Bøger af Bradley Jersak

What is God like? Toxic images abound: God the punishing judge, the deadbeat dad, the genie in a bottle-false gods that need to be challenged.But what if, instead, God truly is completely Christlike? What if His love is more generous, his Cross more powerful, and his gospel more beautiful than we've dared to imagine? What if our clearest image of God is the self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering Love revealed on the Cross? What if we had 'A More Christlike God'?Endorsements: "This excellent and much-needed book confrontswith both open heart and very goodmind the major obstacles we have createdfor people in their journey toward God! Somany of us are asking, "Why didn't peopleteach us this many years ago?" I am sograteful that Brad Jersak is re-opening thedoor that Jesus had already opened 2000years ago. It is so terribly sad that it wasever closed."- Fr. RICHARD ROHRCenter for Action and Contemplation"With theological integrity and open-heartedcompassion, Brad Jersak creates a beautifulspace for Jesus to challenge our views ofGod. A breath of clean and clarifying air."- WILLIAM PAUL YOUNGAuthor of The Shack"Brad Jersak has given us a gift of greatestvalue: a fresh vision of God, Christ, theCross, Scripture and ourselves. He displaysthe rare ability to take deep theologicalissues and make them understandableto everyone. Jersak represents a new generationof Christian theologians whose workis both desperately needed and wonderfullyliberating."- BRIAN D. McLARENAuthor of We Make the Road by Walking"Brad Jersak has immersed himself in thecompany of the poor, the addicted, theoutsiders. He is determined to recover theessence of the "beautiful" gospel for allof us. The conspicuous mark that characterizesevery page of this winsomewitness is that it is a "lived theology." Hehas given attentive detail to what is in thetheological libraries, but is not contentwith that. He has worked it out on thestreets and in the lives of those withwhom he has chosen to share his life andChristlike God witness, a convincinglybeautiful Gospel."- EUGENE H. PETERSONTranslator of The Message"'Good souls many will one day be horrifiedat the things they now believe ofGod.' George MacDonald's prophecyhas found its fulfillment in Brad Jersak'sjourney from the 'volatile moral monster'to the face of Jesus' Father. Here theancient song of light sings us new eyes: Behold the Lamb, just like his Father.A priceless treasure, worthy of seriousreflection."- BAXTER KRUGERAuthor of The Shack Revisited and Patmos

George P. Grant: Athena's Aviary is a collection of essays on George Grant by Canada's preeminent High Tory scholar, Ron Dart, and Brad Jersak, whose PhD work focused on George Grant and Simone Weil. The 5 essays in this book look at Grant and the High Tory Tradition; Grant and Hinduism, Grant and Gandhi, Grant and Weil on Just Peace-Making and Grant's rhetorical method. They commemorate Grant's birthday 100 years ago and his passing 30 years ago. This work is suitable as a text for political science and philosophy.

"Deconstruction: Trendy brand name for falling away from belief in God? Or a process essential to authentic faith?Liberation or trauma? Prison break or exile?It's complicated. Just like you. Christian history records a Great Reformation and a Great Awakening. But today's "Great Deconstruction" will surely leave an equally profound impact. In Out of the Embers, Bradley Jersak explores the necessity, perils, and possibilities of the Great Deconstruction-how it has the potential to either sabotage our communion with God or infuse it with the breath of life, the light and life of Christ himself. In this collection of vulnerable memoirs, philosophical memos, and candid provocations, Jersak resists both the hand-wringing urge to corral stray sheep and the exultant desire to play the happy-clappy Ex-vangelical cheerleader. He employs the wisdom and expertise of the great deconstructionists-Christianity's ancient influences (Moses, Plato, Paul, and the Patristics), "beloved frenemies" (from Voltaire to Nietzsche), and the masters of deconstruction (Dostoevsky, Kierkegaard, and Weil)-to double down and deconstruct deconstruction itself. Where is faith after deconstruction? The author's heart is to engage and empathize with the bereft and disoriented, stoking the brittle ashes for live embers. In this quest for the resilient gospel of the martyrs, the marginal, and those outside the threshold...inexplicably, in this liminal space, life stirs. A Light shines through the ashes. We find, often for the first time, that living connection Jersak calls "presence in communion."There is a sea change occurring across the Western church and civilization. Whether we're watching a radical course correction or a complete collapse remains to be seen, and how it pans out will likely depend on how we see what's happening, who we are becoming, how we live in response-and, most important, where we find Christ situated in this storm"--

Christianity's infamy is that our way and our faith have not been very Christlike. A More Christlike Way is a book for our time, where so much of what is called Christianity has been hijacked to serve agendas that are decidedly un-Christlike. In this sequel to A More Christlike God, Brad Jersak an award winning author, accomplished theologian, grounded in Scripture and Patristics, writes from decades of pastoral experience. A More Christlike Way is a book about Jesus Christ. Jersak lays out how Jesus Christ of Nazareth, in his fully human nature, forged the path for a new and true humanity. We'll call it the Jesus Way.The author critiques four common counterfeits to the Jesus Way:1 Moralism: When Morality Becomes Heresy2 Partisan Amoralism: When Politics Trump Morality3 Retributive Factionalism: Are You on the Spectrum? 4 Nationalism & Civil ReligionHe then describes seven facets of a more Christlike Way: Facet 1 - Radical Self-givingFacet 2 - Radical HospitalityFacet 3 - Radical UnityFacet 4 - Radical RecoveryFacet 5 - Radical Peacemaking/Forgiveness Facet 6 - Radical SurrenderFacet 7 - Radical Compassion/JusticeFinally, Jersak closes with "A More Beautiful Vision: Abba's 'I have a dream speech'"A More Christlike Way sets forth a vision for following Jesus that is in keeping with the kind of faith that first turned the world upside down two thousand years ago.

"The Scriptures are an essential aspect of the Christian faith. But we have often equated them with the living Word Himself, even elevating them above the One to whom they point. In doing so, we have distorted their central message-and our view of God. Tragically, this has caused multitudes of people unnecessary doubt, confusion, and pain in their encounters with the Scriptures. Many people understand God as being truly loving and good. Yet, they struggle with depictions of God in Scripture as wrathful, violent, and genocidal. These "toxic texts" have caused some to set aside their Bibles as R-rated and unreliable. They have led others to completely reject their faith. Author and theologian Bradley Jersak has wrestled deeply with such passages over many years. He has experienced the same questions, doubt, and pain. In A More Christlike Word, he offers a clarifying and freeing path forward, whether you consider yourself a believer, a doubter, or a skeptic, inviting you to a better and more ancient way to read the Scriptures. He calls this path the "Emmaus Way" because it focuses on Jesus Christ as the final Word on God. It demonstrates how all Scripture, by design, points to Jesus, revealing the true nature of the Father. After deconstructing the modern biblicist/literalist approaches to Scripture interpretation that have failed us, Brad turns to the early church for a hermeneutic of prefigurement, treating the Bible as the grand narrative of redemption, told through a polyphony of voices and worldviews, culminating in the arrival of Christ as the eternal Word of God-what God has to say about himself. The interpretive system of the church fathers and mothers who gathered the New Testament and preached the gospel from the Old Testament has largely been ignored or dismissed by both evangelical and liberal movements, the twin children of modernity. The patristics explain and model the apostles' Christ-centered interpretation of the Scriptures. Brad applies their approach to "unwrath" sample passages from each genre of the Bible, showing how even the cringe-worthy texts have an important place in the christotelic saga of divine love. Your journey on the Emmaus Way will open up to you the fullness of the Scriptures, and, most important, lead you to the God who deeply loves and welcomes you. "--

This sequel to a "More Christlike God", is a book about Jesus Christ. In "A More Christlike Way", Jersak lays out how Jesus Christ of Nazareth, in his fully human nature, forged the path for a new and true humanity. We'll call it the Jesus Way.This is literally crucial. When referring to the Jesus Way, we're describing the life and faith of a man-the Jesus of the four Gospels-whose earthly sojourn embodied complete surrender to and trust in the God he called his Abba (Papa).Knowing that our subject matter is "the man Christ Jesus" matters greatly because herein, we'll make no grandiose claims for any church or any individual disciple, alive or departed. Christianity's infamy is that our way and our faith have not been very Christlike.Observers attempting to retrace the Jesus Way from the path walked by those who identify as Christian would become hopelessly lost. They would stumble over all manner of obstacles to our beautiful faith. Jesus alone created the Jesus Way and walked it perfectly.

What is God like? A punishing judge? A doting grandfather? A deadbeat dad? A vengeful warrior? 'Believers' and atheists alike typically carry and finally reject the toxic images of God in their own hearts and minds. Even the Christian gospel has repeatedly lapsed into a vision of God where the wrathful King must be appeased by his victim Son. How do such 'good cop/bad cop' distortions of the divine arise and come to dominate churches and cultures? Whether our notions of 'god' are personal projections or inherited traditions, author and theologian Brad Jersak proposes a radical reassessment, arguing for A More Christlike God: a More Beautiful Gospel. If Christ is "the image of the invisible God, the radiance of God's glory and exact representation of God's likeness," what if we conceived of God as completely Christlike—the perfect Incarnation of self-giving, radically forgiving, co-suffering love? What if God has always been and forever will be 'cruciform' (cross-shaped) in his character and actions? A More Christlike God suggests that such a God would be very good news indeed—a God who Jesus "unwrathed" from dead religion, a Love that is always toward us, and a Grace that pours into this suffering world through willing, human partners.