Radbam March 3rd, 2009
We’ve just posted the video of my talk at Seattle University’s Pacific Northwest Spiritual Book Festival. Check out the new videos on the Good God: YouTube channel and see video clips about the book and speaking to a talk I gave about the themes presented in the book.
Get more clips like this on the Good God: YouTube channel.
Radbam February 18th, 2009
Temple De Hirsch Sinai & Classic Day Publishing Cordially invite you to celebrate the publication of Good God: Faith for the Rest of Us at our official launch party!
Temple De Hirsch Sinai
1441 16th Ave. E. – Seattle WA, 98122
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Seven to Nine p.m.
Map | Link
In celebration please join us for a delicious nosh, refreshments and an exclusive preview of the new book Good God: Faith for the Rest of Us.
The official launch is a few weeks away, make sure you save the date.
Radbam February 2nd, 2009
Like the real life tightrope walker of the indie hit Man on a Wire, we often find ourselves perilously traversing the vast expanse of our lives, delicately balancing between competing forces seeking to topple us into the abyss of inevitable uncertainty, imagined fears, or at the very least, profound embarrassment. The paradox of the current moment, the existential tug ‘o war buffeting many of us between the poles of Obamatism (Obama + optimism) and a 401K-half-empty view of the world has swayed much of our thinking in recent weeks about life’s larger concerns.
The Times’ David Brooks waxed moralistic about the tension between the demands of institutional morality in the face of individualistic need. The Editor’s of The New Republic, destined once again to become the in flight reading on Air Force One as it was in the Clinton years, surveyed the uniquely Obaman nature of this battle, pitting his campaign idealism against political pragmatism. Even the hoary rivalry of science v.s. religion is riding once more unto the breach of timeless mob pleasers.
This tension is as old as the Bible or even earlier, probably etched on the limestone of the Lascaux caves depicting Grog the Neanderthal thoughtfully considering whether to club a bison or his brother-in-law Greg the Cro-magnon, thus both taking credit as Great Provider while eliminating another mouth to feed. Rabbinic commentary on the Jewish Creation myth imagines God big-banging the world into being using the qualities of both justice and compassion. Both are necessary for an effective, successful universe. Too much justice and the draconian world of the Cylon has arrived. Too much compassion, and Sean Hannity’s bogey-man of a Nanny-state cradles us from womb to tomb.
This is the first blog post of what I hope will be an open-ended and open-minded conversation in support of my new book, Good God: Faith for the Rest of Us. Many of us struggle to find a place for ancient values in contemporary society. We revile the religious extremes of fundamentalism and atheism that suck all the air out of a more thoughtful discussion of faith and its role in our lives. There is a silent majority of us who seek meaning without dogma, transcendence without exclusivity, and purpose without the passion of absolutism. It is a balance that is both a struggle and a journey. But its resolution and realization can provide the foundation for the best of all lives. I invite you to join the discussion, check out the book, and stand up for a faith as mystical as it is reasonable, as inspiring as it is informative, as unique as it is universal.
Radbam January 19th, 2009
Join Daniel A. Weiner as he discusses his forthcoming book Good God: Faith for the Rest of Us at Seattle University’s Search for Meaning: Pacific Northwest Spirituality and Theology Book Festival.
Search For Meaning: Pacific Northwest Spirituality and Theology Book Festival
Saturday, February 7, 2009, 9:00 am-5:00 pm
Featured speakers: Sherman Alexie and James K. Wellman, Jr.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW AUTHOR BIOS
CLICK HERE TO VIEW SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
CLICK HERE TO VIEW ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Join us for the first Pacific Northwest Spirituality and Theology Book Festival in the Pigott Building on the Seattle University campus. Search for Meaning is designed to celebrate the best works on issues of spirituality, faith, church-state matters, and theology. Meet authors, hear them speak, purchase books, and have fellowship with others who are searching for meaning in their faith and spiritual life.
The School of Theology and Ministry is offering this event as part of our commitment to ecumenism, social justice, and inter-religious dialogue and collaboration. All featured works will be available for purchase on site through our co-sponsors, Elliott Bay Book Company and the Seattle University Bookstore.
Authors will represent a wide assortment of literary genres, from fiction to social justice, light spiritual reading to complex academic texts, children’s and adolescent literature to books written for the inquiring adult. The common thread for all of the authors, and all texts included for sale, will be the exploration of spiritual themes.
