Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ [Hardcover]

Eugene H. Peterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 22, 2010

There is no question that bringing men and women to new birth in Christ is essential. But, argues Eugene Peterson, isn’t it obvious that growth in Christ is equally essential? Yet the American church does not treat Christian growth and character formation with equivalent urgency. We are generally uneasy with the quiet, obscure conditions in which growth takes place. Building maturity in Christ is too often relegated to footnote status in the text of our lives. / In Practice Resurrection Peterson brings the voice of Scripture — especially Paul’s letter to the Ephesians — and the voice of the contemporary Christian congregation together in understanding what is involved in the practice of becoming mature — growing up to the “stature of Christ.”

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Christian maturity and character formation isn't about finding a strategy, or setting goals, or measuring congregational growth by market analysis, argues the writer in a chapter-by-chapter analysis of the New Testament book of Ephesians. Professor emeritus at Vancouver's Regent College and author of more than 34 books, including the popular Message paraphrase of the Bible, Peterson practices what he calls theological aesthetics, giving new vitality to such common words in the Christian vocabulary as saint, gift, and church. Christians are called to live out the resurrected life that was incarnate first in Jesus and then in us, the author asserts. It's no insult to the veteran writer to say that his tone is sometimes imperative and occasionally even a little cranky. After all, the message isn't new—but the commentary is, as usual, thought provoking and helpful for readers who want a different, sometimes contrarian, perspective on Christian discipleship. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Eugene H. Peterson, author of the best-selling contemporary translation of the Bible titled The Message, is professor emeritus of spiritual theology at Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (January 22, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802829554
• ISBN-13: 978-0802829559
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #85,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peterson, now retired, was for many years James M. Houston Professor of Spiritual Theology at Regent College in Vancouver, British Columbia. He also served as founding pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland. In addition to his widely acclaimed paraphrase of the Bible, The Message (NavPress), he has written many other books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fitting end to a great series, March 15, 2010

By 

Grant Marshall "aworthydiscussion.wordpress.com" (Auckland, New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ (Hardcover)

When it comes to his books, Peterson and I have a love hate relationship. I've read 4 out 5 in this series (Eat this book is one I haven't got yet) and each time I find myself going through a similar wave of emotion. There are times when Peterson meanders and waffles on to the point where I am ready to close the book and throw it away. But when I hit that point Peterson brings everything he's said to a sharp conclusion, and it all makes sense. I love his books and I hate them at the same time. But I have to say that this was his best effort since "Christ plays in 10,000 places". The book is an informal commentary on Ephesians, which Peterson claims to have taught for many years to his congregations. Peterson is intent on seeing Christians grow to the full measure of stature in Christ. In other words Peterson wants us to become mature Christians, not tossed by every wind and doctrine. There is so much meat in this book that it's hard to summarise it all. I really like his chapter on Grace and Works. All my life I had seen the two as almost antithetical to each other. At best they should be a sign of the grace already received from Christ. But Peterson took a different route. Grace always requires a form, a container, otherwise it becomes an impersonal and abstract doctrine. Good works are the containers for Grace to be taken out from the impersonal to the personal. God is intensely personal, nothing about the God we serve is impersonal. I had never thought of it from that angle. If you've got the time and patience, read this whole series from start to finish. Scott Mcknight is right, one does not skim Peterson, one ponders Peterson.

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Move on, move up!, March 5, 2010

By 

Sojourner "Learning to Live Life" (Suisun City, CA United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ (Hardcover)

Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ

I had a lot of bad assumptions about Peterson. Initially, I thought THE MESSAGE was just another paraphrase intent on dumbing down the gospel, watering the Word, and trying to be "seeker-friendly" at the expense of becoming God-less. I carried those false assumptions into my reading of PRACTICE RESURRECTION. I was wrong. This was the first Peterson book I have read. I cannot tell you how many times I found myself practically shouting, "Amen," "Praise the Lord," "right on," etc. I even went out and bought a copy of the CONVERSATIONS version of THE MESSAGE. I have come to accept it as one more tool in increasing my personal understanding of God's Word, improving the quality of my walk with Christ, and in motivating me to BE more, DO more, LOVE more, not to grieve the Holy Spirit, and just be a better member of the body of Christ. JESUS IS LORD. And, Eugene Peterson knows that, teaches, that and blesses as he shares his very keen spiritual insights.

Did I say I was wrong before? Well, count me a fan now.

Buy this book, read it, share it and buy yourself a second copy to highlight, write notes in, and put all those little post-it flags in to mark your favorite passages. Unfortunately for me, the WHOLE book is a favorite passage.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Life in the Country of Death, March 5, 2010

By 

J. Lonas (Chattanooga, Tenn.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Practice Resurrection: A Conversation on Growing Up in Christ (Hardcover)

The Church takes a lot of beatings in popular Christianity today. Tell-all memoirs from the hottest new writers detailing the quirks and sins of "church people" and the psychological harm they've caused fly off the shelves. It has become fashionable to debate the value of the Church to the cause of Christ, and words like "community" and "gathering" have become the acceptable way to describe the assembly of believers. Too many of the rebuttals written by traditionalists seem more concerned with tradition than with the Church.

In Practice Resurrection, Peterson explores the Church as it is, the Body of Christ born of the Holy Spirit, not as it has been or as we would like it to be. He is mindful that the Church is imperfect (by way of its composition of sinners saved by grace), but seeks to build it up rather than deconstructing it. He writes, "Sooner or later, though, if we are serious about growing up in Christ, we have to deal with the church. I say sooner."

Peterson's book (the fifth in a series of works on spiritual theology) is, in essence, an informal commentary on the book of Ephesians. He points out that almost all New Testament letters to churches were written because of something--doctrinal error, rampant sinfulness, pointless squabbles, etc.--but Ephesians appears to be motivated by Christ's love for His people. He applies Paul's encouragement to the Ephesians to the life of today's Church as a model, urging believers to "walk worthy of the calling with which [we] have been called" (Eph. 4:1).

The title, Practice Resurrection, comes from Paul's grounding of His entire description of the Body in the fact of Christ's resurrection. Peterson describes the Church as something of an outpost for life in a country of death, and pinpoints our growth into spiritual maturity as the outworking of the raised Christ in our lives. As he works his way through Ephesians, he describes the forms and actions of the Church not just theologically, but through the very concrete realities of human relationships and his decades of pastoral ministry.

Peterson's book is a breath of fresh air to those who love Christ's Church, "warts and all," and desire to see her cleansed "by the washing of water with the Word." He doesn't excuse her faults, but lovingly exhorts individuals to live out the reality of the resurrection together as the dynamic Body the Lord ordained.