Eugene Peterson may be the most influential theological writer in the church today. Yet because most of his career has not been in academia there is not much critical engagement with his work. Here some of the finest scholar-pastors we have describe the way Peterson has inspired and infuriated on the way to (hopefully) more faithful pastorates. ""For those who knew Eugene Peterson only through his idiomatically rendered Bible, The Message, his memoir, The Pastor, was a revelation. But only a partial one. For the full 360-degree refraction, read Pastoral Work . . . which collects the very...

About the Contributor(s): Jason Byassee is senior pastor of Boone United Methodist Church in Boone, North Carolina, and fellow in theology and leadership at Leadership Education at Duke Divinity School. He is also a contributing editor to The Christian Century. He has written for Books & Culture, First Things, and Sojourners.

The Confessions of St. Augustine is one of the few Christian classics that is still widely read in the secular academy. Yet, oddly enough, it is not often read in the manner Augustine appears to have intended and in which the church read it for centuries: as a model of conversion, devotion, friendship, and the love of God. This book is a companion for any reader of the Confessions--whether in an academic, ecclesial, or devotional context--informed by the latest scholarship yet always directed toward pushing the reader, with Augustine, toward God.

Augustines Confessions are a glorious...

In this vibrant theological reflection on the meaning of friendship, an experienced pastor and leading Christian ethicist argues that friendship is the medium through which God shares grace with his creatures.