A Spiritual Life: Perspectives from Poets, Prophets, and Preachers

by Allan Hugh Cole Jr. (Editor)

Overview

This revealing collection presents a selection of twenty poets, prophets, and preachers who share their understandings of what makes a "good spiritual life." They draw on their professional experiences and, as important, grace us with their personal thoughts. The result is essentially a textbook for spirituality courses, exposing readers to the spiritual lives of a wonderfully diverse group of people with a wide range of Christian experiences. Every reader is sure to find a perspective with which he or she can identify.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780664234928
Publisher:	Westminster John Knox Press
Publication date:	04/19/2011
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Allan Hugh Cole Jr. is an ordained Presbyterian minister and Nancy Taylor Williamson Professor of Pastoral Care at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He is the coauthor of Losers, Loners, and Rebels: The Spiritual Struggles of Boys, and author of Good Mourning and The Life of Prayer.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors ix

Preface xvii

Acknowledgments xix

1 More Religious than Spiritual Allan Hugh Cole Jr. 1

I Poets

2 The High Note Sheri Reynolds 15

3 Musings on the Spiritual Life Gail Godwin 21

4 What I Do and Why I Do It; Or, the Writing Life and the Spiritual Life Greg Garrett 29

5 The Spiritual Life as an Editorial Process Albert Y. Hsu 37

6 The Pie Social Lauren F. Winner 47

7 Habits of a Whole Heart: Practicing Life in Christ Marjorie J. Thompson 53

8 Behold the Beauty of the Lord: An Aesthetic Spirituality Michael Jinkins 65

9 The Spiritual Life with the Help of Favorite Poets Elizabeth Liebert 77

II Prophets

10 A Spiritual Person Donald Capps 89

11 A Rebranded Life: Spirituality and Chronic Illness Elizabeth Damewood Gaucher 101

12 On Spirituality Ismael García 111

13 Keeping an Open Heart in Troubled Times: Self-Empathy as a Christian Spiritual Practice Deborah van Deusen Hunsinger 123

14 Nursing, Eucharist, Psychosis, Metaphor Kerry Egan 135

15 Fantasy Literature and the Spiritual Life Richard R. Osmer 145

16 Theological Protest and the Spiritual Life Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore 161

17 Spiritual Discipline Homer U. Ashby Jr. 173

18 Reading St. Therese Stephanie Paulsell 181

III Preachers

19 Practicing Spirituality in the Middle Theodore J. Wardlaw 193

20 Spiritual Integrity J. Philip Wogaman 207

21 Table Grace Deborah A. Block 215

22 Impractical Christianity: Why Salvation in Jesus Christ Is Better than a Practice William H. Willimon 223

Sanctification and Proclamation: Walking with God Brad R. Braxton 231

24 Spiritual Ill-Discipline Michael L. Lindvall 243