
Circle of Hope
A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church
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Narrated by:
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Jennifer Pickens
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By:
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Eliza Griswold
About this listen
Long-listed, Minneapolis Star Tribune Holiday Book Recommendations, 2024
Long-listed, Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, 2024
National Book Awards, Finalist, 2024
New York Times Book Review Notable Books of the Year, 2024
Long-listed, Washington Post Best Books of the Year, 2024
Long-listed, NPR Best Book of the Year, 2024
Long-listed, Boston Globe Best Books of the Year, 2024
A Pulitzer Prize winner’s intimate portrait of a church, its radical mission, and its riveting crisis.
"Jennifer Pickens adopts an even-keeled reportorial cadence and timbre well suited to Griswold's immersion journalism, which recounts the rise and fall of Circle of Hope."—AudioFile
“The revolution I wanted to be part of was in the church.”
Americans have been leaving their churches. Some drift away. Some stay home. And some have been searching for—and finding—more authentic ways to find and follow Jesus.
This is the story of one such “radical outpost of Jesus followers” dedicated to service, the Sermon on the Mount, and working toward justice for all in this life, not just salvation for some in the next. Part of a little-known yet influential movement at the edge of American evangelicalism, Philadelphia’s Circle of Hope grew for forty years, planted four congregations, and then found itself in crisis.
The story that follows is an American allegory full of questions with urgent relevance for so many of us, not just the faithful: How do we commit to one another and our better selves in a fracturing world? Where does power live? Can it be shared? How do we make “the least of these” welcome?
Building on years of deep reporting, the Pulitzer Prize winner Eliza Griswold has crafted an intimate, immersive, tenderhearted portrait of a community, as well as a riveting chronicle of its transformation, bearing witness to the ways a deeply committed membership and their team of devoted pastors are striving toward change that might help their church survive. Through generational rifts, an increasingly politicized religious landscape, a pandemic that prevented gathering to worship, and a rise in foundation-shaking activism, Circle of Hope tells a propulsive, layered story of what we do to stay true to our beliefs. It is a soaring, searing examination of what it means for us to love, to grow, and to disagree.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
©2024 Eliza Griswold (P)2024 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Riveting . . . A fascinating inquest into the death of a church that doubles as a compassionate case study on the insufficiency of good intentions.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Eliza Griswold is a dazzling reporter: ever observant, wise, sympathetic, and honest. And in this spellbinding book, she not only immerses herself in a radical religious community but also reveals its fracturing in real time, raising questions about the nature of faith and justice and what binds us as Americans.”—David Grann, author of The Wager
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The well-known and acclaimed work of Dr. Joseph Lumpkin has been enlarged to include new research on the Books of Enoch, Fallen Angels, the Watchers, and the Nephilim. After presenting extensive historical backgrounds and brilliant translations of The First, Second, and Third Books of Enoch, Lumpkin takes time to piece together a historical narrative of Fallen Angels, the Watcher, and the Nephilim, using his extensive knowledge of ancient texts.
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Lose the echo effect
- By Mark Medbery on 10-29-17
By: Joseph Lumpkin
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Medieval Myths & Mysteries
- By: Dorsey Armstrong, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Dorsey Armstrong
- Length: 5 hrs and 6 mins
- Original Recording
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The 10 enlightening (and often humorous) lectures of Medieval Myths and Mysteries will show you how far from the “dark” times of legend these centuries were. Uncover the facts about the Knights Templar. Reveal the truth behind the tales of legendary creatures like the Questing Beast and the unicorn. Trace the events of the Black Death and the ways it altered the world in its wake, and much more. With Professor Armstrong, you will dig deep into the ways that later generations reshaped the narrative of the medieval years and perpetuated the myths.
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Interesting, but centered on Britain
- By Ximena on 04-10-20
By: Dorsey Armstrong, and others
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The Book of Enoch
- By: Unknown
- Narrated by: Christopher Glyn
- Length: 4 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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The book of Enoch was thought to be lost for over 2,000 years until, in 1773, a traveller brought three copies back from Ethiopia. Whether or not this ancient book was actually authored by Enoch, the father of Methuselah and great-grandfather of Noah, is an ongoing debate among historians and theologians. But all recognise the book of Enoch as one of the most important apocalyptic works outside of the Bible.
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Further Information
- By Timothy on 01-11-20
By: Unknown
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My Big TOE: Awakening
- Book One of a Trilogy Unifying Philosophy, Physics, and Metaphysics
- By: Thomas Campbell
- Narrated by: Thomas Campbell
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
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My Big TOE: Awakening, written by a nuclear physicist in the language of contemporary culture, unifies science and philosophy, physics and metaphysics, mind and matter, purpose and meaning, the normal and the paranormal. The entirety of human experience (mind, body, and spirit) including both our objective and subjective worlds is brought together under one seamless scientific understanding.
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What a Trip (but to where?)
- By Michael on 11-26-13
By: Thomas Campbell
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Super Attractor
- Methods for Manifesting a Life Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
- By: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Narrated by: Gabrielle Bernstein
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
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Ready to turn what you want into the life that you live? The number-one New York Times best-selling author of The Universe Has Your Back shows you how. In Super Attractor, Gabrielle Bernstein lays out the essential methods for manifesting a life beyond your wildest dreams. This book is a journey of remembering where your true power lies. You'll learn how to co-create the life you want. You'll accept that life can flow, that attracting is fun, and that you don't have to work so hard to get what you want.
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Not a huge fan
- By Pamela H on 09-30-19
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The Qur'an
- A New Translation by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem
- By: M. A. S. Abdel Haleem - translator
- Narrated by: Ayman Haleem
- Length: 19 hrs and 15 mins
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The Qur'an, believed by Muslims to be the word of God, was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad 1,400 years ago. It is the supreme authority in Islam and the living source of all Islamic teaching; it is a sacred text and a book of guidance that sets out the creed, rituals, ethics, and laws of the Islamic religion. It has been one of the most influential books in the history of literature. Recognized as the greatest literary masterpiece in Arabic, it has nevertheless remained difficult to understand in its English translations.
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Missing chapter 44
- By Anonymous User on 05-29-19
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The Wisdom of the Shamans:
- What the Ancient Masters Can Teach Us About Love and Life
- By: Don Jose Ruiz
- Narrated by: Charlie Varon
- Length: 3 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Wisdom of the Shamans: What the Ancient Masters Can Teach Us about Love and Life, Toltec shaman and master storyteller Don Jose Ruiz shares some of the most popular stories from his family's oral tradition and offers corresponding lessons that illustrate the larger ideas within each story. According to Ruiz, their teachings are not primitive or reserved for a chosen few initiates but are instead a powerful series of lessons on love and life that are available us all.
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Wooowzers
- By nicole tillman on 07-28-18
By: Don Jose Ruiz
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Change Your Mind
- Deprogram Your Subconscious Mind, Rewire the Brain, and Balance Your Energy
- By: RJ Spina
- Narrated by: RJ Spina
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
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Change Your Mind uses revolutionary teachings to help rewire your subconscious mind and bring balance to your energy. Through a fourteen-day journaling exercise, you’ll uncover the mental programming already affecting you, and then apply specialized activities to counteract it. RJ guides you every step of the way, providing meditations, mindfulness practices, and more. He demonstrates how to not only meet the real you, but also maintain and express it through numerous activities you can easily integrate into your daily life.
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OMG! What a shock!
- By Suzie Schuder on 08-24-23
By: RJ Spina
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What listeners say about Circle of Hope
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Benjamin Blei
- 08-21-24
Nothing goes as planned
The author started out what she thought was to detail a church that thought it was extraordinary but turned out to be ordinary. A person can be humble materialistically but if you can’t humble yourself in all aspects of your life it’s hard to lead a church. The hard part is the journey inward. I wish nothing but the best for Rachel Julie Ben and Jonny. Although you do leave the book with favorites.
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- Daniel Wilcox
- 08-16-24
Empathy and hope despite tragedies, loss, fanaticism
Suspenseful, lucid, caring story of Circle of Hope's loving actions for the homeless, addicted, harmed, confused, selfish, destructive, and lost in the midst of the Christians' own failures, sins, getting caught in false ideologies that tore the beloved community apart.
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- Nic blair
- 08-10-24
Insightful full account of a painful time
A detailed and full access account to many sides of a conflicted time as a church community wrestles with pandemic and their own flawed systems and characters.
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- LDenely
- 11-14-24
Worthy read for faith seekers, church-minded, etc.
I’m a non-theistic humanist, but I was raised in a religious and contemplative family, very active in social justice. COH reminds me of a community I belonged to as a teenager, which imploded in similar fashion. Like others, I found this book harrowing but engrossing. I have not much to add upon other reviews except this: Rod, along with his faults, turned out to have prescient wisdom about a few things. His absence for a year or two might have made things a bit less tangled, but it seemed to me—in the end—the younger pastors who shunned him made their own misery by not heeding his advice and by straying far afield from too many of the church practices he had helped develop over 3 decades of experience. However, in the end, it seemed to turn out for the best. I do hope Rachel returned to pastoring. Of the four, she seemed uniquely gifted for it,
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- Vanderlene L Kung
- 09-24-24
Very boring story, no revelations
I can't believe Griswold wrote an entire book documenting church drama. I kept waiting for some sort of revelation or insight, but it never came.
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- SKC
- 02-08-25
Honest and Compelling
This book tells the story of Circle of Hope—a collection of urban congregations, cell groups, Thrift stores, and other social ministries in the Philadelphia area. While the author gives a brief history of Circle, the book mainly focusses on how Circle’s pastors and other leaders wrestled with issues and interpersonal tensions growing out of the 2020 Covid shutdown and the emerging racial and cultural unrest from that time. The author gives a raw and honest look at how this group of deeply committed followers of Christ struggled personally and as a larger body around such issues as racism, economic disparities, and LGBT inclusion.
I found the book compelling, partly because of how the author chose to structure the narrative. The book is really a series of continually alternating chapters, each devoted to the experiences and perspectives of four individuals--Julie, Jonny, Rachel, and Ben--who served as Circle of Hope pastors during the period of time, from 2020 onward, the author chose to explore in the Circle of Hope story. The care the author put into telling each pastor’s and a few other people’s pivotal life experiences and faith journeys made me feel deeply connected to these individuals. Even when I found myself questioning some of their actions or motives, I felt like I could understand where they were coming from. I also connected on a personal level to many of their experiences in Anabaptist and Evangelical churches. The book gives a window into various church movements, beginning with the Jesus movement of the 60’s (where Circle of Hope’s founders got their start) through various phases and struggles of Christian Evangelical movements up through the present. I loved how the author brought to the forefront many things I have witnessed or been part of first-hand, myself (youth movements, missions emphases, the emergence of mega churches, the rise and fall of Mars Hill, church activism, and struggles with cultural and political engagement) that don’t often get attention from journalists in the larger culture in such a thoughtful, sustained way.
As much as I appreciated the deeply personal narrative structure, this was also the book’s biggest downfall. By spending so much time going back and forth between at least four people’s experiences and perspectives, I felt like the book lost its way. It just kept boring in on the same events, conflicts, and attempts at conversation and mutual understanding from so many points of view that I had trouble keeping track of what actually happened or what some of the conflicts were even about. As much as I appreciated the candor and personalized approach, I found the back and forth rehashing of the same events confusing, repetitive, unhinged from a coherent timeline of events, and just plain tedious. I also felt like so much of what Circle of Hope was actually doing in the communities it served and in people’s lives got lost and overshadowed. It even felt a little jarring and out of place when the author suddenly introduced the story of a church member struggling with drug addiction and the efforts of church leaders and members to meet his needs. This is unfortunate because I feel like I missed out on truly important aspects of Circle of Hope in the interest of the author telling and retelling internal conflicts to the extent that the central “story” –what was actually going on in real time--lost any linearity and became incoherent.
Despite these flaws, I really liked this book because it felt serious, honest, compassionate, and it had heart. I will not forget these individuals or their stories or Circle of Hope. I almost feel like I’ve had the chance to sit and have coffee with each of them and to be “in the room” at Circle, so to speak. I think that’s what the author was going for as a self-proclaimed embedded journalist. In that sense, the book is a triumph, though a bit convoluted.
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1 person found this helpful