Description: Activists Shane Claiborne and Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove show how prayer and action must go together. Their exposition of key Bible passages provides concrete examples of how a life of prayer fuels social engagement and the work of justice. Phrases like "give us this day our daily bread" and "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" take on new meaning when applied to feeding the hungry or advocating for international debt relief. If you hope to see God change society, you must be an ordinary radical who prays--and then is ready to become the answer to your own prayers.
Brief description:
Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove is a celebrated spiritual author and sought-after speaker. A native of North Carolina, he is a graduate of Eastern University and Duke Divinity School. In 2003 he and his wife founded the Rutba House, a house of hospitality where the homeless are welcomed into a community that eats, prays, and shares life together. He is also an associate minister at the historically black St. Johns Missionary Baptist Church. An evangelical Christian who connects with the broad spiritual tradition and its monastic witnesses, he is a leader in the New Monasticism movement. He speaks often about emerging Christianity to churches and conferences across the denominational spectrum, and he has given lectures at dozens of universities. He is a complier of the celebrated Common Prayer: A Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals and is the author of several books on Christian spirituality, including The Awakening of Hope, The Wisdom of Stability, and The New Monasticism.
Review Quotes:
"The dominant theme--that prayer invites human beings into a partnership with God in answering prayer--is enlivened with earthy tales from the authors' own lives, wrenching stories of service and redemption from the people they know and lesser-known anecdotes from Christian history and sociology. Readers will never see prayer or community in quite the same way again."
-- "Publishers Weekly"