chapter 4: Kierkegaard on the Playground
This chapter uses the scene on the playground when Serene loses her mother’s watch to explore that challenges her mother faced. Serene later found Kierkegaard’s description of “despair” as a way to understand her mother.
- Do you agree that we all have some level of despair because we are finite beings who can conceive of the infinite?
- What do you think of the four types of responses Kierkegaard describes as ways we react to this kind of despair? Does it help explain people you know?
While the previous chapter focused on Serene’s mother, this focuses on her father, starting with his response to her outburst about the swimming pool.
- What are the different ways Serene felt shame about what she had said? What confused her? Do you understand her reference to “unconscious bias”?
- On p. 98 she writes, “What Barth detested most was the fact that German theologians at the tine were so caught up in celebrating the resurgence of German nationalism that they forgot their deeper connection to the God of love and mercy what cares for the poor and detests the arrogance of the powerful.” How was this ideas evident in her father’s own beliefs and behavior?
- After being spat at while campaigning, Serene’s father says, “We are all children of light and children of darkness…You and me and those men, we are children of the same God” (p. 101) which is a reference to a book by Niebuhr. How did you react when you read this?
- Jones describes Niebuhr’s concern about social sin? Do you see a distinction between personal sin and social sin? If so, which is of more concern to you?
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Chapters 2-3
Chapter 2: Buried Treasure
This chapter focuses on Jones’ understanding of John Calvin’s theology and the impact it has had on her life, her view of her family, and her view of America.
- What aspects of Calvin’s theology did you find most compelling?
- What aspects did you disagree with?
- Is this how you have understood John Calvin (note that she says on p. 34 the many Calvinists disagree with her interpretation of Calvin)?
Chapter 3: Original Sin(s)
This chapter is difficult to read, as it describes experiences that lead to Jones’ recognition of the profound impact and existence of sin. She uses her grandfather, Dick Jones, and the role of her own family in racist acts and attitudes, to wrestle with the idea of sin and grace.
- What are examples of sin and grace in her own grandfather? In herself?
- What is the significance of Dick Jones’ Native American heritage as Jones reflects on her grandfather and her family?
- How does she relate America’s “original sin” with Calvin’s concept of original sin? Do you think we “inherit” in some way the sins of our ancestors?
- Jones moves from sin to grace at the end of the chapter (pp. 60-62) – what does grace give us? What does it demand of us?
No class next week (Annual Meeting).
For Feb. 2: Read chapters 4 – 3.
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Intro and Chapter 1
Introduction
On p. v, Jones writes, “Finding your core stories and then reflecting on their greater significance is theology.”
- In the introduction, she tells stories about her grandmother’s water jug and Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land.” What are the theological messages in these stories?
- As we read this book, let’s each consider our own core theological stories.
Jones identifies her six core beliefs on pp. xvi – xx.
- Which of these stand out to you or do you connect with?
- Which are you uncertain about?
- Let’s watch for these beliefs as they emerge in her stories throughout the book.
Chapter 1: Prairie Theology
How does she characterize the basic “prairie theology” of the Disciples of Christ on pp. 4-6?
The two family members Jones focuses on in this chapter are her grandmother Idabel Seitz Jones and her grandfather Dick Jones.
- Idabel’s family were “sodbusters” – what does this mean, and how did it impact Idabel’s theology?
- Dick Jones became a judge – why does she characterize him/his family as outlaws?
- How do Idabel and Dick represent the tension between sin and grace (the title of this section of the book)? Do you experience this tension in your own life?
For next week: Read chapters 2 – 3.
St. Paul’s Adult Forum
Winter 2020
Call It Grace
Schedule
This winter we will read Call It Grace: Finding Meaning in a Fractured World, by Serene Jones.
Date Chapters to be discussed
Jan. 12 Introduction and chapter 1
Jan. 19 Chapters 2 – 3
Jan. 26 Annual Meeting – no class
Feb. 2 Chapters 4 – 5
Feb. 9 Chapter 6
Feb. 16 Chapters 7 – 8
Feb. 23 Chapter 9
Mar. 1 Chapters 10 – 11
Mar. 8 Chapters 12 – 13