Reading for the Common Good: How Books Help Our Churches and Neighborhoods Flourish - Softcover

C. Christopher Smith is editor of The Englewood Review of Books and a member of the Englewood Christian Church community on the urban Near Eastside of Indianapolis. He is the coauthor of Slow Church. Chris's writing has appeared in Books and Culture, Sojourners, The Christian Century and Indiana Green Living.

Scot McKnight (Ph.D., University of Nottingham) is professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary in Lombard, Illinois. He is the author of The Jesus Creed, The King Jesus Gospel, A Community Called Atonement, Embracing Grace, The Real Mary and commentaries on James, Galatians and 1 Peter, and coeditor of the award-winning Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. He is also a widely recognized blogger at the Jesus Creed blog. His other interests include golfing, gardening and traveling.

"The co-author of the bestselling Slow Church returns with this call to churches to wake up from being passively consumed and engage the world with words and creativity. Smith calls the church to be an organization that values learning as deeply as doing. The book includes suggestions for how to become a reading congregation as well as reading lists." (The Covenant Companion, September/October 2016)

"There are many books on the common good, but C. Christopher Smith's new book on reading for the common good is one of the most intriguing and compelling to come out in a long time. Reading for the Common Good weaves personal enrichment, ethics and education into a beautiful and simple unity. It is a paradigm-altering book and one that is sure to enrich and inspire as we seek to find meaningful ways to think about and engage our communities, cities and the world." (Ken Wytsma, author of Pursuing Justice and The Grand Paradox)

"C. Christopher Smith offers a fresh, rich and quite unfamiliar proposal concerning human renewal and church regeneration. He exposits the cruciality of reading, thinking and conversing in the community as a bedrock practice for a sustainable missional community. His project serves to awaken us from our numbing 'electronic slumbers' into a slow engagement with imaginative words. I suggest that this book can be a valuable reference for pastoral nurture and education in the church." (Walter Brueggemann, professor emeritus, Columbia Theological Seminary)

"Anyone who likes to read knows that feeling of connectedness when an author expresses an idea or a thought that resonates with us. It makes us feel less alone in the universe to know that someone else has wrestled with concepts or problems that concern us. Connection, church, community: Smith encourages us to read all about it." (Carol Balinski, Reading Eagle, March 26, 2016)

"In a world of constant noise and chatter, slowing down to listen as faith communities becomes a subversive act. In this great new book, Chris Smith invites us to truly listen to wisdom and stories shared through the written page. I highly recommend it." (Tim Soerens, cofounding director, The Parish Collective, coauthor of The New Parish)

"Opening up Reading for the Common Good is like sitting down for a chat with the best kind of friend. C. Christopher Smith's references will provide layers of meaning and inspiration while his heartening and hopeful words will expand your soul." (Carol Howard Merritt, columnist, The Christian Century, author of Healing Spiritual Wounds)

"Reading isn't a technique. It's about cultivating the practice of discernment through dialogue with others. I urge you to read this little volume if you are, like me, hungry for direction in a world that continually claims to know the right answers and the right techniques. To be still with others, to wait in reading 'texts' is an invitation to hear God together." (Alan Roxburgh, The Missional Network, author of Structured for Mission)

"In this hectic age, with its flood of electronic scraps aimed at five-second attention spans, how refreshing it is to meet a champion of slow, sustained and meditative reading of books. And not just any books, but ones that nurture compassion and community. Chris Smith illustrates in his own work and in his account of the work of his church what it means to love one's neighbor. It means more than kindly feelings. It means kindly actions. It means caring for others, beginning with those who share the place where we live, and above all those who are most in need. The wealth Smith celebrates is not to be found in stock markets or bank accounts, but between the covers of books, between person and person, and in the loving heart." (Scott Russell Sanders, author of Divine Animal)

"Having devoted the entirety of my personal and professional life to the vision and practices laid out in Reading for the Common Good, I offer a hearty 'Hear! Hear!' This book will inspire, motivate and challenge anyone who cares a whit about the written word, the world of ideas, the shape of our communities and the life of the church." (Karen Swallow Prior, author of Booked and Fierce Convictions)

"Let this book stoke the flames for rich communal life by doing something strange in our society: teaching us to read together. Chris sets a different pace with Reading for the Common Good, a pace that allows for a new flourishing in your neighborhood and mine by, yes, reading together! I couldn't be more taken by a book." (David Fitch, BR Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology, Northern Seminary, author of Prodigal Christianity)