The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry in Biblical Perspective

Author: R. Paul Stevens
List Price: $25.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0802848001
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (August, 2000)
Sales Rank: 67,106
Average Customer Rating: 4 out of 5

Customer Reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5
The book that will underpin the marketplace movement!
I bought this book on the recommendation from a friend. I have been looking for a book that would give a theological framework to what is now called the "marketplace movement". I was also looking for a book to encourage bussiness people and university students that their "work" is of real significance to God. I have not been dissapointed.

What is significant about "The Other Six days" is it's approach. This is not a popular critque of the seperation between work and worship, mission and ministry, clergy and laity. Instead it reconstructs a unifying theology welling up out of scripture, flowing out of the Trininty providing a paradigm of vocation, work, ministry and mission as an intergrated whole. The outcome is all the people of God participate in the Trinities work, mission and ministry.

The book is broken into three parts. Part 1 A people without "Laity and Clergy" Part 2 Summoned and equipped by God and Part 3 For the life of the world.

Each part traces ideas down through the church`s history which now discolour our thinking and practice on the issues addressed. Secondly the contemporary context is explored. The author then gets under the skin of these issues through sound biblical exgesis and an applied theology of the Trinity.

What resulted for me is a dynamic new way of understanding "calling" , work, ministry and mission. It has revitalised my understanding of the church and its work in society.

I found the discussion questions at the end of each chapter to be excellent. There are readings to examine, contemporary case studies to explore, situations to evaluate and examples to analyse. These are excellent for group or individual study, reflection and interaction.

If you are wanting to explore further the issues the book has raised the author provides a fantastic selected bibliograhy, index of authors, biblical references and subjects. The footnotes also provde a rich source for further research.

Overall I'm deeply impacted by the thought, devotion and reflection which has gone into this book. I fully recommend it to anyone wanting to grapple with the intergration of faith and daily life.

Similar Products

Fabric of This World: Inquiries into Calling, Career Choice, and the Design of Human Work
Church on Sunday, Work on Monday: The Challenge of Fusing Christian Values with Business Life


Book Index