The modern church is immersed in a competitive, polarized, and status-driven society. It's hard to have conversations about important issues when so many are defensive and unwilling to learn. Too often, Christians fall into these same traps. The health and witness of the church urgently depend on recovering an essential biblical virtue: humility.
New Testament scholar Dennis R. Edwards illuminates humility as a, if not the, distinctive identity marker of followers of Jesus. Tracing the theme throughout Scripture, he demonstrates how true humility is grounded in submission to God and becomes manifest in all areas of life. Edwards defuses common misconceptions about humility and explores its role in Christian community, conflict, leadership, suffering, worship, and stewardship.
As we learn from and honor the humble instead of the power-hungry, humility paradoxically empowers God's people—including those who are often marginalized. Filled with stories from the author's ministry experience, Humility Illuminated addresses common areas of leadership failure and how to avoid them, applies biblical texts on humility to multiethnic ministry and justice work, and issues a compelling challenge to the church.
Biblical humility is not a tactic, and it's not just ‘being nice.’ It's a revolutionary path to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
Зміст
Foreword by Marlena Graves
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Rediscovering Humility for Our Times
1. Yielding: Where Humility Starts
2. Embodying: The Example of Jesus
3. Communing: Mutual Love Instead of Self-Promotion
4. Reconciling: Navigating Conflict
5. Shepherding: Setting an Example Through Service
6. Enduring: Putting Our Suffering into Perspective
7. Worshiping: Glorifying God with Our Whole Selves
8. Stewarding: Attitude More Than Obligation
9. Empowering: Power to the People Who Are Poor in Spirit
Conclusion
Bibliography
Scripture Index
Про автора
Marlena Graves is a writer and adjunct professor. She has also worked at Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC). Marlena holds an MDiv from Northeastern Seminary in Rochester, New York, and is a graduate of the Renovaré Institute. She has been a bylined writer for Christianity Today, (in)courage, womenleaders.com, and Our Daily Bread, and she is also the author of A Beautiful Disaster. She lives with her husband and three daughters in Toledo, Ohio.