Research Catalog

Title

Toxic spirituality : four enduring temptations of Christian faith / Eric W. Gritsch.

Author

Gritsch, Eric W.

Publication

Minneapolis, MN : Fortress Press, 2009.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

viii, 199 p.; 22 cm.

Summary

"G.K. Chesterton long ago observed that real Christianity had in some ways never really been tried. Eric Gritsch, a renowned historian, a pastor, and a theologian for half a century, offers Christianity a reality check, exposing four historical movements that have weakened and abused the core of the Christian tradition. These movements represent wayward views on the relationships between Christians and Jews; between the authority of Scripture and tradition; between the church and worldy power; and between faith and morals. Readers encounter these wayward traditions in their historical trajectories, in the ways these traditions have diminished the gospel, and in the ways they have been impediments of an effective contemporary Christian witness. They represent the enduring temptation to be 'like God' (Gen. 3:5), a temptation marked by a zeal for secure, unchanging, and ultimate Christian life on Earth. The author confronts these wayward traditions with the enduring challenge of faithful, cruciform, penultimate discipleship in the time between the first and second advent of Christ." -- Publisher's description.

Subject

• Enthusiasm > Christianity
• Religious addiction > Christianity
• Religious fanaticism > Christianity

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction -- Anti-semitism -- A history of contempt -- Apostolic refutation -- From penance to justice -- Fundamentalism -- The path of bibliolatry -- Traditionalism -- The lesson of origination -- Triumphalism -- Theocratic dominance -- Utopian separatism -- Back to the future -- Moralism -- Uniformity -- Casuistry -- Penultimate Christian formation.

ISBN

9780800664411 (alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2009012044

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library