Sabbath
The Ancient Practices
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
What would you do for twenty-four hours if the only criteria were to pursue your deepest joy?
Dan Allender’s lyrical book about the Sabbath expels the myriad myths about this “day of rest,” starting with the one that paints the Sabbath as a day of forced quiet, spiritual exercises, and religious devotion and attendance. This, he says, is at odds with the ancient tradition of Sabbath as a day of delight for both body and soul. Instead, the only way we can make use of the Sabbath is to see God’s original intent for the day with new eyes. In Sabbath, Allender builds a case for delight by looking at this day as a festival that celebrates God’s re-creative, redemptive love using four components:
Sensual glory and beautyRitualCommunal feastingPlayfulness
Now you can experience the delight of the Sabbath as you never have before—a day in which you receive and extend reconciliation, peace, abundance, and joy.
The Ancient Practices
There is a hunger in every human heart for connection, primitive and raw, to God. To satisfy it, many are beginning to explore traditional spiritual disciplines used for centuries . . . everything from fixed-hour prayer to fasting to sincere observance of the Sabbath. Compelling and readable, the Ancient Practices series is for every spiritual sojourner, for every Christian seeker who wants more.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this reflection on the many faces of the Fourth Commandment, Allender (The Healing Path) tries to reinvigorate the Judeo-Christian idea of the Sabbath as a time of joy, celebration and holiness rather than a time for sporting events and grocery shopping. The author, who is president of Mars Hill Graduate School, urges his readers to "go play in the fields of God." The book, part of the Ancient Practices series, is founded on three central ideas. The Sabbath is a commandment, not an option. It is not a minivacation but a "day of delight." It is also a time for feasting, a remembrance of Eden and an anticipation of eternal life. Allender liberally sprinkles his work with personal anecdotes as he proposes a Sabbath theology that includes time, "sensual glory," feasting, ritual, abundance, play and justice. While this volume may be really helpful to those readers seeking to take a fresh look at Sabbath observance, the often convoluted and confusing prose makes it a bit of a slog.
