Books Stack Up for OCU Faculty
Robin
Meyers is the sixth Oklahoma City University arts and sciences professor to
publish a book this academic year. His latest work, “The Underground Church:
Reclaiming the Subversive Way of Jesus” is available in stores this month.
OCU faculty have covered topics from superheroes
to Islam. English and Moving Image Arts Professor Marc DiPaolo’s book, “War,
Politics and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film,” was named
one of the top 500 academic books of 2011 by the American Library Association’s
Choice Magazine. In the book, DiPaolo
explores Superhero adventure comics and their long history of commenting on
American public opinion and government policy. Superheores included in the book
are Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Superman the Fantastic Four and the
X-Men.
Political Science Professor Mohamed Daadaoui,
who was born and raised in Morocco, published “Moroccan Monarchy and the
Islamist Challenge.”
“The book is timely and comes amidst the tide of
Arab spring that is sweeping throughout the Middle East and North Africa,”
Daadaoui noted. “While other Arab regimes are facing challenges to their
survival, the Moroccan monarchy seems stronger than it used to be.”
History Professor Jim Buss examines how American
settlers accomplished Indian removal through language and imagery in his book
“Winning the West with Words: Language and Conquest in the Lower Great Lakes.”
English Professor Emerita Salwa Khoddam proposed
a fresh approach to reading the Narnian stories based on an inquiry into C.S. Lewis’
readings and his use of classical and Christian symbols in her book,
“Mythopoeic Narnia: Memory, Metaphor, and Metamorphoses in The Chronicles of
Narnia.”
Religion Professor Lisa Wolfe gives scholarly
commentary on women in the Bible and draws connections between the world of
ancient audiences and present-day readers in her new book, “Ruth, Esther, Song
of Songs and Judith.”
Meyers’ “The Underground Church” explores
recapturing the spirit of the early church with an emphasis on what Christians
do rather than what they believe. Bill Moyers writes, “Danger: The contents of
this book are explosive and could turn the world upside down. About time!”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu echoes the book’s theme
with a question, “When was the last time you thought of going to church as
dangerous? Once we challenged the status quo: now we mostly defend it. ‘The
Underground Church’ tells the story of how we forgot where we came from and why
we must recover our subversive roots. Read this book if you dare. Become part
of the movement if you are daring.”
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