Diana Butler Bass has narrated 3 audiobooks on Listento.it by 1 author, with an average listener rating of 4.5★ across 3 ratings. The most-rated is Grateful.
Grateful
Summary
The author of the multiple award-winning Grounded and leading trend spotter in contemporary Christianity explores why gratitude is missing as a modern spiritual practice, offers practical suggestions for reclaiming it, and illuminates how the shared practice of gratitude can lead to greater connection with God, our world, and our own souls. More and more people are finding God beyond the walls of traditional religious institutions, but these seekers often miss the church community itself, including its shared spiritual practices such as gratitude. While four out of five Americans have told pollsters they feel gratitude in their daily lives, cultural commentator and religion expert Diana Butler Bass finds that claim to be at odds with the discontent that permeates modern society. There is a gap, she argues, between our desire to be grateful and our ability to behave gratefully - a divide that influences our understanding of morality, worship, and institutional religion itself. In Grateful, Bass challenges listeners to think about the impact gratitude has in our spiritual lives and encourages them to make gratitude a "difficult and much-needed spiritual practice for our personal lives and to make a better world". Gratitude is partially an individual, emotional response to our circumstances, but research has shown that what we often miss is how much more it is a communal, actionable response. Bass examines this more unexpected experience of gratitude and reveals how people and communities can practice it and thrive, whether or not they are part of a traditional religious community.
©2018 Diana Butler Bass (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers
Grounded
Summary
The headlines are clear: Religion is on the decline in America as many people leave behind traditional religious practices. In this follow-up to her critically acclaimed book Christianity After Religion, Diana Butler Bass argues that what appears to be a decline actually signals a major transformation in how people understand God. The distant God of conventional religion has given way to a more intimate sense of the sacred with us in the world. This shift is at the heart of a spiritual revolution that surrounds us - and that is challenging religious, political, and social institutions. Grounded explores this cultural turn as Bass unpacks how people are finding new spiritual ground by discovering and embracing God everywhere in the world around us: in the soil, the water, the sky, in our homes and neighborhoods, and in the global commons. Faith is no longer a matter of mountaintop experience or institutional practice; instead, people are connecting with God through the environment in which we live. Grounded guides listeners through our contemporary spiritual habitat as it points out the many ways in which people experience a God who animates creation and community.
©2015 Diana Butler Bass (P)2016 Tantor
Freeing Jesus
Summary
The award-winning author of Grateful goes beyond the culture wars to offer a refreshing take on the comprehensive, multi-faceted nature of Jesus, keeping his teachings relevant and alive in our daily lives. "How can you still be a Christian?" This is the most common question Diana Butler Bass is asked today. It is a question that many believers ponder as they wrestle with disappointment and disillusionment in their church and its leadership. But while many Christians have left their churches, they cannot leave their faith behind. In Freeing Jesus, Bass challenges the idea that Jesus can only be understood in static, one-dimensional ways and asks us to instead consider a life where Jesus grows with us and helps us through life’s challenges in several capacities: as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way, and Presence. Freeing Jesus is an invitation to leave the religious wars behind and rediscover Jesus in all his many manifestations, to experience Jesus beyond the narrow confines we have built around him. It renews our hope in faith and worship at a time when we need it most.
©2021 Diana Butler Bass (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers