Connecting to the Gospel

How can we connect the Gospels--the fundamental texts of Christian faith--to our own experience of inner and outer life? This is the question that animates Connecting to the Gospel. In it James Boyd White presents a series of Gospel passages, together with the sermons he gave on these passages as a lay preacher in the Episcopal Church, with brief commentaries and questions on each as well. The whole is designed as an aid to thought and reflection about the issues raised by the Gospel passages, as they relate both to our own larger culture and to our internal religious experiences. The texts are old texts, from the past. What relation do they have, can they have, with life in the twenty-first century?One aim of the book is to establish a set of questions, both about the Gospels and about our own lives, which the reader is invited to pursue on his or her own. It can be used both by individuals and groups engaged in study and exploration.''The Jesus we meet in the Gospels, Jim White rightly says, is ''confounding, puzzling, distressing, challenging, confusing.'' His sermons respond to this Jesus, the real Jesus, with deep, personal honesty, and in doing so they bear witness to the power of a robust Christian faith, hope, and love to illuminate our lives.''--H. Jefferson PowellFrederic Cleaveland Professor of Law and Divinity, Duke University.''In this fascinating collection, Jim White comes to Scripture as a lay person, remembering well his initial confusion and even embarrassment at finding himself in church, and now speaking to others situated as he once was. What do the ancient biblical texts that we hear on Sunday say to the world today? What do they have to do with the challenges and quandaries of our lives? How might they respond to the needs and questions that brought us to this strange place this morning? Could they help us understand and connect with this mystery called God? White brings to the task professional skills honed in an illustrious career as teacher and author in law, classics, and English literature. He also brings an unusually deep and open human soul, determined always to be clear and honest. Through his sermons speaks a person we’d like to know, discovering a faith we’d like to share. The result is a book both fresh and refreshing for lay people and clergy alike, those who preach and those who listen to preaching, those new to the church or just thinking about going to church, and those who’ve been in the pews a lifetime.''--The Reverend John McCauslandHoly Cross Episcopal Church, Weare, New Hampshire.James Boyd White is a lay preacher in the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan. He is also Hart Wright Professor of Law emeritus, Professor of English emeritus, and former adjunct Professor of Classics, University of Michigan, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His most recent book is Living Speech: Resisting the Empire of Force.