God Is Not Three Guys in the Sky: Cherishing Christianity Without Its Exclusive Claims - Softcover

Jeanette Blonigen Clancy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 159298178X ISBN 13: 9781592981786

Publisher: Beaver's Pond Press, 2007

Synopsis

God Is Not Three Guys in the Sky is an inclusive interpretation of Christian doctrine asserts that Christianity mistakes its myth for history and its symbol for fact.
In the present atmosphere of religious polarity, even violence, Clancy urges Christians to abandon their claim to being the one and only true religion. With evidence from scholars and a variety of traditions, she examines questions about the Christ, truth and myth in scripture, God and human consciousness, the mystical Reign proclaimed by the man Jesus.
Her answers to these questions will delight many, disturb others, and fascinate all readers. Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Native Americans, Jews, atheists, and pagans are included with Christians in this synthesis of spiritual currents. Here is a vision of global harmony.

"This personal account of one woman's struggle to find her place within the religious tradition of her ancestors brings her to greater understanding and peace. It may spur others to undertake similar rigors of study, exchange of views, and personal commitment."--Theresa Schumacher, OSB. President of the American Benedictine Academy

"Here is the saga of a woman who has separated out the part of religious belief that is patriarchal, exclusive and destructive of the human spirit. Rigid, time-bound dogmas and Christianity's deliberate separation from the great world religions are even more serious, in Clancy's view, than the on-going oppression and exclusion of women from orthodox religious spheres.
Her exploration of early Christian biblical and non-biblical sources demonstrates new understandings and fresh interpretations of Jesus and of Christianity. Readers may find them at once intriguing, disturbing, exciting but always engaging. In Clancy s words, 'Imagine the force for global harmony that Christians could become if we had the largeness of heart to surrender our exclusive claims.'
This is a needed contribution to the conversation about Jesus and Christianity as well as the pressing questions of today's inter-religious dialogue."--Christian Morris, OSB. Adjunct Assistant Professor of Theology, College of St. Benedict

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

What experiences are you thankful for? The question is deceptively simple. But when Linda Knebel Pruden asked it, she found herself on a spiritual quest spanning a hundred years of American history. Reaching beyond memoir, Linda looks to her parents’ and grandparents’ lives to uncover the roots of the problems that surface again and again in her own life. She finds tangled knots of stubbornness, mental illness, and determined self-sufficiency, but also great faith and unspoken depths of love. Triggering memories with the recipes of her immigrant heritage, she learns to appreciate both the triumphs and the losses that shaped her life, even decades before her birth. Join her in listening for the truths that call to us again and again in our lives, and in celebrating everything we have to learn from and teach each other.

About the Author:

Jeanette Blonigen Clancy is an educator and writer living in Avon, Minnesota. She has taught languages and communication to adolescents and adults in a variety of settings and currently supervises teacher candidates.
Brought up in a blanketing Catholic atmosphere, she obtained a master's degree in systematic theology from St. John's University, but claims an eclectic and generic spirituality. Her graduate degree led to independent study of the historical Jesus, mythology, scripture, spirituality, and comparative religion.
Besides writing two local history books, she contributed an essay to the anthology The Rule of Mars: Readings on the Origins, History and Impact of Patriarchy. In addition, she has written for many periodicals, striving to build spiritual understanding, global justice, and cooperation between nations and religions. Her monthly column appears on the opinion page of the St. Cloud Times.

About this edition

• Publisher: Beaver's Pond Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 159298178X
• ISBN 13: 9781592981786
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240