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9781506498157

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Durheim's book will deepen your understanding of rural life and ministry. Each in Our Own Language highlights the work of significant authors who address small-town and rural settings, as well as the dynamics of ministry in those contexts. Utilizing a variety of disciplines, he also explores, with a goal of helping people flourish, the many layers of symbolic meaning around language regarding rural life and social ethics. --Jon Anderson, director of rural ministry, Luther Seminary Ben Durheim takes everyday life in rural agrarian and small-town America as the starting point for a thoughtful and provocative theological exploration of symbolization, social ethics, human communication, and relationality. Durheim reminds us of our ongoing need to develop, expand, and practice skills in social literacy--that is, the practice of reading and responding to the varied symbols that mediate our integral human connectedness. This skill and its practice are crucial, laying the groundwork for both ethical action and communal worship, and for sustaining our grasp of what it means to live together on the way to God's reign. --M. Shawn Copeland, professor emerita, Boston College In our unfortunate era, when runaway rhetoric seizing upon others' words largely produces more heat than light, Ben Durheim invites readers to think through the symbol-mediated realities of social bodies to comprehend better how and why a people shares values and convictions. Durheim integrates critical theories of symbol, ritual, and aesthetics with freshly considered theological categories to enlighten efforts at self- and mutual understanding, ethical reflection, and societal solidarity. --Bruce T. Morrill, SJ, Vanderbilt University, and author of Practical Sacramental Theology: At the Intersection of Liturgy and Ethics In a world too comfortable with stereotyping, polarization, and instrumental thinking, Benjamin Durheim's boundary-breaking work in contextual rural theology could not be more timely or more welcome. Rooted in ethnographic research and the honest, loving gaze of Durheim's own rural living, Each in Our Own Language is rich with insight into symbol, liturgy, and the opportunities for sin and grace found in communities of neighbors and fellow believers. A must-read for anyone seeking to understand the past, present, and future of Christianity in North America. --Kate Ward, associate professor, Marquette University

Author Information

Benjamin Durheim is an assistant professor of theology at the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, where he teaches courses in liturgical/sacramental theology, social ethics, and rural ministry. Durheim earned his doctorate from Boston College. His publications include Christ's Gift, Our Response (Liturgical Press, 2015) and many articles in liturgical and theological journals.

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