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Cargando... Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith (2015)por Sarah Bessey
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. This is one of those faith journey memoirs. Like the title suggests, this is Bessey's story about moving from a narrower conservatism to a broader more inclusive and mature faith. In Bessey's case, she was a pastor's wife in a Pentecostal/charismatic context before she felt 'out of sorts' about her church/faith experience. Like What I really like about this book is that Bessey honors where she's come from and refuses to let go of the gifts from her tradition (praise and worship, healing, intimacy with the spirit, expectation of the supernatural), even as she critiques some of the ways that tradition failed to feed her soul. Fans of Kathy Escobar, Nadia Bolz-Webber, and Rachel Held Evans will appreciate Bessey's sensibility, though this feels more constructive and less iconoclast. On a side note, I don't recommend the audiobook. Narrators make a difference and I don't think Joell Jacobs did Bessey justice. It was also amusing to hear her mispronounce names like Jean Vanier (GENE Van-Year) and Henri Nouwen (Henry New-win). sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
In Out of Sorts, Sarah Bessey, award-winning blogger and author of Jesus Feminist, helps us grapple with core Christian issues using a mixture of beautiful storytelling and biblical teaching. As she candidly shares her wrestlings with core issues - such as who Jesus is, what place the Church has in our lives, how to disagree yet remain within a community, and how to love the Bible for what it is rather than what we want it to be - she teaches us how to walk courageously through our own tough questions. In the process of gently helping us sort things out, Bessey teaches us how to be as comfortable with uncertainty as we are with solid answers. And as we learn to hold questions in one hand and answers in the other, we discover new depths of faith that will remain secure even through the storms of life. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)230Religions Christian doctrinal theology Christianity, Christian theologyClasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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If you resonate with the description of a winter Christian, Out of Sorts will probably resonate with you. Early on in the book she makes this observation and personal statement:
… I love that first idea. So true. And I appreciate her honesty, which gives a feel for where she’s coming from.
The Table of Contents
I always appreciate seeing the book Table of Contents. Here are the chapter titles:
1. Out of sorts: A beginning
2. There’s something about that name: on getting to know Jesus
3. Everyone gets to play: on theology and change
4. Getting into the Word: on reading the Bible
5. The people of God: on church
6. Be a person: on community and friendship
7. Truly human: on heaven and the kingdom of God
8. An unexpected legacy: on the ancient practices
9. Wild goose: on faith, the Spirit, signs, and wonders
10. Obey the sadness: on grief and lament
11. Beautiful façade: on justice and Shalom
12. Evangelical hero complex: on vocation and calling
13. Benediction
As you can tell, she hits a lot of subjects. Each chapter is a warm wrestling with how we sort out faith after it falls apart.
Parts/Ideas I loved
I would argue that a static faith is a dying faith. To grow in faith means we are asking questions – that we are changing and evolving. This is much of the point in chapter three, which was great!
If you have struggled with scripture, which for me the more I look at scripture, the more I struggle, then chapter 4 is a great summary. Here’s a fantastic quote:
For more on this, I recommend Peter Enns, who she quotes.
Chapter 10 was also so important – vulnerable and yet thought-provoking. The church can often be “happy clappy” and pretend things are fine, when they are not. We must acknowledge the darkness that we so often experience and feel.
Lastly chapter 12 is worth the price of the book, in my opinion. Evangelicals (and so many more religious people) divide the world into sacred and secular, thereby creating a hierarchy of jobs. Ministry is “sacred work,” and everything else is merely to finance the real work of saving souls. In this chapter she explodes this unhelpful division by telling her own story (and that of her family). It’s personal, powerful and profound. If only I had heard this idea (and taken it to heart) years ago…
Further Thoughts/Considerations
Books like this – which are part memoir, part theology – will impact you differently in different times in your life. At this point in her life, she seems to have wrestled through most of her questions and found satisfying enough answers for herself. If you are right in the mind of the struggle or the pain of sadness, she might rub you wrong. Or, if you are very beginning of your faith struggle, perhaps closer to high school, it may feel she has gone too far. Yet – if you find yourself in a similar place to her, I’m sure the book will speak joy and healing to your soul (as you
can find in many of the other reviews).
All that being said, you may have wrestled through your faith and felt Bessey stayed too close to the line. She is anything but some sort of radical heretic. Her love for scripture, the church, and especially Jesus is indisputable. She even ends her book with a beautiful prayer for us, the readers.
If you are looking for a sort of Christian agnosticism, I would recommend Wiman’s Bright Abyss or anything by Peter Rollins.
Conclusion:
Why just 3 stars? For me, it was good. Great for others, but unfortunately it did not resonate as much as I had hoped. Delightful, insightful, challenging, but left me wanting more.
Finally, one last quote:
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