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Charles E. Moore, in Following the Call, brings us a rich opportunity, individually and collectively, to enter into the “good trouble” of Jesus and his soul-shaking Sermon on the Mount.
Friends Journal
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What if the past two years of racial tension, pandemic lockdown, and political upheaval could be seen not as crises to be survived, but as seeds from which a better future could emerge? … The voices in Breaking Ground are both present and prescient. They reflect a gravitational pull toward reflection, change, and possibly even transformation. It’s as if, in writing these essays, these authors are emerging into a new day after a dark night. Squinting for sure, but inexorably moving toward the light.
The Christian Science Monitor
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This handsome hardback has brief readings from some of the world’s leading literary and spiritual writers, offering just enough meaty and aesthetically-rich writing to please and challenge anyone who wants to dip in to a more mature sourcebook.
Hearts and Minds Bookstore
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Lent is a season of restraint, but this compiled book is a Lenten (and paschal) smorgasbord, offering more than 70 excerpted readings for Lent and Easter. Inside you’ll find writings of spiritual leaders, theologians, literary favorites, mystics, and justice heroes, including Clarence Jordan, Kathleen Norris, Ernesto Cardenal, Simone Weil, Wendell Berry, Madeleine L’Engle, Philip Berrigan, and Oscar Wilde, to name a few.
Sojourners
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Breaking Ground became a one-of-a-kind space to probe society’s assumptions, interrogate our own hearts and imagine what a better future might require.
Chelsea Langston Bombino, Religion Unplugged
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One way to describe this new anthology from the Breaking Ground project is as a “Good Party,” to borrow a phrase from contributor Tara Isabella Burton. A Good Party, she suggests, is “a place where bonds of friendship, fostered in a spirit of both charity and joy, serve as the building blocks for communal life overall.” With 52 contributors filling almost 500 pages, we’re speaking of something close to a block party, one at which we run into some familiar faces, meet a number of wonderful new people, and even glimpse a few Almost Famous People… Since there was no overarching agenda here beyond a call to reflection, it’s truly a bit of a potluck experience.
Front Porch Republic
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Those who care about the common good and who long for fresh insights and daring but doable proposals, will find this book a major resource... Breaking Ground is surely one of the most important and beautiful books of 2022, a book to cherish.
Byron Borger
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I’m impressed with the wide array of people from police officers to theologians who contribute to this collection. But isn’t this what is needed in our communities across the land – a coming together of a wide array of people who care about the rents in our social fabric, people who talk and listen and pray and think and imagine what could be?
Bob Trube
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Breaking Ground is a masterful essay collection that wrings meaning out of a pandemic year. Moving from the summer of 2020 to the spring of 2021, these essays trace the changing face of the Covid-19 pandemic, from lockdowns to Black Lives Matter protests to the release of the vaccines. It is a blend of on-the-ground reportage, thoughtful conversations, theological studies, and philosophy; while rooted in a pandemic, it also covers racial justice and politics....As the book progresses, its sense of hope ebbs, leaving behind what Anne Snyder’s closing essay calls an “ache”—but also a sense that, from all of this, something new will grow.
Foreword Reviews
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There are no words more important than the Sermon on the Mount. And I can think of no better cloud of witnesses to reflect on those words than the people in this book. It is a gift to the world.
Shane Claiborne, author, activist, and co-founder of The Simple Way and Red Letter Christians
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I am going to recommend Breaking Ground to our book club. It offers an excellent opportunity to step back and, with the help of some wise observers, reflect on what we might learn from the memorable year we have just been through.
George M. Marsden, Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History Emeritus, University of Notre Dame
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In a time of unprecedented human and planetary crisis, Plough and Comment magazines are showing how Christianity can once again seize the cultural high ground. But as their collaborative Breaking Ground anthology shows, this can only be brought about by not neglecting the low ground, since cultivation is an integral affair. If you despair of the future, the writers represented here offer real prophetic hope.
John Milbank, University of Nottingham
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A treasure chest of wisdom drawn from some of the greatest thinkers and saints the church has known.
Greg Boyd, Senior Pastor, Woodland Hills Church
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From Teresa of Avila to Mother Teresa, from Martin Luther to Martin Luther King, from Francis of Assisi to Francis Chan, from Dorothy Day to Dorothy Sayers, these excerpts can deeply enrich personal study and devotion. But they are also meant to be read and discussed in community and then acted on. Prepare yourself for a healthy feast, but then prepare yourself for obedience and service in the church of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Craig L. Blomberg, Denver Seminary
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Beautiful and challenging? Yes, indeed. Ecumenical and faithful? Certainly so. This book... is the most delightfully curated, fully inter-denominational book we’ve seen in a long time.
Hearts & Minds Bookstore
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As I read this collection, I tried to imagine the authors of the various reflections in conversation. What would Leo Tolstoy say to Karl Barth, or Francis of Assisi to Wendell Berry? The more I read, though, the more I started to imagine all of them in one place—listening to Jesus give the Sermon on the Mount. And, before long, I found myself blending into the crowd with them, hearing these strange, arresting, upending words of life. This book will prompt you to surprise, to delight, to melancholy, to argument, and, at every turn, will lead you back to Jesus.
Russell Moore, Christianity Today
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Moore has brought together compelling selections from more than a hundred writers to call for the formation of a fellowship of disciples who will simply live as Jesus taught us to live. I strongly recommend this book for study, reflection, and prayerful living.
Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline
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A magnificent collection of reflections on Jesus's most familiar, and most radical, teaching.
James Martin, SJ, author of Jesus: A Pilgrimage
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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
