Practicing Our Faith

A Way of Life for a Searching People

Dorothy C. Bass

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781506454733
• eBook ISBN:
  9781506454740
• Topic: Teologia e religione
• Subtopic: Ministro del culto cristiano

Twelve time-honored Christian practices that will help us, and the world, to flourish

Practicing Our Faith offers help to Christians who are asking how our faith can help us discern what we might do and who we might become.

How can we live faithfully and with integrity in a world where the pace of existence is so fast and life's patterns are changing all around us? Can we conduct our daily lives in ways that help us not just get by but flourish--as individuals, as communities, and as a society in concert with creation and in communion with God?

These questions are on the hearts and minds of many seekers who are exploring spirituality today. They are also at the heart of Practicing Our Faith.

Practices are those shared activities that address fundamental needs of humankind and creation and that, woven together, form a way of life. The twelve practices explored in this book are practices that human beings simply cannot do without, particularly at this time in history.

This book will stimulate your imagination. It will encourage you to reflect. It initiates a conversation that will spread into many contexts, each of which presents unique opportunities for noticing, discussing, and living the practices of faith.

3

Index

A

Aaron, 20, 24

Abraham, 32–33, 34, 77

Abundance, and household economics, 57–58

Adornment: and honoring the body, 20–22; and household economics, 52

Adult Children of Alcoholics, and healing, 151

Advent, 29–31

Adventists, and Sabbath keeping, 83, 84

African Americans: and song, 178, 188– 189; and testimony, 89–95, 98–100

AIDS: and dying well, 173–174; and

healing, 151; and honoring the body, 16; and hospitality, 32

Alabama, testimony in, 89

Alcoholics Anonymous: and healing, 151; and testimony, 101

Amish community: and adornment, 20–21; and household economics, 50, 53, 54–56. See also Mennonites

The Amnesty of Grace (Tamez), 141

Anderson, D., 156–157

Another Country (Baldwin), 190

Anthony, 62

Arellano, L. B., 169

Asceticism: ancient prayer of, 58; and Quakers, 52; and saying yes, 60–61, 62–65

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, 187

Augustine, 100, 181, 184

Authority, concept of, 126–127

B

Baldwin, J., 190

Baptism: and death, 162, 174; and forgiveness, 144; and healing, 153; and honoring the body, 16; nature of, 197– 199; ritual of, 20; and testimony, 99

Baptists, and community, 126

Barth, K., 78

Base Christian communities, 114, 126

Bass, D. C., 1, 75, 193, 203, 211

Bathing, and honoring the body, 18–20

Beethoven, L. von, 187

Berry, W., 47, 77

Bible: and discernment, 113; and hospitality, 32–34; study of, 194; and testimony, 93–95

Birmingham, Alabama, testimony in, 89

Birth, and honoring the body, 13–15, 20

Black Church, testimony in, 89–95, 98–100

Blue laws, and Sabbath keeping, 83

Body. See Honoring the body

Boff, L., 100

Bonhoeffer, D., 185

“The Book of Disciplines of the Community of Christ,” 200–201

Borg, M. J., 67

Breaking bread, as practice to explore, 208–210

Brooke, A., 152–153

Brush arbors, 93

Busyness, and household economics, 45–47

C

Calvin, J., 12, 168

Campaign for Peace, 115

Caring presence, and dying well, 172–174

Catechumenate, 198, 200

Catholic Worker Movement, 49

Catholics. See Roman Catholics Central America. See Latin America; specific countries

Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), 35–37

Change, and community, 3–4

Charismatics, 158, 160

Charity, concept of, 49–53, 56

Chicago, Illinois: and immigrants, 39; settlement houses in, 49; therapeutic touch in, 23

Children: and adornment, 21–22; and hospitality, 32

“Choruses from ‘The Rock’” (Eliot), 65

Christianity, early: and asceticism, 60; and body, 17; and community shaping, 121–124; and funerals, 167; and healing, 150; and hospitality, 33; and incarnation, 47–48; and lament, 165–166; and Sabbath keeping, 82–83; and song, 181

Christmas, 30, 38, 43, 50–51, 138, 191

Church: as community, 125–127, 195; as source of hope, 162; gathered, 197– 199; sent, 199–201. See also Church of the Savior; Grace Lutheran Church; St. Luke’s Episcopal Church; St. Peter’s Parish; Trinity Christian Methodist Episcopal Church

Church of the Savior, and household economics, 57–58

Clean Air Act of 1970, 120–121 Clothing. See Adornment

Communities: approach for, 117–130; challenge for, 127–128; and change, 3–4; and churches as alternative, 125–127; and discernment, 108–111, 113, 114–115; and dying well, 173–174; governance for, 118–124, 128–130; growth in, 193–201; and honoring the body, 15–16, 19, 24; and hospitality, 2–3, 29–31, 35–37; and household economics, 49–53...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Praise for Practicing Our Faith
• The Practices of Faith Series
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• Preface
• Times of Yearning, Practices of Faith
• Honoring the Body
• Hospitality
• Household Economics
• Saying Yes and Saying No
• Keeping the Sabbath
• Testimony
• Discernment
• Shaping Communities
• Forgiveness
• Healing
• Dying Well
• Singing Our Lives
• Practicing a Way of Life
• A Way of Thinking about a Way of Life
• References
• The Contributors
• Index
• Index of Scripture References
• Continuation of Copyright
• Suggestions for Conversation and Reflection