BOOK STUDIES
JUSTICE, PEACE, AND INTEGRITY OF CREATION (JPIC)

Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) sponsor a variety of book studies exploring themes in Catholic social teaching, with a particular emphasis on issues related to Promoting Human Dignity (PHD). These book studies are an essential part of our JPIC's faith formation programming and our commitment to justice. The idea for these book studies originated with our JPIC PHD parishioners' specific concern to work towards racial justice and solidarity with our fellow parishioners and neighbors in Durham's black community, which eventually led to the formation of our JPIC Racial Justice Ministry.

During Lent, and at other points in the year (mainly summers), these book studies are offered to complement our ongoing JPIC faith formation opportunities such as our JustFaith programs, JPIC faith formation special presentations, and JPIC parish-wide events/activities.
If you have any questions, please contact:
Catherine Pleil, JPIC Promoting Human Dignity (PHD) Book Studies Parishioner Leader
Ken Chiha, Director of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC)

SUMMER 2025

BUILDING A BRIDGE
JAMES MARTIN, SJ

Consider joining our summer book study of "Building a Bridge," by Father James Martin, SJ, sponsored by JPIC's Promoting Human Dignity team. 
The book explores the relationship between the Catholic Church and the LGBTQ+ community. Father Martin advocates for a dialogue rooted in respect, compassion, and sensitivity to foster understanding and reconciliation between the two groups. He emphasizes the importance of pastoral outreach, inclusive language, and recognizing the contributions of LGBTQ+ Catholics within the Church. The book also highlights the need for active listening, standing against discrimination, and celebrating the joys and talents of LGBTQ+ individuals. Father Martin encourages Church leaders to reconsider language that may be harmful and to engage in meaningful conversations with LGBTQ+ members to build a more welcoming and supportive faith community.

DATES - TIMES - LOCATION

​In Person
Adult Faith Formation Room, Parish Office
Thursday Mornings, 10-11:30 am
​June 12, 19, & 26
​Participants are expected to purchase/access the book on their own. Our JPIC offers financial assistance for those in need. Please contact Ken Chiha, Director of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC), for support.

REGISTRATION

Please click on the official registration link to sign-up. Our co-facilitators will email you any additional information related to your book study.
https://forms.gle/ps3AqeSwnQg3qs2VA
Co-Facilitators
​Janet Jezsik and Catherine Pleil

PREVIOUS JPIC BOOK STUDIES

LENT 2025

HOW TO END CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM
Amanda Tyler

Our 2025 JPIC Lenten Book Study discussed Amanda Tyler’s book How to End Christian Nationalism. This book gives readers a better understanding of what Christian Nationalism is, how it is showing up in our daily lives, the harm it can cause, and how people of faith can combat its spread. 

If you believe Christians follow a gospel of love and not the idol of power, this might be the book club for you!

Online Summary/Praise for How to End Christian Nationalism:

“A potent tool for taking action.” - Jemar Tisby
“An indispensable tool in renewing civic engagement and democracy.” - Anthea Butler
The essential guidebook for Christians alarmed by the rising tide of Christian nationalism yet unsure how to counter it.
 
Christian nationalism is a powerful and pervasive ideology, and it is becoming normalized. From Amanda Tyler, lead organizer of the Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign, comes How to End Christian Nationalism, your vital companion for countering this dangerous ideology. Tyler draws on her experiences, conversations with pastors and laypeople, research, Scripture, her Baptist convictions, and her work as a constitutional law expert to help us confront Christian nationalist fervor.
You will learn how to distinguish Christian nationalism from the teachings of Jesus and to demonstrate how the former perpetuates white supremacy. This book also unpacks key truths we can share with others: Patriotism is not the same as nationalism. Religious freedom means little if it is not for everyone. Christians follow a gospel of love, not the idol of power.
 
Here, you will find stories of what Christians are doing to resist Christian nationalism in their churches and communities, plus ideas for your own work. From strategies for faith-rooted organizing to guidance for holding hard conversations with loved ones, Tyler offers practical ways to protect faith freedom for all. With precision and compassion, Tyler offers cogent arguments for the separation of church and state, a timely call to action, and an urgent case for replacing a twisted, fearful version of faith with one that is good and right and true. We have all seen what Christian nationalism can do. Now is the time for Christians to reckon with its harm. Now is the time to end it.

FALL 2024

HOW TO FIGHT RACISM: COURAGEOUS CHRISTIANITY AND THE JOURNEY TOWARD RACIAL JUSTICE
Jemar Tisby

How do we effectively confront racial injustice? We need to move beyond talking about racism and start equipping ourselves to fight against it. In this follow-up to the New York Times Bestseller The Color of Compromise, Jemar Tisby offers an array of actionable items to confront racism. 

In this book study, our JPIC Racial Justice Ministry used both Jemar Tisby's book and study guide to discuss how we as parishioners could confront racism as a parish, in relationships, and in everyday life.
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Winner of the 2022 ECPA Christian Book Award for Faith & Culture
Tisby provides groups and individuals with practical tools and suggestions, actionable items, and real-world examples of change, to enable you to become proactive and effective in the fight for racial justice. How to Fight Racism introduces a simple framework--the A.R.C. of Racial Justice—that teaches readers to consistently interrogate their own actions and maintain a consistent posture of anti-racist behavior. The A.R.C. of Racial Justice is a clear model for how to think about race in practical, productive, and empowering ways:
  • AWARENESS: Focuses on racial history, identity, and the image of God: Educate yourself by studying history, exploring your personal narrative, and grasping what God says about the dignity of the human person. 
  • RELATIONSHIPS: Presents effective ways to do reconciliation, make friends, and build diverse communities: Understand the spiritual dimension of race relations and how authentic connections make reconciliation real and motivate you to act.
  • COMMITTMENT: Concentrates on how to work for racial justice in your life, community, and country: Consistently fight systemic racism and work for racial justice by orienting your life to it. ​

Tisby suggests that by applying these principles, we can help dismantle a social hierarchy long stratified by skin color. He encourages the rejection of passivity and active participation in the struggle for human dignity across racial and ethnic lines. There is hope for transforming our nation and the world, and you can be part of the solution to racial problems and suggests that the application of these principles can offer us hope that will transform our nation and the world.

SUMMER 2024

THE COLOR OF COMPROMISE: THE TRUTH ABOUT THE AMERICAN CHURCH’S COMPLICITY IN RACISM
Jemar Tisby

The Color of Compromise is an acclaimed, timely narrative of how people of faith have historically--up to the present day--worked against racial justice. It takes you on a historical, sociological, and religious journey detailing how the American church has helped create and maintain racist ideas and practices.​
  • From America's early colonial days through slavery and the Civil War
  • The tragedy of Jim Crow laws, the victories of the Civil Rights era, and the strides of today's Black Lives Matter movement
  • The cultural and institutional tables we have to flip in order to bring about meaningful integration
  • Charts a path forward to replace established patterns and systems of complicity with bold, courageous, immediate action
It is not a call to shame or a platform to blame, but a call from a place of love and desire to fight for a more racially unified church that no longer compromises what the Scripture teaches about human dignity. In this book study we will explore this history, along with ways to foster a more equitable and inclusive environment here at Immaculate Conception and in the greater community.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword by Lecrae
1. The Color of Compromise
2. Making Race in the Colonial Era
3. Understanding Liberty in the Age of Revolution and Revival
4. Institutionalizing Race in the Antebellum Era
5. Defending Slavery at the Onset of the Civil War
6. Reconstructing White Supremacy in the Jim Crow Era
​7. Remembering the Complicity in the North
8. Compromising with Racism during the Civil Rights Movement
9. Organizing the Religious Right at the End of the Twentieth Century
10. Reconsidering Racial Reconciliation in the Age of Black Lives Matter
11. The Fierce Urgency of Now
Conclusion: Be Strong and Courageous
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

LENT 2024

This Book Study focused on the prophetic servant of God and martyred Archbishop of San Salvador. Four JPIC parishioner groups met once a week during Lent in both English and Spanish, in person or online through Zoom. An additional fifth group met at Immaculata for parents and teachers. They complemented our wider JPIC faith formation programming and celebration of St. Oscar Romero throughout Lent.

THE VIOLENCE OF LOVE
Oscar Romero
Compiled and Translated by James R. Brockman, S.J.
(OVERVIEW PROVIDED COURTESY OF ORBIS BOOKS)

These selections from the sermons and writings of Archbishop Oscar Romero of San Salvador share the message of a holy prophet of modern times. Three short years transformed Archbishop Oscar Romero from a conservative defender of the status quo into one of the church's most outspoken voices of the oppressed. Though silenced by an assassin's bullet, his spirit--and the challenge of his life--lives on.
"Romero does not speak from a distance. He does not hide his fears, his brokenness, his hesitations. It is as if he puts his arm around my shoulder and slowly walks with me. He shares my struggles. There is a warmth in his words that opens my heart to listen." - Henri J. M. Nouwen, from the Forward
"Oscar Romero was converted by suffering: the suffering of a friend, of the people he served, and then finally his own suffering. There are many ways to be converted, but perhaps the best way is to live among the poor and to discover in them as Romero did, the presence of Christ." - Samuel Ruiz Garcia, Bishop of San Cristobal, Chiapas Mexico
Click to Download PDF
ISBN: 9781570755354
James R. Brockman, S.J. (1926-1999) was a native of Cincinnati, OH, and earned degrees from Xavier University, Loyola University Chicago and West Baden College, IN. He was ordained a Jesuit in 1960 and served a number of years in Peru as well in Hispanic ministry in the dioceses of Gary, IN, and Little Rock, AR. Father Brockman wrote and translated a number of books on Archbishop Romero, including Romero: A Life.
"These homilies reveal lines of poetic beauty describing a cruel and ugly world Here is indomitable courage and utter humility. Here is a message of hope." - Robert McAfee Brown, Professor Emeritus, Pacific School of Religion

SUMMER 2023

LEFT TO TELL:
DISCOVERING GOD AMIDST THE RWANDAN HOLOCAUST
Immaculee Ilibagiza
Immaculee Ilibagiza grew up in a country she loved, surrounded by a family she cherished. But in 1994 her idyllic world was ripped apart as Rwanda descended into a bloody genocide. Immaculee’s family was brutally murdered during a killing spree that lasted three months and claimed the lives of nearly a million Rwandans.

Incredibly, Immaculee survived the slaughter. For 91 days, she and seven other women huddled silently together in the cramped bathroom of a local pastor while hundreds of machete-wielding killers hunted for them. 

It was during those endless hours of unspeakable terror that Immaculee discovered the power of prayer, eventually shedding her fear of death and forging a profound and lasting relationship with God. She emerged from her bathroom hideout having discovered the meaning of truly unconditional love—a love so strong she was able seek out and forgive her family’s killers.
​
The triumphant story of this remarkable young woman’s journey through the darkness of genocide will inspire anyone whose life has been touched by fear, suffering, and loss.

LENT 2023

TATTOOS ON THE HEART:
​THE POWER OF BOUNDLESS COMPASSION
​Gregory Boyle 

A memoir recommended for those interested in putting a human face on those experiencing homelessness, participating in gangs, and the disenfranchised - by trusting in the slow work of God and seeking the spirit of kinship with others in community. 
​
Tattoos on the Heart is a breathtaking series of parables distilled from Father Greg’s twenty years in the barrio. Down-to-earth and utterly heartening, these essays about universal kinship and redemption are moving examples of the power of unconditional love in difficult times and the importance of fighting despair. 

BARKING TO THE CHOIR:
​THE POWER OF RADICAL KINSHIP
​Gregory Boyle

In a nation deeply divided and plagued by poverty and violence, BARKING TO THE CHOIR offers a snapshot into the challenges and joys of life on the margins. The stories of former gang members uplift the soul and reveal how bright life can be when filled with unconditional love and kindness. 
​
This book is guaranteed to shake up our ideas about God and about humanity with a glimpse at a world defined by more compassion and fewer barriers. Gently and humorously, Barking to the Choir invites us to find kinship with one another and reconvinces us all of our own goodness. ​

LENT 2022

CRIMSON LETTERS:
​VOICES FROM DEATH ROW
​

Through thirty compelling essays written in the prisoners’ own words, Crimson Letters: Voices from Death Row offers stories of brutal beatings inside juvenile hall, botched suicide attempts, the terror of the first night on Death Row, the pain of goodbye as a friend is led to execution, and the small acts of humanity that keep hope alive for men living in the shadow of death.
​
Each carefully crafted personal essay illuminates the complex stew of choice and circumstance that brought four men to Death Row and the cycle of dehumanization and brutality that continues inside prison. At times the men write with humor, at times with despair, at times with deep sensitivity, but always with keen insight and understanding of the common human experience that binds us.

LENT 2021

THE CROSS AND THE LYNCHING TREE
James H. Cone

The cross and the lynching tree are the two most emotionally charged symbols in the history of the African American community. In this powerful new work, theologian James H. Cone explores these symbols and their interconnection in the history and souls of black folk. Both the cross and the lynching tree represent the worst in human beings and at the same time a thirst for life that refuses to let the worst determine our final meaning. While the lynching tree symbolized white power and black death, the cross symbolizes divine power and black life God overcoming the power of sin and death. For African Americans, the image of Jesus, hung on a tree to die, powerfully grounded their faith that God was with them, even in the suffering of the lynching era.
© All rights reserved.
If you have questions regarding our various JPIC ministries, please contact:
Kennith M. Chiha, Director of Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation (JPIC)
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church - 901-A West Chapel Hill Street, Durham, NC 27701
(919) 682-3449 Ext. 293 - [email protected]
​
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION CATHOLIC CHURCH   |  810 W CHAPEL HILL STREET, DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA 27701  |  919-682-3449


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