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Title: The Good Life: Genuine Christianity for the Middle Class (The Christian Practice of Everyday Life) by David Matzko McCarthy ISBN: 1-58743-068-1 Publisher: Brazos Press Pub. Date: 01 February, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Good Life: Genuine Christianity for the Middle Class (Th
Comment: "The consumer economy promises great benefits," writes McCarthy (theology, Mount St. Mary's Coll.; Sex and Love in the Home: A Theology of the Household), "but ironically, it makes our everyday lives nearly impossible to manage." The author contends that we are in bondage to a frazzled market economy and that the freedom from this yoke comes from Christ's mandate to "Seek first the kingdom of God." With its contemporary recasting of Matthew 6:25-34, the book aspires to reach a broad audience of laypeople, students, and clergy. It's one volume in "The Christian Practice of Everyday Life," a series by Brazos Press, the avant-garde division of Baker Books that veers into more experimental and controversial territory than its conservative parent company. This book succeeds in its "practical theology" and its challenge to America's economic and romantic notions, yet its tone is one of humility and genuineness-it's not a jeremiad or tirade. Those who identify with the Christian faith will enjoy this book and its call for middle-class asceticism. However, those outside the fold will not be moved. Recommended for Christian collections in public and academic libraries
Rating: 4
Summary: Kingdom ethics in a commercial work
Comment: Wonderfully written, and sharply packaged by Brazos (Baker). McCarthy is a theo. prof. at a Catholic college in Maryland, probaly in his late-30s. He uses everyday anecdotes to expose the struggle middle class suburban Christains are in, ofetn without knowing it. The book is 27 small chpaters broken into 4 categories: People (friendship, marioage, sex and singleness, God and neighbor, etc.), Places (home and hospitality, country and nation, etc.); Things (debts, work); and God (breaking down the elements of teh APostle's Creed).
James K. A. Smith fo Calvin College writes on a blurb on teh back cover: "How can we resist the empire;s demand for our allegiance? This remains a fundamental question for Christain discipleship, and in The Godo Life, McCarthy poses it afresh. But now the empire is not Rome but teh market, and the arena of challenge is not the coliseum but Wal-Mart. He offers challenging wi=dom to those of us in minvans who are trying to discern what God's disruptive grace means for our friendships, our nieghborhoods, and our consumer habits."
Another blurb: "Don't let the charm of his style or his mastery of the telling detail mislead you. McCarthy's The Good Life is both a sustained critique of the consumerism that enslaves and a profound account of how God's graciousness can set us free. This is theology at its best. A how to book about something that matters."
My biggest dissapointment with the book -- it does not emphasize strongly enough the centrality of teh Church. Chap. 25 on teh "One, Holy, APostolic Church," was very insightful. BUt any study oif Christian ethics needs to communicate clearly to our individualist culture -- the Church is not one means to the end, it IS the end. The Church isn't a tool for the individual Christain to use for their personal growth, it is the object of the Christian life. The Gospel is not Christ. It is Christ and his Church. McCarthy may understand that, and certainly has plenty of Gospel-driven things to say about the centrality of ciommunity, but I didn't think that point was made clearly enough.
Also, a good index would have helped. I have not read this cover to cover yet, but found myself flipping back and forth. I may have missed things. But I didn't see anything on teh role of the Lord's Supper in discipleship (funny for a Presbyterian to be criticizing a Catholic for that!).
Overall, one of the best things I have read on the topic. I'm going to buy more copies for friends and parishoners.
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Title: The Consolations of Imperfection: Learning to Appreciate Life's Limitations by Donald W. McCullough ISBN: 1587430770 Publisher: Brazos Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $18.99 |
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Title: It Takes a Church to Raise a Christian: How the Community of God Transforms Lives by Tod E. Bolsinger ISBN: 1587430894 Publisher: Brazos Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $16.99 |
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Title: Selling Ourselves Short: Why We Struggle to Earn a Living and Have a Life by Catherine M. Wallace ISBN: 1587430797 Publisher: Brazos Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.99 |
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Title: The Cross in Our Context: Jesus and the Suffering World by Douglas John Hall ISBN: 0800635817 Publisher: Augsburg Fortress Publishers Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology by Albert Borgmann ISBN: 1587430584 Publisher: Brazos Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.99 |
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