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I recently came across this devotional and have been captivated. The daily readings, which stretch from November 24 to January 7, include some of the most profound reflections on the season that I have ever seen – in both concept and scope, classic and contemporary – all gathered together into a single volume.
First Presbyterian Church News
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Arnold writes with a refreshing candor and forthrightness. Specifically, he can be downright blunt. Yet this always is shaped by a shepherd’s tough and tender love. …While I wish I had this book as a young man (or Arnold in person!), I’m glad I have it now. Arnold’s writing challenges and encourages young and old alike, beginners and leaders.
Bob Trube, Bob on Books
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This handsome hardback has brief readings from some of the world’s leading literary and spiritual writers, offering just enough meaty and aesthetically-rich writing to please and challenge anyone who wants to dip in to a more mature sourcebook.
Hearts and Minds Bookstore
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Lent is a season of restraint, but this compiled book is a Lenten (and paschal) smorgasbord, offering more than 70 excerpted readings for Lent and Easter. Inside you’ll find writings of spiritual leaders, theologians, literary favorites, mystics, and justice heroes, including Clarence Jordan, Kathleen Norris, Ernesto Cardenal, Simone Weil, Wendell Berry, Madeleine L’Engle, Philip Berrigan, and Oscar Wilde, to name a few.
Sojourners
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It’s hard to go wrong with writers such as these. . . . Born of obvious passion and graced with superb writing, this collection is a welcome – even necessary – addition.
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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This book is both informative and practical – written with a short chapter for each week of the year. Designed to spark conversation within a group devotion setting, readers can dive deep into community together.… This book delves into the nitty-gritty details of Christian community living and encourages readers to confront the dissatisfaction stirred up by its challenging pages. Though not a light text by any means, this book is ideal for those seeking to approach Christian community more intentionally and comprehensively.
Evangelical Church Library Association
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…Drawn from the full sweep of church history and an impressive range of ecumenical voices.
Mennonite Quarterly Review
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A 2016 Englewood Honor Book – one of the thirty best books of the year for the life and flourishing of the church.
Englewood Review for Books
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This is a stellar contribution to our understanding of the whys and wherefores of Christian community. The 52 selections seem perfect for a year of weekly group study and the detailed discussion guide in the appendix is particularly useful for this purpose. Called to Community: The Life Jesus Wants for His People is a thoughtfully compiled and well edited guide to the subject.
Nancy Roberts, Catholic Sentinel
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To listen to those who have lived community across the centuries is to drink at a deep well of wisdom. The call to community is challenging, and yet the recognition of the real challenges of community both tempers naive enthusiasm and offers wise counsel to those who pursue intentional communities out of faithfulness to Christ.
InterVarsity Emerging Scholars Network
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Called to Community is an extraordinary and welcome addition to personal reading lists, as well as church, seminary, community, and academic library Christian Studies collections
Midwest Book Review
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As with the Bible, this book is not to be read alone, or lived alone, but embodied in community. Will we take up and read – and live?
Paul Louis Metzger, Patheos
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This book functions as a guide to community: to understanding the true nature of community, to cultivating a spirit and heart that is prepared to live in community, to learning how to desire the right kind of community, in the first place.
Kyle Roberts, Patheos
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This is one meaty, yet very accessible, book for those who love the Church enough to give it some serious thought, knowing that serious thought can lead to serious action. Whether in small groups or individually, as we read Called to Community, we will be hearing voices from the road, people with trail dust on their faith. They know what they’re talking about. And this invitation to come alongside them is a great place to start finding some new roads in an old faith of our own.
David Swartz, Patheos
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I can only hope that it will be widely read, because I am certain that contained in this book is the future of being Christian.
Stanley Hauerwas
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This stunning collection of some of the best spiritual writers of all time came out in 2001 from the exceptionally thoughtful, high-quality publishing house founded by a simple-living community. What a delight to have seasonal readings from theological voices like Jürgen Moltmann, mystics like Bernard of Clairvaux, poets — from Sylvia Plath to T.S. Eliot to Jane Kenyon — contemplatives such as Henri Nouwen, and storytelling writers like the late Brennan Manning.
Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Books
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Has there ever been a more hard-hitting, beautifully written, theologically inclusive anthology of writings for Lent and Easter? It’s doubtful. Many readers may well find that this collection – a sequel to the highly successful 'Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas' – is the one book they return to year after year, forgoing their usual custom of buying a new Lenten devotional each spring.
Caveat lector: no one should have this much pleasure during Lent!
Publisher's Weekly starred review
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With deep insight into the workings of the mind, Arnold brings us towards deliverance by union with Christ.
Dallas Willard, Author, The Spirit of the Disciplines
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Loving and sensitive, Arnold makes his readers feel encouraged rather that judged. Here are nuggets of practical wisdom which deserve to be read, pondered, and treasured.
Howard R. Macy, George Fox University
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Reminds me of Kierkegaard's great classic, Purity of Heart. Both force you to look deep within your own life.
E. Glen Hinson, Baptist Theological Seminary
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Arnold's writing is full of love. His deep-rootedness in Christ makes him a very wise, a very safe, and a very challenging guide.
Henri J. M. Nouwen
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Concise, straightforward...from the heart. Arnold sounds a warning to the self-oriented, therapeutic tendencies of our day: "The goal should always be liberation. We want to find Jesus, not ourselves."
Publishers Weekly
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I have not experienced a book like this except when reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Christoph Blumhardt. Arnold sees beyond the present into the wonderful future of God’s kingdom.
Jürgen Moltmann, author, Theology of Hope
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Discipleship helps us to understand what spiritual goodness is all about…It provides a mystic nurturing of the soul that translates into action that makes for justice.
Tony Campolo, author, Red Letter Christian
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I have been very impressed with Arnold’s work, and find it thoroughly scriptural and very practical – right down my alley.
Elisabeth Elliot, speaker and author
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I have found Discipleship to be an incisive and inspirational Christian guidebook. It is a clear call to higher religious ideals.
Jimmy Carter, Former President, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
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I pray for all who read this book that they may come to follow Jesus more closely in their whole lives. He has not called us to be successful, but to be faithful.
Mother Teresa
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Discipleship is a prophetic book in a time in which few people dare to speak unpopular but truly healing words.
Henri J. M. Nouwen, from the Foreword
