This book offers a way to engage with the Bible as a set of sacred texts that can serve as a song sheet for believers in exile-those people Bishop John Shelby Spong calls the "church alumni association." This includes those internally displaced persons of faith who have not yet become spiritual refugees but who feel the pressure to conform to traditional expressions of faith that no longer serve as springs of living water for the journey of life. These ancient texts come from another world and another time, but they can serve as maps for the journey of life. They can best do this when the sacred wisdom of the Bible is accepted as permission to voice the new questions we face today in the confidence that authentic faith has always required such boldness. Religious progressives are people who live the questions, not dodge them. Our task is not to guard a set of traditional answers, but to live life boldly, taking risks for God's sake and our own. One of the hallmarks of this book is that the problems posed by the Bible are acknowledged. In particular, the contributions of recent critical scholarship are embraced, rather than being ignored or neutralized by pious ambivalence. The intended reader of this book is not a traditional believer, secure in her assumptions about God and salvation, but someone struggling to live with integrity in a time when traditional religion seems increasingly irrelevant. The goal is not to persuade the reader that the Bible is credible but-more modestly-to offer an account of the Bible that may encourage religious progressives to reclaim the Bible as a valued part of our spiritual baggage.

The Once and Future Jesus by John Shelby Spong (2000).

This book offers a way to engage with the Bible as a set of sacred texts that can serve as a song sheet for believers in exile-those people Bishop John Shelby Spong calls the "church alumni association." This includes those internally displaced persons of faith who have not yet become spiritual refugees but who feel the pressure to conform to traditional expressions of faith that no longer serve as springs of living water for the journey of life. These ancient texts come from another world and another time, but they can serve as maps for the journey of life. They can best do this when the sacred wisdom of the Bible is accepted as permission to voice the new questions we face today in the confidence that authentic faith has always required such boldness. Religious progressives are people who live the questions, not dodge them. Our task is not to guard a set of traditional answers, but to live life boldly, taking risks for God's sake and our own. One of the hallmarks of this book is that the problems posed by the Bible are acknowledged. In particular, the contributions of recent critical scholarship are embraced, rather than being ignored or neutralized by pious ambivalence. The intended reader of this book is not a traditional believer, secure in her assumptions about God and salvation, but someone struggling to live with integrity in a time when traditional religion seems increasingly irrelevant. The goal is not to persuade the reader that the Bible is credible but-more modestly-to offer an account of the Bible that may encourage religious progressives to reclaim the Bible as a valued part of our spiritual baggage.

Advent, says Fleming Rutledge, is not for the faint of heart. As the midnight of the Christian year, the season of Advent is rife with dark, gritty realities. In this book, with her trademark wit and wisdom, Rutledge explores Advent as a time of rich paradoxes, a season celebrating at once Christ’s incarnation and his second coming, and she masterfully unfolds the ethical and future-oriented significance of Advent for the church.

Few other books have caused as much stir in the Church of England in recent decades as has For the Parish. Twelve years on from its publication, in the wake of the Covid pandemic and the ‘Save the Parish’ movement much has changed, but much has stayed the same. In this follow up to this influential and controversial book, new and already familiar themes are newly inflected in the debates of the present time: principally minster hubs, the ‘Emerging Church’ programme and the Strategic Development Fund. Alison Milbank challenges the ecclesiology, models of theological anthropology and the analysis of secularism that are present (explicitly or implicitly) in these movements, and offer a striking and encouraging vision of what the parish model could offer to our anxious world.

The Once and Future Woman L.O.V.H. Crowders 19916 Mizner Terrace Ashburn, Virginia 20147 (571) 223-2230 [email protected] We are introduced to a woman who has had a weekend tryst at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. When she awakens, the man has left and the woman finds a handwritten note from him that devastates her. Feeling betrayed, and without thinking, she leaves the hotel in a hurry and is promptly mowed down in the street by a Harley. A handsome stranger stoops down to feel her pulse points to find out whether she is alive or dead, then fumbles through her pursr that has been wrenched from her grasp because of the accident. He is shocked to discover her identity. Moving to the toney suburbs of Washington, we meet the privileged Frances Bittle Adler and her handsome husband, Bill, a high-placed executive, and we meet their four childrenthree gorgeous girls and one handsome sonages 13 to 21. Frances, a college professor, is quite accomplished, and Bill seems to be the ideal husband. But, a malady that has plagued Fran for some time now comes to the fore and causes Bill to have to rush his wife to the hospital the morning after Christmas. We move back to the scene of the first womans accident and find that debris has been cleaned up and the handsome stranger has disappearedalong with the womans purse. At Washington General Hospital, we find that the woman has survived her ordeallargely because of the efforts of Dr. Pete Gregory, a handsome six-foot-six piece of manhood, who apprises her of her injuries and of what steps he will have to take in order to get her back to normalcy. Intermittently, the woman lapses into unconsciousness and has peculiar dreams. In another part of the same hospital, Frances is examined, and protests having to be admitted for tests, but Bill assures her that he and the kids will be fine without her. After a while, the two of them realize that the other bed in the room is occupied by a whizened old woman with grayish cat eyes, Hester Culpepper Rockefeller, who doesnt seem to know where she, who she is, or even what day it is. Francine Hacker, a very attractive, tall African American nurse, comes to attend to the old woman, Hester, who promptly repels her by calling her every name in the book, including the N word. Cut to 1944, and we are made aware of Hesters background and motivations for her behavior. Chapter XIII reveals a great deal about the life of the woman involved in the accident, especially about her relationship with her grandmother, Millie, and about the woman touched by miracles. In the ensuing chapters, we learn that Bill is not the man he seems to be. We are made privy to Francine Hackers enigmatic life. Now, because Hester has passed on, the two women, Fran and LaDeane, are made roommates and, thus, begin a relationship that will last for quite some time. They also get to know nurse Hacker extremely well. And, when LaDeane is released from the hospital, both Frances and Hacker petition to come and see her in her office. LaDeane wonders who will come to see her first as both Hacker and Frances are needy. Because Bill, a bi-coastal husband, has been offered a very powerful position with another corporation headquartered in Washington, DC, he prepares to move back East from Los Angeles where his old company is headquartered. Another chapter marks a special time in Bills life; now he gets to visit his new offices in a prestigious part of Northwest Washington, DC, and having familiarized himself with the layout and having made himself acquainted with those who will work for