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Russell Literary Groups - Russell Readers

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Great Books Foundation Discussions and Shared Inquiry
Great Books groups are forums for adults to discuss significant writings. We come from a variety of backgrounds to discuss important ideas and issues that have shaped civilization. Our discussions are lively, probing and enlightening. We challenge our own and others’ opinions in light of the text we are all reading. The object is not one “right answer” but rather to examine questions raised in the readings, with reasoning informed by our diverse experiences.

We use the “Shared Inquiry” method, which is collaborative and question-driven. We examine the writer’s words and the many possible ways to interpret and react to the ideas and issues. To this end, we follow these guidelines:

  • We read the selection before coming to the discussion.
  • We support our opinions by focusing on ideas from the reading.
  • We explore the ideas in the selection before going beyond them.
  • We listen to the opinions of others and respond directly to them.
  • We ask each discussion leader to begin the questions.

Join us! Call 347-0196 or email ameyers@russell.lioninc.org

2010-2011
7:00-8:20 PM, Third Floor Meeting Room

Even Deadlier; A Sequel to the Seven Deadly Sins

This year, we will resume our discussion of Deadly Sins, beginning with Even Deadlier; A Sequel to the Seven Deadly Sins Sampler.  It is available at the Circulation Desk.  The book can be checked out through the end of the readings on January 18.  We will later select another title for the rest of the year  

Fifteen hundred years ago, St. Gregory the Great created a list of seven sins as a tool for contemplation, to help monks maintain their ascetic regimen of chastity, poverty, and obedience. This list is still around today.  The authors in these anthologies offer us different ways of thinking about sin.  They don’t necessarily present settled opinions on the sins themselves, but keep us thinking and imagining what the moral life might be.  Socrates put it another way, his student Plato tells us, in words that ring down through the centuries with equal force:  The unexamined life is not worth living.

September 21 - Anger
Torch Song, John Cheever
My First Two Women, Nadine Gordimer

October 19 - Sloth
Babylon Revisited, F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Custard Heart, Dorothy Parker

November 16 - Greed
A Woman of Fifty, W. Somerset Maugham
My Wife is a White Russian, Rose Tremain

December 21 - Gluttony
Theft in a Pastry Shop, Italo Calvino
Fat People, Alison Lurie

January 18 - Lust
Nuns at Luncheon, Aldous Huxley
Cowboys Are My Weakness, Pam Houston

[Further readings will be selected.]

Two Other Lists of Seven Deadly Sins

2005 Poll of British Adults              1925 Mahatma Gandhi
Cruelty                                           Wealth without work
Adultery                                         Pleasure without conscience
Bigotry                                           Science without humanity
Dishonesty                                     Knowledge without character
Hypocrisy                                       Politics without principle
Greed                                             Commerce without morality
Selfishness                                     Worship without sacrifice

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