A Summer Tradition Continues!
Each summer Divine Mercy Parish holds a summer book club for parishioners and all interested persons who care to join us. Throughout the years, we've focused our time on meaningful, rich, and beautifully nuanced books to get us thinking together about the big questions that make the world go round. If you haven't joined us in the past, consider doing so this summer.
Throughout the ages, human beings across all cultures and religions have pondered the topic of the end of the world, offering perplexing answers to make sense of existence and cosmic destiny. How have Christians imagined the end of the world, and in particular Catholic Christians? And how might this relate to how non-religious might imagine it?
Continuing our annual summer book club series, “Literature & Catholic Imagination,” Divine Mercy Parish invites any and all persons – Catholic and non-Catholic! – to a book study where we read, explore, and discuss these and related topics.
This summer, we’ll explore the theme of utopia and dystopia by reading three modern classics:
- The Giver (1993), Lois Lowry
- A Newberry Award-Winning Young Adult Novel that many ages can enjoy!
- That Hideous Strength: A Modern Fairy-Tale for Grown Ups (1945), C.S. Lewis
- The classic third of the “Ransom” or “Space” trilogy, this work can be read apart from the others and is a prophetic!
- The Road (2006), Cormac McCarthy
- A dark dystopian novel of a blighted world that is searching and hopeful, despite the evidence. A masterpiece of American literature.
Readers can choose to read all or some of the books and journey with us as we open up the texts’ timeless and timely themes. In an age of both anxiety and optimism about the rapid pace of development in science and technology – perhaps most especially AI – we’ll examine how Christians and non-Christians might engage these perennial questions and ideas with a view to synthesizing both Faith and Science.
For Catholics, the end of the world can be understood in at least two ways. More than merely an apocalyptic cataclysm, there’s something far more vital, foundational, and hopeful. Join us this summer for a book club that, despite the topic, is about learning how to cultivate hope, peace, and tranquility of heart in the midst of the anxieties of our beautiful, yet broken and battered world.
Whether you’re a person of Catholic Faith or no faith – or anywhere in between – come join us!
Scroll below for a Reading Plan & Study Guide…
In a world which seems increasingly obsessed with instant gratification, the lure of gain, the pursuit of profit and the overriding importance of possessions, it is striking also to acknowledge a persistent, even growing, fascination with beauty. It may take different forms, but these all seem to indicate an aspiration for "something intangible," which can show us the magic and mystery in things and even far beyond them. Intuitively, the Church was aware of this from its origins and centuries of Christian art magnificently illustrate this. Every true work of art is potentially a way into religious experience. Recognizing the importance of art in the inculturation of the Gospel means recognizing that human genius and sensitivity are akin to the truth and beauty of the divine mystery. The Church shows profound respect to all artists, irrespective of their religious convictions, since works of art bear an imprint of the invisible, as it were Art, like every other human activity, looks beyond itself for its absolute goal: its nobility comes from being directed to the ultimate goal of the human person.
- Towards a Pastoral Approach to Culture, The Pontifical Council for CultureReading Plan & Study Guide
This summer’s book club will offer 10 sessions in total. The first 9 will cover the three books and we’ll conclude with a film night.
Dates and times are set — Thursday nights from 6-8 pm from June 18 – August 13 (along with a Friday Night Film, August 14) — but locations are not entirely yet. We’ll begin our first and end our last session at St. Maria Goretti Parish Hall.
Return to this website frequently for updates. You will eventually be able to follow the links in the session plan below to access each session’s study guide and recordings of any sessions you may miss.
Session 01, June 18 | @ St. Maria Goretti Parish Hall > The Giver, Pt. 1
Session 02, June 25 | @ St. Maria Goretti Parish Hall > The Giver, Pt. 2
Session 03, July 2 | @ TBD > That Hideous Strength, Pt. 1
Session 04, July 9 | @ TBD > That Hideous Strength, Pt. 2
Session 05, July 16 | @ TBD > That Hideous Strength, Pt. 3
Session 06, July 23 | @ TBD > That Hideous Strength, Pt. 4
Session 07, July 30 | @ TBD > The Road, Pt. 1
Session 08, August 6 | @ TBD > The Road, Pt. 2
Session 09, August 13 | @ TBD > The Road, Pt. 3
Session 10, August 14 | Film Night! @ St. Maria Goretti Parish Hall (FILM TBD)
STAY TUNED FOR MORE DETAILS! IN THE MEANTIME, YOU CAN GET THE BOOKS AND START READING!