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Failure: What Jesus Said About Sin, Mistakes and Messing Stuff Up
'A superb book on failure . . . humorous, realistic and absolutely not judgemental .'
JUSTIN WELBY
In 2019, Emma Ineson wrote about ambition and what it means for Christians to be successful. And then there was a global pandemic . . . Suddenly failure began to feel very much more familiar than success.
But what is failure? What did Jesus think of it? What did he say about sin, mistakes and generally mucking things up? At the start of this wonderfully humorous and encouraging book - which will end at the cross - it's suggested that our tendency to lump all kinds of failure together could be a bit unhelpful. A more nuanced understanding of what sort of failure we're dealing with might just allow us to make friends with it and respond more appropriately. This idea leads us 'Towards an (Imperfect) Theology of Failure', based on key Christian thinking, and Emma poses the question of whether sin is an individual or corporate thing. Looking at the church, we consider, what is God's purpose for it? And in the light of key concerns such as safeguarding and racial justice, how might we re-examine concepts of success and recognize and measure failure?
As the book draws to an end, we are reminded of our calling to live life to the full, to take risks despite our fears. We are bound sometimes to fail! Yet gazing at Jesus - who looked like the greatest failure of all - we may discern in the heartache, vulnerability and humility of failure, the glory of the cross.
Failure was the 2023 Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book.
JUSTIN WELBY
In 2019, Emma Ineson wrote about ambition and what it means for Christians to be successful. And then there was a global pandemic . . . Suddenly failure began to feel very much more familiar than success.
But what is failure? What did Jesus think of it? What did he say about sin, mistakes and generally mucking things up? At the start of this wonderfully humorous and encouraging book - which will end at the cross - it's suggested that our tendency to lump all kinds of failure together could be a bit unhelpful. A more nuanced understanding of what sort of failure we're dealing with might just allow us to make friends with it and respond more appropriately. This idea leads us 'Towards an (Imperfect) Theology of Failure', based on key Christian thinking, and Emma poses the question of whether sin is an individual or corporate thing. Looking at the church, we consider, what is God's purpose for it? And in the light of key concerns such as safeguarding and racial justice, how might we re-examine concepts of success and recognize and measure failure?
As the book draws to an end, we are reminded of our calling to live life to the full, to take risks despite our fears. We are bound sometimes to fail! Yet gazing at Jesus - who looked like the greatest failure of all - we may discern in the heartache, vulnerability and humility of failure, the glory of the cross.
Failure was the 2023 Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent Book.
240 pages, Paperback
Published December 15, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 1, 2023
This wasn’t the easiest read or subject to be honest and at times I found it a bit difficult to to motivate myself to persevere. I am pleased I did. A lot of relevant helpful support and perspectives on failure of different kinds. Found the companion lent book devotional Dust and Glory helped to reinforce the themes and my understanding. There was an awful lot of aha moments in the last chapter and finished feeling pretty uplifted in the end.
January 28, 2024
An enjoyable read on a difficult topic. I liked how the author framed failure in different contexts and the reality that we must all learn how to handle failure as we are human. I liked the tone and the style of the author’s writing.
April 8, 2023
This has been a good book to read during the course of lent. Learning to fail more so I can be more open to the ideas of God has made this a useful and worthwhile read.
May 20, 2023
Quote heavy. Some good observations in between but I found it disappointingly light overall
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews