USCCA BOOK CIRCLE: A WORD OF WELCOME
The USCCA Book Circle began three years ago to create an opportunity for members and affiliates of the USCCA and interested friends and neighbors to deepen their knowledge of the culture, wisdom, history, and spirituality of China and share experiences and love of the Chinese people.
A leadership group, which welcomes recommendations from the group, chooses the book or relevant article(s) for discussion and sharing. The discussion on Zoom is usually limited to one hour once a month. Our goal is to deepen our understanding and friendship with the people of China as an alternative to engaging in the adversarial politics of the present moment.
Over the past couple of years, we've read and discussed John C.H. Wu's fantastic autobiography, with his youngest son, 80-year-old John Wu, Jr, and his wife Terry, who now lives in Alexandria, Virginia, joining us and giving us excellent first-hand insights!
We also read and discussed John Lindblom's article, "John C.H. Wu and the Evangelization of China," facilitated by John himself and Dr Richard Madsen's China's Catholics - Tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society, also facilitated by the author himself. Having the authors join the conversation was very enriching.
We will begin in January 2024. We hope to read and discuss two books and two articles in 2024. More news is coming soon.
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The USCCA Book Circle is coordinated by the USCCA Board of Directors, Mary Sluka, and Fr. Hugh O'Donnell.
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Beyond East and West
Catholic Press Association Book Award: Memoir, Third Place
"When John C. H. Wu’s spiritual autobiography Beyond East and West was published in 1951, it became an instant Catholic best seller and was compared to Thomas Merton’s The Seven Storey Mountain, which had appeared four years earlier. It was also hailed as the new Confession of St. Augustine for its moving description of Wu’s conversion in 1937 and early years as a Catholic. This new edition, including a foreward written by Wu’s son John Wu, Jr., makes this profoundly beautiful book by one of the most influential Chinese lay Catholic intellectuals of the twentieth century available for a new generation of readers hungry for spiritual sustenance.
Beyond East and West recounts the story of Wu’s early life in Ningpo, China, his family and friendships, education and law career, drafting of the constitution of the Republic of China, translation of the Bible into classical Chinese in collaboration with Chinese president Chiang Kai-Shek, and his role as China’s delegate to the Holy See. In passages of arresting beauty, the book reveals the development of his thought and the progress of his growth toward love of God, arriving through experience at the conclusion that the wisdom in all of China’s traditions, especially Confucian thought, Taoism, and Buddhism, point to universal truths that come from, and are fulfilled in, Christ. In Beyond East and West, Wu develops a synthesis between Catholicism and the ancient culture of the Orient. A sublime expression of faith, here is a book for anyone who seeks the peace of the spirit, a memorable book whose ideas will linger long after its pages are closed."
source: click here.