The Dangers of Christian Practice: On Wayward Gifts, Characteristic Damage, and Sin (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780300215823)

Challenging the central place that "practices" have recently held in Christian theology, Lauren Winner explores the damages these practices have inflicted over the centuries

Sometimes, beloved and treasured Christian practices go horrifyingly wrong, extending violence rather than promoting its healing. In this bracing book, Lauren Winner provocatively challenges the assumption that the church possesses a set of immaculate practices that will definitionally train Christians in virtue and that can't be answerable to their histories. Is there, for instance, an account of prayer that has anything useful to say about a slave-owning woman's praying for her slaves' obedience? Is there a robustly theological account of the Eucharist that connects the Eucharist's goods to the sacrament's central role in medieval Christian murder of Jews?

Arguing that practices are deformed in ways that are characteristic of and intrinsic to the practices themselves, Winner proposes that the register in which Christians might best think about the Eucharist, prayer, and baptism is that of "damaged gift." Christians go on with these practices because, though blighted by sin, they remain gifts from God.

Author: Lauren F. Winner
ISBN-10: 0300215827
ISBN-13: 9780300215823
Publisher: Yale University Press
Language: English
Published: 10/23/2018
Pages: 240
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.85lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.80w x 0.80d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 05/01/2019