Happy Sunday! Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at ReaderBuzz. Check out her post and the links to see what other bloggers have been up to in the last week.

For Sunday Salon, today, I’m reviewing the audiobook How We Learn to Brave by Mariann Edgar Budde. You may remember Bishop Budde as the priest who objected when the Republican President used St. John’s Church for a photo op, after protestors were violently cleared out of Lafayette Park in 2020. She pointed out that the President’s message that day about militant domination was the opposite of Jesus’ teaching.

More recently, she made the news in January when her prayer for the Inauguration Service in the National Cathedral included asking the President to have an attitude of mercy for the people in the US who were scared about his second term.

Book: How We Learn to Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith by Mariann Edgar Budde
Genre: Inspiration
Publisher: Avery
Publication date: 2023

Source: Audiobook borrowed from library

Summary: How We Learn to Brave is a thoughtful look at how each of us has the capacity to be brave, but it looks a little different from what we might understand. Bravery sometimes looks like showing up as a guest on every national talk show that will interview you. But most of the time, and for most of us, bravery is a matter of making a decision with inadequate information and no certain outcome that we hope will land us or our world in a better place.

Thoughts: My favorite parts of How We Learn to Be Brave were when Budde recounted stories from the past.

Pauli Murray worked tirelessly for the rights of women and black people. She coined the term Jane Crow to illuminate the intersection of oppressions that black women face.

Civil rights activist Jonathan Daniels was shot in the chest while protecting 17-year-old Ruby Sales when they worked together on voter registration.

As someone who has been unchurched as an adult, I was surprised that I enjoyed the stories from the Bible that one might expect an Episcopal priest would use for illustration. They deepened my understanding of both the stories and the concept of bravery.

My favorite chapter was Chapter 6: The Inevitable Letdown. The letdown after a big event has always been a surprise to me and the mistakes in thought and action that I have taken during those letdowns are a source of pain and embarrassment. Now, that I have words to describe it and confirmation that it’s a thing, I think I can handle that mood more effectively.

As a practicing preacher, Mariann Edgar Budde has a calming voice. Listening to the audio version was meditative.

Appeal: How We Learn to Be Brave is a book for all of us who feel like we could be doing just a bit more, if only we knew what and how and when. There are no firm answers to those questions but this book will help us think through what we have to offer and recognize what opportunities are calling us.