Chasing Belief: Engaging Transformative Spirituality
Ebook
Overview
Every day the sun rises and the sun sets. The inconceivably immense cosmos goes on without stopping, taking no notice of our life, our death, or our quest for meaningfulness. Humans have always “chased belief,” sought meaning in the world transcendent to the personal and particular, amid the ambiguous mixture of beauty and horror all around us. But the traditional symbols and concepts--the narrative roadmaps that once sustained and directed belief--have changed and are increasingly seen as meaningless, divorced from the reality of the physical world in which we live, especially in the West and for many within Western Christianity. It is time to create new, transformed concepts for those moral and ethical religious teachings compatible with our modern self-understanding. We need “new wineskins” that remain faithful to important traditions but also find a basis beyond the personal and preferential, a transcendent perspective that thinks and believes both scientifically and religiously, as we “chase belief.” Chasing Belief challenges traditional models and thought patterns of religious language and ideas to plant the seeds of a new transformative spirituality that gives meaning and hope to the life we share on this mote in the cosmic sea.
“As a Unitarian Universalist of many years, I applaud Krefting’s
refreshing and inclusive ideas in Chasing Belief.
That our belief in science can and does exist alongside our belief
in a divine spark of creativity—however that is defined—is a
hopeful message in this book. In addition, Wayne has presented
arguments in a manner satisfying to me as a former university
teacher of argumentation.”
—Martha Sozansky, retired Adjunct Professor, Department of English,
Linguistics, and Writing Studies, University of Minnesota
Duluth
“Krefting has undertaken a courageous study, mercifully free of
in-group jargon, that grapples seriously with the crises of faith
many present-day Christian believers privately are encountering.
His survey of the literature is widespread and fair-minded.
. . . Whether or not they share his particular point of
view, thoughtful students of Christian theology willing to live
dangerously by facing challenges will, like me, . . .
find his work stimulating and strangely encouraging.”
—Owen Christianson, retired ELCA pastor
- Title: Chasing Belief: Engaging Transformative Spirituality
- Author: Wayne L. Krefting
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Print Publication Date: 2021
- Logos Release Date: 2021
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666722079, 9781666722062, 9781666730470, 1666722073, 1666722065, 1666730475
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666722079
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T19:54:52Z
Wayne L. Krefting, a graduate of Luther Theological Seminary in
St. Paul, Minnesota (MDiv and MTh degrees), continues to “chase
belief” and its efficacy for our modern world. Foregoing pastoral
call, Wayne spent over a decade in social work before becoming a
stay-at-home dad and professional puppeteer, performing locally,
nationally, and internationally over the past thirty years. He
lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with Peggy, his wife, and “a lot
of books.”