A Time to Keep: Theology, Mortality, and the Shape of a Human

A Time to Keep: Theology, Mortality, and the Shape of a Human Life

The miracle of birth and the mystery of death markÂ human life. Mortality, like a dark specter, looms over all that lies in between. Human character, behavior, aims, and community are all inescapably shaped by this certainty of human ends. Mortality, like an unwanted guest, intrudes, becoming a burden and a constant struggle. Mortality, like a thief who steals, even threatens the ability to live life rightly. Life is short. Death is certain. Mortality, at all costs, should be resisted or transcended.
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In A Time to Keep Ephraim Radner revalues mortality, reclaiming it as God's own. Mortality should notÂ be resisted butÂ received. Radner reveals mortality's true nature as a gift, God's gift, and thus reveals that the many limitations that mortality imposes should be celebrated. Radner demonstrates how faithfulnessâ€•and not resignation, escape, denial, redefinition, or excessâ€•is the proper response to the gift of humanity's temporal limitation. To live rightly is to recognize and then willingly accept life's limitations.

In chapters on sex and sexuality, singleness and family, education and vocation, andÂ aÂ panoply of end of life issues, A Time to Keep plumbs the depths of the secularÂ imagination, uncovering the constantÂ struggleÂ with human finitudeÂ in its myriadÂ forms. Radner shows thatÂ by wrongly positioningÂ creaturely mortality, these parts of human experience haveÂ receivedÂ an inadequate reckoning.Â A Time to Keep retrieves the most basic confession of the Christian faith, that life is God's, which Radner offers as grace, asÂ the basis for a Christian understanding of human existence bound by its origin and telos. TheÂ possibilityÂ and purposeÂ of what comes between birth and deathÂ isÂ orderedÂ by the pattern of Scripture,Â but isÂ performed faithfully onlyÂ in obedience to theÂ limits that bind it.

Country	USA
Author	Ephraim Radner
Binding	Hardcover
EAN	9781481305068
ISBN	1481305069
Label	Baylor University Press
Manufacturer	Baylor University Press
NumberOfItems	1
NumberOfPages	304
PublicationDate	2016-06-21
Publisher	Baylor University Press
Studio	Baylor University Press
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

A Time to Keep: Theology, Mortality, and the Shape of a Human Life

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