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Follow Me

A History of Christian Intentionality

Ivan J Kauffman author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:James Clarke & Co Ltd

Published:28th May '09

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Follow Me cover

From the very beginning some Christians have wanted to go all the way rather than asking, 'What must I do to be a Christian?', they ask 'What can I do to be more Christian?'. These highly intentional Christians have had an impact on the development of both Christianity and western civilisation that has been completely out of proportion to their numbers. Their greatest impact has come through communities of like-minded believers - whether of lay evangelicals or of celibate monastics - formed upon a common desire to live more intentional Christian lives. This probing work tells the story of these communities, both monastic and lay. It is a story that, though often overlooked, is both inspiring and instructive. Above all it is a story that opens the way for greater understanding between two groups of Christians who have long been estranged - Protestant evangelicals and Catholic monastics.

A highly informative study of how Christians have historically attempted to deepen their faith through the formation of religious communities, in both the monastic and evangelical traditions.From the very beginning some Christians have wanted to go all the way rather than asking: 'What must I do to be a Christian?' have asked instead: 'What can I do to be more Christian?' These highly intentional Christians have had an impact on the development of both Christianity and western civilisation that has been completely out of proportion to their numbers. Their greatest impact has come through communities of like-minded believers whether of lay evangelicals or of celibate monastics formed upon a common desire to live more intentional Christian lives. This probing work tells the story of these communities, both monastic and lay. It is a story that, though often overlooked, is both inspiring and instructive. Above all it is a story that opens the way for greater understanding between two groups of Christians who have long been estranged Protestant evangelicals and Catholic monastics.

Evangelicals are often accused of being ahistorical because we jump from Paul to Martin Luther without a pause to consider what the Spirit did in between. But every Christian tradition finds some way to draw the line from Jesus to the present. How we tell that story shapes who we are. 'Follow Me' tells the Christian story in a way that sparks my imagination and gets me excited about who the church is becoming in our post-Christian era. I hope every community of disciples will read it and ask, 'How is God calling us to live the next chapter?' -Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove author of To Baghdad and Beyond: How I Got Born Again in Babylon "Kauffman offers us a first installment on the kind of scholarship becoming possible thanks to the stereoscopic perspective of those who are learning to live on both sides of a great river that has long divided Christianity... Unexpected though the news may be, it is the very burden of Kauffman's book to show us why we should not have been surprised, and would not be surprised, if we read the history of Christianity looking for its broadest unifying patterns rather than for the basis of our separate identities... He has done a service to historian, ecumenist, and renewal-minded Christian alike by looking for the forest not just the trees, surveying the lay of the land, and marking the river that gives it life." -Gerald W. Schlabach author of Just Policing, Not War: An Alternative Response to World Violence

ISBN: 9780718891879

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 408g

276 pages