Soul Whisperer: Jesus' Way among the Philosophers
Ebook
Three hundred years before Christianity became a religion, Jesus taught the Way. His earliest followers identified as philosophers--adherents to the philosophy of Jesus. In this book, Daniel Austin Napier guides us to directly experience Jesus' unparalleled genius for renovating human life. A good tour guide, Napier gestures toward and describes other figures on the periphery--such as Socrates, Aristotle, and the Stoics--to whom Jesus may be fruitfully compared. But Jesus and his account of lasting personal change is the singular point of focus from beginning to end. With cross-disciplinary knowledge and gentle personal warmth, Napier presents a portrait of Jesus that you've never seen before but that you've been looking for.
Perhaps you wonder: What's a soul and what's it good for? How could you locate it in everyday experience? Just how smart is Jesus? What did he say that changed his students so drastically? What are the essential ingredients of lasting personal change? What's it like to co-work with God, and how can you recognize when it's happening? What's so different, and so good, about the God whom Jesus calls Father? You will find lucid answers to all these questions and many more inside. You're invited. Come explore Jesus' philosophy of personal transformation.
“Rumors of a kingdom and reality beyond ourselves have fascinated philosophers for centuries, if not millennia. Soul Whisperer goes directly to the subject and brings significant new perspectives from the Christian tradition. It is a work of brilliance and highly relevant to the contemporary debate about living life fully with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.”
—James Catford, founding chair, Center for Christianity and Public Life.
“Building on the work of philosopher Dallas Willard, the thesis of Soul Whisperer is simple—the kingdom of God which Jesus proclaimed is the underlying Reality of life. To live a good life is to align our lives to this Reality. Daniel Napier provides key—and often profound—exegetical insights into the teachings of Jesus coupled with practical wisdom and guidance for those who desire to discover and experience the truth of the gospel.”
—Eric M. Riesen, president, North American Lutheran Seminary
“What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? Daniel Napier knows. At the heart of ancient Greek philosophy was the question of how to live rightly, but no Greek thinker answered that question as well as did Jesus of Nazareth. In an era when philosophy was not just an intellectual exercise, but a way of life, the Way of Jesus presented itself as philosophy par excellence. Napier’s account of Jesus’ own philosophy stands as a modern enchiridion for the Christian life, in the tradition of Epictetus, Augustine, and Erasmus.”
—Aaron Preston, professor of philosophy, Valparaiso University
“Many of us have inadvertently put Jesus in a box. He is the God-man who secured salvation for us when we die. We may affirm that Jesus cares about our life, but we don’t know why or how this works. In this book, Daniel Napier gives us a very readable and nourishing framework for why the here-and-now matter and precisely how Jesus teaches us to live. I’m so grateful for this book.”
—Jon Guerra, singer-songwriter
“Daniel Napier’s Soul Whisperer is a book about spiritual and moral formation that also spiritually and morally forms us. Jesus was, in the ancient sense, a philosopher: having brought us to God’s love, he taught us how to live in it. In Soul Whisperer, Jesus appears as the philosopher of God’s kingdom and we discover that this radical, dangerous, and truly joyful philosophy, is humanly livable, a way we may trust and follow, with hope.”
—Alan P. R. Gregory, principal, St. Augustine’s College of Theology
“In Soul Whisperer, Daniel Napier makes a more than significant contribution to the philosophical understanding of Jesus and his message for today. Without any exaggeration I can say this book is the first new spiritual and devotional classic in the twenty-first century. Read and reread this book if you want to love and know God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. This book is a major achievement of intellectual honesty written from the point of view of an (extra)ordinary everyday follower of Christ.”
—Boris Gunjevic, director of theological studies, Westfield House, Cambridge Theological Federation
- Title: Soul Whisperer: Jesus' Way among the Philosophers
- Author: Daniel Austin Napier
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Print Publication Date: 2023
- Logos Release Date: 2023
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781666768374, 9781666768350, 1666768359, 9781666768367, 1666768367, 1666768375
- Resource ID: LLS:9781666768374
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-10-18T00:08:44Z
Daniel Austin Napier has a PhD from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and is the director of Ashrei Europe, a spiritual formation ministry based in Thessaloniki, Greece. Prior to Ashrei, Napier served as associate professor of theology at Austin Graduate School of Theology and, before that, as a lecturer in philosophy at the Biblijski Institut in Zagreb, Croatia. He is also the author of En Route to the Confessions: The Roots and Development of Augustine’s Philosophical Anthropology (2013).