Drama of Living: Becoming Wise In The Spirit

Publisher: Brazos Press
ISBN: 9781587433245
Type: Paperback

How can we live wisely in the twenty-first century, alert to God and to other people amid the ups and downs of modern life? We find ourselves in the middle of complex situations, relationships, responsibilities, ongoing dramas, and challenges. Our response to these circumstances requires us to draw on many sources and to constantly exercise imagination, discernment, and judgment.

In this sequel to his well-received book The Shape of Living, renowned theologian David Ford offers insights into living wisely in the Spirit in a culture of distraction. Ford provides a reflective contemporary Christian spirituality that is drawn from the Gospel of John, the work of internationally respected poet Micheal O'Siadhail, and his own life experiences. He explores themes such as the ordinary and public dramas of living, the centrality of face-to-face relationships, the habits that shape our lives, friendship and love, aging and dying, and jazz. Discussion questions for individual or group use are included.

Contents
Introduction
1. The Drama of Living: Public and Ordinary
2. Improvising Wisdom: Within and between Traditions
3. Face-to-Face: The Heart of Life's Drama
4. Rereading and Rehearsing: Classic Surprises
5. Loving: Intimate, Dramatic, Ultimate
6. Improvised Lives: Timing, Aging, Dying
7. Playing without End: Wise in the Spirit
Appendix: A Vocation of Love
Index

---

Endorsements

"This is a tour de force. We all take part in the drama of living, and Ford's wisdom shapes our engagement with its depths and fullness. This extraordinary book draws on the riches of his own experience, contemporary poetry, and the mysterious Gospel of John. It both explores the complexities of daily life and inspires wise and creative responses."

Micheal O'Siadhail, award-winning poet

"David Ford here combines a treatise in individual and social anthropology with a reading of the Fourth Gospel in order to assist us while we join him in the 'search for wisdom in the drama of living.' The interweavings among the themes are further strengthened by frequent citations in verse from the Irish poet Micheal O'Siadhail. Altogether this is a book that may properly engage the attention of theological and humanistic readers alike."

Geoffrey Wainwright, professor emeritus of Christian theology, Duke University

"By tearing down the wall of hostility between autobiography and theology, David Ford draws theology into dailiness, discarding the modern division of 'head' from 'heart.' This memoir unself-consciously blends personal experience, poetry, fiction, drama, jazz, Scripture, and the suffering of the disabled, those of the Shoah, and the dying, inviting us to read our own interiority through the great minds and tragic moments that have nourished us on the paths we have trod."

Ellen Charry, Margaret W. Harmon Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary