A Holistic Vision of Family in God's Kingdom
The Christian world tends to have a blueprint for what families should look like, and these models of the family can be hard to live up to. In some circles, picture-perfect families are idealized and even idolatrized. Many Christians have a gnawing sense that this "traditional family" model is problematic or outdated. But is there an alternative way of understanding family that's neither idolatrous nor revisionist?
Theologian Emily McGowin casts a holistic vision for what family can be in light of God's kingdom. Jesus is our first teacher about families in the kingdom of God, and families rightly understand themselves only in relation to God's kingdom and the church.
In Households of Faith, McGowin
- recovers biblical portraits of households of faith that are not limited to just the biological nuclear family, that can be multigenerational households of married and single, with or without children,
- acknowledges the realities of how sin and trauma damages families and communities, and
- calls Christians to practice family as apprentices to love who discern the times and improvise faithfulness together.
"Resisting short-sighted stereotypes, Emily Hunter McGowin invites readers into an expansive and beautiful vision of the Christian family. Unafraid of facing imperfection, pointing readers toward the richness found in vulnerability and community, this book keeps it real. McGowin's image of 'apprenticeship to love' offers an especially rich way for any family to imagine—or re-imagine—their life together. She invites all readers, precisely in the midst of their own family's particular circumstances, to a way to ask, how will Jesus by his Spirit teach us to love today?"
"Like having coffee with a wise and gracious friend, but also like contemplating well-crafted art, Households of Faith is both approachable and profound. Emily Hunter McGowin embodies her vocation as a pastor-theologian, and in this writing, the reader is invited behind the curtain into the nuts and bolts of her calling. She suffers neither foolishness nor pretense; she gifts her reader the respect of frank speech which makes you want to purge yourself of the false daydream into which you've been lulled concerning the purpose of families and press forward instead, into the coming kingdom. Neither does she guilt trip the reader. Her successes spark ideas; her failures remind you that you are not alone and that it is possible to grow in your apprenticeship of love. Her expertise and her passion shine through on each page, providing insightful life hacks, revelations for difficult theological conundrums, and the confidence that the triune God works graciously and mightily through families."
"What does it mean to be a family in today's world? Emily Hunter McGowin asks this question, inspiring the reader to grasp a holistic vision for what family can be in light of God's kingdom. This is an essential question—one that both stimulated and challenged me to grapple with how family life is influenced and shaped by our culture, history, and sentimental yearnings. Both thoughtful and practical, McGowin invites readers to understand the complex world that families exist within and encourages them to live as apprentices to God's love in the daily chaos of our everyday life."
CONTENTS
Introduction
Part 1: Rediscovering Family as Household of God
1. Searching for the Biblical Family
2. Beginning with Jesus
3. God's Kingdom and God's Family
4. Families as Apprentices to Love
Part 2: Signs of the Kingdom in an Evil Age
5. Families, Sin, and the Unjust Status Quo
6. Apprentices to Love in a Fallen World
7. Singleness and Marriage
8. Children and Childrearing
Part 3: Practicing Family in the Already and Not-Yet
9. Sabbath
10. Baptism
11. Eucharist
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Further Reading
Index
