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Amazing Grace

Author Kathleen Norris
Ebook
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Riverhead Books
On sale Apr 01, 1999 | 400 Pages | 9781101042526
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A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Cloister Walk, a book about Christianity, spirituality, and rediscovered faith.

Struggling with her return to the Christian church after many years away, Kathleen Norris found it was the language of Christianity that most distanced her from faith. Words like "judgment," "faith," "dogma," "salvation," "sinner"—even "Christ"—formed what she called her "scary vocabulary," words that had become so codified or abstract that their meanings were all but impenetrable. She found she had to wrestle with them and make them her own before they could confer their blessings and their grace. Blending history, theology, storytelling, etymology, and memoir, Norris uses these words as a starting point for reflection, and offers a moving account of her own gradual conversion. She evokes a rich spirituality rooted firmly in the chaos of everyday life—and offers believers and doubters alike an illuminating perspective on how we can embrace ancient traditions and find faith in the contemporary world.
Amazing GracePreface

Eschatology
Antichrist
Silence
Salvation
Inheritance: Blessing and Curse
Incarnation
Detachment
Conversion: The Family Story
Exorcism
Perfection
Prayer
Belief, Doubt, and Sacred Ambiguity
Repentance
Annunciation
Inheritance: What Religion Were You Raised in, and WhatAre You Now?
Commandments
Idolatry
Bible
Righteous
Conversion: The Stories
God
Blood
Virgin Mary, Mother of God
Anger
Conversion: The Feminist Impasse
Chosen
Fear
Conversion: One More Boom
Grace
Intolerance/Forbearance
Christ
Sinner, Wretch, and Reprobate
Faith
Good and Evil
Preaching
The Bible: Illiteracies and Ironies
Heresy/Apostasy
Creeds
Orthodoxy
God-Talk
Inquisition
Oppression
Herod
Conversion: The Wild West
Ecstasy
Medieval
Christian
The Bible Study
Worship
Conversion: My Ebenezer
The Bible: Give Me a Word
"Organized" Religion
Hospitality
Church
Lectio Divina
Mystic
Trinity
Seeking
Conversion: The Scary Stuff
Evangelism
Imagination (Or, How Many Christians Does It Take to Balance N. Scott Momaday?)
Unchurched
Hell
Judgment
Apocalypse
Prayer as Remembrance: The Expert Marksman's Medal
Dogma
Angels
Wickedness
Interpretation: "I Know Not"
Revelation
Pentecostal
Prayer as Mystery
Neighbor
Theology
Asceticism
Heaven
Infallibility
Truth
The New Jerusalem

Acknowledgments

  • WINNER
    Books for a Better Life Book Award
  • WINNER
    New York Times Notable Book
Kathleen Norris is the award-winning, bestselling author of Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith; The Cloister Walk; and Dakota: A Spiritual Geography. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, in various anthologies, and in her own three volumes of poetry. She divides her time between South Dakota and Hawaii. View titles by Kathleen Norris

About

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Cloister Walk, a book about Christianity, spirituality, and rediscovered faith.

Struggling with her return to the Christian church after many years away, Kathleen Norris found it was the language of Christianity that most distanced her from faith. Words like "judgment," "faith," "dogma," "salvation," "sinner"—even "Christ"—formed what she called her "scary vocabulary," words that had become so codified or abstract that their meanings were all but impenetrable. She found she had to wrestle with them and make them her own before they could confer their blessings and their grace. Blending history, theology, storytelling, etymology, and memoir, Norris uses these words as a starting point for reflection, and offers a moving account of her own gradual conversion. She evokes a rich spirituality rooted firmly in the chaos of everyday life—and offers believers and doubters alike an illuminating perspective on how we can embrace ancient traditions and find faith in the contemporary world.

Table of Contents

Amazing GracePreface

Eschatology
Antichrist
Silence
Salvation
Inheritance: Blessing and Curse
Incarnation
Detachment
Conversion: The Family Story
Exorcism
Perfection
Prayer
Belief, Doubt, and Sacred Ambiguity
Repentance
Annunciation
Inheritance: What Religion Were You Raised in, and WhatAre You Now?
Commandments
Idolatry
Bible
Righteous
Conversion: The Stories
God
Blood
Virgin Mary, Mother of God
Anger
Conversion: The Feminist Impasse
Chosen
Fear
Conversion: One More Boom
Grace
Intolerance/Forbearance
Christ
Sinner, Wretch, and Reprobate
Faith
Good and Evil
Preaching
The Bible: Illiteracies and Ironies
Heresy/Apostasy
Creeds
Orthodoxy
God-Talk
Inquisition
Oppression
Herod
Conversion: The Wild West
Ecstasy
Medieval
Christian
The Bible Study
Worship
Conversion: My Ebenezer
The Bible: Give Me a Word
"Organized" Religion
Hospitality
Church
Lectio Divina
Mystic
Trinity
Seeking
Conversion: The Scary Stuff
Evangelism
Imagination (Or, How Many Christians Does It Take to Balance N. Scott Momaday?)
Unchurched
Hell
Judgment
Apocalypse
Prayer as Remembrance: The Expert Marksman's Medal
Dogma
Angels
Wickedness
Interpretation: "I Know Not"
Revelation
Pentecostal
Prayer as Mystery
Neighbor
Theology
Asceticism
Heaven
Infallibility
Truth
The New Jerusalem

Acknowledgments

Awards

  • WINNER
    Books for a Better Life Book Award
  • WINNER
    New York Times Notable Book

Author

Kathleen Norris is the award-winning, bestselling author of Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith; The Cloister Walk; and Dakota: A Spiritual Geography. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, in various anthologies, and in her own three volumes of poetry. She divides her time between South Dakota and Hawaii. View titles by Kathleen Norris

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