David P Gushee

Throughout her academic career, Christine D. Pohl has helped the church rediscover practices that used to be central to its life, like hospitality, community, and friendship. Perhaps best known for her groundbreaking Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, she has also contributed significantly to discussions on Christian community, feminism and the academy, and the practice of friendship. Yet behind this lies a lifetime of ""lived theology"" that informs her life and her work, both inside and outside the academy. Containing biblical, systematic, and moral theology, these essays are scriptural and liturgical, multidisciplinary and missional. Several of them could be described as offering essays of ""lived theology,"" writing and reflecting from within years of action and contemplation. They build upon particularly fruitful aspects of Pohl's work, through expansion, clarification, and occasional disagreement. A mix of scholars and practitioners, colleagues, former students, and friends, the contributors represent a wide variety of theoretical and practical expertise. This volume honors Pohl most when its readers choose to take the wisdom within its pages and embody that in life together.

The state of public discourse in America is dismal, reflecting an extreme us-versus-them tribalism where "me and my folks" have the full truth about the contentious issue at hand and "those other folks" are devoid of any truth and can even be demonized as evil. Rather than just cursing this darkness, Harold Heie presents what he considers to be a "better way" for those who disagree about contentious issues to respectfully engage one another, a way that is deeply informed by his Christian faith perspective; a way that reflects his understanding that to listen carefully to those who disagree with you and to then talk respectfully about your disagreements is a deep expression of the love for others to which Jesus calls all those who claim to be his followers. But this book is not just an abstract consideration of the nature of civil public discourse. Rather, drawing on his successes and failures, the beautiful and the ugly, in his attempts to orchestrate respectful conversations on contentious issues, both online and in small-group face-to-face meetings during the past decade, Heie presents practical, concrete proposals for how to talk to one another about significant disagreements, particularly in Christian churches that have tragically succumbed to tribalism.

One of the most fiercely debated topics in modern Christianity centers on the inclusion of sexual and gender minorities into the full life of the church. Dozens of scholars have stepped forward, seeking to make a compelling case for LGBT+ inclusion based on their contextualized reading of the six traditional passages that refer to homosexuality in Scripture. But these arguments alone fall short of providing a comprehensive framework for radical inclusion of LGBT+ people. In The Gospel of Inclusion, pastor and public theologian Brandan Robertson offers a compelling assessment of the biblical texts, cultural context, and modern social movements to suggest that the entire thrust of the Christian gospel calls the church towards the deconstruction of all oppressive systems and structures and towards the creation of a world that celebrates the full spectrum of human diversity as a reflection of God's creative intention.

The twenty-first century has seen energy passing between religious and political worldviews, kicking up dust around the identity- and conviction-based fault lines in American society. While many evangelical Christians have developed and deployed a “worldview theory” to describe and locate themselves within the world’s ideological strife, Jacob Cook argues this approach has, in effect, compelled those listening to adopt the world’s divisive modes of dealing with difference rather than living out a compelling alternative. As a popular framework for theology in recent history, world-viewing has driven its white evangelical adherents to narrate human lives in this world (including their own) in ways that warp Christian identity as a personal, social, and theological reality. Through close studies of key white evangelical leaders who utilized the worldview concept for political engagement and cultural transformation over the last century, Cook reveals why worldview theory is inept for grasping real human complexity and, moreover, how it forms a barrier to genuine life together as creatures in a world only the living God can really “view.” In between these studies, he draws from current conversations in psychology, sociology, critical race studies, and other fields to deliver a vigorous critique of the worldview concept and its use as well as its underlying impulse—and to unmask what world-viewing shares with the history and spirit of whiteness. This book is for those wrestling with the relationship between Christianity and whiteness in America, how the dynamics of whiteness have become transparent and, thus, contentions, and where to go from here if one is to follow Jesus.

Sometime in your business life you've looked up from the task or person in front of you, paused before your head explodes, and thought to yourself, "There's got to be a better way " This book offers you that better way. Whether you're in school preparing for the world of work or have experienced multiple careers, whether you make decisions that affect others or are affected by others' decisions as their employee or customer, whether you're part of a multinational corporation or a small business or a ministry or a government, this book shows how you're affected by plantation economics. It then shows you the more profitable-beneficial-viewing, thinking, and living of capitalism through the framework of Partnership Economics. Better Capitalism adds value across the full landscape of capitalism and the bridged worlds of business and faith. Ready for that better way? Read on to unleash a more profitable and ethical capitalism.

Sometime in your business life you've looked up from the task or person in front of you, paused before your head explodes, and thought to yourself, "There's got to be a better way " This book offers you that better way. Whether you're in school preparing for the world of work or have experienced multiple careers, whether you make decisions that affect others or are affected by others' decisions as their employee or customer, whether you're part of a multinational corporation or a small business or a ministry or a government, this book shows how you're affected by plantation economics. It then shows you the more profitable-beneficial-viewing, thinking, and living of capitalism through the framework of Partnership Economics. Better Capitalism adds value across the full landscape of capitalism and the bridged worlds of business and faith. Ready for that better way? Read on to unleash a more profitable and ethical capitalism.

White evangelicals have struggled to understand or enter into modern conversations on race and racism, because their inherited and imagined world has not prepared them for this moment. American Southerners, in particular, carry additional obstacles to such conversations, because their regional identity is woven together with the values and histories of white evangelicalism. In Know Your Place, Justin Phillips examines the three community loyalties (white, southern, and evangelical) that shaped his racial imagination. Phillips examines how each community creates blind spots that overlap with the others, insulating the individual from alternative narratives, making it difficult to conceive of a world different than the dominant white evangelical world of the South. When their world is challenged or rejected outright, it can feel like nothing short of the end of the world. Blending together personal experiences with ethics and pastoral sensibilities, Phillips traces for white, southern evangelicals a line running from the past through the present, to help his beloved communities see how their loyalties--their stories, histories, and beliefs--have harmed their neighbors. In order to truly love, repair, and reconcile brokenness, you first have to know your place.

How can people of faith foster love and resilience in our children while building sustainable, diverse communities? That's the big question Ken Whitt answers in light of the many threats looming in our world. Through wisdom he has gleaned from scientists, scholars and lots of real families, Ken shows how God's love is a hopeful compass in our lives. He encourages enjoying stories, songs and explorations of the natural world with children, and closes with "100 Things Families Can Do To Find Hope and Be Love." Because Ken has years of experience working with multi-generational groups, his book encourages reflections and activities with our families that he knows will be both fun and faithful. The cover of his book illustrates a central story he shares about the wonderment families discover when they look up into the starry night sky with their children. "Ken Whitt offers care to weary souls in this book. It is not just his words but the spirit that manifests through the words. Ken says that love is at the heart of reality and love is what he gently breathes on us here," Christian ethicist David Gushee, author of Changing Our Mind, writes in the book's Foreword." As you read this wise and joyful book, I know you will feel both instructed and delighted, and you will agree that your life has been enriched by adopting Ken Whitt as a literary pastor, mentor and friend," Brian McLaren, best-selling author of more than 20 books, writes in the Preface." In extensive dialog with scientists and theologians, Ken shows the delightful and enriching complementarity of faith and science. Both can feed us mentally and emotionally, and both are needed to move us in constructive and creative ways in the face of the global perils we face," writes Daniel Buttry, author of Blessed Are the Peacemakers and the former Global Consultant for Peace and Justice of the American Baptist Churches.

How can people of faith foster love and resilience in our children while building sustainable, diverse communities? That's the big question Ken Whitt answers in light of the many threats looming in our world. Through wisdom he has gleaned from scientists, scholars and lots of real families, Ken shows how God's love is a hopeful compass in our lives. He encourages enjoying stories, songs and explorations of the natural world with children, and closes with "100 Things Families Can Do To Find Hope and Be Love." Because Ken has years of experience working with multi-generational groups, his book encourages reflections and activities with our families that he knows will be both fun and faithful. The cover of his book illustrates a central story he shares about the wonderment families discover when they look up into the starry night sky with their children." Ken Whitt offers care to weary souls in this book. It is not just his words but the spirit that manifests through the words. Ken says that love is at the heart of reality and love is what he gently breathes on us here," Christian ethicist David Gushee, author of Changing Our Mind, writes in the book's Foreword." As you read this wise and joyful book, I know you will feel both instructed and delighted, and you will agree that your life has been enriched by adopting Ken Whitt as a literary pastor, mentor and friend," Brian McLaren, best-selling author of more than 20 books, writes in the Preface." In extensive dialog with scientists and theologians, Ken shows the delightful and enriching complementarity of faith and science. Both can feed us mentally and emotionally, and both are needed to move us in constructive and creative ways in the face of the global perils we face," writes Daniel Buttry, author of Blessed Are the Peacemakers and the former Global Consultant for Peace and Justice of the American Baptist Churches.

Biblical Israelites were sojourners--immigrants, refugees, and resident aliens in lands other than their own--for the greater part of two thousand years. Experiences as sojourners shaped their attitudes toward foreigners who sojourned with them, and came to expression in laws providing immigrants equal rights along with various ""safety net"" measures intended to secure their well-being. Biblical laws did not bar immigrants of any age, nation, race, or class. Nor did they require prospective immigrants to prove they were unlikely to become ""public charges."" These biblical laws reflected core beliefs, values, and hopes emphasized in other biblical traditions, such as genealogies linking all peoples and nations as kin and prophetic texts affirming all humankind as the LORD's people. Familiarity with biblical law may have influenced those who formulated our country's constitutional assurances that any person within our borders is entitled to due process and the equal protection of the laws. Since colonial times, America has been ""open to receive . . . the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions"" (George Washington). These biblical texts challenge us all to recognize overt and latent bigotry not only in others and in our history, but also in ourselves.

Biblical Israelites were sojourners--immigrants, refugees, and resident aliens in lands other than their own--for the greater part of two thousand years. Experiences as sojourners shaped their attitudes toward foreigners who sojourned with them, and came to expression in laws providing immigrants equal rights along with various ""safety net"" measures intended to secure their well-being. Biblical laws did not bar immigrants of any age, nation, race, or class. Nor did they require prospective immigrants to prove they were unlikely to become ""public charges."" These biblical laws reflected core beliefs, values, and hopes emphasized in other biblical traditions, such as genealogies linking all peoples and nations as kin and prophetic texts affirming all humankind as the LORD's people. Familiarity with biblical law may have influenced those who formulated our country's constitutional assurances that any person within our borders is entitled to due process and the equal protection of the laws. Since colonial times, America has been ""open to receive . . . the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions"" (George Washington). These biblical texts challenge us all to recognize overt and latent bigotry not only in others and in our history, but also in ourselves.

Named one of the Top 10 Books of the Year in 2020 by the Academy of Parish Clergy "Drawing on his own spiritual journey, David Gushee provides an incisive critique of American evangelicalism [and] offers a succinct yet deeply informed guide for post-evangelicals seeking to pursue Christ-honoring lives." —Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Calvin UniversityMillions are getting lost in the evangelical maze: inerrancy, indifference to the environment, deterministic Calvinism, purity culture, racism, LGBTQ discrimination, male dominance, and Christian nationalism. They are now conscientious objectors, deconstructionists, perhaps even "none and done." As one of America's leading academics speaking to the issues of religion today, David Gushee offers a clear assessment and a new way forward for disillusioned post-evangelicals. Gushee starts by analyzing what went wrong with U. S. white evangelicalism in areas such as evangelical history and identity, biblicism, uncredible theologies, and the fundamentalist understandings of race, politics, and sexuality. Along the way, he proposes new ways of Christian believing and of listening to God and Jesus today. He helps post-evangelicals know how to belong and behave, going from where they are to a living relationship with Christ and an intellectually cogent and morally robust post-evangelical faith. He shows that they can have a principled way of understanding Scripture, a community of Christ's people, a healthy politics, and can repent and learn to listen to people on the margins. With a foreword from Brian McLaren, who says, “David Gushee is right: there is indeed life after evangelicalism,” this book offers an essential handbook for those looking for answers and affirmation of their journey into a future that is post-evangelical but still centered on Jesus. If you, too, are struggling, After Evangelicalism shows that it is possible to cut loose from evangelical Christianity and, more than that, it is necessary.

Journalist and pastor Mark Wingfield describes how the congregation he serves undertook a detailed study of how the church should respond to the inclusion of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender members. The study was conducted by a nineteen-member blue-ribbon task force that included wide representation of the church's various constituencies. The author served as a staff liaison, recording secretary, and resource to the study group, keeping meticulous notes of the process and the aftermath of the study. Why Churches Need to Talk about Sexuality is written for clergy and lay leaders in Protestant congregations of all kinds who need a helpful guide to conversations about human sexuality within congregations. The book also has in mind anyone who wants to understand the controversial debates about human sexuality and the Christian church today and who desire to follow a process to discuss the topic and make decisions about how congregations and individuals will respond to matters of ministry and sexuality. This book not only details the process used at Wilshire but also tells the human story of why the study was undertaken and what happened to the lives and faith of real people inside and outside the church. The author's hope is to provide a resource to other clergy and church leaders to understand why this issue must be addressed, how difficult it is to address, and what to expect along the way. As the title indicates, even though this is a difficult conversation to have, churches must have the conversation anyway.

"Every generation has its hot-button issue," writes David P. Gushee, "For us, it's the LGBT issue." In Changing Our Mind, Gushee takes the reader along his personal and theological journey as he changes his mind about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender inclusion in the Church. With 19 books to his name, Gushee is no stranger to the public arena. He is the author of the "Evangelical Declaration Against Torture" and drafted the "Evangelical Climate Initiative. "For decades now, David Gushee has earned the reputation as America's leading evangelical ethicist. In this book, he admits that he has been wrong on the LGBT issue." writes Brian D. McLaren, author and theologian. In the definitive third edition of this book, David Gushee issues a scholarly response to his critics. Brian D. McLaren says it best: "Not only is David Gushee's work deep, thoughtful and brilliant; and not only is David philosophically and theologically careful and astute; he is also refreshingly clear and understandable by 'common people' who know neither philosophical nor theological mumbo jumbo."

This guide has sections on terminology, identity, relationships, families, health, safety, school, work, visibility, coming out, civil rights, politics and religion. The guide offers quick, accurate answers to basic, introductory questions about gay, lesbian, bisexual and other sexual orientations. It is a starting point for people in business, schools, places of worship, government, medicine, law enforcement, human resources and journalism. The guide suggests resources for those who then want greater depth. Questions include: How many sexual orientations are there? Does everyone fit into a category? Are bisexual and pansexual the same? What does heteronormativity mean? What about homonormativity? Why do some gay people say "queer" or "faggot?" What is intersectionality? What percentage of Americans identify as gay? Are gays more feminine and lesbians more masculine? Do gay and bi people have only gay and bi friends? Are people born gay? Can sexual orientation change? How is dating different in the LGB community?

Following Rabbi Jesus is a surprising exposure of who the Jesus we find in the Gospels really is, what he teaches those who dare to follow him, and how he models what it means to live God's radical-kingdom way. The reader of the book will discover in this exploration a very different Jesus from the celebrity or hero of much popular church culture, the tame, ineffective Jesus of compromised Christianity, and the inaccessible, conceptual Christ of much academic theology. The reader who takes the chance of honestly engaging the Jesus we meet in the Gospel stories may find an engaging and liberating contrast to the life he is now living. He may even want to make a turn or two, and start over. ""For too long we have concentrated on the death of Jesus, neglecting his life; we have focused on his divinity, losing sight of his humanity; we have emphasized doctrine, forgetting his call to discipleship. The church and the world are the poorer for that. Phil Needham's excellent book is part of a movement of the spirit to redress the balance. Read it carefully and prayerfully. It will inform your thinking and inspire your living."" --Chick Yuill, Speaker and Author, United Kingdom ""Phil Needham has written a wondrous book, with wisdom and compassion, insight and thoughtfulness. His book is a classic and will be a long standing, major contribution for the Christian movement. His book will encourage you and yours. The integrity of his thought, the clarity of his writing, and the hope of his spirit will bless you and countless persons in the years to come."" --Kennon L. Callahan, Author, Researcher, Theologian, Pastor Philip Dennis Needham is a writer and speaker who has shared a partnership ministry with his wife Keitha for the past fifty years. His passion is to see the church realize its calling as the missional people of God who cross boundaries of exclusion to embody the compassion of Christ. He and his wife are retired Salvation Army officers residing in the Atlanta area.

Following Rabbi Jesus is a surprising exposure of who the Jesus we find in the Gospels really is, what he teaches those who dare to follow him, and how he models what it means to live God's radical-kingdom way. The reader of the book will discover in this exploration a very different Jesus from the celebrity or hero of much popular church culture, the tame, ineffective Jesus of compromised Christianity, and the inaccessible, conceptual Christ of much academic theology. The reader who takes the chance of honestly engaging the Jesus we meet in the Gospel stories may find an engaging and liberating contrast to the life he is now living. He may even want to make a turn or two, and start over. ""For too long we have concentrated on the death of Jesus, neglecting his life; we have focused on his divinity, losing sight of his humanity; we have emphasized doctrine, forgetting his call to discipleship. The church and the world are the poorer for that. Phil Needham's excellent book is part of a movement of the spirit to redress the balance. Read it carefully and prayerfully. It will inform your thinking and inspire your living."" --Chick Yuill, Speaker and Author, United Kingdom ""Phil Needham has written a wondrous book, with wisdom and compassion, insight and thoughtfulness. His book is a classic and will be a long standing, major contribution for the Christian movement. His book will encourage you and yours. The integrity of his thought, the clarity of his writing, and the hope of his spirit will bless you and countless persons in the years to come."" --Kennon L. Callahan, Author, Researcher, Theologian, Pastor Philip Dennis Needham is a writer and speaker who has shared a partnership ministry with his wife Keitha for the past fifty years. His passion is to see the church realize its calling as the missional people of God who cross boundaries of exclusion to embody the compassion of Christ. He and his wife are retired Salvation Army officers residing in the Atlanta area.