{"id":6198,"date":"2016-11-22T09:24:10","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T15:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/?p=6198"},"modified":"2016-11-22T09:32:04","modified_gmt":"2016-11-22T15:32:04","slug":"cmu-theology-professor-to-celebrate-publication-of-new-book-at-launch-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/2016\/cmu-theology-professor-to-celebrate-publication-of-new-book-at-launch-event\/","title":{"rendered":"CMU theology professor to celebrate publication of new book at launch event"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>\u2018Take and Read\u2019 includes essays reflecting theologically on books<\/i><\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Canadian Mennonite University invites the public to a launch event celebrating the release of <i>Take and Read: Reflecting Theologically on Books<\/i>, a new book written by Dr. Paul Doerksen, Associate Professor of Theology and Anabaptist Studies.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The event takes place Sunday, December 4 at 2:00 PM in the Atrium at McNally Robinson Booksellers (1120 Grant Ave.). Admission to the book launch is free, and all are welcome to attend.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Take-and-Read.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-6199\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Take-and-Read-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"Take and Read\" width=\"250\" height=\"378\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Take-and-Read-198x300.jpg 198w, https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Take-and-Read.jpg 395w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a>Published by Wipf and Stock, <i>Take and Read<\/i> is a collection of essays first presented as oral theological reflections on books, written to stimulate conversations among diverse groups of readers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">These reflections introduce and offer samples of theological readings of a variety of books. The result is a collection of essays addressing a wide range of topics from food security to violence, from dementia to indigenous issues.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cI hope that anyone interested in joining conversations about any number of issues will read this book, because it really is a series of conversations with other books which address various topics,\u201d Doerksen says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Take and Read<\/i> takes its name from a theological book discussion group that Doerksen has led since 2004 as part of CMU\u2019s continuing education initiatives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">The group has <\/span><span class=\"s1\">included farmers, physicians, teachers, poets, novelists, scientists, people involved in business, finance, relief work, and many other walks of life, ranging in age from 20-something to 80.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6158\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6158\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PaulDoerksenOct2016.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-6158 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PaulDoerksenOct2016-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"PaulDoerksenOct2016\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PaulDoerksenOct2016-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/PaulDoerksenOct2016-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6158\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr. Paul Doerksen, author and Associate Professor of Theology and Anabaptist Studies at CMU<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s3\">Doerksen\u2019s prepared <\/span><span class=\"s1\">reflections for these gatherings are never meant to draw conclusions about the books themselves, or about the topics addressed by the authors. Rather, the reflections serve as a starting point for the group\u2019s conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Reading the literary works that Doerksen discusses in his new book is not a prerequisite for enjoying the volume.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cMy hope is that if you haven&#8217;t read the book and you read the essay about the book, it will drive you to it,\u201d Doerksen says. \u201cIf you have, I hope the essay brings up connections and questions, and some evaluative dimensions in response to the book.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><span class=\"s2\">Ultimately, <i>Take and Read<\/i> is a theological enterprise. <\/span><span class=\"s1\">The book is perhaps best described as an invitation to joining a conversation about books, and more importantly, about God.<\/span><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cI hope that in reading the book, people join a conversation about something that is meaningful to them, and that they find something theologically meaningful in joining that conversation,\u201d Doerksen says.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">A professor at CMU since 2011, Doerksen has a PhD in Western Religious Thought from McMaster University. He also holds degrees from Conrad Grebel University College, the University of Winnipeg, and Briercrest Bible College.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s2\">He is the author of <\/span><span class=\"s1\"><i>Beyond Suspicion: Post-Christendom Protestant Political Theology in John Howard Yoder and Oliver O`Donovan<\/i> (Wipf and Stock, 2009).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>About CMU<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A Christian university in the Anabaptist tradition, CMU\u2019s Shaftesbury campus offers undergraduate degrees in arts, business, humanities, music, sciences, and social sciences, as well as\u00a0graduate degrees in theology,\u00a0ministry, peacebuilding and collaborative development, and an MBA. CMU has over 800 full-time equivalent\u00a0students, including those enrolled in degree programs at the Shaftesbury and Menno Simons College campuses and in its Outtatown certificate program.<\/p>\n<p>For information about CMU visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/\">www.cmu.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For additional information, please contact:<br \/>\nKevin Kilbrei, Director of Communications &amp; Marketing<br \/>\nkkilbrei@cmu.ca; 204.487.3300 Ext. 621<br \/>\nCanadian Mennonite University<br \/>\n500 Shaftesbury Blvd., Winnipeg, MB\u00a0 R3P 2N2<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u2018Take and Read\u2019 includes essays reflecting theologically on books Canadian Mennonite University invites the public to a launch event celebrating the release of Take and Read: Reflecting Theologically on Books, a new book written by Dr. Paul Doerksen, Associate Professor of Theology and Anabaptist Studies. The event takes place Sunday, December 4 at 2:00 PM [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[25,5],"tags":[537,596,703,651,813],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6198"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6198"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6204,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6198\/revisions\/6204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cmu.ca\/media_archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}