Try free for 30 days
-
Beautiful and Terrible Things
- Faith, Doubt, and Discovering a Way Back to Each Other
- Narrated by: Amy Butler
- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $21.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also picked
-
Wounded Pastors
- Navigating Burnout, Finding Healing, and Discerning the Future of Your Ministry
- By: James Fenimore, Carol Howard
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You're not alone in your ministry. And you don't have to suffer in silence. Ministry is a stressful vocation, with unspoken expectations, projected anxieties, and conflicting demands. After the pandemic caused a sudden shift to online worship and factions fighting over when and how to return to in-person worship, pastors have been leaving congregational ministry at even higher rates than usual. The emotional fallout of burnout and abuse at the hands of parishioners is something pastors carry for years, whether they stay or leave the congregation.
-
A Faith of Many Rooms
- Inhabiting a More Spacious Christianity
- By: Debie Thomas
- Narrated by: Jeed Saddy
- Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Disillusioned by narrow theologies, church dysfunction, and constricted readings of Scripture, people are leaving Christianity in droves. But Jesus describes the reign of God as a house with many rooms, writes Debie Thomas, one of the most auspicious voices in religious writing today. In this work of sprawling spiritual and literary imagination, Thomas claims that wherever God dwells, there is expansiveness and belonging.
-
The Science of the Good Samaritan
- Thinking Bigger About Loving Our Neighbors
- By: Dr. Emily Smith
- Narrated by: Dr. Emily Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Join Dr. Emily Smith, global health expert and creator of the popular Facebook page Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist, as she dives into what loving your neighbor--as illustrated in the biblical parable of the Good Samaritan--truly means. Combining Dr. Smith's expertise as a scientist with her deep Christian faith while drawing from her journey from small-town Texas to a prestigious university, The Science of the Good Samaritan shares fascinating stories from Dr. Smith's life and the lives of other inspiring people around the world.
-
Into the Heart of Romans
- A Deep Dive into Paul's Greatest Letter
- By: N. T. Wright
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
N. T. Wright—widely regarded as the most influential commentator and interpreter of Paul—deftly unpacks this dense and sometimes elusive letter, detailing Paul's arguments and showing how it illuminates the Gospel from the promises to Abraham through the visions of Revelation. Wright takes a deep dive into Romans 8, showing how it illuminates so much else that God reveals in Scripture: God the Father, Christology, and the Spirit; Jesus' Messiahship, cross, resurrection, and ascension; salvation, redemption, and adoption; suffering and glory; holiness and hope.
-
The Lives We Actually Have
- 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days
- By: Kate Bowler, Jessica Richie
- Narrated by: Kate Bowler, Jessica Richie
- Length: 3 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We live in a world that demands relentless perfection. Happy marriages and easy friendships. Bucket list–level adventures and matching family photos. But what if our actual lives don’t feel very #blessed? Might our everyday existence be worthy of a blessing too? Even an average Tuesday?
-
A Different Kind of Fast
- Feeding Our True Hungers in Lent
- By: Christine Valters Paintner
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fasting is not just the physical practice of giving up food. Fasting can also be a way to combat our culture of endless distractions and busyness. Fasting is an act of letting go, of making more internal space to listen to the sacred whispers of our lives. Join Christine Valters Paintner, online abbess of Abbey of the Arts, on a spiritual journey through seven different kinds of fasts, including fasting from control, from our attachments, from our grasping, and more.
-
Wounded Pastors
- Navigating Burnout, Finding Healing, and Discerning the Future of Your Ministry
- By: James Fenimore, Carol Howard
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You're not alone in your ministry. And you don't have to suffer in silence. Ministry is a stressful vocation, with unspoken expectations, projected anxieties, and conflicting demands. After the pandemic caused a sudden shift to online worship and factions fighting over when and how to return to in-person worship, pastors have been leaving congregational ministry at even higher rates than usual. The emotional fallout of burnout and abuse at the hands of parishioners is something pastors carry for years, whether they stay or leave the congregation.
-
A Faith of Many Rooms
- Inhabiting a More Spacious Christianity
- By: Debie Thomas
- Narrated by: Jeed Saddy
- Length: 6 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Disillusioned by narrow theologies, church dysfunction, and constricted readings of Scripture, people are leaving Christianity in droves. But Jesus describes the reign of God as a house with many rooms, writes Debie Thomas, one of the most auspicious voices in religious writing today. In this work of sprawling spiritual and literary imagination, Thomas claims that wherever God dwells, there is expansiveness and belonging.
-
The Science of the Good Samaritan
- Thinking Bigger About Loving Our Neighbors
- By: Dr. Emily Smith
- Narrated by: Dr. Emily Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Join Dr. Emily Smith, global health expert and creator of the popular Facebook page Friendly Neighbor Epidemiologist, as she dives into what loving your neighbor--as illustrated in the biblical parable of the Good Samaritan--truly means. Combining Dr. Smith's expertise as a scientist with her deep Christian faith while drawing from her journey from small-town Texas to a prestigious university, The Science of the Good Samaritan shares fascinating stories from Dr. Smith's life and the lives of other inspiring people around the world.
-
Into the Heart of Romans
- A Deep Dive into Paul's Greatest Letter
- By: N. T. Wright
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
N. T. Wright—widely regarded as the most influential commentator and interpreter of Paul—deftly unpacks this dense and sometimes elusive letter, detailing Paul's arguments and showing how it illuminates the Gospel from the promises to Abraham through the visions of Revelation. Wright takes a deep dive into Romans 8, showing how it illuminates so much else that God reveals in Scripture: God the Father, Christology, and the Spirit; Jesus' Messiahship, cross, resurrection, and ascension; salvation, redemption, and adoption; suffering and glory; holiness and hope.
-
The Lives We Actually Have
- 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days
- By: Kate Bowler, Jessica Richie
- Narrated by: Kate Bowler, Jessica Richie
- Length: 3 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We live in a world that demands relentless perfection. Happy marriages and easy friendships. Bucket list–level adventures and matching family photos. But what if our actual lives don’t feel very #blessed? Might our everyday existence be worthy of a blessing too? Even an average Tuesday?
-
A Different Kind of Fast
- Feeding Our True Hungers in Lent
- By: Christine Valters Paintner
- Narrated by: Nan McNamara
- Length: 5 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fasting is not just the physical practice of giving up food. Fasting can also be a way to combat our culture of endless distractions and busyness. Fasting is an act of letting go, of making more internal space to listen to the sacred whispers of our lives. Join Christine Valters Paintner, online abbess of Abbey of the Arts, on a spiritual journey through seven different kinds of fasts, including fasting from control, from our attachments, from our grasping, and more.
Publisher's Summary
From one of America’s most prominent ministers comes an inspiring, provocative reflection on the necessity of community, the inevitability of conflict, and the transformative power of radical love.
“I so love and admire the work and witness of Pastor Amy Butler.”—Anne Lamott
“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid,” said theologian Frederick Buechner. Pastor Amy Butler, the first woman at the helm of New York’s historic Riverside Church, knows firsthand that to navigate such a world, one must be courageous, honest, and compassionate. In Beautiful and Terrible Things, Pastor Amy draws on the most meaningful, challenging, and soul-shaking moments of her own life to offer larger lessons on theology and relationships.
Pastor Amy grew up in a conservative Evangelical family in the diverse culture of the Hawaiian Islands. As she realized she was more inclined to be a pastor than to marry one, she began an unlikely journey, breaking one stained-glass ceiling after another. Holding increasingly high-profile ministry positions in New Orleans, Washington, D.C., and New York City, Amy weathered rigidly unwelcoming congregations and enormous trials, ultimately learning that only the radical love of community could generate healing. As she describes her experiences leading a church to publicly affirm its LGBTQ community members, losing a child, and undergoing an unexpected divorce, Amy offers a thoughtful lens on all the ways life can push us to see the world from another’s perspective. In her signature compassionate, witty voice, she offers fresh, nonjudgmental perspectives on faith—which, at its most beautiful expression, allows for the possibility that there is more than one way to experience God.
Critic Reviews
“When I survey the state of institutional religion today, I find so many reasons to despair. But as Amy Butler reminds us, the church is not God. Informed by her deeply personal experiences, Beautiful and Terrible Things casts a vision for a wide-armed faith that is capable of making sense of these fractious and chaotic times. She fearlessly navigates white-hot cultural debates—from abortion to LGBTQ inclusion—with grace and humility, eschewing extremes and forging common ground. If you feel spiritually unmoored or religiously disillusioned, you’ll find more than a mustard seed of hope in the pages of this book. Amen and amen.”—Jonathan Merritt, award-winning author and contributing writer for The Atlantic