Reading Unclean Together

"I desire mercy, not sacrifice." Echoing Hosea, Jesus defends his embrace of
the "unclean" in the Gospel of Matthew, seeming to privilege the prophetic call to
justice over the Levitical pursuit of purity. And yet, as missional faith communities are
well aware, the tensions and conflicts between holiness and mercy are not so easily
resolved. At every turn, it seems that the psychological pull of purity and holiness
tempts the church into practices of social exclusion and a Gnostic flight from "the
world" into a "too spiritual" spirituality. Moreover, the psychology of purity often
lures the church into what psychologists call "The Macbeth Effect," the psychological
trap that tempts us into believing that ritual acts of cleansing can replace moral and
missional engagement. Finally, time after time, wherever we see churches regulating
their common life with the idiom of dirt, disgust, and defilement, we find a predictable
wake of dysfunction: ruined self-images, social stigma, and communal conflict. In an
unprecedented fusion of psychological science and theological scholarship, Richard
Beck describes the pernicious (and largely unnoticed) effects of the psychology of purity
upon the life and mission of the church.

Richard Beck is an experimental psychologist and professor at Abilene

Christian University. He blogs prolifically at Experimental Theology (http://
experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/), one series of which became this book.
This summer Valley is looking for 8-12 people who are willing to be intellectually and
spiritually stretched. Richard Beck’s book, Unclean, is an easy read but it’s ideas require
reflection and engagement. Over seven weeks, we will spend four sessions specifically on
the content of the book, one week per part. The three weeks in between will be dinner
discussions, each with a guest of honour who will help us embody what we have discussed, to
discuss concerns and questions of practicality. The dates and topics are as follows:

Week 1 - June 1st

Discussion of Part 1: Unclean

Week 2 - June 8th

Dinner with guest

Week 3 - June 15th

Discussion of Part 2: Purity

Week 4 - June 22nd

Dinner with guest

Week 5 - June 29th

Discussion of Part 3: Hospitality

Week 6 - July 6th

Dinner with guest

Week 7 - July 13th

Discussion of Part 4: Mortality

We will be meeting at the home of Jordan & Jennifer Peacock, at 16723 Illinois Ave. in Lakeville.
If you are interested, please RSVP to jordan@peacockclan.net by May 15th. If you will require
child care, please note how many children, and what ages in your email. You can order your
own copy of Unclean from Amazon or Wipf & Stock directly, or you can give $20 with a note to
the Sherrie Lynch by May 8th and we will order a copy for you.