{"id":6574,"date":"2010-01-28T00:00:31","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T05:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/"},"modified":"2010-01-28T00:00:31","modified_gmt":"2010-01-28T05:00:31","slug":"a-good-and-beautiful-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/","title":{"rendered":"A Good and Beautiful Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"JBSmith.jpg\"<\/a><\/span>Not that long ago I blogged through the first volume of James Bryan Smith\u2019s The Apprentice Series. Volume two, The Good and Beautiful Life: Putting on the Character of Christ (The Apprentice Series)<\/a>\"\"
\n<\/strong><\/em>, is now available and I\u2019d like to draw your attention to it and raise a question or two for us to discuss today.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
If you had one section or one book in the Bible to go to, which would you use as your foundational text in teaching the Christian life? Smith uses the Sermon on the Mount, which leads to my second question: Do you think the Sermon on the Mount is a good place to start? How has the Sermon on the Mount been taught or used in your faith community?<\/b><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Smith\u2019s book doesn\u2019t come off as a commentary on the Sermon on the Mount; in fact, I was thinking the book was a Christian life book taught through the lens of the virtues of the spiritual formation tradition before it became clear he was basing the good life on the Sermon on the Mount. His topics are the beatitudes, anger, lust, lying, blessing our enemies, vainglory, avarice, worry, and judging others. He begins with two opening chapters about the good life and the gospel.<\/div>\n


\nPerhaps the distinctive of this book \u2014 besides being readable and practical and pastorally sensitive \u2014 is his emphasis on the false narratives that are shaping us and the summons to the Jesus narrative that can reshape us. So, for the opening chp he brings up the \u201chappiness comes from following the principles of the world\u201d narrative that is countered by the follow Jesus narrative. Each chp is followed by a creative \u201csoul training\u201d exercise \u2014 like writing a letter to God or something on play or on Sabbath or media fasting (ahem, ahem) or deaccumulation. I found each of these to be on target and useful.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Because I\u2019m teaching the Sermon on the Mount right now, this book came at the right time, so I want to give one more concrete illustration of what Smith offers. On anger\u2026<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
False narratives include I am alone, I am in control, something terrible will happen if I make a mistake, life must be fair always, I need to be perfect \u2014 and he wisely sees that these are issues connected to anger. The kingdom narrative offers an alternative: you are not alone; Jesus is in control; mistakes happen; life is not fair and just all the time but God gets the last word, and Jesus accepts me even though I\u2019m not perfect.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
That\u2019s enough for today \u2026 I heartily recommend Smith\u2019s books.<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not that long ago I blogged through the first volume of James Bryan Smith\u2019s The Apprentice Series. Volume two, The Good and Beautiful Life: Putting on the Character of Christ (The Apprentice Series) , is now available and I\u2019d like to draw your attention to it and raise a question or two for us to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[476,1748],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-sermon-on-the-mount"],"yoast_head":"\nA Good and Beautiful Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Not that long ago I blogged through the first volume of James Bryan Smith's The Apprentice Series. Volume two, The Good and Beautiful Life: Putting on the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Good and Beautiful Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Not that long ago I blogged through the first volume of James Bryan Smith's The Apprentice Series. Volume two, The Good and Beautiful Life: Putting on the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-01-28T05:00:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/assets_c\/2010\/01\/JBSmith-thumb-333x217-11006.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/\",\"name\":\"A Good and Beautiful Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-01-28T05:00:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-01-28T05:00:31+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"Not that long ago I blogged through the first volume of James Bryan Smith's The Apprentice Series. Volume two, The Good and Beautiful Life: Putting on the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"A Good and Beautiful Life\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Good and Beautiful Life","description":"Not that long ago I blogged through the first volume of James Bryan Smith's The Apprentice Series. Volume two, The Good and Beautiful Life: Putting on the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Good and Beautiful Life","og_description":"Not that long ago I blogged through the first volume of James Bryan Smith's The Apprentice Series. Volume two, The Good and Beautiful Life: Putting on the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/","og_site_name":"Jesus Creed","article_published_time":"2010-01-28T05:00:31+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/assets_c\/2010\/01\/JBSmith-thumb-333x217-11006.jpg"}],"author":"Scot McKnight","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scot McKnight","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/","name":"A Good and Beautiful Life","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-01-28T05:00:31+00:00","dateModified":"2010-01-28T05:00:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252"},"description":"Not that long ago I blogged through the first volume of James Bryan Smith's The Apprentice Series. Volume two, The Good and Beautiful Life: Putting on the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2010\/01\/28\/a-good-and-beautiful-life\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Good and Beautiful Life"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/","name":"Jesus Creed","description":"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252","name":"Scot McKnight","description":"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. McKnight, author of more than fifty books, is the Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, IL.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/author\/scotmcknight\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}