Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR

From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Cloister Walk, a book about Christianity, spirituality, and rediscovered faith.

Struggling with her return to the Christian church after many years away, Kathleen Norris found it was the language of Christianity that most distanced her from faith. Words like "judgment," "faith," "dogma," "salvation," "sinner"--even "Christ"--formed what she called her "scary vocabulary," words that had become so codified or abstract that their meanings were all but impenetrable. She found she had to wrestle with them and make them her own before they could confer their blessings and their grace. Blending history, theology, storytelling, etymology, and memoir, Norris uses these words as a starting point for reflection, and offers a moving account of her own gradual conversion. She evokes a rich spirituality rooted firmly in the chaos of everyday life--and offers believers and doubters alike an illuminating perspective on how we can embrace ancient traditions and find faith in the contemporary world.

Author: Kathleen Norris
Publisher: Penguin Adult Hc/Tr
Published: 04/01/1999
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.91lbs
Size: 8.25h x 5.49w x 1.02d
ISBN13: 9781573227216
ISBN10: 1573227218
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Faith
- Religion | Christian Living | General
- Religion | Christian Theology | General

About the Author
Kathleen Norris is the award-winning, bestselling author of The Cloister Walk and Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, among others. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, in various anthologies, and in her own three volumes of poetry. She divides her time between South Dakota and Hawaii.