Worthy: Finding Yourself in a World Expecting Someone Else - Softcover

Springer Mock, Melanie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1513802542 ISBN 13: 9781513802541

Publisher: Herald Press, 2018

Synopsis

In Worthy, college professor Melanie Springer Mock sifts through the shape and weight of expectations that press Christians into cultural molds rather than God's image. By plumbing Scripture and critiquing the ten-billion-dollar-a-year self-improvement industry, Mock offers life-giving reminders that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Set free from the anxiety to conform to others' expectations, we are liberated to become who God has created us to be. If you're worn out from worrying that you've missed God's One Big Calling, and if you're tired of trying to fit yourself into some cookie-cutter Christian mold, step away from the expectations and toward God's heart.

About this title

About the Author:

Melanie Springer Mock is a professor of English at George Fox University and the author or editor of five books, including If Eve Only Knew. Her essays and reviews have appeared in The Nation, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Christian Feminism Today, Brain, Child, Literary Mama, and Her.Meneutics, among others. She and her husband and sons live in Dundee, Oregon.

Review:

"Melanie Springer Mock's new book, Worthy, truly matters. It matters, as Madeleine L'Engle might say, 'cosmically, ' as the author tells her own story of untangling her faith from empty or showy religion and affirms that we are all "inherently image-bearers of God" and worthy simply because we exist. I love Mock's sensibility (and good sense) and her call to authenticity and love."

Jennifer Grant, author of When Did Everybody Else Get So Old?

"Using her own life as a flashlight, Melanie Springer Mock wonderfully illustrates ways to discover worth when 'not enough' is the message most often heard in Christian and secular cultures. If you are yearning to be simply and amazingly 'you' in Christ and in community, read this book. It certainly touched me."

MaryKate Morse, author and spiritual director

"Reading Worthy is like sitting down for a cup of coffee with a best friend you didn't know you had. Melanie Springer Mock both affirms the worthiness of every human being as created in God's image, and gently leads her reader to consider larger questions of social justice in the context of individual worth. This book is a must-read for anyone who has ever felt like an outsider, watching the parade of 'haves' go by while perennially feeling like a 'have not.'"

Elrena Evans, editor at Evangelicals for Social Action

"When we are truly, deeply loved, the way Jesus loves, our hearts and minds expand beyond all knowing. Worthy doesn't just describe that love; it takes you inside it through the power of story. Reading this beautiful, vulnerable book will make you feel worthy in your very bone --and will inspire you to love others the same way. What good news!"

Shirley Hershey Showalter, author of Blush

"Melanie Springer Mock's Worthy uniquely weaves scholarly inquiry and good storytelling into a powerful witness."

-- Bettina Tate Pedersen, professor of literature and women s studies, Point Loma Nazarene University

"Every once in a while, a book lands on my desk that I wish I had read when I was in college. The book you now hold in your hands is one of those books. . . . This is theology at its best."
--Carolyn Custis James, author of Malestrom and Half the Church, from foreword

"Melanie Springer Mock's Worthy is so many things: memoir and resource, theological reflection and cultural critique . . . wise, cantankerous, charming."
-- Bromleigh McCleneghan, author of Good Christian Sex

About this edition

• Publisher: Herald Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1513802542
• ISBN 13: 9781513802541
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 296