Sharing Possessions: What Faith Demands, 2nd ed.
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Overview
Respected scholar Luke Timothy Johnson challenges Christians to change the way they regard their worldly goods. He writes, “this book is written as an exercise in theological reflection on one of the knottiest questions imaginable: the connection between being a Christian and the way we own and use things. . . . When we turn to thinking about money and possessions, we find ourselves in murky waters. The things we own and use, like our sexuality, lie close to the bone of our individual and collective sense of identity.”
Stepping purposefully into the “murky waters” of owning and sharing, Johnson endeavors to define the slippery concept of human possession—especially in relation to God’s divine ownership—and to unpack the Bible’s teaching on the mystery of human possessing and possessiveness.
This second edition, reflecting 30 years of Johnson’s further thinking on the subject, features chapters expanded with fresh insights, helpful new study questions, and a substantial new epilogue.
With Logos Bible Software, Sharing Possessions: What Faith Demands is enhanced with cutting-edge research tools. Scripture citations appear on mouseover in your preferred English translation. Important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Powerful topical searches help you find exactly what you’re looking for. Tablet and mobile apps let you take the discussion with you. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.
Check out more of Johnson’s work with The Writings of the New Testament.
- Challenges common assumptions about physical ownership
- Examines biblical teaching on possessions and their relation to human existence from a Christian worldview
- Presents the expanded second edition with fresh insights
- Includes study questions for each chapter
- Searching for a Mandate
- Toward a Theological Understanding of Possessions
- Sharing Possessions: Mandate and Symbol of Faith
- Critical Observations on the Community of Goods and Almsgiving
- Epilogue
- Study Questions
- Study Questions
Top Highlights
“He is the one among us who has refused to identify his life in what he had, but sought his life in God’s will; he is the one among us who has not clung even to his identity as God’s Son, but has emptied himself out in obedience to the Father, minute by minute, in response to the circumstances of his life.” (Page 69)
“It is a disease of freedom by which people get enslaved, and a sickness of intelligence by which minds are darkened. From the choice of idolatry stems the distortion of reality and relations between people in the world.” (Page 44)
“Possessions are not good or evil in themselves; they derive significance from the way they extend our bodies in the world and thereby symbolize and affect our response to reality.” (Page 73)
“The use of possessions is theologically significant, I argue, as it symbolizes (or expresses) human responses to the living God and God’s creation.” (Page vii)
“sharing of possessions in the fullest sense requires the simplicity, the purity of heart, that wills one thing.” (Page 72)
All who found in Luke Johnson’s treatment of possessions as part of the mystery of human existence a deeper and more fruitful approach to the ‘problems’ of wealth and poverty will find in this new edition continued critical reflection and fresh insight. Those for whom this is a first encounter will find out what made it worth reissuing after 30 years.
—Sondra Ely Wheeler, Martha Ashby Carr Professor of Christian Ethics, Wesley Seminary
- Title: Sharing Possessions: What Faith Demands
- Author: Luke Timothy Johnson
- Edition: Second Edition
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2011
- Logos Release Date: 2016
- Pages: 192
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Bible. N.T. Luke › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Bible. N.T. Acts › Criticism, interpretation, etc; Wealth › Biblical teaching
- ISBNs: 9780802803993, 0802803997
- Resource ID: LLS:SHRNGPSSSSNS2ND
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:59:45Z