Yesterday I mentioned our Dead Theologians Society reading group. What’s that all about? Very simply we are a group who reads the works of “theologians” whose works have outlived them. The name was inspired by The Dead Poets Society which dates us. We’ve been meeting for about 15 years. We were not the first, however. I actually shameless stole the idea from a then-Florida colleague, Robbie Castleman who started the first such group. Recently, the Emerging Scholars Network posted news about our group and some of our history, along with our reading list from the past 15 years.
Our group consists of Ohio State faculty, staff, and graduate students and some community friends. We meet Wednesday mornings at 7:45 am at a Panera Restaurant adjacent to campus. We select a book or two for each semester with readings no more than 30 or so pages a week. Generally our selection process begins with member looking on their shelves for those books they’ve always meant to read. Sometimes one book will lead to another. Sometimes a new member suggests something totally out of the blue we haven’t considered before. Usually it doesn’t take much more than a brief reminder of the section comment and an open ended question to get the discussion going.
What is the attraction? For me, one has been tackling challenging but worthy texts in community. When we read C. S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces we found this particularly so as we wrestled with his various allusions and the dangers of inordinate love. For many of us, it has connected us with the rich resources of a two thousand year theological conversation that gives us a wealth of resources upon which to draw as we engage the intellectual marketplace of the university.
I’d love to hear about book groups you’ve been a part of, how they’ve worked and how they’ve shaped you.