Something To Celebrate!

There's something to celebrate in the Shupe household! Paul has been friends with Bill, Bill and Bob for 40+ years since their Vanderbilt Divinity School days, and for the past 20 years they've spent a week together somewhere in the wilderness...most often in the mountains of Colorado. They've just written and published a book called The Wilderness of Friendship in which they share their friendship journey and explore events and ideas that gave shape to their friendship. I'm so proud of these guys!

All of their royalties will be donated to the James Lawson Institute, an organization dedicated to inspire people to engage in preparation, dialogue, and research for social justice.

The Wilderness of Friendship offers a counterpoint to the consensus that there is an epidemic of loneliness among men in the United States. Four men, friends since their days at Vanderbilt Divinity School, explore and describe the values and actions of more than forty years of friendship. Among them are hospitality of place and ideas, risking vulnerability to share life fully, a shared wonder at the amazing blessings of life, and a love for the wilderness, both literal and metaphorical, where there is always more going on than can be understood in the moment. What emerges is one vision of what it means to be a man, husband, father, friend: open, teachable, and above all, joyful. 

I have a feeling that this book may be more important than perhaps it at first appears. Our country's woes have many sources, but surely one is the sad and isolated condition of its men, who have been told to stand on their own. As the authors make clear in this lovingly written chronicle, alternatives are possible!"

-BILL MCKIBBEN, author of Here Comes the Sun

"With honesty, humor, and love, these engaging essays—individually and collectively—offer a healing balm to men like the authors and to all of us, especially in these times of disconnection and conflict over gender norms. By letting us in to their four decades(!) of friendship, the authors invite us to reconnect with each other and with ourselves. A true gift!"

-ELLENT. ARMOUR, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Chair and Professor of Feminist Theology; Vanderbilt Divinity School

"Here we witness an extraordinary friendship forged over decades and deepened through shared commitments to curiosity, self-reflection, and justice. With honesty and humility, wit and wisdom, four friends, chosen brothers to one another, recount the stories of their shared life, shaped by seasons of joy, loss, discovery, and care. The building blocks of that friendship—intentional time together in wild places, deepening vulnerability, and a longstanding dedication to learning and unlearning—offer a counterpoint to the epidemic of loneliness. Wise, generous, and deeply humane, this book offers both a testimony to authentic male friendship and an invitation, especially for men willing to confront the privileges of whiteness and patriarchy, to cultivate deeper relationships: with one another, with the hurts of the world and with the sacred."

-ALLEN EWING-MERRILL, Executive Director, The BTS Center