Danya RuttenbergReverent, Relevant, Rebellious Rabbi
Is Judaism sexy? Ask the rabbi—as long as the rabbi is Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, editor of The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism (New York Univ., June). The answer, she will tell you, is definitely “yes.”
That, at least, is the premise behind the book—that Judaism, with its 6,000-year history, has a lot to say about our most intimate relationships. And while Jews have plumbed their tradition for patterns of ethical behavior for thousands of years, The Passionate Torah charts new ways of looking at old wisdom.
“I think there is always a need to be reinterrogating and rethinking our assumptions about everything,” Ruttenberg, 34, says. “The way we keep [Judaism] relevant is by constantly examining it, turning it over and over. But we have to do the hard work of going deep down and asking the tough questions.”
Ruttenberg is no stranger to tough questions. She is the author of the memoir Surprised by God: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion (Beacon, 2008), in which she details how she went from rebelling against her faith to seeking out its meaning and solace. She also edited Yentl's Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism (Seal, 2001), which placed her firmly in the ranks of up-and-coming Jewish scholars. She carries that reverent-yet-rebellious approach to The Passionate Torah, in which she and her 17 colleague-contributors ask: what does Jewish law, tradition, scripture and religious writing have to tell us about sex and sexual relationships today?
The book is no academic exercise, despite its big-name roster of scholar-contributors. “This is not theory for the sake of theory,” Ruttenberg says.“We wanted to create a playground for people to play around with new ideas, to bring different lenses and aim them at Jewish text sources and traditions and see what would come out.”
Next for Ruttenberg is a series of books on Jewish ethics called Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices that she is co-editing with Rabbi Elliott Dorff, also a contributor to this book. Her contribution to that series, focusing on sex, war and social justice, will appear in 2010 from the Jewish Publication Society. In some ways, it will continue the theme of looking at the old through the eyes of the new. “I want to give scholars, rabbis and thinkers the tools to play,” Ruttenberg says.
—Kimberly Winston
Adam Hamilton
Pastor's Wisdom Is 'Enough'
When the Rev. Adam Hamilton saw his church members struggling with their finances as the economy began to sour, he wanted to help. Too many people in his Methodist congregation in Kansas were buying homes and cars they couldn't afford, just as many others were doing across the country. They weren't saving enough and their poor financial choices were leading to sleep-deprived nights.
In fall 2007, Hamilton wrote a series of sermons on transforming fear and poor financial choices into a healthy relationship with money that eventually brought contentment and joy. The sermons became Enough: Discovering Joy Through Simplicity and Generosity (Abingdon Press, Feb.).
Enough marks Hamilton's 10th book with Abingdon Press. Many come from sermons he gives as senior pastor at Church of the Resurrection, a United Methodist Church in Leawood, Kans., which he founded in 1990. It's among the fastest-growing Methodist churches in the country and the largest measured by attendance, with 16,000 members and 8,500 congregants at weekend worship.
“Adam's really in tune with this large and diverse congregation he leads and when he finds a message that connects with them, it's usually a message that connects with a very large slice of Americans,” says Susan Salley, executive director of Fast Track Publishing at Abingdon Press.
Enough offers biblical wisdom and practical financial advice. The Bible's message of cultivating gratitude and determining our life's purpose runs counter to society's saying consumption will make us happy. “Until we deal with the issues of my heart's desire, how I think about my relationship with stuff, what my life's purpose is about, I don't think we can fix the problem. I don't think Congress can legislate it away,” says Hamilton, 44.
Hamilton's book sales typically exceed the company's projections. “He's probably our bestselling author,” says Tammy Gaines, Abingdon Press v-p. While she wouldn't give an exact sales figure, Enough is selling unusually fast. Books typically have a year's lead time before pre-publication advertising. Enough was published within four months of Abingdon's conceptualizing the idea, so it missed key advance advertising. Still, the publisher ordered a six-month supply, then sold out within five weeks and went into reprint, Gaines says. It will also publish a guide in May for church leaders on how to get the most out of the book.
Hamilton's next book, 24 Hours That Changed the World, is due out from Abingdon in December. It will examine the last hours of Jesus' life.
—Joanna Corman
Kevin Leman
Keep Home Fires Stoked
When you speak and write about sex and marriage as much as Dr. Kevin Leman does, people are bound to ask you all kinds of questions. In his most recent book, Turn Up the Heat: A Couples' Guide to Sexual Intimacy (Revell, Mar.), the author-psychologist addresses the questions and concerns that married couples have been bringing to him for years. He also draws upon his own life as a married man and father of five.
“It took me 10 years to understand how my wife is different from me,” he admits during a phone conversation with PW from Chicago. Men and women, according to Leman, need to learn to communicate better and understand each other's communication styles to make their marriages work.
When what Leman describes as the “honeymoon effect” wears off, and children become the central focus of a married couple's life, problems in the bedroom can easily emerge. Leman speaks from experience. “Kids will drain you of all strength and by the end of the evening you're too tired,” he says. This need not be the end of a couple's sex life, however. “A great sex life is worthy of pursuit,” says Leman.
Leman takes a frank approach to his writing on sex and marriage. His most recent work is consistent with his life's vocation, which is to help couples who struggle. People are hungry for ways to make their marriage succeed, and Leman speaks passionately about offering his expertise and wisdom to help couples do this.
Leman sees a connection between the latest financial crisis and tension in the bedroom. Men identify more closely with their jobs and gain much of their self-worth from work. When a man is laid off, it is difficult for him to feel valued and needed. He may withdraw or look to sex for emotional relief. Wives may not process a similar experience in the same way, but they can gain much from understanding their husbands' feelings. As for men, Leman suggests they make their wives feel prized and respected and always treat them well. This will aid in building an emotional connection and will encourage a wife's desire for a great sexual relationship. Leman's message is loud and clear: marriage is a partnership and it can be successful if each partner is willing to labor out of love for one another.
A tireless author, Leman's next book, Have a New Husband by Friday, will be out in the fall.—Dave Nantais
Ben Lowe
'My Neighbor' Is Everybody
Printed on recycled paper, Green Revolution: Coming Together to Care for Creation (InterVarsity, Mar.) is a natural outgrowth of Ben Lowe's commitment to teach responsible environmental stewardship as a Christian imperative and to mobilize people to take action to protect and preserve our natural world.
When it came time to choose a major, Lowe wanted to study theology and become a Christian pastor, but his parents had other plans—science. The parents won out, and Lowe went into environmental science because “it seemed like the most practical.” Yet he quickly learned at Wheaton College that those concerns—scientific and pastoral—may not be so different after all. He discovered a strong biblical basis for caring for creation, and learned that caring for people out of a commitment to Christ cannot be separated from caring for the environment. After all, he explains by cellphone from a wild swamp in Florida, “the vast majority of social problems have environmental bases.”
Like most people of his millennial generation, Lowe, a Chicago-area resident, grew up able to connect anytime and anywhere through social networking sites and cellphones, texting and talking and tweeting at all hours. He sees this technology as a call to responsibility and great opportunity. “The question of who is my neighbor doesn't apply anymore. I have Facebook friends in Africa, for example. No one is 'away.' No one is not a neighbor.” What's more, he said, because of our easy access to all kinds of information through the World Wide Web, “ignorance is no excuse” for failing to address environmental and related social issues. “Like the prodigal son, we need to repent, reorganize our priorities, and return in humility to caring for the whole household,” Lowe says.
With an open and engaging demeanor, Lowe invites others to join together to combat environmental ills that have such devastating human and nonhuman consequences. Having worked for A Rocha, an organization of Christians committed to conservation all over the world, and now serving as co-coordinator of Renewal, a network of people promoting creation care, Lowe believes in the power of a group to effect change in how human beings treat the earth. Stewardship of the environment is something that can bring together individuals as well as communities—scientific, faith and political. “Creation care is a spiritual issue,” he says. “It's about what it means to be human.” —Kristin Swenson