art, academic and non-fiction books
publishers’ Eastern and Central European representation

Name your list

Log in / Sign in

ta strona jest nieczynna, ale zapraszamy serdecznie na stronę www.obibook.com /// this website is closed but we cordially invite you to visit www.obibook.com

ISBN: HB: 9780300215823

Yale University Press

November 2018

240 pp.

21x14 cm

1 black&white illus.

HB:
£20,00
QTY:

Categories:

Dangers of Christian Practice

On Wayward Gifts, Characteristic Damage, and Sin

Sometimes, beloved and treasured Christian practices go horrifyingly wrong, extending violence rather than promoting its healing. In this bracing book, Lauren Winner provocatively challenges the assumption that the church possesses a set of immaculate practices that will definitionally train Christians in virtue and that can't be answerable to their histories. Is there, for instance, an account of prayer that has anything useful to say about a slave-owning woman's praying for her slaves' obedience? Is there a robustly theological account of the Eucharist that connects the Eucharist's goods to the sacrament's central role in medieval Christian murder of Jews?

Arguing that practices are deformed in ways that are characteristic of and intrinsic to the practices themselves, Winner proposes that the register in which Christians might best think about the Eucharist, prayer, and baptism is that of "damaged gift". Christians go on with these practices because, though blighted by sin, they remain gifts from God.

About the Author

Lauren F. Winner is associate professor of Christian spirituality at Duke Divinity School and the author of "Wearing God: Clothing, Laughter, Fire, and Other Overlooked Ways of Meeting God". She lives in Durham, NC.