The Liturgy of Politics: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of Our Neighbor
Ebook
Overview
A generation of young Christians are weary of the political legacy they’ve inherited and hungry for a better approach.
They’re tired of seeing their faith tied to political battles they didn’t start, and they’re frustrated by the failures of leaders they thought they could trust. Kaitlyn Schiess grew up in this landscape, and understands it from the inside.
Spiritual formation, and particularly a focus on formative practices, are experiencing a renaissance in Christian thinking—but these ideas are not often applied to the political sphere. In The Liturgy of Politics, Schiess shows that the church’s politics are shaped by its habits and practices even when it’s unaware of them. Schiess insists that the way out of our political morass is first to recognize the formative power of the political forces all around us, and then to recover historic Christian practices that shape us according to the truth of the gospel.
Foreword by Michael Wear
1. Apolitical or Unexamined: What Spiritual Formation Has to Do with Politics
2. The Liturgy of Politics: Loves and Loyalties
3. Of This World: The Gospels of Prosperity, Patriotism, Security, and Supremacy
4. For the Life of the World: Spiritual Formation and Public Life
5. A Story to Live Into: Scripture and Political Formation
6. Ekklēsia: The Church as a Training Ground for Political Engagement
7. The Rhythm of Our Lives: Time, Music, Confession
8. Bent on the Coming Kingdom of God: Spiritual Disciplines and Political Formation
9. A Confessing City: Reading Politics with Augustine
10. Creation Redeemed: Eschatology and Political Formation
Epilogue: Shalom
Acknowledgments
Notes
"This is a clear-eyed look at the forces of spiritual formation inside and outside of church—and the political discipleship that American Christians too often accept without thinking about it. Schiess offers a powerful call to examine hidden assumptions and false idols, and to explore the whole two thousand years of Christian tradition in order to breathe new life into twenty-first-century evangelicalism."
"How should Christians vote? In the last several years, this question has become a dividing line in the church, polarizing the people of God into opposing camps and fracturing the Christian community along worldly fault lines. With wisdom beyond her years, Kaitlyn Schiess recognizes the folly of centering on this question and instead focuses on a better one: What sort of people are we being formed into? With biblical grounding, theological depth, and the spiritual urgency of a next-generation leader, Kaitlyn lays the groundwork for a better, more faithful approach to political engagement. After finishing this book, here is the one thing I know for sure: we have not seen the last of Kaitlyn."
"The Liturgy of Politics is a much-needed discourse on effective leadership in politics and caring for our culture. I have been following Kaitlyn’s important voice for some time now, and I am delighted to have her contribution for our journey toward the New."
"This is the book I have been waiting for! There could hardly be a more important topic for our cultural moment than the connection between Christian formation and politics. Kaitlyn Schiess persuasively and powerfully argues that Christians are being deeply formed by the political currents in which we swim, although we don’t often realize it. She then casts a beautiful biblical and theological vision for intentional Christian formation that, by God’s grace, shapes us into disciples who love God as we attend to the life of the world. While giving detailed attention to how and why we practice prayer, Bible reading, worship, Sabbath, and the sacraments, Schiess casts a sweeping and winsome vision of the Christian life, including political engagement and so much more. This book will itself be deeply formative for all who read it. It needs to be read by pastors, youth ministers, worship leaders, small groups, college and seminary students, and all who care about faithful discipleship and formation today."
Product Details
- Title : The Liturgy of Politics: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of Our Neighbor
- Authors:
- Schiess, Kaitlyn
- Wear, Michael
- Publisher: IVP
- Publication Date: 2020
- ISBN: 9780830853403
Kaitlyn Schiess is a staff writer at Christ and Pop Culture. Her writing has also appeared at Christianity Today, Relevant, and Fathom Magazine. She lives in Dallas.
Michael Wear is a member of the executive leadership team for the AND Campaign and the founder of Public Square Strategies LLC. He is the author of Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith in America. He lives in Northern Virginia.