Roots of Transformation: Negotiating the Dynamics of Growth

The call towards transformation lies at the heart of the Christian message. It is a call to create something beautiful that bears all the hallmarks of the kingdom of heaven. The journey towards transformation however is a demanding one requiring us to engage in a process of negotiation with a number of key issues. These issues cluster around the themes of Narrative Permission Discomfort Culture Language Other and Silence. This book explores these themes in the company of brave individuals who have shared their own stories as well as some significant thinkers who have already left their mark on our world. Using sources as diverse as Augustines and Ricouers narrative theology Wittgenstein and C. S. Lewis Stockitt illuminates Scripture and Christian lives from ancient times to the present. This accessible and engaging volume will be useful for pastors preachers and their congregations as well as for others offering spiritual instruction to individuals and groups. --Ellen F. Davis Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology The Divinity School Duke University This book addresses a problem at the heart of pastoral ministry: the dynamics of personal transformation. Interposing the stories of people who have exhibited significant transformation with perceptive theological psychological and philosophical analysis Stockitt teases out how people are enabled to respond to Gods call for their lives. This is another excellent book from Stockitt who writes some of our best contemporary pastoral theology. I encourage everyone who works with people in a Christian context to read it. --The Right Reverend Dr. Robert Innes the Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe Robin Stockitt (PhD Tubingen) is the minister of the Church of Ireland parish of St. James Donagheady. He is the author of Imagination and the Playfulness of God and Restoring the Shamed.