By Way of the Heart
The Seasons of Faith
Published on 31. July 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
224 pages
978-1-78622-204-6 (ISBN)
Description
Mark Oakley is one of the church's most outstanding communicators. His writing and preaching alike are shaped by a sense that language is sacramental, and he has a poet's gift of opening up new worlds and new possibilities simply through words.
In a series of fifty beautifully crafted reflections, with characteristic wit, Mark traverses the landscape of the Christian year, with its oases of celebration, its desert stretches of emptiness, its days of abundance and seasons of lament, and its affirmation of the ordinary and the everyday.
Rooted in the scriptures that the Church reads through the year, this volume is pure gift for preachers and all who are charged with interpreting these sacred stories in today's world. For all who wish to understand their own story in the light of God's bigger story, this will be a book to turn to again and again.
In a series of fifty beautifully crafted reflections, with characteristic wit, Mark traverses the landscape of the Christian year, with its oases of celebration, its desert stretches of emptiness, its days of abundance and seasons of lament, and its affirmation of the ordinary and the everyday.
Rooted in the scriptures that the Church reads through the year, this volume is pure gift for preachers and all who are charged with interpreting these sacred stories in today's world. For all who wish to understand their own story in the light of God's bigger story, this will be a book to turn to again and again.
Reviews / Votes
Mark Oakley is one of the most distinctive, intelligent and refreshing voices in the Church of England, always illuminating, never stale or second-hand. -- Rowan Williams In the introduction to this book, Mark Oakley asserts that 'words of faith should "quicken", be acrobatic and sprightly'. Throughout this brilliant collection, his words are precisely this. They open windows into new thoughts as well as summoning us into deeper reflection. It is a treasure chest of profound thinking, beautifully expressed. I can't recommend it enough. -- Paula Gooder This is more than a collection of sermons, it is an act of ministry to a church longing to remember why it exists. With this book, Mark Oakley has given us a glimpse of why the good news is indeed, good. It is both effortlessly poetic and deeply pastoral and for this I am grateful. -- Nadia Bolz-Weber A sermon is a little window: a window through which one peers at the world in the company of a text. In Mark Oakley's deft practice, that little window has a window seat, and he invites us to sit and share. Taking a biblical text, he opens up the imagination, explores the text and, in so doing, explores the story of a life - his own, or a poet's, or a person he met on a bus, or a person he read about, the one person, the everyperson. Learned, conversational, openhearted and peppered with a love of language as deep as his love for God, these are sermons that invite the reader into a richer life. -- Padraig O Tuama Clear and accessible, learned and sensitive, faithful and alert, and perhaps uniquely alive to the possibilities and peculiarities of the English language, I could hear him preach every day. -- Richard Coles The best sermoniser I have ever heard. -- Sir Andrew MotionMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 15 mm
Weight
344 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78622-204-6 (9781786222046)
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
E-Book
08/2019
Hymns Ancient & Modern
€14.99
Available for download
Person
Mark Oakley is Dean of St John's College Cambridge. Formerly Canon Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, he is a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Kings College London; Visiting Scholar at Sarum College, and a Deputy Priest in Ordinary to HM the Queen. He is an Ambassador for StopHate UK, Patron of Tell MAMA (supporting those affected by anti-Muslim hate crime) and a Trustee of the Civil Liberties Trust.