Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Timothy Radcliffe considers the strength of the Christian imagination in its ability inspire others.
How can we touch the imagination of our contemporaries with our faith? The disciples returning from Emmaus (Luke 24) said that when they met the stranger on the road, their hearts burnt within them as he expounded the Scriptures. What blocks the reception of Christianity today is not so much secularism or atheism but the banality of contemporary culture--what could be called "the globalization of superficiality." We need the help of creative people to open up our minds to the transcendent. We will only excite people about our faith if we show that it is the response to an invitation to live fully.
Christianity is an adventure which takes the puzzled disciples to Jerusalem. Radcliffe describes aspects of being alive that the disciples encounter along the way: healing, struggling with negativity, growing up and forgiveness. These all relate to our coming alive in Christ. Radcliffe shows how thinking and study relate to our human and more than human flourishing. Doctrine is not indoctrination but the liberation of the heart and mind. A chapter called "Affliction" explores the utter negation of life on Good Friday, embraced and overcome. The last section of the book called "The Risen Life" explores what it means to be alive spiritually, physically, justly through liturgy and prayer.
Synopsis
Timothy Radcliffe considers the strength of the Christian imagination in its ability inspire others.
How can Christianity touch the imagination of our contemporaries when ever fewer people in the West identify as religious? Timothy Radcliffe argues we must show how everything we believe is an invitation to live fully. God says: "I put before you life and death: choose life."
Anyone who understands the beauty and messiness of human life--novelists, poets, filmmakers and so on--can be our allies, whether they believe or not. The challenge is not today's secularism but its banality.
We accompany the disciples as they struggle to understand this strange man who heals, casts out demons and offers endless forgiveness. In the face of death, he teaches them what it means to be alive in God. Then he embraces all that afflicts and crushes humanity. Finally, Radcliffe explores what it means for us to be alive spiritually, physically, sacramentally, justly and prayerfully. The result is a compelling new understanding of the words of Jesus: "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly."