The God of Second Chances

by Erik Kolbell

Overview

In this hopeful book, Erik Kolbell, an insightful writer and caregiver, looks back through Scripture and finds that it reveals a God of second chances. The Bible is rich with words like re-conciliation, re-demption, re-vival, and re-surrection, and Kolbell eloquently explores one "re" word in every chapter, each pointing to a well-recognized biblical theme that speaks in its own way to how, when our spirits are weary, God gives us a second chance to deepen our lives of faith. Drawing from a wealth of biblical and contemporary illustrations, Kolbell offers comforting guidance to all spiritual seekers who yearn to find their way back to the sufficiency of God's love and gain the wisdom to know how to respond in return. This volume includes questions for discussion or reflection.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780664231224
Publisher:	Westminster John Knox Press
Publication date:	04/21/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Erik Kolbell is a psychotherapist and former Minister of Social Justice at Riverside Church in New York City. He is the author of What Jesus Meant: The Beatitudes and A Meaningful Life and The God of Second Chances, published by Westminster John Knox Press. Kolbell has contributed to many national media outlets including The Today Show, Dateline, Morning Joe, and numerous local television and radio programs.

What People are Saying About This

Jane Pauley

"Who among us hasn't wished for a second chance, whether it be for a conversation that took a wrong turn or a day filled with better decisions. In this wonderful book, Erik Kolbell shows us how second chances are possible, and how much more rewarding life can be when lived with forgiveness toward one another and toward ourselves."

Bob Edgar

"This is an important book because it addresses one of the paralyzing conditions of human nature: guilt. People stop going to church because they obsess about their sins. Marriages crumble because partners become so burdened by mistakes that they can neither forgive nor beg forgiveness. People lose the ability to pick up the pieces of their lives and move on. The God of Second Chances is a timely reminder that God has already forgiven us, that God has cleared away the detritus of our lives, and every new start is an integral part of God's plan."--(Rev. Bob Edgar, General Secretary, National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA)

Editorial Reviews

This penetrating miscellany of meditations on the dialogue between human limitations and divine grace successfully blends inspiration with practicality, the therapeutic with the theological. A writer, psychotherapist and former minister at New York's Riverside Church, Kolbell asserts that in a contemporary climate of incivility, religious intolerance, poverty and war, we could use a "second chance" more than ever. It is in this context that he mines the Latin prefix "re," or returning, to explore the scriptural foundations and modern applications of words like reconciliation, reflection, retreat and restoration. Weaving his encounters with friends and patients into his reflections on Old and New Testament figures like Moses and Nicodemus, the author manages to strike a tone both realistic and encouraging-no mean feat. While there is little that would be offensive to conservative readers, the book is more likely to appeal to those who share Kolbell's passion for social change and his conviction that modern believers urgently need to align their wills with the God who keeps forgiving them and inviting them to try again. (May)

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Publishers Weekly

This is Westminster's third title by Kolbell, former minister of social justice at Riverside Church in New York, after What Jesus Means and Were You There? Kolbell's notion is that Christian Scripture and tradition are stuffed with "re-" words-reconciliation, revival, resurrection, remembrance, and so on-and that this expresses God's desire to give us-and for us to give each other-second chances (with "re" taken to mean "again"). While Kolbell's premise is etymologically and historically dubious, he moves beyond verbal trickiness in a book that is full of hope and help. Includes "Questions for Discussion" in each chapter; for most collections.

—Graham Christian

Library Journal