Learning to Dream Again: Rediscovering the Heart of God

by Samuel Wells

Meditations that beautifully articulate a contemporary Christian wisdom

Through a series of short, thoughtful meditations, Learning to Dream Again shows what true wisdom -- wisdom shaped by Jesus' earthy humility, shameful suffering, and effervescent joy -- might look like for Christians today. Through the lens of this Christian wisdom, Samuel Wells addresses a number of difficult personal and social issues, including taxes, abortion, torture, hunger, and Christian engagement with broader culture in the arts, sciences, athletics, and medicine.

As he seeks to present a faithful rendering of the mind of Christ, Wells deftly ties abstract ideas to everyday Christian living. He groups his meditations thematically into these six Beautifully written and extraordinarily insightful, Learning to Dream Again is both for Christians who have been to church for years but long to ponder the ambiguities and hard questions of faith and life and for new Christians who are just beginning to investigate how the gospel connects to their most searching questions.

233 pages, Paperback

First published April 26, 2013

About the author

Samuel Wells (PhD, University of Durham) is vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Anglican Church at Trafalgar Square in London. He previously served as dean of the chapel and research professor of Christian ethics at Duke University. Wells is the author of several books, including Be Not Afraid, Improvisation: The Drama of Christian Ethics, and Transforming Fate into Destiny: The Theological Ethics of Stanley Hauerwas. He also coedited, with Stanley Hauerwas, The Blackwell Companion to Christian Ethics.

Reviews

[Preston Grissom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book to read quickly or to read for particular sections. The closest thing to a non-conservative devotional I've read.

[Roy Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Samuel Wells is a wise pastor and theologian. For that reason alone, one would benefit from reading this book. In addition to theological insights offered with an uncanny depth of wisdom, Wells also writes well. This is a collection of essays from his years as Dean of the Chapel at Duke University organized around dreaming and learning to dream again. Within that form he covers a wide range of topics combining ethical reflection with stories and scriptural commentary that convey wonderfully theology for the present time. Hunger, poverty, marriage and divorce, abortion, art, science are all addressed with humility and generosity of spirit. Wells says, “My hope is that the reader finds in this book wisdom drawn from earthly humility, shameful suffering, and effervescent joy. I would like to believe it presents a faithful rendering of the mind of Christ. I trust that it will stimulate a healthy balance of learning and dreaming.” He has found that sweet spot that many writers aim for and few attain where great wisdom is expressed in accessible language that engages the heart and mind, actually leading the reader into a new way of seeing and acting.

[Zac Koons · Rating 5 out of 5]

a series of sermons-turned-essays that cover a wide variety of topics: torture, abortion, taxes, healthcare, atheism, and many more. Wells's writing is accessible, but not at the cost of nuance or theological depth.