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The Good And Beautiful Life: Putting On The Character Of Christ (2009)

by James Bryan Smith(Favorite Author)

4.14 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0830835326 (ISBN13: 9780830835324)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

IVP Books

review 1: If I could give this series more than 5 stars, I would. Mentored by Dallas Willard and Richard Foster, James Bryan Smith gives just about the best primer of Christian life that there is. The first book, The Good and Beautiful God helps us understand the character of God Himself. This book, The Good and Beautiful Life, helps us work on OUR character - things like anger, lust, greed, worry - using the Sermon on the Mount for a guide. I agree with everything this guy writes, profound yet simple truths, along with a simple practice you can do for each chapter to help assimilate the truths into your actual daily life.
review 2: As with the first book in the series, I did not read this one as is was intended--slowly and in a small group. Instead, I read through i... moret quickly. In spite of that, I still found Smith's insights into living a good life very insightful. Smith takes Jesus' Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7 and expounds both exegetically and practically. What would it mean to live a good life (good life meaning both a virtuous life and a qualitatively good life)? Smith's presupposition, with which I agree) is that (1) Jesus was the smartest person who ever lived and therefore knows more than anyone what a good life is like and (2) living in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ is a call to live the good life. My only criticism of the book would be that some of the spiritual disciplines do not match the topic discussed. This is not a problem; the disciplines just sometimes feel contrived. In spite of this small qualm, I would highly recommend this book as well as the first in the series (I have not yet read the third), especially for small groups of people who want to practice the good life together. less

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