A World according to God: Practices for Putting Faith at the Center of Your Life.A World according World Accord is an international charity based in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It was formed in 1980 as the Canadian arm of Outreach International, a charity loosely affiliated with Community of Christ. to God: Practices for Putting Faith at the Center of Your Life. By Martha Ellen Stortz. San Francisco San Francisco (săn frănsĭs`kō), city (1990 pop. 723,959), coextensive with San Francisco co., W Calif., on the tip of a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay, which are connected by the strait known as the Golden : Jossey-Bass, 2004. xv and 184 pages. Cloth. $21.95. Stortz invites readers to rediscover Re`dis`cov´er v. t. 1. To discover again. Verb 1. rediscover - discover again; "I rediscovered the books that I enjoyed as a child" the power of the practices of Christian discipleship dis·ci·ple n. 1. a. One who embraces and assists in spreading the teachings of another. b. An active adherent, as of a movement or philosophy. 2. . She describes these practices as imitating the example of Christ, providing places to encounter Christ, and forming us into Christ's body. Stortz contends that practices have the power to redirect our vision and emotions to see and feel from God's perspective, and thereby place our lives in a new context. Stortz identifies six practices of Christian discipleship: Baptism, the Lord's Supper, prayer, forgiveness, remembering the dead, and fidelity. She describes these practices in ideal form, as though transformed lives necessarily follow for those who practice them. As a former student of Stortz's, I looked for and did not find the question with which we wrestled in her class: How do we account for persons who participate in the church's practices but show no signs of discipleship in their ethical conduct? Stortz focuses on the work we do upon ourselves and that which is done upon us by God. For example, she writes that forgiveness includes remembering wrong-doing, but not that we help one another recognize what we are accountable for. While Stortz is Lutheran, A World according to God is ecumenical. This is evident in the list of practices Stortz settles on. Roman Catholics will easily recognize her descriptions of fidelity and remembering the dead. The chapter on fidelity, for example, refers to religious vows Religious vows are the public vows made by the members of the religious life – cenobitic and eremitic – of the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Eastern Orthodox Churches, whereby they confirm their public profession of the Evangelical Counsels or Benedictine equivalent. as well as marriage. Protestants may be surprised by Stortz's omission of the practice of sharing the Word in scripture. Stortz's definition of Christian practice is broader than that of narrative theologians, so it is not clear how sharing the scriptures falls outside it, particularly since her book is thoroughly grounded by biblical texts. The scriptural scrip·tur·al adj. 1. Of or relating to writing; written. 2. often Scriptural Of, relating to, based on, or contained in the Scriptures. grounding, practical nature, and accessible language of this book make it useful for small groups and adult education in congregations. The chapter on forgiveness is particularly important for U.S. Christians today in light of our sense of grievance following September 11 and the increasing vitriol vitriol: see sulfuric acid. with which we express political divisions in our nation and our churches. Bruce P. Rittenhouse University of Chicago Divinity School The University of Chicago Divinity School is a graduate institution at the University of Chicago dedicated to the training of academics and clergy across religious boundaries. |
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