Now Featured in the Patheos Book Club
The Awakening of Hope
Why We Practice a Common Faith
By Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
"This book is good news...a magnificent report on lived theology, not just theological ideas and truths, but storied theology, the kind that we find in our Scriptures." - Eugene Peterson, translator of The Message
Belief without action is hollow, but a lived-out faith invites an important question: why? So says author and speaker Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, who gets back to the basics in his newest book The Awakening of Hope: Why We Practice A Common Faith (Zondervan, August 2012). Digging into the historic practices of the Christian faith, this book invites readers to truly live out the common convictions and truths that have marked Christians through generations.
Based on a decade of research Wilson-Hargrove compiled while working at School for Conversation, a nonprofit organization that works to foster community and form people in the way of Jesus, and accompanied with a discussion guide and six-session DVD study that was produced with bestselling author Shane Claiborne, The Awakening of Hope is directed at those who "care more about what the faith does than about what it tells us to believe," Wilson-Hartgrove says.
He digs into the fundamental practices of Christianity and questions all of them, with a simple "why?"
"If how is the question of our age, the concern at the forefront of our minds," Wilson-Hartgrove says, "then God's interruption of our status quo also presents a new question--a question that's equally practical and maybe even more radical. That question is, why?"
The Awakening of Hope provides extensive Biblical reasoning for the seven areas of Christianity that Wilson-Hartgrove addresses:
As someone who, along with his family, lives in a new monastic community that welcomes neighbors and homeless, Wilson-Hartgrove shares deeply personal stories and a profound joy in each of these practices.
"You may not see it all the time, but every once in a while there is a still point when you're passing the asparagus and laughing at a bad joke. You look up from your plate and you see the image of God. And you know this is why we eat together," Wilson-Hartgrove shares.
The Awakening of Hope is dense and rich, full of poignant Scripture references and experiences of those who have walked before us.
Wilson-Hartgrove states, "This book is for people who have a hunch, whether you like the language of revival or not, that God is stirring a new movement in our world today...if God's vision of peace and justice burns in your bones...if you've longed to see the love we were made for lived out in community--this book is for you. "
8/1/2012 4:00:00 AM
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