Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People

Dorothy C. Bass

Fortress Press, Mar 1, 2019 - Religion - 266 pages

Twelve time-honored Christian practices that will help us, and the world, to flourish

Practicing Our Faith offers help to Christians who are asking how our faith can help us discern what we might do and who we might become.

How can we live faithfully and with integrity in a world where the pace of existence is so fast and life's patterns are changing all around us? Can we conduct our daily lives in ways that help us not just get by but flourish--as individuals, as communities, and as a society in concert with creation and in communion with God?

These questions are on the hearts and minds of many seekers who are exploring spirituality today. They are also at the heart of Practicing Our Faith.

Practices are those shared activities that address fundamental needs of humankind and creation and that, woven together, form a way of life. The twelve practices explored in this book are practices that human beings simply cannot do without, particularly at this time in history.

This book will stimulate your imagination. It will encourage you to reflect. It initiates a conversation that will spread into many contexts, each of which presents unique opportunities for noticing, discussing, and living the practices of faith.

Contents

• Honoring the Body: 13
• Hospitality: 29
• Household Economics: 43
• Saying Yes and Saying No: 59
• Keeping Sabbath: 75
• Testimony: 89
• Discernment: 103
• Shaping Communities: 117
• Forgiveness: 131
• Healing: 147
• Dying Well: 161
• Singing Our Lives: 177
• Practicing a Way of Life: 193
• A Way of Thinking About a Way of Life: 205
• References: 219
• The Contributors: 235
• Index: 253
• Index of Scripture References: 261

About the author

Dorothy C. Bass is a practical theologian, historian, mother, grandmother and stepmother. During twenty-five years as director of the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith, a Lilly Endowment project supporting the renewal of Christian theology and life, she wrote, edited, or coedited more than a dozen books. She has spoken widely on vocation and spirituality.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People; The Practices of Faith Series
• Editor: Dorothy C. Bass
• Publisher: Fortress Press, 2019
• ISBN: 1506454747, 9781506454740
• Length: 266 pages
• Subjects: Religion / Christian Living / Spiritual Growth; Religion / Christian Ministry / Pastoral Resources