Bread of Angels [Paperback]

Barbara Brown Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 1997

As Barbara Brown Taylor reminds us, the Israelites received the bread of angels— manna—as they made their way through the wilderness. So too is God made known to us in the simple things that sustain our lives. With humor and an eye for human stubbornness, Taylor points to just how much like the people of scripture we can be—stiff-necked and ungrateful in the face of God’s bounty. Taylor moves through the span of the Bible in her search for divine love. In the stories of Moses, David, and Daniel she picks up its trace in reversals and surprises. She refreshes our perspective on Pentecost and its aftermath in a sermon sequence on the Book of Acts. And at book’s center radiates her stunning parable of the Incarnation, “God’s Daring Plan.” With characteristic flair, Taylor grounds her exegetical enterprise on jokes and stories packed with truth. As pleasurable as they are profound, her meditations on the life of faith and the cost of discipleship will instruct the preacher and delight the reader.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Not many collections of sermons are published anymore, but Barbara Brown Taylor’s volumes appear with some regularity—and that’s a very good thing for the rest of us. Her sermons are simple in theme but elegant in expression. (Christian Century )

She meets serious biblical scholarship with respect, but she avails us of it in an unobtrusive way that disarms any resistance we may have to being taught from the pulpit. Her exegesis is woven into the context of what she is saying so skillfully that it is likely to be welcomed as helpful even by those who might otherwise complain that the Bible is not really meaningful to them or that scripture is no longer authoritative in the contemporary age. (Sewanee Theological Review )

Taylor finds bright and crisp ways of telling us to look for the unconventional revelations of God in this world. She is intellectual and thoughtful enough for serious reading, and contemporary and informal enough to cause those who do not read sermons to make an exception. (The Living Church )

Her velvet touch conceals her iron grip on the deeper truths of the Gospel. (The Toronto Anglican )

Taylor does not use words or images pretentiously or unnecessarily but forcefully and economically. Every now and again, one is handed a phrase which prods one’s heart and mind simultaneously, stimulating a devotional response with a prying theological edge. (Anglican Theological Review )

About the Author

Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest. She holds the Harry R. Butman Chair in Religion and Philosophy at Piedmont College in northeastern Georgia and serves as adjunct professor of Christian spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur. Recognized as one of the twelve most effective preachers in the English language by Baylor University in 1995, Taylor has published numerous collections of her sermons and theological reflections, including Mixed Blessings, The Preaching Life, The Luminous Web, Home By Another Way, Speaking of Sin, and Gospel Medicine.

Barbara Brown Taylor is an Episcopal priest. She holds the Harry R. Butman Chair in Religion and Philosophy at Piedmont College in northeastern Georgia and serves as adjunct professor of Christian spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur. Recognized as one of the twelve most effective preachers in the English language by Baylor University in 1995, Taylor has published numerous collections of her sermons and theological reflections, including Mixed Blessings, The Preaching Life, The Luminous Web, Home By Another Way, Speaking of Sin, and Gospel Medicine.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Cowley Publications (January 25, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561011428
• ISBN-13: 978-1561011421
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,989 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Protestantism > Anglican
  • #13 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Protestantism > Episcopalian
  • #26 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Evangelism > Sermons

More About the Author

Barbara Brown Taylor's first trade book, Leaving Church, was met with widespread critical acclaim by popular media, including the New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly and NPR's Fresh Air. Her subsequent book, An Altar in the World, is now reaching an even wider audience. An Episcopal priest since 1984, Taylor served urban and rural parishes before leaving parish ministry to become a teacher in 1998. While she still preaches and teaches at churches and universities across the country, she writes more and more for the "spiritual but not religious" crowd
among whom she counts many of her own college students as well as a growing number of clergy colleagues. An editor-at-large for The Christian Century and a contributing editor for Sojourners, Taylor lives on a working farm in rural Habersham County, Georgia, with her husband Ed.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great sermons by a great preacher, March 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bread of Angels (Paperback)

Barbara Brown Taylor has an amazing gift which she share freely in this book and her others. I like to think of her as a preachers preacher. Being a preacher myself, I learned to read and listen to sermons with a critical and often unfair ear. So, a sermon must be really, really good to escape criticism. The sermons in this book are that good. What makes them so wonderful. Barbara Brown Taylor has a unique way of looking at the text. She compares the fierey furnace story to a Tom Clancy movie, She compares mana in the wilderness to gritts, and she retells the Christmas story is a beautiful and touching way without being sappy. This book is great for preachers looking for uniques stories and angles. It is also good devotional type reading for those who's preaching is done through living life.

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bread of Angels Will Feed Your Soul, August 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Bread of Angels (Paperback)

You won't believe this, but this collection of sermons is a real page turner. I started it with a plan to read one essay a day for my devotional. Instead, I quit reading the fine fiction book I was halfway through and devoured Bread of Angels, reading long past my bedtime every night. The sermons are funny and touching, challenging yet encouraging. I'm now looking at old Bible stories in a new way, finding deeper meaning and real help for life. I'm going to buy copies to give to family and friends. Pick up a copy of Bread of Angels. It will feed your soul in ways you never expected.

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Feed Your Soul with This Book, February 17, 2004

By 

JAD (The Sunshine State) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bread of Angels (Paperback)

It used to be, not so very long ago, that ordinary people read sermons the way they now read novels-in their spare time, for both edification and enjoyment. If this idea seems strange to you, then chances are you have not read anything written by Barbara Brown Taylor.

Taylor is an Episcopal Priest and the rector of Grace-Calvary Church in Clarksville, Georgia. Taylor University has also named her one of the ten top preachers in the English language. That having been said, you will also want to know that she is in great demand as a speaker.

Dr. Taylor is a preacher of uncommon skill, but we must not stop there. Her fresh images and stimulating ideas are so engaging that this book really can work as a personal devotional tool. It would serve equally well as a neighborhood or small group study, or something to read with one dear friend or family member and then talk about in detail over a pot of tea or by a crackling fire. For, just as you "think between the lines" during the course of a sermon, so too, in Taylor's book, you have the perfect chance to allow your own Christian experience to engage with the truths Taylor presents.

If the names of each chapter, such as, "The Trickle Up Effect," "How Not to Hinder God" and "Why the Boss Said No" begin to peak your interest, they should! Taylor has a style that is accessible; she speaks to the modern mind and heart.

Consider this passage, from the book's title sermon: "Jesus is God's manna in the wilderness, the one who reminds us day by day that we life because God provides not what we want, necessarily, but exactly what we need: some bread, some love, some breath, some wine, a relationship with this ordinary looking man, who comes from heaven to bring life to the world." (Page 11).

I suggest reading one chapter a week, reading that chapter several times in the week, and living with the insights presented there, as a spiritual discipline. Taylor's bread of angels will prove to be an excellent guide in your devotional life.

If you find this review helpful you might want to read some of my other reviews, including those on subjects ranging from biography to architecture, as well as religion and fiction.