Seculosity

Seculosity PDF Author: David Zahl
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506449441
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
At the heart of our current moment lies a universal yearning, writes David Zahl, not to be happy or respected so much as enough--what religions call "righteous." To fill the void left by religion, we look to all sorts of everyday activities--from eating and parenting to dating and voting--for the identity, purpose, and meaning once provided on Sunday morning. In our striving, we are chasing a sense of enoughness. But it remains ever out of reach, and the effort and anxiety are burning us out. Seculosity takes a thoughtful yet entertaining tour of American "performancism" and its cousins, highlighting both their ingenuity and mercilessness, all while challenging the conventional narrative of religious decline. Zahl unmasks the competing pieties around which so much of our lives revolve, and he does so in a way that's at points playful, personal, and incisive. Ultimately he brings us to a fresh appreciation for the grace of God in all its countercultural wonder.

Seculosity

Seculosity PDF Author: David Zahl
Publisher: Fortress Press
ISBN: 1506449441
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Get Book Here

Book Description
At the heart of our current moment lies a universal yearning, writes David Zahl, not to be happy or respected so much as enough--what religions call "righteous." To fill the void left by religion, we look to all sorts of everyday activities--from eating and parenting to dating and voting--for the identity, purpose, and meaning once provided on Sunday morning. In our striving, we are chasing a sense of enoughness. But it remains ever out of reach, and the effort and anxiety are burning us out. Seculosity takes a thoughtful yet entertaining tour of American "performancism" and its cousins, highlighting both their ingenuity and mercilessness, all while challenging the conventional narrative of religious decline. Zahl unmasks the competing pieties around which so much of our lives revolve, and he does so in a way that's at points playful, personal, and incisive. Ultimately he brings us to a fresh appreciation for the grace of God in all its countercultural wonder.

Seculosity

Seculosity PDF Author: David Zahl
Publisher: Broadleaf Books
ISBN: 9781506467641
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Americans May be Going to Church Less, But we're more Religious than Ever. David Zahl's popular and enlightening exploration of our unintended replacement religions-career, parenting, technology, food, politics, and romance-is new in paperback, now updated and expanded with a new chapter on celebrity, a reader's guide, and an interview with the author. Book jacket.

Seculosity

Seculosity PDF Author: A.M Wynter
Publisher: Alhassan Maliba
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 68

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Book Description
In a time when the quest for "enoughness" has taken on religious proportions, David Zahl's Seculosity demonstrates the subtle and frequently unexpected ways that our contemporary lives have transformed routine activities into sources of constant strain. Do you feel like you're constantly having to prove yourself in your work, your diet, your parenting, or even your romantic life? You're not alone. We have developed new, secular "religions" that demand our time, attention, and self-worth, leaving little opportunity for genuine happiness or self-acceptance, as a result of the demise of old sources of meaning. According to David Zahl, the issue is that we have replaced traditional values with a web of uncompromising expectations, making busyness, success, and prestige symbols of deservingness. However, this need for approval has a high price: ongoing tension, loneliness, and a persistent feeling of inadequacy. Zahl explains in Seculosity how our seemingly innocuous routines and interests are actually contributing to our worry rather than our happiness. Zahl gives a clear way ahead by providing psychological observations, interesting personal stories, and real-world experiences. He pushes us to reconsider our morals, to prioritize human connection over unending success, and to accept the mercy that our contemporary "religions" lack. Can we recover a life based on genuine contentment and escape the cycle of "seculosity"? Seculosity is not simply another self-help book; it is a mirror showing our way of life and asking: Will you search for a more meaningful path or will you continue to strive for "enoughness" at the expense of your peace?

Low Anthropology

Low Anthropology PDF Author: David Zahl
Publisher: Brazos Press
ISBN: 1493438654
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 203

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Book Description
Many of us spend our days feeling like we're the only one with problems, while everyone else has their act together. But the sooner we realize that everyone struggles like we do, the sooner we can show grace to ourselves and others. Now in paperback, Low Anthropology offers a liberating view of human nature, sin, and grace. Popular author and theologian David Zahl shows why the good news of Christianity is both urgent and appealing. By embracing a more accurate view of human beings, readers will discover a true and lasting hope. "[This] fresh and unexpectedly positive take on sin and pride makes for a lighthearted yet high-minded exploration of failure's ability to serve as a gateway to grace. Readers will find this a balm." --Publishers Weekly "I know of few people better equipped to cut through the religious noise of our day than David Zahl." --Mike Cosper, author and director of podcasts at Christianity Today

Beyond Deserving

Beyond Deserving PDF Author: Dorothy W. Martyn
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802844227
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Drawing on thirty years of practicing psychotherapy, Dorothy Martyn here gives readers a unique look into a play-therapy room where three children individually present their own journeys over some months. These children, in that setting, provide us with a special lens through which we can better understand what transpires in their minds -- and in ours. Through the children's creative, poetic utterances -- enhanced by the poetry of Emily Dickinson and other literary giants -- Beyond Deserving persuasively argues against the justice idea of reward according to what is deserved and for the superior potency of a beyond-deserving model in cultivating love and creative work in children. Written primarily for parents and other mentors -- teachers, youth leaders, counselors, and so on -- Beyond Deserving draws the subject of child rearing back to its roots in the biblical declaration of unconditional love, love that moves first, without a prior "deserving."

Upside-Down Spirituality

Upside-Down Spirituality PDF Author: Chad Bird
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1493416405
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description
In our age when the church can too often seem like a poor copy of the world, Chad Bird challenges us to reclaim the astounding originality of our ancient, backward faith. Where the world stresses the importance of success, Bird invites readers to embrace nine specific failures in the areas of our personal lives, our relationships, and the church. Why? Because what human wisdom deems indispensable is so often an impediment to our spiritual growth, and what it deems insignificant is so often essential to it. With compelling examples from the Bible and today, Bird paints an enticing picture of the counterintuitive, countercultural life that God wants for us. He helps readers delight in all of the ways that Jesus turned the world upside-down, allowing us to experience true freedom, not from our weaknesses but in the midst of them.

Great Commission, Great Confusion, or Great Confession?

Great Commission, Great Confusion, or Great Confession? PDF Author: Lucas V. Woodford
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1630875708
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 237

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Book Description
There is a great debate going on in the church today. It centers on one question: "What is the mission of the church?" From culturally relevant, emerging congregations to strategic methods of organization and outreach, many claim they have the answer. They say the mission must become "missional." Yet the churches of North America continue to struggle. Uncertainty is growing. "What does it really mean to be 'missional'"? Competing claims abound. "Get the message out!" "Get the message right!" Great confusion has set in, particularly in the postmodern North American church. The Gospel is getting lost. Yet, throughout the ages, the creedal confession of the Holy Christian Church has carried her through uncertainty and struggle. The Apostles' Creed has steadied and stayed the mission of the church for centuries. It centers on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit--the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. This book celebrates the historic mission of the Holy Christian Church, and it invites the North American church to do the same.

Grace in Practice

Grace in Practice PDF Author: Paul F. M. Zahl
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802828973
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Grace in Practice is a challenging call to live life under grace -- a concept most Christians secretly have trouble with. Paul Zahl pulls no punches, contending that no matter how often we talk about salvation by grace, in our "can-do" society we often cling instead to a righteousness of works. Asserting throughout that grace always trumps both law and church, Zahl illuminates an expansive view of grace in everything, extending the good news of grace to all creation. Conversationally written and filled with fascinating insights, Grace in Practice will reward any Christian who seeks to understand the full measure of God's grace and the total freedom it offers.

Hidden Mercy

Hidden Mercy PDF Author: Michael J. O'Loughlin
Publisher: Broadleaf Books
ISBN: 1506467717
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
The 1980s and 1990s, the height of the AIDS crisis in the United States, was decades ago now, and many of the stories from this time remain hidden: A Catholic nun from a small Midwestern town packs up her life to move to New York City, where she throws herself into a community under assault from HIV and AIDS. A young priest sees himself in the many gay men dying from AIDS and grapples with how best to respond, eventually coming out as gay and putting his own career on the line. A gay Catholic with HIV loses his partner to AIDS and then flees the church, focusing his energy on his own health rather than fight an institution seemingly rejecting him. Set against the backdrop of the HIV and AIDS epidemic of the late twentieth century and the Catholic Church's crackdown on gay and lesbian activists, journalist Michael O'Loughlin searches out the untold stories of those who didn't look away, who at great personal cost chose compassion--even as he seeks insight for LGBTQ people of faith struggling to find a home in religious communities today. This is one journalist's--gay and Catholic himself--compelling picture of those quiet heroes who responded to human suffering when so much of society--and so much of the church--told them to look away. These pure acts of compassion and mercy offer us hope and inspiration as we continue to confront existential questions about what it means to be Americans, Christians, and human beings responding to those most in need.

#ChurchToo

#ChurchToo PDF Author: Emily Joy Allison
Publisher: Broadleaf Books
ISBN: 1506464823
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
When Emily Joy Allison outed her abuser on Twitter, she launched #ChurchToo, a movement to expose the culture of sexual abuse and assault utterly rampant in Christian churches in America. Not a single denomination is unaffected. And the reasons are somewhat different than those you might find in the #MeToo stories coming out of Hollywood or Washington. While patriarchy and misogyny are problems everywhere, they take on a particularly pernicious form in Christian churches where those with power have been insisting, since many decades before #MeToo, that this sexually dysfunctional environment is, in fact, exactly how God wants it to be. #ChurchToo turns over the rocks of the church's sexual dysfunction, revealing just what makes sexualized violence in religious contexts both ubiquitous and uniquely traumatizing. It also lays the groundwork for not one but many paths of healing from a religious culture of sexual shame, secrecy, and control, and for survivors of abuse to live full, free, healthy lives.