The Listening Heart: Vocation And the Crisis of Modern Culture (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Theologian Conyers' last book (he died in 2004) follows naturally from his acclaimed explanation of the redefinition of tolerance to facilitate the growth of the modern, centralized state, The Long Truce (2001). It looks back to the kind of community that existed before modernity, when it was understood that everyone had a place and a function in a community whose source of power and legitimacy is God. Because of this understanding, each member of a community awaited a call to service that was ultimately divine in providence and in any event did not proceed from selfish considerations. The eventuality was that each community member did work that was valued and that suited him or her, in particular. Of course, allegiance was to the community and to God, not, as under modernity, which prefers personal choice to calling as the prime motivator in a human life, willfully to the self and under compulsion to the state. Conyers sees in vocation a solution to personal alienation, social fragmentation, and even to overweening political power, and he points to early Christianity for models of vocation-driven community life. He argues the benefits of learning to listen to one another in the spirit of an older form of tolerance that included and attended to everyone who was serious about "the foundational questions of what it means to be human and to live in community." Ray Olson
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Review

The Listening Heart is for all who want to build faithful communities of love and learning. --Timothy George, executive editor, Christianity Today

A. J. Conyers is a wonderful critic of the interplay between the classical Christian faith and the contemporary world. The Listening Heart is a stimulating, engaging book. --Bishop William H. Willimon, former Dean of the Chapel, Duke University

In The Listening Heart, Conyers writes with power and conviction. Whether in agreement or disagreement, the reader will find much to mull over and to savor. --Jean Bethke Elshtain, University of Chicago --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 217 pages
• Publisher: Spence Publishing Company (December 15, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890626686
• ISBN-13: 978-1890626686
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,321,344 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Both Beautiful and Useful, March 13, 2007

By	thehomefront (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

The Listening Heart is a rarity: both beautiful and practical. It's a book that belongs in the hands of everyone, because everyone has a calling from God, but especially in the hands of thoughtful young people who wish (or should wish) to discern that calling.