Undergoing God
Dispatches from the Scene of a Break-In
Published on 27. November 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
246 pages
978-0-8264-1928-6 (ISBN)
Description
What do Rowan Williams, Stanley Hauerwas, Rene Girard, Richard Rohr, Timothy Radcliffe, Monica Furlong, Richard Rohr, Andrew Sullivan, and Mark Jordan have in common beside their Christian faith? Answer: the fact that they have all heaped praise on one or another of James Alison's books. "Intellectual dynamite and spiritual joy" (Rohr); "wit, clarity, depth and surprises" (Williams); "deeply moving and liberating" (Radcliffe). Perhaps James Keenan has put it most memorably: "Not since C.S. Lewis has an English Christian summoned his readers into such holy conversations." And Andrew Sullivan has spoken for the community most touched by Allison's work: "a rich resource for gay Catholics trying to reconcile their own deep and profound faith with the hostility of the hierarchy." About half of his new book deals with lesbian and gay issues, particularly in light of the the latest Vatican ukase banning gays from seminaries, and the rest with a variety of tropes central to Christian faith and life: reconciliation, the Eucharist, psychology and evil, worship in a violent world. But whatever the topic Alison turns to he writes with the edgy brilliance of a "break-in" artist who is always full of surprises.
Reviews / Votes
"Alison continues his extraordinary contribution to Christian theologies of atonement, worship and biblical exegesis with a book that is at once learned and engaging, theoretically profound and homiletically fecund." Reviewed in Christian Century, December 2006More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 14 mm
Weight
325 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8264-1928-6 (9780826419286)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
James Alison is a Catholic theologian, priest, and author. Having lived with the Dominican Order between 1981 and 1995, he currently travels the world as an itinerant preacher, lecturer, and retreat giver. He studied at Oxford University and the Jesuit Theology Faculty in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He has lived and worked in Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, and the United States as well as his native England.
His principal claim to fame is as one of those who has done most to bring the work of the great French thinker Rene Girard to a wider public. In addition he is known for his firm but patient insistence on truthfulness in all matters gay as an ordinary part of basic Christianity, and for his pastoral outreach in the same sphere.
He is the author of Knowing Jesus, Raising Abel: The Recovery of the Eschatological Imagination, The Joy of Being Wrong, Faith Beyond Resentment, On Being Liked and Undergoing God. His books have been translated into Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
When not on the road, James lives in Madrid, Spain.
His principal claim to fame is as one of those who has done most to bring the work of the great French thinker Rene Girard to a wider public. In addition he is known for his firm but patient insistence on truthfulness in all matters gay as an ordinary part of basic Christianity, and for his pastoral outreach in the same sphere.
He is the author of Knowing Jesus, Raising Abel: The Recovery of the Eschatological Imagination, The Joy of Being Wrong, Faith Beyond Resentment, On Being Liked and Undergoing God. His books have been translated into Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.
When not on the road, James lives in Madrid, Spain.
Content
1. Monotheism and the Indispensability of Irrelevance 2. Worship in a Violent World 3. An Atonement Update 4. Transubstantiation: A Tour of Zion 5. Deliver Us from Evil 6. "So, They've Set Little Lions on Me?" 7. Reconciliation in the Wink of a Hippo 8. "But the Bible Says...?" A Catholic Reading of Romans 1 9. Good Faith Learning and the Fear of God 10. Human Sexuality...or Ecclesial Discourse? 11. Honesty as Challenge, Honest as Gift 12. Yes, But Is It True? 13. The Place of Shame and the Giving of the Spirit 14. A Letter to Friends