Embodying Grace: Proclaiming Justification in the Real World

What can it mean to preach a word of justification by grace in a world of grinding poverty? How can justification be not only proclaimed but realized in the midst of global economic realities that strip human beings of any sense of self-worth?

These are among the hard questions that Andrea Bieler and Hans-Martin Gutmann face head-on in Embodying Grace. Convinced that it is precisely among those whom society regards as "expendable" that God 's grace may be experienced as abundant, the authors join their expertise in liturgy, homiletics, and pastoral care with their commitment to the poor and marginalized around us and their clear-sighted analyses of our present cultural situation, including increasing violence and the commodification of human life. They illustrate their argument with preaching events as words-on-target in particular contexts of need. The result is a compelling new understanding of one of the church's most important teachings.

Andrea Bieler is Associate Professor of Christian Worship at Pacific School of Religion and the author, with Luise Schottroff, of The Eucharist: Bodies, Bread, and Resurrection (Fortress, 2007).

Hans-Martin Gutmann is Professor of Practical Theology on the Faculty for Protestant Theology of the University of Hamburg and the author of numerous theological books in German.