Abundant Lives: A Progressive Christian Ethic of Flourishing

About the Book

From the Introduction:

"Our world is full of pain and joy, violence and creativity, cruelty and kindness. How should we live? What should our actions be? We make decisions about who to be and what to do, minute by minute, day by day, lifetime by lifetime. What wisdom, what hope, what courage should guide those decisions? How shall we respond to the good we encounter? To the evil? These are ethical, moral questions, some of the most important questions we can ask given the unspeakable good and the terrifying evil around us - and of which we ourselves are capable.

One answer might be that we should respond with love, but that answer only raises more questions. What does love look like in our day and time? How can we love ourselves, other people, and the God of our understanding in ways that make a positive difference in a magnificent and struggling world? How can those of us who seek to follow Jesus do so in a way that embodies and brings to life his dream of a world of peace and joy in which everyone has what they need?

In this book, I attempt to answer both sets of questions - the classic ethical questions about how to live a moral life and the urgent contemporary questions about how we can embody and enact love in a world desperately in need of it. My answer to both sets of questions is the same:

We should commit ourselves to living out an ethic of flourishing in which our values, actions, and social institutions are centered on helping all people to have good lives and on minimizing the avoidable suffering that makes people's lives harder.

This answer is neither simple nor obvious, and I will spend the [rest of this book] clarifying what I mean and indicating how we might move toward living out this commitment."

What People Are Saying

“Beautifully written, deep yet easily accessible, and so comprehensive. It offers us one of the best introductions to progressive Christian living I have ever seen.”

— Brian D. McLaren, author, speaker, activist and public theologian

“In plain language, [Udis-Kessler] sketches out a dazzling, yet practical life ethical for promoting human and planetary flourishing. This slim volume punches way above its weight.”

— Marvin M. Ellison, author and Willard S. Bass Professor of Christian Ethics, Bangor Theological Seminary

“[Abundant Lives] is simply brilliant! The way you bridge ethics, theology, and sociology so clearly and succinctly is masterful. I appreciate the fact that you make the book accessible to a wide audience across a range of perspectives while not being afraid to take a clear stand.”

— Luther Young, sociologist, public theologian, and pastor

“Abundant Lives is a gracious wooing to a transformational journey opening you and I to a way of love. Amanda Udis-Kessler dares us to discover afresh, that we are in this together; we actually need each other…that maybe, Jesus's invitation to love God and love neighbor as we learn to love ourselves is a reliable pathway to flourishing lives and a flourishing planet. This is a must-read for anyone who senses that there might be more to life than partisan divisiveness, ideological separations, and cultural fragmentations. Amanda invites us to attend to our shared humanity as bodied and located human beings teeming with desire for meaning, beauty, and love. This is no escapist manifesto, rather Abundant Lives courageously invites us to move toward our suffering and trauma with profound hope that in embracing reality we discover liberation. If you long for more, I commend Abundant Lives to you, and after reading it, please pass it to a friend.”

— Dwight J. Friesen, Professor of Practical Theology, Seattle School of Theology & Psychology

“Abundant Lives offers a thorough and thoughtful framework for Christian ethics of the kind that many of us long for: ethics centered not on rules and regulations but on real people's holistic wellbeing. Its deep commitment to the flourishing of all people makes it a valuable resource for any individuals, church classes, or seminary classes who want to center faith and justice in their theology and their day-to-day lives.”

— Liz Cooledge Jenkins, author of Nice Churchy Patriarchy

“Terrific job! I have found [the book] insightful, forceful, clear, and compelling. It is a true contribution to progressive Christian thinking…it will, I'm sure, inspire anyone who reads it.”

— Tom Stella, author and director of Soul Link, Inc.

Purchase

Order Abundant Lives now! Free complementary study guide available here from Pilgrim Press.