John Paul Westin — Befriending the Prisoner

Nathan talks with prison chaplain John Paul Westin about the penitentiary as parish and learning to see each person there as God’s ​“friends and special ones.”

Show Notes

A few annotated book suggestions from John Paul:

• Cur Deus Homo — Anselm of Canterbury thinks about why God needed/chose to become human.
• The 3 Colors of Community, Christian A. Schwarz — How highly flawed individuals can use their propensity to sin to help build healthy Christian community.
• Fearfully and Wonderfully, Dr. Paul Brand and Philip Yancy — The human body (sick or healthy) can show us so much about the wonder of God and our human nature.
• The Shack, William Paul Young — God can heal the deepest wounds and betrayal.
• John​’s Gospel, John son of Zebedee — A look at life through the eyes of the beloved.
• Life of the Beloved — Henri Nouwen’s beautiful consideration of the nature of Jesus’ friendship.
• The Brother’s Karamazov — Fydor Dostoevski’s brilliant and crazy story of God’s presence in a chaotic Russian family life.
• The Heart of the Parish, Martin Thornton — Seeing wherever you are as your parish and your life as filled with your neighbors and parisioners. Everyone.
• Hearing God — Dallas Willard’s encouraging challenge to believe Jesus when he tells us we really can talk to God like we talk to one another.
• Reading the Bible with the Damned — Bob Eklad’s believes that people on the margins often have intense experiences of God’s involvement in their lives that are of biblical import.
• Letters and Papers from Prison —Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s reflections on seeing God’s loving presence in prison and how it transformed his thinking.