The Thinking Christian

Twenty-three Pathways of Awareness
Humanness and Religion

by Gene W. Marshall
Wipf and Stock Publishers

This book, three years in the making, is a pull together of key edges worked on for the last 36 years.

Part One on Profound Consciousness is a five-chapter philosophy of religion that probes why religion appears in human societies, and how good religion can be distinguished from its perversions.

Part Two on Christian Theologizing is a fresh statement of a radical thoughtfulness beyond the death of the heavenly realm metaphor toward a relevant expression of Christian faith in this interreligious era, including the meaning of revelation and a recovery of Scripture.

Part Three on Christian Practices includes ethical guidelines for our love of justice in the wide world, the Christian mission of witness and justice, and communal practices for our life together.. These chapters assume that we are facing a radical shift in the practice of the Christian religion.

The practice of Christianity is going through a transition that is deeper than the Reformation. These chapters are communal and activist guidelines for general readers. Such union of the profound and the practical pertains to the needs of scholars as well.

Table of Contents

Part One: Profound Consciousness

1. Out of Your Mind – What is Mind?
2. Seven Swirls of Consciousness – What is Consciousness?
3. Creating Your Four Minds of Truth – What is Truth?
4. The Paradoxes of Being Awake – What is Profound Consciousness?
5. The Roots of Religious Practice – What is Religion?

Part Two: Christian Theologizing

6. The Death of Heavenly God-Talk
7. A Contentless Monotheism of Devotion
8. The Great Goddess and other Poetry
9. The Meaning of Revelation
10. Re-reading the Old Testament
11. A Doorway called Despair
12. Who Created Christianity?
13. An Inter-religious Trinity

Part Three: Christian Practices

14. The Friendliness of Trees
15. His-story, Her-story, and a New Story
16. Post-Civilization Christianity
17. The Dead End of Christendom
18. Witnessing Love and the Echo of Eternity
19. The Mind of Commonality and the Love of Justice
20. The Bioregional Parish of Responsibility
21. The Mind of Intimacy and the Co-Pastors Circle
22. Building a Network of Co-Pastors Circles
23. A New Public Face for Christianity

A 10-session study guide, one for each of the three parts of this book can be found on the Realistic Living blog site >

This book can be ordered from Wipf and Stock or from Amazon in e-book, paperback, and hardback.

For still further information and sample chapters on The Thinking Christian, See Amazon.com: then books: then Marshall: The Thinking Christian