
Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times
Justification and the Pursuit of Justice
Baylor University Press
Published on 31. October 2023
Book
Hardback
277 pages
978-1-4813-1931-7 (ISBN)
Description
Christians in the United States and around the world are politically polarized today, unable to speak to one another across deep divisions regarding urgent social issues. Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times: Justification and the Pursuit of Justice addresses this dire reality by offering a theological framework for Christian justice-seeking. Amy Carr and Christine Helmer draw on Paul's theology to center the idea of justification by faith in Christ as the primary ground of Christian belonging and community.This approach yields a theology of ordinary faith that resists the temptation to equate Christian identity with the performance of a heroic "here I stand" posture against moral and political positions felt to be inimical to a properly Christian life. An ordinary faith situates Christian identity on a baptismal belonging to Christ. Baptism draws Christians into the messy process of discerning together the shape of justice in and through the Beloved Community. With justification by faith as the touchstone of Christian unity, Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times reveals how Christians who inhabit different ethical and political positions can navigate the disorientations and reorientations that arise when they debate what justice-seeking looks like from within the body of Christ.
Carr and Helmer articulate ways that justification by faith grounds Christian practices of affective listening and storytelling, even on the most contentious ethical questions today, with the hope that mutual conversation in and through the Beloved Community can get Christians who disagree oriented towards each other again for the good of the world.
Carr and Helmer articulate ways that justification by faith grounds Christian practices of affective listening and storytelling, even on the most contentious ethical questions today, with the hope that mutual conversation in and through the Beloved Community can get Christians who disagree oriented towards each other again for the good of the world.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Waco
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
272 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4813-1931-7 (9781481319317)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Amy Carr | Christine Helmer
Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times
Justification and the Pursuit of Justice
E-Book
10/2023
Baylor University Press
€46.99
Available for download
Persons
Amy Carr is Professor of Religious Studies at Western Illinois University.Christine Helmer is Peter B. Rizma Professor of Humanities at Northwestern University.
Content
Acknowledgments
1. Ordinary Faith in Times of Conflict
2. Justification by Faith: What It Is and Why It Matters Today
3. Justification by Faith and Justifications amid Justice-Seeking
4. Abortion: Is This the Issue on Which the Church Stands or Falls?
5. Ordinary Faith in Political Justice-Seeking: A Practice of Christian Freedom
6. The Spiritual Discipline of Ordinary Faith and a Life of Decentering and Recentering
1. Ordinary Faith in Times of Conflict
2. Justification by Faith: What It Is and Why It Matters Today
3. Justification by Faith and Justifications amid Justice-Seeking
4. Abortion: Is This the Issue on Which the Church Stands or Falls?
5. Ordinary Faith in Political Justice-Seeking: A Practice of Christian Freedom
6. The Spiritual Discipline of Ordinary Faith and a Life of Decentering and Recentering