Overview
In the inaugural volume of this important annual series, editor John Wilson brings together an elegant and engaging array of essays by contemporary Christian luminaries. These distinguished writers distill the riches of Christian belief into lucid explorations of faith and truth, offering diverse works that reflect the many dimensions of Christianity as it moves into its third millennium.
- A thought-provoking introduction by Philip Yancey, author of the bestselling The Jesus I Never Knew
- Harvey Cox's pointed depiction of The Market as God
- Alasdair Macintyre on morality and desire in The Recovery of Moral Agency?
- Religion and the Shape of National Culture, Robert Bellah's surprising inquiry into the sacramental imagination
- Eugene Peterson's Wise Teachers, Sound Teaching, a gentle instruction on healthy thinking and believing
- Dallas Willard on Jesus' intellectual power in Jesus the Logician
- A Cold Day in December, Frederica Mathewes-Green's lyrical reflection on God as suffering parent
- A tale of grace and guidance from Larry Woiwode, The Feel of Internal Bleeding
Offering testimony and prayer, debate and benediction, The Best Christian Writing 2000 is a revealing and inspiring look at religious faith in the modern world.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
Our ReviewWielding the Word
Beginning with the introduction by Philip Yancey, a surprisingly candid account of the power of the word and the subsequently tremendous responsibility writers bear to their subjects and audiences, this volume opens on a note both cautionary and cathartic, both celebratory and cerebral. As a whole, the essays that follow by North American writers strike the same balance.
This collection contains first-person accounts tackling such diverse subjects as racial segregation and conversion from Judaism, along with essays like Alastair MacIntyre's inquiry into moral agency and Havery Cox's examination of market capitalism. Other contributors include Robert Bellah, Frederica Mathewes-Green, Larry Woiwode, Eugene Peterson, Jean Bethke Elshtain, and Tom Beaudoin. Many of the contributions begin with an account of the author's background, so that the existentialist credo "Freedom is what you do with what's been done to you" begins to ring ever truer in this context. The effect of reading this book is to witness a kaleidoscopic effort to maintain Christian integrity in the modern world, aided by an understanding of history and philosophy as offered by Nicholas Wolterstorff's discussion of Tertullian, Elshtain's look at Abraham Lincoln, or Virginia Stem Owens's difficult journey through the issue of what happens to aging parents.
A rich mosaic of voices and experiences, The Best Christian Writing 2000 offers further proof of the different mysterious ways of God at work in the world, through people and the word, and the power of people using the word.
--Leah Annan