These books are worth examination for use in Adult First Day School gatherings

Pendle Hill Pamphlets and articles from Friends Journal are good for individual classes/ forums. If you are able to commit to something long term, I offer several suggestions below. You might also consider the Bible or something from the bibliography.

What is your Meeting reading? Let me know at evand@pym.org , with a sentence or two, and I'll include it in this list. Thanks in advance. Now here are current suggestions in alphebetical order by author after the first.

Faith & Practice: A Book of Christian Discipline. (Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, 2002). If you haven't read this, do. This is number one on the list in more ways than one. It is our corporate statement of what it is to be a Friend in PYM.

Borg, Marcus J. Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. Several Meeting I am aware of have read this book and found it very useful. Borg was a participant in "The Jesus Seminar." If you have already read this you might try his The Heart of Christianity.

Brinton, Howard. Friends for 350 Years.(Pendle Hill, 2002) is the updated version (by Margaret Hope Bacon) of his classic Friends for 300 Years.

Gwyn, Douglas. Apocalypse of the Word: The Life and Message of George Fox (Friends United Press, 1986).

Palmer, Parker. A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life (Jossey-Bass, 2004). "A Hidden Wholeness weaves together four themes that its author has pursued for forty years: the shape of an integrat life, the meaning of community, teaching and learning for transformation, and nonviolent social change." (from the dust jacket). This book by a former Dean of Pendle Hill was read by the Adult First Day School at Mullica Hill Meeting in the fall of 2005. You might contact Roshan Dinshaw ((856) 694-3025) for his comments.

Polkinghorne, John. Belief in God in an Age of Science (Yale, 1998). This is a densly written book by a theoritical Physicist turned Anglican (Episcopalian) priest, and winner of the 2002 Templeton Prize. Not light reading but well worth the effort for those seeking something intellectual.

The Gospel of Thomas. This Gnostic text is "the latest thing" since its rediscovery over fifty years ago. It is available in several editions. Salem Meeting is reading it in the edition by Jean-Yves Leloup (The Gospel of Thomas: The Gnostic Wisdom of Jesus) which has a helpful commentary. There is also Beyond Belief : The Secret Gospel of Thomas by Elaine Pagels, which is about the gospel but has a translation at the end.

Evan Draper
Monthly Meeting Services Specialist
evand@pym.org
215 241 7182

Last Updated March 20, 2007