Synopses & Reviews
Telling stories has long been recognized as an important part of healing, self-knowledge, and personal and spiritual development. At the same time, ritual has been an essential vehicle for connecting us to other people and to God while marking significant events in our lives. Why is it, then, that the rituals that mark our lives often feel unconnected to the stories we live? And why are there so many important events in our life story that pass without any ritual to help us signify their importance to who we are? Surprisingly, these two powerful means for understanding ourselves and our place in the world have rarely been brought together by those who guide us in our personal and spiritual development.In this moving and enlightening book, authors Herbert Anderson and Edward Foley present us with a compelling vision of what can happen when we take the opportunity to connect stories and rituals--a vision of individuals and communities transformed through a deeper sense of connection to our loved ones, our communities, and God. Anderson and Foley reveal how when stories and rituals work together, they have the potential to be both mighty and dangerous--mighty in their ability to lift us up and help us make these connections beyond ourselves and dangerous in challenging us to learn to live with complexity and contradiction.Throughout the book, the authors draw upon a wealth of stories, including many that they have encountered in their professional lives in ministry. Their own engaging storytelling makes the transformative power of their message vivid and moving. Anderson and Foley show how much more meaningful a baptism, wedding, or funeral can be when liturgy is made to include and recognize the personal stories of those involved. Suddenly, these familiar life-cycle rituals are infused with new life as their participants become connected in a narrative web linking past and present, human and divine.
Review
"This book marries two partners that are made for each other. The result, as in all good unions, is mutual enrichment and deeper life. Both stories and the people who tell them and rituals and the people who enact them will benefit from reading and studying Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals." —Jack Shea, author of Stories of God
"An extraordinarily compassionate and accessible book that forges practical and conceptual links between storytelling and ritualizing. [This] is a work that encourages and enables Christians to reflect more profoundly on the big, obvious transitions such as birth, coming of age, marriage, and death, as well as other . . . little-recognized passages such as divorce, adoption, and leaving home." —Ronald L. Grimes, author of Marrying and Burying: Rites of Passage in a Man's Life
"Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals breaks new ground, showing us how to return ritual to its rightful place at the core of human?and Christian?experience. Ministers across the range of denominations and pastoral specializations will find here an indispensable resource, both practical and prophetic." —Evelyn Eaton Whitehead and James D. Whitehead, Institute of Pastoral Studies, Loyola University, Chicago
"The church of the twenty-first century needs to be a community where meaningful stories are shared and fulfilling rituals are enacted. In this bold and wide-ranging volume, the authors move us toward that noble goal by helping us reimagine parables, myths, divine narratives, worship, pastoral care, and the spirituality of reconciliation." —Frederic A. Brussat, coauthor of Spiritual Literacy: Reading the Sacred in Everyday Life
"This rare and provocative book, by two of North America's foremost scholars in the fields of liturgy and pastoral care, brilliantly and accessibly engages in a much needed conversation between these disciplines." —Gordon W. Lathrop, Schieren professor of liturgy, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia
Synopsis
Bringing together two of our greatest sources of meaning and transformation
This book marries two partners that are made for each other. The result, as in all good unions, is mutual enrichment and deeper life.
--Jack Shea, author of Stories of God
Now available in paperback, this moving and enlightening book presents us with a compelling vision of what can happen when we take the opportunity to connect stories and rituals--a vision of individuals and communities transformed through a deeper sense of connection to our loved ones, our communities, and God. Herbert Anderson and Edward Foley reveal how when stories and rituals work together, they have the potential to be both mighty and dangerous--mighty in their ability to lift us up and help us make these connections beyond ourselves and dangerous in challenging us to learn to live with complexity and contradiction.
They show how much more meaningful a baptism, wedding, or funeral can be when liturgy is made to include and recognize the personal stories of those involved. Suddenly, these familiar life-cycle rituals are infused with new life as their participants become connected in a narrative web linking past and present, human and divine. Newly created rituals can also help us connect our stories to the divine story, giving meaning to what we experience and bringing us closer to God.
Ministers, worship leaders, and pastoral caregivers can use this approach to storytelling and ritual to find ways to bring together worship and pastoral care, diminishing fragmentation and fostering coherence in their religious communities.
Synopsis
How can we bring together two of our greatest sources of meaning and transformation?Storytelling and ritual making are not merely something that humans do--they are essential for making us whole. When combined, they enable us to make our world both habitable and hospitable, and they are the ways that faith communities frame our journeys in God.
About the Author
HERBERT ANDERSON is professor of pastoral theology at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He is an ordained Lutheran pastor and author of several books and articles. EDWARD FOLEY is professor of liturgy and music at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He is an ordained Roman Catholic priest and the author of several books and articles.
Table of Contents
Part One: Of Stories and Rituals.
1. The Power of Storytelling.
2. Ritualizing Our Stories.
3. Connecting Divine and Human Narratives.
Part Two: Milestones in Life Marked by Stories and Rituals.
4. Welcoming the Child.
5. Preparing for Marriage.
6. Encountering Death.
Part Three: Transforming Stories and Rituals.
7. Creating New Rituals.
8. Revitalizing Rituals with Stories.
9. Reconciling Stories and Rituals.