Well Read The Lost Way By Stephen J. Patterson
Inventing a Christian America By Steven K. Green
Icons and Idiots: Straight Talk on Leadership By Bob Lutz
Revolutionary Retirement: What’s Next for YOU? By Catherine Allen, Nancy Bearg ’69, Rita Foley, Jaye Smith
After more than two millennia, Biblical scholars continue to turn up new information about the historical Jesus. Stephen Patterson, religious historian and George H. Atkinson Professor of Religious and Ethical Studies at Willamette, has sleuthed out information that positions Jesus as a teacher first and a martyr second. This new, more nuanced version of Jesus comes from two earlier gospels: the “lost” Q and the Gospel of Thomas. Taken together, these sources suggest a highly populist version of Jesus, in which he and his fellow prophets surfaced something called “The Way,” where all — regardless of race, class, or gender — could be counted as children of God.
Americans may take the separation of church and state for granted — but Steven Green knows better. A past College of Law Professor of the Year, Green is Willamette’s Fred H. Paulus Professor of Law and director of the university’s Center for Religion, Law and Democracy. He’s also not above a little First Amendment mischief. As a senior in high school, Green did a “workaround” when asked to read Protestant prayers and Bible verses over the public address system. He browsed his clergyman father’s collection, selected the Bhagavad Gita, and followed up by chiding the principal for using the PA system for religious purposes. In June, Green’s newest book, “Inventing a Christian America: The Myth of the Religious Founding,” will counter commonly-held beliefs that the Founding Fathers launched a Christian nation.
Senior executive at GM, Ford, Chrysler and BMW. Naval aviator and Marine Corps vet. Collector of classic cars and motorcycles. Bob Lutz is also a collector of what he’s learned from business icons and idiots during his 60-plus years in leadership roles. The book, selected for Willamette’s MBA Alumni Book Club, offers plenty of juicy information. Lutz weighs the good, the bad and the ugly and dishes up the news that “we can learn as much from the most stubborn, stupid and corrupt leaders as we can from the inspiring geniuses.” It helps that Lutz’s analysis is delivered with a healthy helping of humor, not to mention insider gossip on such high-profile leaders as Eberhard von Kuenheim, former CEO of BMW, and Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler.
Oh, those Baby Boomers! Of course, they (or we, depending on your stage of life) can’t retire in a straightforward way. Enter the team that put together “Revolutionary Retirement.” The authors offer a how-to guide for thinking about the next stage in life, strategies and exercises for decision-making, and a clear-eyed analysis of choices, opportunities and issues. Nancy Bearg, the Willamette alumna in the author quartet, has had a long career in international security policy, including service as national security advisor to the vice president of the U.S. Today she is a consultant focusing on national security reform, conflict prevention and post-conflict peacebuilding, and she teaches a university graduate course on leadership. Does that sound like retirement?
Illustration by Jane Mount 38
SPRING 2015