Vital Conversations meets the 2nd Wednesday of each month from 1:00p - 2:30p. All are welcome to join the group in conversations about books, movies, culture, and spirituality.

 Vital Conversations are intentional gatherings of people to engage in dialog that will add value to the participants and to the world.  In Vital Conversations we become co-creators of a better community.   The Vital Conversations Book Club meets each month at the Antioch Branch of the Mid Continent Public Library.   We welcome all people to attend our conversations and celebrate the rich pluralism of the greater Kansas City area. The topics and books are subject to change.  To receive regular updates on “Vital Conversations” you can contact David Nelson.

Vital Conversations is interested in attracting people from a variety of religious and spiritual perspectives in order to celebrate the gifts of pluralistic viewpoints. Participants aim to build relationships that honor our differences and celebrate our spiritual paths. View the contact's website at www.humanagenda.com.

Below is the schedule for Vital Conversations in 2011 *

February 9, 2011

Eat, Pray, Love:  One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert

A memoir of self-discovery, Eat, Pray, Love is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment. It is also about the adventures that can transpire when a woman stops trying to live in imitation of society's ideals. This is a story certainto touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change.

March 9, 2011

Blessings by Anna Quindlen.  In this richly written novel by the author of “One True Thing,” Skip Cuddy, caretaker of the Blessing estate, finds a baby asleep in a box and decides he wants to keep her.  The secrets of the past, how they affect the decision and lives of people in the present – these are at the center of this work by the beloved author called “a national treasure” by Alice Hoffman.

April 13, 2011

Toward A True Kinship of Faiths:  How the World’s Religions Can Come Together by His Holiness The Dalai Lama.  “The challenge before religious believers is to genuinely accept the full worth of faith traditions other than their own.  This is to embrace the spirit of religious pluralism…The lesson I draw is that understanding and harmony between the world’s religions is one of the essential preconditions for genuine world peace.”

May 11, 2011

Greatest Generation by Tom Brookaw.  In this superb book, Tom Brokaw goes out into America, to tell through the stories of individual men and women the story of a generation.  America’s citizen heroes and heroines who came of age during the Great Depression and the Second World War and went on to build a modern America.

June 8, 2011

God is Not One:  The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World and Why Their Differences Matter by Stephen Prothero.  “The Age of Enlightenment in the eighteenth century popularized the idea of religious tolerance, and we are doubtless better for it.  But the idea of religious unity is wishful thinking nonetheless, and it has not made the world a safer place.  In fact, this naïve theological groupthink – call it Godthink – has made the world more dangerous.”  Prothero.

*These selections are subject to change. For further information or suggestions for Vital Conversation topics contact David Nelson.