Description
How the daily practices of life with children can shape our faith
In the Midst of Chaos explores parenting as spiritual practice, building on Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore's fresh conceptions of children from her book Let the Children Come.
She questions conventional perceptions that spiritual practices require silence, solitude, and uninterrupted prayer and that assume a life unburdened by care of others. She is both honest about the difficulties and attentive to the blessings present in everyday life and demonstrates that the life of faith encompasses children and the adults who care for them.
Miller-McLemore explores how parents might use seven daily practices, such as play, reading, chores, and saying goodbye or goodnight as rich opportunities to shape both parent and child morally and spiritually.
Through these experiences, she shows how the very care of children forms and reforms the faith of adults themselves, contrary to the belief that adults must form children. In the Midst of Chaos also goes beyond the typical focus on individual self-fulfillment by tackling difficult questions of social justice and mutuality in the ways families live together.
Readers will find in this book an invitation to love those around them in the midst of life's craziness and to live more deeply in grace.
Product Details
| Publisher | Fortress Press |
| Publish Date | January 01, 2019 |
| Pages | 242 |
| Language | English |
| Type |  Paperback / softback |
| EAN/UPC | 9781506454597 |
| Dimensions | 8.9 X 5.9 X 0.7 inches | 0.9 pounds |
About the Author
Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore is E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture at Vanderbilt University. A Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology and an author and editor of over sixteen books, she is widely recognized for her work on families, women, and children and her national and international leadership in pastoral and practical theologies.
Reviews
"Parents fear that because they can't find the time and silence needed for prayer in the whirlwind of caring for children, faith must be put on hold. In the Midst of Chaos challenges this assumption. This book offers a fresh perspective on faith that reclaims routine practices of family as deeply spiritual." --Michele Borba, author of 12 Simple Secrets Real Moms Know
"The seriousness with which Miller-McLemore takes up the exhausting topic of postmodern parenting is not only refreshing; it illuminates as much as it surprises." --Serene Jones, Yale University Divinity School
"With wonderful honesty and a wisdom born of informed theological reflection, sound cultural critique, and the lived experience of parenting three boys, Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore helps us who raise families, hold down jobs, and want our faith to mean something in the real world." --Wendy M. Wright, Creighton University, author of Seasons of Family's Life
"The flip of chaos and flop of quiescence are rejected in favor of finding God's presence in the living complexity of every day. This deeply pondered and theologically literate book will not let you go without a blessing because the print will not stay on the pages. It is as good and true as it is beautiful." --Jerome W. Berryman, executive director of the Center for the Theology of Childhood
"This absorbing book transforms the chaos of parenting into an arena for spiritual practice in which parents discover the 'clearest truths about our deepest values.'" --Herbert Anderson, Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, coauthor of Mighty Stories, Dangerous Rituals
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