Sacred Signposts: Words, Water, and Other Acts of Resistance

by Benjamin J. Dueholm

Overview

In our increasingly secular world, what good are the church’s sacred practices, and why do they even matter anymore? With insight, wit, and unsparing honesty, Benjamin Dueholm in this book explores the crucial place and power of Christian practices in ordinary, everyday life. Drawing on modern-day realities and ancient roots, firsthand experience and centuries of history, pop culture and high theology, Dueholm offers a visionary account of the critical, radical, life-affirming role that seven “sacred signposts” play in today’s post-Christian world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802874177
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	07/10/2018
Pages:	190
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Benjamin J. Dueholm is pastor of worship and education at Messiah Lutheran Church in Wauconda, Illinois. His writing has appeared in The Christian Century, Aeon, Killing the Buddha, and Religion Dispatches.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Introduction: The Estate Sale at the End of the World 1

1 Word 15

The Archive of the Inconsequential

2 Water 37

Insiders and Outsiders

3 Meal 61

A World in Miniature

4 Confession and Forgiveness 79

Far from the Tree

5 Ministry 101

Expatriates from the Kingdom of Usefulness

6 Prayer, Praise, and Worship 121

Redeeming Work

7 Cross 141

The Beginning and the End

Conclusion: The Space Between 165

Acknowledgments 174

Notes 176

Editorial Reviews

05/14/2018
In this instructive debut, Dueholm, pastor at Messiah Lutheran Church in Wauconda, Ill., examines central practices of Christianity and explains why they still matter today. Addressing a post-Christian world and an America that is experiencing a “significant, ongoing decline in formal religious participation,” Dueholm implores readers to consider seven Christian practices: word, water, meal, forgiveness, ministry, prayer, and cross. He abandons jargon in favor of language that makes religious concepts easy to understand: “The habit of prayer connects the disparate moments of our lives and the scattered intentions of our hearts.” The seven sacred signposts “begin with something stubbornly ordinary: people,” Duehold says, reminding readers to move beyond political and theological divides and extend grace to others. To illustrate how biblical practices can be applied to everyday life, Dueholm shares a handful of personal stories, but most of the book is a collection of his thoughts on faith and ruminations on passages from the Bible. He also draws on the teachings of St. Augustine, Martin Luther, and Dietrich Bonhoffer to help readers learn how to practice faith in a secular world. Though lacking in anecdote, Dueholm’s pensive reflection on biblical virtues will be welcomed by Christians interested in simple theology. (July)

Publishers Weekly

Kaya Oakes
— author of Radical Reinvention: An Unlikely Return to the Catholic Church
“Benjamin Dueholm elegantly and thoughtfully moves us through a Christianity of resistance to our own torpor and into a Christianity of embodiment. Bold and necessary, Dueholm’s sacred signposts are the signs of our time.”

Katherine Willis Pershey
— author of Very Married: Field Notes on Love and Fidelity
“Dueholm is more than a writer of breathtakingly beautiful prose, more than a wunderkind possessed of a rare—yet never rarified—theological genius. In Sacred Signposts he is the consummate pastor, interpreting text and context with humility and empathy.”

Bromleigh McCleneghan
— author of Good Christian Sex: Why Chastity Isn’t the Only Option—and Other Things the Bible Says about Sex
“With artfully composed sentences and intriguing theological insight, Benjamin Dueholm’s reflections on Christian practices will surely speak to the lifelong faithful, to Christianity’s cultured despisers, and to everyone in between. This book should earn Dueholm a wide hearing. His voice—measured, funny, and wise—is needed now more than ever.”

Publishers Weekly
"Instructive. . . . Addressing a post-Christian world and an America that is experiencing a 'significant, ongoing decline in formal religious participation,' Dueholm implores readers to consider seven Christian practices: word, water, meal, forgiveness, ministry, prayer, and cross. He abandons jargon in favor of language that makes religious concepts easy to understand. . . . Dueholm’s pensive reflection on biblical virtues will be welcomed by Christians interested in simple theology."
Amy Ziettlow
— coauthor of Homeward Bound: Modern Families, Elder Care, and Loss
“Sacred Signposts is both vinegar and honey to the life of faith—sharply clarifying and deeply fortifying. Benjamin Dueholm writes with the mind of a theologian, the heart of a pastor, and the courage of a prophet—a trustworthy guide to renewed engagement with the church’s holy possessions.”

Dorothy Fortenberry
— playwright, screenwriter for The Handmaid’s Tale
“A warm and bracing look at why we Christians do the things we do and why they might matter. By focusing on the ordinary habits of the church, Sacred Signposts guides us to understand how absurd and profound they—and we—can be.

From the Publisher

08/01/2018
Roughly stated, lex orandi, lex credeni is the historic Christian affirmation that religious beliefs follow religious actions and practices. Dueholm (associate pastor, Messiah Lutheran Church, Wauconda, IL) employs a number of practices (that he terms "holy possessions") which serve to inform belief, though not belief as simple assent. For instance, the first chapter, dealing with the practice of attending to Scripture, uses Jesus's illustration of the fallen sparrow to find a disposition in which everything is ephemeral and yet significant. Dueholm continues with the three sacraments recognized by Lutherans: ordination, prayer, and the symbol of the cross. With the last, Dueholm is interested in one's response to the crucifixion; that is, God's embrace of human weakness against our own tendency toward security. VERDICT Dueholm appeals to those who identify as spiritual but not religious by integrating the latter by way of the former. Unfortunately, this may give the impression that religious outlook and theological thinking are unrelated.—James Wetherbee, Wingate Univ. Libs., NC

Library Journal