Leaving Church - Barbara Brown Taylor [91]
Taylor describes the Bible as a field guide to the Divine Presence in the world. How does this differ from other views of the Bible that you have learned or encountered? How might viewing the Bible this way affect your everyday life?
Taylor writes that it is possible to see Jesus as the founder not of a new religion, but of a new way to be human. How does this view strike you? Do you think Jesus’s followers saw him this way? If this was indeed his intention, how have we misinterpreted it?
Tayor writes, “The way many of us are doing church is broken and we know it, even if we do not know what to do about it. We proclaim the priesthood of all believers while we continue living with the hierarchical clergy, liturgy, and architecture. We follow a Lord who challenged the religious and political institutions of his time while we fund and defend our own. We speak and sing of divine transformation while we do everything in our power to maintain our equilibrium.” Is the way you or your tradition is doing church broken in these ways? If not, why not? What are some other ways in which our way of doing church has fallen short? What are some solutions?
One of Taylor’s central insights is that the church is meant for the world, not the other way around. How does the church in the United States perpetuate or work against this image? Your own church?
How would you answer Taylor’s question, “What is saving your life now?”
Throughout the book, Taylor encounters various birds and writes about them as metaphors for what is changing in her life. She goes from encountering broken birds to wild geese to domestic chickens to fierce hawks to the lost homing pigeon. What does this symbolize about her journey? What bird best represents your present relationship with God? What insight does it give you about your own journey?
About the Author
BARBARA BROWN TAYLOR, named one of the twelve most effective preachers in the English-speaking world by Baylor University, teaches religion at Piedmont College and is an adjunct professor of Christian spirituality at Columbia Theological Seminary. An editor-at-large and columnist for The Christian Century, Taylor is the author of more than ten books. Visit the author online at www.barbarabrowntaylor.com
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Credits
Cover design: LeVan Fisher Design
Copyright
LEAVING CHURCH: A Memoir of Faith. Copyright © 2006 by Barbara Brown Taylor. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
ePub edition March 2007 ISBN 9780061748332
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