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Streams in the Wasteland

Finding Spiritual Renewal with the Desert Fathers and Mothers

Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
What if our exhaustion, burnout, and pain are an invitation into a more vibrant faith?
Christianity is fighting for its soul. We've enjoyed the benefits of power and privilege for so long that many of us have forgotten the radical way of Jesus. But we have been here before. And there is a way through. Within a few hundred years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, Christianity emerged as the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. Where it once took courage to be a Christian, suddenly it was easy, and the radical way of Jesus was being lost. Toward the end of the fourth century, a group of men and women began to withdraw from the halls of privilege and power into the desert to rediscover the essence of Jesus Christ. The stories and examples of these desert fathers and mothers are recorded for us. And their lives still speak by as they teach us:
  • To embrace the disciplines of solitude, silence, and prayer;
  • To pursue humility, generosity, and unity in rich relationship with others;
  • To develop a keen eye for wisdom; and
  • To lay down our rights for the good of others.
  • The desert fathers and mothers found a way to live radically, humanly, and beautifully in a spiritually desolate and confusing time. So can we.
    Streams in the Wasteland is for all those who thirst for a better way—the radical way of Jesus amid the desert of our age.
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      • Library Journal

        July 1, 2022

        Some evangelicals lament that much of what passes for Christianity is a baptized secular stand-in. While often pointing at more liberal branches, many evangelicals offer the same critique of themselves. Arndt (All Flame), a pastor at the Colorado Springs nondenominational charismatic evangelical megachurch New Life, observes that this appropriation of the sacred is perennial. He writes that by the early fourth century, a movement of small desert communities attempted to recover the essence of Christianity that was being overshadowed by a larger society. Drawing parallels between his own life, ministry, and stories of these desert saints, Arndt invites readers to share in the wisdom of a tradition where solitude and community were held in equal measure, where simplicity was esteemed, and where a deep spirituality and generosity to all people fed each other. Finding that his fellow believers are far more interested in their own prerogatives than in enabling the people who've been deprived of theirs, he calls on evangelicals to embrace this last virtue. VERDICT Although there are not enough anecdotes from desert mothers and fathers to fully appreciate them, Arndt's book (citing Anglican, Orthodox, and Catholic sources) succeeds in showing that they were not some curious aberration but a genuine response that has repeated itself throughout Church history.--James Wetherbee

        Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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