News & Events

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a great theologian, said “our goal should be to live life in radical amazement, to look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; to be spiritual is to be constantly amazed.”

The Center for Faith Studies offers a second annual Radical Amazement Event, exploring the intersections of faith, imagination and the environment, through the lectures and opportunities for conversation offered by author David James Duncan.

Best-selling author David James Duncan has spent his life paying close attention to the rivers and wilderness of the West. Such a life has led him to believe that when we look deeply and lovingly at the natural world—the mountains and oceans, the stars and galaxies at night, the animals, birds, insects, the migrations, deaths and resurrections that come from the changing seasons – we are, in a very real sense, looking inward as well as outward. Wild Nature is the place where he first experienced the presence of what he simply calls The Big Love – since there was no one visible there to express that Love, powerful though it was.

Duncan, the ever-fascinating American novelist, essayist, fly fisher and river guardian, joins us for spiritual reflections through storytelling and memoir. When asked about his work in support of the environment, Duncan notes that the word’s lack of musicality prevents many from rallying around “the environment” with sufficient love and passion. Rather, what we seek to defend, he says, is a holiness. Come hear him share his personal experiences and flyfishing stories as well as some beautiful insights by friends, poets, nature-lovers, prophets and others.

For complete information about this Radical Amazement event, with full descriptions of all three lectures to be offered, please contact Cyndi Kugler at cyndik@countrysideucc.org or www. radicalamazementomaha.org after January 1, 2010.

Co-sponsored by The Sierra Club and The Nature Conservancy.

Download the flyer for complete details.

Famed author Thomas Cahill (How the Irish Saved Civilization, Gifts of the Jews and more) pauses in his writing of the Hinges of History series to share this story about a Death Row inmate who was transformed himself, and through Cahill’s writing, in turn transforms the reader. Cahill had the unusual experience of forming a friendship with an extraordinary man, Dominique Green, who was a prisoner on Texas Death Row. In this talk, he tells you about his experience and how it changed forever his view of prisoners, as well as his understanding of the way justice operates in our society. This is a story of affirmation, grace, and change. When considering faith-based citizenship in these United States, Cahill awakens our hearts and minds as the discussion of Death Row continues in Nebraska. Presented by the Center for Faith Studies. Download the flyer for complete details.