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It’s hard to go wrong with writers such as these. . . . Born of obvious passion and graced with superb writing, this collection is a welcome – even necessary – addition.
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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This book is both informative and practical – written with a short chapter for each week of the year. Designed to spark conversation within a group devotion setting, readers can dive deep into community together.… This book delves into the nitty-gritty details of Christian community living and encourages readers to confront the dissatisfaction stirred up by its challenging pages. Though not a light text by any means, this book is ideal for those seeking to approach Christian community more intentionally and comprehensively.
Evangelical Church Library Association
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…Drawn from the full sweep of church history and an impressive range of ecumenical voices.
Mennonite Quarterly Review
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Expecting everything from God and from God alone, certain that his seed and his light are in all people, Eberhard Arnold permits no compromise in witnessing to the way of nonviolence and non-possession that he sees exemplified by Jesus.
Friends Journal
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A little known but powerfully articulate saint, Arnold lived faithfully in difficult circumstances. For preachers who preach from Matthew 5–7, this book will be a benefit.
Clergy Journal
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The founder of the Bruderhof offers reflections on the Sermon on the Mount that stress God's forgiveness. Eberhard Arnold calls people to a life on complete trust in God so that their attitude toward God's kingdom, other people, material wealth, and earthly power are transformed.
Christianity Today
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These heart-searching meditations on our Lord's Mountain Manifesto are most fittingly entitled Salt and Light. Their spiritual impact is both salty and enlightening.
Vernon Grounds, Denver Theological Seminary
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My life has been greatly enriched by reading Salt and Light. The eternal truth of its contents at times gives me the feeling that I am reading scripture. You have done humankind a service by making this available.
Clarence Jordan, Koinonia Farms
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Many will be made uncomfortable by Salt and Light, and it is no wonder. The Sermon on the Mount is, at a minimum, challenging and controversial. It threatens the present order of society. So does Arnold's interpretation of it.
Senator Mark O. Hatfield
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A 2016 Englewood Honor Book – one of the thirty best books of the year for the life and flourishing of the church.
Englewood Review for Books
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This is a stellar contribution to our understanding of the whys and wherefores of Christian community. The 52 selections seem perfect for a year of weekly group study and the detailed discussion guide in the appendix is particularly useful for this purpose. Called to Community: The Life Jesus Wants for His People is a thoughtfully compiled and well edited guide to the subject.
Nancy Roberts, Catholic Sentinel
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To listen to those who have lived community across the centuries is to drink at a deep well of wisdom. The call to community is challenging, and yet the recognition of the real challenges of community both tempers naive enthusiasm and offers wise counsel to those who pursue intentional communities out of faithfulness to Christ.
InterVarsity Emerging Scholars Network
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Called to Community is an extraordinary and welcome addition to personal reading lists, as well as church, seminary, community, and academic library Christian Studies collections
Midwest Book Review
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As with the Bible, this book is not to be read alone, or lived alone, but embodied in community. Will we take up and read – and live?
Paul Louis Metzger, Patheos
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This book functions as a guide to community: to understanding the true nature of community, to cultivating a spirit and heart that is prepared to live in community, to learning how to desire the right kind of community, in the first place.
Kyle Roberts, Patheos
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This double authored book will lead you to an engagement of deep and powerful themes that will draw you into refreshing topic on prayer and Kingdom living. Out of the perspective of God’s love, the reader will be drawn into the conversation of the prayers God answers. This book is ideal as a devotional to be used with daily reading of scripture and prayer to follow its teachings. Speaking in terms of church renewal, this book can be a springboard for thoughtful reflection and lively discussions on a life of prayer. And in that vein, it can help in growing and training in discipleship and being obedient in terms of engaging in ministry. Commendations go to Plough Publishing and the authors who take us to the next level in terms of being in the foothills of prayer where God is reaching out to us to take the next step in response to the Gospel of the Good News of God’s love .
David S. Young, Springs of Living Water Initiative
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This is one meaty, yet very accessible, book for those who love the Church enough to give it some serious thought, knowing that serious thought can lead to serious action. Whether in small groups or individually, as we read Called to Community, we will be hearing voices from the road, people with trail dust on their faith. They know what they’re talking about. And this invitation to come alongside them is a great place to start finding some new roads in an old faith of our own.
David Swartz, Patheos
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I can only hope that it will be widely read, because I am certain that contained in this book is the future of being Christian.
Stanley Hauerwas
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This stunning collection of some of the best spiritual writers of all time came out in 2001 from the exceptionally thoughtful, high-quality publishing house founded by a simple-living community. What a delight to have seasonal readings from theological voices like Jürgen Moltmann, mystics like Bernard of Clairvaux, poets — from Sylvia Plath to T.S. Eliot to Jane Kenyon — contemplatives such as Henri Nouwen, and storytelling writers like the late Brennan Manning.
Byron Borger, Hearts and Minds Books
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The undeniable power of Eberhard Arnold’s writing owes to the fact that there is absolutely no difference between what he professed to believe and the way he lived. It gives to his words a resonance and depth, a right to be heard. For plainspoken words and the unsettling challenge of a life lived faithfully, we can all be grateful for his witness.
Juli Loesch Wiley, New Oxford Review
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One of the most challenging statements on community that I have ever read. Its radical God-centeredness makes it not only very demanding, but also very inviting, comforting, and reassuring.
Henri J. M. Nouwen, L’Arche/DayBreak
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An admirable, excellent book needed by a world which has turned against the Great Teaching of Jesus.
Pitirim A. Sorokin, Harvard University
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Arnold’s writings are a light of hope in an age which seems very dark. May they no longer remain “hidden under a bushel,” but shine out to be heeded by many.
Jürgen Moltmann
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Salt and Light has all the simple, luminous, direct vision into things that I have come to associate with Eberhard Arnold. It moves me deeply. It is the kind of book that stirs to repentance and to renewal. I am very grateful for it.
Thomas Merton
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These inspiring letters interweave a profound love for Jesus Christ with a deep love between two young people, as well as an utterly transparent search to do God’s will.
Prof. Lawrence S. Cunningham, The University of Notre Dame
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A rare find. It is a privilege to be invited into such an intimate conversation.
Father Philip K. Eichner, S.M. Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights
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Here are letters of both immense intensity and the deepest intimacy, almost too sacred for publication. They witness to a deeply based love nurtured in the context of an absolute commitment to Christ.
Prof. John Briggs, Oxford University
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More than love letters. They show how a man and a woman can nurture each other toward spiritual maturity.
Tony Campolo, Eastern University
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Has there ever been a more hard-hitting, beautifully written, theologically inclusive anthology of writings for Lent and Easter? It’s doubtful. Many readers may well find that this collection – a sequel to the highly successful 'Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas' – is the one book they return to year after year, forgoing their usual custom of buying a new Lenten devotional each spring.
Caveat lector: no one should have this much pleasure during Lent!
Publisher's Weekly starred review
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The undeniable power of Arnold's writing owes to the fact that there is no difference between what he professed to believe and the way he lived. It gives his words a resonance and depth, a right to be heard.
Juli Loesch Wiley, New Oxford Review
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There is no better introduction to the thought and spirit of this twentieth-century prophet.
Robert Ellsberg, Orbis Books
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The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of persons with Christ as its prime sustainer and most glorious inhabitant...Arnold's vision incarnates just such a community.
Richard Foster, author, Celebration of Discipline
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Arnold's writing has all the simple, luminous, direct vision into things that I have come to associate with his name. It has the authentic ring of a truly evangelical Christianity and moves me deeply. It stirs to repentance and renewal. I am deeply grateful for it.
Thomas Merton
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If you hold, like Arnold does, that Christianity is no longer Christianity if it departs too radically from its beginnings, you must read this book.
Roland H. Bainton, Professor Emeritus, Yale University
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Arnold’s work calls back to those days when Christian love was free flowing and socially radical…A fine volume in a field which has few comparable productions.
Graydon F. Synder, Bethany Seminary
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A compelling, fascinating, and direct account of one of the most important periods in the history of modern man.
James Luther Adams, Harvard Divinity School
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This selection will not only help readers understand early Christianity intellectually; it will also challenge them to live more fully, abundantly, and even radically. If any proof were needed of the enduring power of Christianity, the fact that these ancient texts speak so directly to our situation almost two thousand years later would more than suffice.
Justo L. Gonzalez, Emory University
