Believer on Sunday, Atheist by Thursday
Is Faith Still Possible?
Foreword by Jessica Tate
Imprint: Cascade Books
Regular worshipers may be believers on Sunday but (nearly) atheists by Thursday. The general public, not making fine distinctions, lumps mainline Protestants together with fundamentalists fighting to hold on to a privileged status already lost. Circumstances favor religious skeptics, who find themselves with rising influence. Church members in mainline denominations feel caught between a rock and a hard place. Thus comes the critical question of the moment: is Christian faith of an intellectually serious and recognizably generous sort still possible? This book invites readers to explore basic questions about faith itself, and classically inclined Christian faith in particular. Faith is a kind of knowing, but a knowing that makes use of doubt and asserts that it is possible to be confident without claiming absolute certainty. Faith is less like agreeing with an argument and more like falling in love. Faith involves learning how to see with the eyes of the heart. Faith embraces realities that can be perceived even by a child, but that cannot always be directly expressed in the kind of language we use for discussing serious matters. Living in faith is and will always be an against-the-grain way of imagining the world.
Ronald P. Byars is Professor Emeritus at Union Presbyterian Seminary in Richmond, Virginia. He began teaching after many years in pastoral ministry in Michigan and Lexington, Kentucky. His books include Christian Worship (2000), The Sacraments in Biblical Perspective (2011), and Finding Our Balance (Cascade, 2015). He contributed to The Companion to the Book of Common Worship (2003) and to the Book of Common Worship (2018).
Jessica Tate is founder and Director of NEXT Church
“Ron Byars should soon receive a citation for honesty. Pulling no punches, he bears witness to the complexity, ambiguity and difficulty of serious Christian faith in our culture. With that acknowledgement, however, he then proceeds to articulate in a wise, compelling way how and in what ways the deep claims of gospel faith can matter for us. His perspective is according to the rich practices of worship. He provides a winsome ‘sacramental’ reading of our shared life that is grounded in our actual living but that he permeates with thick symbols of faith that are open to imaginative rendering. His witty title attests that the glory of Sunday Easter faith is eroded and fatigued by Thursday; Byars offers an invigorating Wednesday way-station in the tradition that invites fresh courage for the faithful. Reading this book may indeed yield a renewal of faith so much needed among us.”
—Walter Brueggemann, Columbia Theological Seminary
“This uncommonly well-written analysis of what ails the mainline churches in our day is an electric charge of a book. Ronald P. Byars, a distinguished thinker, wants to help us embrace an adult Christian faith in the face of cultural disdain. He loves the gospel and does not want us to go down whimpering. I eagerly recommend his readable diagnosis of our ills and his bracing call to all who long for the return of the distinctive Protestant voice as an alternative to the pallid, undifferentiated spiritual fare presently on offer. This book will be tremendously encouraging to preachers.”
—Fleming Rutledge, Episcopal priest and author of The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Jesus Christ
“What a joy to find a vision of faith and Christian community that is not captive to the culture wars, the virtues and vices of our ideological commitments, or the fatalistic hand-wringing of religious prognosticators. I am thankful to Ron Byars for offering an honest struggle with the challenges of discipleship in the twenty-first century that is shaped by a hopeful vision of the church.”
—Chris Currie, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Shreveport, Louisiana
“Hemmed in by the rigidity of skepticism and an allergy to aggressive evangelicalism, mainline Christians have become suspicious of God-talk, especially the Jesus variety. Given this struggle to speak of and imagine divine action, Byars asks, ‘Is Christian faith still possible?’ Drawing on decades of reflection on Christian practice, he offers a resounding, compelling, and—at times—surprising, ‘yes.’”
—Adam White, Campus Pastor, The Lutheran Center (ELCA), University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Related Titles
