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No Longer Strangers : Finding Belonging in a World of Alienation
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Description
Belonging has never come easy to me.
Growing up, there was my mutated national identity to deal with-my not-quite-American, not-quite-Indonesian soul, restless in both countries. Later, when I came out as a celibate gay Christian, I found I didn't fit into the church as easily as I used to. I've often wondered what it means to belong to others even when I can't manage to blend in with them.
The way Jesus tells it, if we give up on belonging in order to follow him, we'll find ourselves belonging anyway. We might not belong the way other people do, with normal homes and normal families and normal ways of fitting in. But we'll belong in a way that's a hundred times better. We'll be fully in place because we know we are out of place. We'll belong like aliens.
Maybe you're caught in the same tension as me, wanting to fit somewhere even as you're permanently out of place. Maybe you feel like an alien.
If so, let's be aliens together.
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Growing up, there was my mutated national identity to deal with-my not-quite-American, not-quite-Indonesian soul, restless in both countries. Later, when I came out as a celibate gay Christian, I found I didn't fit into the church as easily as I used to. I've often wondered what it means to belong to others even when I can't manage to blend in with them.
The way Jesus tells it, if we give up on belonging in order to follow him, we'll find ourselves belonging anyway. We might not belong the way other people do, with normal homes and normal families and normal ways of fitting in. But we'll belong in a way that's a hundred times better. We'll be fully in place because we know we are out of place. We'll belong like aliens.
Maybe you're caught in the same tension as me, wanting to fit somewhere even as you're permanently out of place. Maybe you feel like an alien.
If so, let's be aliens together.
show more
Product details
- Paperback | 216 pages
- 140 x 216 x 18mm | 263g
- 23 Feb 2021
- InterVarsity Press
- Inter-Varsity Press,US
- Illinois, United States
- English
- 0830847901
- 9780830847907
- 419,130
Table of contents
Foreword by Jen Pollock Michel
Tentacles: An Introduction
Part One: Belonging In
1. Womb Nostalgia
2. Home Sweet Airport
3. Poohsticks in an Open Sewer
4. The Man Who Coughed Blood on Me
5. Hide and Seek
6. Dengue Days
7. How to Deal Drugs
Interlude: A Glorious Dark
Part Two: Belonging With
8. A Jedi's Training
9. Santai Sundays
10. Friendship Costs Twenty-Five Dollars an Hour
11. The Origami Artists
12. Laundering
13. Ghosts of Friendship Past
14. Thank You for Making Me Hurt
Interlude: Stitching
Part Three: Belonging To
15. Magnets
16. That Guy Who Cleaned My Microwave
17. The Art of Neighboring
18. Table for One
19. Limbs
20. Memento Mori
21. Rivers Cannot Sweep It Away
Postlude: Shore
Acknowledgments
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Tentacles: An Introduction
Part One: Belonging In
1. Womb Nostalgia
2. Home Sweet Airport
3. Poohsticks in an Open Sewer
4. The Man Who Coughed Blood on Me
5. Hide and Seek
6. Dengue Days
7. How to Deal Drugs
Interlude: A Glorious Dark
Part Two: Belonging With
8. A Jedi's Training
9. Santai Sundays
10. Friendship Costs Twenty-Five Dollars an Hour
11. The Origami Artists
12. Laundering
13. Ghosts of Friendship Past
14. Thank You for Making Me Hurt
Interlude: Stitching
Part Three: Belonging To
15. Magnets
16. That Guy Who Cleaned My Microwave
17. The Art of Neighboring
18. Table for One
19. Limbs
20. Memento Mori
21. Rivers Cannot Sweep It Away
Postlude: Shore
Acknowledgments
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Review quote
"Greg Coles has become one of the most important voices in the church. I can't express how grateful I am for him and for this book. No Longer Strangers is another home run-showing us a creative, bold, and intrepid way forward in following Jesus in a gray world. I commend him to you. And his melodic book."
A. J. Swoboda, author of After Doubt, assistant professor of Bible and theology at Bushnell University, Eugene, Oregon
"Simply superb. Theologically excellent. Deeply personal. Brutally honest. Intensely engaging. Coles's writing is simply exquisite. He moves from vivid description of personal experience to profound theological reflection with the ease of an exceptionally gifted writer. A must-read."
Ron Sider, distinguished professor emeritus of theology, holistic ministry, and public policy, Palmer Seminary at Eastern University, author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger
"When I finished reading No Longer Strangers I thought that all of my friends should read this book, because in its pages they will find a friend in Greg, hope for the church, and true belonging with Friend and Lover, Jesus Christ."
Laurie Krieg, podcaster, teacher, and coauthor of An Impossible Marriage: What Our Mixed-Orientation Marriage Has Taught Us About Love and the Gospel
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A. J. Swoboda, author of After Doubt, assistant professor of Bible and theology at Bushnell University, Eugene, Oregon
"Simply superb. Theologically excellent. Deeply personal. Brutally honest. Intensely engaging. Coles's writing is simply exquisite. He moves from vivid description of personal experience to profound theological reflection with the ease of an exceptionally gifted writer. A must-read."
Ron Sider, distinguished professor emeritus of theology, holistic ministry, and public policy, Palmer Seminary at Eastern University, author of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger
"When I finished reading No Longer Strangers I thought that all of my friends should read this book, because in its pages they will find a friend in Greg, hope for the church, and true belonging with Friend and Lover, Jesus Christ."
Laurie Krieg, podcaster, teacher, and coauthor of An Impossible Marriage: What Our Mixed-Orientation Marriage Has Taught Us About Love and the Gospel
show more
About Gregory Coles
Gregory Coles (PhD, Penn State University) is a writer, speaker, and worship leader. His first book, Single, Gay, Christian, was a 2017 Foreword INDIES Award Finalist. He lives in central Pennsylvania, where he recently completed a PhD in English from Penn State.
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