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

With its ecumenical perspectives and its comprehensive consideration of Christian practices, this is a fitting volume to inaugurate Jossey-Bass's new Religion in Practice series. The volume's editor, Dorothy Bass, a United Church of Christ minister and Director of the Valparaiso Project on the Education and Formation of People in Faith, identifies the book's audience as those who seek a way of life rich in faith and integrity. Bass and Craig Dykstra, v-p for religion at the Lilly Endowment, provide opening and closing essays, which focus, respectively, on the yearning of believers for ways to incorporate faith in their lives and on how to keep the practice of faith alive. In the book's 12 central essays, a wide variety of theologians from a range of Christian communities explores practices vital to Christian daily life. These practices include honoring the body, providing hospitality, caring for the household, keeping Sabbath, speaking truthfully, forgiving and shaping worthy communities. All of the practices are informed by two essential Christian practices: prayer and Bible study. This excellent collection of essays presents ways of thinking about and engaging in a spiritual life. (Feb.)