The Listening Heart
Vocation and the Crisis of Modern Culture
By A. J. Conyers
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Subjects: All Philosophy, All Religious Studies, All Theology |
A culture built upon the ideology of individual choice is a culture of alienation, loneliness, and violence. In this provocative book, A. J. Conyers shows that Western culture was once informed by a sense of vocation, that men understood life as a response to a call from outside and above themselves. Conyers reveals with stunning insight how the quintessential institution of modernity is slavery, for the slave is the ultimate autonomous individual whose ties to family, church, and clan are dissolved. Cogently arguing for the affections that constitute real community, Conyers restores a sense of vocation and thus what it means to be human.
Preface
1. The Era of Bloodshed
2. Vocation and Community
3. The Broken Image
4. The Decline of Vocation
5. Distraction
6. Power
7. Life Together
8. Attention
9. Tolerance
10. Place
11. Rest
12. The Return to Community
Afterword
Notes
Index
In The Listening Heart, Conyers writes with power and conviction.
—Jean Bethke Elshtain, University of Chicago
The Listening Heart is for all who want to build faithful communities of love and learning.
—Timothy George, executive editor, Christianity Today
A. J. Conyers is a wonderful critic of the interplay between the classical Christian faith and the contemporary world.
—Bishop William H. Willimon, former dean of the chapel, Duke University
A. J. Conyers (1946-2004) was Professor of Theology at the George W. Truett Theological Seminary, Baylor University. His previous books include the acclaimed The Long Truce: How Toleration Made the World Safe for Power and Profit (2001), The Eclipse of Heaven (1999), and The End: What the Gospels Say About the Last Things (1995).
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