Good News for Anxious Christians, expanded ed.: 10 Practical Things You Don't Have to Do

by Phillip Cary

Publisher:

Brazos Press

, 2022

A talented teacher unpacks the riches of traditional Christian spirituality for Christians burdened by the guilt and anxiety of introspective, in-my-heart spiritual techniques. Phillip Cary explains that knowing God is a gradual, long-term process that comes through the gospel experienced in Christian community. The first edition has sold over 17,000 copies. The expanded edition includes a new afterword that offers further insights since the first edition was published over ten years ago.

From the Back Cover

10 Things You Don't Have to Do to Be Close to God

Like a succession of failed diet regimens, the much-touted techniques that are supposed to bring us closer to God "in our hearts" can instead make us feel anxious, frustrated, and overwhelmed.

Phillip Cary explains that discipleship is a gradual, long-term process that comes through the gospel experienced in Christian community, not a to-do list designed to help us live the Christian life "right." He covers ten things we don't have to do to be close to God, skillfully unpacking the riches of traditional Christian spirituality. The expanded edition includes a new afterword.

"Yes! No! Whoa! There are so many terrific, alarming, insightful zingers in this book that I agreed, disagreed, and, most of all, had to think about something on every page. Graceful and liberating, it is a word of wisdom and hope that just might convince anxious Christians that the gospel really is better news than we've yet imagined."
--Andy Crouch, musician, public speaker, and author of The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place

"This is, quite frankly, one of the best books I've read on the spiritual life over the past twenty-five years. I heartily recommend it."
--Christopher A. Hall, president, Renovaré

"Addressed to shepherds and their flocks, Good News for Anxious Christians features the admonishing, teaching, and comforting voice of a Christ-haunted philosophy professor. . . . The gospel, Cary argues, gives us permission to ignore anxiety-producing techniques because Christ is enough, period."
--Christopher Benson, Christianity Today (5-star review)

"Cary liberates persons enthralled by a god of spiritual techniques and practical sermons. . . . This is medicine for ministry."
--Christian Century

"Tremendously rich and thoughtful and wonderfully written. . . . This is solid pastoral theology, inviting deeper and more mature thinking about the slogans and clichés we too often hear."
--Byron Borger, heartsandmindsbooks.com

Contents

Contents
Introduction: Why Trying to Be Christian Makes Us Anxious
1. Why You Don't Have to Hear God's Voice in Your Heart
Or, How God Really Speaks Today
2. Why You Don't Have to Believe Your Intuitions Are the Holy Spirit
Or, How the Spirit Shapes Our Hearts
3. Why You Don't Have to "Let God Take Control"
Or, How Obedience Is for Responsible Adults
4. Why You Don't Have to "Find God's Will for Your Life"
Or, How Faith Seeks Wisdom
5. Why You Don't Have to Be Sure You Have the Right Motivations
Or, How Love Seeks the Good
6. Why You Don't Have to Worry about Splitting Head from Heart
Or, How Thinking Welcomes Feeling
7. Why You Don't Have to Keep Getting Transformed All the Time
Or, How Virtues Make a Lasting Change in Us
8. Why You Don't Always Have to Experience Joy
Or, How God Vindicates the Afflicted
9. Why "Applying It to Your Life" Is Boring
Or, How the Gospel Is Beautiful
10. Why Basing Faith on Experience Leads to a Post-Christian Future
Or, How Christian Faith Needs Christian Teaching
Conclusion: How the Gospel of Christ Is Good for Us
Afterword to the Second Edition

Product Details

• Title: Good News for Anxious Christians, expanded ed.: 10 Practical Things You Don't Have to Do
• Author: Phillip Cary
• Publisher: Brazos Press
• Print Publication Date: 2022
• Logos Release Date: 2021
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9781493437566, 9781587435683, 1493437569, 1587435683
• Resource ID: LLS:9781493437566
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2023-01-07T00:58:52Z

About Phillip Cary

Phillip Cary (PhD, Yale University) is a professor of philosophy at Eastern University in Pennsylvania as well as scholar-in-residence at the Templeton Honors College. He is the author of three critically acclaimed books on the life and thought of Augustine.