A Christianity Worth Believing: Hope-filled, Open-armed, Alive-and-well Faith for the Left Out, Left Behind, and Let Down in us All (Living Way: Emergent Visions) | 
 enlarge | Author: Doug Pagitt
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy New: $12.26
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 35238
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1
ISBN: 0787998125
Dewey Decimal Number: 230
EAN: 9780787998127
ASIN: 0787998125
Publication Date: June 2, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW
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Product Description
Praise for A Christianity Worth Believing
"If you are drawn to the mystifying, loving God whom we meet in Jesus Christ, but put off by? 'Christianity,' this contrarian, wise, winsome, passionate book is a must-read."
--Lauren F. Winner, author, Girl Meets God; assistant professor, Duke Divinity School
"Envisioning and articulating fresh ways of holding and living Christian faith, Pagitt's book reads like an old-fashioned testimony, but it opens up important new possibilities and serves as a window into the soul of a new generation of Christians."
--Brian McLaren, networker; speaker; author, A New Kind of Christian, A Generous Orthodoxy, and Everything Must Change
"With honesty, humor, and insight, Doug Pagitt offers us a beautiful, holistic, compelling vision of the Kingdom of God. If you're one of the ever-increasing multitude who sense something is profoundly 'off' with traditional Christianity, this book is a must read!"
--Gregory A. Boyd, author, Myth of a Christian Nation
"This is Doug Pagitt's raw, honest, fear-and-trembling faith workout. Thanks, Doug."
--Shane Claiborne, activist, author, and recovering sinner
"I am certain that this book will resonate with the many who have always felt there must be more to this faith life that we've chosen. Doug has created a treatise on Kingdom living in the here and now that you just will not want to miss."
--Jim Watters, former vice president of support ministries, World Relief; currently director of development, Pastor's Retreat Network
"Here is theology as it is supposed to be: a love story between two parts of one whole. Intimate, candid, vulnerable as well as brilliant and salvific, this one is God-talk at its most persuasive. It is also emergence Christianity at its clearest and best."
--Phyllis Tickle, founding editor, Religion Department of Publishers Weekly; author, The Words of Jesus
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
A choice pick for anyone who wants to reclaim their religion August 11, 2008
So many in the modern era are faced difficult questions of faith, finding themselves bombarded with controversy surrounding their religion. "A Christianity Worth Believing: Hope-Filled, Open-Armed, Alive-And-Well Faith" is a guide for Christians who doubt their own faith but are not yet ready to give up on it all. Seeking to inspire souls to find their faith once more by addressing common problems and answering the questions not normally answered, "A Christianity Worth Believing" is a choice pick for anyone who wants to reclaim their religion.
 A Christianity Worth Believing July 10, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I believe the author has done a great job sharing the love of God as was shown in the Bible and in the way Jesus lived. The Christianity many live today, as Doug points out, is more like the Pharisees practiced. The view of Christianity Doug displays, may be, in my mind, an expanded view of Universal Christianity and Universal reconciliation. Worth reading.
 Borrow It Before You Buy It June 9, 2008
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
I became an instant fan of Tony Jones with his latest "The New Christians" so I was ready for another fun ride in the second of the Jossey-Bass "Living Way" Series: Pagitt's "A Christianity Worth Believing";
Imagine my disappointment then when I discover:
1) Pagitt plays very fast and loose with his interpretation of history (he wants to set right 1800 years of Greek (i.e., "bad") theology) that has lead the Christian church astray from the original Hebrew intent,
2) He utilizes a very limited reading and selective use of biblical citation to make his points--(e.g., atonement really wasn't in the cards for Jesus-as-lamb; that was just a cultural imprisonment of the metaphor attributed to the angry Greek gods--never mind John's Gospel and Paul's gospel affirming that metaphor (of course, Pagitt would claim that is my aberrant reading of the original)),
3) Proof-reading missed so many typo's that I suspected there was a rush to get this book to print (Not Pagitt's fault, I know) I can understand maybe 2-3 misprints in a big-name publication, more for a smaller budget press)--third sentence in the very first chapter: "But I have problem...."; a minor point to some perhaps, but quality thinking from a quality press deserves quality print; I noted 6-8 of these that only made it harder to take this book seriously
Finally, 4) the "straw men" set up, the theological perspectives that Pagitt sees hampering the Christianity-worth-believing, which reflects Jesus the Messiah, which he seeks to knock down, are so simplistic I hardly recognized them as faith perspectives worth worrying about.
Perhaps Minnesota is a hotbed of churches and people who still think the four spiritual laws is the gospel, but there were so many instances of Pagitt describing "what's wrong" in ways that I thought, "of course that clouds the gospel, but I've not met anyone like that since I was a teenager in the '70s"
Pagitt glosses over an attempt to discern strands of theological value from long-standing traditions like the Orthodox church; he never touches on other contexts such as Coptic view of the spirit, Moravians and worship, Anabaptist view of community, or even Methodists and grace; each with their variant metaphors and cultural contexts--he just keeps harping on "Greek" thinking as reflected in "Augustine, Aristotle and Calvin" and rails against antiquated 14th and 15th century "confessions". Those targets are too easy.
There is much I find unbelievable throughout the history of the church, statements of belief, declarations on the supposed nature of discipleship; however, I think Doug throws the proverbial baby out with the bathwater and, though emergent is about conversation, from his perspective of Christian Theology, there is much that he has taken off the table and cannot be discussed.
Anyway, I found reading this book actually diminished my affection for the emergent/emerging church movement.
Pagitt came across like a teenager complaining about things he's already biased against; similarly, perhaps due to his youth, he has not had the worldly experience that exposes his whole being to the nuances and harmonies in Christianity or in the rest of the world.
For example, I've known about sub-atomic particle physics for 20 years and how these energies have a "preference" in behavior, rather than following hard rules; also, holistic medicine is a long-standing, authoritative resource to my 49-year-old thinking. So what's the big deal with taking a holistic view of life, the body, creation, etc AND talking about the lordship of Jesus, spiritual disciplines and even, careful now, the Trinity?
I think Pagitt's "issues" stem more from a dislike for traditional metaphors than for the theological concepts behind them--Pagitt goes to great lengths to get away from the "distance" language of God-across-the-chasm and seeks to engage a language of "re-integrating relationships". That's fine with me, if it's a both/and, not an either/or proposition for the metaphors--not everyone feels "dis-integrated" in a stressed relationship, sometimes my wife and I just feel "far away" from each other, but we are still married; lighten up, Doug!
This isn't to say there are some brilliant, inspirational passage on some important themes--I just don't think the book warrants a lot of praise; for a book touting the holistic view and critiquing the supposedly too-intellectual "Greek" view, I think the tenor of this book swings too far into an emotional view, rather than healing the rift.
In the end, contrary to the expansive and proactive spirit I felt while reading Tony Jones' The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier, I found "A Christianity Worth Believing", well, unbelievable.
So, I recommend you borrow Pagitt's book or buy it used and see what you think of it. If my review is off the mark for you, then no harm done.
If you find similar concerns, well, I've saved you some cash to put toward other thoughtful books, such as:
Why We're Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be or Life with God: Reading the Bible for Spiritual Transformation.
the shake up June 2, 2008
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
For anyone who has been waiting for "those emergent types" to state what they believe, wait no more. This is Doug Pagitt at his best--funny, thought-provoking, goofy, challenging, and asking questions you didn't know could be asked.
Compelling, Beautiful and Hope-Filled...Christianity? June 2, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
Welcome to a Christianity still forming, a faith that is compelling and beautiful and filled with hope, a God who is not remote and difficult to appease but one who is "down and in," present and active in a our lives and world. Welcome to A Christianity Worth Believing, described by author Doug Pagitt in his subtitle as a "hope-filled, open-armed, alive-and-well faith for the left out, left behind and let down in us all." The reader won't find any gaseous, empty platitudes in this memoir of his living faith in Jesus, however; it's instead a brisk walk through his story of seeking, finding, questioning, challenging, and refining what it means to follow Jesus in the world.
Like Doug and so many others who encountered Evangelical Christianity as a teenager, I found myself eventually struggling to follow the Jesus I fell in love with through all the hoops, twists, turns and cultural baggage that are embedded in our gospel presentations with so much fervency and certainty. Unlike Doug, I chose the path of least resistance and simply bought in and went with the program-as-offered. Reading A Christianity Worth Believing did, in a way, bring me full-circle in my own journey of spiritual reformation. With vulnerability, passion, and tremendous insight, Doug Pagitt has testified to a Christianity that is truly worth believing in.
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