Customer Reviews

Grace in Practice: A Theology of Everyday Life

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This is an outstanding book for understanding a theology of grace and its implications for how we treat other people.

Zahl's section on anthropology, setting up his soteriology, is insightful. His argument for the "unfree will" is compelling as he makes us look hard at the realities of addictions, anger, depression, losing weight, etc. To tell someone to have a positive attitude when they are struggling with depression is inhumane. The Gospel is not about us pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. It is about Someone loving us when we are stuck, powerless and without hope.

Summary: Grace is One Way Love. Law is Two Way Love. The Law is good because it reveals God's standard. BUT the law is powerless to change us into those demands. Only Grace can do this. Christ loved us while we were yet sinners. May we learn to treat others the same way.

Paul Zahl writes triumphantly of the more-than conquering grace that flows from God in his unconditional "one-way" love. Zahl effectively defines grace and, more importantly, shows us how to experience and give grace in all areas of our lives. In effect, "Grace in Practice" is a life-changing book, as it will provide all that is needed to make all of your relationships "grace-full."

Zahl begins the book by writing extensively about the reality of grace and its conflict with law and judgment. This explanation of grace lays a firm foundation upon which Zahl builds the remaining two-thirds of the book. In Zahl's theology, there is a war between grace and law, and grace is man's only hope through which all blessings flow.

This is NOT a book only for theologians and "professional" Christians. As Zahl explains, the "focus is on everyday life..on how Christianity works...an attempt to bring the gospel of law and grace into direct encounter with the real and tangible stress of living a life within the swooning, human world."

Zahl reveals his uncanny gift of knowing the pulse of the church and the culture. In that gift, he stands alone among writers I have read as someone who relates the mysteries of Christ to matters of everyday life.

His chapter on "Grace in Families" has the insights to improve all of your relationships more than any "relationship" or "marriage" book I have yet read. "Grace in Church" shows the level of learning from experience that Zahl has garnered from over 30 years in ministry. These sections will open the eyes of ministers from all areas and ages.

"Grace in Society" and "Grace in Everything" round out the above sections. If there is any weakness in this profound exhortation to grace it is in the "Grace in Society" section, as I think Zahl leaves some important matters unaddressed in relation to dealing with criminals and terrorist states. In all others areas, his writings of grace are fully applicable and practical; however, in dealing with criminals and aggressive states, the practical application is lacking.

There are few writers or theologians who can effectively balance such writing with quotes from famed theologians along side quotes of vignettes from South Park, Hollywood or the like of The Beatles and Stephen King. Zahl pulls it off masterfully. All sorts of readers will be able to find answers to life's biggest questions and challenges in this book and will find it enjoyable and a pleasure to read.

Craig Stephans, author of Shakespeare On Spirituality: Life-Changing Wisdom from Shakespeare's Plays

On the messy world of contemporary American Evangelicalism, filled with moralistic would-be theologies and sermons about "5 ways to improve your life," "8 ways to be a man of integrity," "5 Pervasive Paths to Prayer"(all beginning with the letter 'P'), and "31 ways to be a Proverbs 31 woman," a light has dawned!

Paul Zahl's book, "Grace in Practice," breathes fresh air into the lungs of any burned-out (or soon to be burned out) Christian. Tossing out the tired, moralistic approaches to Christianity that are popular but which bury the true message of the faith (the Vox Ipsissimi Christianismi), Zahl goes back to the basics of the Christian Gospel--namely, Christ's unmeritted, one-way love to sinners (including Christian sinners).

Zahl stresses the early Reformational insights of distinguishing Law and Gospel, Low Anthropology and High Christology, Judgment and Love. His understanding (which is not his alone, but is a largely-forgotten treasure shared by Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and Cranmer) that Grace actually produces what the Law commands is life-changing.

Anyone, especially any clergy person who is in need of the refreshing truth of God's Grace, which trumps all other messages, needs to look no further than "Grace in Practice." This book, which concretizes God's grace in all aspects of life (and is chuck-full of great movie quotes!) will hopefully shake-up and shake-off the toxic and widespread moralism of current American Christianity.

I honestly believe that the message of God's grace is the least understood and yet most important message that Christianity has to offer to the world. This "one-way-love" as Rev. Zahl accurately defines it is the most transformative force that the world could ever know, and yet we tend to think that "law" and/or "judgment" has the power to change the human soul.

With clarity and sincerity and many great practical examples from popular culture, Rev, Zahl has written a must-read book for all believers. It will totally transform the way that you see the Gospel and realize why it is indeed "Good News"....more like "Great News."

How can Christians live life under grace? Paul Zahl is a scholar and a dean of Trinity Episcopal school for Ministry: his GRACE IN PRACTICE: A THEOLOGY OF EVERYDAY LIFE is for any who would understand how the state of grace interacts with law, church and society. Zahl's expanded view of grace embraces interpersonal, social and political actions alike, and provides college-level readers and collections strong in spirituality with a scholarly survey perfect for classroom debates and in-depth understanding.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

When a book gets positive endorsements from both Ligon Duncan, conservative PCA pastor, and Peter Gomes, openly gay theologian at Harvard Divinity school, you know that you are holding an anomaly.

This book is about all about grace. How does grace relate to Law and to other fundamental Christian doctrines? Zahl argues for an expansive view of grace in all areas of life - family, society, and the church. He writes in a lively conversational tone, and sprinkles in a lot of references to popular culture. This book is not dull, and the author was not afraid to hit hard, challenging me on several fronts.

However, there are points of disagreement. For example, in speaking about "Grace in the pulpit", he says, "Sermons should be brief... a minimum of ten minutes and a maximum of twenty. This has everything to do with the humility and the grace-full deference of the preacher." Ligon Duncan, one of my favorite preachers, will speak for an hour on biblical doctrines (like grace) out of the conviction that the hearing of the Word of God preached is a fundamental mark of a biblical church. And when he does so, people leave wishing that he could have preached longer.

So, this book sits as an anomaly. I would suggest it to some who are up for the challenge, but for most people I would recommend other books if they are looking to go deep in their study of grace.