Sabbath: The Ancient Practices

by Dan B. Allender

Overview

What would you do for twenty-four hours if the only criteria were to pursue your deepest joy?

Dan Allender’s lyrical book about the Sabbath expels the myriad myths about this “day of rest,” starting with the one that paints the Sabbath as a day of forced quiet, spiritual exercises, and religious devotion and attendance. This, he says, is at odds with the ancient tradition of Sabbath as a day of delight for both body and soul. Instead, the only way we can make use of the Sabbath is to see God’s original intent for the day with new eyes. In Sabbath, Allender builds a case for delight by looking at this day as a festival that celebrates God’s re-creative, redemptive love using four components:

• Sensual glory and beauty
• Ritual
• Communal feasting
• Playfulness

Now you can experience the delight of the Sabbath as you never have before—a day in which you receive and extend reconciliation, peace, abundance, and joy.

The Ancient Practices

There is a hunger in every human heart for connection, primitive and raw, to God. To satisfy it, many are beginning to explore traditional spiritual disciplines used for centuries . . . everything from fixed-hour prayer to fasting to sincere observance of the Sabbath. Compelling and readable, the Ancient Practices series is for every spiritual sojourner, for every Christian seeker who wants more.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780849946042
Publisher:	Nelson, Thomas, Inc.
Publication date:	12/27/2010
Pages:	213
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Dr. Dan Allender is a pioneer of a unique and innovative approach to trauma and abuse therapy. After receiving his master of divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary, Dan earned his Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Michigan State University. Dan previously served on faculty at the Biblical Counseling Department of Grace Theological Seminary (1983-1989) and Colorado Christian University (1989-1997). In 1997, Dan and a cadre of others founded the Seattle School of Theology & Psychology. Dan served as president of the Seattle School from 2002-2009. In 2011, The Allender Center was founded to cultivate healing and train leaders and mental health professionals to courageously engage others’ stories of harm. Dan continues to serve as professor of counseling psychology at the Seattle School.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Delight that Delivers Us to Joy 1

1 Seldom Sabbath 16

Part 1 Sabbath Pillars

2 Sensual Glory 35

3 Holy Time 49

4 Communal Feast 65

5 Play Day 81

Part 2 Sabbath Purpose

6 Sabbath Play: Division Surrenders to Shalom 101

7 Sabbath Play: Destitution Surrenders to Abundance 116

8 Sabbath Play: Despair Surrenders to Joy 132

Part 3 Sabbath Performance

9 Acting Out Sabbath in Ritual and Symbol 149

10 Sabbath Silence 164

11 Sabbath Justice 178

Conclusion: Deliver Us on to Delight 192

Study Guide 195

Notes 200

Bibliography 208

About the Author 213